Page 91 of Villa of Secrets

*

Naomi glanced at her watch. Rebecca had been in the examination room for over twenty minutes. What could take so long? She stared at the heavy wooden door and strained to make sense of the muted words that were hardly detectable.

Rebecca reappeared looking anxious.

Naomi caught Despina’s eye.

‘Don’t look so worried, Naomi. Everything’s fine. I’m going to the hospital right now, so I may as well take you both with me and get the ultrasound done. It’ll save you waiting.’

Someone tapped on the door. A middle-aged woman entered with a plate covered in cling film. ‘Spinach pies. I made too many. Help me out, Doctor.’ The woman smiled placing them on the desk, and left.

‘Delicious. Thank you, Poppy!’ Despina called. She went to her filing cabinet and took a square biscuit tin from the bottom drawer, and deposited most of the small pastries into the already almost full container. ‘Busy morning. Can I tempt you?’ She passed the plate to Naomi and Rebecca.

On the way to the hospital, the doctor dropped the pies off at the refugee centre. ‘Another boat of Syrians came in half drowned last night,’ she said as they headed for the hospital. ‘Poor people, I wish we could do more for them. We’ve had over two thousand this month alone, and twenty-three that didn’t make it.’

‘What . . . you mean they actually drowned?’ Rebecca said.

‘Thrown out before they reach shore, and, of course, most are women and girls who never learned to swim. Can you imagine how desperate people must be to put their families through such terrible risks?’

At the hospital, Despina led the sisters to the gynaecology ward then took Rebecca in to see the specialist. In the waiting room, Naomi fretted about Bubba, on her own for the first time. Both Papas Yiannis and Heleny promised to pop in throughout the morning.

Eventually, the door opened and Despina hurried out. ‘Must go. There’s an emergency.’ She rushed away. Rebecca appeared with the gynaecologist. Naomi’s heart plummeted to see her sister in tears.

‘Please, sit,’ the specialist said. ‘First, dry your eyes and stop worrying. The most important thing is to get that blood pressure down. I’m going to give you a list of precautions to take: no cigarettes, alcohol or caffeine, and absolutely no stress. I want you to return to see Despina or your own doctor next week.’

‘Apart from that?’ Rebecca asked shakily. ‘I mean . . .’

‘Everything’s fine. Relax, Mrs Neumanner. A little high blood pressure is quite common with twins.’

‘Twins!’ Naomi and Rebecca cried.

The specialist blinked at them. ‘You didn’t know?’

*

Grinning, Naomi hugged Rebecca before they climbed out of the taxi at Spartili Street.

‘I can hardly believe it,’ Rebecca whispered.

‘Wait until we tell Bubba! She’ll be thrilled.’ Naomi’s heart was bursting with joy for her sister.

‘Fritz will be ecstatic too. He always wanted more than one child. He was an only child you see – adopted.’

They found Bubba asleep in her chair.

‘If you don’t mind, I’ll take a nap myself,’ Rebecca said. ‘All that manhandling has worn me out. I’m longing to tell Fritz, but I’ll wait until he’s home.’

‘Go, take a nap,’ Naomi said. ‘I mean, you’d better get all the rest you can. I’ll be hosing the front and catching up on housework.’

In the dappled sunlight on the patio, Naomi smiled to herself.

*

Rebecca lay on the bed and stared at the whitewashed ceiling. She gently placed her hand on her stomach. Twins, how remarkable! There was something quite astonishing about dreams coming true. Two babies growing happily in her womb. She wondered if being away, having her thoughts occupied by other things, had helped bring this about. How wrong Fritz was when he said perhaps they weren’t meant to have a family. Everything would be perfect, yet in the depths of her mind the seed of uncertainty lurked.

She was dozing when the door opened. ‘Are you awake?’ Naomi whispered.

‘Only just . . .’