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She felt as though she were being torn in two directions. At one level she knew he was right—he was after all only echoing thoughts she had had herself. But she resented him for making his point this way, for making no allowances for her feelings.
‘The situation is untenable, Erin,’ he said quietly.
Did he think she didn’t know that? ‘I feel responsible.’
‘Get over it,’ he recommended unsympathetically. He tossed the phone and she automatically caught it. ‘If you don’t like the situation you can change it—the choice is yours.’
Some choice, she thought, staring at the phone in her hand. ‘You’re asking me to choose between my mother and you.’ He shrugged. ‘It is not something you should have to think about.’
‘You have no right to ask me!’ she quivered, lifting a hand to her head. ‘You’re just as bad,’ she accused shrilly, ‘as she is! Get out of my way. I’ve had enough of this!’
‘That’s right,’ he jeered. ‘If things get difficult or even mildly uncomfortable, run away.’
‘“Mildly uncomfortable!”’ she yelled back. ‘Maybe this is a minor irritation to you—’
‘You’ve never been a minor anything!’ he retorted.
Her mistake, Erin decided when analysing the moment at a later date, was turning her head to look back at him as she ducked under his arm to reach the next step. If she hadn’t she would have been able to regain her balance when her heels snagged in the hem of her jeans and she wouldn’t have taken a dive down the shallow flight of stone stairs and ended in an inelegant heap on the floor on the cobbled yard below.
She lay there, winded, her eyes wide open. As she struggled to get her breath she was aware of Francesco falling to his knees beside her.
‘Are you all right?’ Without waiting for her to respond, he added furiously, ‘Dio! You little idiot! What the hell did you think you were doing!’ Before she had either the breath or the opportunity to respond Francesco launched into a low, incensed sounding tirade in Italian.
Erin only understood one word in three, but one sentiment she did pick out was a very heartfelt wish that he had never set eyes on her.
‘And I,’ she gasped, hoping he attributed the weak tears that flooded her eyes to pain. ‘wish I’d never laid eyes on you, either.’
‘You just threw yourself headlong down a flight of stairs. You could have killed yourself, and what about the baby?’ ‘There was no throwing involved. I just fell over my own feet.’ Clumsy, she
was willing to admit to, but not stupid! ‘And it wouldn’t have happened in the first place if you hadn’t been …’ She stopped, wide eyes lifting to his face. ‘Oh, my God, the baby!’ She tried to ease her weight off one hip and winced. The cramping pain that extended like a band around her middle made her gasp. ‘You are hurt!’
She was, but it wasn’t her own safety that Erin was worrying about.
‘Here, let me help you.’
She shook her head. ‘I think I might stay here for a moment.’ Please, please, God, make the baby all right. If anything happened to it she would never forgive herself. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘I think perhaps you should call an ambulance, just as a precaution.’
Even before she had finished speaking he had his phone out and was punching in the emergency number.
‘Ambulance,’ he snapped. ‘The nature of the emergency? My wife has fallen down a flight of stairs. No, she’s conscious and … look, she’s twelve weeks pregnant. Just get here.’ He gave the address before sliding his phone back into his pocket. ‘They said just stay still.’
Erin nodded as he pushed the hair back from her brow with cool brown fingers. ‘Pretty much what I planned to do. You know I’m sure everything’s fine.’
‘Of course it is,’ he agreed.
If it wasn’t—his firm jaw tightened as he pushed aside the thought he wouldn’t permit himself to contemplate such a possibility.
‘I’m just being c-cautious.’ Erin strove to hide her terror, but it was a struggle.
‘You want this baby a lot, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I do.’ She wanted this baby with a ferocity that she had not imagined she was capable of. She might not be able to have the man, but the baby was hers.
He reached out tentatively towards her stomach and then drew back. ‘Are you still in pain?’
‘A little,’ she admitted. ‘I think I must have caught my side on the bottom step.’
