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‘I don’t know yet, but I soon will,’ he promised her, crouching next to her, his voice strong and reassuring. ‘Trust me, cara. We need to get you to hospital. It will be safer to examine you properly there. Will you be all right if I just go and call an ambulance?’
‘No.’ She grasped his arm and shook her head. ‘No ambulance. I don’t want you to leave me. Can you take me in the car? Please, Luca?’
He spoke rapidly in Italian and raked long fingers through his sleek, dark hair.
‘How much are you bleeding?’ He was virtually talking to himself as he checked quickly, his mind obviously working through the options. ‘It’s not too bad at the moment. All right, we’ll go in the car. Can you stand up?’
She hesitated and then nodded, sliding to the edge of the seat and standing gingerly, bracing herself as she waited for the pain to tear at her insides again.
He lifted her easily in his arms, ignoring her protest that she was too heavy, and carried her down the stairs and out to the car.
‘All right.’ He accelerated away smoothly, driving as quickly as he safely could. ‘I want you to describe the pain to me again. Where is it? How does it feel?’
‘It’s here…’ Tia winced and rubbed a hand low over her abdomen. ‘Quite low down and it comes and goes.’
‘Does it feel like labour?’ Luca broke off and shook his head impatiently. ‘Forgive me, that was a stupid question. You don’t know what labour feels like. Try and describe the pain, Tia.’
Tia looked at him helplessly. ‘I don’t know if I can. Stabbing, quite rhythmic—it feels as though something’s wrong.’
Luca stretched out one hand briefly and rested it on the top of her abdomen. ‘It doesn’t feel as though you’re having contractions. Everything will be fine, cara mia,’ he said softly, ‘but we do need to get to the bottom of the pain and I’d rather we did that in the hospital to be on the safe side. When did you last feel the baby move?’
‘Just before you arrived.’ She gave him a nervous smile. ‘He kicked me really hard.’
He nodded and put both hands back on the wheel. ‘Good.’
The trip to the hospital took less than half the usual time and in no time at all she was on the labour ward.
‘I want to examine your abdomen.’ Luca helped her move into the right position and adjusted her clothing to give him access. ‘OK, let’s see what’s going on here…’
His hands moved gently over her abdomen, a frown touching his handsome features as he examined her.
‘The consistency of your uterus is normal. Is there any tenderness?’
‘No—not really. It hurts but I don’t think it’s anything you’re doing.’
‘I want you strapped to a monitor and I want to scan you. Now.’ Luca straightened up in a lithe movement and glanced at Tia who was fighting back tears of panic.
Why, oh, why did this have to happen?
If anything happened to the baby…
She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down. Luca didn’t need her to fall apart.
Scanning her tense features, he pulled her into his arms, talking soothingly in Italian before switching to English.
‘Calm down. It will be all right.’
She stared up at him, her eyes frightened. ‘If I lose the baby, Luca…’
He brushed her cheek with his knuckles. ‘You won’t lose the baby.’
‘What do you think is wrong?’ She shifted slightly on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position.
‘I suspect you have a mild separation of the placenta,’ he said quietly, walking towards the door. ‘We’ll have a better idea once we’ve scanned you.’
Tia felt as though she’d been showered with cold water and her palms suddenly felt sweaty. A separation of the placenta. She should know all about that, but suddenly everything she knew seemed to have vanished from her head. All she could think about was that she couldn’t bear the thought of losing the baby.
‘I’m only thirty-three weeks pregnant, Luca,’ she reminded him hoarsely, her words stopping him in his tracks. ‘It’s too early.’
