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He was saved from the necessity of answering by the interruption of the doctor.
“Mr Santini?” The doctor asked, as he summed up the well-dressed Italian man at the foot of his patient’s bed.
“Si.”
“I’m Doctor Klein; call me Rod. I’m looking after your wife.
“Ex-wife,” Jane inserted testily, earning a look of frustration from Carlo.
Rod smiled at her, and moved towards the bed. “I see you’ve lost that tube. The medics in the field are uber cautious when there’s a head injury; you probably could have done without that.”
“Better to be safe than sorry,” Jane defended them quietly.
“That’s certainly their logic.” He slipped a blood pressure cuff onto her upper arm and inflated it until her upper arm was pinched tight. He turned his attention to the dials, and neither Jane nor Carlo spoke. “Blood pressure’s a bit elevated,” he noted with a flicker of a frown.
“No surprise there,” Jane replied with saccharine sweetness. “My ex-husband seems to have that effect on me.”
Rod hid a smile as he lifted the protective lid off his thermometer. He placed it in her ear and read the number. “Good. Temperature’s fine.” He turned to Carlo. “I’m going to get Jane in for a few scans now. They’ll probably take a while. Would you like someone to call you when we’re finished?”
Jane glared at both of them. “Let’s get one thing straight. My ex-husband is not staying. And he has nothing to do with me now. So kindly stop speaking to him as though he has any say in my life.”
* * *
The relief she felt at seeing Liz was extreme. “Come in,” she said to her best friend. “He’s just leaving.” She waved a hand dismissively in Carlo’s direction, earning an appraising look from Liz.
Her friend’s eyes skated over Carlo and then quickly returned to Jane. Jane thought Liz seemed a little uneasy, but that was hardly surprising. Carlo had that reaction on all women, even the tough ones like Liz. To her chagrin, Carlo did not move.
“I’m so glad to see you looking so well. I will never forget
the sight of you laid out on your steps like that.” She shuddered.
“Aren’t you her neighbour? Where were you when it happened?” Carlo asked rudely, earning a sharp looking from Jane.
Liz’s eyes flicked across at him, and then back to Jane.
“Don’t answer him. This is my ex-husband. I divorced him for his lack of charm and manners, amongst other reasons.” She turned ice-blue eyes onto Carlo. “Where Liz was is none of your, or my, business,” she intoned warningly. “She’s my neighbour, not my bodyguard.”
Carlo sent one last sharp look at Liz and then nodded curtly. “I’ll wait outside.”
Jane waited for him to walk out of the hospital room and then made a face of frustration. “Truly, Liz, he’s the most insufferably arrogant man. I wish he’d never come.”
Liz nodded sympathetically. “He seems very worried about you.”
“Yeah. God knows why. Hardly seemed to care about me at all when we were married.”
CHAPTER TWO
Jane listened to the doctor’s explanation as best she could. But with Carlo staring broodingly across at her, it was difficult to concentrate on anything. Despite her brave declaration before the battery of tests she’d been subjected to, Carlo was standing intractably in the hospital room, looking to all the world as though he belonged at her side.
“Bottom line?” Her ex-husband cut across Doctor Klein’s thorough explanation.
Rod nodded. “No permanent damage. You will have to take it easy for a few days, Jane. No marathons. No mountain climbing. Certainly no other head injuries, if you can manage that. We’ll keep you here for another night or so just to be sure.”
“I’ll be fine,” she promised croakily. She felt so banged up, now that the heavy duty painkillers had worn off, that she didn’t see much in her future beyond the sofa, and whatever the BBC decided to dish out.
“I intend to make sure of it.” Carlo’s darkly muttered promise sounded more like a threat to Jane’s ears. But she waited until the doctor had excused himself before she took issue with his statement.
“Carlo, I didn’t ask you to come.” In the year they’d been married, she had barely disagreed with him. Taking up a position of staunch opposition to him now filled her with a deep sense of discomfort and pain, but she continued nonetheless. “And I don’t want you here.” She swallowed, and lifted a hand to the column of her neck. Her pulse was beating frantically and she put her fingertips on it. “I’d actually be a lot happier if you were anywhere but here.”
