Page 68 of In Italy for Love

Her mind was now so quiet with purpose that she had the space to ask herself if she’d ever heard him say that word before. But she let him shepherd her back to the wall and help her over.

‘I told you not to go into the water!’ he cried, his voice high. ‘You could have drowned!’

Finally back in safety, she ignored Alex and peered at the little bundle she’d fished out of the creek. ‘Alex, I don’t know if he’s breathing.’

‘What?’

Grasping Alex’s arm, she squeezed hard enough to drag him out of the fog of panic glazing his eyes. ‘We have to take him to the vet – now.’

She expected him to take Attila, but he didn’t. He just looked stricken and half-absent as she clutched his cuff and dragged him after her to the road. When she was sure he was following, she rested her other hand on the little form of the cat, a chill rushing through her when she still couldn’t detect any signs of life. She had no idea what kind of first aid people could give to cats. She just made sure she was supporting his body and kept him close.

Arriving back at the courtyard, they ran for the car, Alex with enough presence of mind to fetch a blanket out of the boot before swinging himself into the driver’s seat. Jules towelled off the little cat and then shrugged out of her jacket, holding him to her chest in an attempt to keep him warm.

‘And?’ Alex asked sharply. ‘Is he okay?’

‘I don’t know,’ she had to tell him. ‘Do you want me to drive?’

Shaking his head vehemently, he steered the car around the tight corners and onto the main road. ‘Just tell me if anything— No, don’t tell me?—’

‘Just drive the car, Alex,’ she said softly. ‘I’ve got him.’

28

Alex leaned his head back against the wall in the vet’s waiting room and wondered when being only half alive would no longer be enough to keep his organs working. It hurt. So much. The half of his heart that kept stubbornly beating ached.

Jules sat beside him, her expression as blank as he was sure his was. She didn’t say a word, even though she must realise he was holding himself together by a thread. He hadn’t told her enough for her to understand why, but she was next to him, sparing him questions – or judgement oranythingthat would tip him over into not coping.

The wait for Dr Orsino to hear his doorbell and come to the clinic had been torture with that little lifeless form in her arms. Alex had only taken the briefest glance at Attila before shock had crept up his spine and he knew he couldn’t – he justcouldn’t. Giving him questioning looks, Jules had gone with the vet into the treatment room to help, since it was out of hours and the nurse wouldn’t be able to get there in the storm.

She’d emerged twenty minutes later with a grave expression and a shrug. She’d probably struggled to understand the old man.

I should be in there…

He couldn’t, not if Attila wasn’t going to make it. But if Laura’s cat died and he wasn’t there, he’d regret that too. The worst possibility…No. The dilemma he’d lived with for three years felt fresh again and he couldn’t take it – didn’t want it. But cats didn’t live forever and sooner or later he’d have to?—

Dr Orsino came to the door of the waiting room. ‘Do you want to come and see him?’

Alex hesitated for long enough that Jules leaned forward to peer at him. Forcing his mouth open, he managed to ask in an alarmingly raspy voice, ‘Is he…? Did he…? Dead?’

The veterinarian smiled suddenly and a little indulgently, as though he were the only person in this city who didn’t know that Alex was fragile – something Alex usually resented everyone for thinking. ‘His name is Attila. Did you think a little drowning would be enough to send him off? No, he’s breathing and starting to wake up.’

Alex’s body responded before his mind did, tears burning and his face contorting, his spine losing all strength. But his brain lagged a few more seconds in disbelief.

‘Alex?’ From her tone, he could tell Jules was wondering what was wrong with him. He should have told her – everything, from the beginning, even if that meant she ran screaming in the opposite direction.

He forced himself up, ignoring the spots in his vision. Dragging his feet after the doctor, his emotions swam as he stepped through the door and saw the poor, bedraggled form of Laura’s blasted cat, staring at him accusingly from behind the metal grille keeping him in the box.

His muscles turned to mush and his heart started beating again – even if a little too fast. The memories of the past half-hour raced back as he leaned heavily on the treatment tableand eyeballed the furry white cat as though he could make the creature understand what its stupidity had put him through.

Had putJulesthrough. As though watching a film, he relived the moment he’d realised the danger she intended to walk right into – for his cat.

‘Ah, he’s sitting up. He is a fighter, this one,’ Dr Orsino said.

Alex could think of someone else who was a fighter. When he’d been too panicked to comfort the poor animal, she’d done it. That ex-boyfriend of hers that he was supposed to punch in the face hadn’t appreciated her tenacity – her generosity. Julia Volpe was a strong woman – like a Furlane, he thought with a twitch of a smile. Berengario would approve of his thoughts.

He pressed his fingertips to the grille. ‘Does he have to stay locked in?’

Dr Orsino shook his head. ‘There’s a heat blanket in there, which will do him good for a little while longer, but if he’s awake and alert, then I think we can rule out hypothermia. I saw a little fluid in his lungs on the X-ray, but his vital signs are stable and he doesn’t need oxygen. In fact, you can take him home whenever you like. He’ll recover better in his familiar surroundings. You’ll just need to keep him inside for a few days and monitor his breathing, but animals bounce back from these things more quickly than their owners do.’

---