Page 159 of The Moon Sister
‘Okay. Now, can you think back a few years to a time you were really sick in bed and had a high fever?’
‘That’s easy. I was seventeen and in my last year at boarding school. I came down with a really high temperature and they put me in the san. The doctor diagnosed strep throat and gave me some antibiotics. I got better eventually, but it took its time. That was years ago, Charlie, and I’ve been fine since.’
‘And did you have any kind of heart scan between then and when you were in the hospital in Inverness?’
‘No.’
‘Tiggy,’ Charlie sighed, ‘myocarditis is quite rare and it’s not always clear what causes it, but it’s usually triggered by a viral infection. Which is probably what you had at seventeen, but it was misdiagnosed as strep throat.’
‘Oh, I see,’ I said, now all ears.
‘Anyway,’ Charlie continued, ‘the virus, for reasons we don’t yet fully understand, causes inflammation of the heart muscle. Other illnesses tend to put extra stress on it, which could be why you started having palpitations after you were ill recently. And the shock of the shooting of course.’
I was silent now, sobering up from the atmosphere and the alcohol and beginning to understand why Charlie was here.
‘Could I . . . die?’
‘Without the right treatment, then yes. It’s serious, Tiggy.’
‘And with medication, can it be cured?’
‘Perhaps, but there’s no straightforward prognosis. Sometimes the heart can heal itself with rest, sometimes it heals with the help of beta-blockers or ACE-inhibitors, and occasionally . . . well, it’s not a positive outcome.’
I shivered, partly through fear, but also because now I’d calmed down, the night was chilly.
‘Come on, we need to get you in the warm.’ He reached out his hands to help me off the wall, but I hopped off by myself.
‘You and all those people look very authentic, by the way,’ Charlie commented on my outfit. ‘Fancy dress party, was it?’
‘No.’ This at least brought a smile to my lips. ‘Those people inside, they’re real gypsies, and more than that – every single one of them is related to me! Now,’ – I looked at his startled face – ‘even if I do drop dead in the process, I’m afraid I have to go and say goodnight to my new family.’
‘Of course. I’ll wait here.’
I went inside and watched the entire crowd still stamping, singing and dancing as if tomorrow might never come.
Which it might not for you, Tiggy.
I found Angelina sitting beside Pepe, who had set down his guitar and was mopping his face with a large handkerchief.
‘I’m going home to bed now. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m feeling very tired.Muchas graciasfor all this.’
They both gave me sweaty hugs and kisses on my cheeks.
‘You are now truly one of us, Erizo. Now, go off to your boyfriend,’ Angelina said with a grin.
‘He’s not my boyfriend, he’s my boss,’ I said firmly.
Angelina raised an eyebrow and shrugged. ‘Buenas noches, Erizo.’
‘What is this place?’ Charlie asked me as we made our way along the winding path. ‘It seemed deserted on the walk from the taxi to check in. Do people still live here?’
‘Some, yes, but not many. They used to all live in the caves here until they started moving into modern apartments in the city.’
‘It’s extraordinary,’ he breathed as we took the steps back up the hill. ‘It must be virtually unchanged in hundreds of years.’ He glanced at me trudging up the steps next to him. ‘Take it slowly, please, Tiggy, just until we have you sorted out.’
‘Seriously, I feel fine,’ I said. ‘The air here must have done me good. My heart hardly jumped at all tonight whilst I was dancing,’ I added as we reached the top and started to walk along the twisting path that snaked back and forth across the mountain between the rows of caves. ‘So how did you eventually find me here?’
‘As I said, from your call to Ma, we knew you’d come to Spain, then Cal had a rifle through your drawers looking for clues as to where exactly in Spain you might have gone. He found some Wikipedia pages you’d printed off about a Spanish dancer. They mentioned Granada and Sacromonte, so we reckoned there was a good chance that’s where you’d have headed. Wow, Tiggy!’ Charlie halted in his tracks as we rounded the bend and there was the Alhambra floating above us in the night sky. ‘Isn’t that an incredible view?’
