of pressure.’
‘It could be that.’ Chloe seized on the idea hopefully. She was desperate to find a reason for the poor little thing’s distress, and anxious to find a way to make her feel better. ‘Could you pass me her drink, please? Maybe that will help.’
Sure enough, sucking on her drink did seem to calm Emma a little, and Chloe looked over at Lorenzo with relief.
‘Maybe a doctor should examine her when we arrive,’ Lorenzo suggested. ‘She doesn’t look quite right to me.’
‘Maybe, although I don’t think she has a fever.’ Chloe frowned and tried to look down at Emma, but it was hard to see her properly because of the way she was positioned on her lap. She didn’t want to move her and risk setting her off again. ‘She’s never been so upset before—but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s something serious.’
She drew her lip into her mouth in consternation. She wanted to do whatever was best for Emma—only she didn’t know whether she was just over-tired from travelling and needed a settled night at home. Or if there was really something wrong.
However, by the time they’d nearly reached the glass-walled house, the decision was made for them. After falling asleep for a short while on leaving the airport, Emma had woken up fretful and hot. Then she’d starting screaming louder than anything Chloe had ever heard before.
‘We’re taking her to the hospital in the next town,’ Lorenzo said, barking instructions to the limousine driver to change route. ‘They have a children’s accident and emergency unit there—it will be the quickest way to get her seen.’
Chloe tried to sooth Emma anxiously, thankful that it didn’t take long to reach the hospital.
Then all of a sudden the high-pitched crying stopped, and the baby seemed to calm down. But Chloe knew it wasn’t right. From screaming so energetically, Emma had quickly become listless and dopey.
‘Something’s wrong,’ she said, startled by how loud her voice sounded in the sudden silence in the limousine. ‘We’d better find a doctor.’
‘This way.’ Lorenzo helped Chloe out of the vehicle, and quickly scanned the hospital signs to establish where to go.
His heart had started to thud loudly in his chest, and a crushing sensation of helplessness suddenly seized him.
Emma was so tiny. It was his responsibility to take care of her—to make sure she was all right. But he did not know what to do to make her better. The only thing he could do was to take her as quickly as possible to someone who was qualified.
Her little head was resting on Chloe’s shoulder, but it was rocking from side to side as Chloe walked, as if she did not have the strength to support it. He wanted to reach out and steady her, but he knew Emma was never truly comfortable whenever he tried to hold her. If he touched her, even just to support her head, it would probably just upset her again.
Frustration coiled through him, mixed with anger at his own inadequacy.
Why was he so incapable of taking care of an infant? He wanted to be able to do it—but no matter how hard he tried he always messed it up.
Suddenly he couldn’t bear it any longer. He reached out and drew Chloe to his side, then cupped his large hand around Emma’s head as they walked together.
He felt something warm and wet on his fingers.
‘What’s that?’ he demanded, stopping in his tracks and studying Emma. ‘It’s coming from her ear!’
He swore in Italian, and reached out to take her from Chloe. Fear for the baby suddenly gripped him, and he strode through the doors of the emergency unit knowing implicitly that he would gain the doctor’s attention more quickly.
‘I need a doctor.’ His voice cut through the background buzz of the waiting room. ‘My baby is not well.’
Later that night Lorenzo watched Chloe lay Emma down to sleep in her cot in the glass-walled house. She was suffering from a nasty ear infection, and, although she probably still felt poorly, her temperature was down and the acute pain she had been experiencing had passed, since her eardrum had perforated and released the pressure.
‘It must have hurt so much,’ Chloe said, rubbing her hand over her own ear, as if she was suffering in sympathy.
‘Yes, it must have been excruciating. And I can’t believe that it could happen again,’ Lorenzo replied, remembering what the doctor said about some children being prone to ear infections. ‘I don’t think I can stand to imagine how much pain she’s in if she starts crying like that again.’
‘Let’s hope it’s a one-off thing,’ Chloe said. ‘The doctor said that boys have a greater tendency to ear infections than girls.’
She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at him. There was an interested light in her green eyes, and suddenly he realised she was watching him pace up and down the bedroom.
He was showing a degree of agitation that she had probably never seen in him before. Hell—he’d rarely seen it in himself before.
‘That was unbearable,’ Lorenzo said. ‘But at least if it does happen again I’ll know what’s going on. I have never felt so helpless and scared as when I saw that ooze coming out of her ear.’
He shuddered, scrubbing his hands over his face.