‘Thank you.’ Uncle David’s voice was still hollow. ‘Thank you for getting my girl here, too. I appreciate it.’

Francesco nodded in response and then read the mood of the room. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘I’ll leave you all to it. Penny – do you want me to call someone at the café? Stuart knows what’s going on and is just going to do coffee and cake service, but is there anything else I can tell him?’

Penny shook her head. ‘Whatever you think is best,’ she said, unable to even think about work. ‘I trust you.’

‘Sure. Okay. Well, feel better,’ Francesco said to David. Uncle David smiled.

When he’d gone, Uncle David said, ‘Nice man.’

‘Yeah,’ said Penny, sipping delicately at the drink he’d brought her. ‘He is.’

Later, waiting in the hall because Uncle David had nurses in his room running checks and fussing with blankets, Eric hugged Penny and told her, ‘I was so scared, Pen. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get him back to full health. I promise you.’ Eric and Uncle David had been together for eleven years now. He was as much a part of the family as they all were. Penny felt a stab of shame that she hadn’t thought to pick up the mantle and look after him in the same way Francesco had looked after her. All she could think about was her uncle – in her worry she forgot that Eric must have been beside himself, too. Uncle David and Eric lived for each other – she couldn’t imagine one without the other.

‘I’ll do anything to help,’ she said. ‘I can’t lose him, either. He’s all we have …’ She started to cry again, and Eric hugged her closer, crying too.

‘Sssssssh,’ he said, in between his own tears. ‘Ssssssssh. It’s okay. He’s going to be okay.’

They stood for a long time, gaining strength from each other as they cried it out. Uncle David had Eric. And, thankfully, Penny still had Uncle David. Whoever Penny had prayed to had spared her uncle and for that she was endlessly thankful. Without him, she’d be lost. It was unthinkable.

‘I want to take him to the coast for a bit,’ Eric explained, as they wandered the ward aimlessly, sitting feeling like too little action, even though there was nothing they could be doing. ‘To my sister’s holiday place. Rest. Sea air. No work.’

Penny nodded. ‘I think that’s a good idea,’ she replied. ‘The doctors made it very clear he needs to be kept away from that kitchen and I think the more miles between him and work, so much the better.’

‘The thing is …’ Eric started, and Penny understood. The thing was, was that somebody else needed to run The Red Panda.

‘You need me up here,’ Penny supplied.