The thought made his chest constrict as he drove up Via Virgilio and out of town until he reached where the rock towered on either side. He wished for more time, more flexibility and opportunity for something to grow naturally between them. They were both … what was that American expression he remembered from his childhood? Gun-shy. With Nicoletta and Brendon in their fairly recent pasts, neither was necessarily ready for plunging straight into commitment.

In a few short weeks they’d be living in different countries. He couldn’t imagine himself selling up – even if that would be particularly easy right now – and moving to the UK. To live there for a year had been great but it was cold in winter and winters seemed to last about nine months.

Turning into his own drive he mentally shook himself. One hot night and he was letting his mind wander into moving-in territory? He was a grown man, not a lovesick teenager. He parked in the shade and slid out of the car. Like a grown man, he would shower and change then stroll through the trees to Bella Vista. He might get a coffee or a beer. Or a chance to talk to Zia.

Then, alerted by the slow crunch of tyres behind him on the gravel of the shared segment of drive he glanced round to see a big white vehicle nosing out of Bella Vista. It took him a couple of seconds to grasp the significance of the red cross but then the lights flashed and the siren began the distinctive deedle-dee durr, deedle-dee durr of an ambulance siren and it shouldered its way into the traffic with Durante’s small grey car following so closely it could have been on tow.

Fear sizzled up his spine. Who was in the ambulance?

Then he saw Zia, frozen in the now-empty drive. Grownman status forgotten, he turned and ran towards her.

She turned her gaze on him as he pounded up, her eyes huge and horrified. ‘It’s Lucia! Her stomach pains have gone crazy. I got back to find the ambulance already here. They’re going straight to the hospital at Perugia.’

‘Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia,’ he supplied automatically, catching his breath.

She nodded. ‘Durante’s chasing the ambulance. He asked me to stay and look after things because guests are due to arrive to stay in Villino Il Pino this afternoon.’ A phone was in one trembling, white-knuckled hand. ‘He left me Lucia’s phone so I could look after them. She looked … awful.’ Her breath shuddered. ‘Her skin was so sweaty and she was writhing. If not for her age I might have thought she was about to give birth.’

Stifling that unlikely image Piero slid an arm about her. ‘She’s getting emergency help. Did the medics give any clues about what’s wrong?’

She turned into him, her cheek moving against his shoulder as she shrugged. ‘No, but they weren’t hanging about so I don’t think they liked what they saw.’