‘Under your tongue.’ David nodded, and put the tablets into his mouth.
Matteo picked up a towel and the water bottle, turning his attention to the cut on David’s head. It was dribbling blood and probably needed a couple of stitches, but it didn’t look life-threatening. Rose was sitting quietly, staring at David’s hand in hers, refusing to meet his gaze.
‘I sent someone for the first-aid kit. Are we going to try and move soon?’ She said the words quietly, almost casually.
‘It’s okay. We’ll stay here for another ten minutes...’ He broke off suddenly, reaching to tip her face up towards him, and he saw an agony of fearful impatience.
Suddenly he realised. Rose had been outside when she’d felt the second tremor. ‘Don’t worry. The second shock was an aftershock, much less than the first one. They always feel weaker underground.’
‘Yes...’ David tried to add his own reassurance and Matteo quieted him. He should concentrate on keeping the tablets under his tongue, where they’d be absorbed into his system more quickly.
Rose was breathing heavily, her hand to her chest, a look of relief on her face. It must have taken a great deal of courage to come back in, thinking that the strength of the tremors was increasing.
‘So we’ve nothing to worry about?’
‘Nothing.’ That clearly wasn’t quite true, but he would have said anything to reassure her.
She nodded and Matteo’s chest tightened as she smiled broadly. ‘Okay. I won’t be a minute.’
When she got to her feet, Matteo noticed that she’d skinned her knee. She must have fallen over at some point, but she seemed not to notice it. He turned his attention back to David, who was looking visibly better.
‘You should get Rose out of here.’ David spoke softly to him. ‘I’m all right to follow you.’
‘Just rest for a minute. We’ll get going soon enough, and I imagine that Rose will do whatever she makes up her mind to do.’
David nodded. ‘Yes. I imagine she will.’
* * *
Rose had walked to the opening between the cavern and the outer cave, and got a signal on her phone. She called Elena, who said that they hadn’t felt anything, and that the earthquake’s epicentre must be outside Palermo. William was all right. Rose promised she’d be home later, and turned back to David and Matteo.
The second tremor had catapulted her down the steps of the cabin that David’s office was housed in, and onto her knees. She’d got up and run even harder, stopping only to tell one of her colleagues where they were and telling him to fetch the first-aid kit. She’d been afraid to go back into the cave, but the medication in her pocket seemed like the only chance of bringing them both out safely. David needed it, and she knew that Matteo would never leave him behind.
They waited for ten minutes. Matteo kept them both talking, quiet and relaxed but never taking his attention from David. When he decided it was time for them to leave, she helped him get David to his feet and they walked slowly to the entrance of the cavern. Matteo helped him through into the outer cave and then out into the evening sunshine, where a group of concerned colleagues was waiting for them.
He sat David down in the chair that was waiting, next to the site’s first-aid kit, and called for someone to bring a sunshade across. Then he got to work, washing the wound on his head carefully and checking that David had no other injuries.
‘Are you going to take him to the hospital?’ Matteo had given his car keys to one of the students, and asked him to bring his car as close as he could.
‘No. He’s fully recovered from the angina attack so there’s no need for him to go to the hospital on that account. He does need to rest, though, so it’s best if I
take him home and stitch the wound there.’
‘Thank you. I’ll phone Nina, his wife. I’ll tell her to expect us in half an hour?’
‘You’re coming?’ Matteo’s smile gave her the answer to that question. She wasn’t ready to leave him yet.
‘Of course I’m coming.’
* * *
He isn’t what I want.
Rose repeated the thought aloud a few times, trying it out for size as she followed Matteo’s car down towards Palermo, and then decided that even she couldn’t lie to herself on that scale. She wanted him right down to the dust on his number plates.
It’s a reaction. Some kind of post-emergency thing.
That was a distinct possibility. The gorgeous, laid-back, charming Matteo was a temptation that she could resist...just. But the Matteo who’d been there when she’d needed him and had calmed her fears attracted her at a much deeper level, one that was harder to ignore.