‘What can I do? Tell me what to do...’ Rose swallowed down her mounting panic and the instinct to grab William and comfort him. He was in the best place he could be at the moment. Matteo was strong enough to keep him safe and knew exactly what to do.
‘There’s a medical bag in the boot of my car. Will you get it, please?’ Matteo started to jog across the sand towards the house, and Rose followed, stumbling after him.
Ignoring his usual rule of not treading anything from the beach into the house, Matteo strode across the living area to the stairs. Rose made for the kitchen, finding his car keys where he’d dumped them on top of the fridge, and ran out to the car, opening it and fetching the large, zipped holdall from the boot.
The sound of activity led her upstairs and into the bathroom. Matteo was sitting on the wide, tiled ledge at the end of the bath, holding William on his lap. The sting was bright red and already swollen, and William was whimpering with pain, tears rolling down his cheeks.
She dropped the bag on the floor and unzipped it, opening it out flat on the floor. There was an array of medical equipment, carefully arranged in compartments for quick identification. ‘What do you need?’
‘My stethoscope, please.’ Matteo glanced up at her as she proffered it. ‘It’s all right. He’s going to be okay. I’m just checking him over.’
She couldn’t quite believe the reassurance. Matteo was calm and quiet, but he was ignoring the sting on William’s leg in favour of checking his vital signs. Rose waited, counting the beats of her own heart while he concentrated on William’s.
‘Has he had any kind of allergic reaction before? To bites or stings, or to medication of any kind?’
‘No. Nothing at all.’
‘Good. His heart and breathing are normal and I’m going to check the lymph nodes at the top of his leg.’ He pulled the leg of William’s shorts to one side, pressing gently.
Rose watched, her hand over her mouth, willing herself not to cry. William had to be all right. Matteo wouldn’t let anything happen to him. She clung on to the thought.
‘Is there some medicine you can give him?’ She looked at the medical bag.
Matteo looked up at her, smiling. ‘He doesn’t need anything. He’s okay but I still want to keep an eye on him. Will you see to his leg, and make sure there are no more stingers left in there? There are tweezers in the bag and put a pair of gloves on—the nematocysts can still keep stinging for a while.’
Rose knelt down on the floor looking carefully at William’s leg. There was one tiny stinger left in the wound and she used the tweezers to pull it off.
‘Mummy... No...’ William shifted suddenly and she instinctively jerked backwards.
‘Okay... It’s all right.’ Matteo’s voice was soothing. ‘I know it hurts, but Mummy’s got to look at your leg so we can make it better.’
The stethoscope hung from his neck now, and he was holding William close, comforting him. Matteo was running the full gamut of promises, from ice cream to video games, and Rose couldn’t help smiling. Just like the concerned father that William had never had, and which Matteo was so determined not to be.
‘That’s all of them.’ Rose’s glance flipped to Matteo’s leg as she caught sight of a rapidly reddening weal on it. ‘What’s this?’
‘I’ll deal with that in a minute... Ow!’ He flinched as Rose carefully pulled a piece of tentacle off his calf, dropping it onto the wad of paper towel that she’d been using for the stingers from William’s leg.
‘Why didn’t you say anything, Matteo?’ The nematocysts on the tentacle must have been stinging him repeatedl
y all this time, but in his concern for William he hadn’t even stopped to pull it off.
‘We’ll deal with that later. It’s okay.’ He flinched again as Rose pulled a couple of large stingers from his leg.
‘It’s all right...’ William reached up suddenly, touching Matteo’s cheek. ‘Mummy’s making it better for you.’
Something bloomed in Matteo’s eyes. It looked suspiciously like love. ‘Yeah, I know. Thank you.’ He dipped his head, brushing a kiss on the top of William’s. ‘But we’ll make you better first, eh?’
‘It hurts...’
‘I know, I know. We’re going to bathe it now, and then it’ll feel lots better.’ Matteo glanced up at Rose. ‘Will you fill the basin up? Warm water.’
‘Blood heat?’
‘A little warmer if he’ll tolerate it. Heat will deactivate the venom, and it’s the best thing for relieving the pain.’
Rose noticed that when the basin was full, and Matteo lifted William up, sitting him on the vanity top, he held his own hand under the water with William’s leg. His thumb and forefinger were red and swollen, where he’d pulled the tentacle off William, but he said nothing about it, only comforting the boy.
‘You’re all right there for a minute?’ She closed the medical bag, pushing it out of the way and picking up the wad of paper towel from the floor.