‘Then we’ll get something in.’
‘Not sure I feel like eating.’
Ignoring that, Marcus spied the pile of takeaway menus on the immaculately gleaming counter, snatched up the one on the top and hauled out his phone. Tonight, it seemed, they’d be having pizza. Not quite the gourmet spread Lily had probably planned, but good enough.
‘What else is wrong besides the headache?’ he asked, tapping the number into his phone.
‘Nothing, really.’
He shot her a look of warning. ‘Celia.’
‘OK, sometimes I ache.’
‘Ache where?’
‘All over.’
‘And?’
She bit her lip and frowned. ‘I might have been having a few heart palpitations as well.’
Marcus froze, then blanched, his thumb hovering over the dial button. Migraines? Aches? Heart palpitations? What the hell was wrong with her? ‘A few?’
She shrugged. ‘More than a few.’
‘Anything else?’
‘No, that’s about it, I think.’
Well, it was quite enough, he thought grimly, deleting the number and scrolling through his list of contacts. Sod the pizza. Sod tucking her up in bed and keeping an eye on her till morning. She was going to see a doctor. Now.
‘I need a taxi,’ he said the second his call was answered, and then reeled off her address.
‘I thought you were calling for food,’ she said, looking a bit bewildered.
‘Change of plan.’ Then into the phone, ‘No. Half an hour’s too long. Make it ten minutes and I’ll double the fare.’ And with that he hung up.
‘Where are you going?’ she asked.
‘We are going to A and E.’
She stared at him in surprise and then gave a weak laugh. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to go to A and E, Marcus. I’ll just take some more aspirin and go back to bed. You’re overreacting.’
He looked at her steadily. ‘Heart palpitations, Celia?’
‘Stress,’ she said firmly, dismissively, and he wanted to shake her. ‘Which will undoubtedly diminish now that the deal’s gone through.’
‘What if it isn’t just stress?’
‘What else would it be?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, struggling to keep a lid on his temper because she just didn’t seem to be taking this seriously and it was threatening to make him lose it. ‘How about burnout? How about a breakdown? How about a bloody heart attack?’
She recoiled. Went as white as the walls of her pristine flat, and he bit back an instinctive apology because he was glad he’d shocked her. She should be concerned.
‘Fine,’ she said, coolly rallying and pulling her shoulders back. ‘You win. I’ll go and get dressed, then, shall I?’
* * *