The Doctor and the Debutante

As she ran her eyes over his chest, her pencil scribbling furiously on the paper, she saw that he wasn’t perfect. Across his chest was a scar. A few inches long, it ran in a diagonal line from his shoulder down towards his abdomen.

Alice took a long swig of tepid water. For some reason her mouth was dry.

The man shifted slightly before lifting his T-shirt from the bench beside him. As he raised his arms to put it back on, his muscles bunched.

Alice fanned herself with a piece of paper from her pad. Florence was hot in midsummer.

Ten more days and she’d be going back to her life in London. She sighed. Why did the thought fill her with dread? Most women would give their eye teeth to live her life. But to her it felt empty, almost pointless. On the other hand, since she’d come to Italy she’d had the strange sense of coming home. It was crazy. She could barely speak the language and as far as she knew there were no Italians in her ancestry. Perhaps it was because here she could be anonymous Alice instead of Lady Alice Granville, daughter of one of the richest men in London.

For once in her life, Alice wasn’t on show and she intended to make the most of it. Every morning she left the villa and wandered around Florence, drinking in the art and architecture, craning her neck lest she miss another breathtaking sculpture or carving. She’d promised Peter that she would think about his proposal. In every way he should be the right man for her. He was perfect husband material—wealthy, sophisticated, aristocratic and, even more importantly as far as her father was concerned, he had a bright future with her father’s company. But, and this was a big but, he did nothing to set Alice’s heart racing. In fact, ‘boring’ was the word that sprang to mind. She had come to Florence to give herself time and space to think about his proposal and already she knew she could never marry him. Telling him would be awful, but she would do it as soon as she got home.

This last week and a half, Alice had allowed herself to daydream that she was Italian, an ordinary woman living an ordinary life, and she liked the feeling. For the rest of her time in Italy she was going to be Alice Granville, university student, who had to bring her lunch into the city to save money. Even if that lunch was provided by the trained chef who worked at her father’s friend’s holiday villa.

A screech of brakes and a terror-filled scream filled the air, jerking her out of her reverie. For a moment there was silence as the world seemed to stop. Alice jumped up, abandoning her belongings on the step and hurried over to where the noise had come from.

At first it was difficult to see what had happened. A jumble of metal and clothes lay on the ground where one of the stalls selling leather handbags had been knocked over. Next to it was a moped, its wheels twisted and the metal bent and misshapen. A car had careered off to one side and as they watched a man staggered out of the car. He swayed and clutched the bonnet of his car for support.

‘Dio mio,’ he said, shocked and dazed. ‘Dio mio.‘

Horrified, Alice spotted the still form of a little girl lying on the ground. A few feet from her, a woman was moaning and struggling to sit up.

The man from the bench was running towards the victims and without thinking Alice followed him.

‘Chiamante un ambulanza!‘ he shouted to the people who had stopped to stare as he dropped to his knees beside the injured girl. A young woman instantly punched numbers into a phone. Everyone else was still staring in horrified silence. Some even began to move away.

‘Can I help?’ Alice asked, dropping to her knees beside the man she had been sketching only minutes before.

‘Go to the woman,’ he replied in accented English. ‘Make sure she stays still and that no one else tries to move her until I have examined her. I need to see to the child first.’ He must have noticed Alice’s hesitation. ‘Prego! Go!’ he said. ‘I’m a doctor. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

Her heart thumping, Alice ran across to the woman. She hoped she wasn’t badly injured. The only experience of first aid Alice had was a course she had taken at school and that had been four years ago. At least the woman was conscious and breathing. Wishing she could speak Italian, Alice spoke quietly to the grey-haired victim, hoping that the woman would at least be reassured by her presence. She mumbled something that Alice couldn’t follow. Fortunately the woman who had phoned for the ambulance stopped and translated. ‘She is asking if her grandchild is okay,’ she told Alice.

‘Tell her a doctor is looking at her now.’

The grandmother started to raise herself off the ground. Alice pressed her back, gently but firmly. ‘No, no. You mustn’t move till the doctor’s examined you. You could make any injuries you do have worse.’ While her words were hurriedly translated, Alice searched for signs of injury. She winced in sympathy as she noticed that the grandmother’s ankle looked to be broken.

‘You’ll be fine. An ambulance is on its way.’

The grandmother’s gaze was straining towards her granddaughter, who was partly obscured by the kneeling doctor. The woman muttered another stream of incomprehensible Italian.

‘A prayer,’ the bystander told Alice.

Alice stood to see if she could help the driver of the car.

His forehead was bleeding profusely, but Alice had read somewhere that even shallow head wounds tended to do that. Apart from the cut to his head and his dazed expression he didn’t seem badly hurt. ‘I didn’t see them. I was talking on my phone. I didn’t see them.’

‘Someone has phoned for an ambulance,’ Alice reassured him. ‘They will be here soon.’

‘Could you stay with this lady and this gentleman?’ Alice asked the helpful bystander. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. I must see if the doctor needs help.’

Her heart still beating painfully fast, Alice sped across to where the doctor was examining the child. Alice noticed that he’d moved the little girl into the recovery position. She was disturbingly pale but what was worse was that she had a piece of metal protruding from just below her collar bone. Horrified, Alice sucked in a breath. The man had removed his T-shirt and was using it to staunch the blood pumping from the wound.

Although his attention was focussed on his patient, he must have sensed her presence.

‘Are the other two all right?’ he asked.

‘The driver seems okay, but the grandmother seems to have broken her ankle.’

‘What is your name?’

‘Alice.’

‘I am Dante. I need you to help me so I can check the other patients, Alice,’ he said. He guided her hand towards the pumping wound. ‘Press here as firmly as you can. Don’t stop applying pressure whatever happens.’

Gingerly Alice did as she was asked. She didn’t want to hurt the child any more than necessary. The bleeding increased.

Immediately an impatient hand was on top of hers again, pressing the pad into the wound. ‘Dio mio, did I not say firmly?’ he growled. ‘We want to stop the blood, not mop it up!’

‘Okay. I get it. I get it.’

His dark gaze held hers for a split second. Then he released his hold and turned away. Over the buzzing of the audience around them, Alice heard the voice of the child’s grandmother calling out to the little girl.

Within seconds the makeshift bandage was soaked with blood. Alice was aware of the sound of the child’s grandmother’s distress above the noise of the traffic.

As if aware of her grandmother’s cries, the little girl’s eyes flickered.

Alice leaned forward and spoke softly to her. ‘It’s okay, sweetheart. Try to stay as still as you can.’ She kept her voice low and managed a smile.

Dante laid his head on the girl’s chest. ‘I wish I had my stethoscope. As far as I can make out her breathing is okay, but she needs to get to hospital.’

‘Shouldn’t we try and remove the metal from her shoulder?’ Alice asked.

‘No, absolutely not. If we did that we could make matters worse. Much worse.’

‘Really?’ The makeshift bandage was ominously soaked with blood.

‘Really,’ he repeated. ‘Stay with the little one while I check her grandmother. Keep talking to her. Whatever you do, keep the pressure on her wound. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call me if there is any change.’

Alice could only nod. Her heart was banging so hard against her ribs it was almost painful. She didn’t want to be left in charge of the child. What if her condition changed suddenly? Alice knew she wouldn’t have a clue what to do.

‘Nonna?’ the child whispered.

‘The doctor is looking after your nonna. What’s your name?’

‘Sofia.’

‘Okay, Sofia. Can you understand English?’

‘A little bit. I am learning at school.’