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very firmly, ‘Please inform Emily’s obstetrician, Mr Bryant-Jones, that we are here.’

      ‘My appointment with him isn’t until after I’ve had my scan,’ Emily reminded Marco. She could see that he was about to say something, but before he could do so a smiling nurse came up to them, asking, ‘Emily? We’re ready for you now, if you’d like to come this way.’

      ‘I shall be coming with her,’ Marco informed the nurse imperiously.

      ‘Yes, of course. It’s this way,’ the nurse replied pleasantly.

      ‘This isn’t where I had my last scan,’ Emily commented anxiously.

      ‘No. Mr Bryant-Jones has requested a three-D scan this time.’

      ‘A three-D scan—what’s that?’ Emily asked apprehensively.

      ‘Nothing to worry about,’ the nurse reassured her cheerfully. ‘It’s just a special imaging process that gives us a clearer, more in-depth picture of the baby, that’s all.’

      ‘But why…I mean, why do you need that?’

      Emily wasn’t aware that she had stopped walking until she felt Marco reach out and take hold of her hand. Anxiously she looked up at him, mutely telling him that she didn’t feel able to go any further.

      ‘Here we are,’ the nurse announced, opening a door several yards up the corridor and holding it open, waiting for Marco and Emily to catch up with her. ‘I’ll hand you over to Merle, now,’ she told Emily as another nurse came forward to direct her over to the waiting bed.

      ‘Once you’ve put on your gown, the ultrasonographer will start the scan. I’ll be putting some gel on your tummy, like the last time,’ she told Emily kindly.

      ‘You don’t need to be here for this, Marco,’ Emily told Marco firmly as she pulled the curtains round the bed and got undressed. For once, the thought of the potential indignity of wearing the universal hospital gown, with its open back fastening, didn’t bother her. All she could think about was her baby. Why wouldn’t anyone tell her anything? Part of her was relieved that Marco was ignoring her request and not making any move to leave, but another part of her felt even more anxious. If there was something wrong with their baby, Marco’s pride. It didn’t matter what Marco thought. She would have her baby, no matter what.

      When Emily had changed into her gown and she drew back the curtains, she looked both vulnerable and afraid. Just looking at her caused a sensation in Marco that felt like a giant fist squeezing his heart and wringing from it an emotion so concentrated that it burned his soul.

      The nurse helped Emily lie down on the bed next to the scanner and covered her legs with a blanket, then she started applying the necessary gel.

      Given she was around twenty weeks pregnant, her stomach was only gently rounded. Emily held her breath anxiously as the ultrasonographer, a very professional-looking young woman passed, the probe over her bump, whilst studying the resulting images on the screen in front on her.

      ‘Why am I having to have this kind of scan?’ Emily asked her.

      ‘See—look, your baby is yawning.’ The ultrasonographer smiled, ignoring her questions. Emily stared at the screen, her heart giving a fierce kick of awed joy as she stared avidly at the small but perfect form.

      ‘Maybe he’s not a he, but a she.’

      Emily had been so engrossed in watching the screen that she hadn’t realised that Marco had come to stand behind her and was looking over her head at the image of their baby.

      ‘Oh, I think we can safely say that he is a he,’ the girl told him with a broad smile and pointing, before suddenly going silent as she moved the scanner further up the baby’s body. Then her smile gave way to a frown of concentration.

      Why wasn’t she saying anything? Emily worried. Why was she staring at the screen so intently? Her heart thumped with fear.

      ‘What is it?’ Emily asked anxiously. ‘Is something wrong?’

      ‘I’m almost finished and then you’ll be able to go and get dressed,’ the girl told her smoothly. ‘You’ve got an appointment to see Mr Bryant-Jones, I think?’

      ‘Yes,’ Emily confirmed. ‘Look, if there’s something wrong with my baby.’

      ‘Mr Bryant-Jones will discuss the scan with you.’ The girl was using her professional mask to hold her at a distance, Emily recognised shakily. She looked at Marco. She could see in his eyes that he too was aware of the heavy weight of what the girl had not said hanging in the room. What was it? What was wrong? The tiny being she’d seen on the scan had been yawning and stretching—to her eye, he looked completely perfect. Maybe she was worrying unnecessarily. Maybe this was just a routine check.

      Her fingers trembled as she re-dressed herself. On the other side of the curtain, she could hear Merle, the nurse, telling Marco that as soon as Emily was ready she would escort them down to see the obstetrician…

      CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      EMILY could feel her anxiety bathing her skin in perspiration as they were shown into the obstetrician’s office. Mr Bryant-Jones was smiling, but not as widely as he had done the first time she had seen him.

      ‘Ah, Emily, good. Good.’ He was looking past her towards Marco, but before Emily could introduce him Marco stepped forward, extending his hand and saying curtly, ‘Prince Marco of Niroli. I am the baby’s father.’

      ‘Ah. Yes… Excellent.’

      ‘Mr Bryant-Jones, why have I had to have another scan?’ Emily demanded, unable to wait any longer. ‘And this three-D scan, what is that—? Why.?’

      ‘Please sit down, both of you.’ The obstetrician wasn’t smiling any more. He was looking at the scanned images he had on his desk, moving them around. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but it looks as though your baby may have a heart defect.’

      ‘A heart defect? What exactly does that mean? Will my baby—?’ Emily couldn’t get any further; her pent-up emotions were bursting out and making it impossible for her to speak.

      ‘The baby will have to be between twenty-two to twenty-four weeks before we can make a full diagnosis. At this stage, all we can tell from the scans is that there is a likelihood that your baby could have a foetal heart abnormality.’

      ‘You said there could be a heart abnormality.’

      Marco’s voice seemed to be reaching Emily from over a great distance, as though she weren’t really here and taking part in this dreadful, dreadful scene, as though she and her baby had gone away somewhere private and safe where nothing bad could touch them.

      ‘What exactly does that mean?’ Marco questioned the obstetrician.

      ‘It means that the baby’s heart does not seem to be forming as it should. Now, this can be a small problem, or it can be a far more serious one. We cannot tell which, as yet. That is why you will need to see a cardiac specialist. There is a very good one here in this hospital, who collaborates with our specialist neo-natal unit. My recommendation would be that we arrange for you to visit him as soon as it can be arranged.’

      ‘Is…is my baby going to die?’ Emily’s voice shook with fear.

      ‘No,’ the obstetrician assured her. ‘But depending on how severe the abnormality is, there could be a series of operations throughout his childhood and teenage years and, maybe, if things are extreme, there will be the necessity for a heart transplant at some stage. Severe heart malfunctions do limit the kind of life the sufferer can live. If this is the case, your son will need dedicated care; boys like to run and play vigorous games, but it might be a possibility that he’ll not be able to do that.’

      Her child could be a boy who might not be able to run and play like other children, a boy who could be subjected to operation after operation to keep him alive! But he would have a life, and

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