Читать книгу Dr Constantine's Bride - Jennifer Taylor - Страница 8

WHERE was he?

Katie could feel her heart thumping as she keyed in the phone number of the hospital. There’d been no sign of Petros at the airport when her plane had landed. She had been waiting for over an hour now and he still hadn’t turned up. She had tried his mobile phone several times but it was switched off. The only thing she could think of was to phone him at work.

‘Poseidonos International Hospital. Kalimera.’

‘I wish to speak to Dr Constantine, please,’ Katie explained as calmly as she could. She waited while her call was put through, praying that Petros would be there. Although he had told her about the villa he owned in the coastal town of Paphos, she had no real idea of its location and wouldn’t attempt to make her own way there. If she couldn’t get in contact with him then she didn’t know what she was going to do…

‘Dr Constantine.’

The man’s voice cut through her mounting panic and she heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Petros, it’s me—Katie. Oh, I am so glad to hear your voice!’

‘I’m sorry, but there has been a mistake. My name is Christos Constantine.’

‘Oh, excuse me,’ Katie said hastily. ‘I didn’t realise there were two doctors by the name of Constantine on the staff. It’s Petros I want to speak to. Would you be kind enough to have my call transferred? My name is Carlyon—Katie Carlyon.’

‘And why do you wish to speak to him, Miss Carlyon?’

‘I think that’s my business, don’t you?’ Katie bridled at the arrogant note in the man’s voice. Now that some of her initial panic had subsided, she could hear the difference. This man’s voice was much deeper than Petros’s voice. It also didn’t hold that hint of amusement which she always found so attractive.

‘No, I don’t. It is very much my business, in fact. Petros warned me that you might show up. However, if you imagine that I am going to let you ruin his wedding day, young lady, you can think again.’

‘Wedding day,’ Katie repeated numbly. ‘I don’t understand. Are you saying that Petros…that he’s getting married?’

‘Of course. Don’t pretend that you didn’t know. Petros assured me that he had told you about Eleni in the hope that it would put an end to all this nonsense. He has been distraught about the number of messages and phone calls you have made to him recently.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about! I’ve never even heard of Eleni. Petros certainly never mentioned her to me. The last thing he said to me was that he loved me.’

Katie bit her lip when she felt tears well in her eyes. She had no idea why this man was saying such things. Petros loved her—he did! But if that was the case, why was he planning on marrying someone else?

She took a deep breath, fighting down the feeling of dread that filled her. ‘I need to speak to Petros so we can sort this out. Please have my call transferred to his office.’

‘I have no intention of allowing you to hound my cousin, Miss Carlyon.’

‘Hound Petros? If anything, it was the other way round. It was Petros who bombarded me with invitations to go out with him!’

It appeared that her claim must have held the ring of truth because there was a brief pause before the man said curtly, ‘Where exactly are you calling from?’

‘The airport. My flight landed just over an hour ago and I’ve been waiting here for Petros ever since.’ Her voice caught when it struck her it was unlikely that Petros was on his way to meet her if what this man had said was true. Just for a moment the enormity of what was happening engulfed her. She had given up her job and her home to start a new life with the man she loved but it appeared that he no longer wanted her. It took a huge amount of effort to focus as the man continued speaking.

‘Stay there. I’ll come and find you. It will take me about twenty minutes to get there, maybe a little longer if I get held up in traffic.’

‘How will I recognise you?’ she said quickly, but he’d already hung up.

Katie took a deep breath as the line went dead. It was all very well for him to tell her to wait until he arrived, but she couldn’t stand here and do nothing. Maybe she should telephone the hospital again, only make sure that she asked for Petros Constantine this time. It had to be some sort of mistake, of course. She really couldn’t believe that Petros had said those awful things about her. She only had to remember the number of times he had told her that he’d loved her to prove that.

After all, it wasn’t as though she had rushed into an affair with him. She had always been extremely cautious when it came to relationships. Watching their parents go through an acrimonious divorce while she and Kelly had been growing up had left its mark, and Katie knew it was the reason why she had been so wary about getting involved in the past. Although she had been out with several men, she had always refused to be rushed into a relationship. She hadn’t wanted to find herself in the same position as her parents had been in.

Her mother and father had met and married within a few months. They hadn’t taken the time to get to know one another and cracks had soon appeared in their marriage when they’d discovered that they’d had very little in common. When their daughters had arrived the following year it had put an added strain on the relationship. Katie had been ten when they had divorced and she had prayed that it would put an end to all the arguments, but it hadn’t happened.

There had been more fights, over custody this time. Then, once it had been decided that she and Kelly should live with their mother, there had been rows every time their father had wanted to see them. Life hadn’t settled down until she and Kelly had been old enough to leave home, and by that time the damage had been done.

Katie had made up her mind that she would wait until she was sure before she committed herself. She knew that she had gained a reputation in the hospital where she’d worked as a staff nurse for being very choosy when it came to men, but it hadn’t worried her. She didn’t intend to take any chances.

When she’d first met Petros, she hadn’t been overly impressed. He’d been working on the exchange programme and he’d seemed rather too keen on enjoying himself to take him seriously. When he had asked her out, she had refused, but he had asked her again and had kept on asking her until in the end she had agreed.

She had always been rather quiet, but Petros had drawn her out of herself and made her laugh. He had been so handsome and so charming, so different to the other men she had known that she had found herself falling in love with him. Even then she had held back, but when he’d told her that he had loved her, too, she had been completely won over.

When Kelly had announced that she was taking up a new job in Sardinia, Katie had realised it was time that she made some changes to her life, too. Petros had just returned to Cyprus and she was missing him dreadfully. The thought of being left behind in England without him or her sister had been more than she could bear so she had decided that she would go to Cyprus to be with him. After all, he loved her and she loved him, so what was the point of them being apart when they could build a future together?

That had been her plan right up until the time her plane had landed. It was still what she wanted, in fact, so was she really going to give up her dream of finding happiness on the strength of what some stranger had told her?

She started to key in the phone number of the hospital again then hesitated. Maybe she had believed Petros when he’d told her that he’d loved her, but what if it hadn’t been true? What if it had been merely a ploy to get her into his bed? It wouldn’t be the first time a woman had been taken in by claims of undying devotion so how could she be sure that it hadn’t happened to her?

All of a sudden doubts started crowding into her head and she was no longer certain of anything any more. She cancelled the call and put her phone in her bag. It might be better if she waited to hear what Dr Christos Constantine had to say before she did anything.

Christos swore softly as he hurried out of his office. This was the last thing he needed! It was difficult enough to pretend that he was genuinely delighted that his cousin was marrying Eleni without having to deal with this kind of complication as well. Just for a second he wondered if he should phone Petros and tell him to sort out his own mess, but then he thought about Eleni, and how much it would upset her if she found out about this woman, and realised he couldn’t do it. He cared too much about Eleni to risk her getting hurt.

‘I have to go out for a while so I’ll need you to take charge of the department, Yanni.’

Christos stopped by the desk to speak to his senior registrar, Yanni Papadopoulous. The emergency department had been unusually quiet that day and he had been intending to use the time for some in-house training. The team had been together for only six months and it was important that their skills were constantly assessed. There were a couple of new nurses who had started that week and he was particularly keen to put them through their paces, although there was no sign of them, he realised.

‘Where are the new nurses?’ he demanded.

‘Tina had to go home because her little boy was sick, and Rachel didn’t turn up this morning,’ Yanni explained. ‘We phoned her apartment and someone there told us that she’d gone back to England.’

Christos sighed. It wasn’t the first time they’d had problems with staff from abroad. The idea of working in another country might be appealing, but the reality often proved to be vastly different. Although the weather in Cyprus was a huge improvement on that in the UK, it didn’t make much difference when you were working gruelling twelve-hour shifts.

‘I’ll get onto the agency when I come back and see if they can find a replacement. I shouldn’t be long—an hour at the most. If anything urgent crops up, page me.’

He left the hospital and got into his car. It was just gone noon and the roads were fairly quiet for once. Although Cyprus attracted large numbers of tourists all the year round, the real rush wouldn’t start for another couple of weeks. That was when his department would really come under pressure.

As head of trauma care at Poseidonos International Hospital, Christos had seen at first hand the effects too much sunshine and wine could have on people and there was very little that surprised him nowadays. He dealt with every case with the same degree of professionalism. He had worked hard to reach his present position, adhering strictly to the path he had laid out for himself after his parents had died. They had both been doctors, too, and it had seemed only right that he should honour their memory by following them into the profession.

It had been a long and arduous journey because he had been determined to reach the very top, but he could confidently say that he had achieved everything he had set out to do—in his professional life, at least. It was his private life which was such a mess, and there was little he could do about that.

The thought sent a pang coursing through him as he drew up in front of the airport, but he couldn’t afford to worry about his problems right now. He had no idea what he was going to do about Katie Carlyon, but he wouldn’t allow her to ruin Eleni’s wedding day. Even though at one point he had hoped that Eleni would marry him, he had accepted a long time ago that it would never happen. Eleni deserved a husband who would be there for her, someone who would put her needs before everything else.

He had been far too focussed on his career since his parents had died. Even when they had been teenagers, and Eleni had used to beg him to go swimming with her, more often than not he had refused. It had been Petros who had accompanied her to the beach; he’d been too engrossed in his studies.

The situation had continued throughout his time at university. It hadn’t been until he had been in his first job that he had admitted to himself how he felt about her. Maybe he could have dealt with his feelings if Eleni hadn’t made it clear that she was attracted to him, too.

They had started going out together and it had been wonderful at first, but gradually it had become apparent that the relationship wasn’t working. He’d been working excruciatingly long hours at the hospital and they’d hardly seen one another. Whole weeks would pass when he had been too busy even to phone her. When Eleni had told him that she’d decided they should split up it had been unbearably painful, but he had known in his heart it was the right thing to do. Eleni had deserved more than he could give her.

It had been ten years now since they had gone their separate ways and time had helped to heal the pain. However, it had still come as a shock when he had found out that Eleni was dating his cousin. And it had been an even bigger one when she and Petros had announced their engagement shortly after his cousin had returned from working on the exchange programme.

Was Petros really the right man for her? Christos wondered not for the first time. His cousin had always enjoyed playing the field and it was hard to believe that he would remain faithful to her for the rest of his life. Christos had had serious misgivings from the beginning but he had kept them to himself for Eleni’s sake. After all, Petros claimed that he was madly in love with her so who was he to disagree? Although after what Katie Carlyon had told him earlier, he had his doubts. If Miss Carlyon had been telling the truth, then his cousin’s idea of love was vastly different to his own!

Christos sighed as he got out of the car. There was no point worrying about it right now. Maybe he did have his doubts but he would do everything in his power to ensure this wedding went ahead as planned. And if that meant sending Katie Carlyon back to England, that’s what he was going to do.

Katie scanned the faces of the people coming into the terminal, although she had no idea how she was going to recognise Dr Constantine when he arrived. Would he look like Petros? she wondered. He’d said that Petros was his cousin so there might be a family resemblance.

Her eyes skimmed over a tall, dark-haired man who had just entered the building and she felt a frisson run through her. Although he didn’t really look like Petros, there was something familiar about those chiselled features. She followed his progress as he made his way across the concourse. In contrast to the tourists in their colourful holiday clothes, he was soberly dressed in a lightweight grey suit with a white shirt and a discreet blue tie. He looked big and commanding as he stopped and stared around, and Katie suddenly felt afraid.

Did she really want to suffer the embarrassment of having him harangue her again? Maybe he’d felt those comments he’d made had been justified, but he hadn’t even asked to hear her side of the story. He had no idea what had really gone on, how Petros had pursued her with single-minded determination. He had judged her and obviously found her lacking so what was the point of giving him the chance to do it again? It would be far more sensible if she avoided another confrontation and went to the hospital and asked Petros what was going on.

Katie snatched up her case and headed for the door at the far end of the terminal. She knew from watching the other visitors that she should be able to get a taxi there to take her to the hospital. In her heart, she still didn’t believe that Petros had said all those horrible things about her. For all she knew, that man could have made them up for reasons of his own, and the thought added wings to her feet. She needed to see Petros and find out the truth!

She had almost reached the exit when a woman suddenly screamed. Glancing round, Katie could see an elderly man lying on the ground, clutching his chest. She hesitated, torn between a desire to see Petros and the need to help, but in the end her conscience wouldn’t allow her to walk away. Hurrying over to the couple, she put down her case and knelt beside the old man.

‘What happened?’ she asked, her hands moving automatically as she loosened the collar of his shirt.

‘I don’t know.’ Tears were streaming down the elderly woman’s face. ‘Frank said that he had a pain in his chest and the next thing I knew, he collapsed.’

Katie nodded as she pressed her fingers against the carotid artery in the old man’s neck. She sighed when she failed to detect a pulse. His heart had stopped and if he was to have any chance at all then she needed to start CPR immediately.

‘I’m a nurse,’ she explained, rolling him over onto his back. ‘Your husband’s heart has stopped so I’m going to give him CPR. Can you phone for an ambulance and tell the paramedics that it’s a cardiac arrest?’

The woman went to pieces when she heard that and started sobbing. Fortunately, someone in the crowd had heard Katie’s request and offered to make the call. Katie left them to get on with it; she was more concerned about maintaining the patient until help arrived. Permanent brain damage occurred when the brain was starved of oxygen for longer than four minutes.

She checked the man’s airway was clear then tipped back his head and gave four sharp inflations then checked his pulse once more, but there was still no sign of his heart beating.

‘I’ll do the compressions. You continue with the breathing.’

All of a sudden the man whom she’d seen entering the terminal a few moments earlier was kneeling beside her. He didn’t look at her as he deftly performed five chest compressions then paused. Katie breathed into the old man’s mouth again, forcing herself to concentrate on what she was doing. She couldn’t afford to be distracted when a man’s life depended on her actions.

They carried on for what seemed like ages—she breathed into the man’s mouth while the stranger performed the chest compressions. An eerie silence had fallen over the terminal as more people gathered around them to watch what was happening. Everyone was willing them to save his life and Katie knew that it wouldn’t be for lack of effort if they didn’t succeed.

‘Pulse check.’

The stranger rapped out the instruction and Katie immediately obeyed as her training kicked in. Placing her fingers on the carotid artery, she felt for a pulse and smiled when she detected the faintest movement beneath her fingertips.

‘We’ve got a pulse,’ she said, unable to hide her delight.

‘Good.’

Something crossed the stranger’s face, a flicker of some emotion that looked almost like surprise, before he returned his attention to their patient. Once they were sure the old man was stable, they rolled him onto his side and placed him in the recovery position. They had just finished when the ambulance crew arrived.

Katie quickly told the paramedics her name and explained what had happened then moved out of the way. They fitted the old man with an oxygen mask then set up a drip and lifted him onto a trolley. The crowd was starting to disperse now that the excitement was over so she picked up her case and edged away. With a bit of luck, she might be able to disappear…

‘I’ll take that.’

A large hand suddenly lifted the suitcase out of her grasp. Katie didn’t have time to object as the stranger put his other hand under her elbow and hurried her after the trolley. The ambulance was parked right outside the main doors and he paused only long enough to give the crew some instructions before he led her to his car.

‘I’m sorry but I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she said firmly, wrenching her arm out of his grasp. She took a step back and pointed to her case. ‘Please, give me my suitcase.’

‘Later, after we’ve had a chat.’ He stowed her case in the boot then opened the passenger door. ‘I am Petros’s cousin, Christos Constantine. We spoke earlier on the phone. I don’t have time to deal with you at the moment so please get into the car.’

‘No.’ Katie shook her head. ‘I just told you that I’m not going anywhere with you. You might claim to be Petros’s cousin but why should I believe you? You could be anyone for all I know.’

He slid his hand inside his jacket and pulled out his wallet. ‘Here is my hospital security pass. As you can see, my name is Christos Constantine and I am the head of trauma care at Poseidonos International Hospital. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more identification on me at the moment, but I shall be happy to provide you with further proof once we reach the hospital.’

‘You’re taking me to the hospital!’ she exclaimed.

‘Yes.’ He opened the door wider. ‘The choice is yours, Miss Carlyon. However, I don’t have time to stand here arguing with you. There is a man on his way to hospital who needs my help, so please make up your mind what you intend to do.’