Читать книгу Summer With Love: The Spanish Consultant - Sarah Morgan - Страница 9
CHAPTER THREE
ОглавлениеJAGO strode back to his office, tense and on edge, shaken out of his customary cool by his encounter with Katy.
Why the hell had he gone and seen her personally?
He could have arranged for a more junior doctor to check on her and discharge her, but instead he hadn’t been able to resist seeing her one more time.
Some self-satisfied, macho corner of his make-up had wanted to see her awake, to test her reaction to him.
He’d walked away eleven years before, too angry to risk seeing her face to face. Confronted by her after all this time, he’d suddenly wanted to see if there was even the slightest hint of guilt or discomfort in that beautiful face.
There hadn’t been.
Oh, she’d been shocked to see him, but she’d met his gaze steadily, without the slightest hint of remorse. A man with less experience than him might have thought she was as innocent as the day she was born, but he knew better.
Katy’s innocence was only on the surface.
He opened the door to his office, anger erupting inside him at the memories her presence had reawakened. Until he’d met Katy, he’d always prided himself in his lack of vulnerability when it had come to the female sex. He’d been streetwise and sharp and able to recognise every one of their tricks.
He shouldered the door shut behind him and swore softly in Spanish. Katy was the only woman in his life who’d managed to sneak under his defences. Her fragile innocence and femininity had appealed to everything male in him and he had been totally unprepared for the strength of his reaction to her. She had been so far removed from the type of woman he’d usually spent time with that to begin with he’d avoided her, but her blatant fascination in him had proved impossible to resist.
He tried to ignore her lush curves and told himself that his taste didn’t run to innocent schoolgirls, however beautiful. And Katy was astonishingly beautiful. An incredible heart-shaped face surrounded by a cloud of silken blonde hair that could make a man lose his mind. At eighteen she possessed a sweetness that had stifled his usually measured reaction to the opposite sex.
There was something about those huge blue eyes, about the way she watched him with a mixture of excitement and longing, that gradually eroded his already severely tested self-control. Given the temptation, maybe it wasn’t so surprising that he behaved like a hormonal teenager, allowing the power of sexual attraction to overwhelm common sense.
It amused him to take her out and watch the havoc that her presence caused. She was so dazzling that wherever they went she attracted the maximum amount of male attention, attention that went completely unnoticed by Katy herself because she was never able to drag her eyes away from him.
And her blatant and naïve adoration of him was both a source of amusement and smug male satisfaction.
She was his and only his.
Knowing her to be sexually inexperienced, for the first time in his life he was forced to curb his own physical needs until he judged that she was ready. And when that moment came, he derived an astonishing measure of gratification from peeling away the layers of shyness and reserve to reveal the hot, sexual nature that he’d detected from the first time he’d seen her.
He gritted his teeth as he remembered just how passionate a nature his patience had revealed.
Too passionate.
When her father took him to one side and told him the truth about her, he was stunned by the depth of his own disappointment and distaste.
Stunned by the emptiness he felt, he walked away in a state of shock and never contacted her again, grimly aware that he’d let her touch him in ways that weren’t exclusively physical.
I love you, Jago.
He tensed, reminding himself of the truth. That her declarations had proved as shallow and fragile as her promises of commitment.
And now she was engaged to be married.
Freddie was so obviously the suitable man.
And Katy would make an excellent businessman’s wife.
Jago stared fixedly out of the window, wondering why he wanted to put a fist through it.
‘Did you slap his face?’ Libby curled up on Katy’s bed in the flat that they shared and broke a piece off a bar of chocolate. Her blonde hair showed only the merest hint of strawberry after several washes and was now held in a ponytail with a brightly coloured ribbon covered in cartoon characters. Libby worked on the paediatric ward and instead of uniform they wore practical, colourful tracksuits.
‘Hardly.’ Katy pulled a face, still hating herself for being so completely tongue-tied when she’d found herself confronted by Jago. ‘Lying injured in a hospital bed in a nightie which only has a front to it hardly gives you the confidence to confront your past.’
‘Mmm. I see your point.’ Libby shook her head. ‘I can’t believe he’s a doctor. I bet none of the female staff get any work done. Is he still fabulous-looking?’
Katy remembered the nurse who’d dropped the chart when he’d walked into the room.
‘Spectacular.’
Libby grinned and sucked chocolate from her fingers. ‘Oh, boy. What are you going to do?’
Katy lifted a hand and touched the dressing pad on her head. She’d asked herself the same question repeatedly.
‘I’m going to start my job and try and ignore the fact that he works there,’ she said finally. ‘It’s a big department and very busy. He’s not going to have time to worry about me. It’s time I put that episode of my life behind me.’
No more dreams.
‘You think you can do that?’ Libby chewed slowly, her expression doubtful. ‘You were crazy about him, Katy.’
‘But he wasn’t crazy about me. I was just a conquest. When it came to it, Jago walked away without a backward glance.’
Libby sighed. ‘He was a rat, that’s true, but, Katy, to be fair to him he never knew about—’
‘I don’t ever want to talk about that,’ Katy interrupted her quickly, and Libby sighed.
‘I know, but I think if you told him—’
‘It’s history.’ Katy lifted her chin. ‘He left. I’m over it. End of story.’
‘Right.’ Libby looked at her. ‘So you didn’t feel a single thing when you looked at him?’
Katy reminded herself of all the reasons she was marrying Freddie.
‘No. Not a thing.’ She looked at her sister and inhaled deeply. ‘I’m not eighteen any more, Lib. Do you really think I’d be mad enough to get involved with him again?’
After all the pain she’d suffered …
‘You couldn’t help yourself last time,’ Libby pointed out gently. ‘I saw the way you were with him. He was the one, Katy.’
‘I wish you’d stop saying that!’ Katy leapt of the bed, her breathing rapid. ‘He wasn’t the one. He wasn’t! I was too young and inexperienced to know what I was doing.’
‘Not that young.’
Katy shook her head. ‘It can’t be love if it’s one-sided, and Jago never loved me.’
I don’t do commitment, Katy.
‘OK, calm down.’ Libby looked at her warily and stuck out her hand. ‘Have some chocolate. It’s good for the nerves.’
Katy sighed. ‘I’m beyond chocolate.’
Libby looked unconvinced. ‘Nothing is ever beyond the reach of chocolate. Well, if you don’t want chocolate, we could go shopping. I saw this gorgeous pair of shoes today.’
Katy gave a wan smile. Libby’s two big loves in life were chocolate and shoes. ‘If you buy any more shoes we’ll need a bigger flat.’ She bit her lip. ‘I can handle him now, Lib. I’m older and more sensible. I know he’s wrong for me. I don’t want a man like Jago. He’s ruthless and macho and totally not my type.’
She remembered the careless way that he’d dismissed the nurse. It seemed that, whatever career he pursued, Jago had to be in control.
‘He’s Spanish,’ Libby reminded her. ‘These Mediterranean types are all the same. Unreconstructed when it comes to women.’
‘Well, I don’t want unreconstructed,’ Katy said firmly. ‘Not any more. That was just a phase I went through as a teenager. Now I’m older and wiser and I want romantic—like Freddie. Did you see the flowers?’
Libby pulled a face. ‘I could hardly miss them. Freddie certainly isn’t subtle.’
Katy stiffened defensively. ‘He’s kind.’
‘Right.’ Libby looked at her. ‘So is the mechanic that services my car, but I’m not marrying him.’
‘Just drop it.’
‘You know I don’t think you should be marrying Freddie, and neither does Alex.’ Libby looked her straight in the eye. ‘Don’t try telling me you’re not still affected by Jago, Katy. Look at yourself! You’re a nervous wreck. You couldn’t resist him before. What makes you think you can do it this time?’
‘Because I’m older and wiser and I’m marrying Freddie.’
‘Freddie is completely wrong for you.’
Katy gritted her teeth. ‘He’s very romantic. Something that Jago could never be.’
‘But then Jago is one hundred and fifty per cent full-on virile male,’ Libby said softly, ‘something that Freddie could never be.’
‘That’s enough!’ Katy lifted her hands to her ears but Libby didn’t give up.
‘You’re going to be waking up every morning next to Lord Frederick—that’s if he hasn’t left early to get to the office before the markets open …’
Katy still had her ears covered. ‘I’m not listening.’
‘Fine. Don’t listen.’ Libby sprang off the bed and tossed the chocolate wrapper in the bin. ‘But if you think you can work alongside Jago without creating fireworks then you’re deluded.’
‘I—I can,’ Katy stammered. ‘He doesn’t affect me any more.’
Libby lifted an eyebrow. ‘Really?’
‘I don’t even think about him.’
The heat of his mouth on hers, the erotic sweep of his tongue …
‘Right.’ Libby looked at her steadily. ‘Well, in that case, working with him isn’t going to be a problem, is it?’
Two weeks later Katy stood nervously in the A and E department, listening as one of the other consultants showed them round and explained what was expected of them.
A tiny scar hidden in her hairline was the only remaining physical evidence of her accident but emotionally it was a different matter. The shattered pieces of her heart, painstakingly glued back together over the past eleven years, had been torn apart again by just one meeting with Jago.
The air around her felt stuffy and close. She could hardly breathe. Just thinking about bumping into him made her knees tremble and her palms sweaty.
What had possessed her to think that she could do this?
How would he react when he discovered that she was a doctor and that she was going to be working in his department?
And how was she going to react to him?
‘This is the resuscitation room and it’s always kept ready. Basically we divide the department into different areas.’ Totally unaware of Katy’s inner torment, the consultant smiled at the group of doctors gathered around him. ‘For serious injuries we use a team approach in this hospital. It means that different tasks can be performed simultaneously and makes for a more rapid assessment of the patient, and that improves the survival rate.’
Reminding herself that she had a job to do, Katy forced herself to concentrate. It was her first day and at the moment it was quiet, but she’d been warned that there could be an influx of patients at any moment. A group of them had started together and so far everyone seemed friendly enough.
And there was no sign of Jago Rodriguez.
Gradually her knees started to shake a little less and her breathing grew easier.
‘How many people make up the trauma team?’ A good-looking, fair-haired doctor, who’d introduced himself as Carl Richards, asked the question and the consultant turned to face him.
‘We use four doctors, five nurses and a radiographer. One of the doctors acts as team leader, then there’s the airway doctor who does the obvious but also checks the cervical spine and inserts any central or arterial lines that might be needed.’
‘And the other two doctors?’
‘We call them circulation doctors. They help with the removal of the patients’ clothes, put up peripheral lines, insert chest drains—that type of thing. The nurses work in much the same way. The important thing to remember is that there should only be six people touching the patient or it leads to total chaos. The others should keep well back.’
‘And most of the senior doctors.’ It was Carl again. ‘Have they done the ATLS course?’
The consultant nodded. ‘The advanced trauma life support course was originated by the American College of Surgeons, but we now run something similar over here in the UK.’
Katy spoke up. ‘So will we be part of the trauma team?’
The consultant gave a wry smile. ‘You’re going to be part of everything. The team leader is always a consultant but you’ll certainly be working as circulation doctors, obviously operating within your skill level. If certain procedures are unfamiliar, we expect you to say so. Now, I’m going to show you the most important room of all. The staff common room.’
Half an hour later, Katy pushed her bag into her locker, slammed it shut and made to follow the others out onto the unit. They’d had a cup of coffee and now the work was about to start.
Her first day on A and E.
She was the last person left in the common room and she gave a start as the door crashed open and Jago strode in, formidably male, his strong features strained.
‘Tell me this is a joke,’ he launched, slamming the door shut behind him and keeping a hand on it so that no one could disturb them. ‘I’ve just seen your name on the rota. Dr Katherine Westerling?’
If anything, he was even colder than he’d been when she’d been admitted as a patient and Katy closed her eyes briefly.
Maybe it was her fault. She should have warned him, but when she’d been lying in hospital she hadn’t even decided whether she was going to be able to do it.
And now she was having serious doubts.
How could she ever have thought that she could work alongside him without a problem?
Connecting with those volcanic dark eyes, she felt an explosion of awareness erupt inside her body and hated herself for it. It seemed that it didn’t matter how indifferent he was to her, she was still a sucker for his type of raw, masculine sexuality.
‘It’s not a joke.’ Katy’s breathing was suddenly uneven as she struggled to hide the disturbing effect he had on her. At five feet ten she was used to being at eye level with most men, but she’d always had to look up to Jago. He was six feet three of intimidating, angry male, and being in the same room as him had a seriously detrimental effect on her nerves.
‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me when you were in here two weeks ago?’
‘I—I didn’t think it was relevant.’
Because she’d been shell-shocked to see him again.
Because she hadn’t made up her mind whether she would be able to take the job, knowing that it would mean working with him.
‘Not relevant?’ His eyes raked over her in a naked disbelief that would have offended her if she hadn’t become used to it over the years. People always looked at her in disbelief because she didn’t fit their stereotype of a doctor.
Katy sighed, reading his mind. ‘Women become doctors, Jago. Even blondes.’
He frowned sharply. ‘I’m not prejudiced against women doctors.’
‘So what’s wrong?’
‘Seeing you in A and E is what’s wrong,’ he drawled, his penetrating dark gaze locking onto hers. ‘You were a model. A woman whose main priority was the state of her nails.’
That wasn’t true but she couldn’t blame him for thinking that.
At the time she’d been breathlessly aware that Jago had only dated really, really beautiful women and she’d been determined to be as beautiful as possible to see off the competition. And that had been time-consuming.
It occurred to her suddenly that she and Jago hadn’t ever really talked about anything that mattered. She’d certainly never told him that she’d wanted to be a doctor. In fact, apart from Libby and Alex, no one had known just how badly she’d wanted to be a doctor until the day she’d told her father.
She lifted her chin. ‘I gave up modelling when I was eighteen.’ Just after he’d walked out of her life. ‘I—I had a few years off and then I went to medical school.’
He looked at her. ‘And did your father approve of that?’
Her heartbeat increased at the memory and her gaze slid away from his. ‘No.’
‘So you finally stood up to him about something.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Good for you. But that still doesn’t make you suitable material for an A and E doctor.’
She stiffened, refusing to be intimidated by his disparaging tone. ‘I was top of my year, Jago.’
‘I never said you weren’t bright and I’m sure you’d make an excellent GP,’ he said dismissively, his expression hard and uncompromising. ‘What was your last job?’
‘Paediatrics.’
‘Go back there,’ he advised silkily. ‘Accident and emergency is medicine in the raw. It’s a real job. It won’t suit you.’
Her heart was thumping so hard she felt dizzy.
‘I’ve done real jobs before.’
‘Really?’ He lifted an eyebrow, his tone heavy with sarcasm. ‘Just how much blood and serious, gut-wrenching trauma have you dealt with in your time, Katy?’
None.
She’d done the required medical and surgical house jobs after she’d qualified, of course, and then she’d done a year of paediatrics before deciding that it wasn’t the route she wanted to take in her career.
It had been her consultant on the paediatric ward who’d observed her calm, unflappable nature and suggested that she might like to consider A and E work.
And despite Jago’s acid comments, she knew she could do it.
‘I’ll be fine.’ She swallowed. If she was honest, she was slightly anxious about how she’d cope with major trauma, but she’d rather stop breathing than admit that to Jago. ‘Being a good doctor isn’t just about blood and guts. I’m good at communicating with patients and I have good instincts when it comes to judging clinical situations.’
His eyes raked over her from head to foot, taking in every inch of her appearance. ‘And do you really think that scraping back that blonde hair, wearing glasses that you don’t need and dressing like my grandmother is going to make you seem tougher?’
Katy touched the glasses self-consciously. Having long blonde hair and being considered exceptionally pretty had turned out to be a distinct disadvantage, so over the years she’d adopted a disguise. She’d discovered that if she dressed discreetly then people paid more attention to what she was saying. But not Jago, of course. He saw through the disguise right to her soul. He’d always been razor sharp.
She decided to be honest. ‘I wear the glasses because they make people take me more seriously.’
His laugh was unsympathetic. ‘And I bet you need all the help you can get, querida.’
She bristled at his tone and lifted her chin with an icy dignity that she’d learned from her mother.
‘I’m a good doctor, Jago.’ She’d had to prove it on umpteen occasions in the past so it was nothing new. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Too right you’ll be fine.’ His voice was lethally soft and contained more than a hint of menace. ‘You’ll be fine because I’m going to be breathing down your neck every minute of the day. Everything you do, Katy, every patient you see, I’m going to be there, next to you, watching. I do not need another lightweight doctor in this department. If someone is sick on those designer shoes of yours, you’re going to have to carry on to the end of the shift. You’re going to have to prove yourself to me. And you don’t have to be as good as everyone else, you have to be twice as good. Or you’re out.’
Her heart was thumping double time.
‘I’m not lightweight. You’re making judgements about me—’
‘Based on experience.’ He moved towards her. ‘I know you, Katy. I know how you think. You hate confrontation. There’s no way you’ll cope with A and E. I guarantee that after one week you’ll wish you were back in paediatrics.’
She licked her lips, her whole body pulsating in response to his looming proximity.
‘That won’t happen and you’re totally wrong about me.’
‘Yes?’ His black eyes were as hard as flint. ‘When I knew you, you didn’t even have the courage to stand up to your own father. You were terrified that he might find out you were seeing me.’
She tried to back away but there was nowhere to go. The cold metal of the lockers pressed through the thin fabric of her blouse.
It was true that at eighteen she’d been terrified of her father. And as it had turned out, her fear had been fully justified.
But Jago didn’t know that, of course. He’d vanished into the sunset before any of it could get ugly, ignorant of the devastation he’d left behind him.
He’d never known what her father was like.
Very few people did.
‘Your father was a tough man—probably still is—but he’s a walk in the park compared to some of the patients we see in this department on a Saturday night.’
A walk in the park?
Remembering just what had transpired after Jago had left, Katy was shocked into speechlessness.
He stepped closer. ‘You don’t like disagreements or controversy and you hate all forms of violence. We do violence quite well in A and E, you know.’ His tone was smooth. ‘Saturday afternoons after football and rugby, nights after the pubs close. What are you going to do when the department is full of drunks? What are you going to do when someone turns round and hits you?’
He was trying to scare her off but it wasn’t going to work.
The only thing that frightened her about working in A and E was being close to him.
Especially the way he was acting at the moment.
Like a madman.
As if he wasn’t the man who’d taken her virginity and then walked away without a backward glance.
She cast him a confused look. ‘Why are you being like this?’
His gaze was hard and unsympathetic. ‘Because this is a horrifically busy department and frankly I don’t have time to nursemaid someone who’s main concern in life is whether she needs to file her nails.’
He made her sound frivolous and shallow, but maybe she’d seemed that way to him when he’d known her at eighteen. One thing was sure, if they were ever going to be able to work together effectively, they had to get the past out of the way.
‘You don’t know me any more.’ She kept her tone conciliatory, the way she did when her father was in one of his scary moods. ‘It’s been eleven years since you last saw me. Maybe we should talk about what happened, Jago.’
Maybe he could explain why he’d walked away.
Jago’s eyes were cold and his broad shoulders were rigid with tension. ‘The past is history. There’s nothing that I want to talk about and if you’re trying to convince me that you’ve changed, you’re wasting your breath. You’re forgetting that I met the man you’re engaged to.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘That in itself was enough to prove to me that you haven’t changed one little bit.’
Maybe he had changed, she reflected. Despite his Spanish ancestry, Jago had always been so emotionally controlled that in the past she’d longed to do something which would shake him out of his almost permanent state of indifference. Yet she sensed that at this moment he was hanging onto control by little more than a thread. For the first time she was seeing a hint of that volatility that was supposed to characterise Mediterranean men.
But what she didn’t understand was why. Something had obviously really challenged his legendary cool and she had absolutely no idea what. And his lack of remorse about the way he’d treated her still puzzled her. He seemed so hard.
She forced her mind back to the subject. ‘You don’t know anything about Freddie.’
‘I know he’s the man your father’s chosen for you.’ That burning dark gaze locked on hers with all the lethal accuracy of a deadly weapon. As he stepped even closer to her his voice dropped to a low purr, like a tiger soothing its prey before the kill. ‘Does he make you hot inside, Katy? Does he make you so desperate that he has you panting and ripping at his clothes?’
Powerful images exploded in her head and her face burned with shock and embarrassment at his explicit words.
‘Have you finished?’ Determined not to betray just how uncomfortable she felt, she looked him straight in the eye. It was a mistake.
She tumbled into the fathomless depths of his dark eyes and felt her knees tremble.
He leaned forward. ‘That man has no idea how to unlock the real Katy.’
‘And I suppose you think you do!’
‘Of course.’ The lazy arrogance in his voice was the final straw and she lifted a hand and slapped him so hard that the palm of her hand stung.
‘Dios mio.’ His head jerked backwards and he looked at her with raw incredulity, disbelief pulsating in the depths of his eyes.
Stunned by her own behaviour, Katy opened her mouth to apologise and then closed it again. There was no way she was apologising to him!
‘Eleven years is a long time, Jago, and you don’t know anything about who I am any more.’ Her small hands clenched by her sides and she forced herself to breathe normally. ‘I’m more than capable of working in this department and I’m going to marry Freddie.’
They stood, eyes trapped by an invisible force, until the door opened and a male voice said, ‘I’ve found our straggler. She’s still in the common room.’
The consultant walked in and gave Jago a nod before turning to Katy. Fortunately he didn’t seem to notice the reddened streak on Jago’s cheekbone.
‘If you’ve finished in here, I’ll take you out and see which member of staff you’re allocated to. We find that the new casualty officers settle in quickly if they work closely with another member of staff. I’ll just check who that is.’
‘You needn’t bother.’ Jago’s voice was soft and his eyes were still fixed on Katy’s pale face. ‘Dr Westerling will be working with me.’
His colleague looked startled. ‘Oh, right—well, you’ve obviously already met Jago Rodriguez, one of our other consultants. In that case, I’ll leave you in his capable hands. I’m sure you’re keen to get started.’
Jago’s mouth curled into a smile. ‘I’m sure Dr Westerling can’t wait.’
There was a sardonic gleam in his sexy dark eyes that brought a flush to her pale cheeks and a sick feeling to the pit of her stomach.
Working with Jago wasn’t just going to be difficult.
It was going to be a nightmare.
Twenty-four hours later Katy was wondering why she’d ever thought she’d be able to cope with A and E.
She’d seen a never-ending stream of patients, most of them angry at having been kept waiting for hours.
‘Can’t we see patients any faster?’ she asked Charlotte, the sister who had looked after her when she’d been brought in after her car accident. ‘I’m fed up with being verbally abused by everyone I see.’
‘Welcome to A and E.’ Charlotte handed her a set of X-rays to check. ‘We make a dent and then an emergency comes in and takes priority. That’s the way it works. That’s why we have triage. Non-emergency cases go to the bottom of the pile and they stay there until someone has time to see them.’ She smiled sympathetically at Katy’s drawn expression. ‘Don’t worry, you get used to people yelling at you after a while.’
‘I don’t mind people yelling,’ Katy lied quickly, not wanting to risk Charlotte telling Jago that she couldn’t cope. ‘I just wish we didn’t have to keep people waiting.’
‘At least you’re working with Jago. He can be a pretty hard taskmaster, I know, but he’s a brilliant doctor. You’re lucky.’
Katy kept her mouth clamped shut. Lucky? She certainly didn’t feel lucky to be working with Jago. She felt as though she must have done something seriously wrong in a previous life to have deserved such punishment.
Realising that Charlotte was looking at her oddly, she managed a smile.
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ she replied smoothly. ‘I’m looking forward to learning from him.’
‘As a doctor he’s staggeringly gifted,’ Charlotte went on. ‘He has this uncanny ability to spot things that other people miss, but sometimes he forgets that the rest of us are human. Don’t let him get to you.’
He was getting to her.
He made it perfectly obvious that he didn’t think she had what it took to work in A and E and he was watching her every move, waiting for her to make a mistake. Why did he hate her so much?
All she’d ever done had been to fall in love with him, and surely that was her problem, not his.
They hadn’t really talked about what had happened in the past. Maybe she should bring it up. Clear the air.
Feeling totally miserable, Katy sighed and reached for the X-rays but at that moment Annie, one of the staff nurses, rushed up.
‘Ambulance Control just rang. They’re bringing in a forty-year-old man who’s had an accident in a warehouse. He got caught by a forklift truck. Apparently he’s in a bad way. Very weak pulse and virtually no blood pressure. They should be here in less than five minutes.’
‘Find Jago,’ Charlotte said immediately, but his voice came from behind them.
‘I heard. Annie, get the trauma team together in Resus and make sure we have a radiographer. I don’t want to be hanging around for X-rays.’ His gaze flickered to Katy. ‘You can join us in Resus and act as one of the circulation doctors. You saw us in action yesterday—do you think you can cope?’
Katy’s stomach lurched and her pulse rate quickened, but she met his gaze without flinching.
‘Of course.’
She’d cope or die in the attempt.
‘Good.’ His dark eyes locked on hers moodily and then he strode off towards Resus, leaving her to follow.
Charlotte alerted the nursing team and one of them was given the task of informing people in the waiting room that the waiting time was likely to be increased because a major injury was coming in.
‘There’ll be a riot,’ Annie predicted gloomily, and Harry, one of the other consultants, nodded.
‘Very probably, but there isn’t much we can do about it except mop up the blood afterwards.’
Jago was prowling around Resus, checking that the right equipment was ready and everything was where he wanted it.
Moments later the doors crashed open and the paramedics hurried in with the stretcher.
‘This is Dan Walker. He’s a warehouse supervisor. He was caught under the ribs by a forklift truck. No obvious injury but he’s shocked and his pulse is thready. We’ve given him high-flow oxygen and we managed to get a line in at the scene …’
The paramedic outlined the care they’d given and Jago moved to the head of the trolley.
‘OK, let’s move him across, on my count—one two three.’
They lifted the man carefully and he groaned slightly, his skin pale and clammy.
Katy’s blood was pounding in her veins. This was her first real trauma case. What if she did something wrong?
But it soon became clear to her that she couldn’t possibly do anything wrong because Jago was directing the entire operation with an air of cool command which left no doubt in anyone’s mind who was in charge.
Having secured the man’s airway and satisfied himself that there was no damage to the cervical spine, he turned his attention to the work of the rest of the team.
‘Get another line in. I want vital signs recorded every five minutes and get his clothes off fast—I want every inch of him examined.’
Using sharp scissors, they cut off his clothes and Katy reached for the man’s wrist to insert another line. One of the nurses handed her a swab and venflon and she searched frantically for a vein.
‘Everything’s shutting down,’ she murmured, her fingers slipping on the man’s skin as she nervously tried to find a vein.
‘Let Harry try,’ Jago said sharply, and she gritted her teeth and felt around again for a vein.
‘Give me one more go—I think I felt something then.’
Please—please …
Something moved under her fingers. Was that it?
She slid the needle through the skin and breathed a sigh of relief as blood came back into the venflon.
‘I’ve done it. I’m in.’
‘Well done.’ Harry gave her an encouraging smile but Jago merely barked out more instructions.
‘Take blood for group and cross-match, full blood count, urea and electrolytes, and get a catheter in so that we can assess his fluid output. What’s his blood pressure doing?’
‘It’s falling.’ Annie checked the reading and recorded it on the chart.
‘Remember that there is a consistent fall in the systolic blood pressure only after 30 per cent of blood volume is lost,’ Jago said, his tone cool. ‘Get him attached to an ECG monitor and let’s give him a bolus of fluid. Start with a litre of warm colloid and then we’ll reassess.’
There were so many questions that Katy wanted to ask but she knew they were going to have to wait until the patient was stable.
She watched while Jago examined the patient’s abdomen, his hands moving skilfully as he looked for signs of tenderness.
‘There’s bruising and tenderness under the ribs,’ he murmured, and then glanced at Annie. ‘Phone down and see if they’ve confirmed the blood group yet. It’s been ten minutes so they should have. Once they have, get some blood up here,’ he ordered sharply, and Annie hurried to the phone just as another nurse popped her head round the door.
‘His wife is in the relatives’ room. Is there someone who can see her?’
Jago glanced at Charlotte. ‘Can one of your team go to her until we’ve stabilised him? Tell her we’ll be with her as soon as we have some news.’
Charlotte moved towards the door. ‘And if she wants to come and see him?’
Jago didn’t hesitate. ‘Then let her.’
Katy frowned and Jago raised an eyebrow in her direction. ‘Something wrong, Katy?’
At least he was calling her by her first name now, instead of referring to her as ‘Dr Westerling’. ‘I just thought it might be distressing for her to see him like this.’
‘It is distressing …’ Jago glanced across to check the ECG and the blood-pressure reading ‘… but studies have shown that on balance it’s probably better for the relatives to see the patient in Resus than not to see them.’
Annie looked up. ‘His blood pressure is falling, Jago.’
‘He needs blood and we need to call the surgeons and warn them that he’s likely to need a laparotomy.’
Jago looked impatiently towards the door and at that moment one of the nurses came hurrying in, carrying the blood bags.
‘At last.’ Jago reached out a hand and took one of the blood bags, attaching it quickly to the giving set. ‘Open the tap and let’s see if that helps.’
They worked to stabilise the man but the blood transfusion seemed to have no effect.
‘Still no improvement. OK, that tells us one of two things.’ Jago’s expression was grim. ‘Either the shock isn’t caused by bleeding, or he’s bleeding faster than we can infuse the blood—my money’s on the latter. He needs urgent surgical intervention. Has someone bleeped the surgeons?’
Charlotte nodded. ‘Mr Hart is on his way.’
‘Well, he’d better be quick.’ Jago turned his attention back to the patient, who was deteriorating by the minute.
‘His blood pressure is still falling.’ Annie looked at Jago expectantly and his mouth tightened.
‘Push that blood through faster.’
At that moment the door swung open and a tall, blond man strode into the room. ‘Jago?’
Jago gave a succinct report on the man’s condition and the surgeon examined him briefly.
‘You’re right. He’s bleeding. Let’s take him straight to Theatre.’
There was a flurry of activity and the man was transferred to the operating theatre for a laparotomy which would allow the surgeons to assess any internal damage.
Katy found herself alone in Resus with Charlotte. ‘Phew, what a mess!’ She glanced around the room, taking in the discarded blood bags, needles and other equipment.
‘What happens now?’
‘We clear it up ready for the next patient,’ Charlotte said immediately, thrusting needles into the sharps bin and scooping up soiled dressings. ‘Jago’s gone to talk to the relatives with Annie. Can I ask you something?’
‘Of course.’ Katy checked the intubation tray and ran another bag of saline through a giving set.
‘How do you two know each other?’
Katy’s eyes flew to hers and she thought about denying their past acquaintance, but Charlotte’s next words made her realise the futility of that approach.
‘When you were brought in here two weeks ago, he was the one who identified you.’
‘Oh.’ Katy concentrated on the equipment she was checking, wondering what Jago had felt when he’d seen her lying on the ambulance stretcher. Had he felt any guilt at all? ‘We knew each other years ago. He used to work for my father.’
‘In the bank?’ Charlotte’s eyes widened. ‘He’s filthy rich and we’ve all been dying to know how he made his money. I suppose that answers the question.’
‘I suppose so.’
Katy moved away, hoping that was the end of it. She hated gossiping about people.
Charlotte was still looking at her in fascination. ‘Did you know him well?’
Katy shook her head and avoided eye contact. ‘Not that well.’
She’d thought that there had been gentleness under the strength but she’d been wrong.
Charlotte gave a wistful sigh. ‘He’s the hospital heartthrob.’
Katy kept her eyes fixed on the intubation tray. Of course he was. Jago Rodriguez was seriously rich, stunningly good-looking and single. A prime target for every woman on the planet.
Except her.
She’d learned her lesson the hard way eleven years ago and she wasn’t that innocent, naïve girl anymore.
Charlotte sighed. ‘Every available woman in the hospital dreams of being the one to tame him and marry him.’
Katy looked up at that, unable to hide her incredulous expression. ‘Marry him?’ Well that showed how well they knew Jago. I don’t do commitment, Katy. ‘If you know him then you’ll know he isn’t the marrying kind.’
Charlotte shrugged. ‘Everyone’s the marrying kind if they meet the right person.’
‘I don’t think so.’ Katy’s voice was soft and thoughtful. ‘I think some people just can’t allow themselves to be that vulnerable.’
And Jago didn’t have a vulnerable part to his make-up.
At one point she’d thought he had. He’d fooled her with a display of gentleness that had turned her insides to jelly but she knew now that that was just part of his superior bedroom technique.
‘You’ve obviously thought about it a lot.’ Charlotte hung the giving set over the stand and looked at her quizzically. ‘But you’re getting married so you must believe in love and commitment.’
Did she?
Katy turned her attention back to the intubation tray, not wanting to shatter Charlotte’s romantic illusions.
She certainly wasn’t in love with Freddie.
And she didn’t feel guilty about it because she knew that Freddie wasn’t in love with her either. He was marrying her because she was the right sort of girl with the right sort of connections and that suited her fine. She didn’t want love.
Her one experience of love had been a shattering, all-consuming experience that had threatened her very existence.
I don’t do commitment, Katy.
‘Not that we hospital staff really get a look in,’ Charlotte said gloomily, tearing off her plastic apron and lobbing it in the bin. ‘He’s dating a stunning Brazilian model at the moment. The real woman type. Legs up to her armpits and boobs to make a man drool. She’s a very lucky woman.’
Katy clenched her fists and told herself firmly that she didn’t care who Jago was dating. It was none of her business.
And she wanted to end the conversation.
‘I’d better get back to the main area and see some more patients,’ she said quickly, anxious to get away from Charlotte. She was nice but she didn’t need to talk about Jago. Working with him and seeing him every day was bad enough without talking about him as well.