The Spanish Consultant (Westerling)

‘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?