Christmas Under the Northern Lights

by Annie O'Neil

  He was tempted to ask her about it, but thought it would feel too much like trying to even out the ‘bad luck story’ playing field.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket. ‘Sorry.’ He held up the phone. ‘Work.’

  Finlay Anstruther was on the line. The elderly doctor was busy attending an infant with a troubling cough, and he ran him through the facts of a potential emergency and asked if Cooper could attend it.

  ‘Absolutely. We’ll be there in two minutes.’ He hung up the phone. ‘Sorry, we’ve got to go. Suspected heart attack.’

  Audrey was up and out of her seat straight away. They pulled on their jackets, and when Fiona rushed up to see if everything was okay she told them not to worry about the bill—they would sort it out later.

  When they got outside, Cooper ran to the Jeep, grabbed the run-bag and the portable AED, shouldered them, then asked, ‘Are you up for a wee run? Watch yourself—it’s icy.’

  Without waiting for a response, he held out his hand to Audrey and began to jog.

  A couple of minutes later they arrived at a grey stone building down at the far end of the High Street. It had a bright green door and a colourful Christmas wreath hung around the polished brass knocker. Before they could knock, the door was opened by a distraught woman in her fifties.

  ‘Oh, thank God, Cooper. James is in the lounge.’

  Cooper entered, introducing Audrey as he did so. ‘Is he still conscious?’

  ‘Aye,’ she said, leading them down the corridor. ‘He’s barely able to move, though. He’s clutching his chest, complaining of a terrible pain.’

  ‘Have you rung the emergency services, Karen?’

  ‘Aye, but they say the helicopter’s out at one of the other islands and taking him across on the ferry would be—’

  Cooper silently finished the sentence. It would be too late.

  They entered a large, comfortable-looking lounge at the centre of which was a huge Christmas tree that must’ve been almost three metres high. Lying on the floor next to it was a very pale middle-aged man with an impressive pot belly.

  Cooper dropped to his knees and unshouldered the run-bag, aware that Audrey knelt on the opposite side of him, preparing the AED. The fact James was conscious was a sign this might be a false alarm.

  ‘All right, there, James?’

  ‘Been better, Coop. Sorry about your gran.’

  ‘Aye, well...it’s you we’re worried about tonight.’

  ‘Cooper?’ Audrey had opened the run-bag and found some GTN spray as well as aspirin.

  ‘Thanks, Audrey.’ He took the medication, asked James’s wife for a glass of water, then returned his focus to James. ‘Can you tell me how you’re feeling right now?’

  ‘The pain’s not so strong now. It was, though. Thought I was on my way to the pearly gates.’

  ‘Hopefully that’s some time away yet,’ Cooper said, aware that you could never make promises of longevity. He’d called too many times of death in the A&E to think otherwise. ‘Shall we get some of these cushions under you to make you a bit more comfortable. Audrey...?’

  Without being instructed she deftly put a sofa cushion underneath James’s knees and a smaller one under his head.

  ‘Are you taking anything for angina or your heart?’

  ‘No, Coop.’ His eyes flicked to the doorway, where his wife was just returning with the water. ‘It felt like I was being kicked in the chest with a steel-toed boot. I was up there trying to put the star on the tree. I could barely breathe. Even my jaw felt pain. If Karen hadn’t noticed me going white, we could’ve added concussion to the list.’

  ‘So, you’ve been decorating your tree, have you?’

  ‘Aye. Up and down the ladder I don’t know how many times. Karen likes it just so, and you know the saying...’

  Cooper shook his head, heartened that James was able to speak without pausing to get his breath.

  ‘Happy wife...happy life.’

  ‘That’s a good saying, James. So...’ He took a look at the huge tree. ‘How often would you say you do this level of exercise? Going up and down a ladder like that.’

  James huffed out a weak laugh. ‘Once a year.’

  ‘Have you experienced anything like this before?’

  ‘Aye,’ James conceded, and his wife let out a small gasp. ‘Only every now and again, love. Usually when we’re at a ceilidh or some such. Not the best time to cause a fuss, and it always passes.’

  ‘Fair enough, but bear in mind that not saying anything could have some serious consequences.’

  Still in the doorway, Karen asked, ‘Is he having a heart attack? Don’t you need to use the defibrillator or something?’

  Cooper shook his head. ‘I don’t think so, Karen. We only use the AED for two reasons. One is for folk suffering from ventricular fibrillation. If your James was enduring that, he’d not be conscious. The other is ventricular tachycardia. Basically, his heart would be beating too fast to get blood to all the right places.’

  ‘I think he’s saying I wouldn’t be jabbering on like I am, love,’ James said weakly.

  Karen nodded. ‘So...?’

  Cooper looked at his watch. ‘It’s been about twenty minutes since you first experienced the chest pain, yes?’

  James nodded.

  ‘My educated guess is that you’re having a pretty intense angina attack, brought about by physical exertion.’

  Karen gasped. ‘You mean this is my fault?’

  ‘No one’s saying that, but short, sharp bursts of exercise when you’re not accustomed to it can highlight underlying heart trouble.’

  ‘Like a disease?’

  Cooper saw Audrey start to speak, then stop herself. He sat back on his heels and nodded for her to go ahead. She was one half of his team. There was no reason why she shouldn’t explain it.

  The smile he received in return hit him straight in the chest. She showed a level of gratitude for being ‘given the floor’ that didn’t seem right. As if she was used to having her opinion doubted. Crazy, considering she was clearly very good at her job. More so when you took into account the fact she’d worked in one of London’s premier paediatric hospitals.

  He was lucky to have her. Doubly so, considering he’d all but poured out his entire life history to her. Something he hadn’t done with a single one of his girlfriends back in Glasgow.

  The word ‘girlfriend’ got stuck on a loop in his head. He wondered what sort of girlfriend Audrey was. And, more to the point, what sort of boyfriend would’ve let her go. A fool, no doubt. Just as he’d be foolish even to think of going there. She was leaving. And he was— Well, he didn’t know what he was doing, and the last person on earth a heartbroken nurse needed was him.

  ‘Angina isn’t a disease,’ Audrey explained to the married couple. ‘It can definitely feel like a heart attack, but the pain is actually a reaction to a lack of oxygen-rich blood to the heart.’

  ‘Which he had because he was climbing up the ladder?’ asked Karen.

  Audrey nodded. ‘If you’re not used to it, yes. That sort of exertion can provoke an angina attack.’

  ‘How do we stop it? Should he be on bed rest?’

  Audrey shook her head and gave Cooper a quick glance. He nodded that she should carry on.

  ‘It’s best to get a proper diagnosis. We’ll take full notes of what happened tonight and perhaps you should...um... Cooper? What’s the protocol here?’

  ‘You’ll need to make an appointment at one of the hospitals in Glasgow.’

  ‘Can’t you do it?’ Karen begged.

  ‘We can do some of the tests. It’s what they call a lifestyle assessment. Blood pressure, cholesterol levels, your BMI, your waist size...’

  ‘Ach, Cooper, don’t... I know I’ve eaten one or two extra pieces of pie over the years, but I’ve done all right.’
<
br />   Karen sent them imploring looks. ‘This is his favourite time of the year. Could he start a diet after Hogmanay, like everyone else?’

  ‘Sounds like Cooper’s saying I might be heading into the New Year in a coffin if I did that, love.’

  ‘Whoa!’ Cooper waved his hands between them. ‘There’s no need to head in that direction just yet. How about we go the hospital route? Get a series of checks? Maybe do a little Christmas shopping over in Glasgow?’

  ‘What can they do that Dr Anstruther can’t?’ Karen asked suspiciously.

  Cooper tried to hide a hit of frustration. Why were islanders so dubious about mainland hospitals? They did amazing work there. Saved thousands of lives. More.

  Audrey jumped into the silence. ‘An electrocardiogram. A coronary angiography...’ She ticked off a couple more tests that would help them understand what had happened today. ‘Those tests could help save your life.’

  Karen burst into tears. ‘Oh, James. Forgive me. I’ll never ask you to decorate the tree again.’

  Audrey hid a smile and Cooper tried his best to do the same. ‘It’s looking pretty good now,’ he said.

  They wrote down a few notes, then suggested a daily aspirin to create easier blood flow through the heart’s arteries in case they were narrowed.

  ‘Ring straight away if you experience any pain again,’ Cooper told James.

  After a few more assurances they left the house.

  ‘Good work in there,’ Cooper said.

  ‘Just doing my job,’ Audrey said, but he could see the compliment had hit its mark. She began to hum a little tune.

  ‘Hey. Is that a Christmas carol you’re humming?’

  She stopped instantly. ‘Oh, my gosh. It is.’

  ‘That’s not a bad thing, you know. As they say, ’tis the season.’

  She pulled a face. ‘For most people. Not so much for me.’

  Cooper took a risk. ‘Does this have anything to do with the heartbreak you told Cayley you were busy healing?’

  Audrey winced. ‘She told you that?’

  ‘Sorry. Doctor-patient confidentiality doesn’t seem to work the other way around. At least not when you need it to. Want to talk about it?’

  Audrey waited until Cooper had opened up the back of the Jeep and swung the run-bag in to answer. ‘Maybe...’

  He gave her a nod. ‘Zip up that warm coat of yours. I know the perfect place for a confidential talk. Jump in.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘WHERE ARE YOU taking me?’ Audrey wasn’t nervous exactly, but... Okay, maybe a little.

  ‘Here,’ Cooper said, pulling off the coastal route to a viewing point at the north end of the island. He parked the vehicle so that it faced the sea.

  ‘Dark out tonight,’ Audrey said, looking for the moon and finding only the tiniest of slivers.

  ‘Perfect.’

  ‘For what?’ She poked Cooper in the arm. ‘What’s with the aura of mystery?’

  ‘You’ll see.’ Cooper smiled, undid his seatbelt and leant on the steering wheel to peer up at the sky. ‘No light pollution up here. I imagine it’s all Christmas lights and dazzle down in London.’

  Audrey’s nerve-endings crackled. ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘Ex-boyfriend in London, too?’ Cooper asked.

  His eyes were still on the sky which, now that she looked, Audrey could see was alight with stars. The incredible beauty of it took the edge off admitting, ‘Ex-fiancé.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘I found him rocking an elf by the Christmas tree after a Christmas party hop.’

  He gave her a rueful smile. ‘That explains why you weren’t keen to wear the elf costume.’

  ‘Yup!’

  She dug into her coat pockets and pulled out her gloves. As she worked each finger into place, she told him the rest. They’d been due to be married on Christmas Eve. She’d been stupid enough to insist upon paying for the wedding. Now she was jobless, and homeless—apart from this locum post and a room in his gran’s house for the duration!

  ‘You lived together?’ he asked.

  She nodded. ‘I’d just sold my parents’ house. Well...my house after my dad passed. Someone else’s house now. I’d moved in with Rafael two weeks earlier.’

  For the first time she felt a proper burst of anger.

  ‘He didn’t even let me unpack my personal knick-knacks. Said the flat was fine as it was. What kind of person does that? And what kind of idiot doesn’t take it as a massive warning sign that things aren’t going well? Maybe I knew all along. Maybe I wasn’t unpacking things because there was a part of me that knew none of it was meant to be. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it. You haven’t exactly changed your grandmother’s place around...’

  Cooper gave her a soft smile. ‘I’m not changing my grandmother’s place because I want to preserve what I can’t have any more.’

  Audrey’s breath caught and constricted in her throat. ‘Do you think that’s what Rafael was doing? Preserving what he thought he couldn’t have any more?’

  Cooper shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t presume to guess, but the fact he cheated so quickly does suggest his heart wasn’t in it.’

  ‘But he’s the one who proposed! We’d only been dating for three months!’ Audrey yanked her voice down from screeching fury to simmering rage. ‘He’s the one who wined and dined me. The one who convinced me to leave my job and work in paediatrics. I couldn’t really believe any of it was happening, to be perfectly honest. It felt...surreal.’

  When what it should have felt like was a dream come true.

  ‘So...’ Cooper turned to face her, his expression not filled with pity, as she’d feared, more with empathy. ‘Does that mean somewhere in your heart you knew it wasn’t right?’

  ‘No!’ Audrey spat, and then, as if she was a newly filled balloon someone had forgotten to tie off, she deflated against the car seat. ‘Yes. Maybe... I don’t know. He was so different from the men I normally dated. Not that there were dozens of them or anything.’

  ‘Different in what way?’

  ‘Dashing. Rich. Famous.’

  ‘A surgeon?’

  ‘Yes.’ She said his surname.

  Cooper let out a low whistle.

  ‘See? I told you.’

  ‘Well...’ Cooper looked back out to the stars. ‘I don’t know if this is going to make you feel any better, but the words you use to describe him aren’t the words I would use.’

  ‘Why? What would you use?’

  ‘Arrogant. Opportunist. Lothario.’ He took a breath and held it for a moment, as if debating whether or not to say the final part. ‘In search of a British passport.’

  Audrey’s blood ran cold. ‘What?’

  ‘Look...’ Cooper put up his hands. ‘I don’t know the guy from Adam, but I do know his reputation. We get patients who demand the best, and from what I hear your man there is an incredible heart surgeon. But he also breaks hearts.’

  ‘Well, yeah. Obviously,’ Audrey huffed.

  ‘I’m talking about back in Argentina.’

  ‘How do you know anything about Argentinian heart surgeons?’

  He looked out to the sky again, grabbed a cloth from the car door pocket and rubbed the windscreen clear. ‘Six degrees of separation, I guess.’

  ‘What?’ Now Audrey was getting properly confused.

  ‘I went to a conference on emergency medicine a few months back.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘In Argentina.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Your man—’

  ‘He’s not my man,’ she snapped.

  ‘Right you are. Apologies. Mr de Leon was there and, as such, so was the rumour mill. I didn’t pay any attention to it at the time because, as you know, I know how harmful gossip can be.’

  ‘What was it?’ />
  ‘You’re sure you want to know?’

  ‘If it will help me understand why he did what he did, then go for it. Tell me everything.’

  Cooper nodded. ‘Over there he worked at the country’s most exclusive hospital. His patients were politicians, film stars, Argentina’s equivalent of royalty.’

  ‘He’s not up for malpractice, is he?’

  ‘No,’ Cooper said, and then quickly explained. ‘He didn’t only have access to his patients, according to those who worked with him. It seems he also had regular access to wives while their husbands were recovering in hospital. One of those wives turned out to be married to someone pretty high up in the government. A man who could make a medical licence disappear if he wanted to.’

  Each of Cooper’s words was like a little dagger in her heart. She had been conned.

  She barely recognised her own voice as she asked, ‘So he came to the UK to get citizenship in case his world crashed over there?’

  ‘Looks like it. He definitely didn’t lose his licence, because the UK is strict on that. But his reputation with women isn’t nearly as golden as his surgical reputation. I know it’s painful, but I hope it makes what he did seem less personal.’

  It made her feel like a proper idiot—that was what it did. ‘You must think I am the most naïve person to walk the earth.’

  ‘Not at all,’ Cooper said, with an intensity that made her look up and meet his eyes. ‘You were conned by an expert.’

  ‘It just feels so...’ she sought the right word and could only come up with ‘...icky.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘How?’ Audrey barked a mirthless laugh. ‘How on earth can you know?’

  He pulled off his woollen hat and gave his head a scrub before tugging it back on. ‘I suppose because I’ve been a bit of a conman myself.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘I told my grandmother that I’d be back to see her countless times. That I loved her.’