It took an effort to push open the door that led to the deck. And when he did step outside, the wind whipped across his face, pushing him violently against the railing.
He had lived by the sea for much of his life. But he had never seen, or heard, a storm like this. The waves were breaking as they did on the shore. There was the hiss of them as they smashed against the side of the ship. And above all the howl of the wind screaming through the ship’s rigging.
He could make out the dancing lights of the fishing boat as it approached the landing platform. The landing platform itself was brightly lit, showing the chaos of waves beating at it. He’d asked Kate to come out in this! Just for a moment he wondered how he would feel if there was an accident. If Kate were injured—drowned even? What would his father say?
Interesting that he thought of his father first.
Then he decided that he was being foolish. Sometimes decisions had to be made. If necessary, he would make them.
He saw the captain approaching him, clutching the railings as he did so. ‘Dr Tremayne? Not expecting to go down onto the platform, are you?’
‘I wondered if I might be of help.’
‘You’d only get in the way. My crew are trained. Leave them to do their job.’
Probably—certainly—true. He’d stay here, where he could do no harm. He noticed the captain did the same.
The fishing boat came alongside the platform, tossed by the waves so that sometimes the two were level and sometimes the boat was a good six feet lower. Ed saw a fisherman on the boat wave to one of the crew waiting on the platform and then throw a bag across. The crewman caught it, ran to take it to safety. The boat sank again below the platform level.
Ed saw two of the crew poised right on the edge of the platform. Each was fitted with a safety line, controlled by another crewman further back. Ed saw the boat rising—and there was Kate, balanced on the edge of the fishingboat deck, a fisherman holding her from behind. A wave swept the fishing boat upwards, Kate jumped. She landed on her knees on the landing platform, where the two crewmen grabbed her.
She was safe. She was half hurried, half dragged back into the ship. The fishing boat stood off at once, with just a wave from the fisherman.
‘A good competent job,’ the captain said to Ed.
Ed wiped his forehead. It was cold out here—but he had been sweating.
A crewman brought Kate up to them, and the captain escorted her inside the ship. Then he said, ‘I’m Captain Smith. Mrs Althorp, welcome aboard. I don’t need to tell you how thankful I am to have you here, I think you know. Anything you need, just ask for. Now I’ll leave you to Dr Tremayne.’
Ed smiled his relief. ‘I’ll keep my distance from you, Kate, just in case, but you don’t know how glad I am to see you. I know it was a lot to ask.’
‘Because of my husband being killed in a storm?’
He had not expected her to be as forthright as this. ‘That’s right. You must have been terrified.’
She shook her head. ‘Not so. This is my way of fighting back.’
‘Good. And you’re not too tired to work?’
Kate looked at him sardonically. ‘Since when did babies come only in the daytime? Midwives are on twenty-four-hour call. Anyway, how are you coping with this outbreak Nick told me about?’
He shrugged. ‘We’re coping. There’s a nurse here.’
‘So I heard. Is one nurse enough? How good is she?’
‘She’s very good. We’ve bonded, we’re a team, she knows what I want before I do.’
He felt Kate look at him again. ‘So quickly,’ she commented casually. ‘What is she like as a person?’
He had wondered about this and then decided that this wasn’t the time or place for any such thoughts. ‘She’s professional,’ he said, ‘which is all I need right now.’
‘Of course,’ Kate said.
CHAPTER FIVE
STILL keeping his distance, Ed took Kate to the medical centre. Then he told her to go inside, introduce herself to Maddy and the mother, and do what was necessary. ‘There’s clean scrubs available, you’ll want to get out of those wet clothes. You’re in charge, Kate. Maddy will give you a buzzer, you can contact me if you need me.’
Kate nodded. ‘I’ll probably need you when we deliver. It might be an idea to have both of you. But before you get inside my delivery room, you make sure you’re clean!’
‘Shower and new scrubs on us both,’ he promised her. Then he set off on his rounds again.
Maddy joined him fifteen minutes later. When he saw her smiling at him he felt his spirits lift. It was good to see her, even though it had only been a couple of hours since he’d seen her last. Why do I feel this way? he wondered. Then he decided it was just a side effect of fatigue.
‘How have you got on with Kate?’ he asked.
‘Wonderfully. She inspires instant confidence, doesn’t she? Are all the members of your practice like that?’
‘Of course. Do I inspire instant confidence?’
She pursed her lips. ‘I’m afraid you do. But I still have to be convinced that it’s genuine medical ability and not just a con trick.’
‘It was a weekend course I went on, just for GPs. How to inspire instant confidence and thus cheer up patients even if they are dangerously ill. Is Kate happy with her patient?’
‘Very happy. And the patient is happy, too. Even Mr Flynn is happy. Kate took him to one side and gave him a short but intense lecture on the duties and functions of a father-to-be in a delivery room.’
‘Kate has her own way of doing things,’ Ed said.
‘I’m glad that she’s come,’ Maddy said after a pause. ‘But if it hadn’t been possible, could we have managed on our own?’
Ed thought for a moment. Then he said, quite honestly, ‘Together we would have been fine. But I’m not sure I could have managed. It’s not something I’d want to do on my own.’
His face went blank and just for a moment Maddy had the impression that some memory had returned to haunt him. And she remembered how earlier he had said that he had lost a baby. But then he smiled and said, ‘Anyway, the problem’s over now. I think we have a good team.’
‘We do,’ Maddy said.
Together they looked in at six patients, had quiet conversations with the stewards. The lull was continuing. But they still had to work and they knew that nearer morning, things would get worse.
‘Aren’t you tired yet?’ she asked him. ‘You only had an hour’s sleep.’
‘It refreshed me. And a situation like this brings its own momentum. It drags you along with it. But how about you? Aren’t you tired? You’ve had no sleep at all.’
‘I’m fine,’ she told him. Then she said something that suggested that she was not as in control as she’d thought. ‘And I really like working with you.’
There was a pause, a long pause. ‘It’s mutual. I really like working with you,’ he said eventually. ‘I think you’re a very fine nurse.’
She thought that she would have liked something a little more personal than that.
But it was a start.
His buzzer sounded. He listened to the message and said, ‘I see. We’ll be right there.’
‘Mr Simmonds,’ he said to Maddy. ‘Remember my father was worried about him? I’ve dropped in to see him a couple of times, he’s not doing too well.’
‘He was one of the first to fall ill. He didn’t send for me like the others. One of the stewards asked me to call round. When I called in he didn’t complain, just said that these things happen, that we had to put up with them.’
‘Hmm. A fatalist. Anything more you know about him?’
‘He kept very much to himself, didn’t look for company. Apparently he booked this trip six months ago with his wife—but she died three months later. He told me that they had planned the trip together so he was going to come on it in memory of her.’
She thought Ed looked uneasy. ‘That seems an odd thing to do to me,’ he said. ‘Howev
er, let’s see how he is.’
They went to the cabin and Maddy knew at once that things weren’t good. Neither the drip nor the drugs had been able to control his fever. His skin was hot and dry, and he was shivering. His temperature was far, far too high, and he was delirious. ‘Biddy,’ he mumbled, ‘is that you, Biddy?’
‘Who’s Biddy?’ Ed asked, though Maddy suspected he knew the answer.
She pointed to a photograph by the head of the bunk. It showed a younger Mr Simmonds and a laughing woman by his side. Looking as if they didn’t have a care in the world. ‘That’s Biddy. She was his wife.’
Ed took up the photograph and stared at it. Then he replaced it, shook his head and when he spoke his voice was unnaturally calm. ‘We’ve done all we can. It’s up to Mr Simmonds now. Do you want to wait with him, make sure he’s comfortable?’
Maddy knew her voice was shrill. ‘What about trying the mammoth injection? Like you did for Mrs Jones? It worked for her. She’s recovering.’
‘It wouldn’t work for this man.’ Ed shook his head. ‘He wouldn’t survive it. Look, I’ll leave you here for a while and check on some of the other patients. When it happens—and it won’t be long—then buzz me.’
And he was gone.
Mr Simmonds died quietly, and Maddy wondered if there was a smile on his face. Certainly he looked at peace. And before she had time to buzz Ed he came back into the room. ‘Mr Simmonds is dead,’ she told him. ‘Just as you said would happen.’ She couldn’t keep a thread of anger out of her voice.
His voice was gentle. ‘I’ve seen a lot of deaths through gastroenteritis,’ he said, ‘which is unusual, I know. In the West it’s usually not a killer, whereas in the developing countries it often is. You learn in time to tell just who will survive and who won’t. It’s a feeling rather than a medical technique.’
‘I thought you didn’t like feelings. But you say that you’ve seen a lot of deaths through this. How many is a lot?’ Her voice was abrupt. For some reason she had to keep pushing him. He had upset her.
He didn’t reply at first, but then he said, ‘A lot is over two hundred deaths in three weeks through gastroenteritis. That’s not counting those who died for other reasons.’
Maddy winced. How could he carry on having seen so many deaths? Perhaps this was the time to back off. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘And, Ed, before, I was a bit…a bit personal. I’m sorry.’
Perhaps there was a touch of humour in his voice. ‘You don’t have to be sorry. I like straight talking. Now I’d better pronounce death. Do we tell the captain now or let him have some sleep?’
‘We ought to tell him, but there’s absolutely nothing he can do. Let him sleep a little longer.’
Ed looked at Mr Simmonds’s still form, looked at Maddy. ‘Are you all right, Maddy?’
‘I’m a nurse, I’ve seen death before. Don’t worry about me, Ed.’ She was glad they were OK again. ‘Now I’ll have to—’
Her buzzer sounded. Kate’s voice said, ‘Things are moving faster than I had expected here. Want to come and lend a hand? And can you get Ed to come, too? Is it possible?’
‘He’s here with me. We’re both on our way.’
‘Make sure you’ve showered, scrubbed yourselves and put on something clean. I like my delivery room sterile.’
‘Right,’ Maddy said.
They left Mr Simmonds’s cabin, locking the door behind them.
Breech births were often faster than normal births, Maddy learned. The ideal position was supported squatting, which made it easier to perform an episiotomy.
The second stage occurred just as it was described in the textbooks. As it was a breech presentation it seemed to be faster than normal. The mother cried out one last time as Kate’s capable hands busied themselves. Then Maddy saw the midwife smile.
‘It’s a little girl!’ And then they heard that first tiny cry.
The parents had opted not to be told the baby’s gender in advance.
Kate wrapped the little pink form in a blanket, clamped then cut the cord. She offered the wailing bundle to Ed so he could give her to her mother, to be put straight on the breast.
Ed shook his head, stepped back and indicated that Maddy should hand over the baby.
Maddy was happy to do it. She thought it was a magical moment when a mother saw her child for the first time. Unlike a lot of medicine, childbirth usually produced a happy ending. And as ever, the mother was overwhelmed, the pain now largely forgotten as the reward was so great.
‘Have you thought of a name yet?’ she asked Mrs Flynn.
She smiled weakly, exhausted but euphoric. ‘No. We were going to wait and see what we got. No good picking a name if you’re not going to use it, is it? But I think I’d like something to do with the sea.’
‘We’ll all have a think,’ Maddy promised with a smile.
There was still the placenta to be delivered, the Apgar score to be recorded and Mrs Flynn checked for excessive bleeding. But although it had been a breech birth it had been largely trouble-free.
‘Think you could have managed it?’ Maddy whispered to Ed as Kate busied herself with her tasks.
‘Not on my own. But I think perhaps that we could have managed it together. Though I think you would have been better at it than me. But in medicine it’s always when you think that you can more or less manage that things go seriously wrong. Like I said, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.’
‘There’s the planning mind again. That’s your slogan, isn’t it? And I suppose it’s quite a good one.’ Maddy looked across the little theatre. ‘Kate, I’ll stay but do you need Ed any more?’
‘No. But, Ed, once you’ve been out in that corridor, exposed to things, just to be on the safe side you’re to keep out of the baby’s ward. From now on it’s an isolation ward. In fact, you keep out too, Maddy. Mother and baby are now my concern, I don’t need you.’
‘Bossy people, midwives,’ Ed said.
They had decided that the mother and baby should be moved from the theatre to one of the small wards. Kate had already prepared it. She had also arranged for food to be delivered, for Mr Flynn to get what was necessary from their cabin and for him to have somewhere to sleep.
‘You go and do the rounds,’ Maddy suggested to Ed. ‘Come back when we’ve got mother and baby settled and we’ll have a drink to celebrate.’
‘Champagne at half past five in the morning?’
‘I thought that tea might be more sensible.’
‘Then I’ll be there.’ Ed went to congratulate the mother again and left the room.
He came back three-quarters of an hour later to join Kate and Maddy. Kate had been given the now absent doctor’s cabin. Mother and baby had been settled next door but an alarm ran from the ward to the cabin.
‘Celebratory tea,’ Maddy offered, ‘and a special meal of chocolate biscuits.’
‘Sounds good.’
‘We’ll have our little party and then Kate can sleep here for a while. Someone dragged her out of bed in the middle of the night.’
‘I’ll just doze,’ Kate said, ‘so I can listen out for my patients.’
Ed accepted a mug of tea and a chocolate biscuit. ‘You didn’t tell my father you were coming out here, did you?’ he asked Kate.
Kate grinned at him. ‘I did not. And you didn’t ask him either, or he’d have been at the harbourside with a few things to say about the idea. He likes to be kept informed, so he’s not going to be very pleased when you tell him.’
‘That’s something I’ll have to deal with. Did you mind coming out here without his permission? Will he be angry at you?’
‘Nick has been angry with me in the past—and I’ve been angry at him,’ Kate said serenely. ‘Somehow we’ve both got over it.’
Maddy couldn’t quite make out the expression in Kate’s eyes when she spoke about Nick. It wasn’t just affection, there was a feeling of…wistfulness? Then she shrugged. It was the middle of the night, and Kate was obviously tire
d.
‘What about a name for baby Flynn?’ she asked. ‘The mother thinks she’d like something to do with the sea.’
‘The obvious one is Marina,’ Kate said promptly. ‘Or there are variations. Maris or Marnie or Rina.’
‘I quite like Marina,’ Maddy said. ‘Are there any other sea-type names?’
‘Dorian means child of the sea.’ Kate was obviously an expert on names.
Maddy winced. ‘You couldn’t send any child out into the world called Dorian Flynn.’
Kate shook her head. ‘Parents can do anything. Thank goodness this was a little girl. If it had been a boy, they might have called him Errol.’
Maddy had seen this happen before after a birth or a successful operation. If the staff had time they would sit together feeling excited, successful. They might have a half-joking conversation, like this, it was all part of sharing. And for the first time in some hours she was feeling relaxed.
‘I want a baby some time,’ she said. ‘There was a time when I thought it was possible, when I could see a future with a husband and a baby, living in a house with a nice garden. I even bought a book of names. I rather fancied calling my daughter Hannah or my son Luke. But it never happened.’
‘Plenty of time yet,’ said Kate. ‘Your chance will come.’
‘Perhaps. Or perhaps I’ll concentrate on my career and finish up the matron of a vast hospital.’
‘Matron? You mean Senior Manager,’ Kate snorted. ‘Whatever that might be.’
Although he was sitting there, a half-smile on his face, Ed wasn’t joining in the conversation. He didn’t share in the excitement, the elation. Perhaps he was tired, Maddy thought. But, then, they were all tired.
Ed’s buzzer sounded. He took the call, and Maddy heard him say, ‘You were right to call me, I’ll be right there.’ He looked at Maddy. ‘Mrs Gillan, cabin D35. The steward says she’s very weak, panicking a little. I’ll go and see how things are.’
‘I’ll come, too,’ Maddy said. ‘And Kate can stay here and doze.’
Brides of Penhally Bay - Vol 2 Page 23