by Kate Hardy
‘My name’s Sam Price, and I’m an emergency doctor from England. It sounds as if you have a passenger who’s having an asthma attack and doesn’t have an inhaler. Can I help?’ he asked.
‘There’s another doctor gone to see him already, if you want to join her,’ the guide said. ‘You’ll see her on the deck below. She’s wearing a yellow raincoat.’
‘OK. Thanks. Has anyone come up with an inhaler?’
‘Not yet, but I’m going to put another call out,’ she said.
Asthma attacks could be tricky. If nothing else, Sam thought, he could help calm down whoever was with the patient, so the other doctor could get on with treating the patient. He headed down to the next deck, and saw a woman wearing a yellow raincoat. She was talking to a man who was clearly panicking and wheezing, and the woman with them was wringing her hands and looking equally panicky.
‘Hello. I’m Sam Price, and I’m an emergency doctor,’ he said as he joined them. ‘Can I help?’
‘Hayley Clark—also an emergency doctor, from London,’ the woman in the yellow raincoat said.
He noticed how blue her eyes were—like an Icelandic summer sky—and her sun-streaked blonde hair was caught back at the nape of her neck, with soft tendrils framing a perfect oval face.
What the hell was he doing, noticing the colour of her eyes when there was a sick patient who needed their attention? Besides, even if he was looking for a relationship—which he wasn’t, after Lynda—she was probably already spoken for. Cross with himself for getting distracted, he paid attention to what she was saying.
‘This is Milton Adams and his wife Lulu,’ Hayley continued. ‘He doesn’t have his reliever or preventer inhaler with him, and we think the cold air probably brought on his asthma attack. He doesn’t have any other medical conditions.’
‘The guide’s putting out a second call to see if anyone on board has an inhaler with them,’ Sam said. ‘But even if there isn’t anyone, we can help you, Mr Adams.’
The man continued to wheeze, fighting for air, clearly panicked by the tightness in his chest.
Really, they needed to get him away from the cold air that had triggered the attack and into a warm place. But, given the state of his breathing right now and the fact that he was quite overweight, no way would Mr Adams be able to cope with the steep stairs to go back inside the ship. First, Sam thought, they needed to get Mr Adams stabilised so he was calm, and breathing more slowly. Anxiety released cortisol in the body, constricting the bronchial tubes even further, and panicking that you couldn’t breathe caused a vicious circle: it tightened the chest muscles, which made it harder to breathe, which in turn made the patient panic more and then the chest muscles tightened even further.
‘Mr Adams, can you sit up straight for us?’ Sam asked. ‘It’ll help you breathe more easily, because bending over constricts your breathing.’
Milton Adams continued gasping, but to Sam’s relief, he did as he was told.
‘I’m going to loosen your tie and undo the button of your collar,’ Hayley said, ‘because that’s also going to help you breathe more easily. Is that all right?’
The man nodded.
‘I told him he ought to bring his inhaler. I told him,’ Mrs Adams said, almost in tears.
Hayley reached over and squeezed her hand. ‘Mrs Adams—can we call you Lulu?’ At the woman’s nod, she continued, ‘I know how worried you are about your husband, but right now I really need you to do an important job for me and count. Can you do that for me?’
‘Yes,’ Mrs Adams said, her voice slightly quavery.
Brilliant management, Sam thought—she’d acknowledged the woman’s fears and distracted her by making her feel useful. What Hayley had just said about counting told him that she’d intended to use the same method he would’ve used.
‘Mr Adams—can we call you Milton?’ At the man’s nod, Sam continued, ‘We want you to try to take some really long, deep breaths for us. I know right now it’s scary, but I promise we can make you feel better. I want you to breathe in through your nose for a count of four and out through your mouth for a count of six. Can you do that for us?’
Mr Adams nodded, still fighting for breath.
‘Can you count for us now, Lulu?’ Hayley asked. ‘Four in, then six out. Count with me for the first set so we can get the rhythm right together. One, two, three, four...’
Mrs Adams joined in with counting.
Sam took the older man’s hand to reassure him. ‘OK. Breathe in—now out.’ Breathing to the counts would slow Milton’s breathing down, making it easier for him.
‘Purse your lips as you breathe out, Milton,’ Hayley said. ‘That helps to slow your breathing and keeps your airways open. That’s it. Keep going. You’re both doing really great.’
Mr Adams was still wheezing, but his colour was improving. ‘Can you place one hand on your stomach, Milton, just below your ribcage?’ Sam asked. ‘Then, when you breathe in, focus on pulling down into your stomach. Use your stomach muscles to help you push out,’ he said. ‘It’s called diaphragmatic breathing and it will really help you take deep, slow breaths.’
Eventually, Mr Adams’s breathing pattern settled and he seemed noticeably calmer.
Sam caught Hayley’s eye. ‘Shall we all go downstairs, so we’re away from the cold air?’
She nodded. ‘And we can ask the crew if they’ll sort out a bowl of hot water and lend us a towel.’
‘Good call,’ he said. They could make a tent with the towel and the bowl of hot water, and then Milton Adams could breathe in the moist air to help him recover.
Everyone else on board was on the upper decks by the railings, watching what sounded like a couple of whales playing in the water, so it made their passage down the stairs a bit easier—even if they were missing out on all the fun. They supported Milton Adams down the steep staircase to the inner deck, but he was wheezing badly again by the time they’d got him sitting down by a table.
‘Could you get your husband a cup of coffee from the bar, please?’ Hayley asked Mrs Adams.
‘He doesn’t like coffee,’ Mrs Adams said. ‘Or tea. Only hot chocolate.’
‘Maybe make the coffee milky and sweet?’ Hayley suggested. ‘The chemical structure of coffee is similar to theophylline, which is in most asthma medications, so a hot cup of coffee can help with wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness. Plus the warmth of the liquid will help break up the phlegm and mucus, making breathing easier.’
‘I’ll drink the coffee,’ Mr Adams wheezed.
‘Great. Are you OK to sit with Milton while I sort out a towel and hot water?’ Hayley asked Sam.
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘What I’d like you to do, Milton, is to sit up straight for me again, and count the number of blue things in the room.’
‘Blue things?’ Mr Adams looked nonplussed.
‘Blue things,’ Sam confirmed. ‘Count them, and keep breathing like we did upstairs. I’ll count while you breathe. In for four, out for six.’
As he’d hoped, the small task of looking round the room for blue things distracted the older man enough to help calm him further, and by the time Mr Adams had drunk the coffee and Sam and Hayley had arranged the bowl of hot water and towel as a temporary recovery tent so he could breathe in warm, moist air, he was looking in a much better condition.
When the boat arrived back at the dock, they were met by an ambulance. The guide came to join them as Sam and Hayley explained the situation to the paramedics.
‘Thank you both so much for all your help.’ Mrs Adams bit her lip. ‘And you missed most of the trip and the whales because of us. I feel so bad.’
‘We can arrange a replacement trip at no charge,’ the guide said. ‘And I’d like to thank you both, too. We have trained first aiders among the crew, of course, but we really needed a do
ctor to help us in this case.’
‘No problem,’ Hayley said.
‘Call into the office whenever suits you best,’ the guide said, ‘and we’ll rearrange your trip.’
‘I ought to give you something for helping us,’ Mrs Adams said.
‘There’s really no need,’ Sam said. ‘It’s what doctors are supposed to do—help people who need it.’
‘Agreed. Though if you really want to give us something,’ Hayley added, ‘then I’d like you to promise you’ll talk to your asthma specialist about what happened today, Milton, and that you’ll take your preventer inhaler regularly—even if you don’t think you need it, because taking it regularly is what helps to keep you well.’
Milton looked slightly shame-faced. ‘I will.’
‘Good.’ Hayley patted his shoulder. ‘Best of luck, and enjoy the rest of your holiday.’
‘You, too.’
When the ambulance doors closed and the Adamses were taken to hospital, Sam looked at Hayley. ‘Would you like to go for a coffee? Or do you need to get back to whoever you’re travelling with?’
‘I’m on my own,’ she said. ‘So a coffee would be lovely—unless you need to get back to your travelling companions?’
‘I’m on my own, too,’ he said. ‘Do you want to rebook your whale-watching trip first?’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘I saw one come up out of the water and dive back in. Expecting anything more’s probably greedy. Though if you want to rebook yours...?’
He smiled. ‘I’m greedy enough as it is. I go every week.’
‘Every week?’ She looked surprised. ‘Do you work at a hospital here, then?’
‘No. I’m kind of on sabbatical,’ he said. ‘My brother has a tour company out here, specialising in extreme trips—taking people walking on a glacier and that sort of thing. I’ve been helping him. But I go whale-watching every Monday afternoon. It’s the most amazing experience.’
She nodded. ‘It’s something Dani and I always wanted to see.’
‘Danny?’ Well, of course someone as pretty as Hayley Clark would be spoken for.
‘Danielle. My best friend,’ she explained.
How ridiculous that he should feel pleased that Dani was her best friend, not a partner. He was in no position to even think about starting a relationship, not with his new job starting in a fortnight.
Yet something about Hayley Clark tempted him.
Which was weird, because he’d had tourists throwing themselves at him all summer and not one of them had interested him.
What was it about her?
‘She fractured her second and third metatarsal last week, so the orthopods said she couldn’t come,’ Hayley continued.
He’d come across those kinds of fractures before. ‘Your friend’s a runner, then?’
Hayley nodded. ‘She was training for a charity run. Obviously she can’t do that now, so we talked the organisers into letting me run in her place.’
‘You’re a runner, too?’
She grimaced. ‘No. Actually, I loathe running. But the only way to keep her sponsorship money is if I run for her.’
‘That’s good of you.’
‘She’s my best friend, and she’s been through a lot. And doing that for her helps me feel less guilty about coming here while she’s missing out.’ Hayley wrinkled her nose. ‘Though I’m pretty sure she could’ve done the whale-watching—and if we’d asked at the tourist place, they could’ve found us some wheelchair-accessible trips.’
‘But you would both have missed out on a lot. Not all the paths around the waterfalls and the geysers are wheelchair-friendly,’ he said, ‘and some of the slopes would make it seriously tricky going downhill.’
‘That’s what Dani said.’
He should shut up right now. What he ought to do was to suggest a couple of reliable tour operators and let her find her own way round the island. But the pull he felt towards her was too strong, and he found himself asking, ‘How long are you staying?’
‘Until Friday.’
Shut up, shut up, shut up.
But his mouth wasn’t listening to his common sense. ‘Then why don’t you rebook your whale trip for tomorrow morning?’ he suggested. ‘And if you like, I’ll take you on a personalised tour.’
She blinked. ‘But aren’t you helping your brother?’
It was the perfect get-out. He knew he ought to take it. But his mouth was on a roll. ‘He’s had a couple of cancellations,’ Sam said, ‘so I wasn’t doing much this week. I’m free if you’d like to come with me.’
* * *
Hayley could practically hear Dani yelling in her ear, ‘Say yes! It’s the Year of Saying Yes.’
But Sam Price was a total stranger.
Even if he was a doctor and they’d just worked together to help a patient.
And, with that dark hair brushed back from his face and soulful hazel eyes, he was also the most attractive man she’d met since Evan, the first who’d even made her look at him, which made her feel guilty. It was only just over a year since Evan had died. Was she rushing into this?
She ought to be cautious. She was in a country where she didn’t speak the language; even though everyone in Iceland spoke perfect English, this still wasn’t England. She was a three-and-a-half-hour flight away from home. The sensible thing to do would be to say no.
But this was the Year of Saying Yes.
And maybe putting caution aside was something she needed to do for once. To help her move on.
‘Yes,’ she said.
CHAPTER TWO
THEY REBOOKED THE whale-watching tour for the following morning, then headed to a café in the centre of the city.
‘I love the ambience here,’ Hayley said when they were settled at a table.
‘Reykjavik lives up to your expectations, then?’ Sam asked.
‘Very much,’ she said. ‘I had a walk round yesterday evening when I got here. I really want to explore that amazing-looking church—I’ve never seen a spire like that, kind of spreading out like wings.’
‘The Hallgrímskirkja,’ he said. ‘It’s meant to resemble the volcanic basalt flows—and actually there are a couple of caves by one of the beaches that have columns looking very much like that.’
‘That’s amazing.’
‘The inside of the church is actually very plain,’ he said, ‘as it’s a Lutheran church—the simplicity is lovely, though. And the views from the tower are amazing.’ He paused. ‘We could go and take a look after we’ve had coffee, if you like.’
‘I’d like that very much,’ she said, ‘if you have time.’ She looked him straight in the eye. ‘And if your partner won’t mind.’
‘No partner,’ he said. Lynda had broken their engagement the week after he’d been suspended, and he hadn’t been tempted to date anyone since. It was going to take him a while to trust again. And he wasn’t actually dating Hayley, even if he did feel a strong pull of attraction towards her.
Though he needed to be clear that she wasn’t involved with anyone, either. The lack of a ring on her left hand meant absolutely nothing, nowadays. ‘I take it that it’s the same for you?’
She nodded. ‘No partner.’
This felt like another step towards dating. But it wasn’t, he reminded himself. No commitments and no promises. They were just doing some sightseeing together, that was all.
She took a deep breath. ‘I’m not looking for pity or anything like that, but I should probably tell you that he died just over a year ago.’
So she was still grieving?
If so, that made her safe, because it meant she wouldn’t be looking for a proper relationship.
But to lose her partner... He judged her to be around his own age, early to mid thirties, so it must’v
e been either an accident or a seriously aggressive form of cancer that had killed her partner; either way, she’d clearly been through a lot. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘That must’ve been hard for you.’
She nodded. ‘He was killed in an industrial accident. I’m just glad I’d kissed him goodbye that morning and my last words to him were “I love you”—I think if our last words had been something awful said in the middle of a row, it would’ve been harder to deal with.’
‘Yes.’ And Sam knew that one from experience. The morning when his career had imploded, he’d had a fight with his fiancée on the way to work. Lynda had wanted him to give up his mountain rescue work in favour of something that would boost his career at the hospital. Something on a dull committee. He’d refused.
But he should have taken notice of the way she’d been behaving towards him, that last year. Then he would’ve expected Lynda’s reaction to his suspension, a few days later, instead of being shocked to the core by it.
‘So how long have you been in Reykjavik?’ she asked.
‘Since the end of March,’ he said.
She raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s quite a career change, from working in emergency medicine to being a tour guide.’
‘Yeah.’ Sam knew he was lucky. His family had believed in him. His older brother Martin had dragged him out to Iceland, saying that the job was only temporary, but he really needed the help—and someone who had mountain rescue team experience was the perfect person to come and help with glacier walking tours.
Sam knew that Martin hadn’t needed the help at all—he just hadn’t wanted Sam to sit at home alone and brood about the situation. And Sam would be grateful for ever to his brother for giving him something else to concentrate on, without expecting him to talk about the situation or his feelings.
Hayley winced at his flat tone. ‘Sorry, that was really intrusive—you don’t owe me any explanations. Please forget I said anything.’
‘It’s OK. It was a mix of a rough patch at work and a messy break-up.’ Short and to the point. Hayley didn’t need to know his team had been suspended after a diabetic patient’s death from a silent heart attack. He’d been sure that they’d followed all the right procedures during his admission and treatment, but the patient’s family had needed someone to blame for a death that shouldn’t have happened and they’d made a complaint. The hospital trust had been duty-bound to take the complaint seriously and launch an investigation.