‘I’m really sorry about the other day.’ She shrugged when he glanced at her. ‘I shouldn’t have gone off on my own like that. It was a stupid thing to do and you had every right to be angry with me.’
‘What’s done is done and there’s no point harping on about it.’ He glanced at the map she was holding. ‘Where to now?’
‘Left at the end of this road then another left immediately after that.’
She bit her lip when he merely nodded because it was obvious that he didn’t intend to discuss what had happened. As far as he was concerned, he’d dealt with the problem and that was that, but it could never be so cut and dried for her. It wasn’t just that she’d shown such an appalling lack of judgement, it was what had happened afterwards that was so difficult to deal with. No matter what he’d said at the time, there was no escaping the fact that he’d wanted her and it was hard to understand why he’d felt like that after what had gone on five years ago. Was it possible that Adam still had feelings for her?
The thought hummed away at the back of her mind as they completed their journey. Claire came hurrying out to meet them as soon as they drew up in front of the orphanage, smiling broadly when she saw Kasey.
‘Brilliant! I was hoping you’d be able to come. Here, let me take that bag for you.’
‘Thanks.’ Kasey handed her the case of drugs then picked up a box of instruments from the footwell. ‘I wanted to make sure they didn’t get broken on the way,’ she explained, easing herself out of the seat. ‘The roads are so full of potholes that it’s impossible to avoid them.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Claire rolled her eyes. ‘I used a moped to get to the hospital the other day. It was like driving on an assault course, picking my way around all the holes in the tarmac!’
Kasey laughed. ‘I know what you mean. My backside is probably black and blue from being bounced up and down on that seat!’
‘I hope you aren’t casting aspersions on my driving skills,’ Adam interjected as he came to join them. He grinned at her and her heart caught when she saw the warmth in his eyes. ‘I can always make you walk back to the hospital, don’t forget, so be very careful what you say!’
‘You wouldn’t be that cruel,’ she said lightly, struggling to keep a rein on her emotions. It was just a smile after all, nothing to get too excited about and yet it felt like a bright spot at the end of a very dark and lonely tunnel.
‘Mmm, probably not.’
He treated her to another smile before he turned to follow Claire inside, and Kasey could barely contain her delight. The thought that he had softened enough to tease her made her feel like dancing for joy. Her feet barely seemed to touch the ground as she followed them into the building. Claire led them across a large square entrance hall. Although the place was spotlessly clean, it was very spartan: there were no rugs on the bare wooden floor and no pictures on the walls. Claire stopped outside a door on the far side of the hall and turned to them.
‘I’ll introduce you to Sister Beatrice first. She’s in charge of the orphanage. She’s a bit of stickler but don’t let that put you off. She’s delighted that you’ve agreed to help us.’
‘After the introductions are over, maybe we could see Sister Eleanor,’ Adam suggested. ‘I’d like to get that hip sorted out as soon as possible.’
‘Fine.’ Claire tapped on the door and a voice bade them enter. Sister Beatrice was sitting behind an old-fashioned mahogany desk and she stood up when they entered the room. A tall, thin woman dressed in the familiar dark blue dress, she cut an imposing figure.
‘Thank you for coming,’ she said politely, shaking hands. ‘Claire told me that you have agreed to treat Sister Eleanor and take a look at the children.’
‘I only wish we could do more to help,’ Adam said sincerely. ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have enough staff to spend very much time here. What I suggest we do is move anyone who needs specialist treatment to the hospital.’
‘That seems the most sensible course to me.’ She turned to Claire. ‘Perhaps you could go with them, my dear. The children know you so it would be less of an ordeal for them if you were there.’
‘Of course,’ Claire agreed immediately. They exchanged a few more pleasantries before Claire ushered them out. ‘Sister Eleanor is in her room. We didn’t like to move her because she’s in such pain. I’ll take you up to see her now.’
She led them along a series of narrow corridors. They passed what must have been classrooms because Kasey could hear children reciting their multiplication tables. They came to the refectory and Claire paused.
‘I thought this might be a good place to hold your clinic. We can fetch the kids in here and line them up for you.’
Adam nodded as he looked around the room. ‘Looks fine to me. What do you think, Kasey?’
‘Yes. Great.’ She peered into the room, frowning when she saw the stacks of plastic chairs piled up against the walls. ‘How many children are living here at the moment?’
‘Over three hundred, and there’s more being brought in every day.’ Claire sighed when she gasped. ‘It’s far too many for us to cope with but we don’t have a choice, I’m afraid. It was chaos here when the rebel troops rampaged through the town. Whole families were separated so we have no idea how many of the children have lost both their parents.’
‘Surely it will reach a point when you can’t take any more?’ Kasey exclaimed in dismay.
‘We reached that point weeks ago. All I can say is thank heavens the supplies are coming through now, otherwise I don’t know how we would manage to feed all the kids.’
She didn’t add anything else as she led them up the stairs to the second floor but Kasey knew how difficult it must have been for the nuns to look after the children. It simply strengthened her desire to do all she could to help them while they were there. Adam obviously shared her view because he drew her aside while Claire went to tell Sister Eleanor that the doctors would like to examine her.
‘As soon as we get back to base, I’m going to see if I can arrange for more supplies to be flown over here.’
‘Good idea. They obviously need them, especially if there’s going to be an increase in the number of children they’re having to care for.’
‘We’ll sort something out,’ he assured her, then broke off when Claire opened the door and invited them into the room.
Sister Eleanor was lying on her bed and it was immediately apparent that she was in a great deal of pain. Adam introduced himself then examined her, and Kasey could tell it wasn’t good news.
‘I’m afraid the neck of the femur is fractured,’ he explained gently. ‘That’s why you’re suffering so much pain in your hip and groin. I’ll need to operate and either reduce the fracture and pin the bone together, or replace the entire head and neck of the femur with a plastic one. I can’t tell you which method I’ll use until I see what state your bones are in.’
‘It seems a lot of trouble for you to go to, Dr Chandler,’ the elderly nun said worriedly.
‘It’s no trouble at all.’ He patted her hand. ‘We’ll soon have you back on your feet.’
‘I just don’t want to be a nuisance—’ she began.
‘You aren’t,’ he said firmly turning to Kasey. ‘Would you check Sister over while Claire finds me somewhere we can use as a temporary theatre?’
‘Of course.’
Kasey went to the bed after he and Claire left and explained what she was going to do. ‘I’ll be in charge of the anaesthetic when Dr Chandler operates so I need to decide which drugs I should use. I’d like to examine you again if you don’t mind, Sister.’
‘It seems wrong for you to waste your time on me when so many of the children need your help, Dr Harris,’ Sister Eleanor protested weakly.
Kasey shook her head. ‘It isn’t a waste of time because once you are well again, you’ll be able to help look after the children, won’t you?’
That seemed to reassure the elderly woman and she didn’t protest any more when Kase
y took out her stethoscope. She checked Sister Eleanor’s heart, lungs and circulation and wasn’t at all happy with her findings. The nun had a chest infection and that could prove a problem if she was given a general anaesthetic. When Adam came back, she took him outside so she could explain her findings to him.
‘I’m not happy about giving her a general anaesthetic. There’s definite signs of a chest infection and it’s far too risky.’
‘So what do you suggest?’
‘A spinal block. I can keep her just under the surface—not in pain but aware of what’s happening. I’ll also put in a catheter so Claire can top up her pain relief after we’ve left.’
‘Fine. I’m happy to leave it to you.’
‘Thanks. Did you find somewhere suitable to use as a theatre?’
‘Yes. They have a small sick-bay, which will do. It’s light and clean and that’s all we need, basically.’
She grinned. ‘Don’t let your hospital manager back home know you said that or he will start making budget cuts. I remember the fights you had to get decent funding when I worked at St Edward’s.’
‘Don’t remind me!’ He raised his eyes. ‘It felt as though I was beating my head against a brick wall most of the time. And they were such piffling little things I was asking for, too—new scrub suits for the staff, decent drapes, theatres to be cleaned every time they were used and not just once a day. All basic necessities yet you’d have thought I was asking for the moon.’
She chuckled. ‘I know. But you won most of the battles. Not many people were willing to get in your way when you were on the warpath, Adam. You had the staff jumping through hoops to make sure they did what you wanted them to do.’
‘All except you. I don’t remember you jumping through any hoops to please me, Kasey. You stood your ground from the moment we met, as I recall.’
‘Oh, I was quaking in my boots as well even if I didn’t show it,’ she retorted.
‘Really?’ He frowned. ‘I never realised I was such a hard taskmaster.’
‘You’re so completely focused on your job that you probably don’t realise the effect you have on the people around you.’
‘That’s true.’
He took a deep breath yet his voice seemed to grate all of a sudden so that Kasey felt herself tense.
‘I certainly didn’t realise the effect I had on your brother.’
CHAPTER SIX
ADAM watched myriad expressions cross Kasey’s face and wished with all of his heart that he’d never said that.
What was the point of raking it all up again? It wouldn’t change what had happened so why had he felt the need to…to justify himself. Did he really think it would make everything right between them?
‘You mean, it never crossed your mind that telling a young doctor he wasn’t cut out for medicine would have repercussions?’ She laughed scornfully. ‘I find that very hard to believe!’
‘I hoped it would encourage him to get his act together,’ he said gruffly. ‘You don’t have any idea what the background was to that conversation.’
‘I know what Keiran told me—that you did nothing but criticise him from the moment he set foot in your department. You found fault with every single thing he did until you wore him down. That’s why he left medicine and that’s why he ended up making such a mess of his life!’
She swung round before he could reply and marched down the stairs. Adam took a deep breath but it was painful to know that she still blamed him for her brother’s problems. He could tell her the truth, of course, but would she believe him, or would she think he was making it up to try and offset the blame from himself?
It was impossible to decide. He needed to think it all through before he did anything, not least because Kasey would be terribly hurt when she found out what had really gone on. Obviously, Keiran hadn’t told her everything; he’d been highly selective. He hadn’t told her about the number of times he hadn’t shown up for work, or about the times he’d arrived in no fit state to be allowed near the patients.
Adam knew that he’d had to lay down the law to avoid a disaster but explaining that to Kasey was another matter. It was why he hadn’t told her five years ago—the thought of adding to her distress by shattering the image she’d had of her brother had been more than he could bear, and it was no easier now. He decided to wait before he said anything and made his way to the sick-bay. Kasey was already there, getting everything ready, and his heart ached when he saw how strained she looked.
‘The light is better by the window so I’ll move this table over there. It will have to serve as an operating table,’ he told her. He positioned the table close to the window and covered it with a sterile drape from the box of supplies they’d brought with them.
‘Excuse me.’
Kasey stepped around him and placed the drip stand at one end of the table. She hung a bag of saline on it and placed a catheter—still in its pack—on the end of the table. Adam frowned as he watched her fetch the other items she needed—a fine-bore needle, swabs, some antiseptic wipes as well as the drugs she would use.
‘You need something to put your equipment on,’ he decided, looking around.
‘There’s a cabinet in the bathroom,’ she told him shortly, turning towards a door he hadn’t noticed before.
‘I’ll get it,’ he offered immediately, but she ignored him as she went into the bathroom. She reappeared a few seconds later with the cabinet and this time he didn’t make the mistake of trying to help. She didn’t want his help, as she was making it abundantly clear.
The thought was more depressing than it should have been. Adam’s mouth thinned as he went to fetch Sister Eleanor. He couldn’t help wishing that he’d asked Daniel to accompany him to the orphanage. He’d hoped to smooth things over by taking Kasey along on the visit, but it wasn’t working out that way.
So much for hoping to make his peace with her. There was too much back history between them so maybe he should just get everything out into the open—tell her the truth about her brother and be done with it—but it wasn’t going to be easy. No matter what she’d done to him in the past, he didn’t want to hurt her.
The operation to repair Sister Eleanor’s hip went very smoothly, considering the lack of any proper facilities. Adam was able to repair the hip by pinning and plating the neck of the femur together. Kasey had opted for the spinal block—injecting a small amount of the anaesthetic agent into the cerebrospinal fluid in the lumbar spine region.
She chose the site of the injection with care because if it was too high up the respiratory system could be compromised. Because blocking the nerves in any area could result in hypotension—low blood pressure—she monitored the patient very carefully, but there were no problems. Claire had offered to assist them and proved invaluable as she acted as their theatre nurse. Kasey could tell that Adam was pleased as he finished putting in the final suture.
‘Excellent!’ he declared. ‘It couldn’t have gone any better if we’d been in a real theatre.’
‘Just shows what you can do with a bit of imagination,’ Claire said cheerfully, gathering up the instruments they’d used. She took them into the bathroom as Adam turned to Kasey.
‘We may as well leave Sister Eleanor in here. There’s no point trying to move her back to her room when there’s a perfectly good bed available here.’
‘That seems the most sensible option,’ she agreed, doing her best to match his tone. Now that the pressure of the operation was off, she could feel herself getting all steamed up again. Adam’s refusal to accept that he’d treated her brother in a very cavalier fashion had really hurt. She’d hoped that he might have seen the error of his ways by now, but he’d made it clear that he didn’t think he’d been in the wrong. Now all the doubts she’d had about whether he really was to blame had suddenly disappeared.
It was his fault that Keiran had gone off the rails, and his fault, too, that her brother had abandoned his career. If Adam weren’t so full of his own importance, he w
ould have realised the damage he’d caused!
She stood up abruptly, knowing that she couldn’t sit there, bottling up her anger, or she would explode and she didn’t want to have a row with him in public. ‘I’ll have a word with Claire and see if one of the nuns can look after Sister Eleanor while we see to the children.’
‘Good idea. I’ll leave you to sort things out while I get everything set up in the dining room.’ He took his watch out of his pocket and frowned. ‘It’s almost eleven o’clock already and we still have loads to do. I really want to head back before it starts getting dark.’
‘We’d better get a move on, then,’ Kasey said shortly. She went into the bathroom where Claire was washing the instruments they’d used. She glanced round when Kasey appeared.
‘I’ll pack these up ready for you to sterilise them when you get back to the hospital.’
‘Thanks. That would be a help. Adam has suggested that we leave Sister Eleanor in the sick-bay rather than move her back upstairs. Could one of the other nuns sit with her while we take a look at the children, do you think?’
‘Of course. I’ll sort out a rota so there’s someone with her at all times,’ Claire assured her, drying her hands. ‘How is she?’
‘A bit groggy but she should be fine in an hour or so. I’m going to leave the catheter in so you’ll be able to administer pain relief whenever she needs it. It will be far more effective that way so long as you’re happy to take charge of it.’
‘No problem. I did it umpteen times when I was a ward sister.’
‘What made you decide to leave nursing?’ Kasey asked curiously.
‘Oh, a general feeling of disillusionment and a desire to do something positive with my life—the usual story,’ Claire said lightly.
Kasey sensed there was more to the tale but she didn’t press her for any details. Everyone had secrets, herself and Adam included. She sighed because every thought ended up back with him. Drawing that line under the past wasn’t proving an easy thing to do.
Once Sister Eleanor was comfortably settled she headed for the dining room and found that Adam had everything prepared. He’d arranged a table and a couple of chairs on each side of the room for them to work from. He’d also laid out all the usual paraphernalia they would need—stethoscopes and rubber gloves, tongue depressors, etcetera. He looked round when she went into the room.
The Forever Assignment Page 9