He looked her over fleetingly, and she was suddenly conscious of the flimsy summer dress she was wearing, a sunny yellow cotton creation, splashed here and there with a pattern of tiny pale flowers. The bodice clung to her curves and emphasised her slender waist, leaving her shoulders bare except for two narrow straps, and the skirt draped itself around her legs, falling in gentle folds to her knees.
His glance flicked to the shimmering cloud of wayward curls that tumbled around her face and lightly brushed her shoulders. Abby’s cheeks flushed with hot colour. She must look like a dishevelled tourist when, more than anything else, she needed to appear calm and professional.
‘I…I’m Abby Curtis,’ she explained awkwardly. ‘Dr Curtis. I’m the one who treated him at the beach.’ Hesitantly, she added, ‘He was suffering from a tension pneumothorax and I had to act quickly. I’m…I’m just afraid I may have pushed the drain in a little too far.’
His blue-grey eyes widened a fraction and held her gaze for a second or two. ‘Abby Curtis,’ he echoed thoughtfully, adding in an enquiring undertone, ‘So…are you the one who’s about to become a new member of my team?’
Abby nodded in response. ‘That’s right. I am.’
His mouth made a faint, ironic twist. ‘And you think you could be responsible for the fact that our patient is bleeding to death? That’s quite an afternoon’s work, Dr Curtis.’
He paused momentarily, then flicked a glance at Kieran, adding, ‘I believe my patient needs me right now. As I said, perhaps you had better take some time out while we take a look at him and see what needs to be done. You’ve done your bit, and from the looks of him it will take some time to put right whatever has gone wrong. I need to find out what exactly is causing the bleeding, and I suggest that you leave me to get on with it.’
Abby felt the colour drain from her face. She was sure her mouth must have dropped open at his words, and her only consolation was that at least he was no longer there to witness her humiliation. He was striding purposefully across the room towards a treatment bay and she was left standing there, suffering from an acute attack of dismay.
One of the male doctors on his team threw her a quick glance and winced in sympathy, before turning to the patient.
Slowly, Abby pulled herself together. What was it that she had expected from the consultant—a few words of comfort, perhaps, for him to say that Kieran was safe now that they had him in hospital? And maybe an explanation of how these things came about and what could be done to avoid them happening again? A teaching insight, maybe…was that what she had been hoping for, among other things? After all, she was due to start her posting at this hospital tomorrow, under Mr Blakesley’s guidance, and surely, at the least, she could have looked forward to some measure of support from him.
It didn’t seem as though she was going to get any of that, though, did it? Unhappily, she absorbed that fact, and then slowly stiffened her back, cementing her resolve. She had acted in good faith when she had gone to help Kieran, had done everything she could to keep him alive. No one, not even the all-powerful consultant, Mr Blakesley, was going to put her down for long. She was here to learn, and she would do everything in her power to become a good doctor, in spite of his abrupt dismissal of her.
For the time being, she went to find Vicky in the waiting room.
‘Is there any news?’ Vicky asked, but Abby shook her head.
‘Not yet, I’m afraid. It will take a while. They’ll do scans to find out the extent of his injuries, and then the surgeon will most likely take over. I’m sure Mr Blakesley will do everything for him that can be done—he’s a very-well respected consultant.’
No matter what her immediate opinion of him was, she had to give him that. Abby had heard about Jordan Blakesley from a number of different sources, and though his manner might leave something to be desired, they had all spoken well of his medical expertise. That was why she had applied for this new posting.
In truth, she had ignored the fact that some people commented that he sometimes had an abrasive manner and that he could be difficult at times, because she had imagined that was just hearsay. She wanted to learn alongside the very best, and she was prepared to accept a few foibles.
She had interpreted their comments to mean that he probably didn’t suffer fools gladly, but she certainly hadn’t imagined that she might find herself in that awkward position from the outset. It was only now that she was beginning to have doubts about the wisdom of her choice.
Eventually a nurse came to tell them about Kieran’s condition. She spoke gently to Vicky, telling her that she could go and see him in the intensive care unit.
Abby didn’t want to intrude on their privacy. Instead, she decided to go and get herself a cup of coffee from the machine in the corridor. Perhaps she would get to hear what had happened to him if she hung around for a bit longer.
What she wasn’t expecting was that Jordan Blakesley would come along and find her burning her fingers on the hot coffee that spilled as she lifted the plastic cup. She licked her fingers to help ease the sting and immediately felt embarrassed to be caught that way.
‘So you’re still here, Dr Curtis,’ he murmured. ‘Worried about what you might have done to that young man, are you?’
Her green eyes sparked fitfully and then narrowed on him. ‘Of course I’m concerned about how he is. Isn’t that only natural?’ There was a hint of tension in her voice as she went on, ‘I did what I could for him. I did my best, but if I made a mistake, I feel really badly about that.’
‘Do you? And have you been waiting here, all this time, going over everything that might have gone wrong?’
Abby bit her lip and put her coffee cup down. ‘I don’t know why you’re giving me such a hard time over this,’ she said, her chin lifting. ‘I was looking for support from you, since you’re about to become my mentor. I hadn’t bargained for outright condemnation.’
He lifted a dark brow. ‘You think I was harsh in my judgement of you?’
She had probably already burned her boats, so she went for the truth. ‘I do.’
His mouth quirked momentarily, and she thought she saw a glint of humour in his eyes, but it passed so suddenly that she decided she must have imagined it. ‘Well, at least you speak your mind,’ he said abruptly, frowning at her. ‘That’s something, I suppose.’
Had she gone too far? Doubts suddenly crowded in on her. ‘I’ve not had a lot of experience in emergency medicine,’ she said, backing down a little. ‘And some of what I did was what I had only learned in theory. I didn’t know that I would be thrown into things at the deep end, so to speak. I was rather hoping that my next few months as a senior house officer would help me to improve my skills. ‘
‘Being thrown in at the deep end is what happens in A and E,’ he remarked brusquely. ‘None of us can know every type of incident that will come our way, but we have to learn how to deal with it.’ He sent her a hard blue stare. ‘If you’re going to be part of my team, you’re going to have to learn to be a lot more confident about the decisions you make, and not be forever looking back on yourself to see where you went wrong.’
‘I realise that…I thought—I hoped that would come with time.’
‘I hope so, too, Dr Curtis. For all our sakes.’ His glance seared her. ‘In fact, you should know that you saved the man’s life. His injuries caused a haemothorax, which led to him losing a lot of blood, and you did what you could to compensate for that. The surgeon has dealt with the tear and managed to stem the bleeding. He’ll be all right.’
A surge of relief flooded through her. ‘Oh, I’m so glad about that.’
‘Of course. We all are.’ His glance ran fleetingly over her, making her conscious all over again of her beach clothes.