‘Will it be open on a Sunday?’
‘The cruise ships all offer day trips to Olympia from there. Like most places that cater for tourists, everything will be open. Once I’ve been jagged to your satisfaction I’ll make sure they exchange it for something better.’
‘I’m perfectly able to manage to sort it out myself.’ Did all Greek men think women were helpless?
He drew back a little, holding up his hands. ‘Hey. You’re helping me. And it’s not far from where we’re going.’
She was instantly ashamed of herself. He’d done nothing to warrant her snapping at him. It was hardly his fault that he made her feel like a schoolgirl with her first crush.
‘I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m a bit hot.’ She sought a better reason to excuse her behaviour, but apart from telling him that he found his company unsettling she couldn’t think of one. ‘In the meantime, I still have to change the wheel.’ She picked up a rock and hit the wrench. Nothing. No movement. Not even a centimetre.
He crouched down next to her, the muscles of his thighs straining against the material of his trousers. ‘Let me do it.’
‘I can manage. At least I would if the things weren’t stuck.’
He took the wrench from her. ‘It just needs a little strength.’
‘You shouldn’t. Not with your hand recently sutured.’
He ignored her and within moments the nuts were off the wheel. He took the flat tyre off and silently she passed him the spare.
‘I probably loosened them.’ He looked up at her and grinned. ‘I’m sure you did.’ He lifted the new wheel into position and replaced the bolts.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I can take it from here.’
He stood back and watched as she lowered the car to the ground.
‘I’ll just tighten the bolts again,’ he said, ‘then we’ll be good to go. Would you like me to drive?’
‘No, thank you.’
* * *
Despite the open windows the car was hot; unsurprisingly, the air-conditioning didn’t work either. Katherine gripped the steering-wheel, trying not to flinch whenever a car overtook her, the vehicle often swerving back in just in time to avoid being smashed into by another coming in the opposite direction. Perhaps she should have taken Alexander up on his offer to drive? But if he drove the same way as his countrymen did, being a passenger would be ten times worse. She preferred being in control.
Eventually the countryside gave way to denser traffic and by the time Alexander directed her to a parking spot in front of the surgery she was a nervous wreck, her hands were damp and she knew her hair was plastered to her scalp. She was beginning to appreciate why the car the company had given her was badly dented.
He looked relieved as he undid his seat belt. ‘This won’t take long but why don’t you go for a walk while you’re waiting?’
‘If you’re going to be quick I might as well come in with you.’ She was curious to see how the medical services in Greece worked.
While Alexander greeted the receptionist, Katherine took a seat in the small waiting room next to an elderly woman with a bandage on her knee and clutching a walking stick. Alexander turned to her and said something in Greek that made her laugh.
‘Mrs Kalfas is waiting for her husband to collect her,’ he explained to Katherine, ‘so I can go straight in. I won’t be long.’
A few moments after Alexander disappeared from sight, a man in his early to mid-twenties, staggered in and, after saying a few words to the receptionist, almost fell into one of the empty chairs. He was good-looking with dark curly hair, a full mouth and olive skin, but his jeans and checked shirt were stained and crumpled as if he’d picked them up off the bedroom floor, too ill to care. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes, when he managed to open them briefly, glittered with fever. Perhaps she should have gone for that walk. All doctors knew that hospitals and GP waiting rooms were bad news for the healthy.
Mrs Kalfas tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he appeared to have little interest in whatever she was saying. Warning bells started to clamour in Katherine’s head as she studied him covertly from under her eyelids. Now she wondered if his eyes were closed because the light was annoying him—and the way he kept pressing his hand to the back of his neck as if it were sore alarmed her too. He really didn’t look well at all. The receptionist should have let the doctors know that he was here.
Katherine was about to suggest it when he gave a loud moan and slid to the floor. Instantly she was on her feet and, crouching by his side, feeling for his pulse. It was there but weak and rapid. She glanced around but annoyingly there was no sign of the receptionist. Mrs Kalfas was staring, horrified.
‘I need some help here,’ Katherine called out. ‘Alexander!’
The door behind which he’d vanished was flung open and Alexander, followed by a short, balding, overweight man with a stethoscope wrapped around his neck, rushed over and knelt by Katherine’s side.
‘What happened?’ Alexander asked.
‘He came in a few minutes ago. I was just about to suggest he be taken through when he collapsed. He’s been rubbing his neck as if it’s painful or stiff. We should consider meningitis.’
Alexander and his colleague exchanged a few words in rapid Greek and the other doctor hurried away.
The man on the floor groaned softly. The receptionist reappeared and came to stand next to Mrs Kalfas, placing a comforting arm around the older woman. Alexander said something to the younger woman and she hurried back to her desk and picked up the phone.
‘It could be a number of things but to be on the safe side Carlos—Dr Stavrou—is going to get a line so we can start him on IV antibiotics,’ Alexander told Katherine. ‘Diane is phoning for an ambulance.’
Carlos returned and ripped open a pack and handed Alexander a venflon. He quickly inserted it into a vein and, taking the bag of saline from his colleague, attached one end of the tube to the needle. When Katherine held out her hand for the bag of saline, Alexander passed it to her and she held it up so that the fluid could flow unimpeded. In the meantime, Alexander had injected antibiotics straight into one of the stricken patient’s veins.
As Katherine placed an oxygen mask over his face, she was vaguely aware that the receptionist had returned and along with Mrs Kalfas was watching intently. Alexander whirled around and spoke rapidly to the receptionist. He translated her reply for Katherine.
‘Diane says the ambulance will be here shortly. She’s agreed to take Mrs Kalfas home instead of making her wait for her husband. Seeing she’s had a bit of a fright, I think it’s better.’
Katherine was impressed with the way he’d considered the old woman, even in the midst of an emergency. Their patient was still unconscious but apart from keeping an eye on his airway there was little more they could do until the ambulance arrived. They couldn’t risk taking him in a car in case he arrested.
‘You have a defib to hand?’ she asked.
‘Naturally.’
She wondered what had caused the man to collapse. A number of possibilities ran through her head, meningitis being one, but without further tests it was impossible to know. All they could do now was stabilise him until they got him to hospital.
Diane picked up her handbag and helped the old lady out. Soon after, the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over. They spoke to Alexander before quickly loading the patient into the ambulance.
‘Should one of us go with him?’ Katherine asked.
‘No need. Carlos wants to go. He’s his patient.’
The ambulance