Amber nodded. ‘I don’t suppose that it happened in this country, did it? Have you been overseas at all, lately?’
‘I was in South America,’ Jack said. ‘I worked there for a couple of months until recently.’ He glanced at her. ‘Do you think that’s what’s causing my illness—the fact that I had an insect bite? That’s what my mates think.’ His face contorted as another spasm of nausea washed over him and he struggled to overcome the urge to vomit. ‘I didn’t feel too bad until I arrived home in the U.K.,’ he managed. ‘I seem to have gone downhill ever since then. I’ve never felt as ill as this before.’
‘It does seem quite likely that’s what happened,’ Amber told him. ‘I’ll do a biopsy, and take some blood for testing. Once we have a clear idea what we are dealing with, I’ll be able to treat you more specifically.’
Jack looked worried. ‘Some of my co-workers have been telling me that this sort of illness can be hard to treat. Some even said that people don’t always recover. Is that true?’
‘What kind of friends are these who say something like that?’ Amber asked, raising a brow in astonishment. She gave him a reassuring smile. ‘Let’s wait until we have the results, shall we? What I will say is that I haven’t lost a patient yet to an insect bite.’
Sarah mopped his brow with a cool flannel. ‘She’s right,’ she said with a faint chuckle. ‘We only bring in lay-consultants after we’ve been scratching our heads for a couple of weeks, because we reckon after that length of time anybody’s guess is as good as ours.’
‘You’re making fun of me,’ Jack said. He gave them a weak smile. ‘You wouldn’t be doing that if you felt the way I did.’
Sarah patted his hand. ‘Only kidding,’ she murmured. ‘Dr Shaw knows what she’s doing. She won’t let you down.’
Amber made quick work of collecting the samples she needed. ‘If it’s true that you were bitten by a sandfly,’ she said, ‘especially a female sandfly, then it’s quite possible that you have a parasitic infection. They can be really nasty and make you feel truly awful, because they attack your immune system and lower your resistance. If that’s what has actually happened, we’ll put a drip in your arm and treat you with a medication that will kill off the parasite. It won’t happen overnight, though. Sometimes it can take several weeks for the treatment to take effect.’
Jack made a face. ‘I’m not going anywhere in a hurry,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t have the energy.’
Amber left him with Sarah a few minutes later. She had been working for a good part of the day in A and E, but now it was time to go and check up on her patients on the surgical ward.
She called in on Martyn first of all. James was there, talking quietly to Caitlin, while Martyn was sitting in a chair at the side of his bed, balancing a laptop computer on his knees and frowning in concentration. He looked weary, a few lines of strain showing around his mouth and forehead, and Amber was immediately on the alert. James and Caitlin were oblivious to anything around them, smiling and sharing anecdotes with one another about life at university.
‘I thought I’d drop by to see how you’re getting on,’ Amber said, greeting Martyn and nodding towards James and Caitlin. ‘I see you have company, though, so I’ll make this a quick visit.’
James got to his feet. ‘I’ve been looking for you all morning,’ he murmured. He came over to her and gave her a hug. ‘I heard about the job,’ he said quietly. ‘That was really bad news. I was so sure you would get it. The whole system is chaotic.’
‘I suppose I can’t complain,’ she said. ‘A lot of us are finding ourselves in the same boat, unfortunately.’ It felt good to have his arms close gently around her. It was a light, comforting embrace that showed her he cared, but she couldn’t help thinking it had come too late. A couple of days had passed since she had received the letter, and this was the first time he had mentioned the subject. She returned the embrace and then, much as she would have liked to prolong the contact, she gently broke away from him, turning her attention towards Martyn. It didn’t seem right to be hugging, however brief and innocent the gesture, in front of a patient and his relative.
‘I hear you’ve been trying to walk about a bit,’ she said, giving Martyn a brief look to try to assess how he was doing. ‘That’s good. Try to do things gradually, though. We don’t want you to tax yourself too soon and end up having a relapse.’ She frowned. ‘Sarah tells me you’ve been making a lot of phone calls these last few days…and that’s fine, if it’s to keep you in touch with family and friends to generally cheer yourself up—only Sarah has the idea that you’ve been talking to people at the office and getting yourself into a state.’
He looked at her, very much like a little boy on the receiving end of a telling-off. ‘It’s just that I’m feeling so much better,’ he said, using a placatory tone. ‘And it’s all down to your care and attention. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m doing really well. You saved my life and I’m always going to be in your debt. I wouldn’t dream of doing anything to undo all your good work.’
Amber sent him a knowing look. ‘Don’t even begin to think you can wind me around your little finger,’ she admonished him. ‘I’m onto your tricks. Your nephew warned me about you.’
‘That was very well said.’ Ethan’s deep, male voice came from across the room, causing Amber to give a startled jump. She frowned at the screen that showed his image. Was that man forever going to be sneaking around and putting in an appearance when she least expected him?
She glanced at the watch on her wrist. ‘Aren’t you up and about again at an altogether unsociable hour?’ she asked. Why couldn’t he turn up when the night shift was on duty and she was safely out of the way? But perhaps he had always been an early riser…and that thought only added to her discomfort. What business did he have looking so fit and energetic when the sun was barely up in his part of the world?
‘Do I detect sour grapes?’ Ethan said, lifting a dark brow. ‘I guess you’ve been hard at work for several hours by now. How is it that you’re still looking after my uncle when your job is supposed to be in Accident and Emergency?’
‘Professor Halloran asked me especially to look after Martyn,’ she explained. ‘But, in fact, my work is divided between A and E, the surgical ward and various other wards. I like it this way, because it gives me the chance to follow up on people who have been admitted to hospital from A and E. That doesn’t usually happen with these senior house officer jobs, but I’ve found I really like being able to do that. It gives the training more depth, and that’s why I applied for this particular rotation.’
‘Didn’t I hear you saying that you’d missed out on getting a job to go to after this one?’ Martyn looked up from his laptop, a faint line indenting his brow. ‘Most of the junior doctors’ contracts come to an end soon, don’t they?’
Amber sent him a fleeting glance. Although he had appeared to be engrossed in what he was doing, he had obviously been listening in to her earlier conversation with James.
‘That’s true,’ she told him. ‘Somebody mislaid my application and by the time it turned up, the job I applied for had been filled. Now it looks as though I’m going to be joining the ranks of the unemployed.’
Martyn shook his head. ‘I don’t know what the world is coming to,’ he said. ‘Now, if I was in charge—’
‘You’d be running us all around like a bee after honey,’ Ethan interjected. He strode across the veranda of his property, his body long and lean, exuding health and vitality. ‘You need to learn to take a back seat. Don’t think I haven’t heard about all the requests for changes at the plantation. You seem to forget that I’m in charge right now. I’ll make the decisions so you don’t need to worry about anything.’
‘But you need me to guide you,’ Martyn insisted.