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‘As soon as he sets foot inside the door,’ Richard said dryly. ‘We’re rushed off our feet, as you know. He’s arriving just in time for the flu season. Anyway, I’ll introduce you as soon as he arrives because he’ll be doing quite a few of the clinics with you. What are you doing at lunchtime? Are you around?’
Lucy hesitated, not sure whether to confess or not. ‘Actually, I’m going to see Ivy Williams,’ she said finally, honesty prevailing, as always. ‘I’m really worried about her. I saw her last week to dress her leg and she was very quiet. People keep telling me that since Bert died a month ago she’s barely left the house.’
That was the advantage of a small community, she reflected. There was always someone who was going to notice that you were in trouble.
‘Ivy?’ Richard’s face softened but his eyes were concerned. ‘That’s kind of you, but don’t get too involved, Lucy. You can’t solve everyone’s problems.’
‘I know that,’ Lucy said, her green eyes gentle and kind. ‘But she’s lost her partner and she must be so lost and lonely…’
And she knew only too well how that felt.
‘Well, let me know how she is,’ Richard said, walking towards the door and giving her a smile. ‘You’re a kind girl, Lucy, and we’re lucky to have you.’
But nowhere near as lucky as she was to have them.
Lucy watched Richard go and then grabbed her coat and made her way across the car park, noticing with relief that someone had sprinkled grit on the surface. Just as well, she reflected, shivering as the cold air numbed her cheeks and fingers, otherwise all their patients would be slipping and sliding and breaking bones before they reached the surgery.
Even for early January it was bitterly cold, and she blew on her hands to warm them and forced her mind back to her work.
What was she going to do about Ivy? She was truly worried about her, rattling around in that big house on her own.
The problem nagged her brain as she drove carefully along the coast road, and she was still thinking about it when she heard a hideous squeal of tyres followed by a sickening crash.
What…?
Instinctively she pumped her brake pedal, slowing her car gradually as she approached the bend in the road.
There’d been an accident.
She rounded the corner, her heart racing as she braced herself for what she might see.
Her fingers tightened on the wheel and she started to shake as she saw the twisted wreckage of a car embedded in a tree. And then she saw the motorbike.
‘Oh, no…’
Her heart thumping uncontrollably, she pulled her car over onto the grass verge, put on her hazard warning lights and sprinted across to the wreckage. The front of the car was badly mangled, and next to it lay a pile of twisted metal that had once been a motorbike. She was shaking with reaction as she looked frantically for the rider.
Where was he?
She muttered a denial as she finally located his body metres away in the grass. How could he possibly have survived?
Staring in horror at his still body, she felt panic numb her brain and for precious seconds she stood frozen, unable to move a muscle. But then the cold winter air flowed under her coat, bringing her to her senses.
After the sickening noise of the crash the air was still and silent, and it was as if she were the only person in the whole world.
But fortunately she wasn’t.
Sounds of a car approaching cut through the frozen silence and Lucy waved her arms frantically as it appeared round the bend.
The car slowed and then came to a halt and a young couple climbed out, picking their way along the icy road
Seeing the danger immediately, Lucy sprinted towards them, her feet slipping on the frozen tarmac. ‘Reverse your car!’
The man looked at her blankly and the woman just stared in horror at the mangled motorbike, her hand over her mouth.
Lucy gestured towards the road. ‘This is a blind bend,’ she said urgently, ‘And there are obviously patches of black ice. If anyone else comes round here too fast there’ll be another accident. Reverse your car and put the hazard warning lights on so that people will see you and slow down.’
‘Gotcha.’ The young man suddenly seemed to pull himself together and dashed back to do as Lucy had ordered.
Aware that the next priority was to summon help, she pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket and rammed it into the young woman’s hand.
‘We need to get some help fast. Take a deep breath,’ Lucy ordered firmly, hoping she sounded more in control than she felt. ‘I’m a nurse and I’ll deal with the accident, but I need you to call 999. Can you do that? Give them our location and tell them that there’s a car and a motorbike involved.’
The woman nodded mutely and Lucy gave her shoulder a squeeze.
‘Good. Quickly, then…’
Feeling slightly better, knowing that help would soon be on the way, she ran back towards the car, hoping that she wouldn’t have to hold the fort by herself for long.
One glance into the car showed her that there was just the driver and one passenger.
‘Tell them two in the car,’ she yelled over her shoulder, hoping that the young woman had managed to contact the ambulance service.
Although the doors had been jammed in the crash, she managed to shout through the windows.
‘Get us out! Get us out!’ The woman was clawing frantically at the door and Lucy glanced over her shoulder to the still figure of the motorcyclist, trying to remember what she’d learned about triage. Surely he had to be her priority. The two in the car were conscious. Or was he beyond help? In which case, she needed to rescue the two in the car.
With a whimper of panic she turned back to the couple in the car and gestured to the sun roof, suggesting that they try and open it. Then she turned her attention to the motorcyclist.
She had to assess his injuries. If he was dead, then the couple in the car became the priority, but if he wasn’t…
Oh, please, God, don’t let him be dead.
Her heart thumping, her feet crunched on the frozen grass and she dropped to her knees next to his body, trying to subdue the panic that was bubbling up inside her. It had been years since she’d done any A and E work and even then it had only been when she’d been training. But she knew the principles, she reminded herself firmly. ABC. Airway, breathing, circulation.
The cold from the ground oozed up and numbed her knees, but she didn’t even notice.
‘The ambulance is on its way.’ The young man was back by her side. ‘Here, let me help you take his helmet off.’
‘No!’ Lucy reached out a hand to stop him touching the injured motorcyclist, her voice sharper than she’d intended. ‘You should never remove the helmet unless breathing is compromised. The helmet is supporting his neck and if we take it off…’
She wasn’t qualified to help this man.
She was a practice nurse, for goodness’ sake, not a paramedic.
Airway—she had to check his airway.
She leaned closer and just at that moment the man groaned and muttered something.
Lucy let out a long breath. He was talking. Surely that had to be a good sign?
‘Hello? Can you tell me where it hurts?’
She cringed as she listened to herself. What a stupid question to ask someone who’d been thrown from a bike. It probably hurt everywhere…
‘Leg.’
Leg.
Lucy ran her eyes down his legs and saw the nasty gash in the leathers and the mass of blood gathering there. She wrenched off her gloves and thrust them into her pocket, her fingers shifting the leathers so that she could take a closer look.
Blood spurted into the air.
‘Oh, no!’ She pressed down on the leg hard and turned to the man from the car, noticing that he was looking slightly green. She felt slightly green, too. She’d never seen such a severe laceration. Despite the protection of the leathers, his thigh had been badly torn, presumably because he’d been thrown across the tarmac. ‘You need to go to my car, quickly. Fetch the bag on the back seat.’
‘And don’t pass out on me,’ she muttered under her breath as she watched him go.
The motorcyclist moaned again and tried to move.
‘Try and keep still,’ Lucy said urgently, wishing that she could hold his hand to reassure him. Unfortunately, both her hands were occupied in preventing him from bleeding to death. ‘You’re going to be just fine. I’m a nurse and there’s an ambulance on the way. Everything is going to be fine…’
She said it to reassure herself as much as him, and she reflected briefly on the ridiculous things people said when they were trying to reassure each other.
Everything was far from fine.
‘Here’s your bag.’ The young man was back beside her, looking at her expectantly.
She almost laughed aloud. Did he expect her bag to contain magic powers?
Weighed down by the knowledge that everyone was depending on her, she glanced over her shoulder towards the road, desperately praying that the ambulance would arrive quickly, but there was nothing but an eerie winter silence.
Which meant that the man’s life depended on her and the very inadequate contents of her practice nurse’s bag.
Lucy glanced down at her hands, which were slippery with the man’s blood. There was no way she could let go.
‘Inside the side pockets you’ll find some sterile dressing pads,’ she instructed, noticing that underneath the helmet the injured man was ghostly pale. He was losing a lot of blood and needed some fluids fast.
And she didn’t have any—what else should she do?
Elevate the bleeding part—but what with?
This situation was way beyond her experience. And well beyond a few dressing pads.
Where on earth was the ambulance?
Her heart still thudding, Lucy snatched the pads from the young man and pressed down on the wound again.
‘There should be a bandage in there, too,’ she muttered. She had to stem the bleeding and she really ought to take another look at the two in the car.
‘Do you need help?’
The deep voice came from behind her and she turned her head, blinking at the raw, male power of the man in front of her. Black leathers outlined broad, muscular shoulders and long, powerful legs. Another motorcyclist?
He dragged off his helmet, revealing cropped dark hair and a pair of cool blue eyes that took in the situation in one glance. He dropped to his haunches and his face was close enough for her to see the dark growth shadowing the line of his hard jaw. He obviously hadn’t shaved recently. She frowned at her own thoughts and shook herself. Someone’s life was at risk and she was wondering when this man had last shaved?
Was she going completely mad?
It must be the shock.
‘Did you see it happen?’ His sharp tone brought her quickly back to the present and she shook her head.
‘No. But from the damage to the front of the car I guess it must have hit him.’ She tried to stop her teeth chattering. ‘The roads are very icy.’
Those cool blue eyes flickered to the car, his expression serious. ‘How many in the car?’
‘Two.’
‘Have you checked them?’
‘Briefly.’ Lucy responded without question to the authority in his voice. ‘They were both shouting and yelling so I thought that this man seemed more urgent.’
Dear God, she hoped she’d done the right thing. Her first aid was very rusty. What if the people in the car died because of her?
But this motorcyclist would definitely die if she moved her hands.
She swallowed. ‘This man has got a nasty laceration on his thigh and he’s bleeding from an artery. Oh, God, look…’ She stared helplessly at the pads under her fingers, which were already soaked through with blood. ‘What do we do?’
‘You keep pressing while I elevate the limb…’ The man wedged something under the injured leg and then briefly examined the young man with a skill and confidence that left her in no doubt as to his profession.
‘You’re a doctor,’ she mumbled with relief, and he gave her a brief smile.
‘For my sins.’ His gaze returned to the injured man. ‘This chap needs fluids urgently. How long ago did you call the ambulance?’
Lucy bit her lip. ‘About five minutes? We phoned immediately.’
‘They ought to use the helicopter,’ he muttered, shifting his position slightly. ‘Why don’t you check the couple in the car again?’ He glanced up at the young man, who was still hovering. ‘Can you take over here and press on the wound? That would leave us free to check on the others.’
Lucy opened her mouth to point out that the man had turned pale green at the sight of all the blood, but the doctor was already halfway through demonstrating the first aid for an arterial bleed, his tone brisk and matter-of-fact as he talked. His cool confidence seemed to have a positive effect on the driver and he was soon nodding agreement and preparing to take over from Lucy.
Relieved that someone who clearly knew what he was doing was now in charge, she swapped places with the other man and looked ruefully down at her hands.
‘There’s a water bottle on my bike.’ The blue eyed doctor had noticed her predicament and she smiled at him gratefully.
Seconds later she had cleaned up as best she could and was dealing with the people in the car.
The woman passenger had already dragged herself out through the sun roof and was sitting on the grass verge, blood trickling from a wound in her scalp. Judging that she was obviously not in immediate danger, Lucy turned her attentions to the driver.
After tugging at the door without success, she climbed onto the bonnet and talked to him through the sun roof.
