did dance aerobics simply because Dani had pushed her into it two weeks after Evan’s funeral, making her leave her flat instead of hiding within the four walls and wishing that her fiancé had never, ever become a firefighter. And Hayley had to admit that the combination of the music and the movement had made her feel better, if only for a little while. For the same reason, she’d forced Dani to keep coming to the class with her after Leo had walked out on her.
‘OK. You sort out the training programme and I’ll do it.’
‘You,’ Danielle said, reaching over to squeeze her hand, ‘are the best friend ever.’
‘No, that would be you,’ Hayley said. ‘And you can sit still while I sort out some lunch for you. Even you can’t juggle a tray and hot coffee with crutches.’
‘Try me?’ Danielle said.
‘Behave,’ Hayley ordered with a grin.
‘Yes, ma’am. And you’re right—I can’t hold coffee with crutches,’ Danielle admitted, and fished in her purse for some money. ‘Thanks, Haze. Just grab the first sandwich you come to—I don’t mind what it is.’ She paused. ‘So you promise me you won’t cancel the trip?’
‘It’s the Year of Saying Yes,’ Hayley said. ‘So I’ll go.’ Even though a solo trip felt daunting, Hayley knew that her best friend was right. She did need a break. And maybe ticking some things off her bucket list would help her move on.
She’d always miss Evan, but she knew he wouldn’t have wanted her to spend the rest of her life on her own. So she was going to say yes. And, in accordance with their agreement, she was going to date the next man who asked her out.
THE LAND OF the Midnight Sun. Hayley had been stunned by the sheer quality of the light from the moment she’d arrived at the airport; everything seemed brighter in Reykjavik.
Evan would’ve loved this, she thought with a pang. Especially the whale-watching trip she’d chosen to do this morning. Now the boat was out in the middle of the open sea, the temperature had dropped quite sharply, but the sun was bright and she leaned against the railing at the side of the boat, listening to the guide and trying to spot the tiny puffins with their bright orange beaks.
‘There are lots of birds just above the water ahead of us, and that often indicates cetacean activity—they’ll be picking up bits of fish the whales have left behind,’ the guide said. And then, a couple of minutes later, she called, ‘Spout at nine o’clock!’
Hayley could actually see the spout of warm, moist air blown up by the whale; to her amazement, it really was like you saw in TV documentaries. A perfect misty funnel.
‘And here’s our minke!’ the guide said.
The ship drew to a standstill, and Hayley could see just the dark back of the whale, like a slight hump above the surface of the sea. And then a fin appeared, bright white against the sea and the sky, almost as if the whale was waving to them.
This was magical.
She took a few shots on her camera, hoping they’d come out. And then, to her sheer joy, the whale breached, its snout coming up out of the water and then its body performing a perfect arc, revealing its white belly before the whale splashed back into the sea.
She’d never seen anything so awe-inspiring. The whale’s snout came up again, and then a fin; then she saw the divided end of the tail as the whale dived down again.
‘I’m sure you could all see the flukes then—that’s the whale’s tail—and this usually indicates that the whale’s diving more deeply,’ the guide said. ‘So we’re going to move on.’
This was a truly humbling experience, Hayley thought; it made her feel glad to be alive.
But then, a few minutes later, the guide called, ‘Do we have a doctor on board?’
Her heart skipped a beat. When a tour guide put out that kind of call, it could mean a true emergency, and right now they were almost an hour’s sail away from Reykjavik. She had no idea how the emergency services worked here. Would they send out a helicopter to the ship, or would the tour guide have to cut the trip short and they’d have to sail straight back to the city?
She made her way to the guide’s post. ‘I’m Hayley Clark, a doctor from England. Can I help?’
‘My husband’s having an asthma attack,’ an American woman said, looking anxious and wringing her hands. ‘And we don’t have his inhaler with us.’
Just as well she worked in the emergency department, Hayley thought. ‘Can you put out a call to see if anyone has a reliever inhaler we could borrow, please?’ she asked the guide. ‘Even a preventer inhaler would help.’
‘Will do,’ the guide said.
She turned to the woman. ‘Would you like to take me to your husband? My name’s Hayley and I work in the emergency department of a London hospital.’
‘I’m Lulu Adams and thank God you’re on board,’ the woman said, leading her towards the next deck down. ‘I can’t believe Milton’s having an attack out here. Normally it’s pollen and cat hair that sets him off.’
‘Cold can set off asthma, too, and the air’s quite cool out here,’ Hayley said, ‘so it’s always a good idea to keep a reliever inhaler with you—even if you don’t think you’re going to come across your usual triggers. Does your husband take his preventer inhaler regularly?’
‘He’s a man. You can’t tell him anything,’ the woman said with a sigh.
So this was probably an attack that had been brewing for a while, Hayley thought, with a patient who didn’t bother taking his preventer inhaler that often. Milton Adams’s doctor definitely needed to talk to him about the importance of asthma control. She just hoped she could keep him stable until they managed to get some proper bronchodilator medication for him. ‘Does he have any other medical conditions?’ she asked.
‘Just the asthma.’
Which was tricky enough to deal with, by the sound of things. ‘OK. Thanks.’
* * *
Do we have a doctor on board?
There were maybe a couple of hundred other people on the boat. The chances were, Sam was the only doctor. Plus this would be a test. Had he done the right thing in accepting the job at a London hospital, or had his experience in Manchester soured his love affair with medicine to the point where he really didn’t want to go back to it?
He made his way to the bridge to talk to the guide, and on the way he heard her ask if anyone had an asthma inhaler that another passenger could borrow.
‘My name’s Sam Price, and I’m an emergency doctor from England. It sounds as if you have a passenger who’s having an asthma attack and doesn’t have an inhaler. Can I help?’ he asked.
‘There’s another doctor gone to see him already, if you want to join her,’ the guide said. ‘You’ll see her on the deck below.
