was searching through his bag—finding scissors and dressings—and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was reassuring to know that he had someone with her experience to help him and didn’t have to explain every little detail to her. It left him free to get on with his job.
‘Oh, my Gawd!’ Charlie muttered as Liam took the pair of scissors from her and began to cut through the tough layer of muscle beneath the patient’s skin.
‘I know it looks brutal but it’s his only chance.’ He reached the breastbone and felt beads of sweat gather on his forehead as he struggled to saw through the bone. Every second that passed meant that the chances of the patient surviving were decreasing. He grunted in relief when he felt the last bit of the bone give way so that he was able to complete the incision.
‘What I wouldn’t give for some retractors,’ he muttered, struggling to see inside the chest cavity.
‘What’s them, Doc?’ Charlie asked curiously.
‘Great big metal clamps that you use to open up the chest,’ he explained. ‘Where’s that torch? Thanks.’
He peered into the chest cavity while Charlie held the torch for him, and immediately spotted the cause of the problem. As he’d suspected, the pericardium—the sac surrounding the heart—was bulging with blood and preventing the heart from beating.
‘Definite signs of tamponade.’ He grasped the sac with a pair of narrow forceps and managed to cut through it. However, when it came to removing the blood clot, it proved impossible. His fingers were just too large to fit through the limited amount of space he’d been able to make.
He turned to Sophie. ‘See if you can get those clots out of there, will you? Your hands are smaller than mine.’
She quickly changed places with him and he saw the tip of her tongue poke between her teeth as she inserted her fingers through the opening in the chest wall. Liam felt a wave of heat rush through him and looked away because it shocked him that he should be so responsive to her at a time like this.
Why hadn’t he allowed for this when he’d taken the job? he wondered incredulously. He’d been attracted to Sophie from the first moment they’d met, when she’d been a student nurse and he’d been a brand new houseman, yet it had never crossed his mind that he might still feel the same about her. Why should it have done when he was committed to Julia?
His heart began to thud because that question had naturally led to a second, one it was even more difficult to answer.
If it was Julia he loved then why did he feel this desire for Sophie?
Sophie held her breath as she inched her fingers through the narrow gap. If anyone had told her she’d be helping to perform major surgery on the floor of a cabin, then she would have laughed out loud. But if Liam thought they could save the man’s life, she would give it her best shot.
Relief swept through her as she finally managed to reach the blood clot. She scooped it out of the way and dropped the bloody mass on the floor beside the bunk.
‘Got it!’ she declared triumphantly, glancing up. She frowned when she saw how abstracted Liam looked. He looked as though he was miles away, a worrying thought in view of the seriousness of what was happening.
‘Liam?’ she prompted anxiously, and saw him jump.
‘You’ve got it out? Good work!’ He made an obvious effort to collect himself. ‘Now, see if you can encourage the heart to start beating again. There’s not enough room to massage it so try flicking it with the tip of your finger.’
Sophie followed his instructions and felt her excitement mount when the man’s heart suddenly fluttered. She tried it again and laughed when she felt it start to beat. ‘It’s working!’
‘Right, we need to get him up to Theatre, stat.’ Liam was all business once more as he got up. ‘We need something to use as a stretcher. Can you sort it out, Charlie?’
‘No problem, Doc.’
The steward hurried away as Sophie sank back on her heels. ‘Do you think he’ll make it?’
‘With a bit of luck, but we’re going to have to stop that bleeding.’ He frowned in concern as he watched a few drops of blood ooze out of the man’s chest. ‘That wound needs stitching as soon as possible—can you get everything ready in Theatre? I don’t want to have to waste precious time setting up once we get him there. It’s going to be touch and go as it is.’
‘Of course.’ She scrambled to her feet and stripped off her blood-soaked gloves and dropped them on the floor then grimaced when she saw the mess they’d made. ‘This place is going to need a thorough cleaning before the crew can use it again.’
They both looked round when the door opened and Charlie appeared with Mike Soames in tow. Sophie saw Mike turn a delicate shade of green when he saw all the blood, and sympathised with him. The cabin must look like a scene from a horror film to the uninitiated.
‘Did you find us something to use as a stretcher?’ Liam demanded, oblivious to the petty officer’s distress.
‘I’ve commandeered one of the kitchen trolleys,’ Charlie explained. ‘It’s too big to get it in here so we’re going to have to carry Alexei outside.’
‘That shouldn’t be a problem with the three of us,’ Liam declared.
Sophie hoped he was right and that poor Mike wouldn’t pass out before they managed to get the injured seaman onto the trolley. It was amazing how many grown men she’d seen keel over at the sight of blood.
There was no time to worry about it, however, because she had more important things to do. She ran back upstairs to the hospital bay and quickly scrubbed up then slid on a gown and a fresh pair of gloves. She’d been a theatre nurse for a number of years and it was reassuring to slip back into the familiar routine. She laid out the instrument trolley then unpacked sterile drapes to cover the patient during the operation. By that time Liam had arrived.
‘I need to scrub up,’ he told her tersely, shooting an anxious look at the man lying on the stainless-steel kitchen trolley. ‘We’re going to have to be quick, though, because he’s losing a lot of blood.’
‘I’ll take him through while you get ready,’ Sophie assured him. ‘Who’s going to do the anaesthetic, though?’
‘Me.’ Liam’s tone was grim. ‘It’s times like this when you could do with an extra pair of hands, isn’t it?’
‘We’ll manage.’ She smiled at him and saw his grey eyes darken before he abruptly turned away.
‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ he said gruffly.
Sophie wheeled the patient into Theatre, trying to decide exactly what she’d glimpsed in Liam’s eyes just now. She sighed when it struck her how pointless it was to worry about it. Once her replacement arrived she would be leaving the ship and she doubted if she and Liam would ever meet again. The thought gave her very little pleasure, oddly enough.
Liam must have got ready in record time because barely a minute had elapsed before he elbowed the door open. He had Charlie Henshaw with him and Sophie raised her brows when she saw that the steward was gowned and gloved as well.
‘Charlie
