An Inescapable Temptation. Scarlet Wilson

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СКАЧАТЬ I’m fine, thanks.’ She pasted a smile on her face and gestured towards his bag. ‘You look busy enough anyway. Lots of passenger callouts?’

      He nodded, rubbing his hand across his eyes. ‘Three in the last hour. All for really ridiculous things. Please tell me this isn’t a normal night.’

      Francesca smiled. If it had been anyone else she would have told him about the ‘cougar list’ currently taped inside one of the cupboard doors in the treatment room.

      The list of well-known passengers—mainly women in their forties and fifties—who developed symptoms requiring a cabin call whenever a new, young doctor came on board. She could bet in the last hour Gabriel had seen a lot of skin and satin negligees.

      Not all the passengers changed every week or every fortnight. A certain select group seemed to spend a large part of their life cruising. It was not unusual to have the same passengers on board for four to six weeks at a time. Sometimes they swapped to another ship for a month and then came back to the Silver Whisper again.

      The ‘cougar list’ had been started by Kevin, one of the nurses, after he’d noticed a sharp rise in callouts whenever a new doctor started. It was really just a warning list to give the person on call the opportunity to decide if they wanted to take the other crew member on duty with them. She would tell him about the list—really, she would—just not yet.

      Francesca was sure that Gabriel could handle a few coy looks. After all, hadn’t he spent his life chasing women, collecting them like trophies and then unceremoniously dumping them? This should be a breeze for him.

      ‘Here, have a look at this.’ She handed him the communiqué she’d been given requesting details about the rescue at Venezia Passegeri. Apparently the media were keen to run a story. ‘They’re a little late but maybe they were short of news.’

      A dark shadow passed over his face as his eyes flew over the page. ‘Absolutely not. No names. I don’t want to talk about last week. Make sure the communications officer understands.’

      She shrugged, a little surprised by his reaction. ‘The cruise line probably wants the publicity,’ she suggested. ‘What’s the problem? You’re used to being in the news.’

      ‘No!’ He looked furious. He crumpled the piece of paper in his hand and threw it deftly into the wastepaper bin. She smirked. Message received, loud and clear.

      Was this man temperamental? Maybe his snappiness after his head injury hadn’t been the result of the accident. His questions to her had been a little blunt. He certainly wasn’t exhibiting all the traits Jill had told her about of the flirtatious, playboy doctor. Gabriel Russo seemed to be a wolf in doctor’s clothing. And the thought intrigued her.

      Katherine had complained bitterly last week that Gabriel wasn’t the best of patients—apparently she’d had to practically pin him to the bed to monitor his neuro obs overnight after his head injury. He’d been furious when Dr Marsh had insisted he be monitored overnight and it had been a relief to them all when he’d been given a clean bill of health the following morning and allowed to take on normal duties.

      His pager sounded again and he sighed, picking up his medical bag and heading for the door. ‘If I’m not back in an hour page me.’ He hesitated for a second, his brown eyes connecting with hers. ‘Please.’

      Francesca couldn’t help but smile. Maybe he was finally catching onto the cougar brigade.

      She turned back to the computer and pulled up the file for the crew member she was about to meet.

      The notes were limited. Elena Portiss, twenty-seven, from Spain, working on board as a bartender, with a declared past medical history of endometriosis.

      She’d phoned ten minutes earlier saying her abdominal pain was worse than usual—bad abdominal pain was not uncommon in a woman with a history of endometriosis.

      There was a noise behind her and Francesca stood up and flicked the switch, lighting up the medical unit.

      ‘Elena?’

      The young woman nodded.

      Francesca was immediately struck by how pale the girl was. Her pale blue eyes were dull and lifeless, her normally tanned skin pallid and slightly waxy.

      ‘Come in here.’ Francesca walked into the nearby room and gestured Elena towards one of the examination trolleys. She worked quickly, checking her temperature, blood pressure and pulse. ‘You have endometriosis?’ Francesca spoke slowly, taking care in case there was any difficulty in language.

      Elena nodded. Francesca noted that her hands were positioned carefully over her stomach, obviously trying to keep her pain in check. ‘It was diagnosed last year after I had very painful periods.’ She lifted her shirt and pointed to a little scar next to her belly button. ‘I had a camera in there.’

      Francesca nodded. If Elena had had a laparoscopy done and the diagnosis confirmed then it was likely that her symptoms were related to her endometriosis.

      ‘Do you normally use painkillers?’ Elena nodded and fumbled in her bag, pulling out a battered box with the name written in Spanish. Francesca took the box, looking at it and writing the name down in the notes. It was a commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that was effective in treating endometriosis.

      ‘We will be able to give you something similar,’ she reassured Elena, ‘but the box may look a little different. Have you tried anything else?’

      Elena pulled a second, slightly more battered cardboard box from her bag. ‘I stopped taking these,’ she said, ‘as they made me feel unwell.’ As she didn’t recognise the name on the box Francesca opened it and pulled out the foil strip with the twenty-eight tablets enclosed. Around half were missing and she realised immediately what they were. Oral contraceptives were commonly used to treat endometriosis in women who weren’t trying to start a family. They worked by regulating the hormone levels to stop the production of oestrogen in the body. Without exposure to oestrogen, the endometrial tissue could be reduced and this helped to ease symptoms.

      ‘Do you remember when your last period was?’ Francesca asked.

      ‘I’m not sure. I had some bleeding yesterday and a little this morning, but it wasn’t much.’

      ‘I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to get a urine specimen from you. Do you think you can manage to go to the toilet for me?’

      Elena grimaced as Francesca helped her to the toilet. It only took a few minutes before she was back on the couch and Francesca reattached her to the blood-pressure cuff. BP was ninety over sixty. Hypotensive. Colour poor. Alarm bells started to go off inside Francesca’s head.

      The amount of pain that Elena was exhibiting was more than would be expected. Elena nodded, still clutching her stomach.

      Francesca’s spider sense was tingling. Her instinct—the thing she’d thought she’d lost.

      This wasn’t right. This didn’t feel right. Elena’s pain seemed too severe and too localised to be endometriosis. Francesca knew that endometriosis was a painful condition in which the endometrial cells that would normally be present within the lining of the womb could be deposited in other areas around the body. These cells were still influenced by the female hormones and could cause pain in various areas, particularly СКАЧАТЬ