The From Paris With Love And Regency Season Of Secrets Ultimate Collection. Кэрол Мортимер

      The steward nodded. ‘Only you, Dr Highton. She’s asking for assistance to get dressed for dinner.’

      ‘But you said you needed both of us.’

      ‘Yes. I’m hoping that Dr Moretti could come with me to see another passenger in the carriage who requires a doctor. He thinks he might be having a heart attack.’

      Nico could actually feel his professional persona taking over. Smothering anything personal, like his desire to kiss Charlotte. There was still a flicker of something personal there, though. He stepped closer, needing to touch her, and put his hand on her shoulder.

      ‘You go and help your nonna,’ he told her. ‘I’ll deal with this.’

      ‘But…’ Was it his imagination or did Charlotte lean into his hand a little, as if she was trying to return the touch? Her gaze caught his and he could read the message so easily. She was reminding him of what he’d told her grandmother only hours ago. That, together, they made an amazing team.

      ‘I’ll send for you,’ Nico said softly. ‘If I need you.’ He stepped past Charlotte into the corridor, where the steward was waiting anxiously for Nico to follow him. The last personal thoughts evaporated. ‘What equipment do you have on board?’ he queried. ‘Oxygen? A defibrillator?’

      ‘Yes. We have oxygen. And an AED.’

      ‘Good.’ Nico picked up his pace as they made their way to the cabin at the far end of the carriage. ‘Show me which cabin and then fetch them for me, please.’

      The man in the end cabin was in his sixties. His colour wasn’t good and he was clutching a small red and white canister of glyceryl trinitrate spray in his hands. His wife was beside him, looking even paler than her husband and virtually wringing her hands.

      ‘How long is it since the pain came on?’ Nico asked.

      The anxious woman checked her watch. ‘Nearly fifteen minutes.’

      ‘And how many doses of the spray have been taken?’

      ‘Two? Maybe three…I’ve lost count.’ The woman was struggling to hold back tears. ‘It’s not working and…and they said that if it didn’t work it could be a heart attack and we’d have to get Douglas to the hospital as quickly as possible.’

      Nico had his fingers on the older man’s wrist. His pulse was a bit rapid but quite strong and regular.

      ‘Tell me about the pain.’

      ‘It’s like a bus parked on my chest. Right here…’ Douglas pressed a fist to his sternum. ‘It’s hard to breathe.’

      ‘Just in your chest?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Have you ever had a heart attack?’

      ‘Yes. Ten years ago. That’s when this whole business started. But it’s been stable. Always comes on the same way…and if I sit down and use the spray it…does the trick.’

      He was starting to sound breathless. Thankfully the steward had returned now. He was carrying an oxygen cylinder in one hand and the small red case of an AED in the other. Hopefully the automatic defibrillator wouldn’t be needed but it was great to know that such a lifesaver was available if it came to that. Even with the best team in the world performing CPR, it could only buy time. The only way to restart a heart was through defibrillation.

      The best team in the world. Unbidden, a memory of Charlotte working with him on the man at the building site flashed into the back of Nico’s mind. He shook it off as he uncoiled tubing and fitted nasal prongs to give Douglas some oxygen.

      ‘This may help the pain,’ he said. ‘Are you on any medications?’

      ‘Yes. Too many.’

      ‘Can you tell me what they are?’

      Douglas shook his head, closing his eyes and screwing up his face as though the pain was becoming unbearable. A sheen of perspiration was beginning to show on his bald head. Nico’s heart sank.

      ‘I’ve got them.’ The anxious older woman was rummaging in a small suitcase. She pulled out a plastic bag containing numerous packages of medication. They were all things that a cardiac patient could be expected to be on.

      ‘Have you had your aspirin today?’

      ‘Yes.’ It was his wife who answered. ‘He’s taken everything.’

      ‘Let’s try another dose of the GTN.’ Nico took the canister from the man’s hands. It was a bad sign if the spray that normally worked on his angina was failing to be effective but was it possible that it hadn’t been used correctly? Nico rolled the canister in his hands, making sure the contents were mixed and then sprayed a dose into the air to check that the metered dose mechanism was working. The spray came out but, oddly, Nico couldn’t smell anything.

      He held the canister up and peered at the base. ‘This spray expired two years ago,’ he exclaimed.

      ‘Oh, my goodness!’ Douglas’s wife clapped a hand to her mouth. ‘Really?’

      ‘Really.’ Nico reached for the portable pharmacy in the plastic bag. Yes. There was a small box in there that contained a replacement canister. And the expiry date was a year away. He ripped open the box, took the lid off the canister and squeezed off a test shot. ‘Open your mouth,’ he directed Douglas, ‘and lift your tongue.’

      He gave Douglas two sprays under his tongue and then kept his fingers on his patient’s pulse and watched his breathing while they waited. Within a matter of minutes Douglas started breathing more easily and deeply. The lines on his face relaxed and when he opened his eyes he actually smiled.

      ‘It’s almost gone,’ he said.

      ‘Oh…thank God…’ His wife was crying. ‘I’m so sorry, Doug. This is my fault. I should have thrown that old spray away as soon as we had the new one.’

      ‘Waste not, want not.’ Douglas patted his wife’s hand. ‘If you weren’t so good at being thrifty we’d never have been able to afford this trip, would we?’ He turned to Nico. ‘Thank you, Doctor. I’m not having a heart attack after all, am I?’

      ‘It certainly looks like nothing more than an episode of angina. Let’s keep the oxygen going for a little while and see how you go. Someone can always come and find me later, too, if you’re worried.’

      The only person looking worried now was Douglas’s wife. ‘I’m so sorry to have disturbed your trip,’ she told Nico.

      ‘It’s not a problem.’

      ‘Is it your first time on the Orient Express?’

      ‘It is.’

      ‘Isn’t it wonderful? Are you enjoying it?’

      ‘Of course.’ But Nico had to consciously smile instead of allowing a puzzled frown to crease his forehead. Enjoyment wasn’t a word that he would have chosen to describe his state of mind so far. He’d started out being intrigued and then he’d been impressed by Charlotte’s piano playing. He’d had a spell of being angry when he’d been accused of planning to take advantage of her and then he’d had that cold chill of horror when he thought he’d guessed her secret.

      But the overwhelming emotion that he would remember from this trip was going to be the way he’d felt sitting in that cabin and holding Charlotte while she slept. The feeling of protecting her. Of knowing that she trusted him enough to fall asleep in his arms like that. That he could trust her enough not to ever share the personal information he had given her.

      A good feeling.

      An incredibly powerful feeling.

      Even more powerful than the desire that had kicked in when he’d realised that Charlotte had wanted him to kiss her as much as he’d wanted to kiss her?

      Yes.