The Royal House of Niroli Collection. Кейт Хьюит
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the shame of a murder that never took place.’
‘The kidnap of a small child is almost as bad.’
‘I did the best I could do under the circumstances,’ he said. ‘I did not kill him. I had every chance but I did not do it. I would like to tell that to him…to ask for forgiveness. Then I can die in peace.’
She let out another sigh. ‘There can be no peace, Papà, can’t you see that? Not now, not if what you’ve said is true.’
‘What would you have me do?’ he asked. ‘If he is the prince, he has the right to know.’
‘But what if he’s not?’
Her father looked at her, the sadness of his life shining in his eyes. ‘Just bring him to me, Amelia. Bring the Australian doctor to me so I can find out once and for all.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘AREN’T you heading up to Theatre to watch the procedure?’ Lucia asked when Amelia came on the ward the next morning.
‘I thought I would give it a miss,’ she answered, putting her bag in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet in the nurses’ station and turning the key.
She had spent a sleepless night thinking about her father’s confession, her mind unable to grasp the enormity of what he had done. The thought of trying to remain professionally calm watching Alex Hunter perform a highly technical procedure while suspecting what she did was unthinkable.
‘But Dr Morani organised cover for you down here on the ward,’ Lucia said. ‘He wants you in particular to see how Dr Hunter performs the off-pump procedure.’
‘I’m sure I’ll hear all about it.’
‘Hearing is one thing, seeing is another,’ Lucia said. ‘If I were you I’d go. There’s not much happening here. I might even get time for a cup of coffee if Signor Ruggio in bed eight behaves himself.’
Amelia forced a little smile to her lips at the mention of their elderly patient. ‘He’s such a sweet old man and never complains.’
‘He’s a cheeky old flirt, that’s what he is. But you’re right—he’s a sweet man.’ Lucia gave her a probing look. ‘Is something wrong? You look worried. Is it your father again?’
‘Yes…'At least that wasn’t a lie, Amelia thought. ‘But it’s nothing I can’t deal with.’
‘Well, if there’s anything I can do just let me know,’ Lucia offered. ‘Oh, here’s the nurse who’s covering for you.’
‘They’re waiting for you in Theatre,’ the fill-in nurse said.
Amelia tried to disguise her panic but Lucia wasn’t fooled.
She gave her a little grin. ‘You’re not going to go all squeamish now, are you?’
‘Of course not,’ Amelia said with already sagging confidence. ‘I’ve been to Theatre enough times to know it’s not always a pretty sight.’
‘Just as well the visiting surgeon is so easy on the eye,’ Lucia said. ‘If you can’t bear looking at the patient, look at him instead.’
I will be looking at him, Amelia wanted to say. Very closely.
Amelia made her way to the change room and changed into Theatre gear. The operating staff were busily preparing when she arrived in the cardiac theatre.
The patient, a man in his early fifties with a long family history of heart disease, had already been anaesthetised. He wasn’t attached to the bypass pump although it was available and primed if an emergency situation developed.
‘Stand in here near the anaesthetic machine, Sister,’ directed the anaesthetist. ‘I can stay out of your way so you can get a good look at the procedure.’
As she moved into position Alex Hunter emerged from the scrub room, arms in the air ready for the scout nurse to assist with gowning. It was a perfect opportunity for Amelia to see his uncovered arms, but just as she moved to gain a better look the instrument nurse moved in front of her with a tray and blocked her view.
Alex turned around once he was gowned and gloved and met her eyes. ‘How nice you could join us, Sister Vialli. I take it you had no other pressing engagements?’
So he was still annoyed with her for rejecting him, Amelia mused as she lifted her chin. ‘I am here, as you see,’ she said.
He held her defiant look for a moment before turning to the anaesthetist. ‘Carlo, you can start the heparin now, one milligram per kilo heparin, and we’ll monitor the clotting profile every half-hour as we go through in the protocol.’
‘Right,’ Carlo said, beginning the IV heparin infusion.
Amelia watched from the head of the operating table as the patient was prepped and draped by Alex together with the cardiac registrar and the scrub nurse.
Alex made a midline incision over the sternum, and, using the powered bone saw, completed a median sternotomy, his deep, calm voice taking the theatre staff through each step. As Alex and the registrar opened the chest, Dr Morani harvested the left long-saphenous vein in the patient’s left leg to be used for the bypass.
Alex then took the team step by step through the moving-heart bypass procedure, taking special care to show how the vessel stabiliser was used to reduce movement of the vessels to be sutured during the movement of the heart.
‘As you can see, Dr Morani, the vessel stabiliser must be adjusted so as not to leave too much coronary artery exposed, otherwise movement is not damped enough, and getting a good quality anastomosis becomes a real struggle,’ Alex explained.
‘Yes, that appears the hardest bit to get right,’ the surgeon agreed. ‘That’s much clearer now—even I could do the anastomosis now that you’ve set it up.’
‘I’m sure you could do as good a job as me, Doctor, but I’d like to do the first anastomosis to show you a couple of tricks to damp down movements between the instruments and the heart.’ He flicked a glance from above his surgical mask in the direction of Amelia. ‘What do you think of the procedure so far, Sister Vialli?’
‘You are obviously well practised in working with the heart,’ she answered.
‘You have to have an intuitive feel for the heart in this type of surgery,’ he said, then, addressing the senior cardiac surgeon beside him, added, ‘Now it’s your turn, Dr Morani. We’ll set up the vessel dampening clamps for the LAD and you can do the second anastomosis.’
Under Alex’s guidance, the fellow surgeon sutured the freed-up internal mammary artery to the LAD distal to its stenosis. Finally, using the Doppler flow meter, Alex was happy that blood flow into the bypassed coronaries was satisfactory and left the senior surgeon and the registrar to routinely close the chest.
As Alex stripped off his gloves and gown he turned from the laundry bin to see Amelia staring at him, and folded his arms across his chest, his dark eyes narrowing and hardening as they met hers. Are you by any chance waiting to speak to me, Sister?’
‘No…no, I was just leaving.’
‘Don’t let me keep you. I’m sure you have plenty of things to do on the ward.’
She wanted to stare him down, but in the end she had to push her pride to one side. ‘Actually I would like to speak to you if I may.’
‘I’ll have to check my diary to see if I can squeeze you in.’
‘I would appreciate it…thank you.’
‘Dr Hunter, there’s a phone call on line one for you,’ one of the scout nurses informed him. ‘It’s a young woman. She wouldn’t give me her name.’
Amelia saw the flicker of something in his dark eyes before he turned away to address the nurse. ‘Can