Falling for the Secret Prince
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Alison Roberts
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HarlequinCHAPTER ONE
Trauma Team to ER. Stat.
Yes... DR EMILIA FEATHERSTONE keyed in the response on her pager that she was available and that she was on her way to the ER and then found an apologetic smile for all the other members of Seattle General Hospital’s orthopaedic department, who had gathered in this small lecture theatre to present and discuss current challenging cases.
‘Sorry... Gotta go. Trauma team code.’
She wasn’t really sorry, of course. Emilia was already pushing open the wide door of the lecture theatre and she would be running by the time she hit the stairs. She loved a trauma team code. She loved the buzz of an ER dealing with an incoming major trauma case and she loved being the surgeon who was the ‘go-to’ expert for orthopaedic injuries. This was exactly what she’d worked so hard for, ever since those first days at medical school. And here, at Seattle General, was exactly where she wanted to use her expertise—a bustling, state-of-the-art, big-city hospital that attracted the best of the best.
Like she was now.
Like Domenico di Rossi was. As the head of the ER and the trauma team leader, she knew he’d be waiting outside the main resuscitation area to perform a pre-arrival team briefing. He’d have a trauma checklist in his hand, that had items like allocating roles to key personnel, including the airway doctor, circulation nurse and a scribe. He would be ticking off things like appropriate personal protection equipment for each person such as gowns, gloves and goggles and making sure that drugs were drawn up and monitors prepped along with the kind of special equipment that might be needed like a rapid infuser or chest drain. Not that Dom actually needed a clipboard with an attached checklist at all because this was his area of expertise and he had always been determined to be the absolute best.
They’d had that ambition in common from the first time they’d recognised the other as their main competition for the top position in their class at medical school. It had been a bonus to discover that her old rival was working here when Emilia had joined the staff at Seattle General recently. And it had been even more of a bonus to find not only that their respect for each other’s abilities was still intact but also that oh, so enjoyable banter that had softened the edges of their competitive relationship seemed to be still very much alive and kicking.
Judging by the gleam in those dark eyes of his, Dom was also sharing Emilia’s love of the challenge of a trauma team code. She knew the satisfaction he would have in orchestrating what could turn out to be a complicated response to someone who was critically injured. She suspected there might be another element, whether conscious or not, adding to that satisfaction because, for the moment, he had the advantage over Emilia. This was his space and, as always, he was owning it.
‘Out of breath, Emmy?’ He kept his voice down so that other members of the team, who were already busy donning their PPE couldn’t hear him. ‘Have you thought of taking up a fitness programme?’
He was the only person who called her Emmy. It was like a signal that he was tapping into that old banter and he only did it because he’d found it had bothered her so much all those years ago. It had a familiarity that was almost welcome now, however. Maybe because it had been nice to find a familiar face when she’d started working in a new hospital. Or perhaps it was because her past was so far behind her now, it was another lifetime.
‘Come to the park with me any day, Dom, and I’ll show you who’s fitter.’
Lucas Beaufort, another ER doctor, was tying the strings of his gown as he appeared beside Dom.
‘Another challenge?’ He was grinning. ‘Are you two ever going to stop competing with each other?’
Dom just shook his head. ‘Lucas—you’re on airway, as usual.’
Lucas nodded. ‘All set. Equipment list ticked off and drugs drawn up. We’re good to go.’
Dom mirrored the single nod. ‘Don’t forget your lead apron, mate. You too, Emilia.’ Dom turned away. ‘Where’s our radiographer?’ he called. ‘And has someone put CT on standby in case we need them? What’s the ambulance ETA? Okay...let’s get everyone into Resus, please...’
Lucas and Emilia shared a glance as they reached for the lead aprons that would protect them when X-rays were taken in Resus. They might not know each other particularly well yet but they were the two people in this hospital who probably knew Domenico di Rossi better than anyone else. Emilia because of their shared years at medical school and Lucas because he was Dom’s closest friend. They also had two of the critical roles in this trauma team. The airway was the first step in assessing and stabilising any patient and Lucas would have to deal with any obstruction and perform an intubation if necessary. Emilia would be assessing any injuries that might need surgery and deciding how urgent it was to get someone to Theatre. She was also the team leader support so she could share management with Dom if victim numbers meant that the team would be divided.
‘It’s an MVA,’ Dom informed the medical staff gathered around him moments later. ‘Relatively high-speed skid on black ice, apparently, and the vehicle hit a concrete barrier. There are three, maybe four incoming patients and at least one of them is Status One with a compound femoral fracture and haemorrhage. He’s unconscious which could be due to blood loss but could also be due to a head injury.’
Dom didn’t need to catch Emilia’s gaze to warn her that her input into the assessment and treatment of this patient would be a priority. An open fracture of the femur was a serious enough injury for anyone. If it had severed the femoral artery to cause a haemorrhage the blood loss could well be significant enough to not only explain his level of consciousness but also to give the patient an immediately life-threatening designation.
Someone from Neurology was the last person to join the group, just as the double doors that led to the ambulance bay slid open on both sides of the emergency entrance way. With the doors to Resus One folded back it was possible to see the flashing lights of ambulances against the deep grey of a late November morning sky. They could also see the gurneys starting to roll in and the first one clearly held the case that needed the most urgent attention. The patient was still unconscious. Covered in blood. A man hanging on one side of the gurney, who wasn’t an ambulance officer was also covered in blood and seemed to be holding a pressure bandage in place on the patient’s leg. An older patient, Emilia noted, as the gurney reached the doors of the resus area where the trauma team were waiting to receive the handover.
‘This is Roberto Baresi.’ The lead paramedic started speaking the moment he was within earshot of the team. ‘A seventy-five-year-old male who’s just arrived from Europe. His daughter tells us he speaks both Italian and English. He was a back seat passenger in the MVA and he took the brunt of the impact with a concrete barrier wall.’
The gurney was being positioned beside the resus trolley so that the patient could be transferred. As Airway Doctor, it was Lucas’s job to oversee the transfer, using a log roll so that the plastic slide could be positioned beneath the elderly man. There was a tourniquet in place, Emilia noted, but it didn’t seem to be a hundred percent effective and the face of the man who was trying to keep pressure on the wound was grim enough to suggest that it had already been a battle to control blood loss. Who was he, she wondered, and why had he been given such a critical role in caring for this badly injured man?
‘Open femoral fracture and heavy blood loss estimated at two litres, possibly more,’ the paramedic continued. ‘Patient unconscious with a GCS of seven on arrival. Airway clear and breath sounds equal. Blood pressure was unreadable. He’s had two units of saline and currently has a systolic pressure of eighty.’
Still too low. Emilia glanced at the bags of intravenous fluid now being transferred to hooks over the trolley. Lucas had the patient’s head tilted back to ensure his airway was open, had transferred his oxygen supply to the overhead outlets and was now listening to his chest with a stethoscope. Other staff were working fast to put monitoring in place for heart rate and rhythm, blood pressure and oxygen levels.
The man who’d been doing the haemorrhage control was being moved aside as a new tourniquet was placed and it was possible to see the extent of the wound on the man’s leg which looked serious. The femur—the longest bone in the body—had been broken with enough force to send the ends through tissue and skin, obviously causing damage to important blood vessels on the way.
Emilia’s brain was working as rapidly as it always had. She had the ability to pose questions and then instantly provide a list of what needed to be done to get the necessary information. In a matter of only seconds, she was assessing what she could see of the soft tissue and bone damage, wondering what type of fracture she would be dealing with and getting ready to request X-rays of the entire femur, hip and knee. She would prefer a CT scan of the femoral neck as well.
It might be necessary to scan the man’s brain before she took him to Theatre, too. The gold standard repair using a rod inside the bone to repair a femoral fracture was contraindicated if the patient had a closed head injury because it was critical to avoid low blood pressure or oxygen levels. If that was the case—and both Lucas and the neurosurgical resident were assessing the man’s pupils now—Emilia would have to consider a provisional external fixation for this serious fracture.
More gurneys were in the ER now. A glance over her shoulder showed that one of them had a woman about Emilia’s age on it, who had long, curly black hair. She was sitting up and conscious and another man coming in was walking so neither of them were injured seriously enough to mean it would be necessary to disperse members of the trauma team. They probably wouldn’t even attract the attention of more than the triage nurse.
Or...perhaps they would.
For the first time since this critically injured patient had been rolled into the resus area, Emilia looked towards Dom. He should be at the foot of the bed, watching and processing everything that was happening, ready to direct the team, locate whatever extra resources were needed and to step in at any time if necessary.
He was at the foot of the bed, all right, but his head was turning from one side to the other, looking, in turn, at both the man on the trolley and the girl on the gurney as if he was observing a slow motion game of tennis. And...something was wrong. So wrong that Emilia could feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.
This wasn’t the highly skilled and totally focussed team leader that she knew and respected so much. This was a man who was clearly so rattled, for whatever reason, that he was facing a challenge that appeared to be momentarily overwhelming. She knew he was more than capable of pulling himself together well enough to stay on top of the situation but Emilia’s heart went out to him because she knew how much he would hate to feel like this, let alone to have any of his colleagues seeing it. Plus, he was pale enough for her to wonder if he was unwell in some way himself.
Emilia didn’t hesitate. She could only hope that she had noticed Dom’s predicament before anyone else. She stepped close enough to touch his arm and make sure she had his attention.
‘I’ll take this one, Dom,’ she said. ‘Go... Take as much time as you need...’
Oddio...
It was every doctor’s worst nightmare to have members of their own family brought into an emergency room with potentially life-threatening injuries but, for Dom, it was on a whole next level of complicated.
Nobody could know that this was his family. That this was his father on the resus trolley and it was his sister, Giada, who was on the second gurney. Lucas was the only person at Seattle General who knew why he had such a strained relationship with Roberto but his best friend was the brother Dom had never had and he knew that Lucas wouldn’t dream of breaking that confidence. Besides, as the airway doctor, he was totally focussed on stabilising his patient’s condition right now. He hadn’t looked up so wouldn’t have seen, and recognised, Giada and he probably hadn’t realised the connection between Dom and Roberto thanks to the difference in surnames.
But Emilia had noticed something odd was going on with the same kind of lightning fast mental reflexes he’d learned to expect from her long ago. Not that she could have the slightest idea of what it was about but her concern for his wellbeing was obvious and Dom could feel a wash of gratitude softening the edges of the shock he was still grappling with.
It could have been enough to allow him to push past the personal connection with these patients. To let him stay where he was and not let it affect his clinical judgement but, beyond where Giada was talking to the triage nurse, Dom could see someone else moving calmly, but swiftly enough to suggest urgency, into the ER. Ayanna Franklin, head of PR for Seattle General. Somehow, she must have already found out who was involved in this accident and she knew she had to safeguard their identities.
No wonder she was looking stressed. It would be a PR disaster if it became known that Seattle General was incapable of protecting the privacy of patients who were depending on it because negative publicity could have wide-ranging and very damaging effects. While a small, Mediterranean kingdom might not be globally well known, the fact that Seattle General currently had both a king and a princess as patients would be deemed more than worthy of intense media attention. Dom had been satisfyingly successful in flying under the radar and avoiding that kind of attention for a long time but he hadn’t forgotten how intrusive it could be. Or how far-ranging the effects could be.
Ayanna was speaking quietly to senior nursing staff and Dom needed to know what was being decided. He also needed Ayanna’s help to ensure that his father’s medical history was available to those that needed to know without revealing his own connection. There were three other patients who’d been brought into his ER at the same time as his father so it was perfectly reasonable for Dom to be seen leaving Resus to check up on them, especially when he had someone as competent as Emilia Featherstone to be the team leader for managing this particular patient. Staff members were stepping back anyway, to allow for the radiographer to get the images needed, so it was easy to keep moving.
Emilia had known what he needed more than he did, apparently, and that was enough time to get his head around what was happening. And to find out why his father was even in the country way before his planned visit in a few weeks’ time. Dom needed the sanctuary of his own office so he could make some private phone calls to the palace but he couldn’t go there yet. Not until he could be sure that the other people involved were being taken care of, and his younger sister was obviously going to be at the top of that list.
Except that she didn’t seem to want his attention. He couldn’t even catch her gaze as he walked towards her. The gurney she was on was already being wheeled towards one of the private examination rooms rather than the curtained cubicles that were the usual destination for minor to moderate cases. If that had been something Ayanna had suggested to the staff to protect privacy then Dom approved of the plan. It also meant that he could have a private conversation with her but, as he got close enough to speak to her, she shook her head.
‘I’m fine,’ she murmured, the assurance definite but so quiet that no one else could hear. ‘Just look after Papa and the others. Go...’
She was the second woman to tell him to ‘go’ within the space of only minutes. Emilia had only been worried about his own wellbeing but Dom knew that Giada would be concerned about so many others. She had devoted her life to being the perfect Princess and their father’s closest aide and she would know how devastating it would be to their people to hear what was happening when the family members weren’t in a position to offer any personal reassurance.
The other people involved in this accident, his father’s driver Giorgio and his bodyguard, Logan were still waiting for triage and perhaps, they would also be given the shelter of more private rooms. Dom wanted to thank Logan for the potentially life-saving treatment he’d provided for Roberto in controlling that haemorrhage but, again, it would have to wait because he couldn’t allow other staff members to realise they had a personal connection. Besides, Ayanna was clearly keen to talk to him as soon as possible. He followed her into another private room and closed the door behind them.
‘It’s okay,’ was the first thing Ayanna told him. ‘For now, we’ve got this covered. Nobody knows that the royal family is here. It’s still a secret, as originally planned, and all hospital staff are under strict instructions not to talk about their identities, as per the King’s demand.’
‘Why are they here so early? It’s three weeks until his scheduled surgery.’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps he wanted to settle in and feel comfortable in the place he’s going to be recuperating?’ Ayanna shook her head. ‘At least we already had all the plans in place. I’ve contacted his neurosurgeon as well. Max Granger?’
Dom’s nod was curt. Without revealing his own relationship with the foreign dignitary who’d chosen Seattle General for his medical treatment, Dom had used his connections to secure the interest of one of the best neurosurgeons the world had to offer. It was at least something he could do to help his family, after his father had received that shocking diagnosis of a brain tumour. Suggesting his own hospital for the surgery had been a way to keep the news private for longer. It also meant that Dom could be sure that Roberto would get the best of care.
‘He was attending a conference in Vancouver but he’s already on his way back. He was very concerned to hear that the King may have a head injury.’ Ayanna glanced at her watch. ‘I’ve got to run. I’m going to collect him at the airport and bring him here.’
Stepping out of the private room, Dom’s progress towards his office was interrupted by another young woman—one of his ER nurses, this time.
‘What’s up, Kat?’
‘It’s one of our patients from the MVA. Giada Baresi.’
‘Is there a problem?’ Dom was careful to keep his tone as neutral as possible.
‘Could be. She’s got a bit of bruising from a seatbelt but she’s also injured her wrist. It’s not an obvious fracture but we’ll need an X-ray to be sure and she’s refusing to have one.’ Kat was frowning. ‘And that’s not the only thing...’
‘Oh?’
‘Well...it’s strange but she’s insisting she’ll only see one doctor from the department. Lucas Beaufort?’
This time, Dom simply raised an eyebrow as a response because he needed a moment to process yet another level of complication. He looked across the department to where the doors of Resus One were folded back again. Roberto was obviously stable enough to be moved—probably to have a CT scan, unless he was going straight to Theatre, but in either case, Lucas would be available very soon. Giada knew Lucas because he’d helped to entertain her a few months ago, when she’d arrived for a visit on a weekend when Dom had an obligation to be out of town to deliver a keynote address at a conference. Was this another attempt to protect Dom’s own identity because Giada was afraid she might accidentally say something revealing?
He nodded to Kat. ‘That’s fine,’ he told her. ‘And, yes, I know it’s unusual but this is a special case.’
A special, rather chaotic case right now but his department was working like clockwork and he knew that everyone involved was getting the best of care. Dom wasn’t needed and, in all honesty, he would not be at the top of his game with so many things hammering at his brain from so many directions. Even if it was only for a few minutes, he simply had to escape.
He had phone calls to make. Both he and Giada needed to be kept informed, about their father’s condition but it had to be done discreetly for everyone’s sake. She had Lucas with her now which was a good thing because Dom had a lot to do. Palace officials needed to be informed about the accident and there were undoubtedly plans already in place in case the upcoming surgery didn’t turn out to be the success they were all hoping for. Succession plans that were inevitably going to turn Dom’s life upside down. He suspected that the reason his father had arrived in Seattle so early had been to ensure that he was going to be ready to do his duty—to his family and to his country. That, even if the surgery was successful enough to give Roberto many more years, it was still time for Dom to return home and become the new King. That the time had finally arrived when he had to give up the career he was so passionate about.
The calm space of his office was a complete contrast to the controlled chaos of a busy ER but it wasn’t enough to relieve the tension Dom was under. If anything, as he lifted the phone to make his first international call, it was steadily increasing. Call after call needed to be made. Shocked people had to be spoken to at length and arrangements had to be planned, confirmed and double-checked. It was astonishing how much time it took and how little it was doing to ease the tension. How was his father?
Was he even still alive...?
Fear that he might never be able to speak to his father again ramped up that tension even further. The need to tell Roberto that, despite the distance Dom had kept for so many years, he still loved his father very much. Guilt was snapping at the heels of that fear as well. If he’d done his royal duty all along instead of insisting on following his dream of becoming a doctor, this accident might never have happened in the first place. He could have lost his sister along with his father if that accident had been any worse and his country would have never forgiven him. He would have never forgiven himself.
With a groan, Dom buried his face in his hands, his elbows on his desk.
Oh...dear Lord...
She should have knocked before opening the door of this office. For a horrified moment, Emilia stared at what seemed to be a more broken version of Domenico Di Rossi than she could have ever imagined.
She ducked backwards just as quietly, pulling the door with her and then knocked on it loudly enough to be a warning. As she opened it again, in response to his call to enter, she knew her instincts had been correct. Dom would have been as horrified as she was to know that she’d seen him like that. He’d dropped his hands from his face now and he was watching the door to see who was coming into his office with an expression that suggested he was ready to deal with anything.
‘I was told you wanted an update on Roberto Baresi.’ Emilia kept her tone completely professional. ‘I didn’t realise that he was such a VIP until I came out of Theatre. It’s all very hush-hush, though, isn’t it?’
‘How is he?’
Dom seemed to freeze after his curt query, waiting for her response, and the tension in this office was palpable enough to make Emilia blink. What on earth was going on, here?
‘I’m not sure. He’s still in Theatre.’
‘What?’ The frown on Dom’s face turned his focus on her into a glare. ‘What are you doing down here, then?’
‘Because my part in his surgery is completed. We had to rush him to Theatre because he was still losing blood. We got some X-rays but there was no time for a CT scan—of either his leg or his head. We controlled the haemorrhage, repaired the artery and stabilised the fracture but his condition was deteriorating. He’s now with a neurosurgeon who was apparently flown in specially to treat him.’ Emilia was still astonished by this superstar treatment. ‘Right now he’s being operated on to deal with a subdural haemorrhage due to his head injury.’
‘Oh, no...’
Dom closed his eyes and Emilia could see him dragging in a deep breath as if this news was a body blow of some kind.
‘What’s going on, Dom?’ she asked quietly.
His eyes snapped open. ‘Nothing. Why do you ask?’
It was her turn to glare at him. ‘Something’s being covered up,’ she said. ‘And, if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s dishonesty. I’ve known you long enough to know that you’re lying, Dom, and...and I don’t think I deserve that. Do you?’
They’d always been rivals rather than friends but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a connection between them. A connection that was strong enough to make Emilia want to help Dom. Perhaps she cared about him more than she’d ever realised, in fact?
And maybe he could feel that connection, too. Because he was shaking his head in response to her query. The shake morphed into a slow nod.
‘You deserve to know. Maybe I should have told you a very long time ago.’
‘Told me what?’
This was something serious, wasn’t it? Something that she was somehow involved in already, if it went back into their shared past? There was a beat of something darker than curiosity for Emilia now. She didn’t like secrets. They could be considered a form of lying by omission as far as she was concerned. Dishonesty was more than simply something she disapproved of. It was right up there with not being able to trust someone and she knew, all too well, how that could destroy someone’s life.
‘I can’t talk now.’ Dom shook his head. ‘There are others who need to know what’s happening with Roberto and I need to talk to his surgeon when he comes out of Theatre.’
‘That might not be for ages—he’s only just gone in. You’ll know a lot more about what’s happening if you wait a while.’ She held his gaze. ‘And maybe whatever you think I “deserve” to know is something I should know before I see him again myself.’ Surely Dom couldn’t miss the hint of anger in her tone—a warning, even—but it was justified as far as Emilia was concerned. If the information that she hadn’t been told meant that her patient hadn’t received the best care she could possibly provide then Dr di Rossi was going to find out just how angry she was capable of getting. ‘And that will be as soon as Roberto’s been admitted to post-operative intensive care so the clock’s ticking.’
Quick analysis of a situation and then decision making was more like the man Emilia knew. He barely hesitated.
‘Fair enough.’ This time, the nod was as curt as the tone. ‘But we can’t talk here. It’s not private enough.’ Dom moved swiftly to open the door of his office. ‘Come with me.’
