It turned out to be easier just to motion to the man with the injured arm, as Dimitris’s attempts at translation weren’t all that intelligible. A careful examination showed that the man had a nasty fracture of his forearm, and Ben climbed back onto Arianna’s boat and found an emergency splint and a sling. He’d leave pain relief to Arianna; the labels on all the drugs packages were in Greek and although he was pretty sure of what everything was, he couldn’t be positive.
Meanwhile, Arianna had called to Georgios and a burns kit was being handed up onto the fishing boat. Not good news. Ben went back to his own patient, carefully inflating the splint around the fracture and positioning the arm in a sling. That should make him more comfortable until they could get him to a hospital, and a thumbs-up and a smile told him that the man was feeling better.
‘Anything else?’ Ben hoped that Dimitris would be able to translate that correctly, and looked at a small cut on his patient’s cheek. The blood was already congealing and there was nothing to suggest any further injury.
‘No. Entáxei... Okay.’ Dimitris glanced over to where Arianna was kneeling over the other man, rapping out instructions in Greek. ‘Go... Go help.’
‘All right. You stay here. Watch him...’ Words and gestures made Ben’s meaning clear and Dimitris nodded, sitting down next to their patient. Finally Ben allowed himself to turn away.
Arianna glanced up at him. ‘His leg is badly scalded by steam from the engine. We can’t tow the fishing boat back; we’ll have to take him on my boat, straight over to the mainland. I’ve called for an ambulance and they’ll meet us back at the hotel marina.’
Ben nodded. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘I’m going to get some pain relief for him; will you finish the dressings, please?’ Arianna was carefully applying cooling gel dressings to the angry-looking burns that ran from the man’s ankle to above his knee.
‘Will do.’ Ben stripped off his surgical gloves, putting on a new pair from the burns kit. ‘While you’re about it, the other guy has a fractured arm. I haven’t given him anything, and I’ve no idea whether or not he’s taken anything already.’
Arianna nodded. ‘Okay, leave it with me. I’ll be back in a minute.’
She spoke to her patient, then got to her feet, stepping back down onto the smaller craft that bobbed in the sea next to the fishing boat. Ben finished applying the dressings, keeping a close eye on his face. The man was clearly in a lot of pain and, although the area covered by the burn wasn’t enough to make hypovolemic shock likely, he was clearly emotionally traumatised by his injury, and that could well provoke a sudden reaction.
Arianna returned and administered a painkilling injection, then walked over to their other patient to check on how he was doing. Georgios passed a stretcher up to the men on the fishing boat, and then caught a line that was thrown down, pulling the two boats together until they were almost touching.
They worked together silently, Arianna finishing the dressings while Ben assembled the stretcher. When their patient was lifted onto it, he groaned in pain and Ben set about packing a blanket around his shoulders and body.
‘Is that...?’ He nodded towards the men, who were now lashing the boats together. Ben wasn’t quite sure how this was going to work.
‘It’ll be fine. These men live on the water; they know how to get a stretcher from one boat to another. Just stay back and do as you’re told.’ She grinned at him suddenly.
‘Aye-aye, Captain.’ Ben shot her a smile, the warmth of the afternoon tingling through his body.
He stood back and did as he was told. Georgios helped the man with the broken arm into a seat and strapped him in, and Arianna secured the stretcher under the sheltered awning at the front of the boat.
‘The blood pressure monitor’s in there.’ She pointed to one of the chests that lined the cabin. ‘Will you keep an eye on him, please?’
Ben nodded. Arianna slid behind the wheel, checking that none of the ropes that secured them to the fishing boat were still in place, and started the engine. They left the stranded fishing boat, the men lined up along the side watching the boat as it headed for the mainland.
The man on the stretcher groaned and retched. The small cabin didn’t give him space to turn him on his side without compromising the careful protection around his leg, and Ben sat him up. Arianna’s concentration didn’t waver as she carefully navigated the waters that were becoming more and more crowded as they neared the mainland. She manoeuvred into the marina, and Ben saw an ambulance waiting for them.
The Greek paramedics who met them were part of one of the best health services in Europe. They were well trained and well equipped, lifting the burns victim out of the boat and into the ambulance quickly. Arianna briefed them on his treatment so far, while Ben helped the other man off the boat and to the back doors of the ambulance.
‘Efcharistó.’ The man held out his uninjured hand to Ben and he took it.
‘You’re welcome. Take care.’ Ben didn’t know how to say that in Greek, although he understood the thank you. It didn’t seem to matter, though, and when one of the ambulance crew came to guide the man into the vehicle, he stopped to shake his hand again.
‘Right then.’ Arianna jumped down from the ambulance and the back doors closed. ‘I suppose we should go and see if the fishing boat still needs a tow.’
There was something brittle about her smile. After her calm efficiency with their patients, the flashed smiles that told him she was happy with the way they’d just fallen into a rhythm of working together, it was slightly odd. When she went to the boat she handed the ignition keys to Georgios, and when the two men made for the cabin, Arianna loitered at the back of the boat, sitting down alone.
He should leave her. Maybe she did have qualms about being on the water after all, and they’d just been submerged in her wish to get to an injured man as quickly as possible. She seemed to want to be alone with her thoughts for a moment and Ben stood next to Georgios, his gaze fixed on the stranded fishing boat ahead of them.
But she was always there. Not just as a bright splash of colour on the edge of his vision, but hovering in his thoughts as he helped Georgios secure the towline, and then moved back up to the front of the boat again. Their progress was slower now, and he watched the small harbour of Kantos, which seemed a lot busier than it had been when they’d left, with people gathering on the dock to find out what had happened at sea.
Arianna was all activity again, jumping off the boat before Georgios had a chance to fix the mooring lines, and making a beeline for a group that was standing together at the end of the quay. She spoke to them intently, and Ben saw her reach for the hands of one of the women. These must be the families of the injured men.
Willing hands reached to catch the mooring lines from the fishing boat. The men joined their families, and in the noise of conversation and questions that he could neither understand nor answer he caught sight of Arianna, surrounded by people.
He wanted to make sure she was all right, but he had to wait his turn. Many of the villagers wanted to speak to Arianna and shake her hand, and when he pushed his way through the gathering crowd he could feel people clapping him on the back.