“AND?”
Folding my arms across my chest, I tried to placate my rising paranoia about Caroline’s health, but the frowning doctor at her side was doing nothing to help calm me.She’d been unconscious for close to half an hour, and even though the medic had arrived with Kaspar in tow shortly after she’d fainted, nothing that he’d done so far seemed to have roused her.
“Wat, is we met haar aan de hand?”I demanded.“What’s wrong with her?”
“Her vitals are mostly normal, Mr.Harper.”He turned to peer back at me, the way he looked over his glasses reminding me briefly of Armitage.My old personal doctor had been as reliable as he’d been discreet.There wasn’t much I missed about life in the Fortorus days, but some of Armitage’s damn attention to detail wouldn’t have gone amiss in the Dutch hotel suite.“Her elevated temperature has settled since I’ve been here.It’s possible that her desire to sleep could be symptoms of a virus.”
“Hang on, what do you meanmostlynormal?”I repeated, wishing the doctor had even an ounce of the respect and urgency my old physician had displayed around me.“What else have you found?”
“Her blood pressure is a little high.”He glanced at the machine attached to the cuff still wrapped around her arm as though he needed its confirmation.“But her age and weight are not indicators of high blood pressure.Has she been under a lot of stress recently?”
My attention darted to Kaspar.“Yes, you could say that.”
“It seems you are both suffering with the high blood pressure.”Her expression was sympathetic, but she offered no more insight to the doctor than that.
“Apparently.”I blew out a breath, unsatisfied with the vague diagnosis.It was beyond sardonic that we’d both been blighted by the same condition in recent days.Ironic, but not surprising.After everything we’d been through, it was a wonder we’d survived at all.
“Listen, Doctor, she hasn’t displayed any other viral symptoms.Can you wake her and assess her again?I really don’t want to leave her like this.”
Staring back at Caroline’s face, the thought solidified.Despite the obvious importance of my upcoming task, there was no conceivable way I could walk out of the hotel with Caroline still unconscious.I had to know that she was okay before I bowed to Ian.
“I understand.”The doctor’s tone was vexingly patronizing.“But it reallyisbetter that we let her sleep.The rest will help her body to heal and recuperate.If she still has symptoms when she wakes, I am happy to return.”
“Great.”My hand balled into a fist at my side.
The problem with the doctor’s condescending plan was that, depending on how long Caroline slept for, I might not even be there when she roused, let alone be able to summon him back to the room.My throat tightened at the prospect, oxygen frustratingly difficult to access as my panic ballooned.
“Can we push the departure times of both ships back?”I directed the question at Kaspar, though surely, I already knew the answer.
Both vessels were scheduled to sail just after daybreak, and there were way too many moving cogs in the British, French and Dutch machines for such lastminute changes.Nobody would care that my reason for living had unexpectedly changed the terms of the deal.
Nobody but me.
“No, I’m sorry.”Kaspar pressed her lips into a hard line.“But we have a few hours before we are due to leave.Perhaps she’ll wake up before then.”
I sensed Kaspar was trying to be helpful, but her hopeful tone washed over me the way a wave might break on a rugged shoreline—futile and pathetic.
“Please watch over her.”The doctor uncuffed Caroline’s forearm and made his way to the door, nodding as though he’d solved all of our problems.“I shall be back.”
I looked on as he left the room, my focus returning to the woman who watched over me like a jailer.I was, I reasoned, still technically in Kaspar’s custody until the deal with the ICC had been finalized, although at that point, I’d come to see her as more of a colleague than a captor.
“She has to be okay.”
My words were more of an affirmation than a conversation-starter, but Kaspar stepped forward as though she sensed she should say something in response.
“I am sure she will be.”Kaspar’s brow creased, the conviction of her tone not matching the certainty of her statement.“I shall return by six o’clock, but do call if anything changes.”
My jaw stiffened at her terse tone.If she thought she was being empathetic, she was failing miserably.“I appreciate what you’ve done for me and Caroline, but honestly, there’s no need for you to accompany me on board Ian’s preposterously named ship, Traditional Values.”
The idea of her coming with me had been niggling for days.“It’s me he wants, and with respect, you have no idea what a man like Ian Jackson is capable of.”
It was hardly her fault.Women who’d been born and bred in countries like Switzerland had never been exposed to the same systematic and ritualistic misogyny that Ian had sculpted into the new political regime.She believed fairness was an intrinsic human right, the same way British women once had.If Caroline had been awake, however, she’d have been able to tell her otherwise.
“I am an officer of the law, Mr.Harper.”She sighed, as if exasperated.“I can handle the situation.Plus, the ICC has tasked me to do so.I will be accompanying you on board.”
I stared at the determination in her eyes, trying to decide if my point was worth arguing over, but I concluded it was not worth the battle.The only woman who truly mattered to me was Caroline, and as to her condition, I still had few answers.
“Fine,” I mumbled as Kaspar spun on her heel and followed the doctor.Closing the door behind her, I turned back to the bed, stalking to the edge of the recently changed bed linen.
