Her first impression of competence had been absolutely right, Fern thought fleetingly. Quinn Gallagher was attuned to emergency medicine with the skill of years of training behind him. His hands wasted not a second.

Leads attached, Quinn squatted back on his heels and pulled Fern back with him.

‘Now.’

He put his hand on the switch and Maud’s limp body jerked in spasm. Before she was still Fern was back breathing into her lips. Breathe, pump, one, two, three…

‘Again.’ Quinn pulled her back.

Breathe…

“Again…’

It wouldn’t work.

Please…

Fern breathed deeply once more into her aunt’s lips but then Quinn was hauling her back, his strong fingers holding Maud’s wrist and the defibrillator put aside.

‘We have a pulse,’ he said softly. ‘Give it a minute, Fern…’

Fern stared wildly down. Her own breath had stopped. She was scared to take the next breath.

‘Please…’

She said the word aloud. It echoed round and round the crowded room and suddenly there was an answer to her plea.

Maud took a rasping, ragged breath that was painful to hear but it was the sweetest sound that Fern had ever heard. She stared down as Maud’s chest heaved, hardly daring to hope.

Maudie breathed again, and again, and her breathing settled into a harsh but steady rhythm.

‘We have life,’ Quinn said with quiet satisfaction.

Without pause, he turned to the oxygen cylinder he’d dragged up the stairs with him and started to join a mask to the tubing. The next priority was to get as much oxygen into Maud’s starved bloodstream as he could. ‘How long without oxygen, Dr Rycroft?’

‘How long…?’

Fern bit her lip. There were tears streaming down her face and she wiped them away with a lace-trimmed sleeve. How long? Quinn was asking how long Maud hadn’t been breathing.