Mike could hardly breathe. His lungs were hurting. The sheer effort of not taking this girl in his arms was almost killing him.
But he didn’t need to. Tessa had no need of assistance. She had things in hand here, and she knew very clearly what she intended.
‘So just shut up, lie back and let me introduce you to a lady who intends to be the love of your life, Mike Llewellyn,’ she whispered. ‘And in case you hadn’t guessed-that’s me.’
Her nose descended a further two inches and Mike found himself being solidly kissed-and for the life of him he couldn’t put up one skerrick of resistance. Somewhere inside him a weight was being lifted which had been almost too heavy to bear, and he hadn’t known he was carrying it. He had sworn he’d never love, but he hadn’t known what love was. He had sworn off commitment, but he hadn’t known that commitment could be as sweet as this.
That a woman could feel like this in his arms… She felt as if she belonged right where she was-as if she were part of him. As if she were the completeness of his whole.
The last of his resistance crumbled. He held Tess to him and her body moulded itself to his in the soft autumn sunlight. At the touch of her body against his, Mike felt his vows slip away as if they’d never been.
Vows? What vows? They must have been unimportant things, made on the mistaken premise that he couldn’t be committed to his medicine if he loved a woman.
He could be. This woman was his partner. He still could be committed, he told himself fiercely, because he had to be. Because, like it or not, he was wholly and wonderfully committed to the woman in his arms.
His Tessa.
CHAPTER NINE
THE next weeks passed like a dream, with Mike feeling as if a whole new world had opened up for him. Life was brighter, clearer-fantastic!
Everywhere he moved, there was Tessa.
Tessa’s registration came through incredibly speedily. Her medical credentials, it seemed, were impeccable. The medical registration board thought so, and, on reflection, so did Mike.
The town was lucky to have her. Mike was lucky to have her-he just couldn’t believe that it was happening. He felt like pinching himself to ensure its reality.
But Tess was real enough.
Mike watched her as she assisted him in rejoining Jason’s torn Achilles tendon and he couldn’t fault her anaesthetic skill.
He listened to her counsel Doreen, fiancee of Les Wade’s nephew, Hugh. Doreen had drifted to Tess rather than Mike, wanting a female shoulder to cry on. Hugh was still in Melbourne where his uncle had started the long process of rehabilitation for his burns. Doreen and Hugh had postponed their wedding and Doreen was wavering between support of Hugh and fear that Hugh’s guilt might prevent the marriage altogether.
Mike could only marvel at the way Tess stayed silent and let Doreen spill out her guilt and her anguish. The walls between the room Tess used as a surgery and the room Mike used as a file room needed to be soundproofed- long term there were all sorts of arrangements to be made if Tess was to stay-and Doreen’s anguish was loud. Mike, sitting alone as he wrote up patient notes, could hear every word.
There were only gentle murmurs from Tess, though. Tess knew when to stay silent, as well as when to bounce with enthusiasm.
‘Why don’t you go to Melbourne and stay with Hugh?’ she suggested softly, when Doreen had sobbed herself dry. ‘Hugh will be feeling dreadful and that’s where you should be. At his side.’
Doreen finally left, still sniffing into her handkerchief but comforted all the same. ‘Are you sure it’d be OK?’ she asked as Tess saw her to the door. ‘I mean…our relatives all blame us for sleeping together in the first place. They think that’s one reason why Les is in the mess he’s in. If I go to Hugh now…’
‘You follow your heart,’ Tess suggested gently. ‘If you think it’s right, don’t let anyone else stand in your way.’
Follow your heart…
Then Mike watched the way Tess helped her grandfather find his feet again. She spent hours assisting him to make his unsteady way along the hospital corridors, as if she had all the time in the world, and as if spending hour after hour watching an old man learn the skills of using a walking-frame was the most important thing she could possible be doing.
Henry thrived under her care, and Mike couldn’t believe the speed of his recovery.
Tess got to know the locals. She introduced herself to every player of the Jancourt Football Club, and took the job of learning the rules of her new-found passion deadly seriously. To Mike’s astonishment, she even started knitting a scarf in team colours.
‘I think I’ll do two matching ones,’ she told him, clacking away at her knitting needles with the seriousness of a grandmother. ‘Or maybe just one long one so we can wear an end each…’
And at night…
At night the farm lay empty. Tessa had cleaned it so she could stay there, and she still visited Doris and her babies each night and checked on the place, but late each night she returned to town and she took Mike into her arms-and she slept exactly where she wanted to be. With her Mike.
Even Strop seemed to approve. When Tess was there the dog left the bed to them, and in Tessa’s body Mike found a peace he’d never thought to have.
Life had never been this good, Mike thought blissfully as he loved his woman. Mike had never known-never dreamed-it could be so good.
He held his love in his arms and he loved her-but only half of him believed in his good fortune. The other half of him knew he was living in a soap bubble.
‘Hey, I’m not about to disappear,’ Tess teased gently on the anniversary of their first two weeks together. ‘I’m here for good.’
Mike didn’t believe it, but he held her just the same.
In a town like Bellanor it was impossible to keep such a relationship a secret. After that first night-when Mike had emerged to Monday morning after a night spent with Tessa-he had been met with knowing looks and laughter.
‘Bloody good thing too, Doc.’ That was the general consensus. ‘What took you so long?’
So long… A whole three days…
By the end of the two weeks the general approval was becoming laced with a stronger message.
‘So, when are you going to make an honest woman of her, Doc? Get a mother for that crazy mutt of yours…?’
Marriage…
Mike had never thought of such a thing, but, once suggested, the idea stayed in his mind and wouldn’t leave. He looked at it from all sides and knew his vow had definitely been broken already. He could hardly make it worse.
That night, Tess came with him when he did his weekly house call to Stan Harper. Stan was still suffering his chest pains and Mike was increasingly worried about him. His heart seemed strong and healthy, and yet Stan himself seemed to be almost fading.
‘I’m just feeling bloody lousy, Doc,’ Stan told him with an apologetic look at Tess. ‘Pardon my French, miss.’
Tess had been sitting at ease at Stan’s kitchen table while Mike listened to Stan’s chest, and her face was sympathetic. ‘I don’t understand Australian swear words,’ Tess lied. ‘I’m trying to get Mike to teach them to me but he likes me unspoiled. I know “damn” means more than just a big puddle of water, but do you think he’ll explain? No way!’
Stan chuckled and his misery lifted for a little while-but only for a little while.
