the time I was three. I heard from him only once after my mother took me back to the States, but I was a man by then and…well…even then he didn’t seem keen to get to know me.’
‘Well, that’s nonsense,’ Glenda snapped back, as if rising to bait. She clutched her hand and winced again, but a little pain wouldn’t stop her defending a man she clearly idolised. ‘I was postmistress in Combadeen for forty years and I can tell you that your father wrote to you every single week, from the day your mother took you away with that awful American. Big fat letters, they were, crammed with everything he could think of. He posted them every Friday. And you know what? Nearly every one of them came back, marked returned to sender. But he still kept sending them. Then about twenty years ago, he went over to the States. “I’m going to find him, Glenda,” he told me, but three months later he came back. He looked dreadful-and he hadn’t seen you. Your mother wouldn’t let him near. Oh, that woman…’
Glenda’s cheeks were pink with indignation, anger building and building. ‘Not that it’s any of my business,’ she said, ‘but to hear you say there was no contact… It makes my blood boil that your mother wouldn’t let him keep in touch. But then he met Hazel. Even then, he and Hazel couldn’t have children and I know he missed you every day of his life.’
There was a deathly silence round the table. Jake looked as if he’d gone into shock, Tori thought. His face was a mixture of conflicting emotions. Maybe she should reach out and touch him. Maybe she could reassure him.
Maybe she should just keep out of what was clearly not her business.
‘You said he met Hazel twenty years ago,’ Jake said, tightly now, angry and disbelieving. ‘Surely you meant thirty. Or more.’
‘Oh, no, dear,’ Glenda said. ‘That was why they couldn’t have children. Hazel was in her early forties when they met. Of course they hoped, but it didn’t happen.’
‘But my mother left because of my father’s affair with this…Hazel.’
‘No, dear, she left because of the American. His name was Chuck or something appalling, and his automobile broke down here and he had to stay until it was mended and then…well, off he went, with your mother. And you. Your father couldn’t believe it. He loved her so much. Oh, but it was never going to work. Your mother hated the life as a wife of a country doctor. She hated the calls, the feeling of everyone knowing everyone, the community. She just hated…here.’
‘Are you a doctor as well?’ Finally Doreen spoke. Her eyes were alight with pleasure-and with something else.
‘Yes.’
‘Oh, my dear,’ Doreen breathed. ‘To think, Glenda, Doc’s son coming home, and a doctor as well.’ And then she looked uncertainly at her sister and then directly at Jake. ‘If you really are his son, I don’t suppose… You know, Glenda won’t go and see a doctor. She broke her wrist dragging me out of the fire. Since she left hospital she won’t go back, and I know it hurts her terribly. Do you think we could trouble you to look at it. Just to tell us what you think?’
‘I’m not sure that I could help-and I don’t have registration to practise in this country,’ Jake said, sounding flummoxed.
‘No, but you could give us advice.’
‘I don’t think I can.’
‘If you’re Old Doc’s son you could try,’ Doreen said, suddenly stern, and Tori remembered she’d been a school- teacher. ‘She’s in such pain. She hasn’t slept for weeks. It hurts and hurts, and she doesn’t tell me but I know she lies awake night after night. She doesn’t want to go to bed because the pain takes over again. I’m so worried about her I don’t know what to do.’ The sternness left her. She sniffed, and then she sniffed again and finally she hiccupped on a sob, while Glenda stared at her in horror, as if she’d been betrayed.
‘Doreen, don’t.’
‘He’s Old Doc’s son. He’ll help us. He even looks like his father.’
‘I didn’t know my father,’ Jake said tightly. ‘You should go back to see your own doctor.’
‘They just give her sleeping pills,’ Doreen retorted, gulping back more tears. ‘Sleeping pills and those other blue things that stop it hurting for a little bit but then her stomach gets upset and she won’t keep taking them. And the sleeping pills don’t work. She can’t go on like this. Neither of us can.’ She touched her chest, a fleeting gesture that spoke volumes. ‘It hurts us both. Please help us.’
‘We have no right to ask,’ Glenda said, sounding angry and distressed.
Glenda was right, Tori thought. They had no right to ask for professional help from this man. He wasn’t even qualified to practise in Australia.
But then, Tori thought of the way he’d worked with Manya, of the skills he’d shown. And he was an anaesthetist, she thought. He’d know about pain management.
Maybe he could help.
And despite her absolute certainty that she should stay out of this, Tori found herself inexorably caught up in Doreen’s plea.
‘Glenda, Jake’s my friend,’ she said softly, ignoring Jake for the moment and concentrating on Glenda. ‘He helped me try and save my koala. Doreen’s right. You knew Jake’s dad so you know him. Will you let him help? Jake, can you see if there’s anything you can do?’
She caught the flare of shock on Jake’s face-but she’d started now. There was no way she could back off.
‘Jake’s also an anaesthetist,’ she told Glenda, firmly but softly. ‘Pain relief is what he does. Isn’t that right, Jake?’
‘Yes.’ He had no choice but to agree.
‘We know you don’t practise medicine in Australia,’ she continued, inexorably hooking him and keeping him hooked. ‘But if all Glenda’s been offered is sleeping pills and little blue pills… Morphine?’
‘Yes,’ Glenda said hopelessly. ‘But my arm’s better. They put a plate in it, and screws. It’s as good as they can get it.’
And then…
‘Can I see?’ Jake said, and it was as if the whole world held its breath.
Glenda stared at him, wide-eyed, and Jake gazed right back, not speaking, giving her time to make up her mind. The room held its collective breath.
And then, very slowly, Glenda held out her arm, and Tori wondered if Jake knew just how much trust went into that gesture.
Glenda had been postmistress in the valley forever, and her independence was legendary. When her postboys called in sick Glenda had been known to get on a bike and deliver herself, often two or three mail runs in the one day. For her to accept help…
But it seemed she was. Jake was pulling his chair round the table so he could sit facing her. Gently he took her hand in his, and while Glenda submitted her arm for inspection, while Tori watched Glenda place her trust in him, the warmth around Tori’s heart grew and grew.
She should be concentrating on Glenda. She was-sort of. But when he’d taken Glenda’s hand in his, it was as if he’d taken her own.
I could be in huge trouble here, she told herself, feeling dazed. I need to leave, right now. If I stay longer…
But she couldn’t leave now.
Jake was holding Glenda’s hand lightly in his, watching Glenda’s face intently. The tension in the elderly woman’s body was palpable. Was she expecting Jake to hurt her?
‘I’m not probing,’ Jake said softly. ‘I’m just touching.’ He rested her hand in his left hand, and touched her damaged wrist with his right, running his forefinger gently up and down her arm, along her fingers, not pressing, smooth as silk.
‘Stop me the minute I make you feel uncomfortable or I hurt you,’ he told her. ‘Stop me the moment I make anything worse.’
She didn’t stop him. He ran his fingers over the back of her palm, over and over, and then cupped her hand and felt that, too. Around her Tori felt the tension ease. Everyone, it seemed, had been holding their breaths. Even Mrs. Matheson, who’d been clearing coffee cups, had paused, riveted.
‘Press my hand,’ Jake was saying. ‘Here. One finger at a time. Can you clench? No? Don’t try, then. What does
