She’d seen his face as he’d followed Doreen to the ambulance. There was no choice in what he had to do. He’d care for the old lady, he’d do his best, but he was thrown.
What had Doreen said? He’d come home.
He was a long way from home.
She was sitting outside Glenda’s bedroom. The French windows were open, and when finally she heard her stir she went in to tell her what had happened. To her surprise Glenda seemed almost relieved.
‘I knew something was wrong. I’ve been so worried, but all she’d do was worry about me. I had to pull her out of the fire. I was sure she’d collapsed and it wasn’t from the smoke but everyone was so busy… They just treated the burns.’ She sat up in bed and nursed her bad wrist and she looked almost happy. ‘And Old Doc’s son is with her. Jake. Jake’s home. I’m sure she’ll be fine.’
She had breakfast, refusing to be worried, her faith in Jake absolute. When Rob offered to take her to the hospital, to relieve Jake, to bring him home, she accepted with pleasure.
They left-and finally Tori went back to bed.
It didn’t make any sense at all, but it kept playing, and she slept with it in her head.
It was midday before Jake drove Rob’s car back to the lodge.
Doreen had been transferred to the large teaching hospital in the city-without Glenda accompanying her. Stubborn and Independent R Us, described the two sisters, Jake thought wryly. They worried about each other and not themselves. Thus, ‘You stay here and get that hand seen to,’ Doreen ordered Glenda as she was wheeled away to the waiting ambulance on her way to get a cardiac stent.
Rob offered to stay on with Glenda. He had things to do in town and was happy to wait, if Jake came back later in the afternoon to pick them both up. That should have left Jake free to return to the lodge, but the Combadeen hospital was short-staffed, and once she’d heard the story of Glenda’s hand, once Glenda told her what Jake did for a living, the local doctor grabbed him and held.
‘If you’re an anaesthetist I’d like some solid advice,’ she said, so firmly he had nowhere to go. ‘I can’t get Glenda into see a specialist before the end of the month, yet I can’t have her in this level of pain until then. If she’d told me…’
It seemed she hadn’t. Discharged from hospital, Glenda had made perfunctory follow-up visits to the city outpatients and then had simply ceased complaining.
‘Neuropathic pain’s horrible,’ Dr. Susie Fulton said gently to Glenda, still fixing Jake with a gimlet eye. He wasn’t escaping on her watch. ‘But anaesthetists are better at diagnosing it than family doctors. So can you bear Dr. Hunter examining you fully, so he can tell us what he thinks is going on? That way I can care for you until we get you some specialist help.’
‘Jake
‘Charlie McDonald?’ The plump little country doctor straightened and beamed. ‘Charlie’s son? Oh, my dear, have you come home?’
‘No,’ Jake said shortly. ‘This is not my home.’
But as he examined Glenda with a lot more care than he’d done the night before, as he gave solid advice, and then finally as he drove back to the lodge, the phrase kept playing in his head.
Had he come home?
Of course he hadn’t. This could never be home.
Why not?
It didn’t make any kind of sense. This was the place his mother hated.
‘The walls closed in on me in that place,’ she’d told him. ‘Everyone knew everyone else’s business. You couldn’t get away. Your father was everyone’s best friend. Everyone thought he was their own property. Everyone thought I was their property. It’s claustrophobic-people clutching you, needing you, you can’t imagine.’
He could imagine. Doreen had clutched him, and as soon as Glenda arrived at the hospital she’d done her own clutching. Then the local doctor. Even Rob…
‘Great that you were here,’ he’d said. ‘You know, if you were to consider staying, this valley needs doctors more than it needs rain.’
It was as though he was being hammered. Too much had happened too fast. And on top of the myriad emotions he was feeling towards a family he felt he no longer knew, he’d made love to a woman who’d twisted his heart.
Was it only two days ago that he’d met her?
Disturbed, and tired beyond bearing, he pulled the car over to the verge and closed his eyes. He desperately needed to sleep. A power nap would keep him going, and it’d also clear his mind. He’d used this technique often during his career, when things were closing in on him, seemingly too difficult. He’d simply stop, clear his mind of everything, sleep a little and, when things percolated back, the white noise would be gone and only the urgent issues would stay.
He lay back in the car seat, letting everything fade. Maybe he slept for a little. When he opened his eyes a flock of white cockatoos had landed in the paddock beside the car. They were screeching and wheeling like something in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
And yes, things were clearer.
No matter the pressures mounting on him, he didn’t belong here. No matter that it had been his father’s home, it wasn’t his home. The screeching of these unfamiliar birds cemented it.
But Tori…
Tori was different. The thought of her was front and centre in his mind, still right where she’d been when he’d gone to sleep. She was one special woman.
The white noise was the claustrophobia of this environment, of the needs of this valley. That had to be removed. It had nothing to do with him. Tori was separate.
Maybe they couldn’t be separated.
Well, if not… He had no place here. His life, his work, his future were in Manhattan. The past two days had changed nothing.
Except he might have fallen very hard for a woman called Tori.
Tori rang the hospital as soon as she woke. ‘Things are fine,’ Susie told her. ‘Doreen’s already in Melbourne North Western. She’s seen a cardiologist and they’re putting a stent in later this afternoon. It seems a relatively straightforward block and amazingly there looks to be little long-term damage. He thinks she’ll be fine. Glenda’s still here. Jake told me your suggestion about the hand therapist, and she’s with her now. Jake’s lovely, by the way. Glenda says he was your five-minute date. How about that?’
She blushed. Nothing was secret in this valley.
‘He’s nothing to do with me.’
‘No, dear, but if you could have him be something to do with you I’d very much appreciate it,’ Susie said briskly. ‘The valley needs someone like him so much, and his father’s reputation has gone before him. People would trust him.’
‘He lives in the States.’
‘He has houses here,’ Susie pointed out. ‘So if you could think of any way to make him stay…’
‘Suse…’
‘Just saying,’ Susie said and laughed. ‘Is he home with you now?’
‘No.’
‘He should be soon, then. Rob’s got a couple of things to do in town. The arrangement is that Jake’ll bring back the car at five and pick up Rob and Glenda, so that gives you a whole lot of time all by yourselves. So see what you can do, my dear. I’ve been advertising for a partner for years. If you can do it with one five-minute date I’ll be very pleased indeed.’
She chuckled and disconnected. Tori stared at her phone as if it was poison.
The valley gossips had been at it already.
