Melbourne. You have Ted Parker in Two with angina. Robby Bradly and Pete Scoresby aged ten and eleven respectively are in Three with multiple abrasions and a couple of green-stick fractures after their cubby house decided to fall twenty feet from a eucalypt. They should be right to go home tomorrow as soon as their respective mothers have recovered from the shock. And Lillian Mark is in Four with anorexia.’
‘May’s told you everything.’
‘I’ve even read the patient notes,’ she told him, and if her voice sounded a wee bit smug, who could blame her? She’d been so out of control it was nice to be able to gather a little bit of normality. Like reading patient notes.
But Harry was frowning. Concentrating. ‘It’s Lillian I wanted to talk to you about,’ he managed. ‘She should be in a psychiatric ward but her parents won’t hear of it. I’m worried about her. There’s the potential for suicide.’
‘She won’t suicide on my patch.’
‘You’re very sure.’
‘I’ve dealt with anorexic kids before.’ She softened. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll talk to her now and I’ll run ward rounds four times a day.’
‘You can’t stay out at that damned holiday unit.’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t. Phoebe’s going to kill herself if I try.’
‘And you can’t be on call out there. You’re the only doctor. You need to be able to be contacted.’
She thought about that and didn’t like it. Twenty-four seven on call wasn’t what she’d intended. ‘You were running out of cellphone range,’ she told him.
‘For half an hour. Because every phone call was about the wedding.’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Heavy, huh?’
‘You have no idea.’
‘So maybe I saved you from a fate worse than death?’
‘Or maybe I’ll just have to go through the whole damned palaver again.’
‘You’re a big boy. You can cope.’ She rose and tilted her head on one side, taking him in. ‘I need to go. May’s trying to find me accommodation where Phoebe’s welcome.’ She sighed. ‘I’m not holding my breath.’
‘Use the doctor’s quarters.’
‘What-your place?’
‘I won’t be there.’
‘You’ll be back in three or four days.’
‘There’s two bedrooms and most of my stuff is at Emily-at our new home.’
She thought about it. Of course. They were marrying. He’d be well out of the doctor’s quarters.
‘You reckon the hospital board will object to Phoebe?’
‘Probably, but tell them it’s a package deal. You and Phoebe or nothing. I think you’ll find they have no choice.’ He closed his eyes and winced again. ‘Hell, when am I due for more morph?’
She checked her watch. ‘I’ll give you some now. You sound like you’re getting addicted.’
‘You have no idea.’
She smiled and rang the bell. Ten seconds later May’s bright face appeared around the door. ‘Problem?’
‘We need a nice healthy dose of morphine so the good doctor can sleep all the way to Melbourne,’ Lizzie told her, and May nodded.
‘Coming right up.’ She hesitated. ‘Though you might want to add a bit for Emily. I think she intends to weep all the way there.’
‘Make her stay,’ Harry said weakly, and May’s eyes creased in sympathy.
‘No can do,’ she said softly. ‘Your fiancee. Your problem. And maybe our Dr Darling has given you breathing space to figure it out.’
CHAPTER THREE
HARRY MCKAY was scheduled to return to Birrini by road ambulance six days after he left. Emily was not to accompany him.
‘She’d organised to take the next three weeks off for her honeymoon,’ May told Lizzie. ‘So now her mother’s decided to take her shopping. She’s figured she can spend the next few weeks shopping for fittings for their new home.’
‘Um…’ They were standing in the nurses’ station. Harry’s ambulance was due any minute and Lizzie was aware of a pinch of nerves. She’d done a decent job holding this little community together, but it was going to be harder having Harry looking over her shoulder. ‘Is Emily usually…?’
‘Neurotic?’ May grinned and shook her head. ‘Nope. Well, maybe. You tell me. She’s been the charge nurse here for the last five years. She’s quiet and competent and sensible. The perfect nurse really. Then our Dr Harry decides she’d be the perfect wife and she loses it completely. I mean…I’ve never seen so much fuss about a wedding in my life.’
‘Harry doesn’t like it?’
‘I think he wonders what he’s got himself into,’ May said bluntly. ‘I have a feeling he chose Emily because she was sensible and now…’
‘He chose her because she was sensible?’
‘Yeah, I know.’ May grinned. ‘Daft, the pair of them. Not like my Tom who chose me because he couldn’t keep his hands or his eyes or his dirty mind off me.’ Her grin deepened. ‘Me and Tom…we’re not exactly sensible but, gee, I love it.’
‘I imagine you do.’ Here was yet another gem of local knowledge. Lizzie was feeling more and more stunned every day she stayed here. In the last week she’d learned more about the individuals who made up the community of Birrini than she knew about anyone in her huge teaching hospital in Queensland. There was no way you finished here at five o’clock and walked out, closing the door behind you. Your patients would greet you in the grocery store or they’d drop in an apple pie they’d just baked or a fish they’d just caught or they’d appear with a bone for the poor wee doggie…
The poor wee doggie was growing huger by the minute. The Birrini population had discovered that Phoebe was the reason Lizzie had come here, so it was a communal responsibility to see her content.
‘I reckon she’s having quads,’ Lizzie muttered, and May looked at her, startled.
‘Who, Emily?’
‘Phoebe.’
‘Your mind’s not running on the one track, then, is it?’
‘No.’
‘Neither is mine,’ May admitted, giving her a sideways glance that was more than a little calculating. ‘It’s running in all sorts of directions.’ She grinned and picked up a bundle of linen behind her. ‘Well, I’ll be off to make up a bed for his lordship. But you know the way my mind’s suddenly heading?’
‘What?’
‘Two weeks without Emily.’ May’s grin broadened. ‘Two weeks without Emily and our Dr McKay is stuck with you and Phoebe and the quads. Very interesting is all I can say. Very interesting indeed.’
Which was nonsense. Lizzie was left staring after her. She wasn’t making sense.
Nothing was making sense.
‘I’ll go and visit Lillian,’ she told herself. Lillian, the anorexic kid in Room Four, was practically the only one of
