‘What, a whole trout?’
‘And the rest. Honestly, Harry, you’re not stable and you know it. You can’t fillet. You shouldn’t even be standing up. Let’s eat one of these casseroles.’
‘When we can eat trout? No way.’
‘Then teach me to fillet,’ she told him.
He looked at her, considering. ‘Really?’
‘Really. If I can wear the pink pinny.’
‘I’ve got two. You’re on.’
The time spent cleaning and stuffing the fish was probably one of the silliest half-hours she’d ever spent in her life. Dressed in his frilly apron, Harry turned into ‘Professor of Anatomy-Fish’ and proceeded to guide her though the incredibly delicate operation of preparing one trout for consumption.
‘I’m sure fishermen don’t go to this trouble,’ she protested, but he shook his head.
‘No. Of course not, but we’re not fishermen, Dr Darling. We’re surgeons.’
‘Speak for yourself.’
‘Well, I’m a surgeon,’ he told her. ‘You will be as soon as you conquer gills.’
‘You’re a surgeon?’
‘Mmm.’ He seemed almost embarrassed.
‘A qualified surgeon?’
‘Yes. There’s some scales-’
But she was distracted. ‘What’s a surgeon doing here? In Birrini.’
‘Practising medicine. Watch your scales, Dr Darling.’
‘But you don’t have an anaesthetist.’
‘Good noticing.’
‘So you practise your surgery on awake patients?’
‘I don’t practise surgery at all.’ All of a sudden the laughter left his eyes and she looked up at him in concern.
‘Then why are you here? In Birrini?’
‘I want to be here,’ he told her, his voice clipped and strained. ‘Now…back to the fish.’
She could take a hint. He wanted the subject changed. Don’t probe, his voice had said, and she was a champion at not probing. Though there were some questions that had to be asked.
‘Tell me where you got these aprons,’ she begged, and the laughter flashed back again. It was the way he liked it, she thought. Light and shallow. Frilly apron shallow.
‘Emily was given six aprons at her hens’ night. Six different colours. All with frills. No one gave me anything as cool as that at my bachelor do. I couldn’t resist.’
‘She gave them to you?’
‘I pinched some,’ he told her. ‘I didn’t see why such fine couturier fashions should be the domain of women only.’
‘Emily knows you’re wearing them?’
‘Emily doesn’t know the half of it,’ he told her, and then under his breath he added a rider. ‘Thank God.’
The trout was delicious. So was the vegetable casserole they had with it and the rhubarb pie that appeared just as they were clearing the dishes. The elderly man who arrived on the back porch bearing the pie beamed at the pair of them as they opened the screen door to greet him.
‘Mabel said you’d maybe appreciate this seeing the doctor’s off his leg.’ He produced a ham bone as well. ‘And this is for the pooch. Goodnight to the pair of you.’ And he disappeared as swiftly as he’d come. Birrini hospitality. Amazing!
Even Phoebe was impressed. Lizzie’s dog was practically beaming with contentment. She lay on the porch and slobbered over her bone and Harry ate his pie and looked out at her with wonder.
‘Phoebe was your grandma’s dog?’
‘Yep.’
‘She’s not exactly a suitable dog for an old lady.’
‘My grandma wasn’t exactly a suitable old lady,’ Lizzie told him, smiling at the memory of the old lady she’d loved. ‘Grandma was a palaeontologist. World renowned.’
‘A…a what?’
‘A palaeontologist. She studied dinosaurs. Grandma spent her time travelling the world, collecting bones. It was only the last few years of her life that she was stuck in Australia. So Phoebe became the love of her declining years.’
‘Which explains Phoebe’s love of bones.’ Harry grinned at Phoebe who was attacking the ham bone like all her Christmases had come at once.
Lizzie smiled, but she was still thinking about Grandma. The old lady’s death was still raw in her heart, and it was good to talk about her. ‘Grandma’s bones were generally a whole lot older than this one,’ she told him. ‘I spent my childhood dusting and sorting and figuring out which bone went where. Maybe that’s why I became a doctor.’
He was watching her across the table, his face curious. ‘You lived with your grandma?’
‘I went to boarding school while she travelled. But, yes, I lived with her.’
‘Where were your parents?’
‘They were killed in a light plane crash when I was seven. I can barely remember them, but what I can…they were great. I loved them very much. That’s why I can’t change my name.’
‘You’d change it if you could?’
‘It’s a bit hard,’ she admitted, ‘to go through your life being a Darling.’
‘I guess it must be.’
‘And you?’ she asked, and Harry looked a question. ‘Tell me about you. Where are your parents?’
‘Sorry?’
‘They weren’t here for the wedding,’ she said. ‘At least, they weren’t here when you were injured. You mostly seemed to be surrounded by Emily’s family.’
‘I don’t have a family.’
‘They’re dead?’
‘I just don’t have a family.’
That was all he was telling her. They finished eating and then she shooed him outside to sit on the porch while she did the dishes. He protested, but she was adamant. As she cleaned up the kitchen she was aware of him- watching her.
What was it with him? When she’d first met him she’d thought of him as a carefree young family doctor about to be married. Now…there were depths, she thought. Shadows.
She shouldn’t probe. She should let him be. As soon as Phoebe had her pups she’d be out of here, and this man and the little community he cared for would mean nothing to her any longer.
Don’t get involved. That’s what her heart was screaming, but she wasn’t listening. She finished cleaning and then walked outside to join him.
‘Aren’t you cold?’ The night was clear and crisp. From the back porch you could see right across the little township down to the sea beyond. The sea was almost half a mile from here, but the moon was full and a ghostly sheen was washing over the waves.
Beautiful.
‘I’m not thinking of cold,’ Harry told her. ‘I’m thinking I’m really pleased to be back home.’
‘It’s not much fun being in hospital.’
‘It’s not much fun being in the city.’
She looked at him curiously but he was a million miles away. He’d propped his crutches by the rail and had sunk down onto an ancient cane settee. He didn’t look the successful young doctor now, she thought. He’d discarded the apron-thankfully. He was in his shorts and battered sweatshirt and his leg with the brace on was resting on a stool in front of him. But it was more than his clothes and his injured leg, she thought. He was gazing out at the sea and
