‘You mean-once the bridge is rebuilt?’
‘Yes. How many live in a twenty-mile radius?’
She thought about it. ‘A lot,’ she said at last. ‘The farms here are small and close together-the rainfall’s good and farmers can make a living on a small holding.’
‘And all those farmers go to Bowra with their medical needs?’
‘You’re very curious.’
‘Indulge me.’
She gave him an odd look-but what was the harm after all? ‘They go to Blairglen mostly,’ she told him. ‘There’s no specialists at Bowra-only Doris.’
‘But Blairglen’s more than a hundred kilometres away.’
‘People travel. They must.’
She sounded odd, he thought. Strained. Well, maybe he’d asked for that. He’d kissed her. She was a perfectly respectable affianced woman. She had nothing to do with him-and he’d kissed her.
He’d really like to do it again.
Instead he sighed, climbed out of the car and walked around to help her out. She’d waited-as if she knew that he’d come and she welcomed the formality of what he intended. It was a strange little ritual and it had the effect of heightening the tension between them.
Help. When would the rain stop? When would they organise a ferry across the river? An escape route?
He needed it-because he wasn’t at all sure what was happening here. Or maybe he was sure and he didn’t know what the heck to do with it.
Their lives were worlds apart and that was the way they had to stay.
So somehow-
Amy was a practical, efficient, hardworking and committed nurse, he thought desperately. She wasn’t wearing anything to entice. Right now she had on faded jeans, a soft cotton blouse and a pair of casual moccasins.
She was dressed for hard work. She was dressed in clothes so old no woman of his acquaintance would have been seen dead in them!
So why did he really badly want to…?
What?
He didn’t know.
Or he did know. He just didn’t want to admit it.
The Iluka nursing home was looking more and more like an acute hospital. It was busy, bustling and alive with a sense of urgency that had never been there before. Even the front of the nursing home had more cars than usual- this was the scene of the only action in Iluka and no one, it seemed, wanted to be left out. If they didn’t have family here, the residents had friends-or maybe even just a sore toe, and maybe this charismatic young doctor could be persuaded…
This charismatic young doctor was feeling more and more out of his depth by the minute.
Bertram bounded out of the wreckage-mobile as the car drew to a halt in Amy’s parking bay. They’d collected him on the way because of the residents’ delight in him the day before, and he was greeted with even more pleasure than they were.
‘Bertram.’ Lionel Waveny’s old face creased in delight as the dog appeared, and he put a hand proprietorially in his collar. ‘Come with me, boy.’ He was grinning like a school kid given a day off. ‘Marigold’s here,’ he told them. ‘She tells me she’s probably got an overactive thyroid and she’s sleeping in the room next to mine. She’s feeling a lot better this morning but what she really needs is a visit from Bertram to cheer her up.’
‘Go right ahead,’ Joss told him, and Amy could only stare.
‘I swear… Joss, yesterday that man could hardly remember his wife’s name.’
‘Dogs do that to people.’ Joss looked at the old man’s retreating back and Bertram’s waving plume of a tail with satisfaction. ‘Pet therapy. It’s well documented. You want me to order you a dog or two as resident therapy?’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Just say the word.’
It was too much for her. Amy subsided into silence-which was just as well. They opened the doors to the sitting room and anything they said would have been drowned out straight away by baby screams. Ilona was being washed in preparation for her morning feed, and she was objecting in no uncertain terms to the violation of her small person.
The day took over.
Sue-Ellen greeted them as they walked in the door with a request for Joss to ring Emma’s parents. To have their child so ill with no way of reaching her was making them feel desperate, and they wanted their daughter’s progress given to them by a
This felt terrific, Amy thought contentedly as Joss read through Sue-Ellen’s change-over notes. She stared around at the buzzing sitting room. Three of her oldies were helping bathe the baby and there were a couple more looking on with pleasure. One of those watching was Jock Barnaby. Jock had stared at the floor and nothing else since his wife had died two years ago!
Amazing!
What else? The knitting club-five ladies and one gentleman in their eighties-were trying to outdo each other by finishing the first matinee jacket. Through an open door she could see a couple of her inmates sitting by Emma’s bed, just watching. Marie and Thelma were clucking over their pneumonia patient.
The place had come alive.
It could be like this all the time, she thought, dazed. It would be. If she had a doctor here. But how on earth could she ever attract anyone to practise here?
She couldn’t. In a few days Joss would leave and it would go back to being same old, same old.
But meanwhile…she was going to soak it up for all she was worth, she decided. As she looked around her, her eyes danced with laughter and delight. ‘This is great,’ she said happily. ‘Don’t you think so, Dr Braden?’
‘Just great,’ he agreed weakly, and thought, Hell, it really is, but why?
Emma was recovering nicely.
Rhonda Coutts was looking good and her breathing had eased. Her pneumonia seemed to be settling.
Marigold’s heart rate had settled after a good night’s sleep. Joss needed a blood test to be sure, but he was more and more certain that his thyroid diagnosis was right. Marigold and Lionel had Bertram on her bed and the pair were petting and cooing over the big dog like first-time parents with their baby. Bertram was soaking it up with the air of a dog who’d found his nirvana.
This was a really strange ward round, Joss thought as he went from patient to patient, and it took an effort to keep his thoughts on medicine. He must-any of them could have a significant need that might be missed if he didn’t treat this seriously-but with a nursing staff whose average age was about ninety it was a bit hard.
Amy didn’t help. She couldn’t disguise the fact that she loved what was happening around her, and her dancing eyes and bright laughter were enough to distract him all by themselves.
These people loved her. But she deserved better than to be stuck here for ever, Joss thought.
What did she deserve? A job in the city?
She’d do well in a city hospital, he decided. She was a magnificently skilled nurse, and she had the intelligence to be even more, given the right training. If she’d had the opportunity, she could be working alongside him as a fellow doctor, he thought, and the thought made him feel…odd.
All the thoughts he was having were odd. Stupid! It was increasingly obvious that by leaving her he’d be abandoning her.
It was no such thing, he reminded himself sharply. His life wasn’t here. For heaven’s sake, he couldn’t set up medical practice in a town of geriatrics. He’d go nuts within a week.
As Amy was going nuts.
Amy had nothing to do with him.
He had one patient left to see-the new mother. By the time he reached Charlotte’s room he was so confused he
