The Surgeon’s Family Miracle

What on earth was she going to do here for a month? No people. No medicine. She wouldn’t have minded the odd shop, she soundlessly told the absent Ben, and the thought of his possible reaction to such a whinge was enough to allow her to greet Rosa with a smile.

‘We’re Lily and Benjy. I hope you’re expecting us.’

‘We surely are.’ Rosa shook Lily’s hand with a grip as strong as a man’s and then her eyes moved past her to Benjy. ‘Benjy,’ she whispered in a tone that said she either knew or she guessed Ben’s involvement. There was intelligence in these black eyes. Not much would get past Rosa. ‘You’re both more welcome than I can say,’ she said. ‘Come into the house.’

The house was long and low, white-painted, with wide verandas all around and the all-pervasive scent of something that looked like honeysuckle running riot everywhere. They walked inside and there were so many questions in Lily’s head that she felt as if she might burst. By her side, Benjy seemed awed into silence.

Ben should be here.

In all the time she’d spent with Ben during university, never once had he introduced her to his parents or taken her to any of the properties his parents owned. Neither had he talked about his family. ‘We don’t get on,’ he’d said brusquely, and she’d never got past it. For her to come here now, with his son…

Without him…

There was a man inside, older than Rosa, small, wiry and greying. He was leaning heavily on a walking stick- and he was wearing an apron.

‘This is my Doug,’ Rosa said proudly, as if conjuring up something magical. ‘We’re here to look after you.’

‘You’re…Ben’s parents’ housekeepers?’ Lily asked cautiously, and Lily and Doug both smiled.

‘I’m Ben’s housekeeper,’ Doug said. ‘But food first, questions later.’ He sat them down in the big farmhouse kitchen and produced sandwiches, sponge cake and chocolate eclairs. Rosa poured tea for Lily and lemonade for Benjy and both Rosa and Doug beamed as they ate and drank, seeming to enjoy the fact that they were obviously disconcerted.

Ben should be here, Lily thought again. This is his house. Or…is this his parents’ house?

‘I’m not sure what the set-up is here,’ she ventured, as Benjy wrapped himself around a chocolate eclair.

‘Tell it like it is, Rosa.’ Doug pushed another eclair forward and Lily couldn’t resist. Yum.

‘We’re housekeeper and farm manager,’ Rosa told her. ‘Doug’s the housekeeper-he makes the best sponge cakes you’ve ever eaten.’ She hesitated then, glancing at Doug and then nodding, as if coming to a decision to tell more.

‘Doug was a farmhand here when he was young and I worked in the stables,’ Rosa told them. ‘Ben’s parents were running the place as a horse stud but they spent very little time here. But we knew Ben when he was little. And his sister.’

A sister. Lily’s eyes widened. She’d dated Ben for years. What else didn’t she know? ‘I didn’t know Ben had a sister.’

‘Bethany died when she was four,’ Rosa said. ‘But by then Ben was at boarding school. Anyway, when Ben was about twelve Doug had an appalling tractor accident.’

‘It rolled on top of me,’ Doug said, smiling at Benjy, as if trying to make light of what must have been dreadful. ‘Damned wheel mount gave way on a slope. You ever thought how much a two-ton tractor can hurt? One day I’ll show you the scars.’

‘Wow,’ whispered Benjy through cream.

‘Anyway, Ben’s parents wouldn’t accept liability,’ Rosa said, without rancour, stating facts. ‘They said it was Doug’s duty to maintain the tractor-the fact that there’d been no money to maintain it was carefully ignored and they doctored their bank accounts to make it seem like there was. There was a court case and we lost. The fight left us in debt for years. We left here. I worked in a racing stable and Doug…well, Doug stayed home and tried to keep himself occupied.’

‘I learned how to cook,’ Doug said.

‘He did,’ Rosa said affectionately. ‘Then about six years ago Ben’s father passed away. His mother had died earlier and it wasn’t a month after his father’s death before Ben came to find us.’

‘He remembered us,’ Doug said, smiling at a memory he obviously found good. ‘His parents didn’t come here often but until my accident they’d send Ben. He’d arrive on his own for holidays.’

‘Like us,’ Benjy announced, and Doug nodded.

‘Exactly like you. Rosa taught him to ride a horse.’

‘And he remembered us all those years later,’ Rosa said softly. ‘Until his parents died there was little he could do, but as soon as he could, he did.’

‘What did he do?’ Lily asked.

‘He installed us back here,’ Rosa said with quiet pride. ‘There’s a little house behind this one-it’s beautiful. He’s given us life tenancy. He sat and talked about what Doug and I could do and we said I loved the farm and Doug could keep a house clean. So that’s what we are. Housekeeper and farm manager.’

‘You should see me hoover,’ Doug said, grinning, and Lily suddenly felt like grinning back. For the last week she’d been moving in a nightmare. This couple made her feel she was waking up. And Ben’s care…

She’d fallen in love with him all those years ago. Suddenly she was remembering why.

‘Does Ben come here often now?’ she asked, and Rosa gave a definite nod.

‘Whenever he can. We keep telling him he should bring friends here-girlfriends and the like-but he won’t.’

‘He’s a bit of a loner, and he’s not the marrying kind,’ Doug added, but Rosa’s eyes had moved to Benjy.

‘Maybe he hasn’t been until now,’ she said. ‘But things change.’ Her gaze shifted to Lily. ‘Do you and he-?’

‘Leave the girl alone, love,’ Doug said, starting to clear the table. ‘No questions. You know what Ben said. She’s worn to the bone. Just food and rest and plenty of both. Starting now. Rosa, take them to their bedrooms for a nap before they explore the farm.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Rosa clicked her riding boots together as she saluted her husband. Then she smiled and waited for Lily and Benjy to accompany her. ‘Let’s get you settled for a really long stay.’

They were at his farm.

Ben had several properties, left to him by parents who had valued everything in terms of money. Nurrumbeen was the only place he had any emotional tie to, and it was only his sense of obligation to Doug and Rosa that had created that tie.

He’d go there when he had the medicine on the island thoroughly sorted, he told himself.

But wanted to go there now.

Why?

Benjy was his kid, he thought as the days wore on. He had to learn to kick a football. He had to learn to ride a horse.

Rosa would teach him to ride.

Maybe it’d be fun to teach him himself.

But that meant involvement. The kid might even learn to need him.

He didn’t do needing. He couldn’t. It’d do his head in. He was a man who walked alone.

Until now, a little voice whispered insidiously in his head. You could stop and be a family.

And keep on doing the work I love?

You could change direction. You might even learn to love other things.

Which was a really scary thought. He thought back to his childhood. Every single thing he’d ever loved had been a fleeting attachment-to people like Rosa and Doug, people he had seen when his parents had allowed it and then who’d disappeared out of his life forever. Like his sister. Bethany. That’s what love is, he thought bleakly. He knew enough now to shield himself from it.

If he loved, he lost.

Forget it. You have work to do here, he told himself severely. Stay here, stick to your medicine and get them out of your mind.

As if.

For the first three days Lily threw herself into her holiday as if she only had days to get to experience