City Surgeon, Small Town Miracle

‘Oh, Max,’ she said, awed. And then, ‘Oh, I should have done that.’

‘I think your body was simply demanding you stopped,’ he said gently. ‘And to be honest, Maggie, it wasn’t you Betty wanted. She had a tiny sliver of awareness left, and it was all for Angus.’

‘Oh, Max,’ she said again, and burst into tears.

He moved then, like a big cat, covering the distance between them as if it was nothing. She’d half risen but he gathered her into his arms, as if that was where she’d been heading all along, and he held her close.

And maybe his arms were where she had been heading. She didn’t know-all she knew was that right now she needed him. She clung to him, he held her close and in those first few moments of grief she let out the emotions that had welled within her for years.

How long since she’d wept? Even the night William had died…His parents had been there and they’d been angry with her because she and William hadn’t consented to some new and amazing treatment they’d heard of in the States. It didn’t matter that William was far too ill to travel by the time they came on board with their offer to send him. Their anger had surrounded her, deflected her grief, making it seem like she had no right to a grief that was all theirs.

So now here she was, three years later, sobbing out grief for William’s grandmother instead, being held in the arms of a complete stranger, letting it out, letting it out.

She didn’t care. She simply sobbed until she was done, and when he laid her back on the cushions and she finally managed a watery smile, she knew the time for crying was over.

‘Thank you,’ she said simply. ‘If Betty had Angus with her then, yes, she had everything she wanted. And she saw him with the calves last night.’

‘And he saw her with the calves,’ Max agreed. ‘He knows they were a gift from his mother. He’s back with them now. He even talked about burials.’ He smiled. ‘He seemed to think the back paddock’d be a good place but I managed to talk him out of it. We discussed where his father was buried and thought that’d be okay. I believe you’ll be able to talk it through with him when you’re ready.’

‘But-’

‘I’ve organised the undertaker to come in a couple of hours,’ he said. ‘And I’ve rung the coroner. He agrees that since the old doctor left detailed notes before you arrived, outlining Betty’s condition as terminal, I can certify her death, even though I didn’t see her until last night.’

‘How did you know all this?’ she asked, dazed.

‘You have her medical file on the dresser,’ he said. ‘I read it during the night.’

She took a deep breath. This was huge. She couldn’t sign Betty’s death certificate herself-not when she’d been sharing a house with her-but without a certificate from a treating doctor, the police would have had to be called; a coroner’s inquest required.

Max had circumvented it all.

‘You’ve been awake all night?’

‘Most of it,’ he admitted, and motioned to the grandfather clock and grinned. ‘Ben here kept me company.’

‘You could have moved,’ she said, but then she thought back to vague memories of the night. Once or twice, early in the night, she’d stirred. She knew she had. Both times Max had been right by her, asking about her pain, just there until she’d drifted off again.

She’d slept because he’d been right beside her.

Clearly not all the time.

‘I checked on Betty just after midnight,’ he continued. ‘I thought she was slipping then, but it was faster than I thought.’

‘Oh, Max.’ She gulped and swallowed, not knowing what to say. There was nothing to say.

‘There’s more,’ he said. ‘If you’re up to listening.’

‘More…’

‘I’ve had the night to think,’ he told her. ‘In between Ben’s timely announcements to the world. Maybe I should warn you that my theatre staff consider me a little bit…well, maybe their term might be domineering. And organised. Maybe to the point of obsession. I do like a good plan.’ He shot her another of his disarming grins. ‘So I’ve done some preliminary planning.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I know you won’t be able to take it all in right now,’ he said sympathetically. ‘So just listen and take in what you can. Ideally you need time to say goodbye to Betty, to plan her funeral, to let your leg heal and to get over the shock of the last twenty-four hours. I think you need to lie on this settee for the next week-possibly even until your baby’s born. Only there’s no one to take over your work. I took four days off for the music festival, which gives me today clear but that’s it. I have a huge surgical waiting list-I do all the major public gynaecological surgery for South Sydney-so, like it or not, after today I’m no help at all. So I need to act fast. First we get you showered.’

‘We?’

‘Objection at step one?’ he demanded quizzically. ‘You’re hardly steady enough to shower alone.’

‘If you’ve already showered,’ she said with another of her futile attempts at dignity, ‘you’ll see there’s rails and a seat set up for Betty.’

Betty. So much emotion.

‘Okay, you have rails,’ Max conceded, watching her face. Obviously seeing her need to get independent fast. ‘Next item on list is letting people know about Betty. William’s parents? Will they come? Your own parents?’

‘Not happening.’ She shook her head, trying to rid herself of a wave of self-pity. Of want. Of need.

Because her need wasn’t for her parents, who’d been a tiny part of her life before they’d sent her to boarding school at six, or William’s, who simply wouldn’t care enough to come, but for this man who she’d known only since last night and she had no right to need at all.

‘Friends?’

‘Betty has a town full of friends, but if you’ve let the undertakers know, the word will be around town already.’

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘That’s easy. So now we move to stage three of my plan.’

‘Your plan. For world domination?’ she asked, cautiously, trying to smile.

‘Better. I’ve found you a locum.’

‘Max!’

‘Yeah, I know this is way too much organisation,’ he said, and raked his fingers through his dark hair with the air of a man who wasn’t sure where to start. ‘But, hell, Maggie, you’re a basket case.’

What? Imperceptibly her spine stiffened and her eyes flashed. ‘What did you call me?’

‘A basket case.’

‘I am not!’ A basket case.

‘Okay, only a tiny bit of a basket case,’ he said hurriedly. ‘The rest of you is pure, brilliant competence. But for the little piece of you that might need to put her leg up for a time…Maggie, do you need the income from your medicine?’

For a moment she thought about not answering. This was so not his business. But he was looking at with such concern, how could she not?

‘I have William’s insurance,’ she conceded.

‘Excellent. So if you aren’t emotionally committed to practising medicine for the next few months, then you don’t need to. You know you’ve had two calls this morning already?’

‘Two calls?’

‘Neither of them serious, both of them I’ve referred to the medical tent at the festival,’ he said. ‘But I can hardly leave you to run yourself into high blood pressure.’

‘I’m not like Alice.’

‘No,’ he said, and caught himself. ‘No.’

‘So?’

‘So nothing,’ he said, suddenly cool and professional. ‘Blood pressure or not, you’ve been overworking and undereating and it has to stop. So here’s my plan.’

Grief and shock had taken a back seat for the moment-fascination had taken its place. This was a man in move-a-mountain mode. Bemused, Maggie decided it might just behoove a girl to lie back and let him move it.