‘We asked for doctors, and they sent us a couple of children!’ Dr Bennett was shaking her head. ‘Still, what can you expect? Most of the lady doctors here were told they should stay home and knit!’
‘Nobody sent us,’ Carly said, bending to pick up a bandage. ‘But we’re happy to help, just the same.’ She sat on an upturned box and started rolling the bandage.
‘Nobody sent you?’ the doctor asked. ‘Then why are you here?’
‘W-we’re just looking for our d-dog,’ Dora said. She was still shivering.
Dr Bennett stared again. ‘Your dog?’
‘Uh-huh,’ Dora replied, blushing. ‘Our c-corgi. Her name is Ellie.’
‘Well, you won’t find her here. This is a hospital. ’
‘Oh,’ said Carly miserably. How on earth would they ever find Ellie?
Dora sniffed and her glasses fogged up. Carly dropped the bandage and stood to put an arm around her shoulders. Poor Dora was freezing and utterly wretched. Carly didn’t know what to do.
The ground shuddered beneath them. Someone screamed.
‘Would you mind telling us ... exactly where are we?’ Carly shouted over the noise.
‘You’re in Macedonia, in the middle of a war zone,’ the doctor replied bluntly. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, Dr Cooper and I have an urgent operation to do. We’re expecting more wounded any minute now, and we haven’t yet finished patching up the last lot. The last thing we need is a couple of children—’
BOOOOOMMM! A blast rocked the ground so hard that Carly and Dora shot into the air amidst a cloud of dust and gravel. They screamed, clutching hands to ears to shut out the deafening noise, and landed with a THUD. Their shawls slipped from their shoulders and settled upon their faces as they lay, stunned, on the frozen earth.
‘Ewww!’ Carly cried. ‘What’s that?’
Something wet and slimy was running all over her face.
Something was panting and woofing.
‘Ellie!’ Carly cried.
She sat up. The corgi leapt up on her stumpy little legs to lick Carly’s face, panting and wagging her tail madly.
Carly laughed. Her shawl was sitting crookedly across her shoulders where, it seemed, Ellie had dragged it to uncover her face. She wrapped the shawl tightly around her shoulders and turned to look at Dora, who was sitting, dazed, beside her, rubbing her eyes.
‘Yikes!’ said Dora at last. ‘That was close.’
‘Oh, Ellie!’ Carly buried her face in Ellie’s fur. Ellie nudged Carly’s cheek with her wet nose. ‘I’m so glad you’re safe!’
The girls struggled to their feet, clinging to their shawls as they dusted themselves off. Carly looked around. There was no sign of tents or mountains or nurses or trucks. Her fingers and toes were warm. Best of all: the sound of gunfire had vanished. It had been replaced by the sound of motor cars.
‘Hey, Carly,’ Dora was saying. ‘Look at us!’
Carly looked at Dora and blinked. Dora wasn’t wearing her bright floral sundress any more - but she wasn’t in a big bell-shaped skirt and bonnet either. Her dress was straight and shapeless and fell to just below her knees. There was a sash tied in a bow around her hips, and a neat little hat with a tiny brim on her head. Carly took a deep breath - and realised that there was absolutely nothing stopping her lungs from filling up with air. No corset!
She smiled. Dr Cooper will be happy, she thought. At last, corsets were no longer in fashion.
Carly sprang to her feet - which was much easier without a petticoat - and looked around. There were more cars than there had been in her last trip to the past. They outnumbered the horses and carriages now.
‘I wonder where we are?’ Dora said.
They were standing outside of a grand stone building with an arched doorway. People bustled about, looking important. Carly saw a man in a long black gown and a strange white wig.
‘I think we’re back in Brisbane,’ she said. ‘I think this is a court house.’
At that moment, an old lady walked past. She had grey hair in a bun and little round glasses on her nose. Jo Bedford!
Carly smiled. ‘Hello!’
The lady stopped and peered at Carly. ‘Do I know you?’
‘I’m Carly.’
‘You look very much like a girl I met twenty years ago!’ Jo said. ‘Her name was Carly too. What a coincidence! You must be her daughter.’
Carly and Dora glanced at each other. Twenty years since they last spoke!
‘I’m Jo Bedford,’ Jo went on. Then she sighed deeply. ‘I’m afraid I’m not very good company today. It’s been a terrible day.’
‘Why?’ Dora asked.
Jo dabbed at her eyes with a hanky. ‘My dear friend Lilian Cooper is on trial. We’ve been in court all day.’
‘On trial!’ Carly cried. ‘What for?’
Jo sighed again. ‘Lilian took out this woman’s appendix a couple of years ago. The woman says that Lilian left a pair of forceps inside her!’
Carly gasped. ‘Surely she wouldn’t have done that,’ she said. ‘She’s a good doctor.’
Jo shrugged. ‘I know. But the woman is suing her for thousands of pounds. No one knows how or when the forceps got inside her. Lilian is worried sick about it.’
Carly and Dora and Jo sat on a bench together and stared glumly into the distance. Ellie whined and gazed up at them with sad eyes.
‘I’ve never seen her so upset,’ Jo said.
‘Who - Ellie?’ asked Dora.
‘No.’ Jo smiled. ‘Lilian. I’ve lived with her for decades and I know that all she wants to do is help people. And now she’s being accused of harming a woman in such a horrible way! You know, I never even saw her so worried when we were in Macedonia during the war.’
‘You went to war?’ Carly said, with a meaningful glance at Dora.
‘Oh yes. Lilian wanted to help the wounded soldiers. The Australian Army wouldn’t let her join up as a surgeon, but she went anyway.’
‘Why wouldn’t they let her join up?’ Dora asked.
‘Because she’s
