The Doctor′s Surprise Bride
The Doctor's Surprise Bride
Fiona McArthur
Eliza has been a magnet for the broken hearts of others, who ultimately end up breaking her own. When handsome but emotionally wounded Dr. Jack Dancer enters her life, she won't allow herself to act on their growing attraction. But one night when Jack makes love to her, she knows she is lost, and is devastated by his coolness the next day.She knows that to stop her heart being broken again she must leave. It's only then that Jack finally realizes he's got to tell Eliza how much he loves her, and he recruits the entire village to help persuade her to become his bride!Fiona McArthur once again expertly combines the pace of the E.R. and the joy of the maternity ward, with all the warmth and intensity of a heart-stopping romance.
‘I know you didn’t believe me when I said I fell in love with you, Eliza. But it’s true.
‘I want to change your mind. I ask you to give me one more chance at winning the woman I will love for ever. Be my bride, here, on Saturday, in front of the whole town and all your friends. They all think we belong together, as I do, and I’ve asked them to help me sway you. Will you let it happen? Marry me, Eliza May, please.’
A mother to five sons, Fiona McArthur is an Australian midwife who loves to write. Medical Romance™ gives Fiona the scope to write about all the wonderful aspects of adventure, romance, medicine and midwifery that she feels so passionate about—as well as an excuse to travel! So, now that the boys are older, her husband Ian and youngest son Rory are off with Fiona to meet new people, see new places, and have wonderful adventures. Fiona’s web site is at fionamcarthur.com (http://fionamcarthur.com)
Recent titles by the same author:
DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT
A VERY SINGLE MIDWIFE
THE PREGNANT MIDWIFE
The Doctor’s Surprise Bride
Fiona McArthur
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
TO LISA—ALWAYS THERE WHEN I LOST FAITH
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE (#u7c1816c7-4f43-53dc-8cd6-9704691d14c2)
CHAPTER TWO (#u7acbba38-e288-5d96-9d2c-a963921368b4)
CHAPTER THREE (#uc230f560-294b-5251-bff4-ac34185a3a51)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE
‘ARE you OK?’ Dr Jack Dancer, Medical Director—in fact, only doctor at Bellbrook Hospital—tilted his head. He tried to bring together this city woman’s list of qualifications and experience—then reconcile it with her youth and the tiny package she came in. Actually, Eliza May looked like a garden fairy with attitude. Her shoulders were tense, her head tilted and she glowered fiercely at him through slitted eyes.
This woman looked ten years too young to qualify for half of her résumé and, with Mary going, the hospital needed every skill this city woman was supposed to have.
He’d thought his cousin’s agency recommendation extraordinarily glowing and he wondered what fanciful planet his cousin had been on when she’d recommended this woman.
‘I’m fine.’ Her voice was not loud but contained an element of self-confidence that made him look at her again. She straightened and the movement added a desperately needed few centimetres to her height. Now he could see her eyes.
Jack felt a ripple shimmer down his back and his breath stuck somewhere behind suddenly sensitive ribs.
Good grief. Her eyes were amazing—vibrant green, alluring eyes that dared him to step out of line and taste the consequences. Even the jagged gold circles around her pupils seemed to glow and shimmer and draw him in. He couldn’t look away.
Jack forced his diaphragm back into action, and dragged his gaze lower to accelerate past memorable lips and a determined little chin, but knew he was in trouble when he skimmed too low and had to bounce his attention out of her tightly restrained cleavage. What on earth had got into him?
‘Lead on, Dr Dancer.’ Now she was decisive and he felt the earth shift again under his feet. No fluttery fairy here. He quietened his reservations—and his libido. Energy vibrated and the new Eliza May held such promise for Bellbrook Hospital that he would never risk jeopardising her suitability with unwanted attention.
Perish the thought.
Whatever shock wave had belted him was past now and he wouldn’t think like that again.
Realistically they had no one else, and apparently she was multi-skilled and dynamic, though a bit of a chameleon. Still, they all required diversity when Bellbrook bestowed some of those moments of unusual interest and everything went haywire.
He had a full waiting room in his surgery at the side of the hospital and his sister-in-law, Mary, had been due to start maternity leave a month ago. His cousin had said Eliza was reliable.
‘Right, then.’ He didn’t look at her again. ‘As soon as we find our matron, she’ll show you around. I won’t see you until later when I do my evening round at the hospital.’
‘Good,’ Eliza said quietly, but with emphasis, and Jack blinked. Did she mean good she didn’t have to see him till later, or good that the departing matron would show her around?
Strangely, both explanations piqued him and he glanced down at her as they made their way to the front of the hospital. This new matron came up to his shoulder yet her smaller legs didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping up with him.
Her hair shone with red glints as they passed under a light and her fringe swung across her face as she turned her head to look up at him. She floated beside him on invisible wings and matched his speed.
‘Where’s the fire?’ She lifted one finely arched brow as she dared him, and he couldn’t help smiling at her.
‘Touché,’ he said and slowed. ‘I forgot your legs were smaller than mine.’
‘Thought you might have,’ was all she said, and he realised she jangled his nerves and wasn’t overawed by him at all. Well, that was good. Wasn’t it?
Jack was pleased to see Mary up ahead.
Matron Mary McGuiness was round-faced and round-bodied, though, of course, most of her abdomen belonged to the baby inside her. Mary was the hospital. The staff, and Jack, had a problem imagining anyone else in her position. He hoped Eliza May could do half as good a job in the time she was here.
After the introductions Jack was eager to get away. Most of his eagerness had to do with his waiting patients and a backlog of paperwork, but a percentage had to do with a sudden need to ring his cousin and find out a few more facts about Bellbrook’s new Acting Matron. Something about Eliza bothered him.
In fact, several things about her bothered him in a way he hadn’t been bothered for years.
He turned to Mary. ‘I’ll leave Eliza with you, but after showing her around I want you signed off, and with your feet up. Doctor’s orders, Mary!’ He nodded at Eliza. ‘Good luck. You can phone my office if you’re worried about anything.’
Eliza smiled blandly. Not if she could help it, Eliza promised herself grimly. Thank goodness he was going. Dr Jack Dancer had everything she wanted to keep away from in a man, let alone one she’d have to totally rely on.
Eliza regretted another bad decision. She may as well rip the heart out of her chest and tear it in two. All he needed was some psychological disaster that kept him from forming a relationship and he’d be irresistible to her twisted mind. After eight weeks with her he’d be ready to marry—someone else.
She watched Dr Jack Dancer stride away and Eliza dispassionately imagined she could hear the creak of the fabric stretching across the strong muscles of his long legs and taut backside. Then there were his shoulders.
The man’s physical presence was too much. Any woman cradled in Jack Dancer’s arms wouldn’t be afraid of falling—until he dropped her.
‘This will be your office.’ Obviously Mary McGuiness hadn’t been sidetracked by Jack’s physique and Eliza knew she was immune. Unobtrusively Eliza dug her nails into her palms to remind herself.
‘Do I need an office?’ Back on track, Eliza couldn’t help returning the other woman’s friendly smile because there was something about Mary that warmed the cold parts in Eliza left by too many people over the years. Mary would never let anybody down.
Mary nodded sagely. ‘Rosters, hunting up staff if someone is off sick, stock ordering, company reps, interviews with the local newspaper. Heaven forbid—disaster control.’
‘Good grief.’ Eliza laughed and then stopped, surprised at herself. She hadn’t laughed freely for a while. There was such a different feel to this little hospital, a warmth and genuineness that probably radiated from the woman in front of her.
‘I’m sure most of those occasions will wait for your return but I can see the need for a private space.’ Eliza looked out the door and into the corridor with the clinical areas. ‘You say most of my work is hands on?’
‘I think you’re pleased about that.’ Mary smiled again and drew Eliza out of the office. She pointed at doorways as they walked the length of the small building.
‘On the semi-acute side, we have two two-bed wards and four single rooms, each with their own bathroom. We were fortunate to build this wing with a bequest from a grateful former client.’
The rooms were light and airy and all the fittings sparkled with good care. Only two of the rooms held patients.
The first room held two men. ‘Meet the new matron, gentlemen. This is Eliza May.’
In the bed beside the door, a man in his early thirties had both arms bandaged to the shoulder with just the tips of his fingers poking out the ends.
Mary stopped beside his bed. ‘Joe came off worse when he lit a bonfire with too much petrol.’ Mary shook her head at his folly.
‘Because Joe’s hands and arms are involved he needs help to care for himself. He should be in Armidale Hospital but Dr Dancer has a lot of experience with burns and they let Joe come home if he stays here for another few days.’
‘Hi, Joe.’ Eliza smiled. ‘When I was six I fell off my horse and broke both my arms. For six weeks it was hell with no hands. I have a lot of sympathy.’
Joe sighed with relief. ‘Reckon you understand, then.’
‘Next to Joe is Keith.’ Mary smiled at a seventy-ish-looking man with leathery skin and crinkled stockman eyes. ‘Keith’s supposed to be going home tomorrow. He ruptured his appendix without telling anyone. He wouldn’t come in to see the doctor and nearly paid the ultimate price. We’ve kept him a few extra days to make sure he doesn’t work too hard.’ Mary narrowed her eyes at the old gentleman. ‘I’m not sure he’s right yet.’
‘Now, Matron.’ Keith had a slow drawl and his lilting voice brought back memories to Eliza’s mind of her father, as did the seriousness of the old man’s expression.
He held out his hand to Eliza. ‘Good to meet you, new Matron. I’ll shake for Joe and me.’
His work-roughened hand felt cool and welcoming in Eliza’s and she began to recall the sweeter side of country towns. These were the facets to country life that the city missed—that she missed—and she had never realised the fact before. Of course she’d never miss anything enough to move from the city permanently and there were aspects of country life that terrified her.
Small towns, gossip, everyone related to everyone else. Eliza had grown up in such a place and shuddered at the memory of when her mother had left them. Her father had closed his door on the wagging tongues, and incidentally Eliza’s friends, and she’d never been so lonely. But she didn’t want to think about that.
And she didn’t want to be drawn into some tiny niche of a town where they would all know her business and invade her personal life.
She’d even told her friend, Julie, at the agency that. ‘Bellbrook might be a little too warm and fuzzy for me, the way I’m feeling at the moment,’ she’d said, but Julie had seen a benefit that had escaped Eliza.
‘There’s only one doctor you have to work with.’ Julie had avoided Eliza’s eyes when she’d said that, now that Eliza came to think of it.
‘Hope you enjoy your stay, Matron.’ The old man’s kind words penetrated Eliza’s reflections and she thanked him and moved on with Mary.
They moved on to the next room and Mary spoke to their only maternity patient. ‘This is Janice, and her son Newman.’ The baby squawked as if he’d recognised his name and the three women smiled.
‘Newman was born two days ago in Armidale by Caesarean, and Janice arrived this morning to convalesce here for the next few days. Meet our new matron, Janice. Eliza May.’
‘Congratulations, Janice. He’s gorgeous.’ Eliza stroked Newman’s tiny wrist. She’d read the patient notes later and find out the rest because there’d be a Caesarean story there. She’d always enjoyed her stints in Maternity.
Eliza’s not-so-great ex-fiancé, Alex, had been reluctant to even speak of babies and months ago Eliza had decided she’d be better sidetracked by more illness-orientated nursing until her fiancé was ready to discuss children. But she’d missed working in Maternity.
Midwifery was such a fascinating area of nursing. If she wasn’t going to get married, maybe she could just enjoy other people’s babies.
‘He’s such a good boy.’ Janice’s delight in her new son touched Eliza and she saw Mary rest her hand over her stomach. Of course Mary would be anxious for the birth of her own child. Eliza narrowed her eyes as she tried to estimate when Mary’s baby was due. Here was an obstetric case right beside her that she needed to keep an eye on.
To Eliza, Mary looked ready to go into labour today!
Maybe that was why Julie had been so keen for Eliza to come here?
They moved on and Eliza glanced in the doors of two empty rooms. ‘So do you have many maternity patients?’
Mary nodded. ‘We normally have three or four post-delivery patients a month. Each stays for a day or two, sometimes longer.’
‘Do you ever have emergency deliveries?’
Mary smiled as if at an amusing memory. ‘We can manage if we have to but Jack is so busy with everything else he doesn’t feel he can give the care needed and refers any obstetric case on.’
The two women set off again and turned a corner to enter a large dining area with rooms off the other wing. ‘Our older residents are on this side of the building and enjoy their meals in the communal dining room when they’re well enough.’
They paused at the nurses’ station where two identical-looking dark-haired women stood in civilian clothes, waiting to be introduced to Eliza. Another younger woman came up to the desk as introductions were started. They all shook hands and smiled but Eliza had the feeling they were measuring her against Mary. Height wasn’t the only thing they were measuring.
Mary continued as her comforting self. ‘We have four wonderful enrolled nurses who rotate as the second person on for each shift.’ She gestured to a dark-haired young woman. ‘This is Vivian, who will be on with you for the rest of the day.’
Eliza smiled at Vivian. A patient call bell rang and Vivian said, ‘Nice to meet you.’ Then scooted away to answer the summons.
‘Rhonda and Donna are our dynamic duo. One of them is your night sister while the other is on days off. They also do the two days on call to cover when you’re off. The rest of the week you’re the third pair of hands if needed at night.’
Both women nodded and smiled so Eliza gathered she’d passed muster, at least today. ‘I’m going home to bed,’ Donna said. ‘Nice meeting you.’
‘I’m off, too. Ditto.’ added Rhonda, and they hugged Mary and left.
Mary watched them go and she smiled. ‘I’m going to miss this place.’ She sighed and then blinked mistily at Eliza and moved on.
Mary cleared her throat. ‘Across the hall we have our admissions office and medical records, and in here we have our small emergency room.’
Mary entered the neat mini-theatre and treatment room. ‘Of course, very occasionally we have larger emergencies and sometimes use the wards if we need more space.’ She gestured to the labelled shelves. ‘I’m a big believer in labelling so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding things.’
‘This is going to be great.’ Eliza leant across and rested her arm briefly around Mary’s shoulder in a spontaneous gesture of comfort. ‘I know I’ll love it here, Mary, and you’re not to worry. I’ll take good care of your hospital until you come back.’
A bell rang overhead and they both glanced up.
‘What’s the bell for?’ Eliza asked, and then frowned as Mary stopped and rested one hand low on her stomach.
‘That’s the casualty bell. At least I’ll get to run you through an outpatient card.’
Eliza inclined her head towards Mary’s stomach. ‘I’ll do this. If you’re going into labour I’ll write a card for you, too.’
‘The tightness will go.’ Mary smiled ruefully but didn’t deny she had some discomfort as she gingerly led the way round the corner towards the main admissions desk, where a young mother leant on the desk with her frightened daughter by her side.
‘Asthma,’ the clerk said. ‘I’ll do the admission without her.’ She gladly handed over her charges, along with a dog-eared card.
Eliza glanced at the name. Mia Summers. A good choice by the admissions clerk, Eliza thought as she helped the woman up the hallway until she met Mary with the wheelchair. They wheeled Mia into the assessment room where Eliza sat her on the edge of the bed. Mary hovered at the door, ready to help if Eliza needed her.
At least the woman had been able to stand and hadn’t fallen unconscious in the car. It hadn’t been that long since Eliza had been present at a young man’s tragic death from asthma, and that had been in a big city emergency department with more doctors than they’d needed, but it hadn’t been enough. Asthma was a killer if people didn’t take the early warning signs seriously enough, and Eliza was on a crusade for education of patients at the moment because of that.
‘Hello, Mia. I’m Eliza. Have you got your Ventolin on you?’
Mia opened her mouth to answer but was far too breathless to talk.
‘Mummy’s puffer is here but she can’t seem to breathe it.’ The little girl prised the small cylinder from her mother’s clenched fist.
Eliza glanced at the label of the puffer and nodded as she slipped the pulse oximeter on the woman’s finger and noted the low oxygen saturation of the woman’s blood. She suspected Mia wasn’t far from unconsciousness.
‘What’s your name?’ Eliza asked the little girl as she reached up into the cupboard to pull down a Ventolin mask.
‘Kristy. I’m eight.’
‘I’m Eliza. I think you’ll make a great doctor or nurse one day, Kristy, the way you’ve looked after Mummy. Where’s Daddy?’
‘Daddy’s in the far paddock and Mummy said we had to go now. I left a note.’
‘That was clever and Mummy was right.’
While she was talking, Eliza’s hands were busy. ‘This mask gives Mummy oxygen and makes the stronger asthma drug into a fine mist and that helps Mummy to breathe.’
Eliza broke open the plastic ampoule, squirted the pre-mixed drug into the chamber of the nebulising mask and fitted the now misting mask over Mia’s face.
She continued talking to the little girl but really she was talking to the frightened young woman beside her. ‘Inside Mummy’s lungs, all her little breathing tubes are blocking up with thick slime. This medicine helps the slime get thinner so Mummy can cough it out of the way and breathe better again, and the oxygen makes mummy feel better.’
The little girl nodded and Eliza rested her hand on the woman’s shoulder. ‘Just close your eyes, Mia, and let the medication do the job.’ Eliza fitted the blood-pressure cuff around the woman’s arm and began to pump it up. ‘Do you have an asthma plan sheet and a spacer?’
Mia shook her head tiredly and Eliza nodded. ‘We’ll talk about it later because I think it would help a lot in your case.’
Eliza glanced at Mary. ‘She needs IV access, cortisone and probably IV salbutamol. Would you like to ring Dr Dancer to come around? I’ll pop a cannula in to save time.’
Mary nodded and reached for the phone on the wall while Eliza swiftly prepared her equipment. ‘I’m going to put a little needle in Mummy’s arm. It looks like it would hurt but it’s really not much more than a mosquito bite. Mummy needs some other medicine that works really quickly if we put it in through the needle. Do you want to look away when I do it?’
Kristy shook her head. ‘I’ll hold Mummy’s other hand.’
‘You have a wonderful daughter, Mia.’
Mia nodded as she started to cough. Already her oxygen saturation had improved. Eliza glanced at Kristy to see if she was upset by her mother coughing.
‘So the slime in Mummy’s lungs is getting thinner, isn’t it Eliza?’
‘Yep.’ Eliza slid the cannula into Mia’s arm and taped it securely. Then she began to assemble the flask and line and draw up the drugs in preparation. ‘Next time Mummy’s fingers go this blue or she can’t talk, she’d better come in the ambulance because they can give her this medicine in the mask and put the needle in on the way to the doctor. Do you know how to ring an ambulance, Kristy?’
Kristy nodded. ‘I ring 000, or 911 in America or 999 in England.’
‘Wow. Even I didn’t know that.’ Eliza felt like hugging the little girl. ‘Tell them Mummy can’t breathe and then answer all the questions.’
When Jack arrived he could see that Eliza had everything under control. Mia could manage a few words, and after he approved the intravenous drugs Eliza had ready, Mia was stable enough to go by ambulance to Armidale, where she’d have to stay overnight, at the very least, for intensive observation.
‘Rhonda’s coming in as escort in the ambulance with you, Mia.’ Jack squeezed the young woman’s shoulder. ‘If all goes well, I’ll see if they’ll transfer you back to us here at Bellbrook tomorrow or the day after.’
Mia’s husband arrived. Jack reaffirmed Mia would be better in Armidale, at least overnight, and after goodbyes Mr Summers took their daughter home.
Jack watched Eliza clear the benches and restock the room in record time. He shook his head. Good was an understatement. He wasn’t sure he was used to someone telling him what he needed to give a patient, but he’d have to get over it. Eliza had certainly been instrumental in saving Mia’s condition from becoming perilous, and that was the important thing.
He cleared his throat and wondered why the words stuck a little. ‘You did well, Eliza. Mia hasn’t had an attack that severe before.’
Eliza stopped what she was doing and met his eyes. He watched her smile spread to her eyes at his compliment and he could feel himself responding. She was like a sunrise. Boom—explosion of light as she smiled. She blew him away again just like she had when he’d first met her.
‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘So this is what a sleepy country town is like.’
The moment extended and his smile broadened. She was gorgeous in an understated way and his diaphragm imploded again. Unconsciously he took a step forward towards her, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to want to be closer to her.
Then she changed and the corners of her mouth drooped. The expression in her beautiful eyes grew distant and she broke eye contact as she looked away. The angry fairy wasn’t quite back but there were glimpses.
Eliza spoke to the package she lifted into the cupboard. ‘Mia said she doesn’t have an asthma plan or a spacer. Are the plans not something you do here?’
‘Not really.’ Jack didn’t concentrate too much on what she was saying because he was wondering why she’d created such reserve and backed away from being friendly. He re-focussed on her question. ‘If someone becomes a moderate asthmatic, I usually send them to a specialist in Armidale or even the respiratory clinic in Newcastle, and the specialists do all that.’
She twisted her neck and looked at him from under her brows. ‘I’ll have some forms sent from the Asthma Foundation. They’ll send us an info pack and a pad of plans that you could look at. I’ve helped generate plans before and believe they give the patient back control of their asthma. Spacers make it easier for the patient to take their Ventolin, especially during an attack.’
Her tone was icy and he couldn’t help the drop in warmth in his own voice. It was almost as if she’d engineered the whole estrangement of their brief rapport. Something else was going on here, something ill-defined, and he didn’t like it, but he had to get back to his surgery. If she didn’t want him here, he could take a hint!
‘Thank you, Matron May. I’ve actually seen such plans and I know what a spacer is,’ Jack said dryly. ‘I’ll certainly consider your suggestion.’ He glanced at the door where Mary was an interested bystander. ‘I thought you were going home, Mary?’
Mary raised placatory hands and bit back a smile. ‘I just need to finish the round I’ve started with Eliza. I’ll be gone soon.’
‘Well, I am gone,’ Jack muttered. ‘Matrons,’ he said mockingly, and inclined his head at Eliza. Then he took himself back to his surgery.
Eliza watched him go. What on earth had got into her? Lecturing Jack! It wasn’t part of her job and she didn’t need to alienate her boss for the next eight weeks.
And why was she thinking of him as Jack and not Dr Dancer?
The problem was, the guy was too tall, too handsome and too sure of himself, and he made her feel all weak and feminine and things she’d promised she wasn’t going to feel again. What really worried her was whether coming here had been another bad decision. She’d made a few of those in her life.
‘I’m afraid I’ve put his back up,’ Eliza said.
‘You don’t look too upset about it. It won’t kill him to have someone not in awe of him.’ Mary changed the subject. ‘You seemed to find everything you needed for Mia easily.’
Eliza glanced around at the now tidy room. Back to reality and escape from the distraction of Dr Jack Dancer. ‘You’ve stored everything in the most obvious place, Mary, and the labelling is fantastic. This is such a bonus. As an agency nurse, finding the equipment is the hardest part.’
‘I’ll bet.’ Mary tilted her head. ‘So how did you get into agency work? I bet a few hospitals would love to hire you full-time with your qualifications.’
Eliza met Mary’s eyes. ‘It’s a new direction for me. I like being unattached. It gives me the choice to move when I want to.’
‘Fair enough,’ Mary said. ‘We’ll move on ourselves before Jack discovers me here on his next round.’ She smiled and swayed out of the room to waddle further down the hallway.
‘Where was I? Basically, you do five days a week, eight hours normal and four hours overtime, then you’re on call at night except for weekends. Think you can handle that?’
‘Fine by me.’ Eliza shook her head at Mary. ‘How on earth did you have time to fall pregnant?’
Mary twinkled back. ‘My husband is the local fire captain, amongst other things, so we know there’s twenty-four hours in a day. We both enjoy being busy. He’s away at a conference at the moment.’
Mary shrugged. ‘When Mick’s home he’s home and when he’s not I spend a lot of time here. We both like it that way. He used to be in the navy.’ She answered the question Eliza didn’t ask. ‘Mick will be home in a few days and stick around more when my baby is due.’
‘And if baby comes early?’ They both glanced down at Mary’s stomach.
‘He’ll have to fly home quick smart!’
Eliza shook her head at Mary’s calmness. ‘Mary, I think you’re Wonder Woman.’
Mary shrugged. ‘I’ll be Bored Woman for the next few weeks. I wondered if you’d like to drop around in a day or so. I’m sure you’ll have questions and I’ll be dying to know how you settle in.’
And that’s how country towns worked. Eliza knew that from past experience. It wasn’t what she’d planned when she’d hoped to keep a city-dweller’s distance from the townsfolk. She’d seen the effect of gossip and everyone knowing her business, but she couldn’t offend Mary. Bellbrook’s matron was too genuine.
Trouble was the next thing would be an in-depth conversation with the publican’s wife when she went back to the hotel tonight. Then there’d be the corner shop purchases tomorrow and the visit to the post office, by which time everyone in the valley would be aware of her arrival, the car she drove and enough physical features to be picked out at a hundred paces.
She’d better not do anything noteworthy or Jack Dancer, who seemed to be related to everyone, would be the first to hear about it.
CHAPTER TWO
BY LUNCHTIME Mary had departed to rest as ordered by her doctor.
Eliza glanced around at the eight elderly patients seated at the dining table to eat their lunch. She’d handed out the medications and done a ward tidy with Vivian.
If Eliza looked on the workload as just a normal ward with diverse patients, and not a whole hospital, there was nothing she hadn’t done before.
By six-thirty that evening she’d found most things she could possibly need, had had in-depth conversations with all the inpatients, as well as read their medical records and helped with the evening meal.
She’d glanced through the rosters to see how they worked and spent ten minutes on the phone to Julie, her friend at the nursing agency, to say she was settling in.
Now all she had to do was a ward round with the distracting Dr Dancer and she’d be finished for the day.
Eliza glanced at the clock again and drummed her fingers on the nurses’ station desk.
He was late.
She was getting more unsettled by the minute with a waiting-for-the-dentist kind of tension and Eliza wished he’d just arrive. Surely Dancer wasn’t so spectacular he’d turned her into a bundle of nerves?
Apparently he was. When Jack breezed in he brought more devastation to her peace of mind than she needed. So much for saying her imagination had been over-active. His wavy black hair was tousled as if he’d been dragging distracted hands through it all day, and he’d even jammed a couple of curls behind his ears. That was when she noticed he had a tiny diamond in his right ear lobe. How on earth had she missed that this morning?
‘Ready for the round?’ He seemed very businesslike and Eliza allowed some of the tightness to ease from her shoulders. Businesslike sounded good. He’d want to get home, too. The brusquer the better, Eliza thought gratefully.
‘Let’s go.’ She picked up a notebook in case she needed to take notes.
He glanced across at her briefly, and she saw he had dark chocolate eyes, not black, as she’d previously thought, a strange thing to notice when she was supposed to be immune.
‘So how was your day?’ Jack was brief and Eliza even briefer.
‘Fine.’ She picked up the pace to get the next few minutes over as quickly as possible. Noticing too many things about this man, Eliza, she thought grimly.
‘Are we racing again?’ Laughter in his voice and Eliza felt her face stiffen. Please, don’t let him be nice to me or flirt with me or in any way endear himself to me, she prayed. There was something about him that pierced her skin like a poison dart and was just as irritating. She was not playing man games any more.
‘I just know you’ll be emotionally scarred and unable to have a worthwhile relationship,’ she muttered.
Jack stopped walking and Eliza carried on a few more steps before she realised she’d said what was on her mind out loud! She closed her eyes and then opened them again. Oh, boy!
He tilted his head. ‘I’m sorry? What did you say?’
She glanced down and then lifted her chin resolutely. ‘Sorry. Ignore that.’
He looked stunned.
She shrugged. ‘Look, I may seem mad, but I’ve had the worst run of luck with men and I’m still spinning from the last one. I seem to have a penchant for poor sods who have been a victim of some unscrupulous woman. They find me, I heal their poor broken hearts, and then they happily marry someone else. I usually get invited to the wedding. For some bizarre reason, I don’t want to play that game any more.’
She was sure his eyes were glazing over but it was imperative she make this clear. ‘This may seem more than you need to know, but I am trying to explain my stupid comment.’
He moved his lips a little but didn’t actually say a word. Eliza sighed. ‘Forget I spoke and we’ll do the ward round.’
Jack felt as if someone had just popped a paper bag in his unsuspecting face. He’d known there was something odd about her. The chameleon fairy was mad and Mary was gone. What the heck were they going to do? He’d had a hell of a day already.
After the dash out for Mia’s asthma attack, he’d returned to his office and realised today was the anniversary of the worst day of his life. He hadn’t been able to believe it had slipped his mind for a few hours.
After he’d fought his way out of that depression, a desperate young couple, distant relatives on his mother’s side, had miscarried their second IVF baby. Then one of his uncles had come in for results on a mole he’d excised last week, and the specimen had proved to be a particularly vicious melanoma.
Now this!
The new fairy matron was a man-hating elf with issues.
He heard her voice from a long way off. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘Forget it.’
He blinked, the hallway came into focus again, and he shelved her replacement problems for a minute. Deep breath, Jack, he suggested to himself.
She was still talking as if nothing had happened. ‘You should have a look at Keith’s wound. I know he’s supposed to go home tomorrow but I believe he’s brewing an infection.’
Jack blinked. He’d just play along with her until after the round. ‘Fine. I’ll look at that. How’s Keith’s temperature?’
‘Creeping up, and it spiked to thirty-nine this afternoon before it went down again.’
Jack glanced at the chart the madwoman handed him from the end of Keith’s bed and he saw that she was right. Blast. They’d have to start intravenous antibiotics again because Keith had little reserve to fight infection after his brush with peritonitis.
She’d pulled the curtains and had Keith supine in the bed with his shirt up before Jack could ask, and when she removed the dressing, tell-tale red streaks were inching away from Keith’s wound.
He glanced at Keith’s face and realised his patient did look more unwell than this morning. ‘Sorry, Keith. No home until we sort this out.’
Keith sighed with resignation. ‘Matron warned me it could be that way.’
Eliza spoke from beside his shoulder. ‘Do you want me to put an intravenous cannula in?’ Jack saw that she had the IV trolley waiting and she’d probably decided which antibiotics Keith should be on, too. Just who was the doctor here? He couldn’t help the bite in his voice. ‘Have you drawn it up as well?’
He should have known she’d be immune.
‘Almost,’ she said. Was there a hint of laughter in her voice?
Jack scowled. She went on, ‘What would you like him started on?’
She had two choices there for him and they would have been first and second if he’d chosen them himself. What was wrong with him? He wanted her efficient. ‘We’ll go with the Ceftriaxone, but see if you can get a wound swab before the first dose.’
She didn’t look at him and he couldn’t tell if she was smiling. ‘Did that earlier when I took today’s dressing off,’ she said, as she prepared the antibiotic before laying it down and assembling the cannulation equipment.
‘Shall I pop the cannula in?’ Eliza glanced at him.
Jack almost said, I’ll do that thank you, but he changed his mind. ‘Let’s see how good you are,’ he said out loud. Nothing like a bit of pressure to put someone off. He knew from bitter experience that Keith’s veins were nowhere near the young bulging ones that Mia had. Matron May was too darned cocky.
‘Just a sting for a second, Keith,’ Eliza soothed as she slid the needle into an almost invisible vein with disgusting ease. She seemed to have three hands as she juggled cannulas, bungs and even took blood. ‘Did you want blood cultures?’ She taped the line securely and stood back. They both glanced at the antibiotic waiting to be injected.
‘Can I do this?’ He sounded petty and she made a strange sound that he hoped wasn’t her laughing at him. He normally wasn’t like this and he needed to get a grip. He looked at her to apologise but realised she was amused. Amused!
Today had been anything but amusing. He didn’t say a word, just gave the antibiotic, wrote up the orders and patted Keith’s hand carefully. ‘Sorry, mate. You’ll probably be in for another couple of days yet.’
Keith nodded. When they pulled the curtain back Jack was surprised to see that Joe was asleep. He frowned and raised his eyebrows at Eliza and she drew him from the room.
‘I found out today he hasn’t been taking any pain relief. He didn’t want Keith to think he was a baby,’ she said quietly, and shrugged. ‘I spoke to Joe when Keith was out of the room and we’ve come to an agreement. Since the first lot of medication he’s been asleep and Keith tells me Joe’s hardly slept.’
Jack frowned and then nodded. ‘OK. Let’s get on, then.’
They completed the round and had a quick look at Janice and her baby in less than ten minutes. There was very little conversation between them.
As he was leaving, Jack looked back and paused. He had been abrupt. ‘Matron?’
Eliza glanced up from the notes she was making. ‘Yes, Doctor?’
‘Well done with the cannula, and Joe as well. If I seem brusque, I’ve had a wild day.’
‘No problem.’ The woman seemed to be staring at some point over his left shoulder and disinclined to talk, so Jack forced himself to leave. It was surprisingly hard to take that first step away. He was more confused about her than ever and he didn’t like it. Until today his world had been pleasantly uncomplicated.
He’d put the horror of three years ago behind him and he’d immersed himself in work. He’d assumed he’d get married again someday but hadn’t dated a woman since Lydia had died.
And he wasn’t thinking of dating this one—but she certainly unsettled him.
Eliza headed back to the hotel. Except for a young blonde woman reading in the corner, the bar was quiet as she walked past the door.
‘So you’re the new matron,’ the blonde drawled, and Eliza’s step slowed to a stop.
‘Hello.’
‘Staying here will get a little noisy on a Friday night.’
‘I’ll be fine.’ Eliza smiled and crossed the room to hold out her hand. ‘I’m Eliza May.’
‘Carla.’ There was something elusively appealing about this too-thin girl-woman and then there was the ice that frosted the outside of her glass in the cloying heat.
Eliza licked dry lips and put her handbag down on the stool beside the girl. ‘It’s hot this evening.’
‘Always is this time of the year.’ Carla stood up, walked behind the bar and filled a glass with ice. Then she opened an under-bar fridge and removed a beaded bottle of lemon squash and unscrewed the lid. ‘I should ask you first.’ She grinned. ‘But you’d like a squash, wouldn’t you.’
Eliza grinned back at her. ‘Dying for one! Thank you. Do you work here?’
‘No. Rob’s gone to the loo. I’m just minding the bar for a minute.’
Carla glanced out the door and back. ‘I’m off for a swim in the river when I finish my drink. If you want, I’ll show you a spot you can swim in when the days are like this.’
‘Local knowledge.’ Eliza smiled as she put two dollars down on the bar for her drink. She remembered local knowledge as a child, it had usually got her into trouble.
‘Something like that.’ There was a hint of fun which dared Eliza to take her up on the offer. After the unease she’d felt round Jack Dancer, it would be nice to loosen up and get cool.
Eliza downed her squash. ‘I’ll slip up and grab a towel.’
The swimming hole was through two fences at the back of the pub but worth the climb down a steep bank to get to. It was under a cliff face and two large weeping willows shaded the pool. There was an aging PRIVATE PROPERTY sign, adorned with a few grass necklaces from previous floods, prominently displayed near the edge.
Carla ignored it. The water looked too good to forgo.
Eliza yanked down the sides of her bathers—they seemed to like crawling too high on her leg and up her bottom. She stood hesitantly at the edge. She hated wearing swimming costumes because they made her feel so self-conscious. Carla was already in and the water looked wonderful.
The first step wasn’t too bad and the temperature of the water grew colder the further out through the reeds Eliza walked.
‘It’s freezing,’ Eliza gasped. The shock on her face when she finally forced her whole body under the water made Carla laugh when Eliza surfaced beside her.
‘Yep.’ Carla swam languidly across the pool and Eliza watched her for a moment before she turned on her back and floated with her arms out. The icy water was gorgeous against her heated skin. This had been an excellent idea.
‘Get out of there!’
Eliza recognised that voice and the enjoyment drained out of the moment as if he’d pulled the plug.
‘You know better, Carla.’ Jack Dancer was cross, there was no doubt about that, Eliza thought, and her heart pumped as if she were a ten-year-old again caught crossing a forbidden field.
‘You’re such a sourpuss, Dr Jack,’ Carla said as she drifted languidly to the shallow water.
‘It would serve you right if you got bitten by a bullrout. Smithy was stung here yesterday and you wouldn’t be so relaxed if you’d seen his face as I filled him up with morphine. But you shouldn’t have put Eliza at risk—she’d from the city and probably doesn’t know what a bullrout is.’
‘I know what a bullrout is,’ Eliza said quietly. The camouflaged fresh-water fish could look like a rock and wore three venom pouches on its spines. Its sting was excruciating. She glanced warily at the reeds as she followed Carla out of the water. The spot was lovely but not worth those kinds of stings. Eliza wrapped her arms around her blatant nipples. Well, the water had been cold, for crikey’s sake. Now she had to get out of here, wet, bathers glued to her too-generous curves, and all under the gaze of that man. The day just kept getting better and better. Eliza compressed her lips.
Finally both women stood at the edge of the innocent-looking water wrapped in towels. They both glared across at the man on the opposite bank.
Carla tossed her hair and turned her back on Jack. ‘You can go home happy, now, you grump. You’ve spoiled our swim so you can relax.’
Jack didn’t say anything or seem perturbed by Carla’s rudeness, and Eliza stood indecisively. She resisted her own impulse to emulate Carla but had the maturity to realise it was a response to being caught in the wrong. Even worse, she hated being caught in her bathers. It was too late to worry now. She half waved to a still waiting Jack and followed Carla up the bank.
When they got to the top, Eliza was almost as hot as when she’d started and not all of it from the sun. She should have gone with her instincts and avoided the local knowledge.
‘Sorry about that.’ Carla held up her hands in an I-didn’t-mean-for-that-to-happen gesture. ‘No one’s been stung there for two years. I didn’t know about Smithy. It’s such a top spot if Dr Jack doesn’t catch you.’
‘So Jack polices the waterholes as well as does the doctoring?’ Eliza could see the amusing part of being caught by Jack—just.
‘He owns the land on both sides of the river,’ Carla said as she headed back to the pub. She glanced over her shoulder to Eliza. ‘But nobody owns the river.’
The next day every person Eliza met in the hospital mentioned her being caught by Jack down at the rout waterhole. She knew there was a reason she’d avoided returning to the country.
Apparently Carla’s friend Rob from the pub thought it a hilarious story and had mentioned it to everyone who’d come into the hotel. They’d passed it on to anyone they’d seen in the next twelve hours and by the time Eliza came to work the story had been embellished to include her and Carla topless with a few men from the pub watching.
‘Spare me.’ Eliza closed her eyes and shook her head. Janice tried to stifle her giggle so as not to wake her baby but she was having a hard time of it.
‘The topless bit was from old Pat, and nobody really believes him, but it seems you’ve made a name for yourself as a good sport already.’
‘Well, I hope nobody believes “Old Pat”. If I meet that delightful old gentleman for a tetanus shot, he’s in for a larger-than-normal-gauge needle.’
Janice dissolved into giggles again and Eliza had to smile at her, but the smile disappeared when Jack Dancer walked into the room.
The memory of him watching her as she’d left the water yesterday warmed her cheeks and she fought the sudden urge to fold her arms again. She was too darned aware of this guy and survival meant he wasn’t to know.
‘All well in here, ladies?’ Jack’s face was expressionless but Eliza suspected a twinkle behind those pseudo black eyes of his. The swine.
‘Eliza was just saying how hot it was yesterday,’ Janice said cheekily, but Jack wasn’t playing.
‘Yes, it was. How’s Newman this morning, Janice?’
Eliza tried to let her relieved breath out unobtrusively as Jack concentrated on his patient.
Janice went on. ‘Fine. We’re both fine. My mum arrives from Melbourne today so he’s going to meet his nana when she comes in to visit.’
‘Say hello to your mum for me if I don’t see her.’ He stepped back from the cot. ‘I’ve a lot on this morning so I’ll leave you in Matron’s capable hands.’
Eliza followed him out of the room. She hoped he didn’t think she’d been discussing yesterday. ‘I didn’t tell her. Apparently it’s all over town that you chased us out of the river.’
Jack glanced up from the notes he carried. ‘Bellbrook is a small town. People find out and embellish all the time.’ He looked at her fully and she saw the wicked twinkle in his eyes. ‘I particularly enjoyed the naked version, with me throwing you a towel.’
Eliza rested her hand over her mouth as she felt the heat rise again in her face. Then she surprised herself with a tiny gurgle of laughter as the funny side of the situation tickled her again.
Just when he thought he had her on the back foot she surprised him again. Jack had spent most of the night trying to rid himself of delightful memories of Eliza, tiny but perfectly packaged, as she’d stepped from the water.
Intriguingly, her breasts had been stunningly full and globular beneath the wet one-piece costume as she’d bent to pick up the towel. Even now that day-old snapshot in his mind made his mouth dry.
Her breasts hadn’t jumped out at him yesterday morning, he mused, and then his own sense of humour caught up with him. Impossible fantasy. He pulled himself back under control and tried to quieten the sudden increase in his heart rate. Now she was giving him palpitations. What on earth was the matter with him?
‘Most people from the city would have a problem with being the object of small-town gossip,’ Jack said without looking at her.
‘I’m not “most people”,’ she replied calmly, and began to talk about Keith, but he didn’t believe her. Her cheeks were just a little too rosy.
By the end of the round Jack was again impressed with Eliza’s ability to manage situations. She’d steered him back onto the job, calmed Keith despite the older man being bitterly disappointed he’d be laid up for probably another week, managed the most painless removal of Joe’s dressing they’d had yet, and was obviously a favourite with the seniors on the wing.
‘You’re doing a great job, Matron. It feels like you’ve been here for much longer than a day and a half.’
‘It feels like that to me, too,’ Eliza said dryly.
Jack wondered at her parting comment as he walked around the side of the hospital to his surgery. The woman intrigued him far too much and he didn’t think she was immune to him either.
CHAPTER THREE
THE next day Jack had meetings in Armidale after the morning round and wouldn’t be back until late. The day was uneventful for Eliza and she felt unsettled after the shift had finished. So much so that she decided to go for a drive.
Eliza glanced down at the directions Mary had pressed on her and judged she was nearly there. The powerful vehicle purred along the dirt road and hugged the uneven surface with ease.
The Mustang was almost forty years old and a classic. With the top down she could blow all her worries into tomorrow. She loved this car. It had been her father’s pride and joy and she’d taken it to Sydney with her when she’d moved there.
She refused to think about Jack Dancer because she’d spent the last hour beating herself up over wondering if he’d make it for the last round after all. He had.
She wasn’t sure if visiting Mary was the most sensible thing to do if she wanted to stay immune to involvement in this town. Though Mary seemed to be one of the few people who wasn’t related to Dr Jack. And Eliza had promised an update of her first few days.
The Mustang pulled up outside the McGuiness property and Mary was at the door before Eliza could walk halfway to the front steps.
Mary’s smile was almost as big as her pregnant tummy. ‘How are you? Is everything going smoothly? How are you coping with Jack?’
Eliza stood there, felt her face freeze and wished she hadn’t come. And the worst thing was, Mary picked it up immediately. Her grin faltered. ‘I’m sorry, Eliza. Come in and I promise I won’t ask about anything else. I was just so excited about getting a visitor.’
Eliza had to smile. ‘So you’ve had thirty-six hours of maternity leave and already you’re feeling socially isolated?’
‘Pathetic isn’t it?’ Mary led them into a sunny room that faced west. There was a long purple mountain range in the distance and Mary’s house perched on a rise overlooking a huge dam. Most of the sprawling garden comprised hardy native plants and birds darted in and out of the low foliage.
‘It’s beautiful here.’
‘Yes, it is. But now that I’m having a baby I wish we were closer to town.’ Mary showed her to a rose-patterned lounge suite and they both sat down.
Eliza sank into the cushions and sighed as she felt the tension from Jack’s latest hospital round ease away into the soft upholstery.
She looked across at Mary perched on the adjacent chair, a little forlorn-looking. ‘Can’t your husband come home earlier?’
‘He could but then he’d have to travel sooner after our baby is born and we want as much time as a family in the early months as we can.’
‘That makes sense. I think. So what are you going to do with your bundle of joy when you go back to work?’
Mary smiled. ‘That’s what’s so special about Bellbrook. I’ll take my baby with me. The hospital isn’t really much more than a large family home and there’re always plenty of hands ready to help if I need.’ They both laughed and Eliza began to enjoy herself.
‘Come for a walk in the garden,’ Mary said, ‘before the sun goes down. It’s a lovely time of the evening.’
Eliza followed Mary out onto the patio and the scent of bush roses drifted up from the path. She’d often enjoyed long walks with her father around the farm.
Three black cockatoos took off from a gum tree and their raucous cries almost drowned Mary out as they flew away.
Eliza said ‘Three days’ rain’ at the same time as Mary, and then laughed. ‘So you’re superstitious, too?’
‘Aren’t we all?’ Mary sidestepped a ladder against the wall and they both had the giggles again.
‘I always thought country people seem more prone to superstitions than city folk,’ Eliza mused.
Mary looked up with interest. ‘So are you really a country girl at heart?’
‘My dad loved the country. I didn’t mind it.’
‘And your mother?’
Eliza shrugged. ‘She left because of it. And the gossip, my dad said.’
Mary nodded. ‘This place thrives on gossip.’
‘Then I supposed you heard about Carla and I being hunted out of the river by Jack?’
Mary’s eyes twinkled. ‘I was hoping you’d mention that!’
Eliza held up both hands and shook her head. ‘I’m innocent, I swear.’ And then she started to laugh at the memory of herself cowering in the river. ‘People even said I was naked and Jack threw me a towel.’
‘You mean that didn’t happen?’ Mary looked crestfallen but couldn’t hold the expression long enough for Eliza to believe she was serious. They both laughed again.
‘Gossip comes because a lot of people are related in small towns—even if only by marriage.’
Eliza remembered the speed of the informants. ‘So how many people are related to Jack Dancer?’
The question seemed to come from nowhere but it was too late for Eliza to call it back. She hoped Mary wouldn’t assume she was becoming interested in Jack because she had the feeling matchmaking was a latent facet of Mary’s personality.
Mary shrugged. ‘Most of us are related in some way.’
Eliza nodded and rolled her eyes. ‘So I’ve noticed. Does that mean you’re a part of Jack’s enormous family circle?’
Mary sighed. ‘I’m not really. Originally, I was from Sydney.’ There was sadness in Mary’s voice and Eliza refrained from asking the obvious question.
‘Jack’s great-grandparents started it all when they had ten kids and most of them settled here. Jack has more cousins than a dog has fleas.’
Eliza had a sudden vision of a giant Jack with cousins crawling all over him, and she smiled. ‘So why isn’t Jack married with ten kids?’
‘That’s the crux of his problem. He was. Jack married my sister. She died three years ago.’ Mary trailed off for a moment then shook her head to jolt herself out of the melancholy.
‘Lydia didn’t like the life in Bellbrook and went back to Sydney. She and their unborn baby boy were killed in a car crash a month later.’
Eliza felt the breath catch in her throat. Poor Jack. ‘That’s sad for everyone. It must have been hard for both you and Jack.’
Mary gazed in the direction of the distant hills. ‘Jack looked after me. My husband, Mick, hadn’t really liked Lydia, and when she left Jack, Mick washed his hands of her. Jack always has had that caring quality that forgives and shoulders responsibility, and I guess that was some of what my sister saw when she married him.’
Mary went on slowly. ‘Lydia was different from me. Beautiful, spoiled by my parents, a talented arts major. And she hated Bellbrook. Then she hated being pregnant. In the end, she hated Jack.’
Mary looked down at her bulging belly and smiled.
‘I love pregnancy and I love Bellbrook and…’ Mary smiled softly, ‘…like a brother, I love Jack.’
Mary’s face softened even further with a whimsical smile. ‘Thanks to Jack, I met my husband, Mick. He was best man at Jack and Lydia’s wedding. We fell in love and married in about three days. I’ve felt at home here ever since. Life is funny with what it deals out.’
So there were good love stories out there, Eliza sighed. Mary looked so content with her life and her love. Lucky Mary. Eliza herself definitely wasn’t interested in taking any more chances with love.
But she was curious about the dashing Dr Dancer’s wife. How could any woman hate Jack? ‘What did your sister do here?’
‘Nothing. We tried to get her involved in community activities, tennis, I suggested she run an art class for the town but she wasn’t interested. She was bored silly and became very bitter at wasting her life, as she called it. Before Lydia died, I’d even decided it hadn’t been a bad thing she’d left, because she had made Jack so unhappy. I think Jack was leaning that way too, until the crash.’
Mary shook her head sadly. ‘I went to pieces. Jack and I both felt so guilty because maybe we should have supported Lydia more. Jack was devastated about the loss of his son as well. He blamed himself and Lydia’s pregnancy for making her temperamental, as if if he’d paid more attention to her she wouldn’t have left and his son would be alive today.’ Mary sighed.
‘Jack studied up on maternal trauma and resuscitation of pregnant women for months afterwards, wondering if the hospital she had been taken to should have done anything different when Lydia was brought in barely alive.’ She looked at Eliza.
‘I think it’s still all locked away inside him behind his carefree smile. I guess that’s why he’s not in a hurry to marry again.’
Mary patted her stomach. ‘He said he’d leave all the hassle of kids to me and be a doting uncle. I think it’s a shame—and watch out. Everyone in town agrees.’
Eliza felt a flicker of panic at Mary’s hint. ‘Don’t look at me. I’m off men.’
Mary looked across at Eliza. ‘That doesn’t matter. You’d better be prepared for some matchmaking uncles and aunts because they’d all like nothing better than to see Jack settled with a family here.’
As they turned towards the back door the sound of a car pulling up outside coincided with the ringing of the telephone. Mary looked torn and Eliza shrugged. ‘I’ll get the door, you take the phone.’
Eliza wished she’d taken the phone because she was still affected by the conversation with Mary and the visitor was Jack.
‘What are you doing here?’ They both spoke and Eliza shook her head. Her whole life was a cliché.
‘Snap!’ She shrugged and stood back so he could enter. ‘Mary’s on the phone. She shouldn’t be long.’
Jack’s mouth twitched wryly. ‘Unless it’s her husband, in which case the record is three hours and ten minutes.’
Eliza whistled. She did not need three hours and ten minutes of Jack. Just looking at him jangled her nerves, and with all the new insight from Mary she didn’t know how to cope with him. ‘Tell Mary I’ll come back another day. I’m tired anyway.’
He looked out the window to Eliza’s car and grimaced. ‘Is that your Mustang?’
Eliza’s gaze shifted to the now dusty red duco of her car. ‘That’s my baby.’
‘How much fossil fuel does it use?’
She glanced in the direction Mary had disappeared but relief wasn’t in sight. There were undercurrents. ‘That depends how I drive it, Doctor.’
When she looked back at him his face was hard. ‘And how do you drive it?’
She shook her head. ‘What possible interest could that be to you?’
She thought he wasn’t going to answer that one but he did and she almost wished he hadn’t. ‘I don’t like waste of life and a car like that just isn’t as safe as the modern vehicles of today.’
‘I’ll be at work tomorrow. Don’t worry.’ She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her car keys. ‘Please, tell Mary I’ll catch up with her later. Goodnight.’
Eliza didn’t gun the engine but she would have liked to. Jack Dancer, emotionally scarred human being—she’d known it. Someone up there was plotting against her, although she had to admit Jack had had a tough couple of years.
Jack watched the dust ball disappear down the road just as he’d watched another car when his wife had left him to settle back into the city. He turned at the sound of Mary’s footsteps and she crossed to his side and kissed his cheek.
‘I think she’ll be good for the town,’ Jack said.
‘She could be good for you,’ Mary said slyly.
His emotions were still too mixed when it came to Eliza May. ‘I didn’t come here to talk about Eliza.’
‘Why not? We talked about you.’
Jack lifted his brows but refused to bite. Mary lowered herself into a chair. ‘So why did you come?’
‘To see you.’
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Fiona McArthur
Eliza has been a magnet for the broken hearts of others, who ultimately end up breaking her own. When handsome but emotionally wounded Dr. Jack Dancer enters her life, she won't allow herself to act on their growing attraction. But one night when Jack makes love to her, she knows she is lost, and is devastated by his coolness the next day.She knows that to stop her heart being broken again she must leave. It's only then that Jack finally realizes he's got to tell Eliza how much he loves her, and he recruits the entire village to help persuade her to become his bride!Fiona McArthur once again expertly combines the pace of the E.R. and the joy of the maternity ward, with all the warmth and intensity of a heart-stopping romance.
‘I know you didn’t believe me when I said I fell in love with you, Eliza. But it’s true.
‘I want to change your mind. I ask you to give me one more chance at winning the woman I will love for ever. Be my bride, here, on Saturday, in front of the whole town and all your friends. They all think we belong together, as I do, and I’ve asked them to help me sway you. Will you let it happen? Marry me, Eliza May, please.’
A mother to five sons, Fiona McArthur is an Australian midwife who loves to write. Medical Romance™ gives Fiona the scope to write about all the wonderful aspects of adventure, romance, medicine and midwifery that she feels so passionate about—as well as an excuse to travel! So, now that the boys are older, her husband Ian and youngest son Rory are off with Fiona to meet new people, see new places, and have wonderful adventures. Fiona’s web site is at fionamcarthur.com (http://fionamcarthur.com)
Recent titles by the same author:
DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT
A VERY SINGLE MIDWIFE
THE PREGNANT MIDWIFE
The Doctor’s Surprise Bride
Fiona McArthur
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
TO LISA—ALWAYS THERE WHEN I LOST FAITH
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE (#u7c1816c7-4f43-53dc-8cd6-9704691d14c2)
CHAPTER TWO (#u7acbba38-e288-5d96-9d2c-a963921368b4)
CHAPTER THREE (#uc230f560-294b-5251-bff4-ac34185a3a51)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE
‘ARE you OK?’ Dr Jack Dancer, Medical Director—in fact, only doctor at Bellbrook Hospital—tilted his head. He tried to bring together this city woman’s list of qualifications and experience—then reconcile it with her youth and the tiny package she came in. Actually, Eliza May looked like a garden fairy with attitude. Her shoulders were tense, her head tilted and she glowered fiercely at him through slitted eyes.
This woman looked ten years too young to qualify for half of her résumé and, with Mary going, the hospital needed every skill this city woman was supposed to have.
He’d thought his cousin’s agency recommendation extraordinarily glowing and he wondered what fanciful planet his cousin had been on when she’d recommended this woman.
‘I’m fine.’ Her voice was not loud but contained an element of self-confidence that made him look at her again. She straightened and the movement added a desperately needed few centimetres to her height. Now he could see her eyes.
Jack felt a ripple shimmer down his back and his breath stuck somewhere behind suddenly sensitive ribs.
Good grief. Her eyes were amazing—vibrant green, alluring eyes that dared him to step out of line and taste the consequences. Even the jagged gold circles around her pupils seemed to glow and shimmer and draw him in. He couldn’t look away.
Jack forced his diaphragm back into action, and dragged his gaze lower to accelerate past memorable lips and a determined little chin, but knew he was in trouble when he skimmed too low and had to bounce his attention out of her tightly restrained cleavage. What on earth had got into him?
‘Lead on, Dr Dancer.’ Now she was decisive and he felt the earth shift again under his feet. No fluttery fairy here. He quietened his reservations—and his libido. Energy vibrated and the new Eliza May held such promise for Bellbrook Hospital that he would never risk jeopardising her suitability with unwanted attention.
Perish the thought.
Whatever shock wave had belted him was past now and he wouldn’t think like that again.
Realistically they had no one else, and apparently she was multi-skilled and dynamic, though a bit of a chameleon. Still, they all required diversity when Bellbrook bestowed some of those moments of unusual interest and everything went haywire.
He had a full waiting room in his surgery at the side of the hospital and his sister-in-law, Mary, had been due to start maternity leave a month ago. His cousin had said Eliza was reliable.
‘Right, then.’ He didn’t look at her again. ‘As soon as we find our matron, she’ll show you around. I won’t see you until later when I do my evening round at the hospital.’
‘Good,’ Eliza said quietly, but with emphasis, and Jack blinked. Did she mean good she didn’t have to see him till later, or good that the departing matron would show her around?
Strangely, both explanations piqued him and he glanced down at her as they made their way to the front of the hospital. This new matron came up to his shoulder yet her smaller legs didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping up with him.
Her hair shone with red glints as they passed under a light and her fringe swung across her face as she turned her head to look up at him. She floated beside him on invisible wings and matched his speed.
‘Where’s the fire?’ She lifted one finely arched brow as she dared him, and he couldn’t help smiling at her.
‘Touché,’ he said and slowed. ‘I forgot your legs were smaller than mine.’
‘Thought you might have,’ was all she said, and he realised she jangled his nerves and wasn’t overawed by him at all. Well, that was good. Wasn’t it?
Jack was pleased to see Mary up ahead.
Matron Mary McGuiness was round-faced and round-bodied, though, of course, most of her abdomen belonged to the baby inside her. Mary was the hospital. The staff, and Jack, had a problem imagining anyone else in her position. He hoped Eliza May could do half as good a job in the time she was here.
After the introductions Jack was eager to get away. Most of his eagerness had to do with his waiting patients and a backlog of paperwork, but a percentage had to do with a sudden need to ring his cousin and find out a few more facts about Bellbrook’s new Acting Matron. Something about Eliza bothered him.
In fact, several things about her bothered him in a way he hadn’t been bothered for years.
He turned to Mary. ‘I’ll leave Eliza with you, but after showing her around I want you signed off, and with your feet up. Doctor’s orders, Mary!’ He nodded at Eliza. ‘Good luck. You can phone my office if you’re worried about anything.’
Eliza smiled blandly. Not if she could help it, Eliza promised herself grimly. Thank goodness he was going. Dr Jack Dancer had everything she wanted to keep away from in a man, let alone one she’d have to totally rely on.
Eliza regretted another bad decision. She may as well rip the heart out of her chest and tear it in two. All he needed was some psychological disaster that kept him from forming a relationship and he’d be irresistible to her twisted mind. After eight weeks with her he’d be ready to marry—someone else.
She watched Dr Jack Dancer stride away and Eliza dispassionately imagined she could hear the creak of the fabric stretching across the strong muscles of his long legs and taut backside. Then there were his shoulders.
The man’s physical presence was too much. Any woman cradled in Jack Dancer’s arms wouldn’t be afraid of falling—until he dropped her.
‘This will be your office.’ Obviously Mary McGuiness hadn’t been sidetracked by Jack’s physique and Eliza knew she was immune. Unobtrusively Eliza dug her nails into her palms to remind herself.
‘Do I need an office?’ Back on track, Eliza couldn’t help returning the other woman’s friendly smile because there was something about Mary that warmed the cold parts in Eliza left by too many people over the years. Mary would never let anybody down.
Mary nodded sagely. ‘Rosters, hunting up staff if someone is off sick, stock ordering, company reps, interviews with the local newspaper. Heaven forbid—disaster control.’
‘Good grief.’ Eliza laughed and then stopped, surprised at herself. She hadn’t laughed freely for a while. There was such a different feel to this little hospital, a warmth and genuineness that probably radiated from the woman in front of her.
‘I’m sure most of those occasions will wait for your return but I can see the need for a private space.’ Eliza looked out the door and into the corridor with the clinical areas. ‘You say most of my work is hands on?’
‘I think you’re pleased about that.’ Mary smiled again and drew Eliza out of the office. She pointed at doorways as they walked the length of the small building.
‘On the semi-acute side, we have two two-bed wards and four single rooms, each with their own bathroom. We were fortunate to build this wing with a bequest from a grateful former client.’
The rooms were light and airy and all the fittings sparkled with good care. Only two of the rooms held patients.
The first room held two men. ‘Meet the new matron, gentlemen. This is Eliza May.’
In the bed beside the door, a man in his early thirties had both arms bandaged to the shoulder with just the tips of his fingers poking out the ends.
Mary stopped beside his bed. ‘Joe came off worse when he lit a bonfire with too much petrol.’ Mary shook her head at his folly.
‘Because Joe’s hands and arms are involved he needs help to care for himself. He should be in Armidale Hospital but Dr Dancer has a lot of experience with burns and they let Joe come home if he stays here for another few days.’
‘Hi, Joe.’ Eliza smiled. ‘When I was six I fell off my horse and broke both my arms. For six weeks it was hell with no hands. I have a lot of sympathy.’
Joe sighed with relief. ‘Reckon you understand, then.’
‘Next to Joe is Keith.’ Mary smiled at a seventy-ish-looking man with leathery skin and crinkled stockman eyes. ‘Keith’s supposed to be going home tomorrow. He ruptured his appendix without telling anyone. He wouldn’t come in to see the doctor and nearly paid the ultimate price. We’ve kept him a few extra days to make sure he doesn’t work too hard.’ Mary narrowed her eyes at the old gentleman. ‘I’m not sure he’s right yet.’
‘Now, Matron.’ Keith had a slow drawl and his lilting voice brought back memories to Eliza’s mind of her father, as did the seriousness of the old man’s expression.
He held out his hand to Eliza. ‘Good to meet you, new Matron. I’ll shake for Joe and me.’
His work-roughened hand felt cool and welcoming in Eliza’s and she began to recall the sweeter side of country towns. These were the facets to country life that the city missed—that she missed—and she had never realised the fact before. Of course she’d never miss anything enough to move from the city permanently and there were aspects of country life that terrified her.
Small towns, gossip, everyone related to everyone else. Eliza had grown up in such a place and shuddered at the memory of when her mother had left them. Her father had closed his door on the wagging tongues, and incidentally Eliza’s friends, and she’d never been so lonely. But she didn’t want to think about that.
And she didn’t want to be drawn into some tiny niche of a town where they would all know her business and invade her personal life.
She’d even told her friend, Julie, at the agency that. ‘Bellbrook might be a little too warm and fuzzy for me, the way I’m feeling at the moment,’ she’d said, but Julie had seen a benefit that had escaped Eliza.
‘There’s only one doctor you have to work with.’ Julie had avoided Eliza’s eyes when she’d said that, now that Eliza came to think of it.
‘Hope you enjoy your stay, Matron.’ The old man’s kind words penetrated Eliza’s reflections and she thanked him and moved on with Mary.
They moved on to the next room and Mary spoke to their only maternity patient. ‘This is Janice, and her son Newman.’ The baby squawked as if he’d recognised his name and the three women smiled.
‘Newman was born two days ago in Armidale by Caesarean, and Janice arrived this morning to convalesce here for the next few days. Meet our new matron, Janice. Eliza May.’
‘Congratulations, Janice. He’s gorgeous.’ Eliza stroked Newman’s tiny wrist. She’d read the patient notes later and find out the rest because there’d be a Caesarean story there. She’d always enjoyed her stints in Maternity.
Eliza’s not-so-great ex-fiancé, Alex, had been reluctant to even speak of babies and months ago Eliza had decided she’d be better sidetracked by more illness-orientated nursing until her fiancé was ready to discuss children. But she’d missed working in Maternity.
Midwifery was such a fascinating area of nursing. If she wasn’t going to get married, maybe she could just enjoy other people’s babies.
‘He’s such a good boy.’ Janice’s delight in her new son touched Eliza and she saw Mary rest her hand over her stomach. Of course Mary would be anxious for the birth of her own child. Eliza narrowed her eyes as she tried to estimate when Mary’s baby was due. Here was an obstetric case right beside her that she needed to keep an eye on.
To Eliza, Mary looked ready to go into labour today!
Maybe that was why Julie had been so keen for Eliza to come here?
They moved on and Eliza glanced in the doors of two empty rooms. ‘So do you have many maternity patients?’
Mary nodded. ‘We normally have three or four post-delivery patients a month. Each stays for a day or two, sometimes longer.’
‘Do you ever have emergency deliveries?’
Mary smiled as if at an amusing memory. ‘We can manage if we have to but Jack is so busy with everything else he doesn’t feel he can give the care needed and refers any obstetric case on.’
The two women set off again and turned a corner to enter a large dining area with rooms off the other wing. ‘Our older residents are on this side of the building and enjoy their meals in the communal dining room when they’re well enough.’
They paused at the nurses’ station where two identical-looking dark-haired women stood in civilian clothes, waiting to be introduced to Eliza. Another younger woman came up to the desk as introductions were started. They all shook hands and smiled but Eliza had the feeling they were measuring her against Mary. Height wasn’t the only thing they were measuring.
Mary continued as her comforting self. ‘We have four wonderful enrolled nurses who rotate as the second person on for each shift.’ She gestured to a dark-haired young woman. ‘This is Vivian, who will be on with you for the rest of the day.’
Eliza smiled at Vivian. A patient call bell rang and Vivian said, ‘Nice to meet you.’ Then scooted away to answer the summons.
‘Rhonda and Donna are our dynamic duo. One of them is your night sister while the other is on days off. They also do the two days on call to cover when you’re off. The rest of the week you’re the third pair of hands if needed at night.’
Both women nodded and smiled so Eliza gathered she’d passed muster, at least today. ‘I’m going home to bed,’ Donna said. ‘Nice meeting you.’
‘I’m off, too. Ditto.’ added Rhonda, and they hugged Mary and left.
Mary watched them go and she smiled. ‘I’m going to miss this place.’ She sighed and then blinked mistily at Eliza and moved on.
Mary cleared her throat. ‘Across the hall we have our admissions office and medical records, and in here we have our small emergency room.’
Mary entered the neat mini-theatre and treatment room. ‘Of course, very occasionally we have larger emergencies and sometimes use the wards if we need more space.’ She gestured to the labelled shelves. ‘I’m a big believer in labelling so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding things.’
‘This is going to be great.’ Eliza leant across and rested her arm briefly around Mary’s shoulder in a spontaneous gesture of comfort. ‘I know I’ll love it here, Mary, and you’re not to worry. I’ll take good care of your hospital until you come back.’
A bell rang overhead and they both glanced up.
‘What’s the bell for?’ Eliza asked, and then frowned as Mary stopped and rested one hand low on her stomach.
‘That’s the casualty bell. At least I’ll get to run you through an outpatient card.’
Eliza inclined her head towards Mary’s stomach. ‘I’ll do this. If you’re going into labour I’ll write a card for you, too.’
‘The tightness will go.’ Mary smiled ruefully but didn’t deny she had some discomfort as she gingerly led the way round the corner towards the main admissions desk, where a young mother leant on the desk with her frightened daughter by her side.
‘Asthma,’ the clerk said. ‘I’ll do the admission without her.’ She gladly handed over her charges, along with a dog-eared card.
Eliza glanced at the name. Mia Summers. A good choice by the admissions clerk, Eliza thought as she helped the woman up the hallway until she met Mary with the wheelchair. They wheeled Mia into the assessment room where Eliza sat her on the edge of the bed. Mary hovered at the door, ready to help if Eliza needed her.
At least the woman had been able to stand and hadn’t fallen unconscious in the car. It hadn’t been that long since Eliza had been present at a young man’s tragic death from asthma, and that had been in a big city emergency department with more doctors than they’d needed, but it hadn’t been enough. Asthma was a killer if people didn’t take the early warning signs seriously enough, and Eliza was on a crusade for education of patients at the moment because of that.
‘Hello, Mia. I’m Eliza. Have you got your Ventolin on you?’
Mia opened her mouth to answer but was far too breathless to talk.
‘Mummy’s puffer is here but she can’t seem to breathe it.’ The little girl prised the small cylinder from her mother’s clenched fist.
Eliza glanced at the label of the puffer and nodded as she slipped the pulse oximeter on the woman’s finger and noted the low oxygen saturation of the woman’s blood. She suspected Mia wasn’t far from unconsciousness.
‘What’s your name?’ Eliza asked the little girl as she reached up into the cupboard to pull down a Ventolin mask.
‘Kristy. I’m eight.’
‘I’m Eliza. I think you’ll make a great doctor or nurse one day, Kristy, the way you’ve looked after Mummy. Where’s Daddy?’
‘Daddy’s in the far paddock and Mummy said we had to go now. I left a note.’
‘That was clever and Mummy was right.’
While she was talking, Eliza’s hands were busy. ‘This mask gives Mummy oxygen and makes the stronger asthma drug into a fine mist and that helps Mummy to breathe.’
Eliza broke open the plastic ampoule, squirted the pre-mixed drug into the chamber of the nebulising mask and fitted the now misting mask over Mia’s face.
She continued talking to the little girl but really she was talking to the frightened young woman beside her. ‘Inside Mummy’s lungs, all her little breathing tubes are blocking up with thick slime. This medicine helps the slime get thinner so Mummy can cough it out of the way and breathe better again, and the oxygen makes mummy feel better.’
The little girl nodded and Eliza rested her hand on the woman’s shoulder. ‘Just close your eyes, Mia, and let the medication do the job.’ Eliza fitted the blood-pressure cuff around the woman’s arm and began to pump it up. ‘Do you have an asthma plan sheet and a spacer?’
Mia shook her head tiredly and Eliza nodded. ‘We’ll talk about it later because I think it would help a lot in your case.’
Eliza glanced at Mary. ‘She needs IV access, cortisone and probably IV salbutamol. Would you like to ring Dr Dancer to come around? I’ll pop a cannula in to save time.’
Mary nodded and reached for the phone on the wall while Eliza swiftly prepared her equipment. ‘I’m going to put a little needle in Mummy’s arm. It looks like it would hurt but it’s really not much more than a mosquito bite. Mummy needs some other medicine that works really quickly if we put it in through the needle. Do you want to look away when I do it?’
Kristy shook her head. ‘I’ll hold Mummy’s other hand.’
‘You have a wonderful daughter, Mia.’
Mia nodded as she started to cough. Already her oxygen saturation had improved. Eliza glanced at Kristy to see if she was upset by her mother coughing.
‘So the slime in Mummy’s lungs is getting thinner, isn’t it Eliza?’
‘Yep.’ Eliza slid the cannula into Mia’s arm and taped it securely. Then she began to assemble the flask and line and draw up the drugs in preparation. ‘Next time Mummy’s fingers go this blue or she can’t talk, she’d better come in the ambulance because they can give her this medicine in the mask and put the needle in on the way to the doctor. Do you know how to ring an ambulance, Kristy?’
Kristy nodded. ‘I ring 000, or 911 in America or 999 in England.’
‘Wow. Even I didn’t know that.’ Eliza felt like hugging the little girl. ‘Tell them Mummy can’t breathe and then answer all the questions.’
When Jack arrived he could see that Eliza had everything under control. Mia could manage a few words, and after he approved the intravenous drugs Eliza had ready, Mia was stable enough to go by ambulance to Armidale, where she’d have to stay overnight, at the very least, for intensive observation.
‘Rhonda’s coming in as escort in the ambulance with you, Mia.’ Jack squeezed the young woman’s shoulder. ‘If all goes well, I’ll see if they’ll transfer you back to us here at Bellbrook tomorrow or the day after.’
Mia’s husband arrived. Jack reaffirmed Mia would be better in Armidale, at least overnight, and after goodbyes Mr Summers took their daughter home.
Jack watched Eliza clear the benches and restock the room in record time. He shook his head. Good was an understatement. He wasn’t sure he was used to someone telling him what he needed to give a patient, but he’d have to get over it. Eliza had certainly been instrumental in saving Mia’s condition from becoming perilous, and that was the important thing.
He cleared his throat and wondered why the words stuck a little. ‘You did well, Eliza. Mia hasn’t had an attack that severe before.’
Eliza stopped what she was doing and met his eyes. He watched her smile spread to her eyes at his compliment and he could feel himself responding. She was like a sunrise. Boom—explosion of light as she smiled. She blew him away again just like she had when he’d first met her.
‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘So this is what a sleepy country town is like.’
The moment extended and his smile broadened. She was gorgeous in an understated way and his diaphragm imploded again. Unconsciously he took a step forward towards her, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to want to be closer to her.
Then she changed and the corners of her mouth drooped. The expression in her beautiful eyes grew distant and she broke eye contact as she looked away. The angry fairy wasn’t quite back but there were glimpses.
Eliza spoke to the package she lifted into the cupboard. ‘Mia said she doesn’t have an asthma plan or a spacer. Are the plans not something you do here?’
‘Not really.’ Jack didn’t concentrate too much on what she was saying because he was wondering why she’d created such reserve and backed away from being friendly. He re-focussed on her question. ‘If someone becomes a moderate asthmatic, I usually send them to a specialist in Armidale or even the respiratory clinic in Newcastle, and the specialists do all that.’
She twisted her neck and looked at him from under her brows. ‘I’ll have some forms sent from the Asthma Foundation. They’ll send us an info pack and a pad of plans that you could look at. I’ve helped generate plans before and believe they give the patient back control of their asthma. Spacers make it easier for the patient to take their Ventolin, especially during an attack.’
Her tone was icy and he couldn’t help the drop in warmth in his own voice. It was almost as if she’d engineered the whole estrangement of their brief rapport. Something else was going on here, something ill-defined, and he didn’t like it, but he had to get back to his surgery. If she didn’t want him here, he could take a hint!
‘Thank you, Matron May. I’ve actually seen such plans and I know what a spacer is,’ Jack said dryly. ‘I’ll certainly consider your suggestion.’ He glanced at the door where Mary was an interested bystander. ‘I thought you were going home, Mary?’
Mary raised placatory hands and bit back a smile. ‘I just need to finish the round I’ve started with Eliza. I’ll be gone soon.’
‘Well, I am gone,’ Jack muttered. ‘Matrons,’ he said mockingly, and inclined his head at Eliza. Then he took himself back to his surgery.
Eliza watched him go. What on earth had got into her? Lecturing Jack! It wasn’t part of her job and she didn’t need to alienate her boss for the next eight weeks.
And why was she thinking of him as Jack and not Dr Dancer?
The problem was, the guy was too tall, too handsome and too sure of himself, and he made her feel all weak and feminine and things she’d promised she wasn’t going to feel again. What really worried her was whether coming here had been another bad decision. She’d made a few of those in her life.
‘I’m afraid I’ve put his back up,’ Eliza said.
‘You don’t look too upset about it. It won’t kill him to have someone not in awe of him.’ Mary changed the subject. ‘You seemed to find everything you needed for Mia easily.’
Eliza glanced around at the now tidy room. Back to reality and escape from the distraction of Dr Jack Dancer. ‘You’ve stored everything in the most obvious place, Mary, and the labelling is fantastic. This is such a bonus. As an agency nurse, finding the equipment is the hardest part.’
‘I’ll bet.’ Mary tilted her head. ‘So how did you get into agency work? I bet a few hospitals would love to hire you full-time with your qualifications.’
Eliza met Mary’s eyes. ‘It’s a new direction for me. I like being unattached. It gives me the choice to move when I want to.’
‘Fair enough,’ Mary said. ‘We’ll move on ourselves before Jack discovers me here on his next round.’ She smiled and swayed out of the room to waddle further down the hallway.
‘Where was I? Basically, you do five days a week, eight hours normal and four hours overtime, then you’re on call at night except for weekends. Think you can handle that?’
‘Fine by me.’ Eliza shook her head at Mary. ‘How on earth did you have time to fall pregnant?’
Mary twinkled back. ‘My husband is the local fire captain, amongst other things, so we know there’s twenty-four hours in a day. We both enjoy being busy. He’s away at a conference at the moment.’
Mary shrugged. ‘When Mick’s home he’s home and when he’s not I spend a lot of time here. We both like it that way. He used to be in the navy.’ She answered the question Eliza didn’t ask. ‘Mick will be home in a few days and stick around more when my baby is due.’
‘And if baby comes early?’ They both glanced down at Mary’s stomach.
‘He’ll have to fly home quick smart!’
Eliza shook her head at Mary’s calmness. ‘Mary, I think you’re Wonder Woman.’
Mary shrugged. ‘I’ll be Bored Woman for the next few weeks. I wondered if you’d like to drop around in a day or so. I’m sure you’ll have questions and I’ll be dying to know how you settle in.’
And that’s how country towns worked. Eliza knew that from past experience. It wasn’t what she’d planned when she’d hoped to keep a city-dweller’s distance from the townsfolk. She’d seen the effect of gossip and everyone knowing her business, but she couldn’t offend Mary. Bellbrook’s matron was too genuine.
Trouble was the next thing would be an in-depth conversation with the publican’s wife when she went back to the hotel tonight. Then there’d be the corner shop purchases tomorrow and the visit to the post office, by which time everyone in the valley would be aware of her arrival, the car she drove and enough physical features to be picked out at a hundred paces.
She’d better not do anything noteworthy or Jack Dancer, who seemed to be related to everyone, would be the first to hear about it.
CHAPTER TWO
BY LUNCHTIME Mary had departed to rest as ordered by her doctor.
Eliza glanced around at the eight elderly patients seated at the dining table to eat their lunch. She’d handed out the medications and done a ward tidy with Vivian.
If Eliza looked on the workload as just a normal ward with diverse patients, and not a whole hospital, there was nothing she hadn’t done before.
By six-thirty that evening she’d found most things she could possibly need, had had in-depth conversations with all the inpatients, as well as read their medical records and helped with the evening meal.
She’d glanced through the rosters to see how they worked and spent ten minutes on the phone to Julie, her friend at the nursing agency, to say she was settling in.
Now all she had to do was a ward round with the distracting Dr Dancer and she’d be finished for the day.
Eliza glanced at the clock again and drummed her fingers on the nurses’ station desk.
He was late.
She was getting more unsettled by the minute with a waiting-for-the-dentist kind of tension and Eliza wished he’d just arrive. Surely Dancer wasn’t so spectacular he’d turned her into a bundle of nerves?
Apparently he was. When Jack breezed in he brought more devastation to her peace of mind than she needed. So much for saying her imagination had been over-active. His wavy black hair was tousled as if he’d been dragging distracted hands through it all day, and he’d even jammed a couple of curls behind his ears. That was when she noticed he had a tiny diamond in his right ear lobe. How on earth had she missed that this morning?
‘Ready for the round?’ He seemed very businesslike and Eliza allowed some of the tightness to ease from her shoulders. Businesslike sounded good. He’d want to get home, too. The brusquer the better, Eliza thought gratefully.
‘Let’s go.’ She picked up a notebook in case she needed to take notes.
He glanced across at her briefly, and she saw he had dark chocolate eyes, not black, as she’d previously thought, a strange thing to notice when she was supposed to be immune.
‘So how was your day?’ Jack was brief and Eliza even briefer.
‘Fine.’ She picked up the pace to get the next few minutes over as quickly as possible. Noticing too many things about this man, Eliza, she thought grimly.
‘Are we racing again?’ Laughter in his voice and Eliza felt her face stiffen. Please, don’t let him be nice to me or flirt with me or in any way endear himself to me, she prayed. There was something about him that pierced her skin like a poison dart and was just as irritating. She was not playing man games any more.
‘I just know you’ll be emotionally scarred and unable to have a worthwhile relationship,’ she muttered.
Jack stopped walking and Eliza carried on a few more steps before she realised she’d said what was on her mind out loud! She closed her eyes and then opened them again. Oh, boy!
He tilted his head. ‘I’m sorry? What did you say?’
She glanced down and then lifted her chin resolutely. ‘Sorry. Ignore that.’
He looked stunned.
She shrugged. ‘Look, I may seem mad, but I’ve had the worst run of luck with men and I’m still spinning from the last one. I seem to have a penchant for poor sods who have been a victim of some unscrupulous woman. They find me, I heal their poor broken hearts, and then they happily marry someone else. I usually get invited to the wedding. For some bizarre reason, I don’t want to play that game any more.’
She was sure his eyes were glazing over but it was imperative she make this clear. ‘This may seem more than you need to know, but I am trying to explain my stupid comment.’
He moved his lips a little but didn’t actually say a word. Eliza sighed. ‘Forget I spoke and we’ll do the ward round.’
Jack felt as if someone had just popped a paper bag in his unsuspecting face. He’d known there was something odd about her. The chameleon fairy was mad and Mary was gone. What the heck were they going to do? He’d had a hell of a day already.
After the dash out for Mia’s asthma attack, he’d returned to his office and realised today was the anniversary of the worst day of his life. He hadn’t been able to believe it had slipped his mind for a few hours.
After he’d fought his way out of that depression, a desperate young couple, distant relatives on his mother’s side, had miscarried their second IVF baby. Then one of his uncles had come in for results on a mole he’d excised last week, and the specimen had proved to be a particularly vicious melanoma.
Now this!
The new fairy matron was a man-hating elf with issues.
He heard her voice from a long way off. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘Forget it.’
He blinked, the hallway came into focus again, and he shelved her replacement problems for a minute. Deep breath, Jack, he suggested to himself.
She was still talking as if nothing had happened. ‘You should have a look at Keith’s wound. I know he’s supposed to go home tomorrow but I believe he’s brewing an infection.’
Jack blinked. He’d just play along with her until after the round. ‘Fine. I’ll look at that. How’s Keith’s temperature?’
‘Creeping up, and it spiked to thirty-nine this afternoon before it went down again.’
Jack glanced at the chart the madwoman handed him from the end of Keith’s bed and he saw that she was right. Blast. They’d have to start intravenous antibiotics again because Keith had little reserve to fight infection after his brush with peritonitis.
She’d pulled the curtains and had Keith supine in the bed with his shirt up before Jack could ask, and when she removed the dressing, tell-tale red streaks were inching away from Keith’s wound.
He glanced at Keith’s face and realised his patient did look more unwell than this morning. ‘Sorry, Keith. No home until we sort this out.’
Keith sighed with resignation. ‘Matron warned me it could be that way.’
Eliza spoke from beside his shoulder. ‘Do you want me to put an intravenous cannula in?’ Jack saw that she had the IV trolley waiting and she’d probably decided which antibiotics Keith should be on, too. Just who was the doctor here? He couldn’t help the bite in his voice. ‘Have you drawn it up as well?’
He should have known she’d be immune.
‘Almost,’ she said. Was there a hint of laughter in her voice?
Jack scowled. She went on, ‘What would you like him started on?’
She had two choices there for him and they would have been first and second if he’d chosen them himself. What was wrong with him? He wanted her efficient. ‘We’ll go with the Ceftriaxone, but see if you can get a wound swab before the first dose.’
She didn’t look at him and he couldn’t tell if she was smiling. ‘Did that earlier when I took today’s dressing off,’ she said, as she prepared the antibiotic before laying it down and assembling the cannulation equipment.
‘Shall I pop the cannula in?’ Eliza glanced at him.
Jack almost said, I’ll do that thank you, but he changed his mind. ‘Let’s see how good you are,’ he said out loud. Nothing like a bit of pressure to put someone off. He knew from bitter experience that Keith’s veins were nowhere near the young bulging ones that Mia had. Matron May was too darned cocky.
‘Just a sting for a second, Keith,’ Eliza soothed as she slid the needle into an almost invisible vein with disgusting ease. She seemed to have three hands as she juggled cannulas, bungs and even took blood. ‘Did you want blood cultures?’ She taped the line securely and stood back. They both glanced at the antibiotic waiting to be injected.
‘Can I do this?’ He sounded petty and she made a strange sound that he hoped wasn’t her laughing at him. He normally wasn’t like this and he needed to get a grip. He looked at her to apologise but realised she was amused. Amused!
Today had been anything but amusing. He didn’t say a word, just gave the antibiotic, wrote up the orders and patted Keith’s hand carefully. ‘Sorry, mate. You’ll probably be in for another couple of days yet.’
Keith nodded. When they pulled the curtain back Jack was surprised to see that Joe was asleep. He frowned and raised his eyebrows at Eliza and she drew him from the room.
‘I found out today he hasn’t been taking any pain relief. He didn’t want Keith to think he was a baby,’ she said quietly, and shrugged. ‘I spoke to Joe when Keith was out of the room and we’ve come to an agreement. Since the first lot of medication he’s been asleep and Keith tells me Joe’s hardly slept.’
Jack frowned and then nodded. ‘OK. Let’s get on, then.’
They completed the round and had a quick look at Janice and her baby in less than ten minutes. There was very little conversation between them.
As he was leaving, Jack looked back and paused. He had been abrupt. ‘Matron?’
Eliza glanced up from the notes she was making. ‘Yes, Doctor?’
‘Well done with the cannula, and Joe as well. If I seem brusque, I’ve had a wild day.’
‘No problem.’ The woman seemed to be staring at some point over his left shoulder and disinclined to talk, so Jack forced himself to leave. It was surprisingly hard to take that first step away. He was more confused about her than ever and he didn’t like it. Until today his world had been pleasantly uncomplicated.
He’d put the horror of three years ago behind him and he’d immersed himself in work. He’d assumed he’d get married again someday but hadn’t dated a woman since Lydia had died.
And he wasn’t thinking of dating this one—but she certainly unsettled him.
Eliza headed back to the hotel. Except for a young blonde woman reading in the corner, the bar was quiet as she walked past the door.
‘So you’re the new matron,’ the blonde drawled, and Eliza’s step slowed to a stop.
‘Hello.’
‘Staying here will get a little noisy on a Friday night.’
‘I’ll be fine.’ Eliza smiled and crossed the room to hold out her hand. ‘I’m Eliza May.’
‘Carla.’ There was something elusively appealing about this too-thin girl-woman and then there was the ice that frosted the outside of her glass in the cloying heat.
Eliza licked dry lips and put her handbag down on the stool beside the girl. ‘It’s hot this evening.’
‘Always is this time of the year.’ Carla stood up, walked behind the bar and filled a glass with ice. Then she opened an under-bar fridge and removed a beaded bottle of lemon squash and unscrewed the lid. ‘I should ask you first.’ She grinned. ‘But you’d like a squash, wouldn’t you.’
Eliza grinned back at her. ‘Dying for one! Thank you. Do you work here?’
‘No. Rob’s gone to the loo. I’m just minding the bar for a minute.’
Carla glanced out the door and back. ‘I’m off for a swim in the river when I finish my drink. If you want, I’ll show you a spot you can swim in when the days are like this.’
‘Local knowledge.’ Eliza smiled as she put two dollars down on the bar for her drink. She remembered local knowledge as a child, it had usually got her into trouble.
‘Something like that.’ There was a hint of fun which dared Eliza to take her up on the offer. After the unease she’d felt round Jack Dancer, it would be nice to loosen up and get cool.
Eliza downed her squash. ‘I’ll slip up and grab a towel.’
The swimming hole was through two fences at the back of the pub but worth the climb down a steep bank to get to. It was under a cliff face and two large weeping willows shaded the pool. There was an aging PRIVATE PROPERTY sign, adorned with a few grass necklaces from previous floods, prominently displayed near the edge.
Carla ignored it. The water looked too good to forgo.
Eliza yanked down the sides of her bathers—they seemed to like crawling too high on her leg and up her bottom. She stood hesitantly at the edge. She hated wearing swimming costumes because they made her feel so self-conscious. Carla was already in and the water looked wonderful.
The first step wasn’t too bad and the temperature of the water grew colder the further out through the reeds Eliza walked.
‘It’s freezing,’ Eliza gasped. The shock on her face when she finally forced her whole body under the water made Carla laugh when Eliza surfaced beside her.
‘Yep.’ Carla swam languidly across the pool and Eliza watched her for a moment before she turned on her back and floated with her arms out. The icy water was gorgeous against her heated skin. This had been an excellent idea.
‘Get out of there!’
Eliza recognised that voice and the enjoyment drained out of the moment as if he’d pulled the plug.
‘You know better, Carla.’ Jack Dancer was cross, there was no doubt about that, Eliza thought, and her heart pumped as if she were a ten-year-old again caught crossing a forbidden field.
‘You’re such a sourpuss, Dr Jack,’ Carla said as she drifted languidly to the shallow water.
‘It would serve you right if you got bitten by a bullrout. Smithy was stung here yesterday and you wouldn’t be so relaxed if you’d seen his face as I filled him up with morphine. But you shouldn’t have put Eliza at risk—she’d from the city and probably doesn’t know what a bullrout is.’
‘I know what a bullrout is,’ Eliza said quietly. The camouflaged fresh-water fish could look like a rock and wore three venom pouches on its spines. Its sting was excruciating. She glanced warily at the reeds as she followed Carla out of the water. The spot was lovely but not worth those kinds of stings. Eliza wrapped her arms around her blatant nipples. Well, the water had been cold, for crikey’s sake. Now she had to get out of here, wet, bathers glued to her too-generous curves, and all under the gaze of that man. The day just kept getting better and better. Eliza compressed her lips.
Finally both women stood at the edge of the innocent-looking water wrapped in towels. They both glared across at the man on the opposite bank.
Carla tossed her hair and turned her back on Jack. ‘You can go home happy, now, you grump. You’ve spoiled our swim so you can relax.’
Jack didn’t say anything or seem perturbed by Carla’s rudeness, and Eliza stood indecisively. She resisted her own impulse to emulate Carla but had the maturity to realise it was a response to being caught in the wrong. Even worse, she hated being caught in her bathers. It was too late to worry now. She half waved to a still waiting Jack and followed Carla up the bank.
When they got to the top, Eliza was almost as hot as when she’d started and not all of it from the sun. She should have gone with her instincts and avoided the local knowledge.
‘Sorry about that.’ Carla held up her hands in an I-didn’t-mean-for-that-to-happen gesture. ‘No one’s been stung there for two years. I didn’t know about Smithy. It’s such a top spot if Dr Jack doesn’t catch you.’
‘So Jack polices the waterholes as well as does the doctoring?’ Eliza could see the amusing part of being caught by Jack—just.
‘He owns the land on both sides of the river,’ Carla said as she headed back to the pub. She glanced over her shoulder to Eliza. ‘But nobody owns the river.’
The next day every person Eliza met in the hospital mentioned her being caught by Jack down at the rout waterhole. She knew there was a reason she’d avoided returning to the country.
Apparently Carla’s friend Rob from the pub thought it a hilarious story and had mentioned it to everyone who’d come into the hotel. They’d passed it on to anyone they’d seen in the next twelve hours and by the time Eliza came to work the story had been embellished to include her and Carla topless with a few men from the pub watching.
‘Spare me.’ Eliza closed her eyes and shook her head. Janice tried to stifle her giggle so as not to wake her baby but she was having a hard time of it.
‘The topless bit was from old Pat, and nobody really believes him, but it seems you’ve made a name for yourself as a good sport already.’
‘Well, I hope nobody believes “Old Pat”. If I meet that delightful old gentleman for a tetanus shot, he’s in for a larger-than-normal-gauge needle.’
Janice dissolved into giggles again and Eliza had to smile at her, but the smile disappeared when Jack Dancer walked into the room.
The memory of him watching her as she’d left the water yesterday warmed her cheeks and she fought the sudden urge to fold her arms again. She was too darned aware of this guy and survival meant he wasn’t to know.
‘All well in here, ladies?’ Jack’s face was expressionless but Eliza suspected a twinkle behind those pseudo black eyes of his. The swine.
‘Eliza was just saying how hot it was yesterday,’ Janice said cheekily, but Jack wasn’t playing.
‘Yes, it was. How’s Newman this morning, Janice?’
Eliza tried to let her relieved breath out unobtrusively as Jack concentrated on his patient.
Janice went on. ‘Fine. We’re both fine. My mum arrives from Melbourne today so he’s going to meet his nana when she comes in to visit.’
‘Say hello to your mum for me if I don’t see her.’ He stepped back from the cot. ‘I’ve a lot on this morning so I’ll leave you in Matron’s capable hands.’
Eliza followed him out of the room. She hoped he didn’t think she’d been discussing yesterday. ‘I didn’t tell her. Apparently it’s all over town that you chased us out of the river.’
Jack glanced up from the notes he carried. ‘Bellbrook is a small town. People find out and embellish all the time.’ He looked at her fully and she saw the wicked twinkle in his eyes. ‘I particularly enjoyed the naked version, with me throwing you a towel.’
Eliza rested her hand over her mouth as she felt the heat rise again in her face. Then she surprised herself with a tiny gurgle of laughter as the funny side of the situation tickled her again.
Just when he thought he had her on the back foot she surprised him again. Jack had spent most of the night trying to rid himself of delightful memories of Eliza, tiny but perfectly packaged, as she’d stepped from the water.
Intriguingly, her breasts had been stunningly full and globular beneath the wet one-piece costume as she’d bent to pick up the towel. Even now that day-old snapshot in his mind made his mouth dry.
Her breasts hadn’t jumped out at him yesterday morning, he mused, and then his own sense of humour caught up with him. Impossible fantasy. He pulled himself back under control and tried to quieten the sudden increase in his heart rate. Now she was giving him palpitations. What on earth was the matter with him?
‘Most people from the city would have a problem with being the object of small-town gossip,’ Jack said without looking at her.
‘I’m not “most people”,’ she replied calmly, and began to talk about Keith, but he didn’t believe her. Her cheeks were just a little too rosy.
By the end of the round Jack was again impressed with Eliza’s ability to manage situations. She’d steered him back onto the job, calmed Keith despite the older man being bitterly disappointed he’d be laid up for probably another week, managed the most painless removal of Joe’s dressing they’d had yet, and was obviously a favourite with the seniors on the wing.
‘You’re doing a great job, Matron. It feels like you’ve been here for much longer than a day and a half.’
‘It feels like that to me, too,’ Eliza said dryly.
Jack wondered at her parting comment as he walked around the side of the hospital to his surgery. The woman intrigued him far too much and he didn’t think she was immune to him either.
CHAPTER THREE
THE next day Jack had meetings in Armidale after the morning round and wouldn’t be back until late. The day was uneventful for Eliza and she felt unsettled after the shift had finished. So much so that she decided to go for a drive.
Eliza glanced down at the directions Mary had pressed on her and judged she was nearly there. The powerful vehicle purred along the dirt road and hugged the uneven surface with ease.
The Mustang was almost forty years old and a classic. With the top down she could blow all her worries into tomorrow. She loved this car. It had been her father’s pride and joy and she’d taken it to Sydney with her when she’d moved there.
She refused to think about Jack Dancer because she’d spent the last hour beating herself up over wondering if he’d make it for the last round after all. He had.
She wasn’t sure if visiting Mary was the most sensible thing to do if she wanted to stay immune to involvement in this town. Though Mary seemed to be one of the few people who wasn’t related to Dr Jack. And Eliza had promised an update of her first few days.
The Mustang pulled up outside the McGuiness property and Mary was at the door before Eliza could walk halfway to the front steps.
Mary’s smile was almost as big as her pregnant tummy. ‘How are you? Is everything going smoothly? How are you coping with Jack?’
Eliza stood there, felt her face freeze and wished she hadn’t come. And the worst thing was, Mary picked it up immediately. Her grin faltered. ‘I’m sorry, Eliza. Come in and I promise I won’t ask about anything else. I was just so excited about getting a visitor.’
Eliza had to smile. ‘So you’ve had thirty-six hours of maternity leave and already you’re feeling socially isolated?’
‘Pathetic isn’t it?’ Mary led them into a sunny room that faced west. There was a long purple mountain range in the distance and Mary’s house perched on a rise overlooking a huge dam. Most of the sprawling garden comprised hardy native plants and birds darted in and out of the low foliage.
‘It’s beautiful here.’
‘Yes, it is. But now that I’m having a baby I wish we were closer to town.’ Mary showed her to a rose-patterned lounge suite and they both sat down.
Eliza sank into the cushions and sighed as she felt the tension from Jack’s latest hospital round ease away into the soft upholstery.
She looked across at Mary perched on the adjacent chair, a little forlorn-looking. ‘Can’t your husband come home earlier?’
‘He could but then he’d have to travel sooner after our baby is born and we want as much time as a family in the early months as we can.’
‘That makes sense. I think. So what are you going to do with your bundle of joy when you go back to work?’
Mary smiled. ‘That’s what’s so special about Bellbrook. I’ll take my baby with me. The hospital isn’t really much more than a large family home and there’re always plenty of hands ready to help if I need.’ They both laughed and Eliza began to enjoy herself.
‘Come for a walk in the garden,’ Mary said, ‘before the sun goes down. It’s a lovely time of the evening.’
Eliza followed Mary out onto the patio and the scent of bush roses drifted up from the path. She’d often enjoyed long walks with her father around the farm.
Three black cockatoos took off from a gum tree and their raucous cries almost drowned Mary out as they flew away.
Eliza said ‘Three days’ rain’ at the same time as Mary, and then laughed. ‘So you’re superstitious, too?’
‘Aren’t we all?’ Mary sidestepped a ladder against the wall and they both had the giggles again.
‘I always thought country people seem more prone to superstitions than city folk,’ Eliza mused.
Mary looked up with interest. ‘So are you really a country girl at heart?’
‘My dad loved the country. I didn’t mind it.’
‘And your mother?’
Eliza shrugged. ‘She left because of it. And the gossip, my dad said.’
Mary nodded. ‘This place thrives on gossip.’
‘Then I supposed you heard about Carla and I being hunted out of the river by Jack?’
Mary’s eyes twinkled. ‘I was hoping you’d mention that!’
Eliza held up both hands and shook her head. ‘I’m innocent, I swear.’ And then she started to laugh at the memory of herself cowering in the river. ‘People even said I was naked and Jack threw me a towel.’
‘You mean that didn’t happen?’ Mary looked crestfallen but couldn’t hold the expression long enough for Eliza to believe she was serious. They both laughed again.
‘Gossip comes because a lot of people are related in small towns—even if only by marriage.’
Eliza remembered the speed of the informants. ‘So how many people are related to Jack Dancer?’
The question seemed to come from nowhere but it was too late for Eliza to call it back. She hoped Mary wouldn’t assume she was becoming interested in Jack because she had the feeling matchmaking was a latent facet of Mary’s personality.
Mary shrugged. ‘Most of us are related in some way.’
Eliza nodded and rolled her eyes. ‘So I’ve noticed. Does that mean you’re a part of Jack’s enormous family circle?’
Mary sighed. ‘I’m not really. Originally, I was from Sydney.’ There was sadness in Mary’s voice and Eliza refrained from asking the obvious question.
‘Jack’s great-grandparents started it all when they had ten kids and most of them settled here. Jack has more cousins than a dog has fleas.’
Eliza had a sudden vision of a giant Jack with cousins crawling all over him, and she smiled. ‘So why isn’t Jack married with ten kids?’
‘That’s the crux of his problem. He was. Jack married my sister. She died three years ago.’ Mary trailed off for a moment then shook her head to jolt herself out of the melancholy.
‘Lydia didn’t like the life in Bellbrook and went back to Sydney. She and their unborn baby boy were killed in a car crash a month later.’
Eliza felt the breath catch in her throat. Poor Jack. ‘That’s sad for everyone. It must have been hard for both you and Jack.’
Mary gazed in the direction of the distant hills. ‘Jack looked after me. My husband, Mick, hadn’t really liked Lydia, and when she left Jack, Mick washed his hands of her. Jack always has had that caring quality that forgives and shoulders responsibility, and I guess that was some of what my sister saw when she married him.’
Mary went on slowly. ‘Lydia was different from me. Beautiful, spoiled by my parents, a talented arts major. And she hated Bellbrook. Then she hated being pregnant. In the end, she hated Jack.’
Mary looked down at her bulging belly and smiled.
‘I love pregnancy and I love Bellbrook and…’ Mary smiled softly, ‘…like a brother, I love Jack.’
Mary’s face softened even further with a whimsical smile. ‘Thanks to Jack, I met my husband, Mick. He was best man at Jack and Lydia’s wedding. We fell in love and married in about three days. I’ve felt at home here ever since. Life is funny with what it deals out.’
So there were good love stories out there, Eliza sighed. Mary looked so content with her life and her love. Lucky Mary. Eliza herself definitely wasn’t interested in taking any more chances with love.
But she was curious about the dashing Dr Dancer’s wife. How could any woman hate Jack? ‘What did your sister do here?’
‘Nothing. We tried to get her involved in community activities, tennis, I suggested she run an art class for the town but she wasn’t interested. She was bored silly and became very bitter at wasting her life, as she called it. Before Lydia died, I’d even decided it hadn’t been a bad thing she’d left, because she had made Jack so unhappy. I think Jack was leaning that way too, until the crash.’
Mary shook her head sadly. ‘I went to pieces. Jack and I both felt so guilty because maybe we should have supported Lydia more. Jack was devastated about the loss of his son as well. He blamed himself and Lydia’s pregnancy for making her temperamental, as if if he’d paid more attention to her she wouldn’t have left and his son would be alive today.’ Mary sighed.
‘Jack studied up on maternal trauma and resuscitation of pregnant women for months afterwards, wondering if the hospital she had been taken to should have done anything different when Lydia was brought in barely alive.’ She looked at Eliza.
‘I think it’s still all locked away inside him behind his carefree smile. I guess that’s why he’s not in a hurry to marry again.’
Mary patted her stomach. ‘He said he’d leave all the hassle of kids to me and be a doting uncle. I think it’s a shame—and watch out. Everyone in town agrees.’
Eliza felt a flicker of panic at Mary’s hint. ‘Don’t look at me. I’m off men.’
Mary looked across at Eliza. ‘That doesn’t matter. You’d better be prepared for some matchmaking uncles and aunts because they’d all like nothing better than to see Jack settled with a family here.’
As they turned towards the back door the sound of a car pulling up outside coincided with the ringing of the telephone. Mary looked torn and Eliza shrugged. ‘I’ll get the door, you take the phone.’
Eliza wished she’d taken the phone because she was still affected by the conversation with Mary and the visitor was Jack.
‘What are you doing here?’ They both spoke and Eliza shook her head. Her whole life was a cliché.
‘Snap!’ She shrugged and stood back so he could enter. ‘Mary’s on the phone. She shouldn’t be long.’
Jack’s mouth twitched wryly. ‘Unless it’s her husband, in which case the record is three hours and ten minutes.’
Eliza whistled. She did not need three hours and ten minutes of Jack. Just looking at him jangled her nerves, and with all the new insight from Mary she didn’t know how to cope with him. ‘Tell Mary I’ll come back another day. I’m tired anyway.’
He looked out the window to Eliza’s car and grimaced. ‘Is that your Mustang?’
Eliza’s gaze shifted to the now dusty red duco of her car. ‘That’s my baby.’
‘How much fossil fuel does it use?’
She glanced in the direction Mary had disappeared but relief wasn’t in sight. There were undercurrents. ‘That depends how I drive it, Doctor.’
When she looked back at him his face was hard. ‘And how do you drive it?’
She shook her head. ‘What possible interest could that be to you?’
She thought he wasn’t going to answer that one but he did and she almost wished he hadn’t. ‘I don’t like waste of life and a car like that just isn’t as safe as the modern vehicles of today.’
‘I’ll be at work tomorrow. Don’t worry.’ She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her car keys. ‘Please, tell Mary I’ll catch up with her later. Goodnight.’
Eliza didn’t gun the engine but she would have liked to. Jack Dancer, emotionally scarred human being—she’d known it. Someone up there was plotting against her, although she had to admit Jack had had a tough couple of years.
Jack watched the dust ball disappear down the road just as he’d watched another car when his wife had left him to settle back into the city. He turned at the sound of Mary’s footsteps and she crossed to his side and kissed his cheek.
‘I think she’ll be good for the town,’ Jack said.
‘She could be good for you,’ Mary said slyly.
His emotions were still too mixed when it came to Eliza May. ‘I didn’t come here to talk about Eliza.’
‘Why not? We talked about you.’
Jack lifted his brows but refused to bite. Mary lowered herself into a chair. ‘So why did you come?’
‘To see you.’
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Fiona McArthur
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: Eliza has been a magnet for the broken hearts of others, who ultimately end up breaking her own. When handsome but emotionally wounded Dr. Jack Dancer enters her life, she won′t allow herself to act on their growing attraction. But one night when Jack makes love to her, she knows she is lost, and is devastated by his coolness the next day.She knows that to stop her heart being broken again she must leave. It′s only then that Jack finally realizes he′s got to tell Eliza how much he loves her, and he recruits the entire village to help persuade her to become his bride!Fiona McArthur once again expertly combines the pace of the E.R. and the joy of the maternity ward, with all the warmth and intensity of a heart-stopping romance.