Authors: Meredith Webber,Alison Roberts
‘But there are dozens of crocodiles in the creek?’
Kate looked nervously out the car window. How far from creeks did crocodiles travel? And hadn’t she heard they could run faster than a horse?
Could a horse run faster than a car?
‘Hey, we’re safe,’ Hamish said gently, slowing the car and resting his hand on her shoulder.
‘I know that!’ Kate snapped. Now she compared the two experiences, thinking of crocodiles in a creek not far from where she’d sat and looked at babies was freaking her out far more than the man with the gun had.
Then she’d been able to snuggle close to Hamish for protection. Now she’d look stupid if she straddled the gear lever to get close to him, which, from other points of view, would not be a good idea anyway.
‘I can see why they need a swimming pool. I wouldn’t want to swim in a creek with crocodiles.’
Somehow talk of swimming pools and crocodiles kept them going for most of the journey, though tension built inside Kate until she wondered if she’d burst with it.
But when Hamish pulled off the road into a parking area that gave a view over the town and the cove and the sea beyond it, she guessed she wasn’t the only one feeling the crackling in the air between them. He was just better at hiding it.
He turned towards her, his eyes looking black in the shadowy car.
‘Is it the wrong time and the wrong place, Kate?’
He kissed her gently, but even a gentle kiss fired her heartbeats.
‘Can you deny there’s something special between us? Can you deny you feel what I feel when we’re together—deny there’s magic in our kisses?’
Kate tried, she really did, but she couldn’t, and in the end she had to shake her head.
‘But it’s not about magic, Hamish, it’s about trust.’
He kissed her again.
‘I know that, which is why we don’t need to hurry things—don’t need to put the pressure of a three-week time limit on getting to know each other. I know you want to find your father, but there’s every chance, particularly if we involve people from the hospital, you can do that in a few days. Then why don’t you come to Scotland with me? No pressure or promises. Just come, to see how things might work out.’
The strength of his hands, and the warmth they generated, seeped deep into Kate’s body, but it was all too soon, and taking warmth from someone else was far too dangerous.
‘I don’t think so, Hamish,’ she said quietly, and sat back in her seat.
At least now crocodiles weren’t the main worry in her mind.
Hamish paused for a few seconds, then reversed out of their parking space and pulled out onto the highway, starting up a conversation about the necessity to watch out for kangaroos on the roads around dawn and dusk.
It was, she was learning, typical of this kind, caring, empathetic man—not play-acting at being a colleague but genuinely trying to set her at ease.
She was beginning to admire Colleague Hamish.
Back at the hospital, they unpacked the car then, as Hamish went to report to Charles, she walked through to the ICU to visit Jack.
Jack was lying with his eyes closed, and though he opened them when Kate said hello, his eyelids soon drooped, but the smile on his face, even as he slept, told Kate all she needed to know.
She dropped into the chair beside Megan, who was anchored to the bed by Jack’s hand clasping both of hers.
‘Are you OK?’
Megan nodded, a tremulous smile on her lips.
‘Dad came to see him,’ she whispered to Kate, ‘before they transferred him to Townsville for his bypass. He told Jack he’d better hurry and get better, because he was needed out at Cooper’s Crossing.’
Megan’s smile improved as she added proudly, ‘That’s our place. Dad wants him there, but not right away. Dad and Charles have been talking. They think Jack and I should get agriculture training—they say we should spend a few years at university so we’re sure we know what we’re doing. Charles says there’s enough money to fund it and that there’s child care at university.’
She paused and her smile, if possible, grew even more radiant.
‘University, Kate! Can you imagine? Then we’ll come home and with water we’ll make Cooper’s Crossing viable again. It’ll be as good as Wetherby, good enough to support two families—the Ransomes and the Coopers. Together.’
As Megan’s expression suggested this was the most wonderful of ideas, Kate gave her a hug and told her how happy she was, hiding her own reservations about this happy-ever-after-ending until she’d left the ICU.
Charles and Hamish were talking outside the ED and though she didn’t want to interrupt—and certainly didn’t want to get entangled with Hamish again, as colleague or kisser—she did want to know if Harry was proceeding with his enquiries.
She hesitated, and Charles saw her and settled her indecision.
‘We were just talking about you,’ he called to her.
‘Surely I haven’t been here long enough to be in trouble,’ she said lightly, smiling at Charles.
‘Far from it,’ Charles assured her. ‘No, we were talking about Jack. Harry really needs to see him and, for Jack’s sake, the sooner the mess with his mates Todd and Digger is sorted out, the better. Emily says, providing there’s no setback, we can move him out of ICU tomorrow, and once he’s on a ward it will be hard to keep Harry away from him.’
‘You’ll stay with him when Harry interviews him?’ Kate asked anxiously.
Charles looked at a point somewhere over her head.
‘That’s actually why we were talking about you. I know you were employed to work the ED here, but I wondered if you’d mind working the men’s ward for the next few days. I don’t want to seem as if I’m standing guard over the lad, it will make him look bad, but I’d like to think he has someone he knows and trusts hovering around. I’ll tell Harry he’s still sufficiently ill that I want a nurse with him while he’s interviewed. Would you do it?’
‘Of course,’ Kate said. ‘Do I see Jill? She’ll need to change someone else’s shift as well as mine.’
‘I’ll fix it up with Jill. What were you working tomorrow?’
‘Early shift,’ Kate told him. ‘Six to three.’
Charles smiled at her.
‘Well, isn’t this your lucky day? We’ll transfer Jack in the morning, and he’ll need to rest after the move, so I won’t let Harry near him until the afternoon. If you could do the afternoon shift, midday to nine, that should cover the time Harry’s likely to be there, and if you’re already on the ward, it won’t look as if we’ve brought in someone especially to be with Jack.’
Kate smiled at Charles’s obvious satisfaction with this plan. In fact, it pleased her as well. She’d have the morning free to explore the town and, once she’d found out how shopping and cooking rosters worked in the house, maybe shop as well.
She nodded to the two men and walked away, her thoughts veering between Hamish, who’d been silent throughout her talk to Charles, and Jack—was he well enough for Harry to question him?
‘Are you happy taking on the role of protector?’ Hamish fell in beside her. ‘Do you feel you’d be able to stop Harry’s questioning if you felt it necessary?’
Kate stopped and turned towards him.
‘Medical question?’ she asked, feeling warmth within, although he wasn’t touching her.
‘Medical question,’ he confirmed, though the look in his eyes suggested he was feeling things not entirely medical.
‘You bet your life I’d stop the questioning if I felt it was affecting his recovery in any way.’
‘Mama bear protecting her cub?’ Hamish teased, and Kate had to agree.
‘I’m probably the very worst person to have there, because I do feel over-protective about Jack, but the slightest sign he might be tiring and Harry will be out of there.’
Hamish smiled at her.
‘Word gets around the hospital quickly. When I hear Harry’s arrived I might drop by, in case you need moral support.’
‘And you’re not over-protective?’
Hamish shrugged in a way that suggested agreement, leaving Kate to wonder if it was Jack or her that Hamish was protecting.
They walked out into the scented garden that drew Kate like a magnet, together only as colleagues, she was sure.
Its potent spell filled her head with pleasure, so worries over Kissing Hamish and Colleague Hamish were banished to the far reaches of her brain, and even her concern for Jack lost its hard, knobbly edges of doubt and dread.
H
ARRY FAILED TO
arrive the next day, and Jill explained she’d like Kate to stay on the ward until he did come. Not a bad idea, as far as Kate was concerned, as she hadn’t seen Hamish all day, whereas in the ED, if a child came in, she’d have had to call him as he was the doctor with the most paediatric experience in the hospital.
And being on duty until nine meant she could eat dinner at the hospital, and by the time she’d signed off and walked back to the house, it was late enough to go straight to bed, pleading tiredness should any of her housemates be hanging around.
The arrangement was perfect as far as Hamish-avoidance went.
Until she had to walk through the kitchen on her way to her room! He was over by the bench, waiting for the electric kettle to boil.
‘Cup of tea?’
She checked her watch and studied him suspiciously.
‘Were you waiting for me to come off duty?’
‘Me?’
All innocence!
But then he smiled. ‘Of course I was. I haven’t seen you all day. Do you think I’d miss this opportunity? Now, did you say yes to tea?’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Kate said crossly, although her mouth had
suddenly gone dry and she could kill for a cup of tea. ‘And not seeing each other is a good idea, Hamish. I don’t want to get into another relationship—not now, not here, not anywhere.’
He had turned his back, busying himself with cups and the kettle, and finally turned back and set a cup of tea on the table in front of her.
‘You’d deny the magic?’
He spoke so softly she barely heard him. She wanted to yell, to tell him she’d had magic before and it had let her down, but she knew that what she and Daniel had shared had been an illusion—a magic trick, not the real thing at all. Only it had taken her longer than it had Daniel to work that out.
She picked up the cup of tea and sipped at it, eyeing Hamish cautiously over the rim.
‘I’m not answering that, and I’m taking my tea through to my room.’
Would he argue? Pursue her?
Not Hamish. She answered her own question even before she heard his quiet ‘Goodnight, Kate.’
So with a cup of tea in her hand, and loneliness beyond measuring in her heart, she walked through to her bedroom.
Hamish watched her walk away then took himself out onto the back veranda, settling into the old settee.
He needed to get rid of the baggage of his feelings and think this through with cool, unemotional logic.
Was he stupid, pursuing this attraction Kate obviously didn’t want?
Yes.
So he should stop.
Right.
Would he?
Didn’t even need to ask that question. This was different. This was special. This was something he’d never felt before …
Jack’s condition improved steadily, and the following afternoon he watched Megan feed the baby, then held his son for a short time, before nodding off to sleep.
Megan was in the nursery, bathing Jackson before returning him to his crib, and Kate was putting a new dressing on Jack’s wound when Harry wandered in.
‘OK if we talk a bit?’ he said to Jack, while Kate tried to act as if she was part of the furniture.
Jack did his eye-closing thing, but Kate knew he was refreshed and this was probably a good time for Harry to question him.
‘You have to talk to Harry some time,’ she said quietly. ‘Why not at least start now. I’ll be here, and if I see you getting tired I’ll send Harry away, but at least start, Jack.’
He opened his eyes, looked at her for a moment, then nodded and turned to Harry.
‘I honestly had no idea that they were anything more than cattle drovers,’ he said. ‘Not at first.’
‘And who were “they”?’
Jack looked startled.
‘Todd and Digger of course.’
‘That’s all the names you knew?’
Jack nodded.
‘Met them in a pub out past Gunyamurra. They had a camp in an old station house way out on the edges of some property. Could even have been Wetherby Downs, but it was a place I’d never been. Todd said they had to hold these cattle there because they were expecting more.’
Kate had finished the dressing and now she took Jack’s arm, unobtrusively holding his wrist so she could feel if his pulse began to race or falter.
Jack sipped from a glass of water, then continued.
‘About the time of the Gunyamurra rodeo they gave me some time off—I tried to visit Megan but couldn’t get the right
lifts. I thought they were going to the rodeo because they kept talking about it, but when I got back they’d brought more cattle in. That’s when I saw the brands.’
‘What brands?’ Harry asked, as Megan walked back into the ward and, seeing Harry with Jack, came flying across to the bed.
‘It’s OK, Megan,’ Kate said quietly, but Megan was not to be stopped.
‘He’s still too sick!’ she yelled at Harry. ‘Can’t you see that?’ Then she turned her fury on Kate. ‘You should have stopped him.’
Behind her, Kate sensed another presence and turned to see that Hamish had come in quietly.
‘He has to answer questions some time, Megan,’ Hamish told her, but Megan refused to be appeased, and as Jack had closed his eyes again, this time with a finality Kate recognised, she indicated to Harry to walk away. She followed him out of the room, leaving Hamish to reassure Megan that her loved one was all right.
‘Jack
was
getting tired,’ Kate said to Harry. ‘Why don’t you come back in the morning? Patients are always fresher then. And in the morning Megan is due to spend some time with Susie, learning massage techniques for Jackson.’
Harry smiled.
‘She was as fierce as a mother bear protecting her cub, wasn’t she?’ he said, and Kate nodded, though she was thinking not of Megan’s behaviour but of Hamish, who had said the same thing to her the previous evening.
Hamish who was now holding Megan in his arms and no doubt whispering all the soothing, special, comforting things she needed to hear.
He
was
special …
Get your mind off him and onto your patient! Think Jack!
Kate set her mind to it, recalling the questions and answers. Jack had been talking easily about the cattle until he’d come to the bit about the brands.
‘Worries?’
So much for getting Hamish out of her mind by thinking about Jack! But, then, maybe Hamish could help.
Kate glanced back into the room to see Megan sitting quietly at Jack’s side, while he apparently slept, and turned her attention to the man she’d been determined to avoid.
‘Jack was upset by the questions before Megan came in,’ she explained. ‘Remember when you were telling me what might have happened and you said Jack might have recognised the Wetherby Downs brand and realised the cattle were stolen?’
‘In the cave?’
Kate nodded.
‘Well, what if they weren’t Wetherby cattle but Cooper cattle he recognised? Would he want to admit that? When Jim had just welcomed him to the family and Megan was nearby to hear?’
Hamish put his hand on her shoulder.
‘Do you always take on the worries of the world?’
‘It’s not the world, it’s Jack,’ she retorted. ‘And if Harry comes back in the morning to cover this tricky stuff, I’d like to be there, but I’m not a lawyer and maybe that’s what he needs.’
She used her own hand to lift his away and determinedly ignored the effects of both touches, but he wasn’t going to be put off.
‘It’s your tea-break—I checked,’ he said. ‘Let’s go talk to Charles about it.’
He led the way, guiding her along corridors and tapping quietly at the door before entering. Jill was there, which pleased Kate who was beginning to feel she was making a fuss about nothing but obscurely felt Jill might understand.
Jill could also change her shifts!
Charles greeted them as if he was used to small staff delegations wandering through his door, and asked how he could help.
‘Kate will explain,’ Hamish offered, so she brought Charles up to date and explained her worries.
‘So,’ she added, directly to Jill this time, ‘I know it’s a nuisance to keep switching shifts around, but if I could work maybe nine to six tomorrow, I’d be there in the morning when Harry comes, and still there in the afternoon if he happens to be held up.’
Jill assured her it would be OK but she was obviously as worried about Jack as Kate was.
‘Is it time to bring in a lawyer for him?’ Hamish asked Charles.
He thought about it for a minute, then shook his head.
‘At the moment it’s all pretty low key. Harry’s getting the information he needs—there is an old homestead out on one of the back blocks of Wetherby, by the way, but no one’s kept cattle on that block for years so Jack wouldn’t have known of it. Anyway, Harry’s happy and Jack’s not too distressed, and the way I look at it, if he can prove he had time off when the cattle were stolen—’
‘He hitched lifts to try to get to Megan,’ Kate broke in. ‘We only have to find the people who gave him lifts and we can prove he wasn’t there.’
Charles smiled at her.
‘We’ll find them,’ he promised, but, though he sounded confident, when Kate turned to close his office door behind her and Hamish as they left, she caught him frowning.
Had he only said it to make her feel better?
‘Now tea?’
How could someone make such ordinary words seductive?
‘No!’
The single word snapped out and hung in the air for so long she finally had to add a feeble ‘Thank you’ before she marched off back to the ward.
Didn’t he know she was avoiding him?
Of course he didn’t! She’d practically leapt at his suggestion that they talk to Charles together.
Harry arrived at ten the next morning, while Kate was hanging a new bag of fluid on Jack’s drip stand.
‘You getting preferential treatment here, Jack?’ he asked. ‘A pretty nurse all to yourself?’
‘I’ve only just got to him,’ Kate protested, knowing Jack would be embarrassed by the question. ‘I didn’t like to disturb him earlier when Megan was here, and Mr Roberts needed a bit of TLC.’
She checked the calibrations on the drip and picked up Jack’s chart, knowing she had to look busy if she wanted to hang around.
‘So, we were up to where your mates—’
‘They weren’t my mates!’ Jack snapped, then, as Kate brushed his arm with her hand, he relented. ‘Digger was OK.’
‘Well,’ Harry continued, ‘we were up to where Todd and Digger took you back to the old homestead and there were more cattle there.’
Jack nodded.
‘I saw the brands and asked if they’d bought the cattle from Jim Cooper—that’s Megan’s dad. I’d sometimes helped her, you see, mending the fences. It’s how we met. Some of their cattle got in with ours and Philip went berserk, saying they were rubbish and he didn’t want them polluting his stock, but although they were in poor condition, they were good cattle.’
Kate smiled to herself. Jack might have been a city kid like she had been, but he’d soon learnt.
‘Anyway, I asked Todd if he’d bought them and he said yes, the place was going down the drain and Jim wanted rid of them—and I knew things were bad with the Coopers so it
seemed OK. But then Todd and Digger started fooling around with the brands and that didn’t seem right. So I left.’
‘Did you tell them you were leaving?’
Jack shook his head.
‘But I had to take the bike—Todd had two two-wheeler bikes and a four-wheeler he let me use. And taking the bike was stealing—so I left a note to say I’d leave it up near the highway, and as soon as I had some money I’d send him some for the inconvenience.’
‘So he knew exactly which way you’d head?’
‘I guess!’
Jack sounded more defeated than tired, but Kate felt he’d had enough, so she signalled to Harry that it was time to leave.
To her surprise, he didn’t argue, and Kate wondered if he’d been as affected by Jack’s patent honesty as she had been. Here was a kid from the city, helping his girlfriend mend fences on her property, worrying about her father’s cattle, escaping from criminals, yet leaving a note to say which way he was going!
She smiled at the young man on the bed. Some might say it was stupidity rather than honesty, but she couldn’t believe any jury in the world would find him guilty of whatever charges Harry might choose to lay against him.
In fact, if she could find out who had given him lifts and prove he hadn’t been with the men when they’d stolen the cattle, Harry couldn’t lay charges at all.
Another job for Batman and Robin?
Shaking her head at the intrusion of the stupid joke she’d come up with in the cave, she got on with her work. The whole idea of avoidance was that it got the other person out of the forefront of your mind.
Kate loved the walk from the hospital to the back of the house. There was a path, of course, from the front of the hospital to the front of the house, but that didn’t go through the garden.
The Agnes Wetherby Memorial Garden, she’d discovered it was called. Planted in honour of Charles’s grandmother—Jack’s great-grandmother.
Jack was doing well—medically—and Harry hadn’t reappeared to ask more questions in the afternoon, so Kate, Jack and Megan had all decided to take that as a good sign.
But apart from finding out who had given Jack a lift—and she had no idea how to go about that—she couldn’t do much to help, so she wouldn’t think of Jack’s problems now. Although not thinking of Jack left a space in her mind, which was dangerous because spaces in her mind inevitably filled up with thoughts of Hamish.
The Hamish who had kissed her on the hill, not Colleague Hamish who had first appeared when he’d driven her to Wygera. Hamish kissing away her fear of crocodiles. Or had he been kissing away her fear of commitment? Hamish looking hurt when she’d refused to have tea with him yesterday.
It had been tea, for heavens’ sake, and there’d have been a dozen people in the dining room, yet she’d seen the flare of disappointment in his eyes and had felt the touch of that flare in her heart.
‘You’re stupid in the heart,’ she muttered to herself, and turned her attention to the garden.
Yesterday she’d discovered the source of a new perfume in the garden and she wanted to pick a stem of the pale pink pendulous flowers and ask someone to identify them for her. Actually, she’d pick the top of the stem—the whole stem, like the leaves that sheltered them, being taller than she was.