The Desert Midwife

by Fiona McArthur

  ‘Okay, sweetie. You do look bushed.’

  ‘He just needs TLC for a few days. You’re good at that.’

  ‘Tender loving care. I can do that. Stella can fatten him up with her food.’

  ‘And no stories of me as a little girl.’ Ava winced. Mim loved those when visitors came. ‘Or embarrassing teenage ones, either.’

  ‘Of course not,’ Mim said innocently.

  Ava sighed. It was probably too much to ask. Hopefully, she’d be out of earshot when they happened. Zac in her family home without amnesia would have been a whole different experience. ‘He’s a fascinating man.’ She winced at the satisfaction that statement caused Mim, her mouth making a delighted ‘O’, and hurried on before Mim could form any more embarrassing questions.

  ‘But that’s enough. Give me a little space, Mim. It’s been a pretty torrid week.’

  ‘Of course, darling,’ Mim said, all sweetness and light, which worried Ava more. Mim was making plans, she knew it in her very bones. But she could no more stop a dust storm than stop Mim, so she let it go. Reluctantly.

  ‘It’s good to be home.’ But she needed a moment, and needed a long debrief with her sister-in-law. ‘How’s Hana?’ Where’s Hana? Instead of sitting down, she moved across the room to look out the door in the direction in which her brother’s house lay.

  ‘She’s keeping your brother close to her, though I think it’s more for him than her.’

  ‘Then she’d have a good reason to. I’ll go have a wash. Be back soon.’ As Ava left the room, she could hear her grandmother muttering to herself, ‘A wedding. Excellent.’

  Ava sighed. She’d known Mim would be on to her like an eagle to roadkill about Zac’s prospects as a husband. Since she’d finished her training and started her midwifery agency work, she’d been doing ten-hour shifts with four days on and four days off, then driving back to the station most weeks. With two months of the year dedicated for muster and spending time with her family, Ava’s life had felt very full. Who needed men when the work was there?

  Her goals had been to gain the confidence and respect that Zac had seen from her peers, and even harder to achieve, the confidence and acceptance of the women in the many communities she visited as a midwife. Though their homes were simple and their amenities few, the women inspired her with their ingrained sense of family and ability to rise from challenges with such strength.

  She believed her being there helped their experience when they came in for birth and recognised the midwife. And she loved the babies. The brown-eyed, round-cheeked, happy babies she saw everywhere she visited. She loved her life.

  Mim had scolded her often for being single-minded, telling her that work wasn’t a penance she deserved as a young single mum whose daughter had died. Ava had come to accept, if not rail against, the fact that it had been Amelia’s destiny to visit fleetingly, and there was no one to blame for what had happened, herself included. She also knew her mother and grandmother worried about her lack of male company, but she had plenty of male acquaintances. Just none, until now, who turned her on.

  Zac Logan’s face insinuated itself into her mind and she couldn’t help the forlorn smile that tilted up her mouth. Well, she’d certainly been ‘socialising’ lately, and she had to admit the colours in her world had turned brighter before they’d been photoshopped viciously into the monochrome of amnesia.

  But, she reminded herself, the last part of the drive had been good. This afternoon had shone with the connection she’d felt with Zac in the car. However, today became more precious for the tragic possibility that it too could be fleeting. She accepted that if his memory didn’t come back, he’d return to Sydney soon. She knew the promise he’d seen between them before the accident had gone, and if it wasn’t restored she’d have to survive.

  Ava opened the screen door and stepped out to pat Reggie for a few minutes as she gazed over the paddocks. She leaned against the rail and stared out over the dry landscape.

  The cost of possibly falling even more deeply in love with Zac would be the price she’d pay. She ruffled Reggie’s neck. Probably. But she needed to be brave for both of them if she wanted to fight for something her gut said was a future people dreamed of.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Zac

  Zac stood at the door to a large kitchen with a big, scrubbed wooden table set for lunch. He’d passed an airy sitting room with cane furnishings, plants and bright-yellow cushions. It looked welcoming. This room vibrated; it was the heart of the house, full of family photos, polished pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, letters, books and knitting needles. A big, yellow, old-fashioned stove took one wall and the largest refrigerator he’d ever seen stood in the corner.

  Across the room, the screen door to the outside showed the sky as blue as a kid’s paint pot. He had no idea what had happened to the storm that had spat dust at them less than an hour ago: the heavens hung cloudless above endless rock-strewn ground.

  He spied Ava out on the verandah to the left and started forward before he saw she was coming in. She approached with that light step of hers and he felt his heart lift. Which was crazy. Too crazy to feel this earth-shifting awareness just looking at her after fifteen minutes apart. There was certainly something going on.

  She looked him up and down critically. ‘Do you feel better? It was a long drive.’

  ‘I’m perfectly well.’

  She shrugged and smiled. ‘You look like you’ll shake off the lingering effects of concussion if you take it easy enough.’ He heard the unspoken please take it easy in her tone, which was reflected in her eyes.

  He touched her shoulder lightly, in comfort, suddenly shatteringly aware that he hadn’t thought enough about the psychological cost that had been paid by this woman he barely knew. The drain on her emotions looking after him as they both lay in the wrecked vehicle. And afterwards as she waited for his retrieval. Oh, he’d seen that she was physically tired, but she’d been hurt herself, and according to George, she’d thought he’d die and there was a cost to that concern – he knew. And his prognosis had looked grim there for a while – he’d seen his medical records.

  He lifted his hands to cup her upper arms and stared into her eyes, those pools of blue, like that sky without any clouds, blue that could lift a dark day. Abruptly, it felt as though the room held only them. He and the woman who’d put her own injuries aside to keep him alive. ‘You’re an amazing woman, you know. And I haven’t really said thank you for saving my life. I’m sorry you had to carry that.’

  ‘I’m glad you pulled through.’ Her voice sounded a little strained and he realised someone else was in the room.

  Over her shoulder, Mim’s face came into focus, faded eyes so like her granddaughter’s surveying them both, a delighted grin beaming his way, her hands gesticulating for him to keep going. He couldn’t help the embarrassed laugh. Already, as he dropped his hands, he could see that Granny Mim was a menace. ‘You have an incredible granddaughter, Mim.’

  ‘I know.’ The older lady smiled even wider at him and stood to move across the room to the refrigerator. Ava’s mother came in from the hall. He guessed he should be thankful he hadn’t had another spectator to what had just passed between Ava and him.

  Though maybe, from the look Stella was sending, she’d decided he was a pesky city boy playing in the outback. But she shouldn’t have worried, because they couldn’t have long-term plans. He knew Sydney was where he belonged, and the more he saw of Ava he knew where she belonged – here. What had he been playing at, becoming involved with her? These were dark thoughts for a bright afternoon and he felt his spirits sink.

  ‘Look.’ Ava touched his shoulder and pointed to the verandah she’d just come in from. And he did. The tall trees shaded what was apparently a shallow watercourse set well below the house. It would be cooler down there. That must be where Ava had said permanent waterholes lay under some overhanging trees, but mostly all he could see of the watercourse showed dry red gravel curving away i
nto the distance. Even dry, it looked extremely inviting, and he’d definitely like to see it with Ava.

  ‘There’s a chair out there,’ she murmured so the others couldn’t hear, ‘on the verandah, for when you need time away from the family –’ she glanced across the room – ‘or Mim. It’s my favourite spot. You can watch the birds and the wildlife come down to drink and let the world go by.’ Then she smiled and directed him to a chair. ‘There’s no time for interesting views when lunch is on, though.’ She nudged him.

  He looked down at her, her head near his shoulder, her compassionate eyes slightly concerned.

  ‘You’re looking a little peaky again,’ she told him.

  ‘Pale and interesting?’

  She pointed to one of the kitchen chairs. ‘Pale,’ she said.

  ‘Come on, you two. Sit,’ Stella called as she began to ladle an aromatic orange soup into bowls on the table. Fresh, home-baked bread and a small bowl of butter sat in the middle.

  Ava gave him another nudge, as if to say, See, and he pulled out a chair. Then, to draw attention away from him, she spoke to her mother as she sat beside him. ‘After the accident the dust storm closed Yulara. Did you have it here?’

  Mim snorted. ‘Not like you had out at the rock.’

  ‘You were lucky it lifted,’ Ava’s mother said, then sent a piercing inspection Zac’s way. ‘I can see we’ll have to get some colour into your cheeks, Zac. Eat up.’

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Ava

  Ava tried not to stare at the man at the table. Tried to stamp down the excitement of having him here. He’d been so earnest just then as he’d held her shoulders, as if he’d woken from a sleep. It could just be his brain catching up with the last twenty-four hours, or it could be a breakthrough with his memory. The thought bounced in her head like a bower bird hopping across the paddock.

  He looked damn fine, despite the occasional bruise. Gorgeous, in fact. How was she to deal with this overwhelming pull she had for him, now, in front of her family? She was thrown by the way his damp hair curled over his ears. He must have washed his face and wet the edges of his hair, probably to stay awake. She had to physically restrain herself from asking him about it, though why on earth that tiny fact was incredibly interesting she didn’t want to consider.

  She felt herself relax as he smiled at her. As if he was glad she was within arm’s length. She had the strangest feeling he wanted to reach out and touch her hand, which was a crazy idea at the lunch table of people he didn’t know.

  ‘It’s beautiful here. Thank you for allowing me to come.’ He spread his hands and gestured to the windows, to the room in general. When her mother put a bowl in front of him, he asked, ‘Is that pumpkin soup? My favourite.’ He sniffed it appreciatively and took another admiring glance around the room.

  Ava wondered fleetingly what he saw. Their kitchen was open plan, like the rest of the house, except for the original hallway and the formal sitting room. The walls were white, the rooms airy with lots of cane, magazines scattered across the side tables, and a couple of resilient plants spreading quietly in pots in the corner.

  He was returning her regard when she turned back, and she felt her cheeks warm at the appreciation he directed not at the room but more personally at her. She tried not to blush and give Mim something else to crow about.

  Mim wouldn’t have missed any of it. She was busy perusing the full breadth of him sitting at their table, his broad shoulders taking up the whole of the carver chair back, and she even patted his hand. Ava stifled a laugh as she saw the funny side of her grandmother’s approval.

  Mim smiled at him, her mobile face easily drawing a return smile from Zac, and waved her hand as if she’d known him for years. ‘It’s lovely to have you here, Zac. A new face to brighten us up.’

  He looked smitten. Ava remembered the story he had told on the way in and changed the subject. ‘Zac worked in Weipa for a couple of weeks.’

  Stella paused and her brows drew together. ‘Really? I know a nurse who worked up there. I’d love to hear about that while you’re here.’

  So over the lunch table, the three of them sat and listened to Zac’s description of the gulf communities, crocodiles and other exotic wildlife, and medical emergencies managed with the barest of essentials. Ava felt a stirring of almost envy at his words. Maybe Weipa could be a bolthole if she needed it. It was a little more distant from home, wilder, and full of unusual characters. Zac had mentioned the most extraordinary patients escaping the world – or hiding – in the Top End. It sounded so fascinating and like a true challenge. She would definitely enjoy the experience.

  ‘I’ve always been captivated by remote medicine. And Weipa sounds a little different to what I do now,’ Ava said.

  He shook his head. ‘It’s primitive, stinking hot and the mosquitoes try to kill you all the time.’

  She returned his stare calmly. ‘You seem to like it well enough. Are you attempting to scare me off being attracted to Arnhem Land?’ Ava teased him and surprisingly he bit back.

  ‘Are you interested enough that I have to worry?’

  She tipped her chin up. Whoa there. ‘It’s really none of your business what I do, so you don’t have to worry.’ Where had this come from? Now they were eyeing each other thoughtfully.

  Mim cleared her throat noisily as each tried to stare the other down, and Stella jumped when the phone rang.

  ‘I’ll get it,’ she said, and the curiosity in her voice was patently clear. She glanced at Ava as she went to answer it in the sitting room. ‘It’s Jock,’ she said when she returned. ‘He’s not coming for lunch but will bring Hana for tea.’

  Ava said to Zac, ‘Hana’s thirty weeks pregnant. She has an online baby-clothes business she runs from their cottage.’

  ‘She has the most beautiful sewing skills,’ Mim added. ‘It’d be good to add some of that into the bloodline. None of us are much good. Though my knitting sells well at the Beanie Festival.’

  Zac looked bemused. ‘You have a Beanie Festival?’

  ‘It’s a big event in Alice Springs.’ Ava made sweeping gestures with her hands. ‘Huge.’ She pointed to her grandmother, pride in her voice. ‘Mim’s on the committee.’ Well, it was pretty cool that Mim could go from metalwork to crochet. ‘Granny Mim has diverse skills.’

  ‘I’m not satisfied.’ Zac spread his hands. ‘What’s a Beanie Festival?’

  Mim waved her on so Ava answered. ‘It started with beanies crocheted by Aboriginal women in remote communities. Sharing the knowledge before it was lost. Now it’s become a huge fun event where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists share their culture and exhibit together. There’s an incredible amount of community participation because it aims to develop Aboriginal women’s textiles, promote women’s culture and promote handmade textile arts. It runs at the end of June. It started with traditional spinning and basketry and now everyone showcases their beanies. Granny Mim enters every year.’

  Stella came to the table and joined them. ‘And usually brings home a prize. They have themes.’

  Ava said, ‘Last year was Weaving the Magic, so think Dreamtime or fairytales. What was the year before, Mim?’

  ‘Spirit of the Land,’ Mim said, and Ava could see her granny enjoying the attention. She cackled and Ava had to smile.

  ‘So, Mim’s the crochet and knitting queen, but Hana is much better at needlework and using a sewing machine.’ Ava gestured to the other two women. ‘Granny and Mum are also good cooks.’

  ‘Your mother is. You take after me, or worse.’ Mim peered at Zac. ‘Did she tell you she can’t cook?’

  He smiled at Ava. ‘I’m sure she can. She has a few good recipes for saving lives.’

  ‘More important,’ Mim agreed with a look of approval at Zac.

  Ava raised her eyebrows at him. ‘Don’t tell me.’ She sighed. ‘You’re a fantastic cook?’

  ‘Not bad.’

  Spare me, she wanted to protest aloud. She didn’t need further reason
to be even more attracted to him. ‘Excellent,’ she told him. ‘When it’s my turn to cook you can take over.’

  ‘Gladly. I wash dishes as well.’ He said that smugly.

  She had to laugh. Better and better. ‘Be still my beating heart. That’s what I usually offer to do instead of the cooking.’

  Everyone was smiling, even Stella. ‘You want to take me on in a cooking competition? Should I dare you to show us?’ Her mother arched a brow at Zac with a gleam in her eye.

  ‘I could,’ he said, not backing down.

  ‘Zac’s going to give you a run for your money,’ Mim crowed.

  Stella sniffed. ‘I’d like to see that. But for now you should rest,’ and she stood up and waited for Zac to stand. He raised his brows but did as she indicated, and then proceeded to follow her out of the kitchen. He cast a glance back at Ava and shrugged.

  Ava hid her smile and she suspected Zac held one in, too. It was lovely being here with her family, having a meal together. And Zac being a part of it all. She’d done the right thing bringing him here.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Stella

  Stella saw Zac to his room after lunch, checked he had his window open to let in the fresh air, and shut his door. She had the feeling that their family lunch had been unlike any he’d ever been present at. Ava had said he was an only child. There’d been too many flashes of surprised delight in his eyes as they’d all bantered, with Mim the stirrer and Ava giving as good as she got. When he’d met Ava’s eyes there was some connection there because they smiled at the same things together often.

  She shook her head. She didn’t want to like him, but it was hard not to. He seemed like a lovely man, and yes, she might be jumping ahead, but she knew the risks and Ava didn’t. She didn’t want her daughter to suffer the same heart-wrenching challenges Stella had as a lonely partner in an unfriendly and distant place far from home.