‘But… How the hell…?’
‘That’s what we all said,’ Bill said grimly. ‘You’ve got no idea… There was me and Hannah and Louise and Tess and Strop-all standing around staring at each other like helpless dummies. We were pouring in blood but we were still losing you. And then Tess said we had nothing to lose so who was going to do the anaesthetic?
‘And I just gaped at her-but Hannah said she’d have a go if Tess told her everything to do. Hannah’s such a poke-nose-there’s nothing she misses and she’s been a theatre nurse in the city. So Tess took a deep breath and says great and not to worry because it might be the first time Hannah’s given an anaesthetic but it’s also the first time Tessa’s ever been a surgeon. Which, you can imagine, made us feel a whole heap better…’
‘Yeah?’ Mike was trying hard to concentrate here. The pethidine was making him drift in and out of reality, but he was getting the gist of it. ‘So…’
‘So Tess rings Melbourne,’ Bill said. ‘You should have heard her. Bossy? You wouldn’t believe it. She organised a phone link with two specialists, one for her and one for Hannah-one anaesthetist and one specialist surgeon. They link up. We use that teleconferencing line you put in, where we talk hands-free. I turn up the volume so both Hannah and Tess can talk and the two specialists can listen and throw in advice as needed.
‘Maybe Tess could have advised Hannah on the anaesthetic-she did a bit and kept her eye on her-but she’s got her hands full with what she’s doing to you.’
Bill shook his head, and the tone of his voice indicated that what had happened was still unreal to him. ‘We had every nurse in the place back in here,’ he said. ‘There were people taking blood donations and helping in the wards and in the theatre. Everybody wanted to help.’ He gave a rueful grin.
‘And for those who weren’t needed and knew what was going on, Father Dan ran a special Mass. Tess said go right ahead, she needed every ounce of help she could get and she’d accept it from any direction she could. Oh, and Strop sat outside the kitchen door and howled.’
‘But she did it,’ Mike said faintly.
‘Yeah. She did it. You know you arrested on the table?’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Nope. Hannah nearly died as well, she was so frightened, but Tess stayed calm. Stopped what she was doing-had me hold the clamps-and put on the electrodes. Jump-started you. Got the heartbeat going, reassured Hannah and then calmly went back to stitching the damned ulcer up. She did it like a professional, and the surgeon advising her told me afterwards that he doubted if he’d have stayed as calm as she was.’
And then Bill gave a rueful smile.
‘Maybe she wasn’t all that calm, though,’ he said grimly. ‘After it was all over and you’d opened your eyes and she’d seen you might make it…well, I went outside and she was throwing her guts up. Vomiting like it was she who’d had the ulcer and not you. You put her through the hoops, boyo, and that’s the truth.’
‘Hell.’
‘It was all of that.’ Bill’s smile softened and he gripped Mike’s hand. ‘All of that and more. Its bloody good to have you back. But Tess…’
‘Yeah?’ It seemed there was something else on Bill’s mind but he was having trouble saying it.
‘Well…’ Bill shrugged and then dived straight in. ‘When I was helping her clean herself up she told me you won’t marry her because she interferes with your medicine. Crying her eyes out when she said it. Of all the stupid things… She interferes with your medicine? Without her loving you… Without her worrying enough to practically kick your apartment door down, without her taking risks you wouldn’t believe and laying her professional reputation on the line…way beyond the call of duty… Well, without Tessa, you’d be giving this community no medicine at all. Never again. You’d be one more statistic for the graveyard.’
‘Tessa?’
‘Mmm.’
White-coated and efficient, Tessa had breezed into his ward, Hannah behind her. She picked up his obs chart and beamed at what she saw. ‘This is great,’ she said. ‘You know, we might start you on solids tomorrow.’
‘No eggs and bacon, though.’ Hannah grinned and Tessa smiled her agreement.
‘You’re right, Nurse. No eggs and bacon. We might try a little jelly and-’
‘Tessa!’
‘Sorry, Mike. Were you trying to say something?’ Tessa raised her eyebrows and gave him her entire attention-just like a really polite general surgeon.
‘Yes. Can we have a minute alone?’
‘I’m afraid Hannah and I are really busy.’ She smiled again. ‘You understand we have the entire medical needs of the valley on our shoulders. We can’t let our personal lives interfere.’
‘Tessa!’
‘Yes?’ Once again that polite enquiry, though a twinkle lurked behind those green eyes.
‘I need to ask you something.’
‘Ask away.’
‘Alone!’
‘I’m sorry.’ She smiled benignly. ‘You, of all people, must know it’s professionally unwise for a lady doctor to be alone with a male patient. Hannah’s my chaperon.’
Hannah beamed. Goaded, Mike could only stare. Hannah had come right out of her shell. What she’d done had shed years of bitterness from her shoulders. The nurse was practically giggling.
‘You don’t need a chaperon,’ he managed.
‘Remind me to tell you what I need some day,’ Tess said gently. ‘I think I have in the past, but you haven’t listened. Now…is there anything I can do for you?’
‘Yes.’ He glowered. ‘I want you to marry me.’
‘Oh, is that all?’ Her brow cleared, and the twinkle came back. Behind the laughter there was joy. ‘I think we could organise that. Hannah, when you go back to the nurses’ station, could you see if you could find a time in my diary…?’
‘Tess-’
‘We wouldn’t want it to interrupt the medical needs of the community, now, would we?’
‘Tess-’
‘Must go,’ she said airily, breezing out. ‘But, of course, I’ll marry you. Anything to oblige, Dr Llewellyn. Anything to keep my patients happy.’
It was two days before he could get a serious answer. For two days she either had Bill or Louise or Hannah at her side, and he was almost going crazy.
Finally he caught her. It was midnight. He’d been dozing, half-asleep, a state he’d been in constantly since his operation as his body started to recover. He heard the door open gently, the slit of light enlarged and he heard soft footsteps coming toward the bed.
Silence. He closed his eyes.
Whoever it was bent over him. He would recognise that smell anywhere. His hand came out and grasped her wrist before she had a chance to pull away.
‘Nice,’ he growled. ‘Stay.’
‘Mike…’
All of a sudden, Tessa’s voice sounded really unsure. Mike’s eyes widened. He brought his other hand up to grasp her other wrist, and he pulled her down closer.
‘I’ve been wanting you so much.’
‘I don’t know why. You’re not much use to me like you are.’ Tess managed a soft chuckle and motioned to the tubing around his bed. ‘All wired up.’
‘I don’t want to make love to you.’
‘No?’
‘Well…’ He smiled, and the warmth in the little room grew and grew. ‘Well, not so much…not as much as I want to talk to you.’
‘I’ve agreed to marry you,’ she said primly. ‘What else do you want?’
‘I want to say I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry…’
‘For ever doubting you. For being so bloody stupid. For causing you one moment’s pain.’ Mike closed his eyes. Hell, he was still so weary, but he had to say this. He must! ‘Tess, you are the loveliest…the most precious…the most wonderful woman I have ever met. I can’t believe you love me but if you do…you’ll have given me the most precious thing I ever could ask in life.
‘I love you so much, Tess.
I want you beside me, and I want you beside me for ever. I’ve had my share of disasters. I want your love before I face any more. From now on, any disasters that come, we’ll face them together.’
‘Mike…’
‘Tess, marry me,’ he whispered. ‘Marry me and know I have no reservations. Marry me and know that I can’t be a doctor without you. I can’t be anything without you. You’re half of my whole. Tess…’
‘Oh, Mike…’ And she knelt and buried her face in his shoulder, and her arms came around him, tubing and all.
‘Mike, don’t be silly.’
‘I’m not silly. I’m asking-’
‘And I’ve already answered,’ she said steadily. ‘I fell in love with you the moment I saw you and I’ll love you for ever. Of course I’ll marry you. Of course I’ll marry you, my love. I intended to from the first and I intend to now. To love you without stopping. You just get yourself better, and then we’ll plan a wedding to die for. Or…’ She thought about what she’d said, and that irrepressible grin twinkled out. ‘Maybe we’d better say a wedding to live for. Because that’s just what it’s going to be.’
As weddings went, it was unusual to say the least.
Tess had announced where her wedding was to be held and the community had blinked. So had Mike, but she’d dragged him out there and held him close, and he’d seen what she’d seen.
And he blessed her for it.
Six weeks after Mike’s operation he stood, clad in dinner suit, white carnation in his buttonhole, the sea breeze ruffling his hair and with an almost overwhelming happiness in his heart, and waited for his bride.
The headland where the wedding took place was one of the loveliest places in Bellanor, nestled between two mountains about three miles from town. The homestead here had long fallen into disrepair. The land was used for cattle agistment and nothing else. The bush had reclaimed the land on the bluff and it had taken a working party three days to clear enough room for the portable chairs and the vast marquee and the tiny altar.
There was normally nothing here. Just sea and bushland and native birds-and one solitary grave.
This was the headland where Mike’s mother was buried. Her grave was covered with a mass of native orchids, almost an altar in itself, and it was here that Tess decreed she’d marry.
‘Because we’re going into this with our eyes wide open,’ she told Mile solemnly. ‘You’re not breaking any vow. You’re renewing it, with a difference.’
And so he was. He was renewing it, with joy thrown in for good measure. With Tess…
And here she was, pulling up in Harvey Begg’s Volvo, with Henry climbing out to proudly take her arm. Henry hardly had the need for his walking-frame now, and there was no way he was using it to give his girl away. His old eyes beamed with happiness and pride.
Louise and Hannah fluttered forward, fast friends now with no trace of the Horrible Hannah of old. They adjusted Tessa’s dress, a floating confection of white lace, cut low at the breast and flaring out in soft clouds to form a train behind. It wasn’t entirely white. It had soft, fine red ribbons laced through the bodice, and on her feet she was wearing…
Mike blinked. She was wearing red stilettos-the red stilettos he’d fallen in love with the first time he’d seen them! The first time he’d seen her.
Tess. His lovely Tess. His gorgeous, crazy, wonderful bride! Her wonderous red hair was floating free, and he thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
He glanced to the front row where Tessa’s mother was sitting. She was a firebrand just like her daughter, and she was sitting serenely with a dog lead in her hand. The lead was attached to a gleaming, groomed and handsome Strop, resplendent in crimson bow.
Strop was looking so mournful he was almost smiling.
Of course he was smiling. This was so right. All the pieces of Mike’s jumbled life were fitting together, and his Tessa was walking steadily toward him.
Tessa… His bride…
And her eyes were loving him.
There were no doubts in Mike’s heart now. There were no doubts at all. This was right. This was his fate. This was where he was meant to be.
Everything seemed to hush as Mike and Tessa made their marriage vows.
And it was right for this marriage to take place here. Drifting around them was the spirit of times past-the echoes of the love Mike had once had here with his mother. It was an echo that would now resound down the generations, with Mike’s and Tessa’s children, and with their children’s children, and beyond.
There was no judgement here. There was only love. There was love and there was happiness, and there was all the hope in the world for a future of joy.
Marion Lennox
Marion Lennox has had a variety of careers-medical receptionist, computer programmer and teacher. Married, with two young children, she now lives in rural Victoria, Australia. Her wish for an occupation that would allow her to remain at home with her children, her dogs, the cat and the budgie led her to attempt writing a novel.
***
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Bachelor Cure Page 17