The Doctor's Marriage

by Leah Martyn

  ‘We’re not alone.’ Her shoulders lifted in a controlling breath. ‘Greg Logan’s here—the lad who helps me in the garden.’

  ‘I don’t believe this,’ he growled, towing her outside again, just in time to see Greg trundling the motor mower along the path to the toolshed.

  ‘You were quick.’ Jane tried to appear casual, feeling all thumbs as she straightened her shirt. ‘Greg, this is Riley Brennan, my, um, husband.’

  ‘Glad to know you, Greg.’ Riley’s gaze flicked over the vulnerable young face as he extended his hand to the boy.

  ‘Hi.’ Greg returned the handshake warily.

  ‘It must be lunchtime.’ Jane heard her voice sound unnaturally brittle.

  ‘Am I invited?’ Riley tugged gently on the waistband of her shorts.

  ‘If you like. I’ve a chicken casserole. I just have to make some rice to go with it.’

  ‘Mind if I make a green salad?’ Riley raised a dark brow hopefully. ‘I kind of overdosed on rice in East Timor.’

  An hour and a half later, they’d finished lunch and stood on the driveway, watching Greg take off at breakneck speed on his pushbike. ‘Nice kid.’ Riley looked thoughtful as they turned to go back inside. ‘You realise you’re on the end of a king-sized dose of puppy love there.’

  ‘You’re imagining things!’

  He gave her a brief, exasperated look. ‘You can’t be that naı¨ve, Jane.’

  Her heart bounced off her ribs. Was Riley right? Had she been naı¨ve in failing to recognise the signs of Greg’s youthful devotion? Like her, Greg was the only child of a single mother and she’d empathised with the youngster’s wish to make something of himself. He’d asked her about medicine as a career and she’d loaned him some of her more elementary textbooks. ‘OK,’ she said shortly. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

  ‘Do that.’ Riley looked at his watch. ‘I’m on my way out to Harry Jorgenson’s for a ploughing lesson. Care to come?’

  ‘Oh.’ She lifted one shoulder uncertainly. ‘I suppose I could.’ She sent him a contained little grin. ‘I expect you’ll need a doctor there when you fall off.’

  ‘Have a little faith, hmm?’ He cuffed her chin playfully.

  ‘Should I change?’ Jane looked down at her shirt and denim shorts.

  ‘For Harry?’ Riley laughed scoffingly. ‘You’re fine. Come on.’ He tugged her towards the front door. ‘I’m keen to get ploughing.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  THEY were silent on the way to the Jorgenson farm. Jane had a sense of anticlimax. What would have happened if Greg hadn’t been there this morning? She glanced at Riley but got no clue to his thoughts. His eyes were shuttered behind his sunglasses.

  But they both knew the time for decision-making was running out. Riley was giving every impression of being at the end of his rope. And who could blame him?

  ‘Why the big sigh?’ He turned his head fractionally, lifting a brow in query.

  ‘Nothing you need worry about.’

  His smile was gently wry. ‘Then why do I get the feeling it’s something I should worry about?’ His voice dropped to a mere husk. ‘We’ve unfinished business, Janey.’

  Her heart began trampolining and she looked away quickly.

  Riley eased the Land Rover over the cattle grid across the entrance to the Jorgenson property, following the well-worn track to the homestead.

  ‘Oh, it’s lovely!’ Jane exclaimed, as they crested the hill and saw nestled amongst flowering native shrubs a long, low farmhouse. ‘And quite large.’ She pointed to the home’s wisteria-trimmed verandah surrounding its entire perimeter.

  ‘And from what I gather, there’s just Harry and his wife.’ Riley brought the Land Rover to a stop outside the garden gates. ‘No kids to follow the farming tradition.’

  ‘That’s a shame.’ Jane was thoughtful. ‘Do you think they’ll mind me tagging along today, Riley?’

  He lifted a shoulder. ‘Wouldn’t think so. Country folk are noted for their hospitality, the truth of which I’m discovering more and more each day. I’m also learning that the so-called silence of the bush is a myth.’

  Jane chuckled. ‘Got a possum, have you?’

  ‘A courting pair by the hooting and general mayhem in my roof lately. Ah, here come the dogs.’

  Suddenly the peace of the afternoon was shattered by the barking of two blue heelers, heralding their arrival. Harry and a plump little woman they took to be his wife came hurrying out to greet them.

  After the introductions were made, Mrs Jorgenson, in motherly fashion, linked her arm in Jane’s and they made their way back up the front stairs to the verandah. ‘It’s a real treat having a lady doctor in the district, but you look so young!’

  ‘Thirty-three isn’t that young, Mrs Jorgenson.’ Jane looked a little bemused. ‘I’ve been a GP for quite a while.’

  ‘And I hear you’re very good.’ The older woman beamed. ‘What is it the young ones say? Tuned in. And, please, dear.’ She patted Jane’s hand. ‘You must call me Stella.’

  ‘Well, then, it’s Jane and Riley,’ Jane insisted with a smile. ‘We’re off duty now.’

  ‘How’s the back pain, Harry?’ Riley asked. They’d settled in cane chairs on the verandah and Stella had produced a jug of home-made lemonade.

  ‘Well…’ the farmer began.

  ‘I drove him into town last week, Doctor,’ Stella chimed in with a knowing glance at her husband. ‘He was moaning something awful at night so I made an appointment for him at the sports centre and he got some physio, like you told him to. He’s sleeping much better, aren’t you, Harry?’

  Harry gave a long-suffering grin. ‘If you say so, love. And the back’s not too bad at the moment.’

  Riley downed the last of his drink. ‘I suppose it’s too much to hope you’re getting any rest?’

  ‘C’mon, Doc.’ Harry’s remark was edged with dry humour. ‘I’m a farmer, not a fat cat.’ He stretched out a weathered brown arm, gathering up his bush hat from a nearby unoccupied chair. ‘Now, if you’re ready, we’ll get cracking. You got a whole new skill to learn this afternoon.’

  ‘We’ll all go.’ Stella bustled round, finding hats for Jane and Riley, and they took off in the Jeep towards the patch of cultivation Harry had set aside for Riley’s ploughing lesson.

  ‘Be careful.’ Jane wasn’t sure about any of this. Harry had already hooked up the machinery and was urging Riley to take his seat on the tractor.

  ‘Want me to take the mobile?’ Jane held out her hand.

  ‘Thanks.’ He touched the tip of her nose with his finger. ‘Don’t look so worried, Janey. The paddock’s as flat as a tack. And I want to do this, OK?’

  ‘Big boys and their toys,’ Jane muttered, joining Stella under a nearby weeping willow to watch proceedings.

  After the first few minutes’ anxiety, Jane found herself relaxing. Riley undoubtedly had the hang of it and although his first few efforts had left behind less than perfectly straight furrows, he was rapidly making up for it and turning the red soil into something like a cultivated paddock should look.

  Jane blocked a yawn, lulled into an almost drowsy state by her surroundings. Near enough to heaven, she thought fancifully. At that moment the cicadas increased their drumming, as if spurred on by the still, warm air. ‘It’s lovely here, isn’t it?’

  ‘I could never imagine being anywhere else,’ said Stella, her plumply kind face dappled by the shade of a canopy of leaves. ‘Harry and I have worked this place side by side for nearly forty years.’

  ‘That must feel like a wonderful achievement.’ Jane looked across to where a little creek meandered between lacy willows and bottlebrush.

  ‘It’s had its ups and downs. You and your husband been married long?’

  ‘Six years. But he was away this past year, working overseas.’

  ‘You didn’t go with him?’

  ‘No.’ Jane watched a dragonfly skim the air. And perhaps that had been the biggest mistake of her life.

&n
bsp; Stella set out a huge afternoon tea. ‘All that farm work’s made you hungry.’ She looked on indulgently as Riley helped himself to his second piece of ginger sponge.

  ‘Or maybe it’s your wonderful cooking, Stella.’

  ‘Or maybe it’s your sweet tooth rising to the surface again.’ Jane wrinkled her nose at him.

  ‘After this last year, I was sure I’d lost it.’ Riley chased the last few crumbs around his plate. ‘What will you plant in my paddock, Harry?’

  Jane rolled her eyes. ‘Hark at the man. Get him to plough a furrow and he claims the field.’

  Stella and Harry exchanged a smile. ‘I’ll probably get a bit of corn in,’ Harry said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe a few peas to replace the nitrogen in the soil. It’s the home paddock, you see. I usually have a few bits and pieces coming along.’

  ‘And what about your pigs?’ Jane asked, nodding her thanks as Stella did the rounds again with her big brown teapot. ‘That part of your business must take up a huge amount of your time.’

  Harry’s lined face clouded. ‘It’s getting to be a bit of a strain lately,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t have enough hours in the day. I’ve a pretty big export market now and what with the breeding programme and keeping track of the sales and this new tax for the government…’

  ‘I tried to learn the computer to be of some help to Harry.’ Stella shook her greying head. ‘But I’m afraid I found the language all a bit confusing.’

  ‘Do you have a computer system installed?’ Riley sent a narrowed look towards the older man.

  ‘For all the good it is. I used to have a young fella come and give me a bit of a hand but he took off to the city. So I’m back to trying to keep track of everything in a couple of ledgers.’

  ‘That does sound like it’s very time-consuming.’ Jane was thinking fast. Dare she mention the possibility of Simon Cawley coming to work for Harry? It was possibly the kind of environment where he could feel unthreatened, and with the easygoing natures of both Stella and Harry to support him it might be just the break he needed.

  Carefully, and without breaking any confidences, she began telling Harry and Stella of Simon’s fruitless search for work locally. ‘He used to work in a bank,’ she explained, ‘so there’s a fair possibility he’d have the skills to gather the statistics and co-ordinate your office work, Harry.’

  Harry looked interested. ‘Might even improve the whole lot.’ He gave a laconic smile. ‘Well, what do you think, Stell? Worth a look?’

  ‘I’d say so.’ Stella folded her hands neatly in front of her on the table. ‘And I could supply his lunch, if that would help.’

  ‘Get this Simon fella to give me a call.’ Harry placed his cup carefully back on its saucer. ‘Night time’s the best. I’ll have a chat to him and if he seems likely, we’ll talk turkey.’

  Riley’s mobile rang as they were about to go. He stepped away from the group and Jane, always with one ear attuned for the possibility of an emergency, could hear his clipped questions. After a minute he called her aside.

  ‘It’s Mayetta,’ he said quietly. ‘Her waters have broken.’

  ‘Oh!’ Jane put her hand to her heart. ‘How is she?’

  ‘A bit queasy but calm. She says her contractions are pretty strong already.’

  ‘I knew this would happen.’ Jane reached out and took the phone from him. ‘Mayetta, it’s Jane. We’re ten minutes away at the Jorgensons’. Get comfortable and we’ll be there shortly. Sorry?’ She frowned. ‘Bryn’s what?’ The groan was half laughter and half disbelief. ‘See you in a bit, May.’ Jane closed the phone and rang for an ambulance.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Riley held the door of the Land Rover open.

  Jane scrambled in. ‘Bryn’s boiling water.’

  ‘Ye gods!’ Riley muttered. ‘Is the ambulance coming?’

  ‘Probably not before the baby.’ She made a small face. ‘Saturdays are always busy for them and there’s a race meeting over at Cash’s Crossing. One team’s on duty over there and the other’s bringing in an MVA, but the base will get one out to the Lloyds’ as soon as they can.’

  Riley cast her a crooked grin. ‘Meanwhile, we’re it, I take it?’

  ‘Luckily, I brought my bag as well. Between us, we should have enough for what we’ll need. And May’s in excellent health.’ Jane smiled confidently. ‘It should be a straightforward delivery.’

  The front door was open when they arrived at the herb farm.

  ‘In here…’ Mayetta’s voice was just the slightest bit uncertain.

  Jane ran in ahead and found her patient propped on the divan in the lounge room.

  ‘You said to make myself comfortable,’ the mother-to-be said, panting. ‘And f-frankly, I couldn’t move if you paid me—Oh, help. That was a big one.’

  ‘I’ll just wash my hands, May. Won’t be long.’ Jane crossed to the bathroom. When she came out, drying her hands, she bumped into Riley. ‘Did you find Bryn?’

  ‘He’s got four saucepans boiling merrily on the stove,’ Riley said, sotto voce, and quickly put a hand to his mouth to mask the grin. ‘I’ve asked him to find us some sheets and put some towels in the dryer to warm. May OK?’

  ‘A bit panicky. I’ll get her more comfortable while you scrub. Ah.’ She looked up and smiled. ‘Here’s Bryn with the linen.’ She ushered him through to the lounge.

  ‘Right.’ Jane took charge. ‘Bryn, spread a sheet over the beanbag here and we’ll lower May. She can half lie, half sit. That’ll help over the contractions. Clever girl.’ Jane whipped out her stethoscope and began to monitor her patient. ‘Looks like you’re going to get your wish and have your baby at home.’

  ‘How is she?’ Riley asked quietly. Bryn had suddenly remembered what he’d learned at the antenatal classes and was holding his wife’s hand and helping her to breathe.

  ‘BP one fifty-five over ninety.’ Jane moved to one side, quickly opening a maternity pack and spreading out the contents. ‘Foetal heartbeat’s good and strong.’

  Riley frowned. ‘We should get a main line in, in case there’s a bleed.’

  ‘I’m about to do that now. Look smart.’ She touched his elbow as Mayetta’s soft keening began filling the room. ‘I’d say she’s almost there.’

  ‘Oh, God, I feel as if my body’s been invaded by aliens,’ Mayetta gasped. ‘Are you s-sure there’s only one, Jane?’

  Jane brushed the damp hair off her friend’s brow and grinned. ‘According to the scan. But this little person’s in a hurry to get out into the world by the looks of it.’

  Riley and Jane began co-ordinating their skills, their actions dovetailing silently and efficiently. While Jane knelt on Mayetta’s other side and helped her into position, Riley snapped on gloves and prepared to deliver the child.

  ‘Here we go,’ he said heartily, cradling the infant’s head in his hands. ‘Gentle push, May—that’s terrific. Gently does it again—well done.’ He looked up and grinned. ‘I’m happy to report that a little girl’s come to live with you, folks. And she’s a beauty.’

  ‘We wanted a girl.’ Mayetta was laughing and her husband was beaming in relief.

  ‘We aim to please.’ Riley turned to Jane and smiled in satisfaction. ‘Will you make a note of the time, please, Janey?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘You didn’t mind me taking over?’ His brow furrowed. ‘By rights, this should have been your delivery.’

  Jane shook her head. ‘Our delivery, I’d say.’ In fact, it had felt absolutely right to have Riley there. ‘She looks a good weight.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Riley clamped the cord. ‘Like to do the honours, Bryn?’

  ‘Me?’ Bryn swallowed convulsively. ‘You…want me to cut the cord?’

  ‘Right between the clamps should do it,’ Riley agreed cheerfully.

  ‘Thank you both so much.’ Mayetta’s eyes filled and she looked down at her brand-new daughter now snugly wrapped in a warm towel. ‘Bryn’s making a cup of tea. Can you stay?’

  ‘Unt
il the ambulance gets here.’

  ‘You’re sending me to hospital?’ May’s question ended on a wail.

  ‘I want you both checked out thoroughly and Bryn agrees with me.’ Jane’s finger skated across the newborn’s little cheek. ‘You’ll be back home before he’s had time to tidy up, I shouldn’t wonder.’

  Mayetta looked at the littered room and giggled. ‘Poor love. But he did do so well at the end, didn’t he, Jane?’

  ‘He did.’ Jane blinked away the sudden mistiness from her eyes. With the arrival with this darling little girl, her friend’s happiness was complete. The oddest sense of loss left her momentarily uncertain and she wondered whether the same kind of miracle would ever happen for her and Riley.

  ‘Great outcome,’ Riley said. The ambulance had been to collect Mayetta and her new daughter and the two medics were on their way back to Mt Pryde.

  ‘Yes.’ Jane was thoughtful. ‘If everything checks out OK, the hospital will probably only keep them overnight.’

  ‘What about you?’ Riley slowed to let a string of cows trundle across the road in front of him.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Jane said too quickly, knowing she wasn’t fine at all.

  Riley grunted noncommittally.

  ‘Bit sentimental about the baby, I suppose,’ she conceded. ‘Mayetta’s already asked if we’d like to be godparents. I said I’d ask you.’

  ‘I’d be honoured,’ he said quietly. ‘But it’s quite a responsibility.’

  ‘If it’s to be taken seriously.’

  ‘Do you doubt I wouldn’t?’ Suddenly, and without warning, his mouth clamped into a grim line.

  ‘No,’ she said shortly. ‘Riley, stop the car. I want to talk to you.’

  ‘Here?’

  ‘Any damned where!’ she said between gritted teeth, her nerves stretched almost beyond endurance by the strain of their abortive relationship.

  If he was startled by her reaction, Riley didn’t show it. Almost too calmly, he swung the Land Rover off the road and stopped. Without turning, he said abruptly, ‘All right, I’m listening.’

  It wasn’t a good beginning for what Jane had in mind. These days, with the odd exception, they seemed at cross-purposes about everything. She wound her fingers tightly together. ‘I want to talk about us…’