by Karly Lane
This was the reason she needed to start her practice up as soon as possible: she was going stir-crazy, becoming slightly obsessed with the minutiae of daily life on Thumb Creek Station.
Rilee opened her eyes and listened carefully, wondering what had woken her. She tried to snuggle into the warm blankets and go back to sleep, but unfortunately her bladder was now awake as well.
Careful to ease out of bed without waking her husband, Rilee headed down the hall towards the lavishly appointed bathroom she and Dan used. As she reached the door, she jumped back in alarm when she heard the sound of a toilet flushing.
As the door opened, there was a surprised growl as her father-in-law stepped out into the hallway and caught sight of her. ‘You scared the life out of me, girl.’
‘Sorry,’ she stammered. ‘I wasn’t expecting anyone to be up,’ she managed as her heart slowly settled back into its normal rhythm. A small surge of annoyance fluttered to life as she heard the tsk of annoyance from her father-in-law as they tried to sidestep each other. For goodness sake, why was he using the bathroom up this end of the house anyway? It wasn’t as though he was strapped for choice; there was an en suite and main bathroom up the other end of the monstrosity of a house. This wasn’t the first time she’d been awoken by the sound of him getting up through the night. She’d been wanting to bring up the subject of his nocturnal wandering for a while, but Jacob wasn’t the most approachable man. Still, this was something she was growing a little concerned about—professionally.
‘Jacob,’ she said quickly before she could acquiesce to the little voice inside that was warning her to keep her mouth shut. ‘I’m sorry if this is a little personal, but I can’t help but notice you get up a lot at night. I can give you something that can help with that and any other issues you might be having.’
‘What issues? What the hell are you going on about?’
‘Getting up a lot at night can be a symptom of a lot of things—things that can be treated. I handled a lot of male problems in the clinic in Sydney.’
‘Well, you won’t be handling anything of mine. I don’t need any help.’
‘You don’t have to put up with things the way they are.’
‘Things are fine,’ he snapped.
Things were not fine. Not in the least. It was sad that two people who had been married for so long barely spoke civilly to one another. In her work as a practitioner, she knew that sometimes you had to play detective to work out underlying causes of patients’ problems, and over the last few weeks she’d been observing, putting together pieces of the jigsaw that was this dysfunctional family’s life.
‘Really? Don’t you miss…being with your wife?’ she asked abruptly. She couldn’t stand it. ‘Is staying in a different bedroom because you’re either too embarrassed or too stubborn to get help really worth making yourself and Ellen so miserable?’
He turned to glare at her. ‘What would you know about anything?’
‘I know I haven’t been part of this family very long and maybe I am out of line bringing this up,’ she said, rushing on as she saw his temper building, ‘but you get up at night to urinate, frequently. I don’t know if you’re displaying any other symptoms, like erectile dysfunction, for instance, but you need to get things checked out before they get any worse.’
‘I am not discussing this with you,’ he snapped, ‘This is none of your damn business.’
Rilee sighed as he stomped off down the corridor. She knew she’d probably just done more damage than good, but she was trying to help the damn man. Why couldn’t he see that?
‘Are you out of your mind?’
Rilee jumped at the voice from behind her, turning to find Dan, shirtless and blurry-eyed, gaping at her. ‘Please tell me I’m dreaming and I didn’t just hear the words “erection” and “dysfunction” used in the same sentence…to my father.’
‘I’ve been wanting to speak with him, but I can never catch him alone to talk about it.’
‘Rilee, you can’t expect people to have a rational discussion about things like erectile dysfunction,’ he said, lowering his voice. ‘Around here, men don’t talk about stuff like that. Not even to their doctor.’
‘I’m not having a discussion,’ she corrected. ‘I’m trying to save his stupid life, and that’s just…ridiculous. How on earth do they think doctors can treat them if they won’t talk about symptoms?’
‘They don’t usually go to a doctor, and certainly not for things like that.’
They didn’t go to the doctors? ‘But…health checks and screenings are vital for catching diseases early. They save lives.’
‘It’s hard to change your ways when you’ve been brought up to get the job done no matter what. When you’re a farmer you can’t take sick days—there’s too much to do. There’s animals that rely on you to feed them, there’s crops that need to be sown or harvested, and it’s your yearly income that’s riding on it. It takes time to change the mindset of people used to doing things a certain way.’
‘You won’t be able to look after your animals or harvest anything if you ignore symptoms that could be warning you of a serious illness.’
‘All I’m saying is you need to figure out a different way of approaching people out here. You can’t ambush them in a hallway in the middle of the night and expect them to open up to you.’
Rilee had found a different way to approach the subject—she’d been watching Jacob and decided that tackling the issue without beating around the bush was the only way to go about it. Sure, with other people she wouldn’t have been quite so blunt, but Jacob was old school, and he wouldn’t have reacted any better had she pussyfooted around the subject. ‘Will you try to talk to him?’
‘He’s not going to listen to me,’ Dan sighed. ‘He never has before, I can’t see him doing it now, and especially not if he thinks we’ve been talking about his…problem. He’s a proud man, Ri.’
‘And that pride might just be the death of him.’
‘You think it’s that serious?’
‘I think it’s sensible for a man of his age to get anything abnormal checked out by his doctor,’ Rilee said quietly. ‘It could be an infection or it could be something more serious. Either way, to leave it unchecked is just…irresponsible.’
Dan gave a sigh and reached out to pull her against him. ‘Come back to bed. You can’t do anything tonight.’
Rilee didn’t protest. There was nothing she could do if Jacob didn’t want her help, but it still didn’t sit right with her to stand by and watch as he allowed his health to deteriorate.
As she lay next to Dan and listened to his deep, steady breathing, she was busy planning how she could change her approach and get through to men like Jacob.
Nine
Rilee looked up from the local paper as Ellen came into the kitchen. She noticed the tired expression even her impeccably applied makeup couldn’t cover. ‘Good morning.’
‘Good morning, Rilee,’ Ellen answered in the polite, neutral tone she seemed to reserve especially for her.
‘How did you sleep?’ Rilee asked as Ellen made a pot of tea.
‘Fine, thank you. Although it’s usually the host who asks the guest how they slept,’ she said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Pulled in line yet again. Rilee would have normally let the matter go at that point, but the woman’s attitude was rubbing her the wrong way this morning. ‘I only asked because you’re looking a little tired this morning.’
‘Yes, there’s been quite a lot happening around here lately. I’m sure things will settle down eventually,’ she dismissed, taking a tissue from the counter and turning away to pat lightly at her face. ‘It’s unseasonably warm this morning.’
Rilee was actually thinking there was a bit of a chill in the air. ‘I see the show is coming up. Do you enter any of your flowers?’
‘Yes, my roses usually do quite well.’
‘I can’t wait. It’ll be my first time at a show.’
&nb
sp; ‘You haven’t been to an agricultural show before?’
‘Nope,’ she said.
‘How…unusual.’
‘That pretty much sums up my entire childhood,’ she said with a lopsided smile.
‘Speaking of which, when do we get to meet your parents?’
Rilee glanced up sharply at that. She and Dan had plans to head up to Tippery Heights as soon as there was a break in Dan’s workload, but that wasn’t going to be anytime soon. She’d tried her best to prepare him for meeting her parents. She knew he’d find some of their ideas a little out there, but she was pretty sure they’d get on. His parents, on the other hand…She could just imagine how Jacob would react when he found out her parents were permaculturists.
‘I’m not sure. They’re kept pretty busy.’
‘They’ll have to come to our party. You will invite them, won’t you.’ It was a statement, not a question.
‘I’ll let them know,’ she said, more to keep the woman happy than with any real intention of doing so. ‘You know, I can mix you up some herbs and some chamomile tea to help you sleep at night, if you like,’ Rilee said as she watched Ellen pour boiling water into her teapot.
‘That’s all right, I’ve never been a great sleeper.’
Rilee bit her lip for a moment as she decided the best way to approach the subject she wanted to bring up. ‘It’s funny, all the years I spent sleeping alone, but now I can’t imagine not having Dan there beside me any more.’
Ellen stopped stirring her tea but didn’t look up.
‘I guess I can understand how sleeping in separate rooms would make sense. It would be a bit disruptive with Jacob getting up through the night all the time.’
‘Excuse me?’
Rilee wrung her fingers together. Damn Dan and his lecture last night. She tackled sensitive, sometimes embarrassing issues every day with patients. Yes, she knew this wasn’t a patient asking for a consultation, but she was so frustrated that these people treated her like an idiot because she didn’t know about farming, when what she did know about would probably improve their lives enormously.
‘I tried to speak to Jacob about his frequent bathroom trips through the night. I’m concerned that he should be seeing a doctor about his symptoms. I thought maybe he’d listen to you.’
Ellen glared at her, a look of utter horror on her angular features. ‘I don’t know who you think you are, but while you’re under my roof you will kindly refrain from sticking your nose into other people’s private business,’ she said in a low hiss.
‘I’m not trying to be nosey. I’m speaking as a health professional.’
‘I don’t see anything professional about this conversation.’
‘Ellen, I’m sorry if you feel offended. I was only trying to help.’
‘Well, nobody asked you to.’
Rilee listened to the angry sound of her heels marching up the hallway and sank back into her chair despondently. She knew she’d overstepped the mark, but she’d been hoping that maybe, as his wife, Ellen would be an ally in her push to get Jacob to seek help. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen.
Her parting remark had stung more than she cared to admit. No one had asked for her help. No one asked her for anything. She didn’t fit in and she didn’t belong, that much was becoming abundantly clear.
Rilee wiped her arm across her forehead and grimaced at the streaks of dirt and sweat that came away. She could only imagine the sight she made. ‘Come and help out in the yards, he said. It’ll be fun, he said,’ she muttered as Dan grinned across the backs of disgruntled cattle being pushed through a race.
‘Aww, come on, Ri. Think of it as bonding time.’
‘Bonding? I’m thinking it’s more like cheap labour.’ It was hot, dusty and noisy in the yards and Rilee was fairly sure she wouldn’t be agreeing to tag along for the day ever again. They were a man down and she’d initially thought it would be a good way to see a little more of what her husband did when he was gone all day. So far she was struggling to get her head around all the various components of farming. She was yet to experience harvest time, but she could only imagine it would mean as many long days and nights out in the paddocks as seeding had taken. Then there was the livestock side of things—cattle that needed moving to another paddock, drenching, tagging or marking—not to mention a never-ending cycle of maintenance—fences that needed fixing, all manner of vehicles that had to be kept running. She’d been trying her best to learn about this new and foreign life she’d been brought into, but it was a lot to take in at once.
For the most part everyone was being helpful. She’d stuck pretty close to Dan and he showed her what to do and explained why they were doing it. He was a very good teacher, and she admired the way he spoke and treated Mark, the station foreman and the younger worker. His father, on the other hand, was as grumpy as ever and she noticed the other men tried to steer clear of him where possible. He swore and yelled his way through most of the morning and by smoko Rilee had just about had enough.
She watched her father-in-law disappear around the corner of the shed as Dan handed her a mug of coffee poured from a thermos. ‘That’s no way to treat people, you know. How on earth has he managed to keep staff this long?’
‘He’s a cranky old bastard most of the time. It’s just the way he is.’
Rilee didn’t believe Jacob’s bad mood was to be blamed entirely on an unfortunate personality.
Dan paused, eyeing her over his mug. ‘I’m pretty sure I don’t like whatever you’re thinking.’
Rilee glanced over at her husband and patted his hand as she stood up. ‘I’ll be right back.’
‘Ri,’ Dan started to protest, but sighed as she lifted an eyebrow in silent challenge. ‘Never mind.’
She picked her way across the hard-packed ground liberally dotted with dried cow poo and leaned against the rail fence near the rear of the shed where Jacob had gone a few moments earlier.
She saw his step falter a little when he looked up and saw her waiting as he came around the corner.
‘Before you say anything, I just want to apologise for the other night. I didn’t mean to overstep the boundaries but I am genuinely concerned about you, Jacob.’
She saw his face darken. ‘I told you before, it’s none of your damn business.’
‘Why would you let something like this continue when it’s clearly making you miserable? If you don’t care about yourself then what about your wife?’
‘What the hell would you know about anything?’
‘A lot more than you, obviously, if I can see what’s going on and you can’t.’
Jacob gave a disgusted grunt and moved to walk past, but Rilee wasn’t about to give up so easily.
‘Have you been having regular prostate checks at your GP?’
‘Bloody doctors. If you ask me, doctors are the reason this world is getting soft. They make money off scaring everyone into thinking they’re dying.’
‘All right, if you don’t want to see your doctor, I can help you.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he said coldly, moving past her and storming off across the clearing without looking back, leaving Rilee to stare after him in frustration. As they returned to work, Jacob’s temper seemed even worse than before.
‘What the hell did you say to him?’ Dan growled as he came up beside her later.
‘Nothing that made any difference apparently,’ she said, looking across at the older man, who was wearing a deep scowl.
‘Well, do everyone a favour next time and don’t say anything at all. He’s an even bigger pain in the arse than usual. The boys are ready to walk off the job.’
‘I was trying to help,’ she said quietly.
‘You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. Just leave it be.’
That didn’t make any sense. The healer in her found it hard to turn her back on someone who was obviously suffering, but she had no idea how to make Jacob understand that he needed to get help.
Ten
Two weeks later the cottage was finished and Rilee could barely contain her eagerness to move in. Armed with cleaning paraphernalia, she spent the day clearing away the builders’ mess and unpacking the few things she’d wanted to keep when she left the city—mostly reference books and equipment. She couldn’t wait to try the big claw-footed bathtub she’d had installed. Dan had protested that it was a waste of time, seeing as it would hold too much water to use more than a couple times a year, but it was the only thing she’d wanted in the entire renovation. She didn’t mind compromising on any of the other items, but the bathtub she stood her ground on. It set off the rustic country feel to perfection.
Heavy boots on the steps outside alerted her to Dan’s arrival, and she gave the bathtub one final wipe before dropping the cloth back into the bucket and turning to greet him.
‘This is a nice surprise,’ she said after he lifted his head from their kiss. ‘It’s a bit early for lunch, isn’t it?’
‘I’m not home for lunch…unfortunately. Just dropped in to pick up some paperwork. How’s the unpacking going?’
‘Almost done.’
‘We’ll have to go shopping for some more furniture one day soon,’ he said, casting his eye around the lounge room as they walked back towards the kitchen.
‘We’ve got the basics.’
Dan circled her waist and dragged her close. ‘A bed and a fridge, that’s all we really need,’ he agreed, nuzzling her neck.
Later, when she was working on her business plan, she heard a voice outside.
‘Hello? Anyone home?’