Midwife in a Million

by Fiona McArthur

  Five minutes later Kate lifted the headphones from her ears and looked at them. No way could they do that. She settled the pads on her ears again and, strangely, the action had calmed her nerves. ‘Say again,’ she said, but there was little hope it would sound different this time.

  ‘Medication and transfer. If I were you I’d transfer her today. The storm’s a big one. The only way to transport is on the ground. If you decide to go you’ll have to take her out by road before it rains again and we’ll fly her from Derby. Or you could sit on her for another twenty-four hours with those symptoms and pray.’

  Kate closed her eyes. ‘It’s six hundred kilometres of corrugations. What if she gets worse on the trip?’ Kate had another, more practical thought and her eyes widened. ‘What if she goes into labour?’

  ‘You could hope she doesn’t deliver.’ Mac Dawson had been obstetric registrar when Kate had been a newly graduated midwife at Perth General. Now an obstetrician in Perth, Mac respected her knowledge and she knew he cared about her predicament. But he couldn’t do anything about their options. There was nothing else he could suggest. ‘You should have stayed with me in Perth.’

  Kate rolled her eyes, glad he couldn’t see her. He’d asked her out a couple of times and Kate knew he’d have liked to have pursued their relationship if she’d been interested. She should have been but wasn’t. Mac’s pursuit had been a factor in her choice to work at one of the smaller hospitals in the suburbs of Perth after graduation.

  Mac went on. ‘Her first baby, Kate. It’s your call but I’m sure you’d prefer early labour to an eclampsia out there while you wait for the storm to pass. The weather could set in for days and your strip will wash out. It’ll get tricky if she’s as unstable as you think and the roads are cut.’

  Mac was right. She’d just needed to hear it twice. Road it was then. ‘Thanks for that, Mac. I’ll get back to you when I talk to her parents.’

  ‘Hear from you soon, then. Don’t forget to give me a ring when you get in so I can be sure you made it.’

  Kate pulled the earphones from her head slowly and walked back to her patient via the drug cupboard. She reached for what she needed, along with the tray of intravenous cannulas, and set it down on the table beside the bed.

  Lucy had fallen into an uneasy doze and every now and then her arm twitched in her sleep. Kate rechecked her blood pressure and the figures made her wince.

  ‘Lucy.’ Kate held the girl’s wrist as she counted her pulse. Lucy’s eyes flickered open. ‘I have to put a drip in your arm, poppet, and give you some drugs to bring your blood pressure down. Then I’ll ring your mum. The doctor says you have to go to Derby at least. Probably Perth.’

  Lucy’s eyes opened wide and the apprehension in them made Kate squeeze her hand again. She looked so frightened. Kate had been frightened too.

  ‘It’s okay, I’ll come with you most of the way but you’ll have to stay there until after your baby is born.’

  ‘Mum doesn’t know I’m having a baby.’ They both looked down at Lucy’s difficult to distinguish stomach.

  Kate remembered this all too well except she hadn’t had a mother. Just a ranting, wild-eyed father who’d bundled her off to strangers before anyone else found out.

  ‘We’ll have to tell her, but no one else needs to know just yet. This is serious, Luce. You could get really sick and so could your baby. I’m worried about you so we have no choice.’

  Lucy slumped back in the bed and closed her eyes and two big silver tears slid down her cheeks. ‘I understand. Will you tell Mum?’

  Kate looked down at Lucy’s soft round cheeks and her hand lifted and smoothed the limp hair back off her forehead. Poor Lucy. ‘If you want me to. Of course I will.’

  The next half an hour made Kate wonder how some people could be so lucky. Lucy’s mother sagged at the news but straightened with a determined glint in her eye. ‘My poor baby. To think she’d been worrying about upsetting me when I’d be more worried about her. Here was me thinking all sorts of terrible things when now I can see why she’s been so quiet lately. And you say she’s sick?’ Mary Bolton stared at Kate hard. ‘How sick?’

  ‘It used to be called toxemia of pregnancy. Her blood pressure’s high and dangerous, for both her and her baby. I’m worried she could have a fit if it gets too high. They want her flown to Perth.’

  Mary stared out of the window and then back at Kate. ‘I had that ‘clampsia thing. Scared the pants off the old man when he woke up and the bed was shaking, with me staring at him like a stunned rabbit unable to speak.’ Mary shrugged. ‘Or so he said—that was just before Lucy was born,’ Mary said matter-of-factly and Kate’s stomach dropped. Maternal history of eclampsia as well? So her mother had progressed to fitting. Kate closed her eyes. More risk for Lucy.

  Mary glanced out of the window and frowned. ‘But the Flying Doctor won’t be able to fly in this weather.’

  Kate looked out of the window to see what she already knew. The sky was heavy and purpling now. ‘I know. We’ll have to take her by road to Derby. Unless the weather clears further west and they can fly in and meet us at one of the stations along the way.’

  Mary looked down at her daughter, then at Kate. ‘You must be worried, Kate, if you can’t wait here a day or two.’

  ‘I am.’

  Mary grimaced. ‘We’re lucky you’re here. I’ll have to arrange for someone to take over the pub and mind the other kids, then I’ll follow. My sister lives in Derby. When does Lucy have to go?’

  ‘Today. Now. As soon as I can arrange it.’ And that was when Kate realised the implications. By ambulance. The usual driver, Charlie, had retired and just left on his lifetime dream holiday. There was no one else with any training to come with her, and she really needed some backup for this trip…

  Sophie would be needed here and there was no one with any medical knowledge except—the second highest qualified paramedic in the state—she’d heard he’d got the Deputy job. The man from her past who’d flown in this morning to see her.

  Rory was the last person she wanted to spend twenty-four hours locked in an ambulance truck with.

  She turned away and looked into the room where Lucy lay. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe what she’d felt for him when she’d been sweet sixteen and besotted enough to practically force him to make love to her would be different.

  Of course it would. He was ten years older now—that made him twenty-eight. With his job the on-road experiences would age anyone, so he’d probably have changed, put on city weight, look a lot older. She’d be fine.

  The call came in just as Rory finished unpacking. Betty knocked like a machine gun on his door and Rory flinched from too many sudden call situations in the city. Maybe he did need this break away from work.

  Betty in a battledress shirt and viciously creased trousers was a scary thing as she stood ramrod-straight outside his door, and he wondered if he should salute her.

  He opened the door wider, but gingerly, because the handle felt as if it was going to come off in his hand. The place was falling apart.

  The fierce expression on Shultzie’s face made him wonder if he was going to be put through an emergency fire drill. ‘Yes, ma’am?’

  ‘Kate Onslow’s on the phone for you. Best take it in the hall quick smart.’

  He moved fast enough even for Shultzie to be satisfied.

  CHAPTER TWO

  RORY parked the ambulance outside the front door of the clinic and climbed the steps to the wooden veranda. His boots clunked across the dusty wood as the wind whipped his shirt against his body.

  He could remember riding out to one of the station fences in weather like this to shift cattle with his father, a big man then that no horse could throw, with the gusty wind in their faces and the sky a cauldron above their heads. He could remember them eyeing the forks of lightning on the horizon with respect. And he remembered his father telling him to forget about any future with Kate Onslow. That it wasn’t his place. She was out of h
is league.

  His feeling of betrayal that his own father hadn’t thought him good enough for Kate either had remained until his dad had been fired not long after Rory had left, after twenty years of hard work, and his dad’s motive became clearer.

  Lyle Onslow had a lot to answer for. The problem was Rory had always loved Kate. Not just because she’d hero-worshipped him since she’d started at the tiny station school but because he could see the flame inside her that her own father had wanted to stamp out.

  He understood the insecurities she’d fought against and how she refused to be cold and callous like Lyle Onslow. She’d been a brave but lonely little girl with a real kindness for those less fortunate that never tipped into pity and her father had hated her for it.

  It wasn’t healthy or Christian, but Rory hoped Kate’s father suffered a bit before the end. He shoved the bitter thoughts back into the dark place they belonged, along with the guilt that he’d caused his parents’ misfortunes.

  No wonder he’d never wanted to come back after Kate’s letter. Kate, who hadn’t needed him for what seemed a lifetime but needed him now.

  The lightning flickered and a few drops of rain began to form circular puffs of dust in the road. ‘Lovely weather for ducks,’ he muttered out loud—his mother’s favourite saying and one he hadn’t said for years—to shake off the gloomy thoughts that sat like icy water on his soul.

  He pushed open the door and walked down the hall to the clinic.

  Rory’s first sight of Kate winded him as if he’d run into one of those shutters banging in the street on the way.

  He’d tried to picture this moment so many times on the way but she looked so different from what he’d imagined and a whole lot more distant.

  She was dressed in fitted tan trousers that hugged her slim hips and thighs above soft-skinned riding boots. The white buttoned shirt just brushed her trim waist and an elusive curve of full breast peeped from the shifting vee of her neckline and then disappeared, a bit like his breath, as she turned to face him. He lifted his gaze.

  Thick dark hair still pulled back in a ponytail, no sign yet of grey, but ten years had added a definition to her beauty—womanly beauty—yet the set of her chin was tougher and steadier and she’d probably reach his chin now so she didn’t look as fragile as he’d remembered.

  Lord, she was beautiful.

  He’d have liked to have sat somewhere out of sight and just studied her to see the changes and nuances of this Kate he didn’t know. Breathe in the truth that he was here, beside her, and acknowledge she still touched him on a level no other woman had reached. But his training kicked in. There’d be time for that later.

  ‘Rory,’ she said but she was talking to the wall behind his head, which was a shame because he ached with real hunger for her to look at him. ‘Thank you for offering to help.’ She barely paused for breath, as if to eliminate any possibility of other topics. ‘I’m worried about Lucy and the sooner we leave the better.’

  Her voice was calm, unhurried, unlike his heart as he struggled for an equal composure. ‘I’ve fuelled the truck and packed emergency supplies,’ he said. She nodded but still wouldn’t meet his eyes again and suddenly it was impossible to continue until she did. ‘Kate?’

  ‘What?’

  How could she keep talking to the wall?

  ‘Look at me.’

  Finally she did, chin up, her beautiful grey eyes staring straight into his with a guarded challenge that dared him to try and break through her barriers. There was no doubt he’d love to do that. But he knew he had no right to even try.

  In that brief moment when she looked at him he saw something behind her eyes, something that hinted about places in her that were even more vulnerable than the delicate young princess he’d left behind, or maybe he was imagining it.

  Either way, he wouldn’t delve because he wanted to close doors on this trip, not open them. ‘For the next twelve hours I’ll drive, you care for your patient and I’ll get you both to Derby safely.’ Then he’d say his piece and leave. ‘So we’ll talk on the way back.’

  She blinked and he could sense the loosening of the tension in the air around her. Sense it with what? How could he sense things like that about a woman he’d not seen since they were both teenagers and yet not be able to sense anything about others more recent? It wasn’t logical.

  ‘Of course.’ Her glance collided with his for a long, slow moment before she looked at the clock. ‘Thank you, Rory.’

  When she turned away, Rory swore he could feel physical pain from that loss of eye contact like tape ripping off his face. There you go. He still had it bad and, to make it worse, he doubted she felt anything. But that was his problem, not hers. He looked through the door to the patient on the bed. They needed to go.

  To Kate’s relief, Rory had them ready to leave within minutes and she couldn’t think of anything else she might need to take with her. Except maybe her brain.

  The grey matter seemed to have slowed to about one tenth speed since Rory McIver had walked in and Kate found her eyes drawn repeatedly to his easy movements as he settled Lucy in the back with extra pillows. He didn’t look at Kate again, which was good, because Lord knew what expression she had on her face.

  Her friend Sophie had come in to man the clinic. ‘Don’t worry if you don’t get back for a couple of days. We’ll be fine.’ Sophie hugged Kate.

  A couple of days with Rory? Kate shuddered. She’d never survive.

  Sophie was still talking. ‘I’ll ring the housekeeper about your dad while you’re away and drive up to the home station after work if needed. Okay?’ Sophie frowned and Kate knew she could see the worry on her face. ‘Just go.’

  Kate nodded again and cast one anguished look at Sophie. Kate was the only midwife. She had to go.

  She focused on her patient. Lucy’s blood pressure had settled marginally with the antihypertensives and Kate had packed as many emergency items as she could think of, including what she could for the birth. Kate just prayed she wouldn’t need any of it.

  Even better, Rory had spoken to Lucy and her mum and by the time he’d shut the rear door to the truck Lucy was looking more relaxed, which was a good thing. Kate doubted it was all to do with the drugs she’d been loaded with and a lot to do with the handsome man promising to get them through.

  As much as Kate dreaded the trip with Rory, she could only be secretly thankful that he’d been here. Otherwise, with Charlie gone, she’d be embarking on this dash with the elderly mechanic due for his own retirement soon. Old Bob would have been little help in a real emergency, with his flaring arthritis and his hearing aid that never worked.

  The driver’s door opened and Rory climbed in behind the wheel—all six feet four of him—and Kate had to shake her head at her preposterous predictions this morning. So much for expecting Rory to be unfit from too many late night doughnuts and morose from his work; there was no doubt this guy was still seriously gorgeous, with a wicked twinkle a long way from surly.

  Suddenly Kate was glad she had to stay in the back with Lucy because Rory’s broad shoulders seemed to stretch halfway across the seat in the front and no doubt she would have been clinging to the passenger door to avoid brushing against him.

  When he turned his head for one last check to see they were settled, his teeth showed white like a damn toothpaste commercial, Kate thought sourly, when he smiled at their patient. He didn’t smile at Kate. ‘You ready for your Kimberley Grand Tour, Lucy?’

  The bronzed muscles in his neck tightened and his strong arms corded as he twisted, and Kate couldn’t help the flare in her stomach or the illicit pleasure of just looking for a long slow heartbeat at this man from her past. No wonder she hadn’t been able to forget him.

  What she had forgotten was how aware she’d always been of Rory’s presence and now, unfortunately, he’d hardened into a lean and lethal heartbreaker of a man who’d be even harder to forget. She wished he’d never come back.

  She sank into her seat
, glad of the dimness in the back to hide her momentary weakness, but even there she could pick up the faint teasing scent of some expensive aftershave, something the Rory she’d known would never have owned. The cologne slid insidiously past her defences and unconsciously she leaned forward again to try to identify the notes.

  He looked at Kate. ‘Did you get a chance—’ he frowned at the startled look on her face and hesitated, then went on ‘—to let them know at the homestead you’d be away?’

  The slow motion ballet of his mouth as he spoke ridiculously entranced her and, after another of those prolonged thumps from her chest, her hearing finally caught up. She blinked as his words registered. Stupid weakness.

  ‘Yes.’ That’d been a staccato answer so she softened the one word with a quick explanation in case he thought her unnecessarily terse. ‘I said I’d be at least a day late coming back, if not two. They’ll tell my father.’

  She looked away from him and decided then and there that it would be best if she didn’t look directly at the source of her weakness again. Don’t look at Rory.

  Her teeth nibbled at dry lips as she pondered her worst fear out loud. ‘That would be as long as we don’t get more rain and end up flooded somewhere along the track for a night.’

  The road they were about to hit was known as the last great driving adventure in Australia. It was enough of an adventure just being on it with Rory, let alone if they got caught up in the middle of a flood.

  He nodded. ‘It’s a possibility. Let me know if you want me to stop more often so you can check Lucy out. I don’t expect to get much speed up or you’ll both be thrown all over the truck.’

  He turned back to face the front. ‘We’ll drive until after the first major crossing…’ he paused as if he was going to say something but then went on as if he’d changed his mind ‘…and stretch our legs.’ He started the engine.