“I can’t help it. You amaze me sometimes.”
“Amaze you? I can’t see that. I’m just an ordinary bloke in an extraordinary world, that’s all.”
“No, there’s something about you that makes everyone feel … safe.”
“I don’t care about anyone else, love. I want you to feel safe, that’s all.”
“Here!” The boy scrambled up the face of a huge boulder, his bare feet like suction cups on the rock.
If Helen had to climb that, she was in trouble. “Paul, I think I might need a little help up the side of that rock.”
“You’re not climbing the rock, Doc.”
She frowned. “Of course, I am. I have to get down to where he fell.”
“No worries. Me and the boys will climb down and bring him back up to you.”
“No, you can’t.” She tossed her bag onto the rocky ground and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I need to assess him first. If he has broken bones, I’ll need to set them. You can’t just haul him out like a sack of potatoes, for crying out loud.”
“There is no way I’m lowering you down over that ledge.” Paul tipped his hat back on his forehead and crossed his arms.
“You don’t have a choice.” She planted her feet and mimicked his posture. “I’m the doctor.”
“Listen up, Doc. On the other side of that rock is a drop-off more than eight hundred feet high. The ledge isn’t smooth, either. It’s cut with thousands of pieces of sandstone. Loose sandstone.”
Helen swallowed. “Eight hundred feet?”
“Aye. And that’s not all. There are all amounts of creatures living in the crevices. Spiders, for one.” He raised an eyebrow.
She took a deep breath and steeled herself against the shivers that permeated her very bones. “I’ll still have to try. Now, give me a boost, will you?”
“Not a chance in hell.”
“Fine. I’ll have some of the others do it.” She picked up her bag and stomped to where Blue stood, looking at the smooth boulder. “Blue, can you and the others help me scale this rock?”
Blue looked at Paul over his shoulder.
“Don’t look at him. I don’t need his permission! Will you or won’t you? Your son’s life is at stake.”
“It’s a dangerous fall,” Blue mused.
“I’m aware of that. Please, we haven’t much time.”
Paul appeared at her side. “If anyone is going to hoist your delicious little ass up this rock, it’s going to be me,” he whispered into her ear, so closely that the moist heat of his breath made her shiver.
She adopted his half grin and started to climb.
A moment later, with Paul’s help, she reached the top and glanced over the edge.
Eight hundred feet looked more than eight million from her vantage. A ledge grew from the side of a cliff that was nearly straight up … and down. Vertigo made her vision blur, then spin. She closed her eyes and pulled herself back over the edge.
“Rethinking things a bit, are you?” Paul quipped from below.
“No. Throw me the rope.”
“Are you cracked, woman? Climb down from there so we can get him the bloody hell out.”
“Paul, will you listen to me? I’m lighter. I can already see his leg is broken. He’s in shock. I’ll need to treat him before we even bring him up the face of the cliff. You can’t do it. But you can haul me up when I’ve finished.”
“She makes sense, Paul. With Djuru’s weight, and yours … It would be easier for the lady to go down,” Kadin replied.
“We’re wasting time, Paul. Toss me the rope.”
For a moment, he looked as though he would refuse, but ultimately he threw a rope to her. She began to tie it around her waist, but Paul stopped her, climbing the rock and straddling the ledge next to her. “Like this,” he huffed.
He ran the rope through her legs, looping it around her waist, then back through her legs again. In the end, she sat in what amounted to a rope swing. “Do not let go of the rope, do you hear me? Not for one second.”
She nodded, swallowing hard.
“Helen? Are you certain about this?”
“I am. I’ll be fine. Really. I just won’t think about spiders.”
Spiders.
Paul growled, but gently lowered Helen over the edge of the cliff. “Put your hand just there … on that branch. No, the other one,” he directed.
What was it about Helen and her infernal idea that she could do anything she wanted that made his blood boil? She should have let him go down the face. He shouldn’t have let her. Most women were perfectly content to let their men make decisions for them. He had to fall in love with a woman who had her own mind and knew how to use it. “Put your foot on the ledge to your right. Your other right, love.”
He wouldn’t be able to breathe until she was safely back on solid ground and not hanging from a rope eight hundred feet from certain death. Sweat poured over his forehead while he struggled to keep the rope steady.
Directly behind him, Blue held to a portion of the rope, sliding it forward when Paul called for more slack. “A bit more now, mate. She’s almost there.”
The rope cut into his hands, the rough hemp burning his fingers.
“There. She’s landed,” Paul announced, the relief in his heart almost more than he could bear. “Tie yourself off to the largest section of the tree before you do anything else, Doc.”
“I will,” she returned, her voice sounding a million miles away.
“I hate this. I really hate this,” he mused aloud.
“What do you hate?” Blue asked.
“I’m sorry, mate. It’s your boy down there. It’s hard on you, too.” Paul stretched his back, loosening the muscles for when he would have to haul Helen and Djuru back up the rock face.
“My son is a man. He makes his own choices. He’ll be fine.”
“How can you be so sure? The Ancestors talking to you again?” Paul forced a small smile before peering over the edge. Helen was checking Djuru’s pulse. He was awake, and they spoke to each other in low voices he couldn’t hear.
“They’ve told me nothing about this. But they’ve told me about your woman. And you.”
“Too right. And what have they said about me?” Paul wasn’t certain he was supposed to know. He leaned over the edge. “Are you nearly ready, Doc? You’re making me more than a little nervous up here!”
“Nearly. Another few minutes.”
Blue joined him at the ledge. “You have to give her the time she needs. Her path is different from yours. You can’t force her to love you. You must let her come to you.”
“What are you talking about? I just want her to come off the ledge.”
Blue laughed. “The Ancestors don’t talk to me in our time. They have a time of their own.”
“I don’t want to wait. I want her now.” He ran his fingers through his hair and replaced his slouch. He checked on Helen again. She was tying the rope around Djuru’s waist and groin just as he’d tied it around hers.
“She will come to you when the road ends. In the rainbow of time, but you must allow her to find her way.”
“What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?”
“We’re ready!” Helen yelled.
Paul and the others positioned themselves carefully and braced themselves for the weight. After a few moments of struggling, they pooled their efforts and hoisted Djuru to the top. In pain and unable to even speak, Djuru could do little more than hiss when they laid him gently on the soft ground.
Next, they brought up Helen. She wore a huge smile on her beautiful face, her eyes full and bright. She lived for this. Spiders or no spiders.
Paul would have to learn to accept it. Because he lived for her.
“I’ve set his leg with a temporary splint, but we’ll need to get him back to Port Hedland as quickly as possible,” Helen whispered. “If we sit him at an angle, he should fit in the plane with me just fine.”
Blue stood over his son with a
grim expression in the aged lines of his face. “He is a strong boy.”
“Yes, he is. He isn’t out of the woods yet, but I think he’ll recover in time.”
“He is my only son.” Blue raised his gaze from his son to Helen. “Did you know that?”
She offered a smile meant to comfort. “I didn’t.”
“The Ancestors show me many things in the Dreaming. They told me you would come. They told me my son would come back. They didn’t show me this.” He sat on the ground next to Djuru’s bedroll and brushed one shaking hand in the air over the younger man’s face.
In the distance, a mysterious noise chirped. Helen frowned, looking over her shoulder, trying to see into the black of night. “What is that?”
“They are playing a healing song for my son,” Blue answered without opening his eyes. “It is what I would do for them.”
Curious, Helen left the glowing ring of light cast by the fire and followed the sound. When the music stopped, she continued in the same direction. Several feet away, she found another fire circle, this one populated only with men. The light danced among the trees, bringing the otherwise sedentary trunks to life among the shadows. Each of the men had stripped to the waist, their dark bodies painted with the same stripes and dots she’d seen on her first visit. Their long, thick hair had been slicked back with white mud. The expressions on their faces were both solemn and wise; at the same time, they were hopeful and proud. On the far side of the fire, she found Paul. His bare chest bore the same designs as the others. His blonde hair fell to his shoulders, loose and free. Like him.
She couldn’t find the source of the strange sound, however.
Then Paul lifted a long object to his mouth. He wrapped his lips around a protruding element at one end, and blew. The sound resumed. Clicking and chirping, the broken music soon grew to a delightful and mysterious calling, as though he didn’t play the notes for anyone who could actually hear them. No, he played for the gods, or the clouds, or the trees. His body, swaying ever so slightly with his efforts, absorbed the music, and it was as though he became one with the very trees who listened.
Helen shook her head. The landscape and mystery of Australia had obviously worked its way into her mind and driven her a bit batty.
Trees couldn’t listen to music, no matter how ancient that music might be. She almost laughed at herself, but turned away from the obviously private gathering instead.
The music stopped, and she turned back to the fire circle. Paul was gone. Where could he have vanished to so quickly?
She was tired. Her mind was playing tricks on her, that’s all. Still…
“Would you like to see something?” Paul asked.
Helen nearly leapt out of her boots. “Where did you come from?” She laughed.
“I saw you peeking through the trees. How’s Dju?”
“He’ll be fine once we get him back to Port Hedland.”
“That’s good. The elders are praying for him.” Paul nodded at the men around the fire. “They’ve asked the Ancestors to guide the woman doctor.”
“Have they?” She smiled. At least someone had faith in her. “What did you want to show me?”
“It’s this way. Come on.”
Paul took her hand, leading her through the trees that bordered the river until they left the forest and climbed a tall rock outcropping.
“There isn’t a cliff on the other side of this one, is there?”
Paul smiled down at her, the moonlight shifting over his features and adding an ethereal quality to his expression. “Promise. No cliffs.”
When they reached the top, Helen’s breath caught. It was like standing on the edge of the world. Black desert stretched as far as she could see until it met with the edge of the stars. The night sky rose above her, a million stars all winking at once. “This is amazing.”
“There’s no other place like it in the world. No place that makes me feel as safe as this one.”
“Safe,” she repeated in a whisper.
“You are safe here, Doc. I want you to know that. No matter what brought you here, and I’m finished asking you about that, by the way, you will always be safe here.”
“I know.” With effort, she pulled her attention from the enormous view and looked at Paul. “But it isn’t this place, or whatever magic it has for you, that makes me feel safe, Paul. It’s you.”
“Good,” he quipped, wrapping his arms around her and dragging her back against his chest.
“Why are you finished asking me about why I came here?” she asked, suddenly curious.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve got you now, Doc. And I’m not letting you go, so what difference does it make?”
“Are you afraid you won’t want me anymore if you know the whole story?”
“Not a chance, love.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I had to leave San Francisco because I couldn’t live any longer around the man who broke my heart.” She closed her eyes, expecting Paul to pull away at any moment.
He didn’t. Instead, he held her closer. “I figured as much. Crikey, what a stupid bugger he must have been.”
She opened her eyes again, staring straight ahead. She was too frightened to twist around and face him. “That’s it? ‘Stupid bugger’?”
“We’re not children, Doc. I don’t have any preconceived notions about who you are, any more than I have preconceived notions about who I am. After last night, we both know you weren’t a virgin. I’m not the jealous type.”
“I was so scared you’d hate me.”
“Never.”
“The thing is, I thought I was in love.”
“Then you probably were.”
“No, now that I look back, I don’t think I was. I didn’t know what love was. I knew what fun was,” she laughed. “I could stay out dancing all night and still attend classes in the morning, and pass them. Gads, how did I ever do it?” A sigh formed in her chest. She had grown even more tired just thinking about her life back then. “He was older than me. Much older. I think he wanted to feel young again and saw me as the stupid little girl I was.”
Paul’s chest muscles tensed behind her back.
He was angry. He could say he didn’t care one way or another, but in the end, he was like all men. Jealous and angry and petty. She couldn’t blame him, really. Hadn’t this been what she feared would happen? As soon as she decided to give herself to him, to divulge her secrets, he would shut her out and break her heart.
“That’s all in the past, though, like you said.” She shrugged. “We have each other now, and that’s all that matters.”
The night grew silent around them, as though the stars held their breath. Finally, Paul relaxed. “Too right, love. That’s all that matters now.”
Stupid mistakes.
How many times had he emphasized to his students the importance of being careful? One must continually pay attention to one’s surroundings. Awareness was key. Don’t wander into town without an escort, and pay attention to the laws of the land, both natural and man-made, or something terrible could happen. Don’t allow anyone to make you feel inferior. Always listen to your instincts. Stupid mistakes can get you killed.
Ironically, these were the lessons Djuru had learned from his father. That, and how to climb down the side of a cliff to gather eagles’ eggs. If he’d checked the direction of the wind gusts … if he’d verified that the mother eagle hadn’t been anywhere near the nest…
He might not be lying in a bed, practically tied to the headboard.
Djuru stared at the ceiling of old Doc’s clinic. His leg, broken in three places, had been set and wrapped in a hard, plaster cast. Currently it rested on a stack of soft feather pillows and hurt like the bloody blazes. He’d been lectured to within an inch of his life.
If one more person told him he’d been a fool, he’d bloody well put his fist through a wall. He laughed. He couldn’t even reach the wall.
The door opened, and Nanara
strode into the room, carrying a basin. She looked different. Her hair was piled neatly at the back of her head. She was wearing a dress…
He raised his eyebrows and released a slow whistle. “You clean up right nicely, don’t you?”
“I suppose that would be the laudanum talking, wouldn’t it, Dju?”
“What was that?”
“You’ve taken something for the pain in your leg. It can sometimes affect how you see things,” she replied, setting the basin on the dresser and dipping a rag into what looked like water when she wrung it out.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I see things just fine.”
“Well, good. I’m happy to hear it.” She placed the rag on the dresser and faced him squarely. Hands on hips … rather nice hips. How had he never noticed them before now? Her dress was dark gray with a wide black belt. The bodice was severe, too severe for one so pretty.
Much like the men’s clothing she usually wore at the sheep station. Still, he’d never seen her in a dress before.
“Time to get started. You can’t sit around looking like you do if you’re going to be spending time here.”
“Started with what?” He smiled. She had nice eyes. He’d never taken the time to look at them before. He’d been too busy avoiding her. To think, they should be married by now.
It had mattered not a whit when they’d been children. Climbing rocks and idolizing his father as though the old bastard were an Ancestor come to life. In those days, the thought of leaving the old ways never entered his mind. Life had been simple. Nanara had been his friend. That all changed the day his father had told him they would marry before the next moon. As though he would marry a Jillaroo when he’d had a perfectly fine woman, a real woman who wore skirts and fanned herself when it was too hot and put ribbons in her hair…
Of course, he’d never really had her. No, she’d liked the idea of rolling about in the bush with him, but when it had come time to grow up? She’d wanted no part of him.
My father would kill me … he’d kill you, Djuru … if he knew I was with a blackfella. You know that as well as I do.
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