There was a long drawn-out sigh and at last Maddy began talking. ‘It’s been worse since the accident. His temper. But in some ways, it’s better. He’s changed so much and been getting more short-tempered lately. Since I got the job with Alma, actually. But at least with the plaster it’s easier to stay out of his reach.’
Sienna digested the information for a few seconds. ‘How did you two meet?’
‘I met him in Boulia. The next town. My girlfriend and I came out for the camel race circuit. They call it voluntourism. I’ve done some in other countries so decided to try it now that I was back in Australia. I was only working casual for a cleaning company so I could come and go when opportunities came up.’ She sighed. ‘We met Jacob at the bar and the two of us hit it off.’ Sienna caught the wince at the unfortunate wording.
Maddy went on. ‘My girlfriend thought him handsome, too. He called me up next time he came through Brisbane and we had a nice time then, as well. I must have already been pregnant. I was on the pill . . .’ her voice trailed off. Then she shook her head. Winced. ‘I must have missed a pill. Anyway, he drove a truck that he inherited from his uncle, picking up cattle so he was away a lot. It was nice to have a boyfriend, even part-time. It was good at the beginning.’
Sienna remembered what Alma had said and it all tied in. But she didn’t mention she already knew that. Sienna slowed in case the emu they were passing changed her mind about direction. ‘Voluntourism? Never heard of that.’
‘It’s where you do unpaid work on a festival or sporting event for free entry and accommodation. The camel races sounded like fun, and we came on the bus from Brisbane just for the weekend.’
‘So was it fun?’
‘A blast. I’ve never laughed so much. Jacob swept me off my feet and I rushed in. Couldn’t believe my luck. I guess I don’t know how I ended up with Jacob controlling my life over the last few months. It was a gradual thing. While he’d been driving his truck between the towns, I had a life. Though, looking back now, he did manage to push my girlfriends away. The one I lived with rubbed him the wrong way and moved out. I spent half the time defending him to her and the other half defending her to him. But it was fun when it was just him there. I thought I was so lucky.’
Sienna minded her tongue. Isolation was the first sign, if she remembered the signs for DV. Not that they’d named it yet. ‘Sounds tricky.’
‘Sometimes it was. Between trips he moved in with me, but started to ring at odd hours to check if I was home. Made me feel disloyal if I was having a good time and he was working so I stopped going out. Unless I was with him. When he had the accident and couldn’t manage the three flights of stairs he suggested he’d be better in his uncle’s empty house out west in Spinifex. So, of course, I came to look after him. I’d been to Boulia so I knew what to expect. Or thought I did.’
She slid into silence and Sienna let it lie. After Maddy had turned and checked her baby she sat back and eventually began again. Her voice was quieter this time and Sienna strained to hear. ‘When I got to Spinifex I figured out I was pregnant, not getting fat, but I wouldn’t have been able to work if I told anyone.’ Her voice became a whisper. ‘There never seemed a right time to tell Jacob. I guess he didn’t notice because we weren’t sleeping together.’
Sienna still thought he was pretty blind. Or blinded by his jump into bullying. ‘How did you manage that?’
‘He just stopped making advances. Before the accident I think he might have been taking drugs to stay awake on the road. His moods were changing but I just thought he was tired.’
‘So when you moved to Spinifex did you like it?’
‘I like the town. And the people. Especially when I got the job at the pub. I think I love Alma. She’d been very kind to me.’
Sienna laughed. ‘I think she’s fond of you, too. They say the right people turn up in your life at the right time if you let them.’
She heard the words and closed her lips. Whose freaking mouth had that come out of? Sienna stared through the windshield, driving automatically as she considered the ridiculous statement she’d just spouted and how it was the reverse with her. ‘I’m not sure I believe that, but . . .’ Douglas and Blanche Mackay were the last people she needed right now. She brought herself back to the conversation. ‘I think Alma is a good person, too.’
She slowed the car and looked at Maddy. ‘Has it been bad long?’
‘Since I started working for Alma really because I have to be out of his sight. He doesn’t like the idea of me talking to other men in a pub.’
Sienna’s brows rose. ‘So why didn’t he hop his way down to the pub and sit there and watch you?’
Maddy almost laughed. ‘He did a couple of times, but Alma chipped him on the way he spoke to me and he told her to stick her pub.’
Sienna smiled grimly. ‘Can’t see Alma tolerating that.’
Maddy looked at her. ‘I think she’d been trying for a rise out of him because then she said he was banned.’
Sienna laughed. Then sobered. Then her blood ran cold. She slowed the car and glanced at Maddy. ‘How was that night when you went home?’
Maddy looked out the window. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
Sienna remembered the bruises. ‘I understand that.’ Softened her voice. ‘But I saw the marks on your legs when I examined you earlier. I think Jacob did that to you.’
Then Maddy said something that broke Sienna’s heart. And made her want to strangle Jacob. ‘Please don’t tell anyone about the marks. I feel so ashamed of my life.’
An hour later Maddy had fallen asleep, exhausted after revealing the stress, isolation and the escalating violence she’d suffered. Sienna felt exhausted herself. She’d always known of the black cloud some women lived under, but in her busy, treatment-orientated world, she’d immediately referred those women to the appropriate services and the connection had been fleeting and distant.
She felt uncomfortably mortified she hadn’t connected more with the reality of their lives, and had to acknowledge how extremely fortunate she was that she’d never had any personal experience of violence.
It put her own childhood baggage into perspective – she’d been a lucky child and not a victim. When she thought about the bitterness she’d harboured since she was very young about her father leaving her mother – she’d had no idea what real hardship was.
Maddy’s story had shocked her to the core. Perhaps because it was so real and so close. It had been happening to Maddy while Sienna had been teasing Douglas, complaining about the heat, letting herself get frustrated by petty delays. Maddy had suffered over in Jacob’s house. And she hadn’t known.
Though, apparently, everyone had a bad feeling about Jacob. Douglas and Alma said they had been keeping a protective eye on her while they waited for her to ask for help. Holding back – probably guilty about that now – because they hadn’t wanted to interfere without Maddy’s permission. No one had known for sure. But that wasn’t good enough.
Well, she’d asked now and it was out.
Sienna glanced in the rear-view mirror at the sleeping newborn, an occasional baby snuffle making her mother’s eyelids flicker, and then she glanced back at the young woman’s face, softened from care in sleep, and felt a wave of unexpected empathy steal over her. Every woman and child, and, she thought of a very young Jacob’s life in the school of hard knocks, every boy and man, too, deserved to feel safe. All she could do was be more aware. And she would change in the future.
But for today they’d concentrate on Maddy.
They arrived at Diamond Lake Station just as the sun tipped the crater that surrounded the station with dark slashes of golden brown. Soaring flocks of pink Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos circled in for the sunset. Sienna remembered that Lex’s daughter, Lily, liked to feed the birds and they had quite a crowd.
‘Nearly there, Maddy,’ Sienna said quietly and the girl beside her stirred and then sat bolt upright and spun her head to confirm her baby was safe. Then
her shoulders sagged and she glanced apologetically at Sienna. ‘Sorry. My nerves are shot.’
‘You’re allowed,’ Sienna said, trying to keep the twinge of horrified sympathy out of her voice. Some of Maddy’s disclosures still had her reeling. ‘It will take time.’
Maddy bent her head and Sienna cursed herself for making a comment at all. To change the subject she said, ‘I am very pleased to say your baby slept all the way.’
‘I slept too,’ Maddy murmured the obvious as she twisted her head again to check her baby, and then her hand fell to find the control at the side of the seat to adjust the angle. The soft whirr of the seat lifting coincided with their arrival at the entrance gate.
‘You might just have earned that rest.’ Sienna thought briefly of Maddy’s last twenty-four hours, let alone the fact that she’d worked in a bar until ten the night before. Now that made her own usual work days look paltry. She smiled. ‘You’ve had a labour and birth and been busy riding a wave of adrenaline since your baby arrived. You can’t be in a constant state of readiness to run without exhausting yourself. You needed to sleep.’
‘How long?’
‘Three hours. It’s a start. Eve will mother you into more rest and be there for the first few feeds in case you have questions.’
‘Feeds? If she ever wakes up. What was in that bottle? I heard they sleep for one long time after birth, but this is ridiculous.’
Sienna laughed. ‘Eve said she might and the movement of the car helps. Apparently, when she wakes you’re going to have a cluster of demand feeds. Bet she goes off like a bomb when we stop.’
Maddy chewed her fingernail and then, realising, pulled her hand away from her mouth as if Sienna would scold her. ‘I’m being a terrible nuisance.’
Sienna turned between the two large gum trees on the driveway. ‘You were sensible enough to take help when it was offered. I’m happy with an excuse to see my sister.’
‘Well,’ Maddy looked at her sceptically, ‘I do know how fortunate I am. Thank you.’
Sienna shrugged. ‘I’m stuck on leads for my investigation so it’ll give me a chance to bounce ideas off Eve.’ Sienna realised that Blanche would probably be there and that she should mention her.
As they rounded the small hill and saw the homestead bathed in sunlight, Maddy seemed to shrink in her seat.
Sienna tried to think of something helpful and non-threatening for a young woman about to stay with people she didn’t know.
‘As far as I know, there’s my sister Eve, her husband, Lex, and his daughter, Lily, living in the homestead. Lily’s sixteen and her mother died last year. Then possibly Lex’s mother, Blanche, will be there.’
‘I can remember those names.’
‘That’s a good start. The house is surrounded by shady gardens. And there’re a few nice places to walk with your baby.’ She pointed. ‘To the left is a view to the lake the station’s named after.’
Maddy whistled when she saw it. ‘It’s huge.’
‘I find that amount of water out here surprising,’ Sienna agreed. ‘There’re lots of places to be by yourself. But if you go walking, wear a pair of gumboots. The snakes around here can be ridiculous.’ She thought of her own personal viper in paradise. ‘Have you met Blanche Mackay?’ That was amusing but harsh and she mentally apologised to Blanche.
Maddy shook her head. ‘Only seen her in the bar talking to Alma.’
‘She’s the bane of my life.’ Sienna glanced at her passenger and softened the statement with a smile. Oops. That had sounded non-reassuring and stark. ‘Only because she’s concerned for the health of the women out here. And keeps uprooting me from my hospital like I’m her personal medical PI. Just warning you she might seem intimidating but her heart’s in the right place.’
Maddy lifted her chin. ‘Most people who live out here look after each other. I’ve noticed that.’
‘Good. Then you won’t stress. Eve is very keen to meet you and has missed playing midwife. Just let things unfold without thinking too much. Okay?’
‘I’ll try.’
They arrived. Thank goodness. Sienna could switch off the engine for the day and pop the boot in the dusty circular drive outside the front steps.
Eve hurried down and Sienna hoped she wouldn’t trip. Her sister didn’t do graceful – just wholehearted. That was Eve.
‘Sienna, you look like you’ve just stepped out of a fashion magazine!’ Then she engulfed her in a hug.
Sienna stepped back to examine her sister, feeling crumpled from the drive. ‘I think you’re reading the wrong magazines.’ She glanced over the pale face but sparkling eyes of her next of kin. ‘You look washed out but very happy.’
Eve shot a mischievous glance at the tall, extremely well-built man at the top of the steps and grinned. ‘I am,’ she said, meeting Sienna’s gaze. ‘It’s so good to see you.’
A young girl bounced down the steps in denim shorts and a limegreen crop top, almost bumping into Eve. ‘Can I carry something?’
Sienna blinked and looked at Eve. The last time she’d seen Lex’s daughter, not long after she’d lost her mother and met her father for the first time, she’d been as quiet as a mouse. That’s what living with Eve did to you.
‘You remember Lily?’ Eve asked.
‘I do. Nice to see you again, Lily.’
‘You, too.’ The girl flashed her a grin. Then looked at Maddy. ‘Hello, Maddy. Welcome. We’ve so been looking forward to you coming.’ Then to Sienna she asked, ‘What would you like me to carry?’
‘Just the blue one in the boot. Thanks.’ Lily nodded and bounced away.
‘Your luggage matches your car?’ Eve teased as her husband arrived beside her.
‘The little things in life.’
Lex shook her hand, and his head. Then smiled laconically at his wife and drawled, ‘Your sister has been like a lizard on a hot rock all day.’
‘Visitors.’ Eve clapped her hands and shooed them all up the stairs. ‘Come have a cool drink. Relax. It’s so good to see you. I’m so excited!’
Chapter Thirty-one
Maddy
Maddy watched Sienna cross to her sister and hug her. Eve Mackay looked as tall as the doctor, but rounder and softer. Less abrasive than Sienna though Maddy had to admit that Sienna had turned into one of her favourite people.
As she listened to Sienna inquire about her sister’s nausea, and Eve’s assurance that it had disappeared, she wondered briefly if maybe she should think about heading across Australia to her family in WA and look for a sisterly rapport, not that she’d had the sort these two seemed to have. Last time she’d visited after her mum had died she’d felt in the way. Her sister and brothers had families of their own.
She heard Sienna say, ‘You’re always excited.’ Saw the tilt of her head as she studied Eve. ‘And you have less colour in your face.’
‘Thank you, doctor.’ Eve turned from Sienna to the car, and standing there Maddy could feel her face heat. Before she could totally regret coming here, Eve stepped forward and gently enfolded her into an embrace. Looked at her as if she were a present and then hugged her again.
‘Welcome, Maddy, I’m so pleased you decided to come and I can’t wait to meet your baby.’
Maddy felt the tears well up and could only nod her thanks. Her baby, who at that precise moment realised the car had stopped, saved her by letting out a blood-curdling bellow that made the cockatoos lift from the fence in a startled cloud. Then the tiny passenger totally lost it and nearly lifted the roof of the car with her wailing.
Eve laughed out loud. ‘Now that’s an outback Queensland voice. She’ll have no problem calling in the dogs.’
Maddy didn’t know why, but that funny statement had her dropping her shoulders and almost falling against the car with relief. She smiled at Eve and then Sienna and knew that for the moment it would all be okay. ‘Maybe I should call her Clarion, or Clarry for short,’ she joked.
Eve looked at her and then Sienna. ‘She hasn�
��t got a name yet? What fun!’ She smiled reassuringly at Maddy. ‘A name has to fit. It’ll come.’
Maddy felt guilty about keeping her thoughts to name her baby Bridget, after her mum, to herself but she still wasn’t sure.
‘Hope you find one soon or I’ll have Trumpet stuck in my head,’ Sienna said loudly and put her hand over her ears.
Maddy giggled as she and Eve hurried to unstrap their fist-waving passenger.
Chapter Thirty-two
Sienna
Sienna allowed herself to be herded up the stairs. Glancing across at the tops of the shrubs below, she had to admit that her sister’s home welcomed in a way her own didn’t. The lake shimmered to the left and a mountain range formed a natural amphitheatre with the homestead in the middle. Cattle dotted the sparse paddocks.
‘Blanche will be here soon. She wouldn’t miss you,’ Lex said as he waved her to be seated on the spacious verandah, where Eve had already set a table. Eve and Maddy had disappeared into the house with the baby.
‘Hmm. I look forward to seeing her, too,’ Sienna said darkly and Lex grinned without commenting. Then he said, ‘Eve tells me Sergeant McCabe is stationed at Spinifex?’
Sienna pretended to frown. ‘Eve tells you a lot.’
‘One of the joys,’ he said and smiled in the direction his wife had disappeared with a little too much love for Sienna’s nausea levels. Get a room.
Lily must have had enough of her father’s devotedness, too because she took the opportunity to say, ‘I love your car,’ to Sienna.
Now there sat a girl with good taste. ‘Remind me to show you the light that shines on the ground when you open the door. It’s shaped like a horse.’
Lily’s eyes sparkled. ‘Really?’
Sienna nodded her head enthusiastically. ‘Yep.’
Lily bit her lip. ‘Have you still got your red sports car?’ She looked hopeful. ‘I’ve got my Ls.’
It had been a cute car. ‘No. Sorry, Lily. I traded that in when this one arrived.’
The Baby Doctor Page 18