Alma looked up as she entered and handed the cloth she’d been using to wipe the bar to a very attractive blonde woman Sienna hadn’t seen before. Maddy’s replacement?
‘This is Heidi. She’s my new barmaid. From the Netherlands.’ Alma frowned. ‘You look pale.’
‘Exciting times,’ Sienna quipped.
‘Tell me about it,’ Alma said with a nod towards the bar. ‘Maddy’s Jacob is in there drowning his sorrows and I wasn’t quit game to kick him out. I told him she was gone, but he doesn’t believe me. I might have to ring that man of yours to move him along soon.
Sienna glanced around. She didn’t have the mental energy to correct Alma. Douglas wasn’t her man. He might be her secret squeeze. The father of her child. But not her man. That would never work.
The last half hour must have muffled the urgency to sort out Douglas’s paternity. It had almost drowned all that out. Though she still wasn’t sure she should admit to the hallucination, she found herself telling Alma before she could stop herself, ‘Think I might have seen your Min Min.’ She kept her voice low, self-conscious in case anyone else heard.
Alma stilled. Searched Sienna’s face and said, ‘I’ll get you a brandy.’
‘I could do with . . .’ She’d been going to say a double before she thought of her secret disaster and stopped. ‘A cup of tea instead,’ she said with a heavy sigh. Damn it. Brandy would have been good. ‘I’ll make it in my room.’
Alma glanced around the noisy bar. ‘No. You go up.’ She searched her face again with a frown. ‘You okay?’
Sienna wondered how this tiny, tough publican could be so perceptive when she barely knew her. ‘Of course. Just didn’t expect to meet a travelling companion on the way home.’
‘We never do,’ Alma said with a hint of worry. ‘I wonder what’s going to happen?’
It was such a ridiculous thing to say that Sienna could feel the jangling of her nerves settle. As if the light from the Min Min always hopped about waving to cars on the way to Spinifex foretelling disasters. Right now her legs felt like lead and she wondered if she’d be able to climb the stairs under the weight of all the things on her mind.
Alma patted her arm. ‘You look like a ghost. Go and put your feet up. I’ll bring you a cuppa on a tray.’
Sienna nodded, like a docile, pregnant cow, she thought with disgust at herself, and turned to plod up the stairs. It must be the aftermath of that surge of adrenaline, she realised, and used her hands on the banister as much as her feet on the stairs to pull her tired body up to her room.
Within minutes she’d been followed upstairs by Alma, who apparently had come up with some plan to get Maddy away. After she’d made sure Sienna had her feet up in the armchair beside the bed, she placed the tray next to her. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘I had lunch at Diamond Lake.’
‘Tsk.’ Alma grumbled. ‘That’s hours ago. I’ll get you a toasted sandwich.’
‘Tell me about Jacob.’
Concern crinkled Alma’s face even more than usual. ‘He’s in a filthy mood. Threatening revenge. That he’ll make me pay, make Douglas pay. I tried to tell him Maddy had left town on the bus. He asked where you were. Said Maddy had changed and it was all your fault. Yours and mine, and that man of yours.’ She looked more worried than Sienna had expected. ‘He’s down in the bar questioning people now.’
That didn’t sound pleasant. And Sienna had no energy for a confrontation with a bully. ‘Might be worth phoning Douglas. I’ll do that in a minute, to let him know I’m back.’
Alma wanted to know what Sienna thought if she took Maddy and her baby to start a pub somewhere else. Would it be the best thing? Sienna agreed. She tried to look enthusiastic, but really, whatever. She had her own problems. But leaving town? Yes. Great idea. Everybody should do it.
She couldn’t wait to shake the red dust from her shoes and get the heck out of Spinifex. The faster the better. Though she’d be leaving in daylight and avoiding flying watermelons. Eventually, Alma went back downstairs. Sienna glanced at her phone and called Douglas . . . her baby’s father. She kept it brief. After the call, she closed her eyes and rested back in the chair. The feeling of foreboding wouldn’t leave.
Chapter Thirty-five
Ten minutes later a knock at the door dragged Sienna out of her chair. She had been starting to feel marginally better until she opened the door to Douglas. Her phone rang at the same time. Terrible timing for a call. Or was it? She didn’t know whether to hug Douglas or run away. She was glad for the excuse to turn her back to him after lifting her hand in greeting.
The caller ID said Regan again, no doubt with an update on the radioactive investigation team, so she had to take it. It was fortunate really, as she didn’t know how to look into Douglas’s face with what she knew. She could feel his presence behind her shoulder, as Regan expounded on whom he’d notified.
Douglas remained outside the door, despite her gesturing for him to come in, but of course he wouldn’t risk entry. He hadn’t been across the threshold of her room since that first day.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. Drilled him with her eyes. Too late to be safe now, buster, I’m already pregnant! She held her phone clutched like a shield between them. His eyes narrowed, as if sensing something he didn’t understand until, with a shrug, he turned and left.
The desolation as that blue-shirted figure disappeared down the hall stung like a whiplash across her cheek and she lifted her other hand to her face. At least he’d chosen to go and she hadn’t sent him packing by saying something stupid in her current state of mind. How the hell could she tell him? How could she not? But she wasn’t ready for that. Nowhere near processed with her thoughts. And still the phone call twittered on.
Poor Regan explained how unlikely someone losing a source of radiation was, but he had set things in motion for an investigation. All with no attention from Sienna. Sienna pondered the what ifs. What if Douglas swooped on the idea and wanted to play happy families and she knew she couldn’t? Sienna felt the scratch of emotion in her throat and tried to concentrate on Regan and his long explanation.
‘Are you there?’ she heard Regan ask.
‘Yes, I’m here,’ her voice sounded croaky and weak, even to her own ears, like she’d been crying or soon would be. That was probably the pregnancy, too. It made sense now when she thought of how emotional she’d been. How moody. Scatterbrained. She put the phone away from her at arm’s length and drew a long, silent breath. ‘Service is coming in and out here, Regan, can you repeat that please.’ Her voice was steadier now. Crisp. She was back in control. She’d have to watch that.
She looked out the window and down on the street to where a young man on crutches was being escorted across the carpark by Douglas. Jacob threw his head around wildly, obviously abusive, and by the set of those erect shoulders Douglas was even grimmer. Once off the hotel grounds, Jacob moved down the street towards his house, the crutches swinging furiously. Sienna acknowledged with relief she wouldn’t meet him downstairs when she went for dinner.
Regan’s voice came clearly now. As if he’d moved to a better reception point. He began describing different scenarios that had occurred overseas and Sienna listened intently. It did sound sickeningly possible.
‘Of course a common factor with such clusters is a great level of anxiety in the public and non-radiation staff, especially if it includes confirmed or possible pregnant women. I don’t know how a clearly marked radioactive source would end up in Spinifex, but now I’m afraid it’s not impossible although still highly unlikely.’
In her periphery, Sienna saw Jacob, sneaking back across the carpark but there was no plaster on his pale leg. And he didn’t carry crutches. Then he was out of sight. How could that be? She’d have to tell Douglas right away.
Regan said, ‘Searching for a lost source in a regional town would also be quite challenging and would definitely generate quite a lot of anxiety – and anger – if it became public knowledge. So keep
it low key when the physicist assigned to this case arrives tomorrow.’
The smoke tendril drifted past her window as she listened to Regan. She froze, sniffing deeply to make sure it was smoke. It smelled acrid. Her eyes widened. Then a second later she couldn’t see through the window, as the column of smoke thickened and obscured the view. She could hear the crackle and roar of flames now and it began to sink in that she was standing on the second floor of a hotel that would burn like a seasoned stack of best kindling.
Then the smoke alarm went off and all hell broke loose. Forgetting the man on the other end of the phone, Sienna jammed the phone into her bag and was frantically glancing around the room to decide what to take when Douglas burst through the doorway, snatched her arm and dragged her out the door.
She pulled back. ‘My things!’
‘Will burn. Just like you. Now move.’ There wasn’t a skerrick of choice in his voice or his grip and instinctively Sienna obeyed. They hurried down the stairs which were already swirling with wisps of smoke though there was no fire to be seen, and they dashed across the overhung verandah and into the street and across the road.
Outside, those newly evicted from the bar gathered and milled in shock, which turned to horrified awe as the tall wooden building whistled like a sudden wind storm and the fire overwhelmed the left side and swallowed it in smoke and flames. It took less than a minute and half the building was engulfed. The new barmaid stood sadly in the shadows across the road, perhaps mourning her new-found job, a job that was burning in front of her. Old Seamus, their most loyal patron, stood next to her and chewed on his pipe, and spat on the ground in front of him every few seconds in disgust.
Sienna glanced around. ‘Where’s Alma?’
Douglas scanned the crowd, strode to the barmaid and then spun back to the hotel before Sienna heard what was said. To her horror, he jogged back up the steps and dived towards the kitchen – the hotel was not yet alight on that side but filled with smoke.
His tall outline disappeared like a terrifying magic trick into the thick cloud. Swallowed by the monster that breathed fire and poisonous fumes and took no prisoners.
No!
Her breath seized. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Couldn’t believe he’d done that. Couldn’t believe he’d stepped into the inferno away from her – possibly forever. Her hand moved instinctively to her chest as she tried to process the shocking reality, the ramifications of her invincible Douglas being swallowed and consumed irrevocably by a hotel fire.
Her head swam as she forgot to breathe. Her eyes stung as she willed him to emerge. Willed his big, solid Douglas form to appear at the door like a mirage. To jog down the steps towards her. But he didn’t. The scream began building in her throat, her lungs aching from holding her breath.
Chapter Thirty-six
Maddy
Madison watched the sunset over the volcanic crater with sixteen-year-old Lily by her side.
‘I’ll get us a cold drink,’ Lily offered, her sunny smile infectious as she basked in the company of someone closer to her own age.
‘Thank you.’ Maddy smiled back, a touch flabbergasted that these people were making such a gentle fuss of her and treating her like a valued guest.
It had been a long time since she’d felt anything but a harried, clumsy servant to Jacob, and she’d always felt so lucky to have the pub job with Alma she would never have presumed to be waited on. Here, she felt bizarrely like an exotic princess, which was certainly a new experience. She tried not to expect the bubble to burst too quickly.
She glanced across at the tops of the shrubs below and decided that Eve’s home glowed like an oasis. Red-brown paddocks stretched away to the lake. The lack of strain in her surroundings seeped into her like a soft mist and she could feel the memory of the last few months being pushed into the back of her mind, which was a much better place for it to be, at least for the next few days.
She’d never met anyone like Eve, someone so tranquil she impacted her surroundings with such a feeling of peace and gentle happiness that Maddy found herself humming without even realising she’d begun.
Lily bounced back and set down the drink without spilling any.
‘Thank you.’ Maddy turned to her. ‘What about you, Lily? Any thoughts on what you’d like to do when you finish school?’ It was nearly May so she only had another eighteen months to go. Lily had the world in front of her. Loved as she was.
‘Sienna’s pretty cool. I like the idea of medicine.’ Lily glanced back at the house where Eve was making dinner. ‘Or midwifery like Eve.’ She paused, gazing out over the long, dry paddocks. ‘Or maybe even ag school and animal husbandry like my dad.’
Maddy laughed. ‘Well, I guess they all deal with life.’
Lily turned thoughtfully. ‘What did you do when you left school, Maddy?’
Maddy hadn’t had a young friend for a long time, especially one she felt decades older than, though there was less than five years between them, and she savoured the girlish conversations with an inner smile.
‘Like yours, my mum died unexpectedly, and I’d just finished school. Unless I moved in with my older brothers or my sister and their families I didn’t have a home. So I went straight overseas backpacking with a few of the girls from school. I didn’t want to stay home without Mum.’ She compressed her lips as the sudden longing for her mother swamped her for a minute.
Lily nodded. ‘When my mum died, Lex came and picked me up. My mum always told me he was dead. So it was a bit of a shock when he turned up.’ She looked back at the kitchen again. ‘I miss Mum heaps, but Eve is the best. Blanche is good, too. I’m pretty lucky to have another family who love me.’
Maddy totally agreed. Nobody had come to pick her up. Her father had already died. But she was okay. These people were kind to her and maybe she did have dear Alma as her friend. ‘Eve is wonderful. And so is Sienna.’
She thought about how the busy doctor had dropped everything to bring her here. Six hours of driving each way. She still couldn’t believe it. ‘Sienna’s so smart and sophisticated. I can’t believe all that she’s done for Bee and me. And Eve, too, of course. So kind.’
‘My dad thinks the sun shines out of Eve.’
Maddy smiled. ‘I think maybe the sun does.’ Lily’s dad, the larger-than-life Lex Mackay, had taken Blanche in the helicopter to Charleville for the evening, to return in the morning. Even that created peace and a feeling of relief. Eve had said she, Lily and Maddy would have an early night so they could all sleep between feeds. Bee did have a loud voice.
‘You are so good with your baby,’ Lily blurted. ‘As if you’ve done it before. I’d be terrified.’
‘Maybe I should be a children’s nurse. I always fancied nursing.’ Maddy smiled and thought briefly about her own future before coming back to her daughter. A rush of love surged up and pushed away the feeling of isolation. ‘We’re moving forward on this mothercraft gig. I was an au pair for three months when I lived in Sweden.’ The gentle art of child care had drifted easily back to her hands. This respite from the real world felt too good to be true.
A strident roar lifted a parakeet on the fence and she turned from the rail at the sound of her daughter’s call.
‘Well, that’s the end of the sunset for me.’
Chapter Thirty-seven
Sienna
In Spinifex, Douglas still hadn’t appeared from the smoke. Sienna swayed, her vision blurring, as the sound of the crackling wood was superseded by the freight-train roar of the fire beast. The first piece of tin roof tumbled two storeys to the ground with an almighty crash on the opposite side to where Douglas had disappeared.
The fire brigade arrived with their truck siren blaring, and Blue jumped from the passenger side, but everyone knew there was nothing they could do except try to contain the blaze from spreading to the next building.
‘Move back, everybody! There’s gas in that place.’ The onlookers surged backwards, Seamus pulling a frozen Sienna gently with hi
m.
The fire chief wanted information. Sienna supposed they should be grateful this had happened before Blue started his afternoon session at the pub. Her thoughts were scrambled and not making sense as if to protect herself from the horror to come. ‘Anybody in there?’ he asked.
Sienna snapped her head around at his voice but Seamus beat her. ‘Big Copper went in after Alma. Towards the kitchen.’
Blue’s eyes widened. ‘Get those hoses pointed at the kitchen!’ he bellowed at the older men who’d hopped down more slowly. Blue scurried to the side of the truck and began yanking the firehose from the reel.
Too late. Fear chanted in her head. She knew it. Too late. It would be too late. Fire was fast, hot, dark and deadly. And Douglas had dived into it. The kitchen would be filled with black smoke and the heat would be building at an incredible rate as the flames crossed to the other wing. Nobody could survive in that toxic smoke, the words whispered like black devils in her head. He hadn’t even wrapped a cloth around his face!
Then something moved at the far right. Was that him? After the longest breath of her life, a lone, swaying figure stumbled through the screen of smoke and heat around the side of the pub, between the two buildings. He must have come from the side kitchen door. Sienna sucked in a lungful of acrid air and a huge, retching sob escaped into the hand over her mouth. Douglas.
Alma’s white head drooped from Douglas’s strong arm, her body slack against his chest, a small shape, so tiny and helpless, convulsing.
Douglas staggered onto the road and across to them. People rushed forward to escort him to safety. He coughed as he lowered his precious bundle to the ground and then, kneeling, he dropped his head to suck in great gulps of air. The middle section of the roof gave way and now the whole right side of the building exploded as the gas in the kitchen caught fire.
Douglas coughed and gulped, and wiped his streaming eyes. ‘She was trying to grab the till money.’ He coughed again. ‘Crawling the wrong way in the smoke.’ More coughing. ‘Nearly didn’t see her against the bench.’
The Baby Doctor Page 20