by Lucy Clark
‘Do you know, I was just saying to my friend Imogen the other day that…’ As he listened to his sister talk, Arthur’s thoughts once more turned to the way Maybelle had reacted to the photographs. One of him and his family, one of Clara and May. It didn’t matter how many times he’d told himself not to think about it, he didn’t seem able to stop.
‘What’s wrong, Arthur?’
‘Huh?’
‘You’re ignoring me. You only ignore me when you’re completely preoccupied by something else.’
‘That’s not the only time I ignore you,’ he joked.
‘Very funny,’ she replied drolly. ‘Spit it out.’
‘I don’t know.’ He paused, knowing this was going to sound completely strange to his sister. ‘I was, uh…I was thinking about May Fleming this evening.’
‘May? Wow. That’s a blast from the past. Why were you thinking about her?’ Clara’s tone indicated she was genuinely interested, so he told his sister everything about his new colleague and neighbour, and how he’d asked her in for dinner. He told her about Maybelle’s reaction to the photograph on the mantel. When he’d finished, there was silence on the other end.
‘Clara? What do you think?’
‘It is odd. Why would she drop the photo like that? And be so upset?’
‘Right.’ He was glad his sister thought the same way as him.
‘Do you think she knew May?’
‘That’s the only thing that makes any sense. Do you remember anyone called Maybelle Freebourne?’
‘Name doesn’t ring a bell but perhaps she knew May after we did.’
Arthur paused for a moment and frowned. ‘Doesn’t it strike you as odd the way the Flemings just upped and left like that? Never to be heard from again?’
‘I heard from May,’ Clara stated.
His sister’s words completely stunned him. ‘What? When?’
‘She wrote to me. About a month after they left. She said that her father had received a promotion overseas with his work and it had started immediately.’
‘She wrote to you! You never told me that.’
‘Yeah. She also sent me birthday cards for a few years but then they stopped.’
‘Was there ever a return address?’
‘No.’
‘So you had no way of contacting her?’
‘No, but in the last birthday card she sent she wrote that she hoped one day we could meet again and that I would forgive her.’
‘For what?’
‘For leaving, I guess.’
‘Why didn’t I know any of this?’
‘Because every time I even mentioned May’s name in passing you’d bite my head off, just like you are now!’
Arthur leaned his head back on the pillows and closed his eyes, slowly exhaling. ‘Sorry, sis.’
‘Go to sleep, bro. It sounds like you need it. Clear your head and tackle the problem fresh tomorrow.’
‘Can you at least try to remember if you know someone called Maybelle Freebourne?’
‘This woman’s really got you in a spin, hasn’t she?’ Clara chuckled. ‘You like her.’
‘Stop it.’
‘It’s about time you got back in the game, bro.’
‘You can talk.’ There was no way he was discussing his love life, or lack thereof, with his sister. But she did have a point.
‘Yeah, we’re both hopeless cases. Anyway, I’ve got to go. Patients are starting to arrive for clinic. I’ll talk to you soon.’
Arthur said goodbye to his sister then tried to control his thoughts by reading, but after reading the same sentence fifteen times he closed the publication and shook his head. He simply couldn’t stop thinking about Maybelle’s reaction to that photo. Something very odd was going on and he didn’t like unsolved mysteries.
May’s disappearance was an unsolved mystery. He could see it all so clearly in his mind, himself and May, standing beneath the foliage at the end of the garden, twinkle lights creating a festive environment. There had been so many people there—a joint sixteenth birthday party—that May had assured him no one would miss them.
‘I just need to talk to you for a minute or two,’ she’d told him, taking his hand and leading him to the end of the garden. Arthur had looked around to see who might be watching them but they’d escaped unseen.
‘I’m not sure we should be—’ he’d begun, but she’d pulled him further into the foliage and then pressed a finger to his lips to silence him.
‘I have a very special birthday wish, Arthur, one only you can fulfil.’ And before he’d been able to say anything else, she’d stood on tiptoe and replaced her finger with her mouth. Her lips had been trembling, tasting of sugary desire with a hint of sweet desperation. He’d known she’d had a crush on him and he’d been flattered. Then she’d kissed him, and he should have put his hands on her shoulders and gently eased her back…but he hadn’t.
In that one moment, he’d become intoxicated by her…and had kissed her back. He’d had to force himself to take his time, to be gentle and not rush into a hard and hungry kiss, which was exactly what he’d wanted to do. He’d cupped her face with his hands and cherished her mouth, delighting in every response she gave him. When he’d pulled back, both of them breathless, he’d looked into her eyes and would never forget the mixture of surprise, trepidation, confusion and the smallest hint of fear he’d seen there.
Surprise. Trepidation. Confusion.
Surprise, trepidation, confusion…and fear! That was exactly how Maybelle had looked at him that evening.
Arthur sat bolt upright in bed, belatedly realising he’d been dreaming. His heart was thumping erratically against his chest as he held onto that last thought.
Surprise, trepidation, confusion and fear. Maybelle had looked at him in exactly the same way May had looked at him all those years ago, although Maybelle’s ratio of fear had been much greater. It didn’t matter that her eye colour was different—it was the look.
His eyes widened as his brain seemed to be reaching far-fetched connections. May and Maybelle. Maybelle and May. Maybelle. His beautiful May!
He’d known there was something familiar about Maybelle Freebourne…but was it possible? Was it true? Were Maybelle and May one and the same?
CHAPTER FOUR
MAYBELLE WAS AT work early the following morning. What was the point of lying in her bed, marking time, when she could be doing something useful? As it turned out, when she arrived just after five o’clock, the ED was packed and the night staff were grateful for her help.
She’d spent half the night with her thoughts tumbling one over the other as she’d tried to figure out what she should do. Should she cut and run right now? Leave Victory Hospital and get a job somewhere else? Or work at the hospital but find a new place to live? That was the problem with being in witness protection, she was so used to change it was second nature to her, yet she wasn’t used to settling down. There was no permanence, no ability to remain in one place because as soon as a threat came, their entire family had been uprooted and moved yet again.
The big question was, if she stayed, would she be able to work alongside Arthur and still maintain her equilibrium? She’d certainly failed last night but if she kept her professional mask in place whilst at work and avoided him when at home, then surely she’d be able to see out her twelve-month contract. Besides, she really wanted to work at this hospital. It was nostalgic and with the recent death of her father it was helping her to focus on happier times. Should she let a little thing like a past relationship with the man who had been like a big brother to her get in the way?
Arthur was far more than a big brother, her heart stated, but she pushed the thought away. She couldn’t think of him in such a way because if she did, it would derail everything she was trying to do. Romantic entanglements were the last thing she needed when trying to carve a new life for herself.
With new determination, she continued on with her work, treating her patients and saving lives. When the ha
ndover from the night shift to the day shift had finished, Maybelle could feel her anxiety starting to rise. Arthur would be here soon. He’d probably want to talk to her, demand an explanation, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to give him one. Lying to people wasn’t something she enjoyed and in the past she’d had to lie in order to protect herself and her parents.
‘Except the threat is over,’ she reminded herself softly. That only made things worse because now she was lying to protect herself only. Maybelle eased back and looked at the ceiling, trying to figure out how her life had become so incredibly complicated in such a short space of time. She heard a sound behind her and spun around so fast in her chair she almost gave herself whiplash. Was it Arthur? She held her breath as she came face to face with Gemma.
‘Morning.’ Gemma looked bleary-eyed and half-asleep. ‘Need coffee,’ she mumbled and headed off to the kitchenette. Maybelle continued with her work until the next little noise startled her. It was ridiculous because with every little sound her heart rate would increase and then decrease when she discovered it wasn’t him. Where was he? Wasn’t he rostered on today? She’d simply presumed that, as Director, he’d be around during the day but she didn’t see him until the afternoon.
Eight-year-old twin girls had been brought in by ambulance, one suffering from abdominal pains and the other having sympathy pains.
‘It’s worse for me,’ Evie told her twin, who was clutching her abdomen in pain. ‘There’s nothing wrong with you, Lizzy.’
‘But it hurts!’ Lizzy’s tone was filled with anguish.
‘Lizzy does have a temperature,’ Cici reported as she finished doing Lizzy’s observations.
‘Evie’s abdomen is excessively tender,’ Maybelle said after she’d palpated the girl’s stomach. The anxious parents were waiting in the corner of the room, both looking whiter than their girls.
‘They were premature,’ their mother stated. ‘They were in the children’s hospital in Melbourne for the first three months of their lives and any time either one of them is sick, I tend to crumble.’
‘When both of them are sick, like this, it takes us back to that time when they were so small and unwell,’ their father added, doing his best to reassure his wife.
‘I’d like to scan the abdominal area of both girls, as pain can manifest itself in different ways. We’ll give them both some pain relief because even psychological pain can be quite debilitating,’ Maybelle told the parents.
‘This isn’t the first time something like this has happened,’ their father added. ‘When Lizzy was four, she sprained her wrist and Evie was the one in pain.’
‘We just like doing things together,’ Evie clarified, listening to the entire conversation while her sister sweated and moaned with pain. Cici was trying to sponge the girl down, needing to break the temperature.
‘Let’s get some analgesics into them and then we can run some tests.’ Maybelle wrote up the notes for the required medication.
‘What could it be?’ The mother’s anxiety was starting to rise. ‘What’s wrong with them?’
‘I won’t be one hundred percent sure until I have the results from the ultrasound,’ Maybelle said. ‘But possibly appendicitis.’
Lizzy moaned at this news. ‘Appendix. Is that scary?’
Maybelle smiled and headed to Lizzy’s side while Cici did Evie’s observations again. ‘A lot of things are scary when you come to hospital,’ she told a very concerned Lizzy. ‘In fact, when I was about your age, I was admitted to this same emergency department with appendicitis.’
‘Were you?’ The question came from a deep voice behind her. Maybelle knew that voice far too well and she quickly looked over her shoulder to see Arthur standing just inside the curtain, listening to what was going on. ‘You came to Victory Hospital to have your appendix out?’ he continued, shaking hands with both the parents and quickly introducing himself. He scanned Evie’s and Lizzy’s charts just as quickly and as thoroughly as he scanned Maybelle’s face. Did he think she was lying? That she was offering a false story in order to keep the girls nice and calm?
‘That’s a coincidence. I had a friend who had her appendix out at this hospital when she was eight years old as well,’ he said, then waggled his eyebrows at Evie. ‘Clearly you’ve come to the right hospital because we know how to deal with appendicitis.’ He checked both girls and confirmed the assessment. After Maybelle had administered the analgesics, the girls were wheeled to Radiology for their ultrasounds.
How could he have remembered she’d had appendicitis as a child? He hadn’t even visited her in hospital, although Clara had been there every day after school. Perhaps it wasn’t her he was talking about. Perhaps he’d had another friend who’d had their appendix out when they were eight. That was a definite possibility. Wasn’t it?
Now all she needed to do was to keep her distance from Arthur. He was at the nurses’ station, chatting with Gemma about something, but she could have sworn he’d glanced in her direction several times. It was odd how she could almost feel his gaze on her, checking to see where she was, as though he was about to confront her, about to reveal her secret in front of everyone, to strip her defences bare.
When he’d finished talking to Gemma he headed down the corridor to his office and Maybelle breathed a sigh of relief. Given how she’d left his apartment last night, she was feeling more jittery than normal and tried hard to control her rising anxiety.
‘Any more patients I need to see?’ she asked Gemma. She needed to be doing something, anything.
‘I think we’re good right at the moment. Why don’t you go and have a cuppa?’
Maybelle shook her head. The prospect of bumping into Arthur in the kitchenette was too high. ‘I’m good. Is there anything else I can help you with?’
Gemma gave her a quizzical look, but then shrugged and handed her an inventory list on a clipboard. ‘Some of the treatment rooms are running low on stock. I was going to go and get it later—’
Before Gemma had finished speaking Maybelle had taken the clipboard from her.
‘Glad to help.’
‘OK.’ Gemma was clearly surprised at a doctor volunteering to do a task usually performed by orderlies, nursing or clerical staff. ‘There’s a stock trolley just over there. If you can get everything on the list, then I’ll get Cici to re-stock the rooms when she has a moment.’
Maybelle nodded before heading off to collect the stock trolley. The stockroom was most definitely a good place to hide from Arthur, plus she’d be helping Gemma.
‘You just need to keep out of his way,’ she mumbled to herself as she tried three times to swipe her pass card through the sensor. Finally, the door opened and she headed into the small room with the stock trolley and list of required items. The door clicked shut behind her and she breathed a sigh of relief. A reprieve…for now, but she couldn’t spend the next twelve months running away and hiding from Arthur.
As she started to find the contents of the list and arrange them on the stock trolley, Maybelle’s thoughts began to churn. How on earth was she supposed to keep her distance from him when he seemed to be near her at every turn? At work. At home. Perhaps finding somewhere different to live would be the best option. That seemed good. At least then she’d be able to have some time to relax and not be on constant ‘Arthur’ alert.
She didn’t want to leave the hospital as she felt in her heart that this was where she was meant to be. Surely she could work alongside Arthur without him discovering the truth? If she simply kept denying they knew each other, he’d let the subject drop…wouldn’t he? And, besides, what was the worst that could happen? What if he did discover who she really was? It wasn’t as though her life was still in danger.
‘Work through the scenario,’ she told herself as she continued pulling supplies off the shelves and adding them to the trolley. ‘If he finds out, then you simply tell him the basic details of the matter and notify the case worker that Arthur knows the truth.’ She continued to take calm, reass
uring breaths.
Besides, even though she’d made a bit of a mess of things last night, Arthur probably thought she was some sort of crazy woman and hadn’t given it another thought. Perhaps all he cared about was her doing her job so he could keep the ED running smoothly. Wasn’t that what was important?
When she’d finished filling the trolley, she tried to open the door but found it locked. There was a swipe access panel next to the door and she belatedly realised she needed to swipe her card to get in and out of the room. She swiped her pass card but the door didn’t open. She tried again several times but the door remained firmly locked.
‘Seriously?’ she grumbled as she pulled her cellphone from her pocket but after a moment realised there was no cellphone reception in the small room. Frustrated and annoyed, Maybelle accepted there was nothing else she could do except wait. At least Gemma knew where she was and when someone finally said, ‘Where’s Maybelle?’ they would come looking for her.
While she waited, Maybelle tidied the already tidy shelves simply because she needed something to do. She wasn’t the type of person who was good at sitting and waiting, but once the shelves were as neat as they could possibly be there was nothing else for her to do except wait and try swiping her access card every thirty seconds.
She was almost at the point of complete and utter boredom when the sound of the door clicking open made her heart jump for joy. It then skipped a beat altogether when Arthur came into the room.
‘Sorry it took me so long to realise you were missing,’ he remarked.
‘It’s only been…’ She checked her watch, more for something to do than actually checking the time because in actual fact she knew exactly how long she’d been waiting to be rescued. ‘Twenty-two minutes.’ Maybelle grabbed the end of the supply trolley and went to wheel it out, only then realising that Arthur had shut the door behind him, effectively locking them both in.
‘Why did you shut the—?’