Flight to Coorah Creek (4 page)

‘I bet you'd love a cup of tea,' Trish said, as she filled an electric kettle. ‘I always think tea helps. Whenever I'm tired or stressed, I just take the time to sit and have a cuppa. I always feel better too.'

‘Please, don't go to any trouble,' Ellen said. Her voice quivered a little. She didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to hold things together.

‘It's no trouble at all,' Trish replied, without pausing in her task of putting tea bags into two big mugs. ‘There are people who say you can't get a good cup of tea out of a bag. I think they're wrong. You just have to go about it in the right way. Trouble is, most people just don't let the bag sit for long enough.'

‘Ah …'

‘Like anything that's worth doing, you just have to take your time.' Trish didn't seem to need any response from Ellen. ‘Help yourself to milk, and the sugar is in that blue bowl.'

Ellen took the offered steaming cup. She reached for the sugar bowl then turned to see Trish's eyes narrow.

No! Ellen pulled down the sleeve that had ridden up as she reached across the table. Please! Don't let her see the bruises. I need to start a fresh life. I don't want anyone to know.

She busied herself adding milk and sugar to her tea, then refilled Harry's glass of milk. When at last she looked up at Trish, she saw compassion in the woman's face.

‘When you're done with the tea, I'll show you the room,' Trish said. ‘And I think I've got some books and things stashed somewhere for the kids, if they'd like them. Keep them occupied while you sort yourself out.'

‘Thank you,' Ellen said. ‘I guess I should pay you in advance for the room. And for—'

‘No need,' Trish interrupted her. ‘The room rate I mentioned was for a single night. If you stay longer, you'll get a discount. Long-term residents' rate. So why don't you and the kids just relax and we can worry about it later.'

The kindness in her eyes was the final straw. Ellen blinked back the tears. ‘Thank you.'

Trish nodded. Her eyes were also suspiciously bright. ‘I'll leave you with the kids for a bit. I'll get Jack to carry your bags up to your room.' With an understanding nod, she left, closing the door behind her.

‘Are you all right, Mummy?' Harry asked, from the other side of the table.

‘I'm fine, darling. Just a bit tired. How are the biscuits?'

‘Really good,' her son said.

Ellen's heart nearly broke. Those home-baked biscuits were the first good thing Harry had experienced in far too long.

Jess looked down at the cluster of buildings as she circled for landing. Was it just twenty-four hours ago she'd been doing exactly the same thing – preparing to land at Coorah Creek? She recognised the green slash that the creek created against the red soil. There were the houses and the railway line. The mine and the incongruous blue of the school swimming pool. It was familiar – but she had not yet set foot there. That first landing had been … interesting. At the time, she had thought she was tired, but that was nothing to how she felt now. She was beyond tired. Now all she wanted to do was go home, curl up somewhere quiet and sleep for a week. Home? That was a bit of a joke. It certainly wasn't her home. Yet. Would this cluster of buildings on the edge of the desert ever become her home? Or was it just a hiding place? She could only hope that today she would get a chance to actually leave the aircraft.

She began her gentle descent towards the airstrip. At least this time she wouldn't have to worry about a madman decapitating himself as he ducked past her propellers. The madman was safely ensconced inside the plane with her. She glanced back over her shoulder. Adam Gilmore was sound asleep, strapped in to one of the forward seats. He was a tall man, and his legs stretched forward into the narrow aisle. He didn't look much like a madman any more. He had incredibly long eyelashes that lay softly against his skin. His longish dark hair had a gentle wave to it. Lying across his cheek, it made him seem younger, although she guessed he would be a few years older than her – early thirties, perhaps. Asleep and in need of a shower and a shave, he looked positively harmless. Vulnerable, even. And perhaps just a little bit handsome.

No. No. Jessica stopped her thoughts right there. Adam was her boss. She wasn't about to let herself feel attracted to him. Especially not as he was a madman. Getting involved with the boss was a bad idea. She'd made that mistake with Brian, and it had almost destroyed her. She would not do it again. This job was all about getting her life back in order. Taking control again. The last thing she needed was to feel anything for Adam. She was already regretting that moment of weakness this morning, when she had reached out to touch him. She could blame exhaustion. Or the nightmare that always left her emotions fragile. Whatever the reason, she should not have let it affect her like that. What had she been thinking? She was a stranger here. If she was going to make a success of this new life, she was going to have to put those sorts of errant emotions behind her and just focus on her work. This first rescue flight had gone well. The boy was going to live. She had to focus on that. She had helped save one life. It wasn't enough … but it was a start.

‘Adam's a very good doctor, you know.' Sister Luke had chosen to ride up front with Jess during the trip back to the Creek.

‘I thought he might be,' Jess said.

‘He cares – sometimes too much,' Sister Luke said, her voice softening as she spoke. ‘He'll sit up all night with a patient. Just holding their hand. I swear he talks them better.'

Jess raised an eyebrow. ‘That seems a strange thing—'

‘For a nun to say,' Sister Luke finished for her, her gentle voice sparkling with humour.

‘Well, yes. I guess so.'

‘He talks. God listens. The patients recover. Do we really have to define who does the healing?'

‘I don't suppose we do.' Jess felt a twinge of envy. Sister Luke spoke with such surety. There was little enough that Jess was still sure about in this world, let alone the next.

A few minutes later, Jess guided the plane to a smooth touchdown on the airstrip and brought it to a halt well short of the end of the runway. The rituals of take-off and landing were a comfort to her. The rituals assured her safety and gave her control of her surroundings, something her life had lacked in the roller coaster of the past few months. There had been a time when she thought she might never fly again and at this moment, the act of landing the small air ambulance on the long, thin grey strip of tarmac in the middle of the bush seemed something of a miracle. The fact that her efforts had helped save a young man's life … perhaps there was something miraculous about that as well.

She taxied the Beechcraft towards her hangar. The hangar she had yet to set a foot inside. She parked the plane and looked back into the passenger seat. Adam was still asleep.

‘How can he sleep through a landing?' she wondered out loud.

‘He didn't sleep last night,' Sister Luke said, as she unbuckled her safety harness. ‘He relieved me about midnight and stayed with the patient.'

‘Talking him better,' Jess suggested.

Sister Luke nodded. ‘Adam has a one track mind when his patient needs him. He doesn't give much thought to himself – or anyone else other than his patient.'

Jess could believe that. Finding Adam with his patient this morning hadn't really been a surprise. She'd already guessed that his devotion to his patients ran deep. She wished they hadn't had that awkward moment when she reached out to him. But they'd get past that. Compared to the other problems she'd had to overcome, a moment's tension was nothing.

Sister Luke moved back into the plane's cabin. Jess expected her to shake Adam awake, but the nun's hand stopped a couple of inches from Adam's shoulder. Jess wondered if maybe it wasn't just her. Maybe the doctor didn't like to be touched by anyone.

‘Adam,' Sister Luke said quite loudly. ‘We're home.'

He started awake. His eyes flew open and for a few seconds they looked around wildly. Then they settled on Sister Luke's face, and he visibly relaxed. Even from the front of the plane, Jess could see that there was some sort of special bond between the two. She wondered what it was.

‘We're home, Adam,' Sister Luke said again.

Adam nodded and looked past the sister to where Jess was watching from the pilot's seat.

‘Nice landing,' he said, his lips curling into the suggestion of a smile.

‘How would you know?' she countered. ‘You slept through it.'

‘That's how I know.' He slowly unfolded himself from the seat and lowered the aircraft steps.

Jess was the last to exit. Adam was waiting for her on the tarmac. ‘Welcome to Coorah Creek,' he said formally. ‘I'm sorry I had to drag you away so quickly yesterday. You didn't even get to leave the plane.'

Looking at his tired face, Jess thought she could see sincerity there. Jess wanted this new job to work – for so many reasons. She took a deep breath and decided to start all over again with both the town and its doctor.

‘I'm just glad the patient was all right,' Jess said, as she stretched her neck and shoulders to relieve the tension of too many hours in the air.

‘It gets a bit like that out here. Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. Other times you'll be dying of boredom.'

‘Boredom sounds pretty good to me right now,' Jess said. ‘As does a shower and some clean clothes. I am supposed to get somewhere to live as part of the job. You wouldn't happen to know where that might be and how I can get there?'

‘Ah, yes. Your accommodation,' said Sister Luke. ‘Adam can tell you all about that. Can't you, Adam?'

Surprisingly, the question caused Adam to drop his eyes to his shoes with the air of a child who knows he is in trouble.

‘I'll take Jess to the pub,' he said shortly.

‘The pub?' Jessica's heart sank. ‘I'm not staying at a pub.' The words came out louder and more strident than she had planned. But that was exactly how she felt. According to her contract she was to have accommodation provided as part of the job. She hadn't expected anything fancy, but she had imagined a small house. Certainly not a room at some outback pub. Then there was the ever-present fear that someone would recognise her. They had newspapers and television even out here.

‘Just for a couple of nights.'

‘Adam,' Sister Luke said in a chiding tone. ‘Please don't tell me you forgot.'

‘Not so much forgot as didn't think about it,' Adam replied. ‘Well, I got the call about the injured jackaroo. And I had a couple of patients I had to ring. To cancel appointments. I never got around to it.'

Jess was starting to get a bad feeling. ‘Never got around to what, exactly?'

‘We were expecting a male pilot,' Adam explained. ‘The last pilot just stayed with the mine workers at the single men's accommodation.'

Jess's eyes widened in horror.

‘So,' Adam hurried on before she could say a word, ‘when Jack met you yesterday, he rang and asked me to sort something out for you.'

‘And?' Jess looked at the doctor.

Adam had the grace to look ashamed. ‘If you could just stay at the pub for a couple of nights – a week at the most – I can get something organised for you. There are a couple of houses attached to the hospital. I'm sure one would suit you.' He rubbed the side of his neck as he spoke, as if to relieve the tension.

‘No Adam. Not those houses,' Sister Luke interrupted. ‘They've been empty for eons. She needs a nice place to live.'

Jess wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. She'd wanted to get away from her old life. Being taken to an outback pub by this absent-minded madman of a doctor was as far away from her old life in luxury hotels with Brian as it was possible to get. She took a long slow breath and decided that right now a room at the pub was definitely better than nothing. In a town this small, how busy could the pub be on a Wednesday night? She had wanted privacy and anonymity, but right now a shower and some sleep sounded much more appealing. And besides, no one she'd met since leaving Sydney had recognised her. Maybe they didn't have newspapers way out here after all.

‘Does the pub have a hot shower?'

‘Of course.'

‘And a bed?'

‘Yes.'

‘Then the pub will be fine – just for a couple of days,' she warned. ‘At least it's not a jail cell.' As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Jess wished she could call them back. That was a part of her past that she wasn't going to share. Not with these people. Not with anyone. Ever.

‘Oh, we've got one of those,' Adam said with a rueful smile. ‘But the pub is a far better idea.'

Jess forced a laugh, at once grateful and ashamed. Grateful to be among people who would assume she was joking … and ashamed that she was, in fact, not joking at all. Those terrible nights spent behind bars after her plane was seized still haunted her. As did the thought that she could well have spent years in such a place, had she not chosen honesty over love … or what she thought was love.

‘I'll take you there now,' Adam said. ‘Jack will see to the plane and help Sister Luke.'

Jess hadn't noticed Jack's arrival. He backed his ute up close to the Beechcraft, ready to unload the medical supplies they'd picked up in Mount Isa. He also retrieved Jessica's luggage which he'd loaded twenty-four hours and many, many kilometres ago. Ordinarily, Jess would never have left her plane in someone else's care. She always checked her own aircraft. Made sure it was secure for the night and ready for a quick take-off in the morning if needed. Just this once, she was going to let Jack do it. The way she felt right now, she was more likely to make a mistake than he was. And she'd made more than enough of those recently.

Adam's car, the one she'd almost collided with the day before, was parked next to the hangar. On the way into town, Adam was all business. He gave her a running commentary on everything they passed.

‘The town's really changed in the past few years,' he said, as they drove along a gravel road next to a high cyclone wire fence. As they passed a gate and a small guardhouse, a man in uniform waved. ‘That's the mine. Uranium. It opened a bit over five years ago. The vein is really rich. The mine turned a two-horse truck stop into a thriving town. Brought in the railroad. Jobs. Me. And now you.'

He turned and smiled at her in a friendly, if distant, way. That was just fine by Jess. If she was going to have to work with Adam that was exactly the way their relationship had to be.

‘The highway runs south from here towards Birdsville. We go there every year to provide medical cover during the race meeting. You'll get to come too this year. It's only a few weeks away and it's a lot of fun.'

In the closed confines of the ute, Jess was very aware of Adam, his shoulder almost touching hers as he steered the car around a sharp corner. Almost touching. Not quite. She wondered which one of them was more determined to avoid that touch.

They had turned off the gravel road and onto a long straight stretch of grey bitumen. On either side, scrubby bush lined the road. Red dust, blown by the wind, left bright lines across the dull surface of the road. Jess felt as if she could drive for days, and see nothing but the red soil, the bright blue sky and the bush.

A kilometre further down the road, the first of the town buildings appeared.

‘That's my hospital,' Adam said proudly, as he pointed to a long low building, built on wooden stumps with the ever-present wide veranda. ‘The mine pays for it, of course. They built it originally to treat anyone injured at the mine. There are always a few of them, but luckily the injuries are usually slight. I had trouble convincing them they needed to expand it – but when the first baby was delivered there, they finally got the message. It's pretty well equipped now, but anyone requiring surgery has to go to Mount Isa or Longreach. We also treat the people from the Aboriginal community. That's why Sister Luke is here.'

Jess liked the pride in his voice as he spoke. How wonderful to have something to be proud of. She'd had that once. Pride in her skill as a pilot. Maybe this job would help her find that again.

More buildings started to appear. They were remarkably similar timber structures, all raised clear of the ground on wooden stumps. The paint on every building was faded by the blistering heat of the sun. There was nothing resembling the green lawns and colourful gardens of Jessica's suburban upbringing. Out here there was barely enough water for people, let alone for plants. The vehicle started to slow down as they approached the intersection that Jess had seen from the air. The signpost on the corner pointed east towards Longreach and north towards Mount Isa. They had reached the centre of town. Jess took a deep breath and looked along the town's main street. There wasn't a single person to be seen. Not a car moved, apart from the one she was in. Coorah Creek was a long way from anywhere … slow moving and quiet. Some people would no doubt find it boring.