Secrets and Lies (16 page)

‘Three.’

‘Now?’

‘Six . . . no it’s five . . . no . . . six, it’s a bit burred.

‘Keep your head still and follow my finger with your eyes.’ He had a job keeping them focused. ‘Are you tired?’

‘It hurts when I try to look at things, so I want to close them and go to sleep.’

‘I need you to try to stay awake, Brian. I’m going to wash some of that blood off you now. I’ve got nephews of about your age, you know. They have a big black dog called Shadow. Have you got any pets?’

‘I’ve got a pet cockatoo, and my Dad had taught him to say swear words. You talk funny, miss.’

‘Do I?’

‘All posh. Like Nurse Prichard. Dad said she’s from England, and they all talk like that, there.’

She grinned as she thought of the many different accents and dialects in England, and checked the bandage. A little blood had seeped through the fabric, but not enough to be alarmed about. The boy was trembling. He was able to move his fingers, and she reassured the mother. ‘He’ll be all right, I imagine, but I’m leaving most of the glass for the doctor to see to. How did the accident happen?’

‘I was only gone for a couple of minutes. He fell off his chair and hit his head on the log bucket. The glass was still in his hands and it smashed when he fell. The little bugger won’t sit still for five minutes.’

‘Be thankful he missed his eye. Was he unconscious for any length of time?’

‘I don’t think so, but he was a bit dazed. Why are you asking all these questions?’

‘Routine. It will help the doctor to have a detailed account of the accident.’

‘But Brian will be all right, won’t he?’

‘We’ll know for sure as soon as the doctor has examined him, but I don’t think your boy is in any danger. Why don’t you go and clean yourself up, Mrs Tomlinson. The sink’s through there.’

Fetching a bowl of water, Esmé began to wash the child’s face. Immediately his face screwed up in protest, like those of her nephews always did.

Homesickness hit her with some force. Liam had been right. She didn’t like being apart from her family.

Minnie came in. ‘What luck, we’ve just caught the doctor. He’s over at one of the stations and will be here in three-quarters of an hour, probably less. How’s Brian?’

Esmé lowered her voice. ‘I can’t see any lasting damage, though shock is beginning to set in. Pulse is a bit fast and his head hurts. He’s also sleepy so I think he has a mild concussion. His responses aren’t too bad though and the blood loss has been arrested. His fingers are pink and flexible, so I’d say the nerves have been spared. I’ve made notes, but you might like to check him over for yourself, Min, in case I’ve missed anything. After all . . . I have no authority here.’

‘You’re a better nurse than I’ll ever be. You’re always so calm.’

‘Nonsense. I’ve just got more confidence. That’s what comes of growing up surrounded by doctors and would be doctors. I’ll go and make a cup of tea, I expect Mrs Tomlinson could do with one after the fright she’s had, don’t you?’

Esmé took hers out on to the veranda. It was almost twilight, and the air was tinted with a dusky purple haze.

It wasn’t long before she heard a plane fly over. A short time later the mine manager’s truck arrived in a cloud of dust.

A lanky figure unfolded from the front seat, and then reached inside for his bag. He straightened up and turned. For a moment he stared at her, then a smile widened across his face as he drawled, ‘As I live and breathe; you’re the last person I expected to see in this neck of the woods. G’day . . . Esmé Carr. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.’

‘Leo Thornton?’ The first thing that came into her mind was his mouth on hers, and several seconds of intense pleasure. Colour rose to her cheeks. She shouldn’t have remembered that when she was still getting over Liam.

He laughed, obviously remembering it too, and said under his breath, ‘Shame on you, Esmé Carr.’ Then louder, ‘Where’s your patient?’

‘Inside . . . actually, he’s not my patient. I’m just visiting my friend Minnie, and will be leaving in the morning.’

‘Esmé did the initial assessment while I did the peddling,’ Minnie said from the doorway.

‘Hello, Nurse Prichard. We meet again.’ His bluer than blue eyes engaged Esmé’s. ‘Since you did the initial examination, perhaps you’d tell me about the patient, Nurse Carr?’

‘It’s a male, aged nearly six. His name is Brian Tomlinson. His palm is badly lacerated and needs several stitches. I removed two small pieces of glass and washed out the wound, but I suspect there might be more at a deeper level. He’s lost a small amount of blood, but that’s stabilized. Shock is apparent, but it’s under control. He has movement in the fingers, but I haven’t worked them too hard. The boy has a sizeable haematoma and, as you can see, a biggish chunk of glass stuck in his cheekbone. His head aches and his vision is blurred a little. He mentioned he felt sleepy when he tried to focus. Mildly concussed, I’d say.’ She smiled at the boy. ‘Brian also has a parrot that swears.’

‘Very thorough.’ Leo’s smile was turned Minnie’s way, easy and relaxed. ‘Do you agree with those observations, Nurse Prichard?’

‘I’m not sure about the swearing parrot, but I did a secondary examination of the patient and reached the same conclusions,’ Minnie said.

They barely fit around the examination couch, and Mrs Tomlinson was shunted into the waiting room. Esmé stood on one side of the table, while Leo took over the other. Minnie busied herself preparing iodine, lint and fresh bandages.

‘Nice work, Es,’ he said, giving her a quick smile as he unwrapped the dressing and examined it.

There was a grumble of a man’s voice in the waiting room outside, and Esmé guessed that the boy’s father had turned up.

Leo quickly examined the wounds and gave Brian a smile. ‘I’m going to give you an injection to deaden the area, old chap. It will sting a bit, but I expect you’ve felt worse. You’re not scared of needles, are you?’

‘I’m not scared of nuthin.’ A statement that ran out of bravado when Brian gave a yelp or two as the needle went in.

‘Good,’ Leo said a couple of moments later. He examined Brian’s palm through a magnifying glass, and pulled several tiny chips of glass from the wound with tweezers. Then he began to pull the jagged edges of flesh together with swift, neat stitches. ‘I understand you have a parrot that swears. What’s his name?’

‘Cusser.’

‘Very apt.’ Leo chuckled. ‘What does he cuss?’

Minnie aimed a mock frown at him. ‘Never you mind, Dr Thornton. Shame on you for encouraging him. Don’t you dare say one cuss word, Brian Tomlinson, else I’ll stitch your tongue to your big toe, then we’ll see how many chairs you can climb on.’

Leo and Brian exchanged a grin.

‘I’m going to remove that glass now. It might hurt a little.’ Leo removed it easily, then swabbed the wound with iodine, and because it was deep, he closed the wound with one suture.

The boy was handed over to his parents with, ‘He should rest until morning. The lump will go down in a few days and the bruise will fade in its own time. That hand will hurt a bit when the injection wears off, though, and he’ll have a tiny scar on his face.’ Leo handed over a bottle with a few pills in it. ‘Give him half an Aspro every four hours if he needs it. Call me if he starts to vomit or if his headache worsens overnight. I’ll be at the mine manager’s house. Bring Brian to Nurse Prichard in ten days, and she’ll remove the stitches.’ He gently ruffled the boy’s hair. ‘Don’t fall off chairs with a glass in your hand, any more. All right?’

Brian nodded. ‘Reckon I won’t, then.’

Leo took a barley-sugar twist from his pocket and handed it to Brian. ‘That’s for being a good lad.’

‘Cor . . . thanks, Doc,’ he said.

After they’d gone, Leo turned to them, his smile expansive. ‘I hope you ladies will join me for dinner in the canteen? It’s not often I get the opportunity to dine with two English roses at the same time.’

They dressed for the occasion. Esmé, who had nothing to change into except fresh underwear, a pair of brown slacks and a cream blouse, borrowed her own dress – the one Minnie had taken to get married in.

‘Have it back if you like, I’ve looked after it,’ Minnie told her, shamefaced. ‘I’ll never wear it again. And I’ve got ten pounds saved from that money Wally stole from you. I know it’s not much, but take that as well. At least I’ve paid something back.’

‘It’s not your responsibility. It’s Wally’s.’

Minnie nearly choked on her laughter. ‘You’ll never get it out of him. Take it, Es. I’m responsible, and it’s the one thing that will make me feel better about what happened.’

Outside, the cicadas were a noisy, high-pitched orchestra. The screech stopped momentarily when they closed the door, and then started up again.

‘Noisy critters,’ Esmé said.

‘You get used to them after a while. I like your Leo Thornton,’ Minnie remarked as they walked through a soft, warm twilight towards the canteen. ‘Where did you get to meet him?’

‘My brother brought him to the house a couple of times.’ Esmé pressed her hand against her stomach to slow down the carousel of horses galloping around it. ‘And he’s not my Doc Thornton . . . he’s yours, really.’

‘If he were mine I’d keep him under lock and key.’ Minnie’s scoff of laughter warmed her ears. ‘He could barely take his eyes off you, and you blushed every time he looked at you. It felt as though I was invisible. He was good with the boy, wasn’t he? There was barely a squawk out of Brian.’

But Esmé’s mind had already wandered off course. To that New Year’s Eve party.

‘Why the sigh?’ Minnie said, and Esmé’s blush rose to the surface when she answered absently, ‘Leo kissed me under the mistletoe once. It was a long time ago.’

‘It must have been some kiss, you’re almost comatose from the effect that thinking about it produces. Tell me more.’

She laughed. ‘It was the first time I’d been kissed. I can’t remember it clearly. It was New Year’s Eve. The caterers had been late and my sister Livia was in a froth over them not arriving on time. She looked pretty and was wearing a dark red dress—’

‘Leave out the domestic details, just get to the important bit.’

‘Important bit?’

‘The kiss, you dope!’

They both jumped as a figure loomed out of the darkness, and Leo said smoothly, ‘Ah, there you are, ladies. I’m sorry if I scared you, I was just coming to collect the pair of you.’

There was a whiff of hospital disinfectant about him as he inserted himself between them, offering an arm apiece.

She had a flicker of homesickness for the comfortable den that was Eavesham House, life on the wards, and Denton coming home to her sister, smelling of carbolic soap. There was a lot of love in her sister’s home, despite the silly squabble they’d had.

‘I believe we have the choice of rabbit stew and dumplings, or dumplings with rabbit stew, for dinner.’

‘And there will be canned fruit with Ideal milk for dessert,’ Minnie said.

‘Apparently there will be tapioca pudding as well, in honour of my visit.’

The three of them groaned and Minnie said, ‘I should have known I’d have to pay a penalty in calling you out.’

‘I’m glad you did, Nurse. It gave me the chance to catch up with Esmé again. Ben has suggested that you fly out with me in the morning, Es. It will save him having to drive you to Melbourne.’

‘I don’t have to be back on board until evening.’

‘Good, because I have a day off tomorrow. We can drop in on my parents, and you can spend the day with me if you like, so I can repay the hospitality I enjoyed in your sister’s home.’

Put like that she could hardly refuse. She resolved that she wasn’t going to get involved with Leo, however charming he was. After her failed engagement to Liam, she doubted if she’d ever trust a man again.

But when she hesitated, because she had come here to visit Minnie, it was Minnie who answered for her by saying, ‘Of course she will. I have a stocktake to do tomorrow.’

The aeroplane was a Moth biplane, with a single engine. They posed in front of it while Minnie manoeuvred them into position to capture them in the viewing window of her Box Brownie. Her hand batted them this way and that until she had them posed with Leo’s arm around Esmé. ‘Don’t move,’ she called out.

They aimed cheesy smiles at the camera and then at each other.

‘Another one for luck. Try and look casual, Es.’

She pulled on her best casual face and gazed up at him. ‘Is this your usual job?’

‘No . . . I’m filling in time before I go back to England, and I’m gaining experience by acting as a locum, since I’ve got my own plane and a pilot’s licence. They give me the patients who are unlikely to need ambulance services.’

‘Have you had your licence long?’

His grin filled with mischief. ‘Not very long; are you scared?’

‘A little . . . I’ve never been in an aircraft.’

‘You’ll be fine once you get over your nerves.’ He handed her a leather flying helmet and jacket. ‘Put those on, it can be cold upstairs. Make sure your straps are nice and tight. I don’t want to see you trying to fly by yourself if we hit an air pocket.’

‘That’s not very reassuring, Leo.’

‘Don’t worry, Es, you’re going to love flying, and I’ll check the straps for you.’

When he was doing that task, he gazed into her eyes. ‘The pilot usually gets a kiss from the passenger for luck.’

‘You fly this plane on luck instead of fuel?’

‘Stop being a wise guy and kindly purse your lips,’ he said from the side of his mouth in gangster style. It was a tender, lingering kiss, one to add to her growing mental index of Leo Thornton kisses. She sighed when it ended. ‘That was nice, Leo.’

‘Can’t you do better than that, Es my darling?’

‘Sensational then.’

His smile illuminated her world. ‘Yes . . . it was. Thanks for not being a shrinking violet. I must do it again some time.’

‘Yes, please.’

Soon they were trundling along the runway, and her stomach was left behind as they lifted off. They circled the tiny airport, the noise of the engine almost deafening and the smell of hot oil in her nostrils. She waved goodbye to Minnie and Ben with some regret. The mine area seemed tiny from the air, a small scar hiding its golden riches in the midst of forest. Soon, the currents were lifting them gently over the hills and the engine had settled down to a steady thrum.