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Recent titles by Annie Claydon:
THE DOCTOR MEETS HER MATCH
DOCTOR ON HER DOORSTEP
ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS
These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk
www.millsandboon.co.uk
To the unsung hero
Dear Reader
One of the best things about being a writer is that you have the opportunity to travel, even if it’s only in your imagination. So this book has been a real indulgence, because I got to set it in two of my favourite places—which just happen to be on opposite sides of the world.
For me, one of the best parts of travelling is returning home. But for Sara and Reece ‘home’ isn’t just a different place on the map, it’s an entirely different concept. The challenge that they face is not merely a matter of physical distance, and it’s one which is far more difficult to overcome. I loved writing their story, even if they did have me tearing my hair out at times, and I was with them every step of the way on their travels, as they explored each other’s worlds and began to find that home truly is where the heart is.
Thank you for reading Reece and Sara’s story. I hope you enjoy it. I’m always delighted to hear from readers, and you can e-mail me via my website at: www.annieclaydon.com
Annie
CHAPTER ONE
‘I’VE got to go. You know that, don’t you?’
They’d been through this already. Sara grinned up at her brother. ‘Of course I do. I know what it’s like to be on call. You can’t tell a bush fire that now’s not convenient and you’ll be there in a couple of days.’
Simon smiled for the first time since he’d answered the telephone that morning. ‘You grew up some time when I wasn’t looking. I keep forgetting that.’ He pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he still couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes. ‘Ten years is a long time.’
And a lot had happened in the years since they’d last seen each other. But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. ‘If the boot was on the other foot, and that phone call had been for a paramedic, you wouldn’t have seen me for dust. You need to go.’
Simon shrugged. ‘You’ll be here when I get back?’ It was almost as if he thought she wouldn’t. As if the bonds that they’d been carefully rebuilding for the last two days would break at the slightest touch. Sara could understand that too. She shared his fears.
‘Where else am I going to go? By the time you get back I’ll have got over my jet-lag, rearranged your house for you and taught Trader how to bark with an English accent.’
‘I’ve still got an English accent.’ Simon frowned. ‘Haven’t I?’
‘Now you mention it, no. Not any more.’ Simon’s accent was pure Aussie to her ears. He’d changed in other ways too. No longer the lanky older brother, fresh out of university, who had clashed so violently with their mother and walked out of their lives for ever. He was broader, more thoughtful and a great deal more measured. Much tidier too. ‘Did I say that I’m proud of you?’
‘No. But thanks.’ The smile he gave her was full of the warmth they’d once had. Simon heaved his backpack onto his shoulder and turned to face her squarely. ‘I’ll let someone know you’re here as soon as I get to the CFA centre. There’s a list of numbers on the pad in the kitchen, so call if you need anything. Someone will come by tomorrow if I’m not back.’
‘I’ll be okay. I’m not sixteen any more.’
‘Bear with me. The fire’s well out of this region and heading westwards, away from us, but if there is any danger someone will contact you and drive up here to get you. If you can put your valuables into one bag, well and good, but don’t waste any time …’
‘I know, I know.’ Sara held up her hands. ‘We’ve been through all this.’
‘Right.’ Simon still hesitated. Finally he leant in, giving her an awkward kiss on the cheek.
‘Stay safe. See you soon.’ Sara gave him a bright smile, and propelled him out of the door.
She’d been restless all day, and had hovered fitfully between being half asleep and half awake all night, but now something shocked Sara into wakefulness. The silence perhaps. Or maybe it was the insidious, nagging worry that she had tried think through logically but still couldn’t quite put a name to. Even the feeble light of early dawn somehow seemed slightly menacing.
Simon might have come back while she was sleeping. The thought propelled her out of bed, and took her all the way to the large windows at the front of the house. Nothing. His car wasn’t parked in its usual place, and his jacket wasn’t hanging in the hallway. Sara knew that she wouldn’t find him sleeping in his bedroom either, but she looked anyway.
She wasn’t used to this. She’d dealt with her fair share of emergencies but waiting it out while someone else handled the situation was way out of her experience. Taking Trader for a long, brisk walk yesterday afternoon, without seeing another living soul, had spooked her even more. She’d returned to Simon’s beautiful house, switched on the TV and played one DVD after another, just to hear the sound of human voices.
She padded to the kitchen, the sound of scratching at the back door coming almost as a relief. Pulling back the bolts, she opened the door, and fifty pounds of Australian cattle dog, the only one of his kind that Sara had ever seen before, herded her deftly out of the way to get past her and into the house.
‘Whoa, Trader.’ The dog had followed her footsteps, trotting hopefully to Simon’s bedroom door, and finding the room empty, was now pacing the hallway fretfully. ‘He’s not here. I’m on breakfast duty today.’
Trader was unsettled about something. Perhaps food would appease him. Fetching the plastic container that held his food, Sara made for the doors that led out onto the veranda, unlocking them and sliding them back.
Maybe the wind changed. Maybe it was just that she was outside the house now. The smell hit her like a slap in the face. Blown in on the breeze, like bad news from across the hillside, came the acrid smell of smoke.
Trader was at her side, pressing himself against her legs, and she staggered back. He nipped at her heels, trying to shepherd her back into the house, and Sara grabbed his collar. ‘Okay, okay, have it your way.’ Maybe Trader knew best. She certainly didn’t know what to do.
Gathering up his bowls, spilling what was left of the water in one down her nightdress, she pulled the dog inside the house and shut the patio doors, locking them tight as if somehow that might stop a fire from getting in. ‘You can eat inside today.’
Quickly she put Trader’s food down for him on the kitchen floor and made for the sink to fill his water bowl. When she twisted the tap, nothing happened. Sara whirled around and saw that the LED lights on the fridge and the cooker were out too.
‘Dammit!’ No electricity meant that the pump from the water tank wasn’t working. Turning the tap off, she poured some spring water from the refrigerator into Trader’s bowl, then took a swig from the bottle. Maybe the hydration would help her to think.
This must be another fire. Unless the wind had changed and the fire that Simon had gone to was coming this way. Sara had no idea, and it didn’t really matter. It looked as if the situation had changed, and so Simon needed to keep his promise and either come and get her himself or send someone. Any time now would be good.
The phone was dead and even though she knew her mobile was out of range here, she tried it anyway. ‘It’s only a little smoke, Trader. Smoke travels for miles, the fire’s probably nowhere near us.’
Her assertion was born of hope rather than knowledge, but at least Trader’s gentle, intelligent eyes looked convinced. Perhaps that was a good sign. Sara left him to eat, and ran to fetch the binoculars that Simon kept in his home office. Slipping outside, she trained them on the horizon in the direction that the smoke seemed to be coming from.
She could see the source of the black smoke, which billowed out from behind a fold in the landscape. It was impossible to gauge how close the fire was or which way it was headed, but the breeze in her face gave Sara a sickening clue.
‘Oh!’ Her chest and stomach tightened painfully, and she doubled over, trying to breathe. She had to get out of here. Had to get home. She had responsibilities.
Suddenly this whole trip seemed impossibly reckless. Gran had urged her to come here, and had even booked herself into respite care for three weeks, but that was just temporary. She was ninety years old, and completely dependent on Sara. What would she do if she didn’t come back?
Simon would send someone. He had to. Their mother might have labelled her elder brother feckless, irresponsible and not worthy of a moment in their thoughts, but Sara knew that wasn’t true. This time he was going to come through for her.
Self-pity wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Emptying the contents of the kitchen drawers at least secured a battery radio and Sara switched it on, scanning for a local station. Surely they’d be putting out information on some kind of regular basis.
Carrying the radio with her, she quickly filled a couple of bags with what she hoped were Simon’s most valued possessions and put them in the hall. She pulled on a pair of jeans and made her way around the outside of the house, pulling the fire shutters down over the windows and back door as Trader ran back and forth, trying to urge her away from the ever more pungent smell of smoke, which was beginning to hang in the air like a dirty fog.
A tone sounded from the radio, and she held it to her ear, straining to catch every word. It didn’t help much, mentioning places that she’d only half heard of and could be anywhere, and fire alert statuses that could mean anything. She understood the urgency, though. Evacuate. Be safe. Nearest low-risk area.
There was nowhere to go. She was without a car and even if she could remember the way to the nearest town, she knew that trying to walk the twenty or so miles there would be madness. Simon had designed this house himself, and put all his architectural expertise and experience of local building techniques and conditions into it. The shutters were designed to keep burning embers from getting into the house, and the mud-brick walls would afford some protection if the blaze was not too intense. If the worst came to the worst, she and Trader were just going to have to sit it out and hope for the best.
The thought made her feel sick. Gulping back tears, Sara turned to the only living creature that might give her any comfort. ‘He won’t forget us, Trader.’ The animal seemed to sense her anxiety and nosed at her hand. ‘It’s probably not as bad as we think it is. Perhaps the wind will change …’
She stiffened, straining to see, as she caught a glimpse of something that looked like more smoke, this time on the dirt road leading to the front of the house. There was movement, and the flash of something bright in the sunlight. Just as dread began to grip her, squeezing all of the air from her lungs, she made out what it was. A vehicle, moving at speed and kicking up dust as it went. It could only be coming to one place. That track only led here.
Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Sara ran back into the house, pulling the red tablecloth from the table and sending the wooden bowls in the centre of it crashing to the floor behind her. Whoever it was wouldn’t be able to hear her yet, but she shouted anyway, waving the tablecloth over her head.
‘Sit, Trader.’ Sara strained to see any sign that the driver of the SUV had seen her. Nothing. She waved the cloth again and this time, through her tears of frustration, she saw something. Headlights, three short flashes and then a pause, and another three flashes. Just to make sure, she waved again. Another three flashes.
‘Thank you.’ She whispered the words under her breath, to no one in particular, her chest heaving. ‘It’s all right, see, Trader. Someone’s coming.’
By the time the SUV had skidded to a halt outside the house Trader was barking joyfully, pulling her towards the man who swung the door open and got out.
She could have hugged him. If he’d been middle-aged, with a paunch, she might have. But this was the kind of man you didn’t just walk up to and hug without having to accuse yourself of an ulterior motive. Tall, broad and with blue eyes, bright against his tanned skin. Thick blond hair that looked as if it hadn’t been combed in a while, which just added to the general look of a handsome adventurer.
‘Sara? Sara Jones?’ He was striding towards her and she nodded, lost for words. ‘Simon sent me to fetch you.’
This wasn’t the moment to ask why he hadn’t come sooner. Neither was it the time for the normal reservations about getting into strangers’ cars. Trader seemed to know him and at his command gave off trying to lick his hand and trotted to the SUV, jumping in and settling quietly on the back seat.
‘We have to hurry.’ The stranger didn’t seem disposed to stop for questions anyway, and had already taken the steps up to the veranda two at a time, twisting the handle of the front door and turning to her in surprise when it didn’t budge.
‘I’ve got the key here.’ Sara hurried after him, pulling the single key from her pocket. In her agitation it slipped through her fingers, bouncing next to her bare feet on the decking and sliding through a crack between the boards.
At least he didn’t call her stupid, but that didn’t stop Sara from muttering the word under her breath. He shrugged, starting for the back of the house, and Sara ran after him. ‘I locked the doors at the back too. Maybe we could lever one of the boards up. I think I can get my arm through …’
He looked at her in frank disbelief. ‘Yeah, maybe. Stand back.’ Before she could stop him he had shouldered the door and it burst inwards, snapping back against the wall.
‘Did you have to do that?’ The door had smashed into the table in the hallway, sending a glass bowl crashing onto the floor, and broken shards were everywhere. Just because her habit of locking doors was a little over the top for this neck of the woods, it didn’t mean he had to go caveman on her.
He turned, taking her by the shoulders. ‘Sara, we don’t have any time.’ The look on his face was making her tremble.
‘But you can’t even see the fire yet …’
‘If you can see a fire, it’s too late to run. At the moment we have two options, staying here to fight it or getting out. We’re not properly prepared for the first and the second isn’t going to be available for much longer.’ He was focussed, calm, and Sara began to divine that breaking the door down had not been an overreaction. ‘It’s going to be okay, Sara, but if we’re leaving, we need to do it now.’
There was something in his eyes that made her trust him. Something about the brief smile he gave her. She’d made a few bad decisions in her life, but hopefully this wasn’t going to be one of them. ‘Yes … okay.’
‘Good. Thank you.’ Before she could ask him what would happen next, he had lifted her up in his arms, carrying her into the house, his boots scrunching on the broken glass. ‘Have you got a pair of heavy boots and a thick cotton jacket?’
‘Yes. But it’s too hot …’
‘Heavy clothes will protect you. Cotton is less flammable than man-made materials.’ There was no arguing with him, and Sara didn’t particularly want him to elaborate on a situation where she might need heavy cotton clothing to protect her. Hopefully he was just being over-cautious.
He let her down, and she bolted to her bedroom. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking that despite the smoky smell of his clothes the scent of his skin was alluring, or that the sheer power in his arms and shoulders was somehow reassuring.
When she emerged from her room, the hallway was empty of the bundles that she’d left there and her new companion was rummaging in the refrigerator, two large bottles of water under his arm.
‘Ready to go?’
‘Yes.’ She mustn’t hesitate now. Mustn’t go and check the house to make sure everything was secure. If Simon had trusted this stranger, then she had to do so.
‘Good.’ He turned to her, kicking the fridge door closed. His gaze flicked over her with an audacity that made her shiver, and Sara called a mental reality check. He was just making sure that she wasn’t wearing anything that might catch light. ‘Have you got everything?’
‘Yes.’ Her passport and valuables were in the large leather handbag she had slung across her body. That was all she needed.
‘Let’s go, then.’
He hurried her to the SUV and then went back to draw the shutter down over the shattered front door. Sara craned her neck to keep the house in view as the car described a wide arc and bumped back down the dirt track towards the road.
‘Reece Fletcher. Nice to meet you, Sara.’
‘What?’ All her attention was on the house, trying to fix it into her memory as if that would somehow ensure that it would still be standing when she returned. It had been Simon’s dream to build this house, and the thought of it being reduced to ashes was impossibly cruel.
‘Will you keep your eye on the road ahead of us for me?’
‘What for?’ She swung round, scanning the empty road, before she realised that Reece was just giving her something to do so she wouldn’t be staring out of the back window of the car for the next five miles, straining for a last glimpse of the house.
‘Just look.’ His voice was gentler now. ‘And if you could open one of those bottles of water, that would be great. You’ll find a couple of plastic beakers in the glove compartment.’
‘Right.’ Now that they were on the road, the lines of tension in Reece’s face had relaxed and Sara drew her sunglasses out of her bag and put them on, only partly to shade her eyes from the glare. At least when he’d been ordering her around, she’d been able to respond without feeling the need to cry on his shoulder.
Time for another reality check. She’d just been rescued. Wanting to cling to Reece was a perfectly natural reaction. Deal with it.
‘Nice to meet you too, Reece. Thanks for coming.’ She handed him half a cup of water and he downed it in one go, passing the cup back to her for a refill.
‘No worries. I’ll phone Simon when we get into range of a signal, let him know that we’re on our way.’ Although the road was empty, he was still watchful, his gaze flipping constantly from the road to the rear-view mirrors.
‘Thanks.’ Sara supposed that she ought to ask, even if she didn’t much want to know why it had taken so long for Reece to come for her. ‘Where is he?’
‘He’s okay, but he’s in the hospital. No burns, but he has a compound break to his leg. That means—’
‘I know.’ Sara struggled to control the panic which rose in her chest. ‘I mean, I know what that means, I’m a paramedic.’
He nodded slowly, as if he’d just remembered. ‘Then you’ll know that he needed an operation to set the leg. That was done last night, and he’s awake now and doing well. He has a crush fracture in his lower back, but that will mend with rest. Some smoke inhalation, but it wasn’t too bad.’
‘What happened to him?’
‘I don’t know the details. He was working on a firebreak when he was injured. They brought him out and airlifted him to hospital. I’m on his list of people to call in case of an accident.’
It was obvious that Simon should choose someone who lived more locally than she did for that, but it still hurt. ‘And he didn’t think to mention that I was out here with Trader?’
Reece shot her a questioning look, the edges of his mouth turned down. ‘He was diverted on his way into the CFA centre, never got the opportunity to tell anyone. And after he was injured he was heavily sedated most of the time. I didn’t know you were here and assumed that Trader was with a neighbour and that the house was empty. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.’
The way he sprang to Simon’s defence so readily warmed Sara. ‘No one knew.’ She puffed out a breath.
He turned in his seat slightly, shooting her a quizzical look. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘Three days. We wanted a week to ourselves so we could do some catching up. Next week was going to be for introductions to friends.’
Reece chuckled. ‘If he’d mentioned that, I’d have known what I had to look forward to when I came up at the weekend.’
Light dawned. ‘So you’re the doctor he talks about? Fletch?’
He grinned at her and Sara’s fingertips began to tingle. So he wasn’t just a handsome face, he’d been a good friend to her brother. Simon hadn’t mentioned that Fletch was gorgeous but, then, she supposed he wouldn’t have noticed. She’d noticed, though.
‘What’s he been telling you?’ The engine of the SUV raced up a gear. Simon hadn’t said anything about that easy, intimate grin either.
‘He says … that you’re a doctor. And that you’ve worked in lots of different places, from city hospitals to the outback. It must be interesting.’ That seemed safe enough. ‘What does he say about me?’
‘That you were just a kid when he left home.’ There was a trace of seriousness in his voice. ‘I’ve obviously got some catching up to do.’
He was deliberately not saying everything, but now wasn’t the time to start wondering how much Reece knew about the dysfunctional branch of Simon’s family. ‘So how come you got to drive all the way out here? Surely this is a busy time for you, with the fires and everything.’
He laughed. ‘I’ve been working for a week straight now. When the call came in about Simon, I was just about to go off duty and catch some shut-eye. By the time I got to the hospital, he’d just woken up and was shouting the place down and I came straight here.’
‘So …’ Her brain was working overtime, trying to process all of the new information that had been thrown at her this morning. She decided to concentrate on the most immediate concern. ‘How long since you’ve slept?’
He laughed. ‘Just keep talking.’
CHAPTER TWO
SIMON’S kid sister had taken it almost as a personal affront when he declined her offer to drive. Reece was tired but he wasn’t that far gone. And ever since he’d seen Sara he’d been wide awake. Her dark hair, cut almost boyishly short, emphasised the soft curve at the nape of her neck. Those large, grey eyes managed to be both seductive and intelligent at the same time. She’d buckled down and done what had needed to be done in a crisis.
Clearly she was stubborn too. ‘I’m perfectly capable of driving an automatic. I drive in London every day. Have you ever driven through a two-mile traffic jam to get to a pile-up?’
She had him there. ‘Okay, but the conditions here are different.’ He couldn’t quite divine whether she had been aware of the seriousness of the situation. She was either handling it extremely well or she didn’t realise how narrow their escape had been.
‘All right, then. What do I need to watch out for?’ She obviously wasn’t about to give up, and exhilaration flared in the pit of Reece’s stomach.
‘Kangaroos on the road, for a start.’ He reckoned she hadn’t come across that one.
‘Simon’s told me about not trying to overtake them. I reckon I’m in much better shape than you are to keep an eye out for anything about to leap out in front of me, and I know where the brake is.’ She wrinkled her nose at him, and Reece wondered how long he could hold out if she was going to use such unscrupulous methods of persuasion.