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Harry loaded her bag into the boot of a large four-wheel drive and held the passenger door open for her. As they left the airport he pointed out the sights as he drove across town.
Normally Emma would have debated whether what he was showing her qualified as ‘sights’ as in her opinion the best thing she could see was Harry and she was more than happy to keep him in her view. But she didn’t want to appear rude so she tried to look interested as he showed her another sight—a huge pile of dirt in the centre of town.
According to him, this was the old mine and the reason for Broken Hill’s existence. The town had been founded on the back of a mining boom when lead, zinc and silver had been found in the area, but Emma found it hard to get excited about a heap of dirt, although she did agree that it made a useful landmark.
Emma tried to remember what Sophie had told her about the town as Harry negotiated the streets. She knew it was first and foremost a mining town but there was also a thriving artists’ community and it was a popular location for movie-making. Looking around, Emma couldn’t imagine why but apparently the surrounding country was quite spectacular. Sophie had told her there wasn’t enough in the town itself to keep her occupied for the three months she planned to stay, which was why she’d spent the first month in Sydney with the rest of Sophie’s family. Soph had popped back for a weekend, which had given them time to catch up, but Emma was looking forward to spending more time with her cousin. Sophie was always like a breath of fresh air and Emma needed that.
Sophie’s house was on one side of the mine and the airport was on the other, but even so it took less than twenty minutes to arrive at the house. It was a large, old, single-level, double-fronted stone building with a wide veranda and iron roof, and Emma remembered that Sophie shared the house. It was much too big for one person.
‘Sophie shares with a girl called Grace, is that right?’ Emma asked, as she followed Harry along the driveway. She’d expected him to try the front door but instead he was walking down the side of the house and entering through the back. Just as he’d predicted, the door was unlocked.
‘Yes, she’s a flying doctor,’ Harry replied, as he led Emma through a casual living room and up the hall. ‘She was on the clinic run today with Sophie. This is their spare room,’ he said, as he opened a bedroom door and deposited her bag. ‘If you’re okay, I might call past the hospital and check on Lisa. Will you be all right here on your own?’
Lucky Lisa. Emma nodded. ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll have a shower and a cup of tea. Thanks for the lift.’
‘No worries.’ Harry’s responses were as easygoing as he appeared to be, and Emma was sorry to see him go. She was suddenly aware of how big and empty and quiet the house was now that she was alone so she headed for the bathroom and the comfort of a hot shower, wanting to keep busy until Sophie got home.
She had showered and changed into shorts and a strappy tank top and was sitting at the kitchen table with a pot of tea in front of her when Sophie exploded in through the back door. There was no other way to describe it, Soph only ever seemed to have one pace and that was full steam ahead.
‘You made it! I can’t believe you’re actually here,’ she squealed. ‘I heard about the plane trip. Thank God it didn’t crash.’
Emma didn’t know what else you’d call it when a plane dropped from the sky and slid along a runway on its belly instead of its wheels, but she agreed it could have been worse, much worse, so she wasn’t about to argue.
‘I’m so sorry I was late. Are you really okay?’ Sophie looked her up and down.
‘I’m fine.’
‘You’ve got a bit of a fat lip.’
Emma touched her lip self-consciously. It was tender but it was hardly a catastrophe. She started to stand but Sophie had enveloped her in a hug before she could get out of her seat. ‘I’m fine, really. All in one piece and delivered safe and sound to your door.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve met Harry already. How did he know who you were?’
‘He didn’t at first. He was on the landing strip when we were all evacuated from the plane. He sort of appeared from nowhere through the dust—’
‘Did you collapse into his arms and make him carry you to the terminal?’
Emma shot her cousin a withering glare. ‘No.’
‘Pity,’ Sophie said with an exaggerated sigh. ‘That would have been so romantic.’
Emma ignored that comment. She happened to agree with Sophie but it would have sounded ridiculous to say so. ‘He had his arms full already.’
‘With what?’ Sophie asked.
‘With a nurse called Lisa,’ Emma said, keen to see Sophie’s reaction to that bit of news.
‘A short, curvaceous, blonde?’
Emma nodded, unsurprised that Sophie knew her. She was fast realising that anonymity was hard to find in this town.
‘What happened to her?’
‘She broke her wrist. Harry carried her off to the ambulance. He asked if I was okay and sent me to the terminal by myself.’ Emma left out the part about the tingles and the light-headedness as in her opinion it was far better to play down the events of the afternoon. ‘But when I was waiting for you, and the terminal was just about empty, he came and helped me again.’
‘I still think it would have been better if he’d swept you off your feet instead of Lisa but never mind—isn’t he fabulous?’
Gorgeous, Emma thought, but she wasn’t going to say that until she had more information. She knew from experience that things were not always as they seemed. ‘He seems nice.’
‘Nice! He’s better than that. If I wasn’t madly in love with Mark, I’d chase after him.’
‘He’s single?’ That surprised her. In her experience men who looked like that weren’t often single. ‘What about Lisa?’
‘They’re just friends. Harry’s single but he’s never single for long. He has a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man. Luckily for him, Broken Hill is a very transient place, which means lots of the women with broken hearts are just passing through and don’t stay around to cause him grief. It seems to suit Harry. I’m sure his motto is “plenty more fish in the sea”. I bet he’d be happy to help you get over Jeremy.’
‘I don’t need help. Distance is all I need. I think I’m done with dating for a while.’
‘We’ll see.’ Sophie laughed.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I’ve never known you to be without a boyfriend for more than a few months and it’s been, what? Four months now?’
‘Five.’ Not that she was counting. But Sophie was right. She was never single for long and didn’t actually like being on her own. She’d spent too much time on her own as a child and because of her nomadic upbringing she’d never really had a chance to form close female friendships that stood the test of time so boyfriends had filled that gap. But Emma did intend to take a break from dating.
She needed time to find out who she was and what she wanted, without any complications. ‘I’m not looking for a boyfriend.’
‘That’s okay,’ Sophie said, refusing to be put off. ‘I doubt Harry’s looking for a girlfriend but if you have an itch that needs scratching, he’d probably be happy to help you out.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ Emma replied, even though she knew she had no intention of getting romantically involved with anyone for a long time, no matter how gorgeous they were.
Not even if his touch had sent her hormones into overdrive?
Surely that was only because it had been so long since she’d had sex. Five months was a very long time so was it any wonder her hormones were a little crazy? But before Sophie could make any more helpful suggestions, their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of Sophie’s housemate.
Grace was a petite woman, short and fine boned with jet-black hair cut in a bob. She was almost the perfect opposite of tall, blonde, Nordic-looking Sophie, and seeing them standing side by side as Sophie introduced her made Emma smile.
Grace’s arrival was closely followed by Harry’s reappearance and as he let himself in through the back door and despite her vows of celibacy, Emma found herself wishing she’d changed into a slightly more attractive outfit. She had an enormous bag stuffed with pretty clothes and she’d gone for comfort over style. But at least her hair was freshly washed and blow-dried and she was no longer covered in red dust.
Not that Harry even seemed to notice, he was too busy regaling Grace with his version of the drama of the plane crash while Sophie played hostess. Somehow Harry managed to make the plane crash sound almost exciting and if Emma hadn’t been intimately acquainted with the events of the day she would certainly now feel as though she’d lived through it. He was an entertaining storyteller and Emma imagined that anyone listening to his version would be sorry they hadn’t seen it for themselves, Harry made it sound as though it had been something not to be missed.
Grace asked Emma a few questions and Emma added her comments as best she could, but she was no match for Harry’s engaging style and she preferred listening to him while they waited for delivery of the take-away pizza Sophie had ordered.
‘Lisa’s broken wrist is a complication we don’t need at the moment,’ Harry said as he munched his fourth piece of pizza. Emma wasn’t surprised that a man of his size had a hearty appetite.
‘Why is that?’ Sophie asked.
‘She’s supposed to be taking a locum position with the flying doctor service while Kerri is on maternity leave. She was due to start next week but she’ll be out of action now.’
‘Why don’t you do it, Em?’ Sophie said. ‘Emma’s a nurse,’ she added for Harry and Grace’s benefit.
‘A hospital nurse,’ Emma clarified.
‘You’re trained in emergency work, though,’ Sophie added.
‘Are you?’ Grace asked, and when Emma nodded her face lit up. ‘Do you think you’d be interested?’
‘What, in working with the flying doctor service?’
‘Yes,’ Grace replied.
‘I’m here on a tourist visa. I’m not allowed to work,’ Emma said, thinking that surely Grace’s comment was just one of those off-the-cuff remarks people made without any real intent behind it.
‘I think you can do volunteer work,’ Grace said.
Emma shrugged. ‘I’m not sure I’m qualified to work with the flying doctors.’
‘If you’ve got emergency training, you’ll be fine.’
‘Yes, but I’m trained to work in a hospital, not out in a field in the middle of nowhere,’ she protested. She didn’t know the first thing about nursing outside a hospital environment and she hadn’t even done that for four months. Grace must be mad to think it was something she could do.
‘Technically it won’t be a field.’ Sophie laughed. ‘Out here we call them paddocks and the chances are you’ll just be in the dirt in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You couldn’t get enough of that flying doctors show when we were teenagers; imagine getting to do the real thing.’
‘I’m sure it’s hardly the same.’ She had loved that television series but to hear Sophie say it, in front of people who actually did it for a living, made her sound like a crazy groupie.
But Sophie wasn’t going to give up. ‘Are you kidding? It’s brilliant! I reckon you’d love it.’
Harry caught Emma’s eye. He was grinning at her and suddenly the proposition seemed quite appealing. Maybe it would be fun.
‘You don’t need to decide today. You’ve probably had enough to deal with,’ he said, coming to her rescue once again. ‘But why don’t you come out to the base and have a look around? You can’t judge the job on an ancient television drama.’
‘That’s true,’ Grace added. ‘We work harder and we’re not all as good looking.’
‘Don’t scare her off, Grace,’ Harry said, laughing, and Emma relaxed. That was a sound she could get used to.
‘At least go and have a look, Em,’ Sophie encouraged her. ‘It’s not like you’ve got any other plans. You said you thought you’d stay for a while.’
Emma nodded. Soph was right, she wasn’t in a hurry to go home. There wasn’t anything to hurry back for. Her family was there, what was left of it, but they’d still be there whenever she returned. She’d left her job and she didn’t have another one waiting. She definitely wasn’t planning on going back to her old job, there were too many people there who knew her business. She was here for two more months and she didn’t intend to go back to London before that, which meant she really did need to come up with another option. And hadn’t she promised herself that if she survived the crash landing she’d look at returning to nursing?
‘You might as well have something to keep you busy.’ Sophie’s words echoed Emma’s thoughts.
‘It could be the perfect solution,’ Grace added. ‘Why don’t I get Irene to check out the volunteer situation? I’m sure there’s a loophole there somewhere.’
‘And in the meantime you could drive out to the base tomorrow to have a look. You’ll show her around, won’t you, Harry?’ Sophie sounded innocent enough but Emma recognised the gleam in her eye.
She chose to pretend not to notice. It seemed as if her life was being organised for her, at least for the next few weeks, but as she had no firm plans of her own there was nothing to argue about.
‘I’ll think about it,’ she said. After all, what harm could there be in just looking?
CHAPTER THREE
BUT she didn’t think about it any further until the next morning. She slept well, despite the events of the previous day, and when she woke the sun was already high in the cloudless, blue sky.
Sophie had left a note saying she’d walked to the hospital for her eight o’clock start but she’d left her car keys so Emma could drive out to the flying doctor base.
Did she really want to do that?
It couldn’t hurt to go and have a look, could it? It would be interesting to see the base and it didn’t mean she had to apply for a job. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. But when did she ever know? When had she ever had a plan? She’d tried a couple of times but her plans had a habit of going distinctly pear-shaped. Perhaps she was better off sticking to her usual style, which was pretty random.
She had a shower, made herself some toast, did the dishes, watered some of Sophie’s plants that looked rather thirsty and when she ran out of things to do she switched on Sophie’s computer, logged in to her emails and printed off a copy of her CV, which she’d stored online. Telling herself it didn’t hurt to take it with her just in case, it didn’t mean she wanted the job, she picked up the car keys and the map Sophie had left for her and headed out the door.
The drive across town—coming from London she couldn’t bring herself to think of Broken Hill as a city—along the almost deserted, dusty streets took the same amount of time as yesterday—not quite twenty minutes. Which was not enough time to work out what she intended to do once she got to the flying doctor base. She sat in Sophie’s car for another ten minutes until she realised she couldn’t remain there for the rest of the morning.
Viewed from the car park, the flying doctors building was modern and much larger than she’d expected. She walked through a pleasant grassed courtyard, pushed open the door and stepped into the cool, dark foyer. A sign in front of her directed her to head left for the museum or right for the shop and tours.
She hesitated, thinking the museum might be worth a look, but she knew that was just further procrastination. Harry had offered to show her around and if she could have him as her tour guide around the real-life base she didn’t need to look at the museum. She hoped he would be there and not off flying the plane somewhere. There was only one way to find out.
Emma stepped to the right and introduced herself to the lady behind the counter.
‘Harry told us to expect you. Can you wait here for just a second and I’ll fetch Irene,’ the woman said, before she disappeared through a swing door that was set into the wall behind her, leaving Emma staring after her.
The woman returned within a minute, followed by a short, round woman who was speaking to Emma before she’d even come through the door.
‘Emma, hello, I’m Irene, the base manager. It’s good to meet you.’ She reached out and grabbed Emma’s hand as she was talking and shook it vigorously. ‘Why don’t you come through to my office and we can talk about the job? I can’t believe our luck that you’re here and able to work.’
Emma tried to protest as she trailed behind Irene down a short flight of stairs and along a corridor. ‘I’m not sure that I can work,’ she said. She also wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
‘You can work on a volunteer basis,’ Irene told her. ‘Grace was right about that. So if you’re interested in a volunteer position, I’m sure we can work something out. Besides, if you’re in town for a while you’ll soon realise there’s not a lot to keep you occupied. You’ll soon get bored so you might as well work. Think of it as good experience.’
Emma could tell that Irene wasn’t a person who could easily be dissuaded once her mind was made up. This town seemed to be full of strong-willed people. She’d need to try a different tack or she knew she’d find herself signed up before the day was over.
‘I might not have the qualifications you’re after. I’ve never worked outside a hospital before.’
But Irene was not going to be put off. ‘Neither have most of our nurses when they first come to us. I was told you’ve got Emergency experience, is that right?’
Emma nodded as Irene led her into an office and closed the door. The office had one glass wall that overlooked a larger, open-plan office that appeared to be a communications centre. The walls were covered with whiteboards, charts and maps and there were several staff members at work within the room.
‘If you have emergency experience, I’m sure we’ll want you,’ Irene said as she indicated to Emma to take a seat. ‘Did you bring your CV?’
Emma was in shock. She had her CV in her bag but she hadn’t really expected to hand it over. She’d expected to have a relaxed tour of the facility with Harry! Nevertheless, she dug her CV out of her bag and handed it to Irene.
‘We’re desperate for nurses,’ Irene explained. ‘We’re already down one. Mary’s gone to Adelaide to look after her mum who’s undergoing chemo, and with Kerri about to go on maternity leave and Lisa with her broken arm, we’re going to be short two nurses. One we can cover, two is impossible. I’ve looked into the volunteering situation and that’s perfectly acceptable with the board so as long as your references and qualifications are okay. If that all pans out, you can consider the locum position yours.’
Emma didn’t know whether she should be flattered or terrified. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
Irene leant back in her chair. ‘Now, I suppose I should let you ask me some questions. What do you want to know?’
Anything and everything, Emma thought. She had no idea how the flying doctor service actually worked or what they did other than what she’d seen on television, and from what Harry had told her last night it sounded as though the show might have been more fiction than fact.
Before she could work out which question to begin with she heard the sound of a door opening behind her and a familiar voice broke the silence.
‘Emma! I heard you were here. How are you? Have you recovered from yesterday?’
Harry.
Emma turned at the sound of his voice. It was just as deep and soothing as she remembered. It reverberated through her and despite the fact that Irene was sitting a few inches away Harry’s voice made her feel as if she was the only person he could see.
‘Yes, thanks, I’m good. A bit shell-shocked but that has nothing to do with yesterday.’
Harry laughed. ‘Irene has that effect on people. Has she convinced you to join us yet? She doesn’t like to take no for an answer.’
‘I got that impression,’ she replied.
Luckily Irene didn’t seem to take offence at being discussed like this. ‘Harry, do you think you could give Emma the grand tour?’ she asked. ‘Use your persuasive charms on her to sell the position?’
‘That’s why I’m here,’ Harry answered.
‘Good,’ Irene replied, and turned back to Emma. ‘You could go out on a clinic run tomorrow if you like. Why don’t you let me know what you think when you’ve finished with Harry?’ Irene stood and ushered Emma and Harry out the door.
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