A Special Kind Of Family

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THEY hardly spoke until she was in the front seat of Dom’s car, and they were heading across town. Erin’s belongings had been hastily stuffed into her overnight bag. Marilyn was on the back seat, looking as confused as a bulldog could look. No woman in a maternity suite had ever been shuffled between so many beds, but as long as her head count of pups was correct she seemed resigned.

Erin didn’t feel resigned. She felt breathless, and a little afraid.

Dom looked downright furious.

They reached the centre of town, drove past the fire station and a couple of volunteers were still there. They got cheery waves. Erin waved back.

Dom didn’t wave.

‘Are you going to tell me what you’re playing at?’ he said at last, tightly, and she stared at the road in front of her and thought of what she needed to say.

‘I guess…this was a spur-of-the-moment decision. To work here.’

‘You’re not serious.’

‘I think I am.’

‘You want what, a nice idyllic home in the country.’

‘That’s not what I’m looking for,’ she said evenly. ‘I need…to be needed. I don’t want to be needed to play violin like my brother and sister. I don’t want to marry Charles to make our parents happy. I want to do something for me.’

‘And Bombadeen’s supposed to provide it?’

‘I think it can,’ she said evenly. ‘I don’t know, of course. I’ll have to wait and see.’

‘So you’ll walk away from your job. Leave your employer in the lurch…’

‘That’s not fair. I’m about to start a new job heading our emergency department. I won the job by a whisker over two other doctors who are still available. I’m on two weeks’ leave before starting. That means there’s heaps of time for another applicant to be delighted that I can no longer take up the appointment.’

‘You have all the answers.’

‘You mean you don’t want me?’

The question was tossed into the air like a hand grenade. They drove in stillness, waiting for it to explode.

It didn’t. But neither did it disappear.

‘So what are you proposing?’ he asked at last, sounding strained.

‘That I live in the old doctor’s house and practise medicine. I can at least give it a few weeks’ trial. Every single person I talked to today told me how overworked you are. They say non-urgent stuff has to go to Campbelltown because you can’t handle it. Is that right?’

‘Yes, but-’

‘So I wouldn’t be setting up in opposition to you. I’d be sticking up a sign saying I’m here for Doc Dom’s leftovers.’

‘My leftovers.’

‘I’ll even do insurance medicals,’ she promised grandly. A greater offer she couldn’t make. Insurance medicals were renowned for being the bane of a doctor’s life. In the midst of a busy day they took an hour of crossing t’s and dotting i’s.

How could he help but be impressed? And he was. ‘You’re kidding,’ he murmured. And then-amazingly-he smiled.

Great. That’s what she’d been aiming for. It was starting to seem like a reasonable career ambition-to make Dom smile.

She smiled back and the tension lessened. A little.

‘You’re a top doctor,’ he said cautiously, as if he was thinking it through. ‘You’d never have got to head the emergency medicine team if you weren’t good.’

‘I do a nifty line in sticky plasters,’ she said, and looked hopeful.

‘And the rest,’ he said. His smile died. He was serious again but the tension was gone. ‘You’ll have skills I can’t guess at. But why? For this decision to come out of nowhere…’

‘See, that’s where you’re wrong,’ she said, and suddenly she knew she only had to tell the truth. Sure, there was her very definite attraction to this man, but the moment she’d thought of taking on this job things had settled that had been jumbled for a very long time.

‘I loved this morning,’ she told him. She clasped her hands together on her knees and hoped he got it.

He got it. ‘Spending time with Hughie…’

‘It felt right,’ she said. ‘Working in a city emergency department, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to face death. But this morning…instead of leaving Hughie with a social worker, I made a cup of tea and sat down and talked. It felt…right.’

‘It’s why I’m here,’ he said simply. ‘I’ve never want to be anything but a family doctor.’

‘My family might see it as failure,’ she told him. ‘But it’s not. I saw it clearly this morning. And then I thought if I have to move apartments anyway-I can’t have Marilyn in my hospital flat and there’s no way I’m giving her up-why not move here? I know you have misgivings about us but I think-I hope-we can work it out. I want to give it a try.’

‘You’re serious?’

‘I am.’

It seemed he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Two minutes later they reached the house. Two women were carrying in armloads of bedding. An elderly man in overalls was carrying in…a dog kennel?

‘My God,’ Dom said. ‘This is serious. I knew Marg’s organising skills were good, but this…’

‘I don’t think Marilyn’s ready for a kennel,’ Erin said, looking dubious. ‘I sort of see her at the end of my bed. This…this is happening very fast.’

‘It surely is,’ he said drily. ‘You’ll wake up tomorrow and this’ll seem like some crazy aberration.’

‘Maybe.’ But she didn’t think so. She climbed from the car and went to retrieve her dog. But Dom was before her.

‘I’ll carry Marilyn. You bring the puppies.’

‘This is your last move, Marilyn,’ she told the dog and Marilyn looked up at her with a mournful expression that said she didn’t believe it for a minute.

Erin followed Dom into the house. Inside a mini working bee had begun. They were greeted with good-hearted cheer and the guy with the dog kennel took one look at Marilyn and swore.

‘Sheesh, Doc, there’s no way that butt will go through this opening.’

He was talking to her, Erin realised. She’d just become…Doc.

She smiled, but absently. She walked through the little house, carrying puppies, while Dom and Marilyn followed behind.

The house looked like it had been built back in the 1920s. Heavy oak wainscotting, diamond-patterned windows with thick, irregular glass. Heavy furniture, well used. Lots of leather, worn carpets, a fireplace in the front room already set for lighting.

The afternoon sun was glinting through the panes of glass, throwing diamonds all across the room.

She pushed open the door into the kitchen. An ancient cooker took up half the far wall. The same diamond-patterned windows were on either side of the cooker. This room, though, faced east, and through the windows…The sea.

‘It’s fabulous,’ she breathed. She’d seen it briefly that morning but now the sun was out it was amazing.

‘We put locums up here,’ Dom said. ‘When we can get them. It only has one bedroom.’

‘Marilyn and I only need one bedroom.’ Everyone was looking at her-men and women who’d moved heaven and earth in record time to get this place looking inviting, she realised. There was a basket of bread, fresh made and smelling wonderful, on the kitchen bench. There was a box of groceries on the table. A big bunch of crimson poppies was scattered in a blue striped jug on the dresser.

‘Home,’ she breathed.

‘It’s blackmail,’ Dom muttered. ‘How do you think they got me here?’

‘The same route?’

‘The job was advertised, I came here for an interview and met Tansy. She was on the hospital board. She showed me this house. I said I fostered kids, and needed room for kids and a housekeeper. Tansy took me on a tour of the town, stopped to give me a coffee at the local café and before I’d finished my coffee, the locals had my house set up. I was taken to the house I’m in now. Same deal. Even the same bread.’ He grinned at a white-haired old gentleman out in the passage. ‘Pete makes the best bread in the district. And Tansy was part of the package.’

‘Tansy…’

‘“You take a job here, you get to eat this bread, you get to live in this house and here’s your housekeeper,” I was told. With their marketing strategies I couldn’t believe the town had been without a doctor for ten years.’

‘But have they worked?’ It was Graham, standing at the back of the pack of onlookers. ‘Do we have another doctor?’

‘I think so,’ Erin whispered, though she already knew the answer.

‘Go away, the lot of you,’ Dom said, shaking his head in exasperation. ‘The lady’s crashed her car and is stuck. I’m not taking advantage of her.’

‘You’re more of a gentleman than I am, then,’ Pete said, and cackled.

‘We need to talk medicine,’ Dom retorted. ‘Enough of the salesmanship. You’ve made your point. Leave the lady to me.’

‘As long as you keep her,’ Pete retorted, and looked Erin up and down in absolute approval. ‘’Cos the rest of us can see she’s a keeper. Graham, let’s go chop a mutt-sized butt-hole out of this kennel.’

They were left alone. Standing in the perfect little kitchen, looking at each other.

Dom was still holding Marilyn. Erin was still holding pups.

First things first. Dom set Marilyn down, disappeared into the bedroom and came back with a pile of blankets.

‘They’re old,’ he told Erin. ‘We set the bed up with duvets for the locum. There’s more than enough to spare for Marilyn.’

So they set up a bed for Marilyn, beside the stove, in a corner of the kitchen where she’d be out of the way. The morning sun would stream in on her. The back door was at hand.

‘If you stay I could chop a dog flap in the door,’ Dom said, sounding reluctant.

‘I’m staying.’

‘You don’t know that yet.’

‘I do know it.’ She was arranging the pups on the blanket, showing each of them to Marilyn in turn. ‘There you go, sweetheart, all your babies are present and correct. This is your permanent home. I’ll paint a sign on the wall if you like-“Marilyn Sleeps Here”.’

‘I’ll show you our hospital. If you really mean it.’

‘I mean it.’

‘You’re not doing it because…’ He hesitated, and then suddenly he swore. ‘I should never have kissed you.’

‘Maybe I should never have kissed you.’ Wrong, her heart said, but she had some pride.

‘Anyone I work with…it has to be purely professional.’

She put her hands on her hips. ‘So why wouldn’t it be professional?’

‘I have no idea,’ he said, sounding goaded. ‘Or maybe I do.’

‘So? Everyone says you’re desperate for a partner. Do you like being the only doctor for miles?’

‘No.’

‘Then it’s just this attraction thing.’

‘Which is nonsense,’ he snapped. ‘Okay, so we get over it.’ He turned away abruptly, heading out into the hall and then through a door to the side.

The door led to a hospital in miniature. There was an office and four small wards, each with two beds. The beds weren’t made up but the walls were painted in cheerful pastels. The green linoleum gleamed with polish. Dom led the way to a room at the rear and Erin found herself in a miniature theatre. It was big enough to perform not-so-minor surgery. The lights overhead were new and modern. The trolley under the lights looked ready to receive a patient right now.

‘The old doc used to operate by himself,’ Dom said. ‘During the war he was the only doctor for a hundred miles. He’d take out an appendix all on his own.’

‘And do a crossword on the side, I expect,’ Erin said ruefully. ‘Boy, do those old guys make us look pussycats. What do you use it for now?’

‘Minor stuff-and I mean minor stuff. Certainly not an appendix. My surgery back home is too small, so I’m back and forth here, at need.’

‘Will I get in the way?’ she asked. ‘If I’m in the background helping?’

‘Look, Erin…’

‘What?’ She hitched herself up onto the examination couch and met his gaze straight on. ‘Look, what?’

‘You can’t really be serious.’

‘Of course I’m serious. This place is fantastic. Graham tells me this place is desperate for a doctor; he’s shire president and he’s offered me a contract. It seems just what I’m looking for, except the current incumbent-which would be you-looks like he has a mouthful of sour grapes.’

‘I do not.’

‘You certainly do,’ she said. ‘If you’re worrying about my qualifications, they’re excellent, and Graham says the district’s so desperate if I was three-quarters dead and three-quarters drunk they’d still be interested.’

‘You know I’m not looking for a relationship,’ he said flatly, and she almost fell off the couch.

‘Excuse…excuse me?’ she tried to say-but it turned into a choking cough. He was watching her from the far side of the room like she was a ticking bomb.

It took her a couple of minutes to recover. He didn’t move.

‘Some doctors,’ she said at last, when she could finally talk, ‘would have fetched their patients a glass of water when that happened. Especially after last night. I might have impaired lung capacity from smoke inhalation.’

‘If that’s a possibility you’d better go home. With Charles.’

‘Why do you want to get rid of me?’

‘I told you. I’m not-’

‘In the market for a relationship. I heard you. I’m here as a doctor, not a mistress.’

‘You kissed me.’

‘So I did, you big oaf,’ she snapped. ‘And you kissed me back. Last night was truly horrible and we were both terrified and we’re all alive and I was so thankful that I would have kissed Marilyn. In fact, I seem to remember that I did kiss Marilyn.’

‘Not like you kissed me.’

‘Not being Marilyn, you’d know how?’ she snarled, and he blinked.

‘Um…’

‘Look, let’s get this on a professional basis and keep it there,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve been asked to work here as a doctor. I believe there’s room for both of us in this town. Is there not?’

‘I haven’t advertised for help. You didn’t ask-’

‘I ought to have asked.’

‘So you concede that at least?’

‘Of course. But I’m desperate. I need a home for Marilyn.’

‘She’s not even your dog.’

‘She is,’ she said and swung off the examination couch and stood tall. ‘Look, I’ve jolted you out of your comfort zone…’

‘You haven’t…’

‘But I’ve been jolted further,’ she snapped again. ‘It was me who crashed into a river, who almost killed myself, who saved Marilyn, who helped save Martin, who spent all last night trying to figure how I could get my life back and suddenly realising I don’t want it back. You’re doing good in this town, Dominic Spencer, and I want to share it. How selfish is it of you not to let me?’

‘Selfish…’

‘Yes, selfish. This is a fantastic set-up. You’re telling me I can’t stay?’

‘You’ll be gone in a week.’

‘I believe the contract Graham is drawing up is for six months. Am I so appalling?’

‘No, but-’

‘But what?’ she demanded, exasperated. ‘What’s the worst that can happen? Graham tells me you have an outreach patient population of over eight thousand. Surely you can spare the odd patient or two. And if you’re worried I might hit on you, surely you’re old enough to fend me off. In fact, consider me fended.’

‘I don’t know whether I can work with you,’ he said, goaded. ‘Can’t you understand that? The way I feel…How can I risk it? I need to stay as I am. My work’s important to me. My kids are important to me. You mess with my head.’

‘And you mess with mine. So maybe we need to sort it. Tell me you’re not the least bit interested in me, or you’re in love with Tansy, or you swore celibacy until Armageddon. Just say it and then forget it. And I will, too. End of story. Professional colleagues and nothing more.’

He stared at her, seemingly baffled. She gazed calmly back.

The phone rang.

He didn’t want her.

She watched him speak into the phone, as she saw his body tense and stay rigidly turned away from her…

I’ve lost, she thought bleakly. Where do I go from here?

‘Where’s the crash?’

Despite her confusion, despite feeling humiliated to her socks, she picked up on what he was saying.

‘How many? Hell, okay, I’m on my way. Stay calm, mate, you’re the first on scene and you have to cope. Make sure everyone’s breathing-concentrate on getting muck away from their mouths and noses, and make sure no one’s slumped so they’re restricting their air flow. I’ll be with you in minutes. Go.’

His phone was back in his pocket and he hauled the door open.

She knew what she’d heard. A car crash. Multiple casualties.

‘Do you need help?’ she demanded.

‘No,’ he snapped.

He strode two steps out the door, and then stopped. Took a grip. Saw sense.

‘Yes,’ he said, without looking back. ‘There’s been a head-on collision two miles on the other side of town, just past my place. That was a local farmer. Four injuries, and from the sound of it they’re bad. The ambulance is fifty miles away. Yes, I might need help. I’d appreciate it if you came.’