Bachelor Cure

CHAPTER TEN

WHAT followed was an interminable month when Mike tried to pick up the threads of his life where he’d left off.

There were two sides to his life, he decided. Pre-Tess and post-Tess.

Pre-Tess had been bleak and hard. Post-Tess was just impossible.

He worked on two levels. On the surface he was efficient and calm and under control, but underneath he was so churned up he was wondering just how on earth he could cope.

Maybe it would get better in time, he told himself over and over. Maybe he’d get used to Tessa around the place and he’d stop wanting her in his bed at night. Strop was back on his pillow, and that was all the company he could allow himself!

Maybe if he stopped seeing her every time he turned around it might solve his problems.

That wasn’t going to happen. Tess was settling further into valley life every day she worked here. She soon carved herself out a routine, coming in to do clinics every morning and taking her share of house calls in the afternoons.

Often she took Henry with her on her house calls. They purchased a reliable little truck between them, and the sight of the old man and the flame-headed young lady doctor, beetling around the valley roads, soon became a familiar sight.

‘I don’t know how you managed without her,’ Mike was told over and over, and only he knew that he’d managed a darn sight better without her than with her. He was tearing himself in two!

‘We were fine by ourselves,’ he told Strop, but Strop’s big, mournful eyes looked more mournful than ever, and his tail didn’t wag at all. He hadn’t minded sharing his Mike with Tess-and Tess was a dab hand with a can opener.

Mike’s pain couldn’t go unnoticed, especially by Tessa.

‘You’re being a dope,’ she told him bluntly, six weeks after Stan’s death. It was eleven at night. She’d come in to see a patient she’d admitted to hospital that afternoon, and came past the kitchen door to find him cooking himself bacon and eggs again. ‘You’ll kill yourself on that diet, and you’re still working too hard.’ She stood in the doorway and glared. ‘You know damn well I want more work, Mike Llewellyn. Give it to me.’

‘You can’t work full time and look after Henry.’

‘Henry’s getting better every day. He’s almost independent now.’ She hesitated and then walked all the way in, sitting down at the table while he cooked. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving, if that’s what you’re hoping. Mike, I’m not going away. If anything, I’m getting closer. Henry and I have decided to sell the farm.’

‘Sell the farm!’ That rattled him.

‘We love it but we don’t need sixty acres,’ she told him. ‘And, living out there, I’m too far from the hospital. It was Grandpa’s idea. There’s a great little place down by the river just half a mile from here. Grandpa’s been to see it and he loves it.’

‘But he loves his farm.’

‘So do we both. But we love being together more. This way we can stay together. Just me and Grandpa and Doris the pig…’

‘And the eight porky babies?’ He couldn’t help himself. Mike’s eyes twinkled and Tess twinkled right back.

‘Come out and see our babies some time. They’re what you might call good-dooers. Even Doris is feeling the strain. We may keep little Mike-or rather big Mike-but that’s about the limit.’

‘I see.’

‘Mike…’

‘Yes?’

Tess hesitated and then sighed. ‘You’re still blaming me for Stan’s death-right?’

‘No. I’m blaming me.’

‘That’s worse.’

‘It can’t be helped,’ he said stiffly. ‘It’s the way it is.’

‘So you’re intending to stay solitary for the rest of your life? And keeping on working just as hard as you can?’

‘That’s the plan.’

‘Well, it’s a really stupid plan,’ she burst out. ‘Just crazy. Do you think your mother would thank you for doing it? For grudging me every piece of work I can get my hands on and for turning your back on a really magnificent love life? What with me and Grandpa and Doris and Strop, who could ask for more? And for running yourself into the ground because you’re so damned miserable you’ve stopped looking after yourself?’

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘No, it’s not,’ she snapped. ‘You should be eating three solid meals a day, with a nice family routine. Like with me and Grandpa and our appendages. Even with a couple of kids.’ Tess flushed and then managed a smile. ‘Well, if Doris can have little Mikes, I don’t see why I can’t. And as for living on bacon and eggs…’

‘I like bacon and eggs.’ Mike flipped his egg out on top of his bacon and stared down at it. Then he shoved the whole plate away. Suddenly he didn’t feel like anything at all.

And Tessa’s voice suddenly lost its aggressiveness. ‘You’re OK, aren’t you, Mike?’ Her face creased in sudden concern. ‘You’re not sickening for something?’

‘No.’

‘So you’re not dying of a broken heart?’ Her words were flippant, but her face was still worried. ‘Mike, are you losing weight?’

‘No.’

‘I reckon you are,’ Tess said slowly. Her eyes narrowed as she checked him out. ‘In fact, I’m sure you are. And don’t tell me. You don’t really feel like that eggs and bacon.’

The plate lay before them, untouched. Mike hauled it back before him and picked up his knife and fork. ‘Yeah. I do. OK?’

‘So eat.’

‘I’ll eat when you leave.’

‘I’m not leaving until I see you eat.’

‘Tess…’

‘Mike, is there something really wrong here? There is, isn’t there?’ All of a sudden Tess looked really worried. ‘Mike, tell me-’

‘There’s nothing wrong,’ he said explosively. ‘I’ve just got a bit of a belly ache. That’s all.’

‘And tonight’s the first time you’ve had it?’

‘Yes!’

‘OK.’ Tess held her hands up in mock surrender. ‘I know when I’m not wanted. But if it really has been going on for longer… If there’s something wrong…’

‘There isn’t.’

‘If there is…and you won’t talk to me about it…’ Tess hesitated. ‘Or even take a few days off and see someone in Melbourne… Well, a man would be fool-wouldn’t he?’

There was nothing wrong.

Tess left. Mike abandoned his eggs and bacon and took himself back to his apartment, but Tessa’s words kept playing in his head. A man’d be a fool…

There’s nothing wrong, he told himself harshly, blocking off the thought of a few faint worries. There was no need to talk to Tessa or anyone else about this. It was just a nagging gut ache, that was all, and it was caused by nervous tension. There. The diagnosis was easy. He’d got himself in an emotional state over a woman and it was physically taking its toll.

He just needed time to sort himself out, he figured. He needed to divorce himself from what he was feeling for Tessa and then he’d be fine. He took some antacid and managed to eat and hold down a dry piece of toast. Then he said goodnight to Strop and went to bed.

That was at midnight. By dawn he was sicker than he’d ever been in his life.

‘Have you seen Dr Llewellyn?’

Tess had been in the hospital for a whole five minutes before she was hit by the question. It was Horrible Hannah, about to go off night duty. Tess met Bill Fetson, coming on duty, in the hall and Hannah met them both.

‘Mrs Carter’s drip packed up about an hour ago and I need orders,’ the nurse told them. ‘I rang Dr Llewellyn’s apartment but he’s not answering. He must have gone out on a call but he’s not answering his mobile phone either.’

‘Maybe he’s out of range,’ Bill said. Then he frowned. ‘But he knows where the phone cuts out. If he’s going to be out of range then he rings first and tells us where he can be contacted.’

‘Maybe he doesn’t think it as important any more,’ Tess said. ‘Now that I can be contacted, he has back-up.’

‘He doesn’t like us contacting you.’ Hannah shrugged. ‘But I guess that must be it. Or he’s somewhere where the lines are down. That’s quite a storm outside.’

It was. The wind had been rising all night and now it was screaming around the sides of the building in the full blast of the onset of winter. A storm like this would be bound to bring the odd telephone wire down. Tess frowned but forced herself relax.

‘OK, let’s not worry,’ she said-but she was worrying. ‘I’ll check Mrs Carter for you.’

She did and she ended up doing a full round of Mike’s patients. There must be an emergency to keep him away, they decided, but there was nothing they could do until he contacted the hospital.

Tess had a house call of her own. She should leave now, but instead she made her way back to the nurses’ station. Hannah was still there, having decided she didn’t want to walk home until the worst of the weather had abated, and so was Bill.

‘So, where is he?’ she asked, and Bill shook his head.

‘Beats me.’

‘Has anyone checked his apartment?’

‘Hannah’s rung him more than once and there’s no answer,’ Bill told her. ‘And I had Hannah walk down and check while I rang-just in case there’s a fault in the line. There’s not. From this side of his door you can hear it ringing inside. Oh, and Strop’s inside. You can hear him snuffling at the door. Mike must have decided to leave him indoors because of the weather. Mike has to be out.’

‘Yes, but…’ Tess hesitated, her face creasing in worry. ‘It’s just… Bill, last night Mike didn’t look well. He was off his food.’

Bill stilled. They looked at each other for a long, long minute. Outside, the wind blew more fiercely.

‘Bill, what are we waiting for?’ Tess said at last, and in her heart there was suddenly a lurch of real fear. ‘Let’s check.’

Strop met them as they unlocked the door and he was frantic with worry. He saw them inside and launched himself at the bathroom door, barking in a frenzy.

By the time they reached the bathroom they were expecting something bad, and they found it.

Mike was stretched out, unconscious, on the bathroom floor.

Mike surfaced to the Horrible Hannah.

For a long moment he couldn’t figure out where he was. He lay absolutely still and let the room come into focus. It didn’t completely. It spun, but as he stared upwards the spinning slowed.

And then Hannah was looking down at him.

‘Oh, Dr Llewellyn. Oh, Mike!’ There was no mistaking it. For the first time in his life, Mike heard real emotion in Hannah’s voice. Joy. ‘You’re awake. Oh, don’t you dare shut your eyes. I’m fetching Tess.’

Tess… Hannah was calling Tess Tess?

It was all too much to work out, and there seemed no need. He was so damned tired. He couldn’t help it. Try as he may he couldn’t obey Hannah’s order. His eyes closed all by themselves, and he slept.

The next time he opened his eyes Tess was there. And she was crying.

He’d nearly died, and it took him days to figure out why he hadn’t. Days while Strop lay as devoted watchdog under his bed and his body slowly recovered from its shock.

‘You had a massive bleed from a duodenal ulcer,’ Tess told him, in a voice that still shook. ‘I’ve never seen so much blood. We put five units of plasma aboard before we started operating, and once we’d cross-matched we had donors coming in from all over the valley. We needed them all.’

Operating… That was another thing he couldn’t work out. Somehow he’d been operated on, and he’d been operated on here.

‘You were operated on by me,’ Tess said when he was finally well enough to ask the right questions. ‘And don’t ask me how I did it because I don’t know and I never, ever want to do such a thing again. You’re trained in general surgery but, apart from my basic medical training, I’m not.’

‘So how…?’

But Tess shook her head, and her voice trembled. She reached out and took his hand in hers, and it wasn’t just her voice that was trembling. ‘Please, Mike, don’t ask. I can’t think about it.’

It was up to Bill to tell him, and it was two days after the operation before he was well enough to take it all in.

‘It was a bloody miracle,’ Bill growled, as he changed Mike’s dressings with hands that were amazingly tender for such a big man. ‘I’d written you off myself. As soon as I saw you on the floor and saw the blood…well, I was all for calling the undertaker. If it hadn’t been for Tess, you’d be pushing up daisies by now.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘We couldn’t evacuate you,’ Bill told him. ‘The weather was foul and no helicopter could get in, even if there had been enough time to get you to a major hospital or get a surgeon flown in here. Which there wasn’t. And here you were, losing blood like a stuck pig. Tessa was pouring in plasma but it wasn’t nearly enough. You were dying under her hands. So she said…she said she was going in.’

‘But… How the hell…?’

‘That’s what we all said,’ Bill said grimly. ‘You’ve got no idea… There was me and Hannah and Louise and Tess and Strop-all standing around staring at each other like helpless dummies. We were pouring in blood but we were still losing you. And then Tess said we had nothing to lose so who was going to do the anaesthetic?

‘And I just gaped at her-but Hannah said she’d have a go if Tess told her everything to do. Hannah’s such a poke-nose-there’s nothing she misses and she’s been a theatre nurse in the city. So Tess took a deep breath and says great and not to worry because it might be the first time Hannah’s given an anaesthetic but it’s also the first time Tessa’s ever been a surgeon. Which, you can imagine, made us feel a whole heap better…’

‘Yeah?’ Mike was trying hard to concentrate here. The pethidine was making him drift in and out of reality, but he was getting the gist of it. ‘So…’

‘So Tess rings Melbourne,’ Bill said. ‘You should have heard her. Bossy? You wouldn’t believe it. She organised a phone link with two specialists, one for her and one for Hannah-one anaesthetist and one specialist surgeon. They link up. We use that teleconferencing line you put in, where we talk hands-free. I turn up the volume so both Hannah and Tess can talk and the two specialists can listen and throw in advice as needed.

‘Maybe Tess could have advised Hannah on the anaesthetic-she did a bit and kept her eye on her-but she’s got her hands full with what she’s doing to you.’

Bill shook his head, and the tone of his voice indicated that what had happened was still unreal to him. ‘We had every nurse in the place back in here,’ he said. ‘There were people taking blood donations and helping in the wards and in the theatre. Everybody wanted to help.’ He gave a rueful grin.

‘And for those who weren’t needed and knew what was going on, Father Dan ran a special Mass. Tess said go right ahead, she needed every ounce of help she could get and she’d accept it from any direction she could. Oh, and Strop sat outside the kitchen door and howled.’

‘But she did it,’ Mike said faintly.

‘Yeah. She did it. You know you arrested on the table?’

‘You’re kidding.’

‘Nope. Hannah nearly died as well, she was so frightened, but Tess stayed calm. Stopped what she was doing-had me hold the clamps-and put on the electrodes. Jump-started you. Got the heartbeat going, reassured Hannah and then calmly went back to stitching the damned ulcer up. She did it like a professional, and the surgeon advising her told me afterwards that he doubted if he’d have stayed as calm as she was.’

And then Bill gave a rueful smile.

‘Maybe she wasn’t all that calm, though,’ he said grimly. ‘After it was all over and you’d opened your eyes and she’d seen you might make it…well, I went outside and she was throwing her guts up. Vomiting like it was she who’d had the ulcer and not you. You put her through the hoops, boyo, and that’s the truth.’

‘Hell.’

‘It was all of that.’ Bill’s smile softened and he gripped Mike’s hand. ‘All of that and more. Its bloody good to have you back. But Tess…’

‘Yeah?’ It seemed there was something else on Bill’s mind but he was having trouble saying it.

‘Well…’ Bill shrugged and then dived straight in. ‘When I was helping her clean herself up she told me you won’t marry her because she interferes with your medicine. Crying her eyes out when she said it. Of all the stupid things… She interferes with your medicine? Without her loving you… Without her worrying enough to practically kick your apartment door down, without her taking risks you wouldn’t believe and laying her professional reputation on the line…way beyond the call of duty… Well, without Tessa, you’d be giving this community no medicine at all. Never again. You’d be one more statistic for the graveyard.’

‘Tessa?’

‘Mmm.’

White-coated and efficient, Tessa had breezed into his ward, Hannah behind her. She picked up his obs chart and beamed at what she saw. ‘This is great,’ she said. ‘You know, we might start you on solids tomorrow.’

‘No eggs and bacon, though.’ Hannah grinned and Tessa smiled her agreement.

‘You’re right, Nurse. No eggs and bacon. We might try a little jelly and-’

‘Tessa!’

‘Sorry, Mike. Were you trying to say something?’ Tessa raised her eyebrows and gave him her entire attention-just like a really polite general surgeon.

‘Yes. Can we have a minute alone?’

‘I’m afraid Hannah and I are really busy.’ She smiled again. ‘You understand we have the entire medical needs of the valley on our shoulders. We can’t let our personal lives interfere.’

‘Tessa!’

‘Yes?’ Once again that polite enquiry, though a twinkle lurked behind those green eyes.

‘I need to ask you something.’

‘Ask away.’

‘Alone!’

‘I’m sorry.’ She smiled benignly. ‘You, of all people, must know it’s professionally unwise for a lady doctor to be alone with a male patient. Hannah’s my chaperon.’

Hannah beamed. Goaded, Mike could only stare. Hannah had come right out of her shell. What she’d done had shed years of bitterness from her shoulders. The nurse was practically giggling.

‘You don’t need a chaperon,’ he managed.

‘Remind me to tell you what I need some day,’ Tess said gently. ‘I think I have in the past, but you haven’t listened. Now…is there anything I can do for you?’

‘Yes.’ He glowered. ‘I want you to marry me.’

‘Oh, is that all?’ Her brow cleared, and the twinkle came back. Behind the laughter there was joy. ‘I think we could organise that. Hannah, when you go back to the nurses’ station, could you see if you could find a time in my diary…?’

‘Tess-’

‘We wouldn’t want it to interrupt the medical needs of the community, now, would we?’

‘Tess-’

‘Must go,’ she said airily, breezing out. ‘But, of course, I’ll marry you. Anything to oblige, Dr Llewellyn. Anything to keep my patients happy.’

It was two days before he could get a serious answer. For two days she either had Bill or Louise or Hannah at her side, and he was almost going crazy.

Finally he caught her. It was midnight. He’d been dozing, half-asleep, a state he’d been in constantly since his operation as his body started to recover. He heard the door open gently, the slit of light enlarged and he heard soft footsteps coming toward the bed.

Silence. He closed his eyes.

Whoever it was bent over him. He would recognise that smell anywhere. His hand came out and grasped her wrist before she had a chance to pull away.

‘Nice,’ he growled. ‘Stay.’

‘Mike…’

All of a sudden, Tessa’s voice sounded really unsure. Mike’s eyes widened. He brought his other hand up to grasp her other wrist, and he pulled her down closer.

‘I’ve been wanting you so much.’

‘I don’t know why. You’re not much use to me like you are.’ Tess managed a soft chuckle and motioned to the tubing around his bed. ‘All wired up.’

‘I don’t want to make love to you.’

‘No?’

‘Well…’ He smiled, and the warmth in the little room grew and grew. ‘Well, not so much…not as much as I want to talk to you.’

‘I’ve agreed to marry you,’ she said primly. ‘What else do you want?’

‘I want to say I’m sorry.’

‘Sorry…’

‘For ever doubting you. For being so bloody stupid. For causing you one moment’s pain.’ Mike closed his eyes. Hell, he was still so weary, but he had to say this. He must! ‘Tess, you are the loveliest…the most precious…the most wonderful woman I have ever met. I can’t believe you love me but if you do…you’ll have given me the most precious thing I ever could ask in life.

‘I love you so much, Tess. I want you beside me, and I want you beside me for ever. I’ve had my share of disasters. I want your love before I face any more. From now on, any disasters that come, we’ll face them together.’

‘Mike…’

‘Tess, marry me,’ he whispered. ‘Marry me and know I have no reservations. Marry me and know that I can’t be a doctor without you. I can’t be anything without you. You’re half of my whole. Tess…’

‘Oh, Mike…’ And she knelt and buried her face in his shoulder, and her arms came around him, tubing and all.

‘Mike, don’t be silly.’

‘I’m not silly. I’m asking-’

‘And I’ve already answered,’ she said steadily. ‘I fell in love with you the moment I saw you and I’ll love you for ever. Of course I’ll marry you. Of course I’ll marry you, my love. I intended to from the first and I intend to now. To love you without stopping. You just get yourself better, and then we’ll plan a wedding to die for. Or…’ She thought about what she’d said, and that irrepressible grin twinkled out. ‘Maybe we’d better say a wedding to live for. Because that’s just what it’s going to be.’

As weddings went, it was unusual to say the least.

Tess had announced where her wedding was to be held and the community had blinked. So had Mike, but she’d dragged him out there and held him close, and he’d seen what she’d seen.

And he blessed her for it.

Six weeks after Mike’s operation he stood, clad in dinner suit, white carnation in his buttonhole, the sea breeze ruffling his hair and with an almost overwhelming happiness in his heart, and waited for his bride.

The headland where the wedding took place was one of the loveliest places in Bellanor, nestled between two mountains about three miles from town. The homestead here had long fallen into disrepair. The land was used for cattle agistment and nothing else. The bush had reclaimed the land on the bluff and it had taken a working party three days to clear enough room for the portable chairs and the vast marquee and the tiny altar.

There was normally nothing here. Just sea and bushland and native birds-and one solitary grave.

This was the headland where Mike’s mother was buried. Her grave was covered with a mass of native orchids, almost an altar in itself, and it was here that Tess decreed she’d marry.

‘Because we’re going into this with our eyes wide open,’ she told Mile solemnly. ‘You’re not breaking any vow. You’re renewing it, with a difference.’

And so he was. He was renewing it, with joy thrown in for good measure. With Tess…

And here she was, pulling up in Harvey Begg’s Volvo, with Henry climbing out to proudly take her arm. Henry hardly had the need for his walking-frame now, and there was no way he was using it to give his girl away. His old eyes beamed with happiness and pride.

Louise and Hannah fluttered forward, fast friends now with no trace of the Horrible Hannah of old. They adjusted Tessa’s dress, a floating confection of white lace, cut low at the breast and flaring out in soft clouds to form a train behind. It wasn’t entirely white. It had soft, fine red ribbons laced through the bodice, and on her feet she was wearing…

Mike blinked. She was wearing red stilettos-the red stilettos he’d fallen in love with the first time he’d seen them! The first time he’d seen her.

Tess. His lovely Tess. His gorgeous, crazy, wonderful bride! Her wonderous red hair was floating free, and he thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

He glanced to the front row where Tessa’s mother was sitting. She was a firebrand just like her daughter, and she was sitting serenely with a dog lead in her hand. The lead was attached to a gleaming, groomed and handsome Strop, resplendent in crimson bow.

Strop was looking so mournful he was almost smiling.

Of course he was smiling. This was so right. All the pieces of Mike’s jumbled life were fitting together, and his Tessa was walking steadily toward him.

Tessa… His bride…

And her eyes were loving him.

There were no doubts in Mike’s heart now. There were no doubts at all. This was right. This was his fate. This was where he was meant to be.

Everything seemed to hush as Mike and Tessa made their marriage vows.

And it was right for this marriage to take place here. Drifting around them was the spirit of times past-the echoes of the love Mike had once had here with his mother. It was an echo that would now resound down the generations, with Mike’s and Tessa’s children, and with their children’s children, and beyond.

There was no judgement here. There was only love. There was love and there was happiness, and there was all the hope in the world for a future of joy.