Hijacked Honeymoon

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

RYAN and Abbey Henry’s honeymoon lasted one whole night before it was interrupted.

Janet and Sam, married two weeks earlier-‘we’re in our seventies: we don’t have as much time as you young things for wasting time unmarried’-were caring for Jack. Steve, walking with a limp but well on the way to recovery, was caring for the hospital. Two weeks of ‘Bliss’…

The discussion on where to go had been short.

‘You hijacked one honeymoon of mine at “Bliss”,’ Ryan told Abbey severely. ‘It’s your duty to give me another.’

And Abbey couldn’t think of a single reason to disagree.

On the first morning of her honeymoon Abbey woke late, stirred and found she was going nowhere. She was being held fast in Ryan’s arms. Ryan felt her wake. He shifted slightly so he could look down at her.

His wife.

His lovely, lovely Abbey.

The wedding had been perfect. The tiny church high on the headland overlooking Sapphire Cove… Everyone there…

Last night had been perfect. The merging of two bodies into one.

Abbey. His wife.

Ryan’s arms pulled her closer as the knowledge of Abbey as his bride-his woman for always-surged though him.

And then the phone rang. Of course the phone rang. The medical imperative!

‘If that’s an earthquake I don’t want to know about it,’ Abbey murmured sleepily, snuggling in closer against her love. But there was a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach all the same. No one would disturb them unless it was an emergency, and one thing Abbey didn’t want for the rest of her life was emergencies.

It was a pity, then, that she was a doctor.

Ryan sighed and lifted the receiver. ‘Ryan Henry.’ Abbey could tell by the sound of his voice that he was as tense as she was.

But then Ryan smiled as he listened to the disembodied voice on the end of the line. When the voice had finished speaking he put the phone down.

‘Come on, my love,’ Ryan said, and he lifted Abbey into his arms and kissed her soundly. ‘Time to get ourselves decent. The honeymoon’s on hold for an hour or two.’

‘Oh, Ryan…’ It was a wail of dismay. Medical imperatives be damned, Abbey thought bitterly. She wanted this time alone with her love.

And then she looked more closely at Ryan’s face. His smile was growing.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘I’m not missing this, even for a honeymoon,’ Ryan told her, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and reaching for his pants. ‘Come on, Abbey. Let’s go. Our turtles are hatching.’

The entire population of Sapphire Cove was on the beach.

There was no way anyone could have predicted exactly when the turtles would hatch. The experts said between fifty-four and seventy days, depending on the depth they were buried and the strength of the sun. So, apart from setting up a duty roster of guards, no one had planned for this.

But everyone was here. Abbey looked around in amazement as she and Ryan pulled to a halt. Everyone!

School had been let out. Grandmas and grandpas were arriving in convoys. The local shopkeepers and bankers and publicans had closed shop and headed for the beach.

Steve and Caroline stood hand in hand by the water’s edge, Steve leaning lightly on Caroline’s arm to support his weak leg.

There were men and women in wheelchairs and with walking sticks, and even a couple of stretcher cases being carried by volunteers. The hospital inmates had come en masse. Here were patients who were too sick to walk, but who wouldn’t miss this for the world.

Ted was here, holding a small child from Children’s ward and trying hard to keep his expression ghoulish when really he was as filled with wonder as everyone else.

Who else?

Ian Miller was here, dressed in the neat trousers and tie that denoted the professional. Sapphire Cove’s newest solicitor was taking his first holiday. Ian’s grin was as broad as his face, and his mother beside him had a matching smile a mile wide.

Leith Kinley was here, confined to a wheelchair but only just Four days ago she’d stood for the first time. She’d be going back to Brisbane soon for more intensive rehabilitation but she’d been allowed home for Abbey’s and Ryan’s wedding.

And now she was here for this. Sapphire Cove’s event of the decade.

There were two long lines of people, forming an avenue of honour from the freshly scattered mound where the turtle had laid her eggs down to the sea.

An avenue of honour for the hatchlings.

One by one they came. Tiny, tiny turtles, wide-eyed and terrified, scrambling through the sand, burrowing their way out into the open, blinking in the sunlight-and then heading for the sea.

Up above were their enemies. Gulls and terns and all sorts of seabirds, wheeling and squawking and demanding in no uncertain terms that these people depart and let them at their prey.

No way.

The school children were taking turns to toss bread further down the beach, filling the birds’ stomachs and distracting them from tastier prey.

All along the line of honour umbrellas were being shaken upwards. Umbrellas… Scores and scores of them in every colour of the rainbow, covering the tiny turtles’ flight and preventing any daring gull from getting near.

And one by one the turtles were reaching the waves, stopping momentarily in shock at the first touch of foam-and then charging gamely on. Each one was two tiny inches of turtle, heading for the horizon.

Sapphire Cove couldn’t protect these little ones once they reached the sea, but once there they had a chance. A chance of one day being as huge as their mother and returning here years hence to breed themselves.

Abbey and Ryan climbed from the car and stood on the grass verge, looking down at the spectacle before them.

Jack, safely held between Janet and Sam, saw his mother and crowed with delight-and then went right back to crowing with delight at the turtles.

Abbey’s eyes filled with tears.

‘Did you ever see such a sight?’ she whispered to Ryan. ‘Our turtles. Oh, Ryan, it’s a miracle.’

‘It is indeed a miracle,’ Ryan agreed softly, his arm firmly around Abbey’s waist and his eyes moving from the turtles to his brand new son-and then back to his wife.

And he held her close and kissed her, and kissed her again.

‘Life is,’ he said.

Life is a miracle.