‘It’s great to see you all here. Tonight, we’ll start with some discomforts of pregnancy and suggestions for relief your doctor may not have suggested.’
The odd guy lifted his eyebrow again. Noni ignored him.
‘We call these symptoms the common complaints of pregnancy. It’s useful to remember that most symptoms of discomfort usually appear as a by-product of something good your body is doing for your baby.’
Paul, a thin man in his late twenties, and Suzie, his much larger wife, consulted before he put up his hand.
‘What good thing is your body doing when your missus has cramps in the legs every night?’ He looked around at the other men. ‘She wakes up in the night and hops around the bed. I can’t catch her to try to help.’ The class laughed and several of the men nodded.
‘Does anybody else have leg cramps?’ Two of the women put up their hands and Noni smiled. ‘Lack of calcium is one cause. Your baby is using up your stores and that’s a pretty worthy cause. If you increase the calcium in your food that can help. More milk, fish, kelp, sesame and sunflower seeds, along with the dark-green leafy vegetables.’
She glanced around to check she still had their interest. ‘Other reasons are hormone changes. The release of progesterone and relaxin prepares your body for stretching and changing shape in pregnancy and labour, so that’s good for later pregnancy and birth. Everything,’ Noni stressed the word, ‘is more elastic …’
‘Even her temper,’ another man murmured.
Noni smiled but stuck to the topic and resisted a comeback. ‘Including the stretch in your blood vessels. When your body increases blood volume this leads to the pooling of blood in your legs. The best way to get that blood back to your heart is to use your calf muscles as a pump. Make sure you keep your calf pumps working. Rotate and work your calves when you’re sitting or standing for long periods.’ Some of the women obediently rolled their ankles.
She grinned cheekily. ‘Of course, a pleasant way to assist is to have your partner massage your legs regularly.’ She smiled as the men shifted in their seats. ‘What about it, fellas?’
She saw Jacinta McCloud scowl at the man beside her and she muttered, ‘No way.’
Her husband gave a short, sharp laugh and stared up at the ceiling, and Noni frowned. She suspected something really weird going on between these two.
There were a few half-hidden smiles and strange looks from the class and Noni purposefully shifted the focus from the McClouds. ‘Another good way of preventing cramps is to have a warm foot bath containing a few drops of lavender oil before bed.’
That brought Mr McCloud’s eyes down from their contemplation of the ceiling. He stared at her and she could feel his attitude across the room. She knew the sharing of his dubious wisdom hung imminent. Noni resisted the urge to sigh. There was one in every class – but she wouldn’t let him get to her.
‘How much research has been done with oils in pregnancy?’
So, the wisdom has begun, Noni thought, as she assembled her thoughts. He’d have her on her toes over the next weeks, she guessed.
‘Don’t you have to be careful with essential oils and the pregnant woman?’ He effortlessly drew the attention of the room without raising his voice. She had to admit there was something a little mesmerising about his presence. Something she had little experience of in Burra, and the presence kept everyone’s attention focused on him.
Noni offered a noncommittal nod. This was her show, not his. ‘That’s very true. Some oils are contraindicated during different stages of pregnancy and you should check with an aromatherapist if you want to blend oils during this time. Remember the concept of less is more.’ She smiled kindly at him. ‘Lavender is safe in pregnancy if you use small amounts. The book that mentioned lavender foot baths suggested six drops – I’d suggest half that at the most. If you use too much you can reverse the response you’re looking for.’
He sat back. She tagged him silently as the type to be muttering, ‘Mumbo-jumbo’. Usually, it didn’t worry her, but this guy had an aura of arrogance that Noni found hard to ignore. But she would.
‘Is it true the birthing unit might have to shut in a couple of months?’ The question was from Suzie, Paul’s wife. Suzie worked at the local hairdresser’s so she’d be one of the first to find out new information. Noni guessed these women and their partners had the right to know, even though she’d been practising positive thinking. Maternity would find someone to save them.
‘It’s true that Dr Soams is retiring, but we’re hoping to find a replacement obstetrician before that happens, Suzie.’
Suzie nodded, but Paul said with a worried glance at his wife, ‘What happens to the women who haven’t had their babies before it shuts?’
‘They’d have to go to Wagga Wagga. In the long term, if the birthing unit does close then we could look at setting up a midwifery practice, but that would take time. The best thing is to convince a new doctor’s family to settle in our beautiful town and combine the two like we do now.’ She infused a positive note in her voice with some difficulty and Iain McCloud gave her a disbelieving look. Yep, she disliked him intensely.
The two-hour class passed quickly for Noni, and after some last-minute questions everybody dribbled out the door in twos and fours, already chatting between each pair in a friendly fashion.
She mused over the night as she put away her charts. It was interesting to see the way people interacted. In some groups all her jokes fell flat. This group seemed lovely, except maybe for the McCloud couple. She didn’t like to speculate about her clients, but heck, the girl would be beautiful if she’d only stop glaring, and if she ate more. She looked way too young for him. With his looks, Iain McCloud didn’t need to cradle-snatch either.
She decided she definitely didn’t like him. Iain McCloud’s ideas on childbirth left a lot to be desired if the repetitive lift of his eyebrow revealed much about his thoughts. Every time she’d mentioned something about birth choices and faith in natural instincts she’d seen the sceptical movement. An old-schooler. Probably had a baby from a previous relationship, most likely a private hospital caesarean the woman had been steered towards, and this guy thought he knew it all. Then again, maybe she was being unfair and he had a congenital twitch. She shrugged, unusually glad the class had finished, and locked the last window.
As it was only the beginning of March, it was still warm even at this time of night. That’s what she liked about southern New South Wales – the extension of summer and the quiet peace of the meandering creeks that flowed down into the Murrumbidgee River. There was a special bend in the Burra creek that she loved where white-trunked river gums glistened on full moon nights like this. In fact, she could do with some calm contemplation by moonlight tonight – but her aunt would be waiting for her.
Noni zipped up her leather jacket and pulled the door shut behind her. Tomorrow would bring more junior cricket and her first day as coach of the under-sixes. Out of twelve boys, how come she scored as the only parent able to spare the time to coach?
She glanced around a little uneasily as she crossed the dim car park, and jumped as a terrified rabbit ran past her ankle. ‘That startled both of us, bunny,’ she murmured. She reached her one indulgence, unclipped her helmet and climbed on. Noni pressed the ignition, gunned the big motorbike and grinned at the powerful response of the engine. The growl of power never failed to lift her spirits. She flipped up the stand and accelerated into the corner as she left the hospital grounds.
The wind in her face blew the first-night tension into the ether. The air brushed her skin like warm velvet in the early night as she burbled along, raising her mood back to its usual buoyant optimism.
Ten minutes later her fingers eased the throttle as she pulled into her driveway and the bike settled to a quieter rumble. All the lights were on in the guesthouse. So, Aunt Win’s new lodgers had arrived.
Under the five-vehicle carport, a sleek Lexus sat disdainfully next to Aunt Win’s dusty table-top u
tility truck. Noni rolled the bike over to the V-shaped ledge she’d made to save having to wrestle the bike onto its stand every night. That could be an issue when little women had big bikes. If the bike started to fall over it usually meant strain, struggle, and then that embarrassingly irreversible slide to the ground.
As she walked past the twin white columns at the entrance and pushed open the front door to go in, the ambience from her pleasant ride fell like a saddlebag breaking its strap and going plonk onto the ground.
‘Noni!’ Luckily, Aunt Win enfolded her in her usual hug and she had a moment to lift her jaw from the timber floor.
Aunt Win, with her long, white braided hair swinging, was dressed as usual in pastel-coloured cheesecloth. Win revelled in being a sixties child, had been to Woodstock, listened to Marianne Faithfull, and wore the colours of the rainbow in soft skirts and flat sandals. Her rosy-cheeked aunt reminded Noni of a bygone fairy godmother in technicolour, and her twinkling blue eyes seemed to derive pleasure out of thin air. Her skin had been tanned an even brown. To Noni, Win embodied peace and tranquillity. And home. She mothered Noni while Noni mothered the mothers.
The faint drift of rose oil settled over Noni and she hugged her aunt in return. Perhaps a little harder than usual, and with eyes shut.
Win patted her back. ‘You’ve met Iain and Jacinta McCloud, of course.’
Noni reluctantly drew away and opened her eyes. She should have had that moonlight meditation down at the river because she wasn’t relaxed enough to deal with this. Still, she plastered a smile on her face and turned to face them. ‘Hello again.’
‘They’ll be staying with us for the next few weeks,’ Win supplied. ‘Maybe even staying on to have her baby here if Jacinta decides she wants to.’
She’s got six weeks until we shut, Noni thought dismally. Jacinta’s scowl didn’t change and Noni wondered if her face got tired from holding the fierce expression.
‘Did you enjoy tonight’s class?’ Noni directed her question at Jacinta.
The girl yawned and her face did relax a little then. ‘Yeah, it was okay. I’m going to bed.’ The lack of enthusiasm prickled a warning to the midwife in Noni and she glanced at Aunt Win. Despite her usual smile, her aunt’s eyes shone with concern. It seemed they both agreed that this young woman was in for a difficult couple of months ahead. Noni watched the girl turn to the stairs. For a young woman away from her friends, late pregnancy, labour and new motherhood were all lonely places if you didn’t let people in.
Jacinta pulled herself up the stairs with the rail and when she disappeared Noni turned back to the man beside her aunt. She guessed she’d have to say something to him. ‘And you?’
‘I found the class very interesting.’ He sounded sincere and looked much more comfortable than earlier, which seemed reassuring. Aunt Win had that influence on people.
His blue eyes spiked with humour, an unexpected facet of him, and Noni felt an uncomfortable tug of attraction in her stomach before she stamped it down. She’d spent the last five years clawing her way back to respectability in a small town that loved to talk; she wasn’t about to become attracted to a dad-to-be.
‘I’m glad there were chairs and not the pillows and mats I expected.’ His smile encouraged Noni to join him in being amused.
She half smiled back before she realised the guy appeared to be actually flirting with her. Cold settled over her with the thought. The slime. No wonder Jacinta was unhappy.
‘That’s week three when the physiotherapist comes. Well, nice meeting you.’ Her tone said otherwise. ‘I’m for bed, too.’ She turned her back on him to face her aunt.
Win had her small smile on her face as if she knew something Noni didn’t. Her aunt was a big believer in people learning their own life lessons and Noni’s heart sank a little. Now what?
She shrugged it off. All she said was, ‘Big day at cricket tomorrow. Harley and I should be out of here by about eight-fifteen. I’ll be back before one, so you can still get away by twelve-thirty. Is that okay?’ They’d come to that arrangement years ago. Win’s rules.
‘Fine. I’ll leave a couple of quiches out and you can make a salad and sweets for our guests for tea. We need to fatten Jacinta up. That girl is all baby.’
Noni laughed, her good humour restored. ‘You said the same thing about me when I turned up on your doorstep.’ She hadn’t thought about that time for a while. Maybe it would help her connect with Jacinta. It wasn’t that long ago.
She hugged her aunt again and nodded to Iain before half jogging up the stairs on the way to her son’s bedroom.
Chapter Five
Win
Winsome Frost noted her guest watching her niece’s bottom bob up the stairs, and if she wasn’t mistaken, he’d forgotten to breathe. She tried not to grin. Poor guy was having a wild week.
When he dragged his eyes back to her he exhaled a sigh. ‘I’ll never sleep. I don’t often go to bed before midnight. May I use the library you showed me earlier, please, Miss Frost?’
Win patted his arm. The muscles were so tense under her fingers she wondered when was the last time someone had actually patted him. ‘Call me Win, and the house is yours except for the east wing where Noni and Harley have their own quarters.’ She watched his shoulders ease a fraction. He was strained tighter than her front fence.
‘Thanks, Win. I appreciate you taking us in at such short notice. It’s true what they say about the hospitality of country people.’
Win laughed. ‘I’m sure there’re guesthouses in the city where they like having guests, too. It’s what we do. But any friend of Greg Soams is a friend of mine. We’ll go the extra mile to help you two sort it out.’
‘Thank you. It’s been a big week.’
‘I’ll bet it has. For both of you. Greg said you had no idea about Jacinta prior to this. That would be a shock for any man to find her at seventeen.’
Iain looked at her with sincerity in his eyes. ‘I always wanted children. But I admit teenage-daughter negotiation is a skill set I haven’t mastered.’
Win smiled at him. ‘Yet.’ She suspected Iain McCloud wasn’t used to situations out of his control.
‘I want this to work out very much. Not just for me but for Jacinta. I owe her that.’
Win thought that Jacinta didn’t know if she was relieved she had someone to take care of her or angry that Iain threatened her independence. She suspected it was a mixture of both. There was adjustment needed on both sides and they only had these few weeks until the baby was born. At least they’d come to Burra. It was a safe place.
‘You strike me as an intelligent man. You’ll get the hang of it.’ She shooed him with her hand. ‘Go through into the library and I’ll get you some coffee – or would you like a glass of whisky?’
‘Can I have both?’
She grinned at him and decided her new lodger could charm without even trying. Interesting. She’d seen the look of dislike her niece had sent him. Her mouth twitched. He must have been out of line in the antenatal classes, which wasn’t surprising. Greg Soams had told her the man was a doctor and at sixes and sevens, and not recovered from discovering he had a daughter, let alone one who was seventeen and pregnant.
Win would help as much as she could. She’d do anything for Greg. Not for personal reasons though; she’d recovered from her infatuation of the man all those years ago when he’d married the wrong woman. He’d paid the price for that one and now had a daughter pretty much like the deceased mother to deal with, instead. Her thoughts shied away from wishing she didn’t dislike Greg’s daughter.
Win turned her thoughts to her own home and the sparks that would fly when Iain’s arrogance rubbed up against Noni’s stubbornness. She chuckled as she headed into the kitchen. She’d like to be a fly on the wall when they started pushing each other around. Still, she enjoyed her time with her weekend friends way too much to stay home.
And it looked like glorious weather this weekend, which was a bonus if you were going to en
joy nature to the fullest. They were going kayaking this week. It was a shame she’d miss Harley’s cricket, but she’d decided years ago that Harley and his mum needed time to themselves, and twenty-four-seven support wasn’t beneficial to her niece in the long run. Most weekends she left early and played away Saturday night, and came home Sunday afternoon.
Win thought about Jacinta, the young woman upstairs, barely a child bearing a child. Noni had come to her like Jacinta had, but she’d been a little older. Nearly twenty. Win had never tried to be the parents Noni had lost, because she’d had no experience of parenthood. Just the fullness of life and knowing things didn’t always work out the way you hoped they would. But she knew how to love her niece and later her great-nephew, and she was thankful for the day Noni had come into her life.
She bustled around to prepare the tray, heard Noni coming down the stairs, and suppressed a smile as she set the glasses.
‘Noni, dear. Could you carry this tray through to our guest, please.’
Chapter Six
Noni
Great, Noni thought, as she tried not to rattle the glass and the whisky decanter against each other. Iain McCloud sat in the big wing chair and looked as though he suffered from troubled thoughts.
The sound of the tray setting down beside him made him shift, but he continued to stare into the empty fireplace as if searching for answers just out of range of his vision.
‘Thank you. Am I the right person for her at this time? Do you think she’ll ever forgive me for not knowing about her?’
Noni had no idea what he was talking about so she didn’t answer.
He turned around, and his head jerked up in surprise. ‘I’m sorry, I thought you were your aunt.’
‘I had to go back to the kitchen and she asked me to bring this in.’ She looked down at him sitting erect in what should have been a comfy chair. His strong thighs looked taut in the expensive trousers, and the worry on his face was a far cry from his earlier humour.
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