A Month to Marry the Midwife

by Fiona McArthur

  Sam nodded mock-solemnly. ‘My friend with the ingrown toenail is my new best bud. He dropped off a dozen prawns yesterday at lunchtime and offered me a trip on his trawler but I said I needed to be on call.’

  She’d never been interested in offshore fishing but she was happy to hop on board a small tin dinghy and putt-putt around the creek.

  ‘Would you like to go out on a prawn trawler?’

  ‘It’d be interesting. Different way of spending your life than in a hospital seven days a week.’

  She threw a look at him. ‘Seven days a week is not healthy.’

  He raised his brows. His long stride shortened to match her shorter one. ‘I thought we’d agreed to disagree on how the other person spends their life.’

  Oops. ‘That’s true. Let’s talk about lighthouses. Lighthouse keepers worked seven days a week and only had one holiday a year.’

  There was a pause while he digested that. ‘Lighthouses. Yes. Let’s talk about lighthouses.’ The smile he gave her was so sweet she had a sudden vision of Sam as a very young boy with the innate kindness she could see in him now. She couldn’t say why, but she knew without a doubt he would never tease a heartbroken little girl who missed her mummy. He would more likely scold anyone who did. She really liked that little boy.

  She blinked away the silly fantasy and brought herself back to the hillside path they were on now. The grassy path wound along the edge of the cliff edge, a pristine white fence separated them from the drop and tufts of grass hid the crumbly edge. It was maintained by the present custodian of the lighthouse who lived off site. Glancing at Sam she manoeuvred herself to the side of the path nearest the cliff.

  ‘The lighthouse was built in the eighteen hundreds and is part of a network that was built right along the eastern seaboard after ships were floundering on the underwater rocks.’

  He was smiling at something then paused, turned and looked at her.

  ‘Are you listening to me being your guide?’

  He grinned. ‘Sorry. I was thinking I could see you as a lighthouse keeper.’

  She thought about that. Yes, she could have been a lighthouse keeper. ‘Except the position was only open to men—though they did prefer married men with families.’

  He smiled at that. ‘I imagine they would have big families if stuck in a lighthouse together.’

  She grinned at him. ‘The first couple who lived here had eleven children. He’d been a widower and he fell in love with a local girl—said the bay and the woman he found here healed him. They ended up with a big family. All natural births and all survived.’

  ‘What an amazing woman. And did they live here happily-ever-after?’

  ‘They moved to a lighthouse with bigger family quarters. Once in the lighthouse business, you tended to stay in the lighthouse business.’

  ‘She should have been a midwife.’ He laughed at that. ‘The children would have had a wonderful childhood.’

  ‘Some families were very isolated but at least here, at the bay, the children went to school and played with other children.’

  They arrived at the top of the hill. The base of the lighthouse and the tall tower were painted pristine white with concrete walls that were a third of a metre thick, which gave a hint at how solid the lighthouse was. They both looked up to the wrought-iron rail away at the top where the windows and the light were.

  ‘They have a tour tomorrow. You can go up the stairs inside and come out onto the walkway. It’s a great view.’

  Sam patted the solid walls. ‘Is this how thick the walls of your cottage are?’

  ‘Yep. It wasn’t usual for lighthouses to be built of concrete but there’s a couple on the north coast like that. I think the sisters liked it and that’s why they copied it.’

  * * *

  Sam watched her glance across the bay in the direction of the three cliff-top dwellings.

  She went on. ‘I love knowing my cottage is strong. I know the big bad wolf can’t blow my house down.’

  He’d suspected that was a reason she was holed away here in her house with thick walls. ‘Do you want to tell me about your big bad wolf?’

  ‘Nope.’ She glanced his way but her eyes skidded past his without meeting them. ‘Why spoil the afternoon?’

  She pushed past the lighthouse into the little forecourt that looked over the ocean. The thick walls bounded the scrubby cliff face and they could see right out to where the blue ocean met the horizon. An oil tanker was away in the distance and closer to the shore two small sailboats were ballooning across the waves. The wind blew her hair across her face and he wanted to lean in and move it, maybe trace her cheek.

  ‘I’m glad you’re enjoying present company.’

  She stared out over the ocean. He could feel the wall between them again. She was very good at erecting it. An absolute expert. Darn it.

  She said, ‘I enjoy the company of most people.’

  That showed him. ‘I won’t get over myself, then.’ He smiled down at his hands as he stroked the round concrete cap on top of the wall. She was good for his ego. He wouldn’t have one at all by the time he left here.

  The stone was warm from the sun, like Ellie had been warm. Sam remembered big hands cupping her firmly, stroking. Enjoying the feel of her under his fingers too.

  He could feel his body stir. She had him on the ropes just by being there. He tried to distract himself with the structure of the building. ‘It’s been designed well.’

  ‘What?’ She looked startled for a minute and he guessed it was too much to hope that she’d been thinking the same thing he’d been thinking. She worried at her lip and he wanted to reach out and tell her not to. He felt his fingers itch to touch that soft skin of her mouth. Gentle it. But he didn’t. He kept his hands where they were because of the damn wall. Not the wall under his hands. He patted that one. He guessed he had a few walls himself.

  ‘Yes.’ She turned away from him, sent him a distracted smile still without meeting his eyes. ‘I’ve had enough. It’s getting cool. Think I’ll go home and catch up on my Saturday chores. Maybe even light a fire for tonight.’

  Those were his marching orders. Get your milk and go. And he was learning that, when she said enough, it meant enough. He’d love to know what the guy in her past had done to her. And maybe take him out into a dark alley and make him regret it.

  * * *

  Sam didn’t see Ellie at all on Sunday. He thought about going up and asking for his dad’s surfboard as an excuse but that was lame.

  Monday and Tuesday there were no inpatients in Maternity and no births, so apart from a sociable few minutes he didn’t see Ellie, who was busy with antenatal women. He was called in to a birth Trina had overnight but the woman went home as soon as the four hours were up.

  By Friday he was going stir crazy. Maybe it was the wind. There were storm warnings and the ocean had been too rough to swim in this morning. He thought of her up there, with the wind howling, all by herself. Tomorrow he wouldn’t even have the excuse of work to see her.

  At the end of Friday’s work day, late that afternoon before he left as they stood outside in the warm sunshine, he searched his brain for ideas to meet up with Ellie. She had her bag and he was jingling his keys in his pocket even though he hadn’t brought his car.

  He needed inspiration for an invite. ‘That cyclone far north is staying nearer the coast than they thought it would.’

  ‘So it’ll be a windy night up in my cottage.’ She looked higher towards her house. Clouds were building. ‘I love nights when the wind creaks against the windows and you can hear the ocean smashing against the rocks below.’

  ‘It could turn nasty.’

  She looked at him as if he were crazy. Maybe he should have suggested picking up the board. He tried again. Time was running out. ‘This one might be more wi
nd than you bargain for.’

  She shrugged and began walking out to the road. The intersection loomed where she’d head up to her house and he’d head down to his guesthouse. It had been a forlorn hope she’d invite him up.

  Obviously that wasn’t on Ellie’s mind. ‘The warnings come all the time. Cyclones usually veer away at the last minute. Either way, I’ll be fine.’

  Sam wasn’t sure what had gone wrong. He’d thought they were getting along well, not too many pitfalls, but it seemed there always were pitfalls with Ellie Swift. And he kept falling into them. But there was nothing he could do except wave her goodbye. There was something about the set of her chin that warned him this wasn’t a good time to ask what she was doing tomorrow. He doubted he’d be lucky enough for another set of twins to call her out.

  CHAPTER NINE

  OVER THE NEXT few hours the wind blew more forcefully, the trees bent and swayed under it, and branches and twigs were flying down the street in front of the hospital. Sam dropped in to see if there were any medical needs but the wards remained quiet. Maternity sat empty. Empty without Ellie.

  As he battled his way back to his guesthouse he glared up towards Ellie’s house. Trina had gone away for the weekend and Myra had left as well. Again. Ellie was up there completely alone.

  He kept telling himself to stop it. She’d managed perfectly well without him worrying about her before. Her house was built to withstand anything the cliff tops could throw at it, and most likely she’d be offended if he asked if she wanted company. He wasn’t silly enough to think she’d want to move anywhere else to take refuge.

  He kept checking to see when the cyclone would veer out to the ocean and take the wind with it, but it hadn’t died down at all. If anything it blew even stronger.

  He drove down to the boat shed to chat to his friend, the prawn-trawler captain, and the seafarer shook his head sagely and said they were in for a ‘right good blow’.

  On the way back to the guesthouse, the weather warning over the radio finally clinched it.

  ‘Cyclone Athena will hit land just north of Lighthouse Bay in less than an hour.’

  That did it.

  He turned the car around, drove slowly up the cliff road to Ellie’s house and parked outside. He sat for a minute and looked at the other two houses, dark and deserted. He stared at Ellie’s. The light behind Ellie’s blinds bled into the late-afternoon gloom and the little flowering shrubs outside her door were bending in the wind.

  When he opened his car door it was a struggle to climb out. The wind pushed hard and he manhandled his door open and almost lost his grip when the wind slammed into him in a gust that would have broken his arm if he’d been caught between the car and the door.

  Now that would be embarrassing—coming up to help and having to be saved by Ellie. The wind pushed him towards Ellie’s door like a big hand in the small of his back and he realised that it really was too dangerous to be outside in this.

  Ellie only heard the knock at the door because it fell just as there was a pause in the commercial break.

  Funny how she knew who it was. When she opened the door, Sam would have loomed over her in his big coat if he wasn’t down one decent-sized step from her. As it was their noses were level. ‘Didn’t you see the weather warning?’

  Nice greeting. She had no idea how but she had the feeling he’d been stewing over something. ‘No. I’m watching a movie. It’s very peaceful inside!’

  ‘The cyclone is heading this way. You can’t sleep up here tonight.’

  Was he for real? As he finished speaking, a sudden gust buffeted the little house and the windows creaked.

  Ellie glared at Sam and narrowed her eyes. Just then a squall of rain swept sideways into Sam’s back and Ellie instinctively stepped aside. ‘Quickly. You’ll get drenched. Come in.’

  Sam bent down to take off his shoes and she dragged his arm impatiently. ‘Do that in here.’ As soon as he was across the threshold, she closed the door on the splattering raindrops that were making their way around his large body and onto the floor.

  Sam stood on one leg and pulled his loafers off. She caught the smell of damp leather, the expensive suede mottled in places, with grass stuck to the edges from where she’d furiously cut the lawn even shorter as she’d tried to exorcise her demons earlier this afternoon.

  ‘You’ve probably wrecked your shoes coming up here in them.’

  His face was strangely impassive. ‘Normal people don’t live on cliff tops.’

  What was his problem? ‘Normal people leave other people alone when they’ve been asked to.’ They were both speaking in the polite tones of people with patience tried by another’s stupidity.

  At that moment a fist of wind slammed solidly against the glass double doors facing the sea. The panes rattled. Then the wind sucked back fiercely before it slammed into the window again.

  Ellie stopped and stared. The windows creaked and Sam placed his second loafer onto the little tray of seashells Ellie used for lining up inside shoes off the floor and he wiped the water droplets from his hair with a handkerchief.

  ‘That’s strong,’ she said lamely in a normal voice.

  ‘Really?’ She could hear the exasperation in his voice. ‘I couldn’t leave you up here by yourself.’ Sam was still speaking quietly.

  ‘I wasn’t by myself.’ She indicated Myra’s cat. Millicent appeared absorbed in the television and the antics of a well-dressed woman feeding cat food to a white Persian feline.

  ‘Perfect reasoning,’ he said mildly. It was infuriating he had regained equilibrium faster than she had. She’d just have to try harder.

  ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Politeness was good. The wind slammed against the windows again. No doubt it was slamming against her solid thick walls as well but nobody could tell that. ‘My croft won’t blow down, you know.’

  Sam looked at the walls thoughtfully. ‘I can imagine that you are correct. But it has weaknesses.’ His voice lowered to an almost undistinguishable mumble. ‘And obviously so do I.’

  She heard him sigh as he straightened. ‘I just want to make sure you...’ He glanced at Millicent and corrected himself. ‘You’re both okay.’

  He pointed to the windows. ‘I seem to remember there are shutters that close from the outside—is that right?’

  Ellie had forgotten the shutters. Too late. Next time. She didn’t fancy the idea of going out in that maelstrom to shut them. ‘Yes, but it might be too windy to shut them now.’

  Sam looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. What was his problem? ‘A woman’s logic.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  As if to a child, he said, ‘The shutters are there to use during extreme wind.’ He spoke as if she was slow to understand. She was getting sick of his ‘silly little Ellie’ attitude. ‘So the glass doesn’t blow in?’

  ‘The glass won’t blow in.’ She said it confidently. At least, the words came out confidently. Ellie had a sudden vision of glass flying all over the room. Of Millicent splattered with dangerous fragments and the wind and rain belting into the little room. Her calmness wavered. Millicent had to be safe. ‘You’re sure it’s going to be that strong?’

  Just then Ellie’s feline friend disappeared and the serious voice of the weather forecaster broke into the room.

  ‘This is an SES announcement. Severe wind warning for the north coast of New South Wales has been posted. The tail of Cyclone Athena, which had previously been expected to head out to sea, has swung back into the coast with two-hundred-kilometre winds expected right along the eastern seaboard. Residents are recommended to stay in their homes and cancel all unnecessary travel on the roads until further notice. Flash flooding and wind damage is expected. The State Emergency Service can be reached on this number...’

  A six-digit number flashed onto the sc
reen just before the power went out.

  The windows rattled menacingly in the sudden silence. Ellie stared at Sam.

  He said quietly, ‘Now can we close the shutters?’

  ‘Might be a good idea.’ The wind slammed again.

  Sam was staring at the rain spotting the windows. ‘Maybe it is too late for that. I think coming down to the hospital and staying there might be a better idea.’

  As if. ‘I’m not dragging Millicent through this wind. We’ll be fine. But you’re right. You should go before the wind gets stronger and you can’t make it down the hill.’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘I’ll do the shutters.’

  No way! ‘I’ll do the shutters, because this is my house and I know how they fasten. And you’re afraid of heights.’

  He sighed, this time with exasperation. ‘I’m wary of heights and more afraid that you’ll blow off the cliff.’

  Her eyes flew to his and the certainty in his face made her stop. He really was worried about her, to the extent he was willing to do something he normally wouldn’t consider. Wayne would never have done that. The little voice inside her whispered, Sam isn’t like Wayne. From the set chin to the determined gaze, he wasn’t going to be swayed.

  He lowered his voice. ‘You need to stay here with Millicent.’ He smiled down at the black cat who had crept across and was rubbing against Ellie’s leg. He spoke to the animal. ‘Can you mind Aunty Ellie while I go out and close the shutters against the wind, please?’

  Millicent miaowed and Sam laughed. ‘The cat wins.’

  Ellie looked around. It was dark without the television.

  ‘Fine. I’ll light the lamps that I keep in the cupboard for when the silly old lights and TV go off.’ She added breezily, ‘It happens all the time when the wind blows strongly.’

  ‘Do you have candles?’

  She thought about Sam and her in her house, cut off from the world, with candles. ‘I might.’

  Ellie’s face heated and she hoped he couldn’t see. It was pretty dim in here. She couldn’t read his eyes but she suspected they’d darkened.