The building had high ceilings and an old fireplace in the boardroom. It resembled the beer garden at the back of an old pub with wooden-backed chairs around the big oak table that dominated the room.
Matron’s office was tucked away to the side of the boardroom, next to an empty office, and jampacked with old medical books, black ledgers and a towering filing cabinet that looked older than the woman who waited for them with a frail outstretched hand.
Joan Winterbourne was nudging seventy but the snow-white bun caught tightly on her head pulled the wrinkled folds of her face up nicely so that she looked vaguely oriental in appearance and ten years younger than her age.
‘So you’ve managed to get her here finally, Andy,’ she said as she took Montana’s hand and pumped it. ‘Welcome, welcome to my nightmare.’
Andy grinned. ‘It’s not that bad, Joan. You’ll scare Montana off with your negativity.’
‘Pshaw,’ Joan scoffed. ‘Young people aren’t scared of anything these days. Especially a challenge. If I was twenty years younger I’d take it on myself but I find changes and bureaucrats exhausting. Still, it’s my fault. I won’t learn to e-mail and the fax is broken.’
Andy shook his head. ‘You should have told me your fax was broken. I’ll have a new one here this afternoon.’
‘You don’t need to be running after me, as well as everyone else, Andy,’ she said, but Montana could tell Joan was touched by Andy’s care.
‘You know I don’t mind.’ Andy changed the subject. ‘I thought I’d show Montana what a great little hospital we have with a quick tour. Do you want to come?’
‘Sounds good, but I’m expecting a call so I’ll pass. But you have fun.’
Joan waved them off and they left by a side door to cross the garden and enter into the larger building.
‘So you mentioned to Joan a while ago I might be interested in helping her?’ Montana slanted a look at him as he walked beside her to the next building.
He didn’t meet her eyes. ‘I could have done.’
‘Cagey, aren’t you?’ She stopped and waited for him to stop, too, then narrowed her eyes at him. ‘When?’
He smiled. ‘About a month ago. I was waiting for you to get bored.’
‘What faith you have in me, sir.’
‘I do, don’t I?’ She wondered why that comment of his hit a hollow nerve under her rib cage but decided it was probably a need for coffee. Things had been a little hectic that morning and she’d missed out.
They entered by the side door of the emergency department. The area housed an observation ward, two triage bays and a minor operating theatre. The office looked over the half a dozen plastic chairs in the waiting room, two of which were occupied.
Andy gestured with his arm. ‘We have facilities to keep three patients in beds here and two in the triage bays if we have to.’
A nurse was undressing a familiar looking man’s bandaged arm and Andy paused beside her to check the healing process on the patient.
‘You remember Paul, from the flying club? He burnt his arm last Friday at another barbecue and Chrissie’s been dressing it every day. Chrissie is our registered nurse on duty. Chrissie, this is Montana—she’s the midwife staying with Ned and I.’
Paul waved his unbandaged hand. ‘You’ll have to wait for me to heal before I can take you up,’ he said, and Montana nodded sagely.
Chrissie smiled. ‘Hi, there, Montana. I hear you made quite a hit with Emma yesterday.’
Montana smiled at the tall blonde woman. ‘Word gets around.’
‘Not much misses the bush telegraph around here.’ Chrissie put her hand to her ear and pretended to listen. Her hand dropped and she grinned. ‘Actually, her father is my cousin.’
Montana smiled back. ‘I’ll remember that.’
Andy nodded at Paul’s arm. ‘It’s looking a lot better, Paul. I reckon your wife could bandage that now. Just come back Monday for a final check or sooner if you have any worries. OK?’
‘Thanks, Andy. I’ll drop a turkey off for Louisa. We’re culling at home and she said she’d like one for Ned’s party.’
‘Thanks. Just don’t get germs in your burn, mate.’ Andy grinned and tapped him on the back before he turned to Chrissie.
‘Anybody you worried about in the waiting room, Chrissie?’
She shook her head. ‘Not at the moment. Just two for dressings. And Bill said Eva’s observations are fine so we’ll continue with your plans to send her home after four hours. The base hospital rang and confirmed the X-ray shows no skull fractures. She wasn’t unconscious for more than a few seconds.’
A male nurse filled out a patient chart at the end of the only occupied bed. Andy crossed to him and Montana followed.
‘Bill is our enrolled nurse who doubles as an orderly when we need things moved. He’s a jack of all trades and we’d be lost without him.’
Bill, a short, thin man who could have been a jockey, held out his hand and shook Montana’s. ‘Andy’s just saying that because he wants me to take all the oxygen cylinders into town and get them exchanged. And pick up doughnuts.’
He gestured to the patient and lowered his voice. ‘Eva’s asleep but she’s easily woken.’
Andy nodded and checked the chart before they moved on to tour the main ward.
The ward area was divided into five female and five male beds—three with elderly patients in them—and two ancillary rooms plus a staff cafeteria just off the kitchen.
‘The enrolled nurses run this end and the RN on duty comes through from Outpatients and give any S8 medications when needed. Otherwise the nurses down here are self-sufficient. So what do you think?’
Andy was like a proud father and she thought it endearing he could be so proud of a hospital. She still thought he needed a life, though.
‘Your baby is very nice. Now—where would the midwifery happen?’
He raised his eyebrows suggestively. ‘Nittygritty, eh?’ He spun on his heel and gestured for her to follow him.
‘There’s a wing tacked onto the main building. Come and I’ll show you. It was offered to me as accommodation but I much preferred to stay with Ned and Louisa.’
He spoke over his shoulder. ‘I thought about offering it to you but I’m glad I didn’t. I’d have missed out on Dawn and I’m very fond of her.’ He paused as if he was going to add something else but didn’t.
There was a twinkle in his eye and she wondered what else he’d been thinking, but then they arrived and Andy found a key on his keyring that opened the door.
‘The wing has a couple of big rooms and a heap of small ones and is self-contained,’ he said.
The hallway was dusty and the room needed airing but when Montana pulled up the blinds sunlight flooded in through windows and she could see the outlook was splendid.
The wing even had a walled courtyard that clients could use in labour and still have privacy.
Andy stood in the hallway and watched her indulgently, amused when she muttered under her breath and generally just enjoyed her reactions.
Montana pushed open doors and pulled blinds and when she’d finished she turned to face him with a smile that made him feel like he’d just seen a sunburst.
‘It could be perfect. It’s a great building. Not too big and not too small.’
Her excitement transmitted easily to him. ‘There’s nothing structural that needs doing and we even have a big bath.’
He could feel himself frown and tried to erase it. He wasn’t sure he was comfortable with water births as such. ‘Why do you want a bath?’
‘Pain relief,’ she said sweetly, and changed the subject. ‘We could caseload easily here and open it only when someone was in labour. That way you wouldn’t have staff on duty when they weren’t needed and if you had three or four midwives on a roster, there would be no problem manning it for the amount of births we’d start off with.’
Andy loved to see her so enthusiastic and motivated. It reminded him of himself when he talked about
the hospital but he still had that little concern about the bath. But he’d follow up on that later when she’d settled down.
‘I’ve been onto the base hospital,’ he said. ‘They have leftover equipment from refurbishing if you want to think about a shopping list, and we have some funding from the ladies’ hospital auxiliary.
‘We’d have to talk to Carrie, our auxiliary president, but if you produce a proposal that covers most things, I’d be happy to support you to the board and the auxiliary for purchases.’
Montana spun slowly around again, assessing the rooms. ‘It could all happen fairly quickly—the physical part, that is. The government requirements, staffing and the liaison with the base for emergencies would take longer. Say four or five months.’
‘Well in time for Emma,’ Andy suggested, and they both smiled.
He watched her face and realised he hadn’t felt so positive for along time. ‘I was thinking maybe before then you could move your well-women’s clinic over here and maybe even antenatal classes.’
She twirled and extended her arms. ‘I love the way you think. I’m very excited, Andy.’
He could tell. Her eyes shone and she looked as if she’d like to grab him and kiss him. He wished.
But that wasn’t why he’d brought her here, and he needed to remember that. He’d brought her here to establish this service and broaden the staff skill mix. ‘I’m pretty keen myself.’
Back at the doctors’ residence that evening Montana slipped out of her room after settling Dawn to sleep. The house was encircled by wide verandas and Montana’s room was positioned a few doors along the high-ceilinged central hallway from Andy’s.
Despite the close proximity of all their sleeping arrangements, she’d never heard any noises from other parts of the house when the doors were shut or actually even seen the door open to Andy’s room.
Unusually, today Andy’s door stood open, and she couldn’t help but glance in as she passed.
She blinked and looked again. Andy stood in the centre of a huge wood-panelled room dressed only in jockey shorts. Acres of strong brown chest seemed to fill Montana’s vision and after another quick stunned look Montana swung her head away and quickened her step.
Andy’s voice followed her. ‘Stop! Montana, wait.’ Montana turned back towards him with her gaze firmly anchored on the high ceiling.
Andy chuckled. ‘Come on, Sister Brown, I’m sorry I shocked you, but you’ve seen guys in their jocks before.’
Montana rolled her eyes. ‘Come on Andy. How about if I stand with my door open in my bra and undies and call out to you as you go past. Please.’
Andy grinned hugely. ‘Now, that’s an idea. Any time.’
‘Men!’ She resumed her progress down the hall and he came out in all his glory to call after her.
‘Wait, Montana. Can I have your help for a second, please? Really.’
He lowered his voice. ‘We’re having a surprise birthday for Ned’s seventieth and I’d like to buy a kilt and jacket on the internet. I have to give measurements and I’ve always been hopeless at estimating clothes sizes.’
Andy stood there, six feet plus of gloriously muscled male swinging a tape measure in skintight black cotton underwear that left nothing to the imagination.
Suddenly there wasn’t enough air in the hallway, maybe not enough in the whole of Lyrebird Lake, and she could feel the heat creep up her neck.
Looking at someone couldn’t make you faint so she must be coming down with something. Her tongue felt dry against the roof of her mouth and she looked down at her clenched hands. She moistened her lips and forced herself to answer past her dry throat.
She coughed. She was definitely coming down with something. ‘A kilt and jacket would need to fit well. The hardest thing would be the jacket.’ She glanced again at Andy and the last bit came out in a squeak.
Andy didn’t seem to notice. ‘I could overcome that if you help me. Ned’s been at me to buy a kilt because my ancestors were Scots, too, and I want to surprise him on the night.’
‘Clan Buchanan?’ She raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
‘Of Buchanan Castle. I looked it up on the internet.’
‘OK. I’ll suspend belief. Don’t you want to go to a shop and get fitted? That’s what most people do.’
‘No way to do that here and I don’t have the time to go elsewhere. Please. I could really do with some help.’
He held up a printed sheet on a clipboard. ‘I’ve typed them all on here.’
Montana chewed her lip and pictured herself running the tape measure intimately over Andy. The picture was a little too graphic and she blushed again and avoided his eyes.
Silly, but she couldn’t help this swamped feeling that had come out of nowhere. ‘There must be a seamstress in town who’d be better at this than me.’
Despite the almost overwhelming impulse to do just that, she looked anywhere but at him. ‘Or what about Louisa?’
‘The local seamstress would let everyone know what I’m doing and I want it to be a surprise. And I want to surprise Louisa, too.’
She didn’t think she could do this.
CHAPTER SIX
RELUCTANTLY Montana accepted the tape measure and sucked in her breath. She avoided his eyes—she could do this.
Andy would be embarrassed too, she reassured herself, but when she looked at him again to check the validity of that thought, he winked at her like a mischievous six-year-old.
The emotion that shone out of those wicked green eyes was not embarrassment. It was pure unholy amusement.
She looked away hurriedly and ran her fingers over the thin white tape as she psyched herself up for something she definitely wasn’t comfortable with.
He wasn’t going to go away. And she wasn’t going to let him know how hard this would be. So, she let her breath out and moved closer.
Her words came out quietly as she compressed her lips. ‘Let’s get it over with then.’
Andy stood tall, lifted his chin, and spoke to the top of her head. ‘That was brusque. I wouldn’t like you to be too thrilled at the prospect of measuring my manly stature.’
‘I’ll try not to be.’ She lifted his arm and he let it flop down again without taking the weight. His shoulders shook and she could feel a tiny giggle inside that she refused to allow to escape.
‘Hold up your arm, please.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Arm length,’ she intoned and then measured inside and outlengths, ignoring the subtle firmness of the muscles under her fingers. ‘I’ll measure and you write it down.’
He rested the clipboard on top of the old-fashioned table so she could see what was needed and did what he was told between measurements. Biddable at present, she noted suspiciously.
‘Wrist.’ She measured and waited for Andy to write it down.
The next request made her stomach flicker and then she swallowed. ‘Biceps.’
His shoulders shook again and she closed her eyes. She’d known it would get harder.
‘Do you want it flexed or deflexed?’ he said.
She slanted a look at him but his head was too high to see his expression. ‘You’re enjoying this.’
He looked down and grinned. ‘I’m having a ball.’
She chewed her lip again and thought about biceps. ‘I don’t know. Flexed I guess.’
Andy obliged and the tape measure trembled.
Montana changed her mind. ‘Um, deflexed, I think. Otherwise the fabric will be too…’ Her voice trailed off and he grinned again.
This was too much and he was not making it any easier. Her temper slipped a little. ‘For goodness’ sake, Andy. Get over yourself.’
His chest trembled with suppressed laughter. ‘Come on, Montana. This is hilarious.’
Despite herself she giggled. ‘OK. I’ll try not to stress.’ She had trouble concentrating. ‘Chest maybe?’
Andy shook his head as if she were a slow child. ‘Just follow the prompts on the sheet. We need a shoulder width first.’
>
She glared at him. ‘How about you read it and I’ll measure where you tell me?’
His eyebrows shot up wickedly. ‘That could be fun.’
She looked at the tape in her hand. ‘Stop teasing me or I’m out of here.’
He pulled his twitching smile into a serious face and lowered his voice until it was very deep. ‘Please, measure the shoulder width.’
She did. ‘Done.’
‘Neck.’
‘Can I pull it tight?’ Her voice was sweet even if her intent was not.
He loosened it from around his neck. ‘Be nice. Now the chest.’ The tape measure pulled tightly when he breathed in and she was secretly impressed. That new hollow in her chest seemed to glow as if someone had turned on a light in there.
‘Done,’ she mumbled less clearly.
‘Waist,’ he said, and the laughter was back in his voice.
She steeled herself to circle his hips with the tape measure and slide it up to his waist. The feel of his skin inside her wrists and forearms left more glowing warmth she ached to rub away but she didn’t want to draw attention to it. ‘Done.’ Her voice squeaked a little.
‘From armpit to waist and armpit to hip.’ That was easier. She could do that.
‘Inner thigh,’ he said in a bored voice.
Montana checked his face for humour but even though she couldn’t see him laughing she suspected he was beside himself. ‘Do your own.’
He exaggerated the measurement. ‘That would be enormous,’ he said.
‘Like your head. Give it to me. I’m a nurse. I can do this.’ She measured. ‘Done.’
‘Outside waist to knee.’ It was a long way and she had to get down on the floor to measure. His legs seemed to stretch for ever from his waist.
‘Inner thigh to knee.’
‘It does not ask for that.’ She snatched the sheet to check and there it was. Andy laughed.
‘I don’t believe this. You made up these measurements. You are some sicko voyeur. It’s a skirt, for heaven’s sake.’
‘Kilt,’ he corrected. ‘That’s the last one. You want me to move the tackle out of the way?’
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