Susie had come out to the verandah and Cate hurried up the steps to hug her.
Cate took one look at the fear in her friend’s face and made her decision. She’d worry about Noah later. Susie was dressed in a skirt and blouse and her rounded belly poked out in front like a beach ball. The fabric tightened over the bulge every time she moved.
‘You’re coming back with me. You should be happy at this time, not scared witless. Can you get a message to Pete to let him know you’re going in?’
Susie’s relief shone in her eyes. ‘I said I might go back if you said it was all right. Pete was happy about that. He’ll ring as soon as he saves any oysters he can. My bag’s packed.’
‘Good girl.’ Cate stepped into the house and lifted the bulging bag beside the door. ‘Let’s go. I’m not impressed with your watchdog spiders.’
Susie shivered. ‘The snakes are worse. We must have five varieties hiding under the house.’
Both women were glad to get to the boat. Cate helped Susie with her lifejacket and then they sat together in the middle of the boat. There was a slight breeze and the first part of the ride was peaceful as they crossed over submerged fences and paddocks towards the river. Paul radioed Control to say they were heading back with precious cargo.
Noah was there and he couldn’t believe he’d heard right. Cate hadn’t told him she’d planned this and if he hadn’t been down here at the control centre he wouldn’t have known. He flexed his fingers. He visualised the river they’d only briefly skirted yesterday and he could almost feel the force of the water in his imagination. Wasn’t that woman afraid of anything? Well, he bloody well was. He’d strangle her. As long as she didn’t kill herself.
Back on the river, Cate had found something to fear. The boat had just made it into the main stream when the engine spluttered twice and died. Even though it had been in the background all the time, the sudden silence from the motor accentuated the grumbling roar of the rushing river.
Cate’s hold on Susie’s hand tightened as they listened to Paul abuse the boat as he pulled the cord to restart the engine. Strangely, Cate had a sudden vivid image of Noah and the thought steadied her. Susie clutched her stomach.
Paul fiddled with the fuel line and swore again as the nose of the boat swung back the way they’d come. As their forward speed dropped off, Susie moaned. The boat rocked and was swept away with the river and out towards the middle of the flow. The hull thunked as floating logs jostled with it in the wash.
When Noah heard the distress call come through on the radio, his stomach dropped. He met the eyes of Angela and the worry in her face was enough to chill his blood.
‘Get me on the helicopter that’s going after them.’
Angela was calm in the crisis and contacted the nearest army helicopter. She glanced up at Noah. ‘There’s one at the hospital helipad now. I’ll ask them to wait for you.’
Noah strode to his car and the engine roared as he accelerated up the hill to the hospital. He drove the wrong way up the one-way lane and parked beside the helipad just as the rotors started up.
‘What’s happening?’ he shouted as he ducked his head to climb in.
The pilot ignored him as they took off and the navigator gestured for him to come closer. ‘We’ve got them on radio and are talking Paul through re-priming the engine. It’s their best shot.’
Noah couldn’t believe it. ‘Why doesn’t he know how to do that without help?’
‘He does. But it’s better to talk it through in moments of crisis.’ The navigator pressed his earphone closer to his ear. ‘He’s got it going and the boat is turning.’
Noah sagged back on the bench seat until he saw the navigator press the earphone to his ear again. ‘Copy that,’ he said, and wiped his face. ‘Hell. At least we have a doctor on the chopper.’
‘What?’ Noah almost shouted.
‘The patient’s water’s broken and it looks like the baby’s coming.’ The soldiers in the cabin exchanged looks.
A baby Noah could deal with. Cate’s boat without power on the river was more of a problem. ‘Get them to the edge of the river. And get us down there.’
The next few minutes passed in a blur for Noah as he stared out the window and willed Cate’s boat to find somewhere safe to land. The river flashed below him and the flotsam and debris all looked like Cate to Noah.
Finally their quarry stopped and the helicopter settled a little further back from the edge of the fast-flowing water.
Noah was the first out, his face like a thundercloud. He pulled Cate from the boat, hugged her once and then thrust her aside to gather up the pregnant woman in his arms.
‘Let’s go,’ he shouted at Cate as she stood, stunned, and stared at him.
Cate couldn’t believe it was Noah. She’d never been so glad to see anyone in her life. She had to admit she’d been scared. Birth was natural but boats and cold winds were not normal for newborn babies and a dead motor in flood waters was just too much.
Now she had to get into the helicopter and she hated flying. Her hand started to shake and she nearly dropped Susie’s bag. She couldn’t get in, but Noah was already inside with the mother-to-be—and Susie needed her.
Cate felt like throwing up as she was pulled inside and with the thump of rotors above them it all swam in front of her eyes. They were finally in the air. Cate had hold of Susie’s hand again but she wasn’t sure for whose comfort it was.
Susie moaned and closed her eyes. The baby’s birth was very close and Cate blocked out the thought that they were hundreds of feet up in the air skimming across a river that would love to gobble them up.
‘It’s OK now, Susie.’ She poured as much reassurance into her smile as possible.
Susie’s eyes sprang open. ‘That was pretty wild, Cate.’
Cate squeezed her hand. ‘Guess whose baby is going to be a real rural survivor?’
‘It’s coming now.’ Susie’s eyes widened and her breath shortened. ‘How can that be when I haven’t had any pains?’
‘Your baby is doing this his or her way.’ Cate smiled. ‘Every now and then that’s how it works. But you’ve known all day it’s coming so that’s like labour.’
Susie’s hand tightened and she spoke through gritted teeth. ‘I have to push.’
‘Well, push, Suse.’ Cate knew that nothing would stop the birth of Susie’s baby and all she could do was make it seem as natural as possible in a noisy helicopter surrounded by five men, four dressed in camouflage. She smiled at Noah with the knowledge that he was there to help. Susie and her baby would be fine.
‘Let’s get organised.’ She reassured Susie before reaching down under the blankets to remove her underwear.
She heard Noah ask for a medical kit and some towels and she remembered the kit in her pocket. She pulled the plastic bag off it and spread the wrapping open to make a tiny clean area. Inside were a plastic kidney dish, a pair of scissors, two plastic cord clamps and a pair of gloves. You really didn’t need much to have a baby, she thought whimsically.
Susie moaned and Cate soothed her as she settled the blanket back against itself to reveal Susie’s legs and the tiny sliver of baby’s head as it peeped through his mother’s perineum. Cate donned her gloves and waited for Susie’s baby to arrive.
Slowly more head appeared as Susie opened like a flower, her labia spreading as the dark-haired child unflexed its head and then rotated it into the world. Cate rested her hands gently on each side of the baby’s head and checked carefully for cord around the neck. When she didn’t find any, they waited for the next contraction. Suddenly, with a gentle rush, the baby slid into Cate’s hands. Damp and slippery, the little girl mewled at the faces around her.
‘Look, Susie. What have you got?’ Noah’s voice was deep and soft.
Susie opened her eyes and gazed in awe at her daughter. ‘It’s a girl.’ Cate wiped the baby with a towel and clamped and cut the shiny purple lifeline as Susie unbuttoned her shirt so her daughter could lie inside ne
xt to her skin and keep warm.
Ten minutes later they made a strange procession as they came through the doors of Maternity, a soldier pushing one end of the trolley and Noah the other. Susie and her baby were buried under a mound of army blankets. The baby didn’t cry at all.
Noah left them at the door to Maternity when his pager beeped, and Cate took over his end of the trolley. His eyes pierced Cate’s and his voice was implacable. ‘Ring me when you’re finished.’
She found herself simply nodding.
Surprisingly quickly, Susie was settled into bed with baby Chloe in a cot beside her. Cate wrote up Chloe’s birth information in her mother’s medical records and the birth register. When that was done, Cate laid down her borrowed pen, rested her head in her hands for a moment and thanked God it had all turned out well.
She massaged her forehead. Could she have done anything differently? Had her association with Noah affected her ability to trust her own instincts? Could she have known without hindsight that it would have been safer to fly Susie out of there? Or had it been a chain of circumstances that had just happened? She’d never know.
The other disturbing fact was that her thoughts had gone to Noah in her neediest hour, and he was a man on a mission who was just passing through. How was she going to feel when he went back to Sydney?
Noah pushed open the maternity door. He hadn’t been able to wait. His fear while the boat carrying Cate had tossed at the mercy of the swollen river had ripped his heart out. A picture of Cate, lifeless on some muddy bank, sat in his brain like a spectre.
He was furious. With Cate for putting herself at risk. With himself for not listening when she’d wanted the woman to come in. With SES for having a boat with an engine that had died and even with baby Chloe for deciding to be born at such a dangerous time. And all of that anger was ridiculous and he knew it. Just couldn’t help it.
Because he’d nearly lost someone who matched him in every way. Someone who filled him with the knowledge that he was alive and living life to the full. And the more he learnt about her, the more he cared. And the really scary thing was that he knew he’d be happy to keep learning for the rest of his life.
But she should never have gone out on that boat alone, and he was going to tear a piece off her so that she would never do anything so dangerous again.
Then he saw her, her head in her hands as she sat at the desk in the office. She looked forlorn and was probably beating herself up for everything not turning out perfectly. Suddenly all the anger seeped out of him—he just needed to hold her.
Noah shut the door and then stepped up behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder until she turned.
‘Stand up,’ he said, and for once she did what he asked without questioning. He turned her to face him and gently pulled her into his arms to hold her close.
She resisted and he shushed her and then she was soft and pliant against him. He cradled her head against his cheek and reassured himself that she was solid and warm and safe in his arms. His Cate. That subtle perfume she wore wove a tighter spell around his heart and he closed his eyes for a moment.
‘We have to talk.’ His voice was low and deep and it sent shivers across Cate’s neck.
His arms felt strong and comforting around her and she’d never felt so warm and safe and feminine. She’d always thought her femininity would make her weak but she felt stronger with his strength around her.
When his lips met hers she understood that kisses could be many things. This was different and wholesome and awesome and Noah. Cate felt welded to him with heat and homecoming. He crushed her against him and she gloried in his strength. Her fingers spread up and over his shoulders and she held him against her as if to confirm this was where she belonged. It all felt so right.
Insistently, the phone rang beside them on the desk and reluctantly they broke apart. Cate felt renewed and smiled softly and intimately at Noah as she picked up the phone.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS Brett and the mood shattered into a million jagged pieces. ‘I thought I’d find you there. I’m in the cafeteria. Come and have tea with me.’
It was the last thing Cate wanted to do but she’d promised she’d see him today. It seemed days since Iris had passed away and yet it had only been this morning. She hesitated and Noah raised his eyebrows in question. The warmth in his eyes scattered her wits and she turned away from him to answer. ‘Give me five minutes,’ she said into the phone. ‘I’ll meet you there. Bye.’
‘Who was that?’ His brows had snapped together.
It was his tone that did it. He expected to be obeyed. Cate frowned. ‘Have you designated yourself as my keeper now?’
‘I said we need to talk.’ His voice was low but inflexible.
‘Perhaps,’ she said more cautiously as she realised he’d planned to railroad her and she’d nearly crumbled. ‘Perhaps not.’ Her decision was made. ‘I have to go.’
He caught her hand as she brushed past him and she stopped. Cate looked down at where he held her until his fingers loosened and he dropped her wrist. ‘Very sensible’ was all she said, and she walked away.
Noah took a deep breath as he watched her disappear up the corridor. She was stubborn and he’d been a fool. He couldn’t force her to listen to him and he certainly couldn’t expect her to feel the same as he did.
All he was sure of was that today, terrified he would lose her, he’d realised without a doubt that he loved Cate. Why had he tried to steamroller her just now? He’d make up for it next time, unless she did something to make him forget.
Brett stood up when Cate appeared at the table beside him. She admitted wryly to herself that he’d always been a fast learner. ‘How are you, Brett?’ They sat down together and he leaned across and rested his forehead against hers.
‘Sad. And lonely.’ His voice was mournful and she sighed. She was beginning to wonder if she’d spent the whole year engaged to him exhaling in frustration.
Cate concentrated on consoling him but the weariness inside her was hard to hide. ‘You’ll always be sad your mum isn’t here to talk to. She loved you so much, and she’ll watch over you. That’s not my job, Brett. Go back to Sydney. Some wonderful woman one day will capture your heart and you’ll settle down and have a family and be someone’s dad. You’ll recapture the essence of your parents when that time comes.’
He squeezed her hand. ‘Are you sure it can’t be you?’
Cate shook her head. ‘I’ve changed, Brett. I’ll never be that woman. But you will always be special to me.’ Cate didn’t have the strength or the inclination for this. Iris had been her friend, too, and the day had been too much. And then there was Noah. She could feel exhausted tears hovering very close. ‘Look after yourself.’ She stood up. ‘I have to go.’
Brett gestured to a salad he’d ordered for her. ‘What about your tea?’
‘You have it. I’m not hungry.’ She was sure she’d choke if she ate anything.
He stood up as well. ‘Someone else can have it. Walk me to my car, then. Amber’s invited me to tea if you were too busy.’ Cate nodded. He wasn’t going to make a scene, and in relief she even let him take her arm as they went.
In his office, Noah turned away from the window as they walked across the car park. He didn’t need to see this. After a few minutes, when he thought he’d be safe, he turned back in time to see Cate give Brett a brief kiss. He swore softly under his breath and turned away again. That had been stupid. Served him right. They said that curiosity killed the cat but he’d have preferred to kill Dwyer.
Cate was exhausted. There had been a cold moment on the river when she’d thought all of them in the boat could lose their lives. And then the helicopter ride had terrified her. She should be thankful to Susie for taking her mind off the flight while she’d had her baby.
Life was funny like that. Things that you’d considered important didn’t mean as much if something more momentous was taking place. Soon Cate would walk past Noah’s office on t
he way to her room in Maternity. That kiss they’d shared had only confused her more. Why couldn’t she have felt like that with Brett and not Noah? She felt hollow inside and wondered if the ward had any medicinal brandy. She needed a drink and a shower. Or maybe she just needed Noah?
Her feet paused of their own accord and she considered going in to face him. But what would she say when she didn’t know what she wanted? Cate resumed walking. She felt emotionally bankrupt and her feelings for Noah were too big a problem to be faced tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough.
‘We still need to talk, Cate.’ Noah’s voice came from behind her and Cate’s heart thumped, a strange feeling, similar to the one she’d felt before getting into the helicopter. She turned slowly and faced him.
His face was all harsh planes and angles. She couldn’t do this now. ‘I did consider it, Noah, but I’m tired—’
He stepped up beside her and cut off her words. ‘I know you are. We’re both tired, but I would appreciate it if you would step into my office for a moment.’
His eyes held hers and she tried to look away but couldn’t. She remembered the relief she’d felt when he’d appeared on the riverbank and even the thought of him while she’d been in the boat. She walked past him into the office.
The sound of the door as he shut it behind her made her heart thump again.
Noah walked to the window, stared out for a moment and then turned to face her. His eyes bored into hers. ‘Are you considering going back to Dwyer?’
Cate had had enough. ‘The man’s mother died this morning. I don’t think this is a good time to discuss my relationship with him.’ What was Noah’s problem now? When it all boiled down, she’d kissed Noah twice and he thought he owned her. She stamped down the thought of what kisses they’d been…Her chin came up. ‘What makes you think it’s any of your business, anyway?’
‘I’m sorry about Mrs Dwyer. I know she was your friend.’ He stepped towards her until there was only a hand’s breadth between them. Despite her body screaming for escape, she refused to step back.
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