There was silence in the room. He didn’t answer and she stared at the rain running down the window.
Finally, he leaned his head closer to where he could hear her voice and his weariness was clear. ‘You don’t get it. Do you? I don’t care where I am and I want to be alone.’
Cate bit her lip but refused to be daunted. ‘Alone isn’t an option, Noah. I’m staying in Sydney for the next few days at least.’
He rose shakily to his feet but there was no waver in the bandaged fist that pointed to the door. ‘Out. Please.’
Cate swallowed the lump in her throat as she watched him feel his way to the bed. He looked so helpless and she could only guess how much he must hate that. Her voice was thick with tears and she hoped he didn’t notice. Maybe he hadn’t because he continued to awkwardly climb onto the bed.
‘I’m sorry if I upset you by coming, Noah,’ she said. ‘But I’m not going home until after you see the doctor tomorrow and we know the prognosis for your sight.’ She picked up her hat and her case. ‘I’ll go and find the YWCA for the night but I’ll be back tomorrow. And the next day if you need me. And the next. And we’ll face what the doctor says together. Then, if you still want to send me away, I’ll go. But I’m not leaving Sydney before I’m ready.’
He didn’t answer and he heard the door shut behind her. To torture himself, he pictured her as she’d looked that night they’d played pool. Long legs and blonde hair and her smile. And the way she’d moved around the pool table and the way she’d made him feel. And he couldn’t even punch anything because his hands still felt like someone was running a blowtorch over them.
He heard the door open and the click of the light switch. For a moment he thought Cate had come back and, despite himself, he felt his heart skip with excitement. Then the nurse swished in. He recognised her sound and then her voice as he felt an aching disappointment.
‘It’s Karen, the nurse. How’s the pain, Mr Masters?’ She was young, he guessed, but she was competent. And she’d put up with his growling. ‘I’m just going to lift your hands to see if there’s any seepage through the bandage.’ She did what she’d said and he let her. She mumbled something he didn’t hear.
She rested his hands carefully back on his chest. ‘Here’s two pain tablets the doctor wants you to have every four hours—but remember, if the pain breaks through, you can have something stronger.’ She helped him sit up and popped the tablets into his mouth and then he felt the straw against his mouth. He submitted because last time he’d said he’d do it himself he’d lost the tablets in the bed and had managed to wet his bandaged hands. At least Cate hadn’t seen that.
‘Thank you,’ Noah said. He had a sudden vision of Cate in the streets of unfamiliar Sydney and a great twist of fear speared his gut. What had he been thinking? ‘Is it dark outside?’
‘Yes, it is. It’s still raining, too,’ Karen said.
Maybe they could stop her. ‘My friend. The one who was here. Has she gone yet?’
‘The lady with the black hat…’ The nurse stopped and Noah smiled grimly to himself. Of course, he hadn’t seen the hat but that was Cate all right. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘It’s okay. She always wears it so I knew who you were talking about. She said she was going to the YWCA. I’d like her to come back if you can catch her, please.’
There was doubt in the nurse’s voice. ‘She went down in the lift before I came in. And there’s a taxi rank outside the hospital. I’ll ring Reception but I don’t think they’ll catch her, Mr Masters.’ She hurried out.
Noah sat tense and waiting and more worried about missing Cate than what he was going to say if she came back.
But it was the nurse who came back. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Masters. The receptionist did see her get into a taxi. She’s a striking woman and hard to miss.’
‘Thank you.’ He heard the door close after the nurse and Noah slumped back against the pillows. Yes, Cate was a striking woman. And fair game for any creep on the streets. He’d been lying here, feeling sorry for himself, and now Cate was out in the night life of Sydney, alone and country green.
If anything happened to her, it would be a hundred times worse than the position he was in at the moment.
And it would be his fault. How could he have been so stupid not to have foreseen this when she’d said she was going? Pride. Stupid pride.
He disgusted himself. It was just like his reaction after Donna died. He was going to save the world. Sydney hospitals were going to benefit and the smaller, less important ones would be downgraded to pay for it. As long as major centres took acute cases, all needs would be met. But Cate had shown him that the needs and the heart of every hospital were equal.
Emergencies would come and go in every town, regardless of size, and there would never be enough funding to go around. But if his sight returned and he could work, he would protect Riverbank and places like it from people like himself who didn’t understand. Maybe not him and Cate together, but he would do it because now he understood.
Tonight all he could do was ask them to ring the Y in an hour and check if Cate had booked in. He couldn’t lie here and wonder if she was all right. He’d go insane.
Cate didn’t even give the night life of Sydney a second thought. She wasn’t stupid. She stepped from the taxi and crossed the footpath to enter the sliding doors of the large YWCA in the centre of Sydney. She’d stayed here with her mother while her dad had slept at the showground all those years ago. It looked pretty similar, though maybe a little more drab, but it was somewhere she felt at ease. Most of the guests were from the country.
She registered at the desk and ordered a takeaway meal from the restaurant to eat in her room.
She had heard the way Noah had said her name when she’d first gone into his hospital room. There was no doubting he’d been pleased before he’d thought about it. Then his stupid pride had stood in the way. But who was she to talk? When she thought of the opportunities she’d wasted at the hospital she was no better.
She had to believe she could beat his reluctance to have her around.
CHAPTER TEN
Wednesday 14 March
THE next morning, Noah didn’t hear Cate open the door because he was swearing at a piece of toast that kept slipping out of his bandaged hands.
‘That’s no way to talk to your breakfast. Let me cut it for you.’ Her voice floated across the room and the tension in his neck disappeared. He hadn’t driven her away. He couldn’t feel sorry. He needed her today when the doctor came.
He dropped the toast again and the crumbs went down his shirt. But he didn’t care. Thank God she was safe.
Of course she was safe. She was probably capable of throwing a hog tie on any mugger that had the audacity to accost her. His Cate.
‘I’m sure, if you’d waited, someone would have come in to help you.’ She had her nursing supervisor voice on now and it brought back good memories of the last week. Anything to take his mind off the doctor’s visit this morning.
‘Well, don’t just stand there—butter the thing, please! I hate dry toast.’ He gave a little chuckle and Cate felt a wave of relief wash over her. She buttered and cut the toast and brushed his lip with a piece. ‘Your toast, sir.’
Noah opened his mouth and she popped it in. While he chewed, he tried to picture what she was wearing. But it really didn’t matter. She’d look wonderful no matter what. He heard her pour the tea and then smelt the tealeaves. Everything took time to happen when he couldn’t do it himself. Blindness meant compulsory listening and he could even hear Cate breathe.
She was very good at feeding him. ‘Thank you, slave,’ he teased. ‘I think you should be feeding me grapes.’
‘You’re welcome, Noah.’ She squeezed his wrist above the bandages. ‘Of course I couldn’t stay away when I knew I could have you in my power for a change.’
He rested back against the pillows. ‘Is that so?’ Enjoy it, then, because it’s not going to last long, no matter what happ
ens today.’
‘We’ll see,’ she said. She straightened his pillow and a drift of her scent stayed behind on the pillowcase.
Then Noah heard the doctor’s voice outside the room and he felt his skin go cold. All amusement disappeared. The time had come to find out just how visually impaired he was going to be. Cate took the breakfast tray away and rested her hand briefly on his leg. He was glad of the warmth and her support now, and he tried not to think about having to send her away if the prognosis was poor.
The door opened and the doctor came in. Cate took her hand from Noah’s leg and stepped back from the bed, out of the way.
The doctor nodded to her on his way to his patient. ‘Morning, Mr Masters. Morning, young lady.’
Cate could see that Noah wasn’t up to pleasantries. His comment showed everyone else. ‘Morning. Get it over with, please,’ he growled, but the doctor seemed to understand.
‘Impatient?’ The specialist unwrapped the bandage from around Noah’s head. ‘Well, I can’t say I blame you.’ He looked at the sunlight streaming in the window and motioned to the nurse to pull the blinds. The room darkened considerably. ‘As I said yesterday, the tests came back as positive news so I’m expecting a lot more vision than we originally hoped for.’
Cate saw Noah tighten his bandaged fists against his chest and she knew it must be hurting his damaged fingers. She could understand why he did it. Anything to distract himself. They all held their breath as the pads were lifted away from Noah’s eyes. Noah kept them closed and Cate thought the suspense was going to make her sick.
She noted the redness from a heat sear across the upper half of Noah’s face and the skin was peeling around his eyes. To Cate, it looked like the facial burns were mostly first degree, but his beautiful eye-lashes and straight black brows were nearly all gone. She mentally shrugged. They’d grow back.
The jolliness was gone from the specialist’s voice. ‘I’ll dab some saline over your eyelids to unstick them now.’ He wiped both Noah’s eyes carefully with special wet pads. ‘All right, Mr Masters. Open your eyes.’
Tentatively, with jerky little movements, Noah stretched open his eyelids. It was too bright initially after the total dark under the bandages, and everything was wavy. He opened and shut his eyes gingerly a few times and slowly figures came into focus in the dark room. He saw the doctor for the first time, nothing like Noah had imagined from his hearty Swedish voice, and then he saw the nurse.
He couldn’t see Cate. He turned his head and there she was against the wall, as beautiful as ever. Thank God. He sagged back in the pillows and closed his eyes. He could see.
‘Well?’ The doctor was leaning closer and with machiavellian nastiness he shone a small torch that made Noah flinch away. ‘So they work!’ He wrote on a notepad. ‘How’s the focus?’
Noah swore he would improve his own bedside manner if he ever worked as a doctor again. ‘It’s slow but it works.’
The doctor stepped back with a satisfied smile. ‘Wear dark glasses for two weeks, and instil drops four times a day—the sister will give you the regime and a script to take home when you go.’ He glanced at Noah’s bandaged hands. ‘These aren’t my department. The eyes can go home tomorrow and come back to see me in four days for final tests. Good morning, to everyone.’ And he departed. The nurse followed soon after and Noah and Cate were left alone.
Noah sighed and closed his eyes. He’d been incredibly lucky. He felt the bed shift as she hitched her hip on the edge. He remembered that hip. The back of his bandaged hand went down of its own accord and checked she was there.
She laughed and he loved the sound. ‘Not only are you demanding but you’re groping this morning. Have you decided it’s not a bad thing I’m here now that your sight is restored?’
‘I’ve decided that if my sight is as good as they expect, it might not be so bad to have you around and be my personal nurse.’ He elbowed her gently. ‘But I’m still the boss.’
‘Really, Dr Masters?’ She tapped his cheek with her finger. ‘Open.’ She put another piece of toast into his mouth.
Noah chewed and couldn’t believe how lighthearted he felt. He felt as high as a kite. The next couple of days would be a pain but he could plan for after that.
He wasn’t going to be blind and he could dare to dream of Cate again. The strain had been enormous and suddenly he was overwhelmingly tired. His eyelids grew heavy. It would all take time, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.
When Noah woke it was quite dark in the room with the blinds pulled, and his stomach told him it was well after lunch. Cate must have gone but he didn’t doubt that she’d be back. By the time he’d struggled with his jocks in the adjoining bathroom, cleaned his teeth with the toothbrush between his wrists and stared at his two-day growth and hairless eyes, he was feeling depressed.
How on earth had he decided it was a good thing for Cate to see him like this?
Where was Cate? Noah walked through to his room and there she was, asleep like a gorgeous lioness in the chair by the window. There had been a time he’d thought he would never see anyone’s face again, and it was Cate’s he would have missed the most.
So should he send her away until he was normal again or should he live life to the full from the first possible moment?
Noah sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her. He brushed the blonde hair back off her forehead with his wrist and it felt like silk on his skin. He’d wanted to do that since he’d met her. She stirred and stretched, like the jungle cat she was, as she sleepily opened her eyes. ‘Hello, beautiful,’ he said. He hoped she wasn’t repulsed by the face he’d just seen in the mirror.
‘Hello, Noah.’ And she smiled up at him. He felt the weight lift from his shoulders. Cate stood up and came across to hug him. She couldn’t believe how much she loved this man and she thanked God silently that Noah had survived the fire. She shivered and he looked down at her in concern.
‘You OK?’ He dropped a kiss on her forehead and she snuggled in tightly against him for a moment to gather herself. He smoothed her hair again. ‘I’ll be fine. I was so frightened when I heard you were hurt.’
He touched her lips with his bandaged hand to silence her when she went to speak again. He needed to do this now before something else went wrong. ‘Shh. I need to say something.’
He leant across and kissed her gently on the lips. She stared up at him solemnly and it was all he could do not to kiss her again. But he knew he wouldn’t stop if he started.
He drew a deep breath. It was time to be brave. ‘Thank you for being here today. I need to tell you. I love you, Cate. I’ll always love you. When I’m well again, will you marry me?’
Cate looked at Noah, her man, her soul-mate, and the love that shone from his eyes lifted any shadows of doubt from her mind. ‘I’d follow you anywhere,’ she said. ‘I must have known instinctively that the respect and love I saw in my own home were missing from my relationship with Brett, but it’s not like that with you. I love you, Noah. And I can’t wait to be your wife.’ She kissed him this time. ‘And we’ll have a wonderful life.’
They sealed their plans in a deeper kiss and Cate found the home that was hers whenever she was with Noah.
Later, when the room had righted and she lay comfortably against his shoulder high up on the hospital bed, she had a question. ‘Where will we live? Do you have a house in Sydney?’
He kissed her again. ‘I do but we’ll sell it. I didn’t choose the house. We could go back to Riverbank. It seems a great place to bring children up.’ He watched her eyes light up and he knew he’d been blessed to find her. ‘But I’m not a farmer, Cate,’ he warned.
She laughed with delight. ‘A house in town will be fine. I love you, Noah.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THREE months later the wedding was the social event of the year in Riverbank. The bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, accompanied by Amber and two flower-girls, Cindy and Sylvia.
When Cate entered the chur
ch beside her father’s wheelchair, Noah didn’t see the full church or the glorious flowers or even hear the music. His whole being was focused on this woman who matched him in every way. She looked like a queen—his queen—as she swayed regally towards him in a plain white sheath and a tiny flower-encrusted veil. He could see her beautiful lips curve beneath the edge of the veil and his fingers flexed in anticipation for when he would hold her hand in his and never let her go.
When their vows were complete, the church bells pealed over the valley. In shops and streets and houses, people smiled at the sound because most of the townsfolk knew who was being married today.
When Noah left the church with his new bride on his arm he understood that he was part of a larger family than he had bargained for. The love and welcome from Cate’s mother and father and brother warmed a place in his heart that had been cold for too long. Noah smiled and nodded at the people he knew, like old Mrs Gorse. Mr and Mrs Ellis were there and even Paul the SES boat driver. Noah could watch and almost smile as Cate kissed Brett and his wife, Amber. Everywhere people knew his Cate and welcomed him.
At the reception, the ladies from the church had catered for a picnic for two hundred people. Tables were laid under the shade sails in front of Noah’s and Cate’s big house on the river and the country band played into the night.
Later, down on the jetty, in a patch of silver moonlight, Noah and Cate were oblivious to the music that drifted from the house. Held in Noah’s strong arms, Cate had found her dream, and the reality of Noah’s love was more beautiful than she could have hoped for. Beneath their feet, the river flowed gently past into the night and would do so every night to come.
‘Welcome to your new home, Cate.’ Noah’s breath drifted across her cheek and she smiled.
‘I noticed that our house has two stories—is that in case of floods, Dr Masters?’
‘No. That’s to hold all our children.’ And his lips lowered to hers with the promise of a wonderful love that they would share for the rest of their lives.
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