Christmas Where She Belongs

But no amount of thinking came up with any reason why this particular man, of all the men she’d met in recent years, should affect her with flutters.

Surely it had to be more than a quick, bold grin and twinkling eyes and a piratical beard and tousled black hair …

Was she having second thoughts? Mac wondered. Would she get to Archerfield, take one look at his little plane, and grab a taxi to take her back to the security of her tiny apartment and her ordered life?

He knew enough about her childhood in the hippie commune—Hester’s agent had been far more thorough than he’d let on—to guess she needed order in her life and some measure of control over it, but surely she could find order of a different kind in Carnock.

It was a thought that made him think again—did he want her living in Carnock?

The answer came immediately—a positive response. At least, he amended to himself, until he’d had a chance to get to know her, and maybe understand the attraction he felt towards her.

Once understood it would be easy to counter—

That thought stopped as abruptly as he stopped the car at the lights at Rocklea.

‘Archerfield’s just up the road,’ he said, to break his train of thought more than the silence.

‘I can see planes already,’ his passenger said, and the soft, husky voice feathered up his spine, suggesting the attraction might grow instead of lessening …

Far better if she didn’t stay!

Once airborne it was easier. He could pretend flying the little gem of a plane was a complex procedure. But even pretending, he couldn’t miss the cries of delight from his passenger, who pointed out every dam and paddock and small hill as they flew towards the great range that ran down the east coast of Australia.

Enchantment shone in her face, and her delight was so open and enthusiastic that Mac found himself forgetting his pretence about the complexities of flying and joining in, naming the places they flew over, deviating off route to show her deep, uninhabited valleys in the ranges, and fields of sunflowers—faces up to the sun and so to them—ranging across the downs.

Turning north towards Carnock, he pointed out the small beginnings of the river that had caused much of the flooding the previous year.

‘But it’s barely a creek,’ Clancy protested, and Mac explained how the ground had been waterlogged from previous rain, and the little stream already breaking its banks in places before the deluge that caused the flood had hit the town.

‘Is there still visible damage in the town?’ she asked, and he hesitated.

‘If you’d known the town, then you’d see a difference. Some places that were washed away will never be rebuilt, but it’s the invisible damage that I worry about.’

‘The people?’ she asked quietly, and he nodded.

‘There’s far too much of a “she’ll be right, mate” attitude in the country,’ he said. ‘People—men and women but particularly the men—hide their emotions in case it’s seen as a weakness.’

‘At least that’s never a problem where I come from,’ she responded. ‘The nights I’ve fallen asleep listening to a litany of someone’s revelations of their deep inner angst. But I can understand people would be scarred by the experience of the floods. Even seeing the news coverage had me in tears.’

‘Carnock was lucky in that there was no loss of life, although we all thought Mike was gone. He leapt into the water when a big ball floated past—the dog’s a sucker for a ball. But he arrived back home five days later. Wet and bedraggled and absolutely starving, but still as bold as ever.’

Clancy turned to pat the dog, who was lying behind the two front seats. The image of a wet, bedraggled Mike had slunk into her heart and for all she told herself she couldn’t get too attached to this dog, she had a bad feeling she’d be unable to resist.

Could she get enough rent for her apartment to lease a house in the suburbs—somewhere on the train line so she wouldn’t need a car? With a good yard, of course—

A jangling noise erupted through the small cabin.

‘Is that your mobile?’ she asked Mac, and knew the answer when she saw him fish it out of his pocket.

‘Mac!’ he said, while Clancy marvelled that right up here in the air the man still had mobile coverage.

Although now Mac’s end of the conversation snagged her attention.

‘How long ago? Is it just his ankle? Did he hit his head at all? Land on his back? Can he move his toes and fingers? Jess, Jess, stop crying. I’ll be there in half an hour, maybe less. Your strip’s clear? No cattle in that paddock? Okay, just make him comfortable and come down to the strip to meet me. Yes, I can take you into town. Now stop crying, take deep breaths, think of the baby, make yourself a cup of tea, then drive down to meet us.’

‘Problem?’ Clancy asked.

‘Fellow on a property some distance from town. He’s come off his motorbike, but apparently only injured his ankle. They ride around on those darned things with sandals on, would you believe, and never wear helmets. It’s a wonder more farmers aren’t injured.’

Was that all he was going to tell her?

Not that she needed to know more, but she’d sensed Mac had more to say.

A long sigh confirmed her guess.

‘Rod’s wife, Jess, is eight months pregnant. She’s a city girl and although she’s adapted well to country life, something like this will have thrown her.’

Not knowing what to say, Clancy waited.

‘They live an hour’s drive from town.’

The information was coming in dribs and drabs and although she now knew it was leading somewhere, she had no idea where.

‘I don’t want her driving into town in her condition. She’s upset enough as it is, so …’

Mac turned so Clancy could see his face and read the concern in his eyes, plus what looked like a little uncertainty lurking around his lips.

‘Rod’s a big man and Jess is huge at the moment so I can’t fit you all in the plane. Would you be okay with me dropping you and Mike at the farm? That way you can drive into town, and Jess will have a car available to drive back home—drive Rod back home as well if it’s a simple break and I can set it. Best of all, I can have Jess stay in the hospital with Rod overnight and keep an eye on her in case the stress has affected the pregnancy.’

Clancy barely heard the justifications for the scheme Mac was proposing, having stalled on the first part.

‘You want me to drive these people’s vehicle into town?’ she demanded. ‘From a place I don’t know to a town I don’t know?’

She didn’t add ‘in a car I don’t know’, in case that made her sound altogether too wimpish.

‘Oh, that’s easy,’ Mac assured her. ‘You go down their drive to the front gate and turn left. There’s only one road and it leads to Carnock.’

There was a pause, as if something had just occurred to him, and after what seemed like too long a silence he added, ‘You can drive?’

‘Of course I can,’ Clancy replied, not adding that although she had a licence she’d never made much use of it, never having owned a car, not even an old bomb, while she’d been a student. Some of the ethos of her childhood had stuck.

‘That’s good. Now, look out the window and see if you can see a house. There should be a name—Thornside—painted on the roof.’

Clancy spotted it ten minutes later, pointing it out to Mac, who circled it, gradually bringing the plane lower and lower until Clancy could see the cleared strip of a runway ahead of them, then—bump!—they were down. Mac taxied the little plane towards a huge four-wheel-drive vehicle parked beside a small shed.

‘Let it be an automatic,’ she prayed beneath her breath while Mac stopped the engine and yelled at Mike to sit.

Mike was already over on Clancy’s knee, obviously determined to be the first out, but he did sit, all ten stone of him by the feel of things.

‘Can I open the door?’ Clancy asked, and Mac assured her she could. She unlatched it and pushed it open so Mike could leap out, heading straight for the pregnant woman.

Fearing he might jump up on her and knock her over, Clancy yelled his name, and to her surprise he turned around and gave his goofy smile then proceeded to ignore the woman, turning his attention instead to three farm dogs who’d also come to greet the new arrivals.

Mac introduced Clancy to Jess, who repeated the name with surprise.

‘Clancy? It’s your first name, or your surname? Are you related to Hester?’

‘Small town,’ Mac said drily, and Clancy knew exactly what he meant. Everyone would know everyone else’s business.

‘It’s my surname but I’ve been called Clancy for ever. Apparently I’m Hester’s great-niece, although I’ve only now heard of her existence.’

‘Oh, you missed out on a treat! Not that Hester ever thought much of me. She believed country men should marry country women, not city slickers like me—although once she knew I was pregnant she warmed up a bit, greeting me at the shops and always asking how I was.’

Jess patted her bump, then allowed Mac to help her back into the high-set vehicle. He’d opened the back door and as Mike had already leapt in, Clancy followed.

Mac drove the short distance to where lights flickered through the leaves of a well-maintained garden, asking Jess about her husband’s injury, reassuring the woman that all would be well.

‘How about you make us a cuppa?’ he said, as they walked up the steps to the wide front veranda. ‘I could do with one, and I’m sure Clancy could as well.’

He dropped back to murmur to Clancy, ‘Would you go with her and keep an eye on her?’

Clancy followed Jess obediently down a long hallway, hearing Mac’s voice as he greeted his patient, looking around at the rooms that led off the passage, thinking how cool the big house was, although the heat of the day had lingered out at the airstrip.

‘He’ll be all right, I know that,’ Jess said as Clancy entered the huge kitchen with a table big enough to seat a dozen people. ‘It was just the shock of seeing him when he came home. He was white as a ghost and fainted dead away as he tried to get off the bike, then he wouldn’t lean on me to get into the house.’

Jess was still shocked by her husband’s injury, that much was obvious, yet she was efficiently making a big pot of tea, setting out mugs and even producing a large fruit cake from the pantry.

‘I made the Christmas cake early and then decided to make a few more so we could enjoy it before Christmas as well as after it,’ she explained as she cut off slabs and put them onto plates.

‘Good thinking,’ Clancy said, deciding that Hester’s judgement had been right—this city girl was settling well into the country.

Jess set everything on a tray and led the way out a side door and along a back veranda to where Mac was bent over a tall young man, chatting easily as he bound the injured ankle.

‘I’ll X-ray it when we get to town,’ Mac explained to Jess, ‘but I think it might be bad enough to send him somewhere to have it pinned or it could cause problems later. Your family’s in Brisbane? Would you prefer going there or would Toowoomba do?’

Jess turned to Rod.

‘What do you want?’ she said, and when his only reply was a broad smile, she answered Mac.

‘Toowoomba’s closer, he’ll probably see a specialist there more quickly, and we’ll be back home sooner,’ she said, and Rod reached out and took her hand, the connection between the couple so obvious Clancy felt the warm glow of reflected love, and maybe just a twinge of envy.

‘That’s settled, then,’ Mac declared. ‘I’ll take you back to town, X-ray it and start making arrangements. Jess, is there a neighbour you can phone to feed the dogs while you’re away?’

‘I’ll put them on their chains now, and phone from Carnock when we know for certain we have to go to Toowoomba,’ Jess replied, then she smiled at Mac. ‘It’s not that I’m doubting your diagnostic skills, but it just might be a simple break!’

‘Fair enough,’ Mac said, gulping down his tea and picking up the plate that held his cake. ‘Can you pop this into a paper bag so I can take it with me? I seem to remember your fruit cake won first prize in last year’s show, putting several older local noses out of joint.’

Jess went off happily and Mac turned to Clancy.

‘Do you think you could help me get Rod out to the car? You stand on his left side and I’ll take the right and he should be able to hop with our support.’

They hopped the injured man out to the car and helped him in, then Jess returned with overnight bags. She turned off the lights in the house as she walked to the front door, closing it but not, Clancy noticed, locking it.

If she’d needed anything to remind her she was back in the country, it was that one small detail—unlocked doors.

Mac drove to the airport, this time with Mike loping along behind the vehicle. Clancy helped again to get Rod into the plane, hearing the hissing of his breath as he tried to conquer the pain of his injury while struggling into the back seats.

Jess clambered in after him, seemingly unhampered by her pregnancy, then came Mac, and the little plane taxied away.

Clancy turned to Mike.

‘Well, dog, it’s just you and me now. Do you suppose if we head back to the house we’ll be able to tell which is the drive we follow to the gate?’

Mike smiled his silly smile and Clancy ruffled his head. But it was an absent-minded ruffle, for she was looking up at the massive sky that spread above her and sniffing the fresh, eucalyptus-scented air, and trying very hard to ignore the feeling of well-being that was creeping over her.

‘Oh, no, I’ve done my time in the country and I’m a city girl,’ she told Mike. ‘Just you remember that!’

CHAPTER THREE

OF COURSE the car wasn’t an automatic, but making gear changes must have been burnt into her muscle memory because, with the selection clear from a diagram on the gearstick, Clancy managed three changes with barely a hitch, although once she had it in third she decided to stay there, at least until the end of the drive.

The drive! It went on for ever, forcing Clancy to wonder if she’d somehow chosen the wrong track from the many leading away from the homestead. Although this one had seemed most used, and had trees planted either side, so surely …?

But a front drive four miles long? More, for she hadn’t yet reached the gate!

‘You’re no help,’ she said to Mike, who was sitting on the front passenger seat, his head out the window so his long ears streamed back and his lips curled in a kind of grimace.

Clancy drove with her window open as well, so the fresh air rushed through the vehicle.

‘The air off the river is fresh,’ she told Mike, feeling a need to defend her city living. ‘And the South Bank parklands are full of trees.’

But did they diffuse their scent into the air? She had to suppose that if they did, then other city smells—car exhaust and building dust and people perfumes—must mask it.

‘Listen to me, Mike!’ she snorted, although she hadn’t spoken the thoughts out loud. ‘Half an hour in the country and I’m being seduced by the scent of it.’

But the scent out here was different from that of the hills around her mother’s home. Out here the air was dry and a little dusty, so it carried the perfume of the gum trees easily. Back where she’d grown up, the hills were green, the air moist, the vegetation mostly rainforest with its scent of decaying leaves and mulch.

‘Oh, Mike!’ she sighed, for no particular reason, then the gate appeared in front of her—not a gate as such but a cattle grid with white-painted fence posts either side.

Turn left, Mac had said, so she turned left, hoping she’d remembered correctly, wondering how far she’d have to go in the wrong direction before some signpost told her she’d made a mistake.

The sun was sinking behind her, so shadows lay across the land on either side of the road, softening the harshness of the landscape, turning the grass a soft blue-green, the leaves on the gum trees lining the road silver in the dimming sunlight.

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