Bachelor Cure (14 page)

And he didn't know how to stop himself whirling.

They worked steadily on. He wasn't allowed to protest. He simply obeyed orders and the experience was totally novel.

Mike was an undomesticated animal, but Tess didn't seem to notice. She had him hauling down the upstairs curtains, beating rugs over the clothesline, hauling sheets off beds and making them up with clean linen, and sweeping out rooms that hadn't been used for years. Strop followed behind, interested and nosing his way into everything.

‘You and Henry are only going to use two bedrooms,' he protested. ‘The place has five. Why do we have to clean them all out?'

His protest was met by scorn.

‘If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well,' she said piously. ‘Didn't your mother teach you anything?'

And then she looked sideways at him as his face closed—and he knew she was busy adding two and two together and making heaven only knew what out of her thoughts. He didn't have the faintest idea what she was thinking.

He'd never met anyone like this woman in his life.

 

She called a halt at two. Miraculously the phone at Mike's hip hadn't sounded once. He almost wished it had.

Tess laid out fresh bread and cheese, and hauled a bottle of wine from her grandfather's cellar. She produced a hambone for Strop—how the hell had she guessed Strop might be here? Then she spread a rug out under the gums, settled herself down in the sunshine and she smiled up at him…

Then again, maybe he didn't want his phone to ring at all.

‘Come on. You've earned this,' she ordered, patting the blanket.

‘Where did you get all this from?'

‘I begged the cheese from Louise's mom, the hambone came from the hospital kitchen and the baker was baking early this morning. I was his first customer. I told him I really hoped you might be sharing my lunch and he said he hoped so, too, and he said rye bread was your favourite.'

They'd be the talk of the town, Mike thought faintly. If Tess was breezing down the main street at dawn, chatting to solid citizens in their duck-covered pyjamas and discussing Mike's likes and dislikes in the bread department…

How
had
she known he would think of coming?

Miraculously, Tess was silent the whole time she ate. She lay stretched out like a lazy cat, soaking up the warmth and the fresh bread and cheese and the smell of the eucalyptus above them. He was left alone with his thoughts.

Not for long. Never for long with Tess around.

The bread and cheese finished, Tess disappeared inside the house and came back with two steaming mugs of coffee. She handed him one, settled down with hers and then hit him with both barrels.

‘Tell me about your mother.'

‘What….?'

‘Louise says your dad lit out when you were tiny. She says your mother raised you alone and then, when you were sixteen, your mom died. How did she die?'

‘Tess…'

‘I know,' she said softly. ‘It's none of my business. But tell me anyway.'

‘Why?'

‘Mike, I really want to know.'

He sighed and stirred and stretched out, lying on his back with his hands behind his head as he gazed up through the canopy of gum leaves. Why tell this girl? Why be here at all?

It seemed there was no choice.

‘My mother died of a diabetic coma,' he said heavily, his voice sounding as if he'd been goaded. ‘Her diabetes was unstable. She got an infection which ran out of control. One Saturday afternoon she just collapsed. In retrospect she needed intravenous antibiotics and she needed insulin. But she'd never let me touch her diabetic medical kit. She hated me even thinking she was ill, so I didn't know what to give her or how much—even if I'd known how to give an injection.'

His voice grew incredibly weary as he thought it through. How many times had he gone over and over
what had happened? He was tired of it in his mind; infinitely tired, but he couldn't let it go.

‘So…' Somehow he made himself continue. ‘So there was no hospital here then and no nurses. There was just a doctor. Just a doctor who didn't come. Mum was in a coma when I found her, otherwise maybe she could have told me what to do. But there was no one.'

‘You blame the doctor?'

‘He should have come.'

‘So you're going to be on call, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the rest of your life?'

‘Something like that.' He grimaced, then shrugged and gave a rueful smile. ‘No. I'm not that stupid. I know I'm not God. I pay locums once a year so I get a break.'

‘Locums?'

‘Two locums.'

‘Two locums to provide the same service you provide?'

‘That's right.'

‘Because no other single doctor would be stupid enough to take on what you take on.' Tessa's voice was gentle, but insistent.

‘That's your point of view.'

‘Well…' She'd been sitting on the rug, staring down at him. Now she flopped backwards so she was lying full length beside him and she put her hands behind her head as well. She stared up into Mike's gum tree as if she was trying to see what he was seeing. By their side, Strop gnawed peacefully on, supremely content with his lot.

‘It's just as well I've come, then,' she said decisively. ‘You need me, Mike Llewellyn.'

‘I—'

‘Admit it,' she said, still staring upwards. ‘You need another doctor.'

‘If you stay, it'll mean I don't need to have so many holidays.'

‘It'll mean you don't run yourself into the ground so much.' Tessa nodded decisively. She'd kicked her shoes off. Now she raised one bare foot and examined her toes, with the gum-tree canopy acting as a background for her painted toenails. It was as if she was admiring a work of art. Which, in fact, they were. ‘So you admit it, Mike? You need me?'

‘OK.' He stirred uneasily. She was too damned close for comfort—too damned close by far—and the sight of her bare toes… Hell, he'd never realised bare toes could be so sexy! ‘I do need another doctor,' he said grudgingly. ‘If you stay then I'll be grateful.'

‘Oh, I'll stay.' She hauled herself up so she was supporting herself on her arms and staring straight down at him. Her face was now right in his line of sight—between him and his canopy. She was about four inches from his nose.

‘And what about the rest of you, Dr Llewellyn?' she demanded.

‘The rest?'

‘The doctor part of you needs me as a doctor. Does the personal side of you need me as a woman?'

‘Tess…'

‘You're not saying there's no personal side?'

‘Of course there's a personal side.'

‘But not one that lets anything interfere with your medicine. Is that right?' she demanded. ‘Because of what happened to your mother in the past you've blocked off your personal needs. And…' Her green eyes grew thoughtful. ‘You think if you let yourself fall for me, I'll distract you.'

And then, as he stared up at her in baffled silence, Tessa's mouth creased into a smile. ‘Hey, you might be right at that. Distraction sounds fun.' She put a teasing finger on his nose and her touch was electric. ‘But I wouldn't distract you all that much, Dr Llewellyn. If duty calls I'll be right there beside you, beavering away like mad and being just as devoted a doctor as you. To suggest anything else is insulting.'

He stared up at her and she smiled straight back. Hell! Her curls tumbled down around her shoulders, just brushing his face. Her green eyes smiled down at him. Her face was so near…

Women weren't supposed to do this, he thought dazedly. Women weren't supposed to throw themselves at men.

This wasn't just a woman. This was Tessa.

‘I wouldn't want to insult you,' he said faintly, and her smile grew.

‘Now that's really wise.'

‘Why is it wise?'

‘Because I have friends in high places. Or low places. Insult me and I'll set Doris onto you.'

‘Perish the thought.'

‘She'd squash you to death in two seconds flat.'

‘She'd do that on command?'

‘She's a very amenable pig.' Tessa's voice softened
and her nose lowered a notch or two. So there was about two inches clearance. ‘Almost as well trained as your Strop. So…'

Mike could hardly breathe. His lungs were hurting. The sheer effort of not taking this girl in his arms was almost killing him.

But he didn't need to. Tessa had no need of assistance. She had things in hand here, and she knew very clearly what she intended.

‘So just shut up, lie back and let me introduce you to a lady who intends to be the love of your life, Mike Llewellyn,' she whispered. ‘And in case you hadn't guessed—that's me.'

Her nose descended a further two inches and Mike found himself being solidly kissed—and for the life of him he couldn't put up one skerrick of resistance. Somewhere inside him a weight was being lifted which had been almost too heavy to bear, and he hadn't known he was carrying it. He had sworn he'd never love, but he hadn't known what love was. He had sworn off commitment, but he hadn't known that commitment could be as sweet as this.

That a woman could feel like this in his arms… She felt as if she belonged right where she was—as if she were part of him. As if she were the completeness of his whole.

The last of his resistance crumbled. He held Tess to him and her body moulded itself to his in the soft autumn sunlight. At the touch of her body against his, Mike felt his vows slip away as if they'd never been.

Vows? What vows? They must have been unimportant things, made on the mistaken premise that he
couldn't be committed to his medicine if he loved a woman.

He could be. This woman was his partner. He still could be committed, he told himself fiercely, because he had to be. Because, like it or not, he was wholly and wonderfully committed to the woman in his arms.

His Tessa.

T
HE
next weeks passed like a dream, with Mike feeling as if a whole new world had opened up for him. Life was brighter, clearer—fantastic!

Everywhere he moved, there was Tessa.

Tessa's registration came through incredibly speedily. Her medical credentials, it seemed, were impeccable. The medical registration board thought so, and, on reflection, so did Mike.

The town was lucky to have her. Mike was lucky to have her—he just couldn't believe that it was happening. He felt like pinching himself to ensure its reality.

But Tess was real enough.

Mike watched her as she assisted him in rejoining Jason's torn Achilles tendon and he couldn't fault her anaesthetic skill.

He listened to her counsel Doreen, fiancée of Les Wade's nephew, Hugh. Doreen had drifted to Tess rather than Mike, wanting a female shoulder to cry on. Hugh was still in Melbourne where his uncle had started the long process of rehabilitation for his burns. Doreen and Hugh had postponed their wedding and Doreen was wavering between support of Hugh and fear that Hugh's guilt might prevent the marriage altogether.

Mike could only marvel at the way Tess stayed
silent and let Doreen spill out her guilt and her anguish. The walls between the room Tess used as a surgery and the room Mike used as a file room needed to be soundproofed—long term there were all sorts of arrangements to be made if Tess was to stay—and Doreen's anguish was loud. Mike, sitting alone as he wrote up patient notes, could hear every word.

There were only gentle murmurs from Tess, though. Tess knew when to stay silent, as well as when to bounce with enthusiasm.

‘Why don't you go to Melbourne and stay with Hugh?' she suggested softly, when Doreen had sobbed herself dry. ‘Hugh will be feeling dreadful and that's where you should be. At his side.'

Doreen finally left, still sniffing into her handkerchief but comforted all the same. ‘Are you sure it'd be OK?' she asked as Tess saw her to the door. ‘I mean…our relatives all blame us for sleeping together in the first place. They think that's one reason why Les is in the mess he's in. If I go to Hugh now…'

‘You follow your heart,' Tess suggested gently. ‘If you think it's right, don't let anyone else stand in your way.'

Follow your heart…

Then Mike watched the way Tess helped her grandfather find his feet again. She spent hours assisting him to make his unsteady way along the hospital corridors, as if she had all the time in the world, and as if spending hour after hour watching an old man learn the skills of using a walking-frame was the most important thing she could possible be doing.

Henry thrived under her care, and Mike couldn't believe the speed of his recovery.

Tess got to know the locals. She introduced herself to every player of the Jancourt Football Club, and took the job of learning the rules of her new-found passion deadly seriously. To Mike's astonishment, she even started knitting a scarf in team colours.

‘I think I'll do two matching ones,' she told him, clacking away at her knitting needles with the seriousness of a grandmother. ‘Or maybe just one long one so we can wear an end each…'

And at night…

At night the farm lay empty. Tessa had cleaned it so she could stay there, and she still visited Doris and her babies each night and checked on the place, but late each night she returned to town and she took Mike into her arms—and she slept exactly where she wanted to be. With her Mike.

Even Strop seemed to approve. When Tess was there the dog left the bed to them, and in Tessa's body Mike found a peace he'd never thought to have.

Life had never been this good, Mike thought blissfully as he loved his woman. Mike had never known—never dreamed—it could be so good.

He held his love in his arms and he loved her—but only half of him believed in his good fortune. The other half of him knew he was living in a soap bubble.

‘Hey, I'm not about to disappear,' Tess teased gently on the anniversary of their first two weeks together. ‘I'm here for good.'

Mike didn't believe it, but he held her just the same.

 

In a town like Bellanor it was impossible to keep such a relationship a secret. After that first night—when Mike had emerged to Monday morning after a night spent with Tessa—he had been met with knowing looks and laughter.

‘Bloody good thing too, Doc.' That was the general consensus. ‘What took you so long?'

So long… A whole three days…

By the end of the two weeks the general approval was becoming laced with a stronger message.

‘So, when are you going to make an honest woman of her, Doc? Get a mother for that crazy mutt of yours…?'

Marriage…

Mike had never thought of such a thing, but, once suggested, the idea stayed in his mind and wouldn't leave. He looked at it from all sides and knew his vow had definitely been broken already. He could hardly make it worse.

That night, Tess came with him when he did his weekly house call to Stan Harper. Stan was still suffering his chest pains and Mike was increasingly worried about him. His heart seemed strong and healthy, and yet Stan himself seemed to be almost fading.

‘I'm just feeling bloody lousy, Doc,' Stan told him with an apologetic look at Tess. ‘Pardon my French, miss.'

Tess had been sitting at ease at Stan's kitchen table while Mike listened to Stan's chest, and her face was sympathetic. ‘I don't understand Australian swear words,' Tess lied. ‘I'm trying to get Mike to teach them to me but he likes me unspoiled. I know
“damn” means more than just a big puddle of water, but do you think he'll explain? No way!'

Stan chuckled and his misery lifted for a little while—but only for a little while.

‘I'd like you to come into hospital for a few days,' Mike suggested as Stan hauled down his sweater. ‘Stan, there doesn't seem anything wrong with your heart and the last three electrocardiographs have been normal, but if you're still having the pain…well, something's going on. Let's have you in and do a full check-up.'

But Stan would have none of it.

‘Nope. I'm staying here. But you'll come again next Saturday?' His voice was anxious and Mike knew just how lonely the old man was.

‘Tell you what,' Mike suggested. ‘How about if I get the district nurse to call? I'll still come next week, but she'll come every other day as well. Just until we're sure everything's right.'

But Stan wasn't having that either. ‘I don't want a fuss,' he said definitely. He sighed. ‘Sometimes…well, yeah, I get chest pain and, yeah, I'm miserable but it's nothing that having Cathy back wouldn't fix.' He sighed again and looked closely from Mike to Tess. ‘But look at the pair of you. Here's me fretting about myself when I should be saying how glad I am to see you finally wrapped around a woman's little finger, young Mike. You're smelling of April and May if ever anyone was. So when are you two going to tie the knot?'

Tess blushed and Mike shook his head.

‘That's for us to know and you to guess,' he told
Stan firmly—but the thought of what lay ahead was warm inside him. He glanced sideways at Tess and smiled—and she smiled straight back.

‘Don't hang around too much, then,' Stan begged. ‘It's too bloody important. You grab her while she's here. And hold on for dear life.'

 

The conversation in the Aston Martin on the way home was strained. Mike was trying to think about Stan, when all he wanted was to concentrate on Tess. They'd left Strop snoozing under Henry's bed for the afternoon, and it was lovely to be able to see Tessa instead of liver and white spots whenever he glanced sideways, but the sight of Tess—and Tess's leggings—wasn't helping his concentration.

‘I'm still worried about Stan,' he told her stiffly.

‘Mmm.' Tess pulled her knees up to her chin and hugged them. She was wearing black leggings and a vast purple sweater that covered her from her knees right up. She looked smashing.

‘I don't think he's eating,' she said.

‘Why do you think that?'

‘Well, when we went there last week, I prowled,' she told him. ‘When you had Stan in the bedroom, giving him the complete once-over, I poked my nose into his kitchen cupboards and just had a look at things—like the level of cereal in his cornflakes packet and what groceries there were and where they were. And tonight—when Stan walked us out to the car and I dived back inside because I'd left my bag— I had a fast look again and nearly everything's exactly the same. He hasn't touched his cornflakes. There's
exactly the same number of eggs in the fridge as last week and when I picked one up and shook it, it sort of rattled—you know how really old eggs do? I reckon he's eaten a few bowls of tinned tomato soup, and not a lot else. Even the packet of bread in the freezer is the same one as last week. I ripped a little edge off the packet last week so I'd know it—and it's the same packet, only about six slices down.'

‘You're a regular Sherlock Holmes.'

‘I am,' she said smugly, but her smile faded. ‘Do you agree?'

‘It fits,' Mike said slowly. ‘That's one of the reasons I'd like to admit him to hospital. He's losing a lot of weight.'

‘He's missing his Cathy so much.'

‘Yeah,' Mike said grimly. ‘Love's like that. Once it hits, you can't get over it.'

‘It's a problem,' Tess agreed, with a sideways glance at her love.

Silence. There seemed nothing else to say. The sleek Aston Martin ate up the miles between Jancourt and Bellanor and the silence stretched on and on.

Mike cast his own sideways glance. Tess was now looking straight ahead, peacefully contemplating the evening sky, and he came to an instant decision. This was impossible. He wanted her so much… Taking her in his arms each night, it was suddenly no longer enough.

‘Marry me, Tess,' he said suddenly—urgently—and then held his breath.

‘Marry you?'

‘That's what I said.'

Tess closed her eyes. He hesitated, and then pulled the car off the road so they were facing down the valley to the town below. A bellbird was calling from the bushland outside the car, high and sweet and lovely.

And Tess sat silent for longer than he had dreamed possible.

‘Tess?'

Surely there was only one answer here. Dear God, he loved her, and Henry had said she wanted marriage. She must love him.

But finally Tess opened her eyes, and as she did he knew what the answer was going to be. She turned to him and shook her head so her flaming curls flew free and her eyes were bleak.

‘I love you, Mike,' she whispered. ‘But I'm not going to marry you. Not yet.'

He moistened lips that were suddenly dry. His eyes didn't leave her face.

‘May I ask why not?'

She tilted her chin with that look of defiance and pride he'd first seen in her—a look he'd come to know and love.

‘Because you're asking me to marry you against your better judgement, and that's asking for trouble.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I mean you think you're letting your mother down. By loving me, you've broken your vow. You'd marry me, and then you'd wait for the time when disaster happens. You know it'll happen some time, and you're right. Try as I may, if you marry me then some time in the future I'll interfere with your medicine.
Sure, I'll help. Sure, I'll be beside you and medicine here will be better because of me, but when I finally get in your way I doubt it'll count on my part. You'll hate yourself. And you may well hate me.'

‘You won't interfere with my medicine,' he said calmly, surely. ‘And there's no way I can end up by hating you. Tess, I've thought this through.'

‘No, you haven't. Not properly.' Tess gave a lopsided grin and a shaky laugh. ‘Mike, life will interfere with your medicine. All sorts of things can happen. A tree could fall on your head and you won't be effective as a doctor because you're squashed flat. You'd forgive the tree—or you would if you weren't squashed—because you haven't made any vows about never going near trees, but if I alter your life plan one bit and something goes awry because of it, you won't forgive me. Because when I interfere with your medicine you'll think it's because you broke your vow.'

She took a deep breath. ‘I love you, Mike, but I want more than that—and I'm prepared to wait.'

Mike stared straight ahead through the windscreen, trying to sort out her words. Dear God… He was trying to pretend she wasn't saying exactly what he knew already—what he knew was the truth.

‘This is stupid,' he said slowly.

‘It might be stupid but it's how it is,' she told him, and he knew she wouldn't budge from her position. He'd been thinking things through, but so had Tess. He was prepared to risk problems because of his vow. What he hadn't counted on was that Tess wasn't.

She had it all figured out.

‘Mike, I love you,' she repeated softly. ‘And I'm prepared to hang in for the long haul here. But I want this disaster to happen before you totally commit yourself to me. I want you to see what loving me is all about—that it means letting life run its course side by side.'

‘That's what I want.'

‘No, you don't. Not yet.' Tess took a deep breath. ‘Look, Mike, let's leave it. Believe it or not, I know what I'm doing here. I want you so much it hurts, but I'm not letting you make any more vows until you've come to terms with the last one you made. Until you let it go and accept that you can live with its release.'

She took his face in her hands and she kissed him gently on the lips. ‘And you don't see what I mean yet, but I do. You need to wait. We both need to wait, Mike, to see what life throws at us. But no weddings. Just love… And let's just see if that's enough.'