A Baby for the Flying Doctor (17 page)

‘Yes.’

‘And then?’

‘And then I apply for a permanent job here.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Why not?’

‘Is it really that simple?’

‘My life in England…it’s not there any more. It’s here. With you.’ He kissed her again. ‘Simple as that.’

F
OR
the next week, Phemie and Gil spent almost every moment together. They would eat breakfast, learning what each other preferred. Phemie was more than happy to eat cereal or toast but Gil preferred a cooked breakfast.

‘Besides, it’s cooler to cook in the mornings than the evenings,’ he pointed out on his fourth day there.

They attended clinics, house calls and two emergencies. Each time Phemie watched Gil closely as they flew in the small aircraft but he either hid his loathing for flying very well or he was coming to terms with it, letting go of his past.

In the evenings, if they weren’t called out, they’d take it in turns to cook and then either watch a movie or play cards or, Phemie’s favourite thing, sit on the porch swing and look at the stars, talking softly and intimately.

When it was time for bed, Gil would kiss her softly, tell her that he loved her and then head to his own room. He insisted it was the right thing to do and Phemie realised that chivalry wasn’t dead. As the end of his week drew closer, their time together became more intense.

‘I don’t want you to go,’ she said at breakfast as she watched him finish cooking his bacon and eggs. She poured them both a cup of rich-bodied Australian tea, which just so happened to be Gil’s new favourite drink.

‘I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with you, work with you, spend as much time with you as I can. However, I do need to tie up quite a few loose ends.’

‘You’ll call me after each leg of your journey?’

‘I’ll do my best. Just make sure you’re somewhere that has good reception.’

Both of them were putting on a brave front for a goodbye they knew was going to be extremely difficult. ‘We’ll email and call,’ he murmured, pulling her to his side. He switched off the frying pan, not feeling particularly hungry. Today he would make the trek from the base to Perth, then Adelaide and finally to Sydney. There, he’d meet up with William and the rest of his staff before they all flew back to England the next morning. ‘I’ll be back here before you know it.’

‘Just as well you have such impressive credentials or else the RFDS might not have wanted to employ you. Ben even told me the word “over qualified” was bandied around,’ she teased, needing to do anything to lighten the atmosphere.

‘Just as well,’ he replied, and caught her to him for a long, luxurious kiss. ‘I love you, Phemie. I want to be with you. Always.’

‘I know.’ She also knew he wasn’t looking forward to this flight. Tomorrow, especially, was almost a twenty-four-hour flight from Sydney to Heathrow. Gil’s family had been taken from him before and she knew he was concerned that this time everything should go according to plan. ‘Everything will be fine.’ They both had to believe that, to keep focused.

Nothing more had been said about children but the fact that Gil accepted her reasons for not wanting to have her own had made Phemie relax. That he hadn’t pushed her on the subject also meant he had a plan up his sleeve, that much she’d learned about him during this week. He was so incredibly smart and he would ponder and think things through quite thoroughly before voicing his thoughts. She would therefore trust him and in doing so she
found she was finally able to let go of the enormous weight she’d been carrying around for far too long. Gil had helped her realise that her parents had done the best job they could to give her a good childhood. It may not have been the ‘cookie-cutter’ family home she’d thought a lot of other girls lived in but it had been solid. It couldn’t have been at all easy for them yet they’d done what they’d had to do and Phemie knew she was very much loved by them. Wasn’t that all that really mattered?

When the time came for Sardi to fly Gil to Kalgoorlie so he could make the connecting flight to Perth, Phemie found her throat completely choked with emotion. Both of them were waiting until the last possible moment before he boarded the plane.

‘I love you,’ she whispered against his mouth as she kissed him, tears streaming down her face.

‘Don’t cry, love.’ He held her tight, gripping his second chance at love, not wanting to ever let her go. He so desperately wanted her to go with him, to visit England, but he knew she couldn’t leave, not at the moment. Her work here was precious and necessary and he respected that. Soon they would be running the base together. He’d have more time to write articles and he had a new scope of inspiration before him—adaptive emergency medicine. He would start by writing up how to make a humidicrib from nothing more than Gaffer tape, plastic pipes and kitchen sandwich wrap.

‘I can’t wait to get back,’ he murmured, his eyes bright with love. ‘I’d say keep the home fires burning but I think you’d best keep the fans whirring instead,’ he joked, and was rewarded with a little laugh. With one last, heart-searing kiss, he boarded the plane, Madge pulling up the stairs behind him. All the RFDS staff had been welcoming and this past week had been one of the happiest he’d had in a very long time.

As the plane rose, Gil looked out the window at his beautiful Euphemia, standing next to the airstrip, waving. He watched until she disappeared from view.

‘But
when
will the plane be here?’

Anthony’s impatience was even worse than her own. Phemie walked into the front office and asked Ben to radio Sardi to check.

‘I radioed her three minutes ago.’ Ben was a rational man but he could quite understand Phemie’s need to know everything about this flight. ‘But I’ll radio again.’

‘Thank you, Benjamin.’ She patted his shoulder and headed outside to where Anthony was peering up at the sky. She picked up his hat from the verandah and placed it on his head. ‘Don’t forget your hat, darling. The sun is super-hot here.’

‘Yes, Phemie,’ he responded, and she couldn’t help but hug him close.

‘I love you.’ She was so proud of everything he’d achieved. He was her baby brother and, as such, was so vitally important to her. It wasn’t too late, she realised, to achieve that sibling relationship with him. All she needed to do was to let go of the picture perfect family image she’d had in her head and move forward to what she had. Anthony was a great brother who loved her. What more could a sister ask?

‘I love you, too, Phemie,’ he replied in his normal voice, eyes still glued to the sky. ‘I’m going to be the first one to find the plane. I’m good at that, and heaps of other stuff too.’

She laughed and danced around him, her excitement unable to be contained. ‘I know you are.’

‘I’m good at finding planes.’

‘You’re the best, and this plane is
my
kind of plane.’ Gil was coming home. Home to her. To where he belonged. The past month had been the longest of her life but they’d spent the time talking and finding out more about each other.

Gil had turned down job offers, sold his apartment, made arrangements for his ‘jalopy’ to be transported to Australia and packed his belongings. The last time he’d moved had been when
his family had died. Now he was moving
towards
his new family and he couldn’t wait.

Gil’s impatience was mounting. ‘How much longer, Sardi?’

‘Three minutes since you last asked me,’ Sardi returned, but smiled, understanding his need.

Gil had been flying for, what felt like for ever, which he guessed it was, given that he’d simply been either in a plane or in an airport for the past couple of days, not wanting to stop over and spend the night anywhere, instead preferring to get to his Euphemia as soon as possible.

Finally, they were there, the hangar and the house getting larger and larger as they approached.

He looked out the window and saw Anthony jumping around excitedly, waving his arms about. What surprised him more was to see Phemie joining in with the jumping and the waving. He laughed, pleased she was excited he was back.

They’d talked so much on the phone and whilst he knew the separation had been good for both of them, giving them time to think things through, to be one hundred per cent sure this was what they both wanted, he had never been so glad to return to a place as he was right now.

‘Wait until I land the plane first,’ Sardi called jovially as Gil impatiently drummed his fingers. He’d been in this plane enough times to know how to operate the doors. The instant the wheels touched the runway, he unclipped his seat belt and checked his jeans pocket, patting the ring concealed there. Everything was ready.

Gil didn’t know who was more impatient, himself or Euphemia, but the instant the plane door was open, she was in his arms, his mouth on hers, and they were reunited in a fire of passion and need.

‘I love you,’ she murmured against his mouth as she kissed him, tears of joy streaming down her face.

‘Why are you crying, Phemie?’ Anthony wanted to know.

‘Because I’m happy,’ she called over her shoulder, her arms still tight around Gil, never wanting to let him go. ‘I’m so very happy.’

‘I’ll bet I can make you happier,’ Gil said softly in her ear, and in the next instant, right there in the middle of the airstrip with the plane’s engines still whirring behind them, he eased away and dropped down to one knee.

‘Gil?’ Phemie’s eyes were wide as she looked at him.

‘I didn’t want to do this over the phone. I needed to be here, with you. To see your face, to watch your eyes light with amazement. Euphemia Grainger, you have no idea just what you do to me and I want you to keep doing it for the rest of my life.’ He held her hand and to her utter astonishment he slipped on a diamond ring. ‘Will you marry me?’

She gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand, a fresh bout of tears starting up. ‘Oh. Oh.’ This was it. She hadn’t realised it until the moment was upon her but this was definitely it. Standing there, hearing Gil’s words, safe in the love she could see reflected in his eyes, Phemie knew there was nothing more important in her life than achieving her own happiness, and Gil was the one who had not only helped her to realise it but was the one who was providing it.

All those years ago, when she’d cried herself to sleep, her mother stroking her hair, telling her that one day she would meet a man who’d love everything about her—well, that day was today and Gil was most definitely that man. Happy? She was more than happy. She was blissfully content, wrapped in his love and secure in the knowledge that whatever their life threw at them, whatever might or might not happen with regard to children, they would face their future as one.

‘Oh, Gil,’ she whispered again.

‘What’s the matter, Phemie?’ Anthony wanted to know. ‘More happy tears?’

‘Yes. Oh, yes.’

‘Was that answer to me or Anthony?’ Gil asked.

‘To you,’ she said softly. ‘You come first.’

Gil stood and swooped her up into his arms, spinning her round a few times as he kissed her.

‘
We
come first,’ he corrected. ‘You and me. Together.’

‘For ever.’