Montana left that statement lie where it fell and moved the conversation around to why they were there.
‘OK. Then I’ll start with a little about myself and why I think I can help you. I really do know about having babies because that’s my job. As a midwife I deliver babies in a hospital and help the mum and baby learn to breastfeed and get used to each other. And I have a baby of my own.’
Emma looked interested at the news of Dawn.
Montana went on. ‘I thought we’d talk about pregnancy so you could be comfortable with what will go on in your body as it changes.’
Emma looked out from under her lowered brows. ‘So you’re not going to try and talk me into not having the baby?’
Montana’s gaze locked with the girl’s and shook
her head emphatically. ‘No. That’s your decision, Emma, and it seems to me that you are pretty sure what you want to happen. But with that decision comes a responsibility that you do the best for the baby inside you. Is that how you feel?’
‘I suppose so. I know I want my baby to grow healthy, even if it’s going to hurt when I have him or her.’
The fear she’d expected was there and Montana nodded. ‘Try and remember women are designed to give birth. You’re young and young women usually bounce back from birth even better than older women, but we might leave that to talk about another time.
‘Did Dr Buchanan tell you we could have another session if you want later? I think there’s too much to cover in one day.’
Emma met Montana’s look with a sheepish grin. ‘He said that. I only came today because he’s been so good to me and Tommy, but you’re not too bad, so far. I’ll probably come back.’
‘Thanks,’ Montana said, biting back a smile, ‘then we’d better get started before I fall out of favour.’
Emma grinned again and the tension lessened noticeably in the room.
‘Today I thought we’d talk about where you are in your pregnancy now. How many weeks pregnant are you, Emma?’
Emma unfolded her arms and chewed her nail.
‘The ultrasound man at the base said twenty weeks yesterday.’
Montana picked up the book of diagrams she had and pointed to the twenty-week foetus. ‘Your baby is fully formed and you should be nearly able to feel his or her movements.’
Emma craned her neck and studied the picture and Montana gave her the book and reached for another copy of the same publication.
‘So when are you due?’ Montana flicked forward to the picture of a woman with a full-term baby and showed Emma the page number so she could skip forward if she wanted to.
‘Andy says the seventeenth of July.’
Montana nodded. ‘Right in the middle of the year. So you’ll be having a Christmas in July baby. Your best present will arrive some time in our winter, which will be helpful when you are big and heavy for the cooler weather.’
Emma looked up and a faint glimmer of a smile lit her pale face. ‘That’s the first positive thing anyone has said about my baby.’
Poor Emma. ‘That will change. Babies make everyone smile.’
Actually, Emma would be fine. She was smart, would have family support by the end, and was protective of her baby. ‘Everyone else is still in shock, honey. Now that this baby is a reality they’ll come around. That’s what families and good friends do.’
Emma pursed her lips thoughtfully and nodded then settled more comfortably back into the lounge.
Montana sat back in her own chair. ‘OK. So let’s talk about where your baby is up to now.’
Emma met Montana’s eyes. ‘It’s hard to think of it as a baby. I haven’t even got a belly, especially as I threw up so much that I’ve lost weight.’
Montana nodded. ‘For some people that’s normal. That should settle now. It’s the surge of hormones of early pregnancy and other hormones come more into play now. Just make sure you have something in your stomach before your feet hit the floor if it still bothers you.’
‘Like toast. Yuk.’ Emma screwed up her face.
‘Even a dry biscuit is often enough. But see if you can get someone to bring it to you.’ Montana had a sudden vision of Andy bringing the mother of his baby toast in the mornings. If his wife was pregnant, Andy would certainly be the man to do that. She looked at Emma and hoped she had someone to do it for her.
‘How about water crackers?’ Emma grinned and it changed her whole face. She was in the swing of it now. ‘How about a pretzel?’ They both laughed and Montana sighed with relief as the young woman within began to show herself more consistently.
‘Nothing wrong with a couple of pretzels—just don’t overdo it on the salt. It’s better for you than losing your breakfast every day.’
Emma stopped chewing her nails. ‘Cool. I’ll try it and let you know.’
‘Just remember when you’re eating properly you need to start thinking about making sure you have all the nutrients and vitamins your baby needs because she’s greedy to grow and will take all the goodness for herself and leave you nothing if you don’t eat enough of what she needs.’
Emma’s eyes widened. ‘Like a worm?’
Montana smiled. ‘Sort of. Right now she’s a tiny baby the size of a big banana, about two to three hundred grams. In two weeks she’ll put on another one hundred and fifty grams—that’s near a pound in the old measurements. She’ll grow from around six and half inches long to about eight inches at twenty-three weeks. That’s the size of a small doll.’
‘Wow.’
Montana nodded. ‘It’s pretty impressive. Everything is made in miniature and over the next twenty weeks will double in size, which means she…’ Montana paused and smiled. ‘Notice I call your baby a girl only because mine was.’
Emma nodded with a shy smile of her own and Montana went on. ‘Her brain is growing really fast. Mothers need to know that what they eat, drink, smoke or expose themselves to—for example, I wouldn’t use pesticides or strong cleaning agents—affects the way their baby’s brain grows.’
‘I want her to have a brain,’ Emma said dryly.
‘That’s pretty important to keep in mind, as far as I’m concerned.’
Montana agreed. ‘That’s what I meant about responsibility. Even a mother’s emotions can impact on a baby so if Mum is always sad then the baby thinks it’s normal to be feeling sad a lot of the time. That’s why I tried not to be too sad when I was pregnant.’
Emma looked up with ready sympathy. ‘Why were you sad?’
‘I’m a widow. My husband died last year when I was first pregnant and now I have a nearly two-month-old daughter called Dawn. So I am bringing up my daughter without a daddy.’
Montana couldn’t help but think of Andy that morning. He’d bounced Dawn on his lap while Montana had been eating and she realised how often she’d come to the kitchen to retrieve her daughter to find Andy chatting away to her as if she understood every word he said.
Dawn thought she had a father. It was an unsettling concept but she needed to concentrate on Emma and think about that curly one later.
Emma was still pondering Montana’s loss. ‘That is sad. Why did you call her Dawn?’
Montana knew where this was leading and she just hoped it didn’t cause too much damage but it was too late now. ‘Because she was born right at sunrise.’
Emma nodded. ‘In your hospital?’
Montanan smiled wryly. Yep. She’d have to tell her. ‘Dawn was born a month early and I was a bit far away at the time. She was born on the side of a mountain.’
‘On the side of a mountain?’ Emma stared, openmouthed and horrified. ‘Who was with you?’
Montana shrugged. ‘Nobody was really with me, although an inquisitive kangaroo and her joey watched me, but Dr Buchanan arrived soon after and my baby and I are both fine.’
Emma shook her head vehemently. ‘I am so
not
having my baby on a mountain.’ Emma shuddered and her hand crept up to cup her stomach.
Montana needed Emma to know she hadn’t planned it. ‘I didn’t mean that to happen. Dawn just arrived a bit fast.’
Emma’s brows drew together ferociously. ‘So if you know so much about giving birth, how come you didn’t have your baby in a hospital?’
Montana shrugged. ‘That’s how my birth experience panned out. But that’s rare. Usually you have plenty of notice, sometimes days or weeks of warnings, before you go into labour.’
Not quite how she’d choose to explain signs of labour but at least Montana felt she had Emma’s attention now. ‘Everyone has a different birth, some better or different to others, and we can’t really choose which experience we’re going to have—we can only learn about choices and the sequence of events to prepare. But we’ll talk about that another
day because it’s a long time before you have to think of your baby’s birth.’
‘Thank goodness for that.’ Emma shuddered. ‘I’m gonna have a ‘sarean.’
‘Caesarean.’ Montana suppressed a smile and left that for another time as well.
She moved on. ‘So what other symptoms of pregnancy have you had, apart from nausea?’
Emma shrugged. ‘I cry a lot but I’ll try to think of happier things now because I
do not
want my baby to be sad all the time.’
The vehemence in Emma’s voice surprised them both and Montana nodded. ‘It’s different when you think of your baby as real and needing you to mother it even before it’s born, isn’t it?’
‘How come Tommy gets off so lightly? He doesn’t have to worry about anything now until she’s born.’
‘No.’ Montana risked a tease. ‘Nothing. Except that your brothers want to kill him!’
Emma shrugged again. ‘I’m the one who had to fix that, too,’ she said dryly, and Montana laughed.
An hour later Montana heard Dawn cry and she closed the book and stood up. ‘That’s it for today, Emma. My baby calls. Come and meet Dawn.’
When they moved out to the veranda Andy was there and both women stopped to watch him as he carried Dawn to the edge of the veranda.
A
NDY
had Dawn under his arm like a little pink football and to him she felt incredibly warm and precious tucked into his side as she gazed up at him with her gorgeous wide eyes.
‘Mummy is busy at the moment, poppet,’ he said. ‘She’s inside, honest, and you have to come out with me and look at all the trees waving in the breeze.’
She was such a cutie, like her mother, Andy thought as he swung her up into his other arm and turned towards the water. ‘See the big black swans? They look like ships on the lake. Maybe you and me and Mummy could go for a trip in a boat one day. You’d like that.’
Dawn gurgled and pursed her lips and cooed as if trying to impart a secret to him and he grinned down at her. ‘You’re talking. Yes, you are. Such an advanced little thing that you are at only eight weeks. It must be the company. Your Uncle Andy is always here for you. You just give me a yell and I can come and talk to you.’
He heard the door open behind him and turned to see Montana and Emma had finished.
The warm feeling in Montana’s stomach threatened to spill over into tears and she couldn’t watch any more. ‘Are you two having a nice time?’ she said as she turned away in case he saw the shininess in her eyes.
She beckoned to Emma. ‘Come and meet her, Emma.’
Emma edged across shyly and stroked Dawn’s little foot. ‘She’s so tiny.’
Montana laughed. ‘She’s big now. Your baby will be even tinier.’
Andy smiled at Emma. ‘Hello. Did you have a good morning?’
‘You bet.’ Emma said, and he could see the difference in her already. He sighed with relief. She clutched a bag of reading material and grinned up at him. Montana had magic all right, but he’d known that.
He watched Montana studying Emma and the glow in his chest came back as if someone had poked at a fire with a stick and blown on it.
He looked away to the girl. ‘So when are you coming back, Emma?’
Emma looked at both of them to see if she had it correct. ‘This time next week, if that’s OK? Montana said she’d talk to my year advisor at school and we’ll do a child studies project as we go
along. That will help with my marks when I have to leave school in the middle of the year.’
‘Great idea. I’ll run you home, then.’ Andy held out his hand and Montana handed him the car keys.
His hand strayed to her shoulder as she turned away and she stopped. ‘Why don’t you come with us, Montana? We could drive around the lake on the way home.’ He knew he’d enjoy her company—it just depended on her.
His hand dropped but he could still feel her warmth on his fingers. Touching her felt as good as he’d known it would and just as dangerous. ‘I’ve seen Louisa and she said she’ll keep lunch for us.’
Montana smiled. ‘I’d like that.’
His chest expanded as he stood back to allow her to precede them down the steps. Life was good and today was especially delightful.
After they dropped Emma home Andy drove the scenic route back in the opposite direction around the lake because he enjoyed the tranquillity—and he was in no rush to lose Montana’s company.
He took pleasure in everything even more when he was with her. The lake seemed clearer, the sky bluer, even the jagged signs of progress had a certain charm in the distant housing development.
‘We haven’t been out much since you came, have we?’ He had to admit he’d spent a fair bit of time thinking about where he could take her but hadn’t actually made it happen yet.
He wondered if she’d even spared him a thought. ‘I gather you enjoyed your morning with Emma.’
She turned her face to his and he could see the enthusiasm there he’d hoped Emma would benefit from. ‘I did. Yes. She’s great.’
She smiled at him and he felt his heart rate pick up just with that attention. Imagine if she did more than smile—he’d be a basket case.
‘I hadn’t realised how much I missed interacting with pregnant women,’ she said. ‘Emma’s a sweetie.’
You’re a sweetie, he thought. ‘I’m glad you like her.’
They drove along through fields that sprouted ‘For Sale’ signs and passed an early development stage of the future housing estate.
‘This will be Lakeside Village when it’s finished.’ They passed thick stands of gumtrees and native shrubs all backdropped by the lake. ‘I think it retains the country feel.’
He watched her give the area a three-sixty-degrees and nod. ‘The view is great.’
The estate boasted white kerbs and gutters and houseless cul-de-sacs and he found himself thinking for the first time what it would be like to build a house again with a family in mind.
A big house down on his land at the end of the lake with a jetty and a boathouse and a parents’ retreat from the hordes of children they’d have.
His daydream halted when he realised that he had a particular mother and child already who
would make a great start there. It was lucky she couldn’t read his mind or she’d ask him to pull over so she could get out.
‘How far away did you say the new mine site is?’ Montana was definitely in a different space to him and that was a good thing.
He forced his brain to shelve his future home for later to answer her question. ‘Twenty kilometres, but they’ve put through a straight road and it won’t take long to drive between the estate and the mine.’
He frowned. ‘That’s why I’m hoping the hospital will get the upgrade. We’re an hour closer than the base hospital and although the mine does have helicopters which would take the serious casualties away we do want their custom.’
She pondered that. ‘When does production start?’
‘It’s started.’ He glanced across at her and then back to the road. Even with that brief look he’d noticed the way her nose had a faint dusting of freckles on the end. Cute.
He frowned at himself and returned to topic. ‘They have a tent city at the moment and the company plans to build the first fifty houses at Lakeside in the next six months.’
‘That’s a big influx of families for a small town. Aren’t you happy about that?’
That startled him. ‘Why wouldn’t I be happy?’
She tilted her head and examined his expression. ‘You had a fractious look on your face.’
‘Fractious.’ He grinned at her observation. At
least he wasn’t invisible to her. ‘No. I’d be happy. Not just for the town either. It’s a godsend for those further out on the land trying to hang onto their properties until the next rain.’
He pondered the stress some of his more distant patients lived under. ‘We’ve quite a contingent from up to two hundred miles west coming in to work at the mine. Those farmers without trades fill positions like mine maintenance or driving trucks. And then there are the extra three hundred skilled workers that will come in when the mine becomes fully productive.’
‘Exciting times for Lyrebird Lake,’ she said. No doubt she could see his enthusiasm and also, no doubt, he amused her.
He grinned at her observation. ‘It is. That spells changes not just to the services like the hospital and schools, but the shopping, and of course the pubs will do a roaring trade.’
She nodded sagely. ‘More babies for our new maternity unit.’
‘I like the way your mind works.’ He chuckled. ‘We have to talk about that. Have you thought any more about setting up the caseload birth centre?’
‘I am interested if I can get the midwives.’
He sighed with relief and pulled over so he could concentrate on her comments without having to divide his attention.
His relief was out of proportion to the situation. He hadn’t realised how much he’d dreaded that she
mightn’t want to stay. That in itself was a concern for his state of mind. ‘Do you think you could attract other midwives here as well?’
She considered her answer. ‘With case load? The idea of a midwifery-run clinic? I think there is real appeal there. Nearly every clinic I know has waiting lists of midwives who want to do case load.’
She went on thoughtfully, ‘It’s the hospitals that have trouble finding staff to work in areas midwives don’t want to—under conditions that don’t suit them. Case load is so flexible and rewarding if you have a good team.’
He didn’t quite get it but he knew it worked well in other areas. ‘I understand the concept but the finer points you’ll have to explain to me.’
‘Sure, but what about you? You won’t be able to keep up with just Ned.’
‘I know.’ He sighed. ‘I’ve put a few feelers out and if I can’t get any stayers then I’ll just have to pull a few favours and think in short-term appointments until we do find someone.’
He took one hand off the steering-wheel where it rested and gestured to the rolling hills in the distance. ‘This place has grown to mean a lot to me and I want to see it work for a lot of reasons.’
‘I begin to see why you suggested I come here.’
He turned his head and looked at her. He could feel his lips twitch at the corners. ‘Do you?’
He gestured to the grassy verged picnic spot and
turned to face her. ‘Do you want to get out and sit at the table for a while? Dawn can lie on the rug and watch the leaves, maybe.’
There he was again. Thinking ahead and including Dawn. How many men would do that as well as Andy did? she thought. ‘Sure.’
The conversation faltered while they settled themselves and Dawn to face the lake. The soft breeze was warm but pleasant. Birds swooped and dived into the lake and further out a dinghy with two young boys drifted as they fished.
‘All this organising at the hospital.’ She watched one of the boys reel in a fish. ‘It’s a big job to liaise on your own.’
He thought about that and then shook his head. ‘I’m not really on my own. The mayor is supportive and happy to mediate with state government for the funding and building upgrades we need.’ He ticked them off on his fingers.
‘The project officer at the mine is an old school friend and she’s promised to push for support from the company for capital works and cheap rent for hospital employees when the houses are built.’
‘You’ve already done a lot, then.’
‘I’m stuck a little at the hospital. The current matron is not interested in midwifery and she has enough on her plate with the changes. She’s threatened to leave as soon as we find a replacement but she’d hate it if I did because she’s not really in a hurry to sever all ties.’
‘And you’re telling me this because…?’
He grinned again. ‘I wondered if you’d be up to that sort of commitment some time in the future?’
Montana shook her head. ‘Not in full-time work.’
He wasn’t daunted. He could work with that. ‘What about three days a week and we’d get you a trainee administrative assistant as well so you could still be hands on in the midwifery clinic when it opens?’
He watched her consider it and his pulse rate picked up again. ‘That’s more attractive,’ she said slowly. ‘What about Dawn?’
Hell, he’d arrange what ever she wanted. ‘We’re still a country hospital. Louisa is there but we could set up a nursery in your office if you wanted or on the ward and even find a young woman to help you as a nanny-cum-receptionist.’
Montana looked at him as he demolished problems with a one-track mind. His green eyes blazed with determination to build up the hospital services and she could only admire his tenacity, but he was pushing her.
She had other things to think about. ‘You’ve put a lot of thought into this.’
‘I’ll admit I hoped you might be interested. I think you could bring a lot to the hospital and the town.’
Her brow crinkled. ‘I don’t understand why you have such faith in me.’ She didn’t think that anybody had ever seen such potential as Andy had
decided she had. It was an odd feeling and one that left her strangely warmed at his confidence, but it was not something she was accustomed to.
He shrugged. ‘I do have faith in you. Plus our current matron, Joan, is not enjoying the administrative tasks that are mounting up and she’d flip if I mentioned the birth centre as well. The hospital needs someone who would relish that challenge.’
Would she relish the challenge? In all honesty, probably, yes. ‘And you think I’m that person?’
She watched his face and there was no doubt there. How did he really see her?
He said, ‘I would highly recommend you to the board without a qualm.’
What if she let him down? Moved on? ‘You’ve never asked about my other qualifications.’
‘Westside Admin told me you were in charge of their unit at Westside and instrumental in setting up the free-standing centre there. Misty said you were very good at managing people. I saw that in the week at your house.’ He grinned. ‘I know you’ve got the paperwork and the experience.’
Montana gazed out over the lake and she could feel the ties binding her to a place she wasn’t sure she wanted to be bound to for reasons that were way too complicated to think about now.
She had become even more suspicious of her feelings for Andy let alone if she committed to the exposure of working with him at the hospital.
What about Douglas and Douglas’s house in
town and all her things? What about her old friends and her old life?
And the last, startling, dreadful thought—Douglas hadn’t even been gone a year!
What disloyalty was this?
She couldn’t help loving it here. Douglas would never have assumed she could do all the things Andy believed she could.
She shied away from that because it involved negative thoughts of Douglas and comparisons. The next thing she’d be thinking she could hope and dream for things in the future.
‘It’s a big commitment. To tell the truth, part of the attraction here is the lack of commitment required. I’d have to change the way I picture the future. I’d have to think about it seriously and not rush into anything.’
Andy was nodding, but there was that glint of determination in his eye that she was becoming more wary of. ‘Fine. Believe me, time’s not a problem.’
Why did she not accept what he said as true? she thought with a smile. He was one-eyed and too passionate about looking after his town, that’s why.
He scooped up Dawn, who had suddenly decided she didn’t want to lie on her stomach any more, and went on blithely with her tucked under his arm.
‘How about in the morning we take a trip up to the hospital and chat to Joan? She could give you an idea of what’s involved in the deputy’s job and then you could see how you feel about the idea.’