Christmas Where She Belongs. Meredith Webber

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