They worked far into the night. The townsfolk had gone home from the beach. The wind died, and about ten o’clock the hoped-for change blew through softly from the south. The air temperature dropped to almost cool and there was a spattering of blessed rain.
But still they worked. A team had been organised to go from house to house, checking, not for spot fires now but on people’s health. The elderly and those at risk had had a day where they’d been tested to the limit. They could go home now and maybe collapse with exhaustion, stress, smoke inhalation, minor injuries…
So everyone was checked. Cowral looked after its own. And as each problem was reported, it was passed on to the medical team.
At two a.m. Rachel finally arrived back in the kitchen of the doctors’ residence. Myra had taken Toby and all three dogs out to her place for the night. There were casseroles sitting on the kitchen table-of course-but Rachel was beyond eating. She sat and stared at nothing. At nothing at all.
And fifteen minutes later Hugo walked in.
He was as exhausted as she was. He appeared at the screen door and his face was grey with fatigue. She rose and looked at him. Just…looked. And what passed between them…
It was a vow. It was confirmation of all they had come through that day.
It was the start of their life together.
‘Rachel,’ he said at last, and it was as if it was a blessing.
‘Hugo,’ she whispered, and walked straight into his arms.
There was no time then for anything but love.
There was no time for talking. No time for anything but filling this aching, searing need. Holding. Finding their rightful place.
They showered together because to do otherwise was to waste time. Their filthy clothes were shed together-clothes that on any day but this one would have had both doctors struck off the medical register as disgraces to the medical profession. But no one had minded their clothes. They’d been doctors first and foremost. They’d seen to the town’s medical needs.
But now…the need was past. The town’s needs.
There was time now for their own needs.
Time to become lovers.
There was no hesitation. No questions. There were only answers.
Their bodies met in joyful wonder. They washed each other under the stream of warm water, soaping, smiling, learning each other’s bodies in this, the most intimate act of cleaning. Soaping off the layers of grime to reveal bodies that were already known and loved.
His hands were smoothing the soap over her skin and it was the most erotic of sensations. She had the flannel and was rubbing his back, but her body was falling forward, leaning into him, letting her mouth touch his…
Tasting. Wanting.
Needing!
The need was mutual. All-exclusive.
It was as if this man and this woman had been meant for each other-destined-from the beginning of time.
And then they were together in Hugo’s big bed, dry and warmed but still naked, gloriously naked. Skin against skin, holding, holding, narrowing the gap, merging…
Man and woman becoming one.
It had been so long.
Had it ever been this good? Rachel didn’t know. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t compare. What had been between Rachel and Craig was another time. Another life. It had been precious-was still precious-but it was a thing apart.
This was now. This man, her beloved Hugo, holding her as if he loved her.
He did love her. She knew it and she gloried in it.
Craig would not gainsay her this love. Because she loved Craig she knew, with a surety that was a part of her own heart, that she had his blessing. She could feel it.
Her body was doubly blessed.
Dear heaven, the feel of Hugo. The wonder. His big hands were holding her as if she was the most precious thing in the world. His warmth, the smell of him, the taste…
The way her body moulded around him. Opened. Welcomed. He came into her, and their mutual need was overwhelming. The wonder…
The joy.
They slept. How could they not sleep after this day? Their exhaustion was absolute. Sated with loving, they slept entwined, and Rachel fell into a sleep as deep as she’d ever been in.
Ever since the accident-ever since that dreadful day-her sleep had been troubled, disturbed, as if she’d had to stay awake for the next disaster. There would be another disaster. Her world had been pulled from under her feet and she couldn’t trust.
She couldn’t sleep.
But now…in this man’s arms, she slept. Let tomorrow bring what it may. For now there was only this man and his arms and his body and his love.
And Hugo?
It had never been like this with Beth. He’d drifted into marriage with Beth as he’d nearly drifted into marriage with her sister. Stupid. Stupid, stupid.
Yet how could he have known it had been stupid? He’d never known it could be like this. He woke about dawn and his fingers twined gently through Rachel’s tumbled curls. How could he have suspected there was loving like this in the world?
This wonderful woman. This…blessing.
She stirred in sleep, her eyes half opened and she smiled at him. His heart twisted inside him and he gathered her to him with such tenderness. The most precious thing…
Rachel.
Her eyes closed and she snuggled into him. Her breasts moulded to him. He felt desire stir, but exhaustion was still there. Desire could wait, he thought with a growing joy. It could wait an hour or two. There was all the time in the world. This was his Rachel. Rachel…
Murmuring her name into her hair, he drifted back to sleep.
The phone woke them.
It was late. At least eight. The sun was streaming across the brocade quilt. He’d get rid of it, Hugo thought, and then joyously, yes! He’d get rid of every piece of brocade in the house.
This day was the first day of the rest of his life. His life with Rachel.
She was waking beside him, her eyes fluttering open, smiling, reaching up to touch his unshaven chin.
The phone was ringing.
Rachel.
Medical imperative. Answer the phone. He smiled back at her and then answered the phone.
A woman’s voice, urgent with need.
‘Is Rachel there? Dr Harper? She’s not answering her cellphone. I need to speak to her.’
‘Sure.’ He heard the fear and reacted. His eyes sent Rachel an urgent message and handed her the phone.
Rachel took the receiver and listened.
‘Dottie.’
She was suddenly wide awake, pushing herself up in bed, oblivious of the fact that she was naked. A sunbeam was streaming across her creamy breasts.
Dear God, she was beautiful!
But her voice sounded concerned.
‘No, Dottie, we’re fine. I’m sorry. I should have rung you last night. I might have known you’d see it on the news reports. No. The town’s been left basically intact. We’re safe.’
‘No.’
‘No.’
Then her voice softened with dread. ‘But he can’t… Dottie, he was stable…’
She listened some more and then put her lips tightly together. Her eyes closed as if in pain.
‘Of course I’ll come,’ she whispered. ‘Of course. Just as soon as I can get there.’
The line went dead. Hugo lifted the receiver from Rachel’s suddenly limp grasp and laid it back on the cradle. Then he turned and took her hands in his.
‘What is it, Rachel?’
She opened her eyes and stared at him but she wasn’t seeing him. She was seeing something a long way away. In the far, far distance.
‘It’s Craig,’ she whispered.
‘Craig?’
‘My husband. He’s dying.’
CHAPTER NINE
SOMEHOW, while Hugo helped Rachel put her belongings together and practically force-fed her toast and arranged for someone to drive her…somehow he got it out of her.
‘Craig and I were in a car smash eight years ago,’ she said, her voice laced with pain. ‘We were med students together. We’d gone out together since school. Dottie, Craig’s mum, is practically my mum. We were so close. We got married and everything was perfect and then some drunk driver smashed into us on a blind bend when we were coming home from one of Craig’s football matches. The drunk was on the wrong side of the road and there was nothing Craig could do to avoid him. I was hurt. Craig… Craig was hardly touched. Except for a blow to his head. One blow. One blow and he was unconscious. And he never woke up.’ Her voice broke on a sob and Hugo held her mug of tea to lips that were tight with the shock of past hurt and hurt still to come.