Which was lovely.
Or it should have been lovely. There was still this aching need that wouldn’t subside, a need that Jonas had created and not filled.
He’d asked her for marriage, but he hadn’t needed her. He didn’t love…
Medicine!
She needed to concentrate on medicine.
The phone rang. She winced, knowing before she picked up the receiver that it meant an emergency. She was in the middle of Erica Harris’s litany of complaints and Lou didn’t interrupt a consultation by putting a call through unless it was absolutely vital.
And it was. The normally unflappable Lou sounded shocked and sick.
‘Em, it’s Anna Lunn’s little boy, Sam.’
Em’s heart sank. The voice Lou was using spelt disaster.
‘What is it?’
‘Anna has just rung, and she’s almost hysterical. It seems Sam went up into the bush behind their place-the site of the old gold diggings? Apparently there’s an old shaft there that hasn’t been filled in. Or she says it looked filled in from the top, but it’s collapsed and he’s fallen. Anna says she and Matt can hear him calling from about thirty feet down, but they can’t get him out. They can’t get near him. I’m ringing the emergency services but can you go out there, too?’
Of course. She’d already left. Erica Harris was left sitting with her mouth open.
‘Find Jonas,’ Em snapped at Lou as she flew past. ‘Explain to Mrs Harris.’
And she was gone.
CHAPTER TEN
THE mineshaft was about half a mile from Anna’s house, back in the hills merging into the national park. Gold had been found here a hundred years ago and mine after mine had been sunk, but gradually most of them had been filled in. Some of the bigger ones had been professionally capped, but this one…
Someone had capped it, Anna told them, speaking between sobs of sheer terror, but they’d used only rough timber. Over time the timber had become covered with bush litter, the wood had rotted and Sam had stepped on the wrong spot and plunged down.
‘And I never would have found him if Matt hadn’t been with him and come to get me.’ Anna subsided into tears on Em’s shoulder, and Em held her tightly. Willing her strength…
As well as the terror she was facing, Anna was close to exhaustion, having run to the shaft when Matt had come home screaming for his mother and then run back to the house to telephone Em and Jim. Now she was in the cab of Jim’s fire engine, wedged between Em and Jim while the fire chief gunned the truck across the paddocks.
Beside Anna, Jim’s face was grim. Like Em, he’d flown to Anna’s assistance at the first call. He knew how lethal these mine shafts could be.
‘Are you sure he’s down there?’ The fire chief’s voice was curt and filled with concern.
‘Matt saw him fall. He raced straight away to find me, and I ran all the way there. He’s down there all right. And he’s conscious. I’ve spoken to him. But he sounds so deep. He’s fallen so far.’ She choked back a sob.
‘And I had to leave Matt there,’ she whispered as she fought to collect herself. ‘I know he’s too little to leave while I came for help, but it took us ages to find the hole again and I was scared Sam might stop calling. I couldn’t leave Sam alone. If he can’t call out there’s no way we’d find where the shaft was.’
She broke right down then, and Em’s hand came out to take hers. Anna was very close to breaking point anyway. So much had happened to her over the last month.
And now this…
‘You did the right thing, Anna,’ she told her strongly. ‘Now leave the rest to us.’
She had no choice. She’d left Ruby with a neighbour. Once again, Anna had needed to ask for help, but she wasn’t holding back. She wanted Em, and she wanted Jim and she wanted anyone else who could help. And especially…
‘Jonas,’ she whispered. ‘Where’s Jonas? I need him.’
Now there was an admission!
‘Lou’s contacting him now,’ Em told her. ‘He was out doing a house call but he’ll meet us there.’
‘As soon as we find the shaft, I’ll send a man back to bring him through the hills,’ Jim said curtly, still concentrating on not overturning the truck. The last thing they wanted was to hit a shaft themselves, but the ground here was clear enough. When they reached the rough country they’d have to get out and walk. Slowly.
‘The kids know this isn’t safe,’ Jim said, and it was as if he was speaking to himself. His voice was grim with foreboding. ‘I’ve told them that, over and over.’
He sounded just like a parent, Em thought. He sounded as frantic as Anna was herself. She looked at the pair of them, and they looked like partners. If only Anna would see it.
But she wasn’t concentrating on partnerships now.
‘I did, too.’ Anna took a deep breath. ‘But the boys were mad with me.’
‘Why?’
‘They overheard Jim asking if he could take them to the motor show in Blairglen next week,’ Anna whispered. ‘And they heard me refusing.’
‘So they headed for the hills?’
‘Sam has a temper,’ Anna said, and Jim nodded at that.
‘Plus he’s as stubborn as a mule,’ he told her. ‘Just like his mother.’ Then he flicked a glance at Em’s white face, and he nodded again. ‘And their uncle,’ he added almost to himself. ‘You and Jonas both, Anna Lunn. Of all the damned fool families for me and Em to fall in love with…’
He didn’t finish. They were at the edge of the cleared land, and they could go no further in the truck. They piled out-Anna, Jim and Em, and the six members of the fire crew from the back of the truck-and Anna led the way into the bush.
Anna shouldn’t be doing this, Em thought worriedly as the men hacked through the scrub where she indicated. She was only a few weeks post-op, and if she fell on that arm, she could do herself real damage.
‘Hold Jim’s hand, Anna,’ she told her. ‘With your good arm. Jim, hold onto her and don’t let her fall.’
‘I can manage.’
‘For heaven’s sake, we have one casualty, and I don’t want two,’ Em snapped. ‘Stop being so darned independent and do what you’re told.’
Anna cast her a scared look, Jim gave Em a thumbs-up signal and Anna’s hand was taken, whether she liked it or not.
And then they reached Matt.
The little boy was sitting completely by himself on a fallen log. He was one distraught six-year-old, and Em had never seen a child more frightened in her life. There were tears streaming down his face, and he looked as if he’d been crying for ever.
It was all Em could do not to rush forward and gather him into her arms, but Anna was there before her. Despite her still painful arm, she did just that.
‘It’s OK, sweetheart. We’ve got help.’ Somehow Anna managed to sound coherent. ‘Look, Dr Mainwaring’s here…and Jim…and all these men. They’ll get Sam out.’
But for Matt, it wasn’t enough. He’d obviously been speaking to his big brother down the shaft, and he had someone else in mind. ‘Sam says we need Uncle Jonas,’ he quavered. ‘Where’s Uncle Jonas?’
‘He’s right here.’
The voice came out of the bush, and Jonas emerged into the clearing like he’d been conjured.
He must have been right behind them, following the noise they were making as they bush-bashed toward the mine, and how he’d got there so fast, Em didn’t know. From where he’d been doing his house call he must have moved like greased lightning. He didn’t hold back as Em did, but strode forward and took Anna and Matt into his arms.
And he hugged them both.
Hard.
Then they all stared at the tiny slit in the ground that marked the entrance to the shaft.
Em’s heart sank when she saw what was facing them.