Absolutely. Before Georgie could reply, Declan said, “You don’t need to convince me, but it is what it is.”
Penelope pressed her lips together and as they left the meeting room Declan gave Georgie the keys for one of the four-wheel drives. “You can drive off road?”
She nodded. She’d been four-wheel driving since her feet could reach the pedals.
“What about using a rifle? We have a couple in case we come across injured wildlife.”
“I’m not as good a shot as Ed, but I can hold my own.”
“Great.” Declan grinned at her. “I’ll still need to send you on a course, and take you through all the paperwork requirements, but you should be fine.”
Georgie turned to Penelope, determined to be nice. “Good luck on your first day.”
Penelope gave her an actual smile this time, some surprise in her eyes. “Thank you. You too.”
Perhaps she had been nervous at the start. Georgie wasn’t going to be bitter about losing out to her. During their meeting she’d asked some intelligent questions and it was clear she knew her stuff.
Georgie loaded her work vehicle and drove out to the campgrounds to take the supplies. She had a checklist a mile long of the places to go and things to do. Part of her role was checking the public facilities in the national park, many of which were long drop toilets. Today she was working the area between the coast and the ranges.
It was a beautiful day with the sky bright blue and the ocean calm and glistening. The perfect day for the boat.
A pang of longing hit her. The ocean was where she belonged. Hopefully she could prove herself in this role, and when the other ranger retired, she’d get the job and work side by side with Penelope. Georgie would have to invite her for a drink, especially if she was new in town and didn’t know anyone.
She would have been miserable and lonely at university if she hadn’t had Ed there to support her.
She exhaled, enjoying the quiet of the car. No more dealing with demanding customers. Now she would spend most of the day on her own.
It was lucky she liked her own company.
The morning passed quickly as she visited each campground, dropping off supplies and introducing herself to the campground hosts. The sites were in beautiful locations, only a handful of metres from the crystal-clear beach, with Ningaloo Reef just off its shores. People had to be self-sufficient with no power or water out here, but most loved it. Some even launched boats at the ramp up the coast to fish in areas outside the designated sanctuary zones.
It was nice to do something different, to not have to worry about being overly friendly all the time. She spent a large part of her day in her car, listening to music and enjoying the fresh air coming in her window. Perhaps it would get lonely in time, but right now it was just what she needed.
She had a lot of thinking to do.
Sam still hadn’t told Brandon or Amy about Arthur’s accident. He hadn’t even called her back like he’d promised. It wasn’t until she’d messaged him, promising to tell Amy everything if he didn’t call her back, that he finally rang.
Arthur was alive but had lost the lower part of his leg under his knee. He’d been medically discharged from the army and would have a lot of rehabilitation. Sam insisted Arthur didn’t want Brandon or Amy to know. He was in a low place, and he couldn’t bear to see either one. Sam was worried about his mental state.
Though it galled Georgie not to say anything, Sam had convinced her to stay silent. She’d imagined herself in Arthur’s position, struggling to come to terms with the loss of his leg and career, and then having to deal with the guilt of his estranged relationship with his sister. It would be too much. She’d asked Sam to keep her informed of Arthur’s progress. She would be Amy’s surrogate.
Yesterday Arthur had been moved to the rehabilitation centre at Shenton Park. He wasn’t speaking much and didn’t want to see his teammates, but Sam visited daily.
Ed continued calling her weekly and he’d rung last night to wish her luck on her first day of work. It was sweet of him, but she could have done without the questions about why she hadn’t been to the Ridge lately. He didn’t buy her excuse that she’d been busy preparing for her new job and training her replacement.
But the truth was, how could she go home and face Matt? She wasn’t ready to sit next to him at the dinner table and pretend everything was as it had been. She could imagine the awkwardness between them and someone would notice. Lara was far too observant for her own good.
Plus it would kill her to be uncomfortable around him.
Georgie reached the end of the road, literally, and went to check the public sites at Yardie Creek. A few groups of tourists were already parked, some waiting for the boat tour, others walking the trail on top of the gorge. A group of four-wheel drives was parked near the entrance to the beach waiting for the tide to go out. The creek could be crossed at low tide, but the sand was soft and people often got bogged.
She cleaned the toilets, made sure there was plenty of toilet paper, and then checked the picnic tables were in good condition. The boat tour was taking on new passengers, so she wandered down to chat to the captain.
When she was done, she headed north and took one of the tracks accessible just to PAWS. The track was rough and she engaged the four-wheel drive as she bumped and rocked her way up the slope of the ranges. She’d always found the Cape Range such an anomaly. In the midst of such flat land, suddenly a range of rock rose up, running parallel to the coast, almost all the way to the tip of the peninsula, an impassable object. It took almost an hour from Retribution Bay to get around to the bottom of the tip as there were no roads passing through it.
If an incident happened out here, she’d be on her own for at least two hours before first response could arrive by road which was why Georgie was booked to do an advanced first aid course later in the month with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She carried a personal EPIRB and was instructed never to leave the car without her radio. It didn’t bother her. Growing up on the station, she knew the risks. Her parents had drummed it into her when she was a child, and she never went out of sight of the homestead without a radio.
She finally reached the top of the escarpment and sucked in a breath. The view always left her in awe. From here Georgie could see all the way along the coast from the tip of the peninsula right down towards Coral Bay. She inhaled deeply and enjoyed the fresh air. It was so silent up here with barely a breeze blowing. All she could hear was the trill of birds singing to each other in the bush. But it felt like home.
