‘How would I find the rescue people?’
‘Oh, forget that. What was I thinking? Anna Prentiss, our local vet. They always take injured animals to her. She’ll know who brought the koala in.’
‘Thanks.’
Justin made way for Deb’s next customer. As he went to join his brother, he decided not to say anything about the conversation. It was clear that Ben’s anger still ran deep. If Justin decided to go and ask this vet about his mother, he’d do it alone. If … He wasn’t sure he wanted to. Was it better to let sleeping dogs lie? After all these years, there was nothing to be gained by opening old wounds.
As he slid into the chair next to his brother, the hall suddenly became silent. Heads were tilted and it seemed everyone was holding their breath. A few minutes later, a cheer went up, drowning the welcome sound of raindrops falling on the hall’s tin roof.
CHAPTER
4
Anna was standing outside as the sun peeped over the top of the hills. She loved the sights and sounds of dawn after a night’s rain. She loved the smell of wet earth and grass. And she particularly loved those smells after the smoky air from the bushfires. Mornings like this brought the promise of renewal and recovery. She had felt that way about this place since the moment she’d laid eyes on it. She would be forever grateful to the old uni friend who had drawn her attention to the clinic for sale in Wagtail Ridge. It was a long way from her parents in Adelaide, but it was also a long way from the people who had known her before. People who couldn’t hide their shock and pity, no matter how hard they tried. The town had welcomed her as she was now, and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Her home hadn’t been in the path of this latest fire, but as always, the fire had almost filled her small clinic with its victims. That was the other reason she was up so early. She had injured wildlife to treat here before setting out to visit patients at a local horse stud and the alpaca farm run by her friend Bree. But before that, she wanted a few minutes of peace to listen to the sounds of the bush and enjoy a moment of solitude. She stretched her shoulders, tossed back her sandy hair, closed her eyes and turned her face to the rising sun. The first rays of light fell gently on her face. She stayed that way for almost a minute, before she felt the harsher touch of the summer sun on the sensitive skin of her cheek and chin. The accident that had left those scars had not quite robbed her of this joy. Not quite. She lowered her face, rubbing the puckered skin gently. She frowned and scratched the itching skin on her forehead. The scar there was less visible, but at times, it bothered her most of all. Time to get to work. She pulled a scrunchie from her pocket and caught her hair back in a ponytail.
Funding from a state-wide charity had allowed her to equip her native animal clinic well. When she walked inside, too many of the cages and pens were occupied. She had been busy in the last twenty-four hours. Despite the ventilation, the room had a rank smell, mostly of singed hair or burned skin. There were still a couple of empty cages, but that might not last long; there could be other fire victims found over the next couple of days. She’d be ready for them.
‘Hello, little man.’ She bent over a basket with a juvenile koala curled inside a well-washed baby blanket covered with unicorns. The koala looked back at her, blinking with button-shaped brown eyes. ‘Let’s have a look at that burn.’ She carefully lifted him out of the basket and placed him on the treatment table.
Anna worked quietly and happily for an hour, talking to each patient as she dressed burns, cut away charred fur and performed general health checks, to make sure each animal would be in good condition when it left her to be returned to the wild.
She was just finishing checking the koala Carol had brought her yesterday when she heard a car pull up outside. It was too early for either her nurse or receptionist to start work. Placing the koala in her pen, Anna opened the door to find a red, yellow and white Landcruiser outside. It was emblazoned with the Rural Fire Service logo. A man got out and turned towards her.
Anna knew a lot of the Rural Fire Service men who worked the Upper Hunter Valley, both the staff and the local volunteers. But she’d never seen this man before. She certainly would have remembered. At college, she’d joked with her friends about hot firemen. Here was that joke personified. The man walking towards her was tall and solid. His hair was the gold of a Queensland beach. Even from this distance, she could see that his eyes were a deep brown. She would have gambled good money that, up close, they would have gold flecks in them, because this man would put Adonis to shame. As he walked, he exuded a feeling of controlled power, yet the half-smile on his lips was kind and gentle.
Anna wished she hadn’t put her hair in a ponytail. Around people, she usually let her hair hang loose to partly obscure the scars. To change it now would be too obvious.
‘Hi. You must be Anna Prentiss, the vet? I’m Justin Turner. RFS.’ He held out his hand.
Anna took it and as his warm fingers closed around her hand, almost engulfing it, something deep inside her stirred. A part of her that had lain dormant since that day a truck carrying rodeo bulls had skidded off a wet road, leaving injured animals needing help.
The sudden warmth shook her and she pulled her hand away as quickly as she could.
‘How can I help you?’
‘I’ve been told you often help out with injured wildlife. After the fire, I mean.’
‘That’s right. Have you found an animal that needs care?’ She glanced over at his vehicle.
‘No. I mean, not today. Yesterday there was a koala rescued from my sector. By a woman. You might have seen the video on the news.’
Anna knew exactly what he was talking about. She had seen the news and the video going viral on social media.
‘Yes. She was brought here. She’s doing fine. Come and see.’
She turned her back to lead the disconcerting firefighter to her little hospital. Once inside, she showed him the cage where the koala in question was resting.
‘Mostly it was just her fur that was burned. A couple of small burns on her skin. She’s going to be fine.’ Anna wasn’t quite so certain she was going to be fine. In the confines of her small hospital, Justin was standing close. Far too close. All the oxygen seemed to have been sucked out of the room and she was feeling a little … Not faint. That was ridiculous. She wasn’t some swooning maiden in a bad romance novel. But still …
‘That’s good.’ Justin leaned over to look at the koala. ‘You get better soon, little girl.’
Anna led the way back outside where she could breathe. ‘Was that why you came? To check on her?’
‘No.’ Justin paused.
Anna had the feeling he wasn’t too certain how to continue.
