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Chapter 16

McLaren Mango Farm - Sunday noon

Cy

Cy knew Tarni was in pain and was doing her best to hide it. Her usually fair skin held no colour at all and contrasted with her long dark hair more than it usually did. Yesterday morning when they’d sat in the sun and had their morning tea together, she’d closed her eyes and tilted her face up to the sun and he’d thought how pretty she was. When they’d first met, he’d found her closed down and uncommunicative, but she’d thawed over the past few days.

Then again, he hadn’t exactly been friendly or welcoming on Monday. She’d opened up a little bit about her background over their cuppa, and he’d surprised himself when he’d been more talkative than usual too.

He had enjoyed the company. He’d enjoyed her company.

Tarni had insisted the cut was nothing and only needed a Band-Aid, but when he’d seen the blood running down her hand, he was pretty sure she was going to need stitches. Blood was still seeping from the laceration. It was lucky he’d come back to the shed when he had. He’d frozen when she’d screamed, and he’d raced into her mini laboratory to see what the problem was.

He’d deal with the rat later.

‘Okay, you ready? This is going to sting to start with. Just pop your hand in that water for me. Give it a bit of a swish around, but gently. You don’t want that heavy bleeding to start up again. I’ve got a clean dressing here to put on when it’s out and dry. A bit of pressure to try to stop it.’

‘Ouch,’ she said as she did as he asked. ‘Dettol always stings.’

‘It’ll get the germs out. What exactly did you do it with?’ Cy tried to distract her as she screwed up her face in pain.

‘Oh, now it’s throbbing too.’ She shrugged. ‘I was putting the last box together and I jumped when I saw that damn rat. The box moved when I jumped and I drilled clean through that soft part between my fingers with a small drill bit.’

‘We’re going to have to take a trip to Emergency, you know.’ Cy kept his voice even as her eyes widened.

Tarni shook her head. ‘I can’t. I have to get that final tray into the incubator in the next hour at most. And I’m sure you’ve got stuff to do. And you said that guy is coming for an interview today, didn’t you?’

‘Do you want to have a healing hand to be able to keep working? Or do you want to get an infection and end up in hospital?’

She looked up and held his gaze and Cy waited.

‘I guess I’ll have to.’

‘Good, I didn’t want to have to pull rank as manager. I’ll do that drilling for you and you can talk me through whatever has to be done with your seeds.’ She was still staring at him, and he grinned at her. ‘Another skill to my new agricultural repertoire.’

‘Thank you. I’ll owe you,’ she said.

Cy kept the conversation going as he lifted her hand from the now pink-stained water. ‘Sounds good to me.’ He examined the jagged tear in her soft skin. Holding her hand high to dry for a moment, he frowned as the blood began to drip down her wrist again. He tugged her towards him gently and put her hand palm up on the clean towel he’d left beside the sink.

The first aid kit was ready. They were both silent as Cy wiped the wound gently, and put some Betadine on it, followed by a dressing patch. He then placed a gauze dressing on it and firmly wrapped the bandage around her hand.

‘Too tight?’

Tarni’s face was white and she bit her lip. ‘No, that’s okay. Thank you. You’re very good at that.’

‘At what?’

‘The first aid stuff. You’re very gentle.’

‘You have to know what you’re doing when you’re mustering a hundred kilometres out on a station. I’ve seen some nasty gores in my time. A rat peeking at you is nothing to a five-hundred-kilogram scrub bull staring you down from close range.’

‘How did you know the rat was peeking at me? And it was more than peeking. It was downright looking daggers at me.’

Cy chuckled. ‘Because it’s done the same to me over the past few nights. But don’t worry, the good news is I’ll set a trap tonight.’

‘And the bad news?’ she asked. The colour was starting to come back into her face.

‘The bad news is there are a lot more of them where that fellow came from. They come in under the eaves. Now follow me and I’ll set up a chair for you near your bench and you can tell me exactly what to do.’