throughout her teenage years she had avoided dating boys and in her final year at school Rupert had seemed the perfect solution. Still she’d kept the secret of that night to herself.
She had promised her sister after all.
ISLA DID WHAT she could to repair the damage to her face—her eyelids were puffy, her nose was red and her lips swollen. Isla never cried. Even at the most difficult births she was very aware that even a single tear might lead back to that memory and so she kept her emotions in check.
Always.
She put on some sunglasses and made her way to Arrivals, where she stood, her eyes moving between the three exit doors and wondering if she would even recognise Darcie when she came out.
As it turned out, it was Darcie who recognised her.
‘Isla!’ Her name was called from behind the rail and the second she turned Isla’s face broke into a smile.
‘I was watching the wrong door.’ Isla greeted Darcie with a hug. ‘Happy New Year,’ she said.
‘Happy New Year, to you, too.’ Darcie smiled.
‘I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t recognise you when you came out,’ Isla admitted.
‘Well, I certainly recognised you. You’re as gorgeous as you are in the magazine I was just …’ Darcie’s voice trailed off and she went a bit pink, perhaps guessing that the article she had read on the plane might not be Isla’s favourite topic, given that it had revealed Rupert’s infidelity.
Isla let that comment go and they stepped out into the morning sun. Melbourne was famous for its fickle weather but this morning the sky was silver blue and the sun had been firmly turned on to welcome Darcie.
‘It shouldn’t take too long to get home,’ Isla said as they hit the morning rush-hour traffic. ‘Did you get much sleep on the plane?’
‘Not really.’ Darcie shook her head. ‘I shan’t be much company today.’
‘That’s fine.’ Isla smiled. ‘I’m dropping you home and then I’ll be going into work so you’ll have the place to yourself.’
‘You should have told me that you were working this morning!’ Darcie said. ‘I could have taken a taxi. You didn’t have to come out to the airport to meet me.’
‘It was no problem and I was there anyway to see Isabel off.’
‘Oh, of course you were.’ Darcie glanced at Isla. Despite the repair job that Isla had done with make-up and dark glasses, it was quite clear to Darcie that she had been crying. Now, though, Darcie thought she knew why. ‘It must have been hard to say goodbye to your sister.’
‘It was,’ Isla admitted. ‘I’m going to miss her a lot, though I bet she’s going to have an amazing year in England.’
They chatted easily as they drove into Melbourne. Isla pointed out a few landmarks—Federation Square and the Arts Centre—and Darcie said she couldn’t wait to get on a tram.
‘We’ll be catching one tonight,’ Isla told her. ‘I’ve organised for some colleagues to get together and have drinks tonight. It’s a bit of a tradition on the maternity unit that we all try to get together before a new staff member starts, just so we can get most of the introductions out of the way and everything. If it’s too much for you, given how far you’ve flown, everyone will understand.’
‘No, it won’t be too much, that sounds lovely. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.’
‘Have you left a boyfriend behind?’ Isla asked, and Darcie shook her head.
‘No, I’m recently single and staying that way. I’m here to focus on my career. I’ve heard so much about the MMU at the Victoria—I just can’t wait to get started.’
‘There it is.’ Isla drove slowly past the hospital where Darcie would commence work the next day. It was a gorgeous old building that, contrary to outer appearances, was equipped with the best staff and equipment that modern medicine had to offer.
They soon pulled into the underground car park of the apartment block and took the lift to the penthouse.
‘Wow,’ Darcie said as they stepped inside. ‘When you said that we’d be sharing a flat …’ She was clearly a bit taken aback by the rather luxurious surroundings and looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows to the busy city below. ‘It’s stunning.’
‘It will soon feel like home,’ Isla assured her. ‘I’ll give you a quick tour but then I really need to get to work.’
‘There’s no need for a tour,’ Darcie said. ‘I’ll just be having a very quick shower and then bed. I’ll probably still be in it when you get home.’
Isla showed Darcie to her room. It had its own en suite and Isla briefly went through how to use the remote control for the blinds and a few other things and then she quickly got changed to head into work. ‘I’ll try and get back about six o’clock,’ Isla said. ‘I’ve told people to get there about seven, but if I do get stuck at work I’ll send a colleague to pick you up.’
‘There’s no need for that.’ Darcie was clearly very independent, Isla realised. ‘Just tell me the name of the bar and if you can’t make it home in time, I’ll find my own way there.’
Isla smiled, though she shook her head. ‘I’m not leaving you to make your own way there on your first day in Melbourne.’
Darcie was nice, Isla decided as she drove to work. She still felt a little bit unsettled from her breakdown earlier. She had never cried like that. In fact, she did everything she could not to think about that terrible morning. The trouble was, though, since Sean had arrived, that long-ago time seemed to be catching up with both Isabel and her. As if to prove her point, the first person she saw when she walked into MMU was Sean. With no dark glasses to hide behind now, Isla’s heart sank a little when he called her over.
‘I was wondering if you could have a word with Christine Adams for me,’ Sean said. ‘I know how good you are with teenagers and, in all honesty, nothing I say about contraception seems to be getting through to her. At this rate, Christine is going to be back here in nine months’ time. I inserted an IUD after delivery but, as you know, she had a small haemorrhage and it’s been expelled so I can’t put another one in for six weeks. She’s also got a history of deep vein thrombosis so she’s not able to go on the Pill. Can you just reiterate to her and her boyfriend that they need to use condoms every time? She’s told me that she doesn’t want another baby for a couple of years, and I think she’s right—her body needs a rest.’
‘She’s very anaemic, isn’t she?’ Isla checked.
‘She is. I was considering a transfusion when she bled but she’s going to try and get her iron up herself.’
‘I’ll have a chat,’ Isla agreed. She was very used to dealing with young mums and last year had started a group called Teenage Mums-To-Be, or TMTB, as it was known. Even though she couldn’t always
