that how long it’s been since your mother left?’
He gave her a grim look. ‘Yeah. I guess you twigged she was English.’
‘Peggy McLeod told me.’
He walked over to the open fireplace and kicked a gum nut back into the grate. His back and shoulders were so tense Izzy could see each muscle outlined by his close-fitting T-shirt. He rubbed the back of his neck before he turned back around to face her. ‘I’m worried about him.’
‘I can see that.’
‘I mean really worried.’
Izzy saw the haunted shadows in his eyes. ‘You think he’s depressed?’
‘Let’s put it this way, I don’t leave him alone for long periods. And I’ve taken all the guns over to a friend’s place.’
She felt her heart tighten at the thought of him having to keep a step ahead of his father all the time. The pressure on the loved ones of people struggling with depression was enormous. And Zach seemed to be doing it solo. ‘Has his mood dropped recently or has he been feeling low for a while?’
‘It’s been going down progressively since he came out of rehab.’ He let out another breath as he dragged his hand over his face. ‘Each day I seem to lose a little bit more of him.’
Izzy could just imagine the toll it was taking on him. He had so many responsibilities to shoulder, running his father’s property as well as his career as a cop. ‘Would he see someone in Sydney if I set up an appointment? I know it’s a long trip but surely it would be worth it to get him the help he needs.’
‘He won’t go back to the city, not after spending three months in hospital. He won’t even go as far as Bourke.’
‘Does he have any friends who could spend time with him?’ she asked. ‘It might help lift his mood to be more active socially.’
The look he threw her was derisive. ‘My father is not the tea-party type.’
‘What about Margie Green?’
His brows came together. ‘What about her?’
‘She’s a close friend, isn’t she? Or she was in the old days before your parents got together.’
His expression was guarded now; the drawbridge had come up again. ‘You seem to have gained a lot of inside information for the short time you’ve been in town.’
Izzy compressed her lips. ‘I can’t help it if people tell me stuff. I can assure you I don’t go looking for it.’
He curled his lip in a mocking manner. ‘I bet you don’t.’
She picked up her doctor’s bag from the floor with brisk efficiency. ‘I think it’s time I left. I’ve clearly outstayed my welcome.’
Izzy had marched to the front door before he caught up with her. ‘Dr Courtney.’ It was a command, not a request or even an apology. She drew in a tight breath and turned to face him. His expression still had that reserved unreadable quality to it but something about his eyes made her think he was not so much angry at her as at the situation he found himself in.
‘Yes?’
He held her gaze for a long moment without speaking. It was as if he was searching through a filing drawer in his brain for the right words.
‘Yes?’ Izzy prompted.
‘Don’t give up on him.’ He did that hair-scrape thing again. ‘He needs time.’
‘Will four weeks be long enough, do you think?’ she asked.
He gave her another measured look before he opened the screen door for her. ‘Let’s hope so.’
* * *
‘So, what did you call your new boyfriend I sent you?’ Hannah asked when she video-messaged Izzy a couple of nights later.
Izzy looked at the blow-up male doll she had propped up in one of the armchairs in the sitting room. ‘I’ve called him Max. He’s surprisingly good company for a man. He doesn’t hog the remote control and he doesn’t eat all the chocolate biscuits.’
Hannah giggled. ‘Have you slept with him?’
Izzy rolled her eyes. ‘Ha-ha. I’m enjoying having the bed to myself, thank you very much.’
‘So, no hot guys out in the bush?’
She hoped the webcam wasn’t picking up the colour of her warm cheeks. She hadn’t told Hannah about her case of mistaken identity with Zach Fletcher. She wasn’t sure why. Normally she told Hannah everything that was going on in her life...well, maybe not everything. She had never been the type of girl to tell all about dates and boyfriends. There were some things she liked to keep private. ‘I’m supposed to be using this time to sort myself out in the love department. I don’t want to complicate my recovery by diving head first into another relationship.’
‘You weren’t in love with Richard, Izzy. You know you weren’t. You were just doing what your parents expected of you. He filled the hole in your life after Jamie died. I’m glad you saw sense in time. Don’t get me wrong—I really like Richard but he’s not the one for you.’
Izzy knew what Hannah said was true. She had let things drift along for too long, raising everyone’s hopes and expectations in the process. Her parents were still a little touchy on the subject of her split with Richard, whom they saw as the ideal son-in-law. The stand-in son for the one they had lost after a long and agonising battle with sarcoma.
Her decision to come out to the Australian Outback on a working holiday had been part of her strategy to take more control over her life. It was a way to remind her family that she was serious about her career. They still thought she was just dabbling at medicine until it was time to settle down and have a couple of children to carry on the long line of Courtney blood now that her older brother Jamie wasn’t around to do it.
But she loved being a doctor. She loved it that she could help people in such a powerful way. Not just healing illnesses but changing lives, even saving them on occasion.
Like Jamie might have been saved if he had been diagnosed earlier...
Thinking about her brother made her heart feel like it had been stabbed. It actually seemed to jerk in her chest every time his name was mentioned, as if it were trying to escape the lunge of the sword of memory.
‘Maybe you’ll meet some rich cattleman out there and fall madly in love and never come home again, other than for visits,’ Hannah said.
‘I don’t think that’s likely.’ Izzy couldn’t imagine leaving England permanently. Her roots went down too deep. She even loved the capricious weather.
No, this trip out here was timely but not permanent.
Besides, with Jamie gone she was her parents’ only child and heir. Not going home to claim her birthright would be unthinkable. She just needed a few months to let them get used to the idea of her living her own life
