socially adept woman. That would be a first. She could do this. The guy worked with women all the time. Practise at least on a man who was skilled at putting women at ease. Made sense. ‘Fine. I can’t feel more embarrassed.’ She glanced at Louisa, who apparently didn’t bat an eyelid at putting her in the hot seat and was humming happily, satisfied two of her chickens were getting along.
She could almost smile at that. Tara picked up the sunglasses she’d left beside the window because she still suffered from that night-duty glare aversion that too little sleep left you with. Simon held the door open for her—something that happened a lot in the quaintness around here. A few months ago she would have been surprised but today she just murmured, ‘Thank you,’ and passed in front of him.
They’d turned out of the driveway before he spoke and surprisingly the silence wasn’t awkward. Thank goodness someone else didn’t mind peace and quiet. Years of keeping her own counsel had taught her the value of quiet time—but quiet time in the company of others was an added bonus she could savour. She didn’t think she’d met anyone she felt so in tune with so quickly. Though the air might be peaceful, it still vibrated between them.
Stop worrying, she admonished herself, a habit she’d picked up in the orphanage and on foster-parent weekends. Just let it be.
She looked ahead to where the path curled around the edge of the lake like a pale ribbon under the overhanging trees, and the water shimmered through the foliage like diamonds of blue glass in the ripples.
This place soothed her soul more than she could have ever imagined it would. Until unexpectedly a creature rustled in the undergrowth and her step faltered as it swished away from them into the safety of the water’s edge. Typical, she thought, there’s always a snake in the grass.
She shuddered. Snakes were the only creatures she disliked but that was probably because someone had put one in her bed once. ‘Hope that wasn’t something that can bite.’
Simon glanced after the noise. ‘No. Doubt it. Might even have been a lyrebird.’ He grinned. ‘Have they told you about the legend of the lyrebird?’ There was definitely humour in his deep voice. The man had a very easy soothing bass and she found herself listening more to the melody of the words than the content. Tried harder for the words.
‘Nope. You mean as in why they call the place Lyrebird Lake?’ She shrugged. ‘Not really into legends.’ Or fairy-tales. Or dreams of gorgeous men falling in love with her and carrying her off. Pshaw. Rubbish.
‘Ah. A disbeliever.’ He nodded his head sagely and she had to smile at his old-fashioned quaintness. ‘So you wouldn’t believe that in times of stress or, even more excitingly, when you meet your true love, a real live lyrebird appears and dances for you.’
Now she knew he was laughing at her. She rolled her eyes. ‘Well, I haven’t seen one and I’ve been here six months.’
‘Me either. And I’ve been coming here off and on for ten years.’ The smile was back in his voice. ‘But my father and Mia have.’
This time her brows rose and she had no doubt her healthy dollop of scepticism was obvious. ‘Really.’
His eyes crinkled. ‘And Montana and Andy. And Misty and Ben.’
‘You’re kidding me.’ These were sane, empowering people she’d looked up to. Consultants and midwives. Icons of the hospital. Or maybe he was pulling her leg. ‘Don’t believe you.’
‘Nope. All true.’ His eyes were dancing but she could see he was telling the truth as he believed it.
Then he’d been conned. ‘How many times has this happened?’
He shrugged. ‘Don’t know. You’d have to ask.’
Brother. ‘I will.’ She shook her head. He’d probably just made it all up. Men did say weird things to impress women. Though he didn’t seem like one of those guys, but, then again, her sleaze detection system had never worked well. ‘What else don’t I know about this place?’
He glanced around. ‘Well, half of that hill behind the lake …’ he pointed across the water ‘… is full of disused gold mines and labyrinths of old tunnels crisscross underneath our feet.’
She looked down at the path and grimaced. Imagined falling through into an underground cavern. She’d always had claustrophobia—or had since one particular foster-sibling had locked her in a cupboard. Now, that wasn’t a pleasant thought. ‘Thanks for that. How to ruin a walk.’
‘Well, not really under our feet. That might be stretching it a bit far. But certainly all around the hillside and a long way this way.’
‘Okay.’ She shook off the past and thought rationally about it. ‘I guess half our hospital’s business comes from the mines out of town so it makes sense we’d have some here.’ She glanced at him as they walked at a steady pace around the lake. Maybe she could start fossicking for gold after work—above ground, of course—and make her fortune to pay off the debts Mick had left her with. ‘Have you been in them?’
He laughed. Even looked a little pink-cheeked. ‘Once. To my embarrassment.’ Shook his head at himself. ‘I can’t believe I brought this up.’ He glanced at Tara ruefully and sighed. ‘I had to ring Mia to get my dad to rescue me.’
She looked across at him and grinned. Good to see other people did dumb things. ‘Ouch.’
‘Not one of my more glorious moments.’
She looked at him, loose-limbed, strongly muscled with that chiselled jaw and lurking smile. A man very sure of his world and his place in it. She wished. Shook her head. ‘I’m sure you have enough glorious moments.’
The quizzical look was back but all he said was, ‘Yep. Hundreds.’
She had to laugh at that. ‘I’m still waiting for mine.’
‘My turn not to believe you.’ So he’d noticed her scepticism. He tilted his head and studied her with leisurely thoroughness. ‘Do you enjoy your work?’
‘Love it.’
‘Then I’ll bet you have lots of successes too.’
She thought about earlier that morning and smiled. ‘I do get to share other women’s glorious moments.’ Changed the subject. ‘Mia says you’re running a breech clinic at Sydney Central?’
‘Yep. Was converted by an amazing guy I worked with when I was a registrar. Had the motto “Don’t interfere”. Said most women had the ground work for a normal breech birth.’
She couldn’t agree more but her training hospital hadn’t subscribed to that theory. The only babies allowed to be born in the breech position were the ones who came in off the street ready to push their own way out. She’d never been lucky enough to be on duty for that. ‘I’ve watched a lot of breech births on videos but I haven’t seen one in real life.’
‘You will. Hopefully trends are changing with new research. Women are demanding a chance at least. Maybe one of your glorious moments is coming up. You obviously love midwifery.’
‘I was always going to be a nurse, because my mother was a nurse, even though I don’t remember much about her, but then one of my friends lost a baby and I decided
