Dr. Finlay's Courageous Bride by Marion Lennox

Author:Marion Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-07-18T12:15:03+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

HOW DO YOU know that you’re falling in love? Does it take a moment, a sudden flash of certainty? Or does it take a slow dawning, that here might be a woman to cherish for the rest of your life?

Someone he wished to care for—for ever? Was that what love was? Best guess, he supposed it was.

He was sitting on the bank of a meandering creek, among the rocky crags and magnificent bushland that formed the headwaters of the river that burbled its way down to the valley below.

Mia was maybe twenty metres above his head, abseiling down a cliff face. He had no wish to join her and she, having talked him into trying and then watched the grim-faced ascent he’d attempted a couple of months back, had agreed he wasn’t meant to be a climber. It hadn’t stopped him joining her, though. This Sunday afternoon was now one of many.

The last six months had passed faster than he’d thought possible. He’d imagined he’d leave his high-powered city medicine, help a bit at the hospital, keep up the pretence of being a married couple, maybe do a spot of study and put his life on hold for a year. Instead, he surely hadn’t put his life on hold. For now at least, this was life itself.

Part of that life was Mia, and she certainly hadn’t put her life on hold either. She hadn’t kept still for a moment.

‘If I have free board for a year I might as well make myself useful,’ she’d decreed within days of moving into Wiradjuri.

The gardens had been maintained by Nora, but the house itself had suffered decades of neglect. That first morning, after the drama of the blackberries, he’d woken late to find her deep in soot, intent on cleaning out the ancient fire stove.

‘It’s fantastic,’ she’d told him and pointed in disgust at the grimy two-ring burner his grandfather had obviously used. ‘He used that when he had an Aga! Wow, Rab, wait till I get it working, these things are awesome.’

‘So you’re intending to spend the first day of your honeymoon cleaning my stove,’ he’d said faintly, and she’d grinned. There’d been a smudge of soot on her nose. She was filthy. She must still be hurting from the grazes she’d suffered the night before, but she’d looked...happy.

‘Yep,’ she’d told him. ‘At the end of the year I’ll be leaving you with a legacy. No matter what you do with this place, it’ll look fantastic. And I’ll love doing it, Rab,’ she’d told him, seeing his look of doubt. ‘I can’t bear standing still.’

She couldn’t. She’d thrown herself headlong into the restoration of the old house, and he’d been slowly caught up in her enthusiasm. He found himself painting with her, scrubbing, hauling up old carpets and sanding ancient floorboards. Enjoying himself.

The medicine too... The little hospital was magnificently run but it had taken him only days to realise how much more service it could provide with two doctors instead of one.

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