Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover Page A

the doctor.
    Adam had the grace to look ashamed. ‘If you could just stay at the pub for a couple of nights – a week at the most – I can get something organised for you. There are a couple of houses attached to the hospital. I’m sure one would suit you.’ He rubbed the side of his neck as he spoke, as if to relieve the tension.
    â€˜No Adam. Not those houses,’ Sister Luke interrupted. ‘They’ve been empty for eons. She needs a nice place to live.’
    Jess wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. She’d wanted to get away from her old life. Being taken to an outback pub by this absent-minded madman of a doctor was as far away from her old life in luxury hotels with Brian as it was possible to get. She took a long slow breath and decided that right now a room at the pub was definitely better than nothing. In a town this small, how busy could the pub be on a Wednesday night? She had wanted privacy and anonymity, but right now a shower and some sleep sounded much more appealing. And besides, no one she’d met since leaving Sydney had recognised her. Maybe they didn’t have newspapers way out here after all.
    â€˜Does the pub have a hot shower?’
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜And a bed?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Then the pub will be fine – just for a couple of days,’ she warned. ‘At least it’s not a jail cell.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Jess wished she could call them back. That was a part of her past that she wasn’t going to share. Not with these people. Not with anyone. Ever.
    â€˜Oh, we’ve got one of those,’ Adam said with a rueful smile. ‘But the pub is a far better idea.’
    Jess forced a laugh, at once grateful and ashamed. Grateful to be among people who would assume she was joking … and ashamed that she was, in fact, not joking at all. Those terrible nights spent behind bars after her plane was seized still haunted her. As did the thought that she could well have spent years in such a place, had she not chosen honesty over love … or what she thought was love.
    â€˜I’ll take you there now,’ Adam said. ‘Jack will see to the plane and help Sister Luke.’
    Jess hadn’t noticed Jack’s arrival. He backed his ute up close to the Beechcraft, ready to unload the medical supplies they’d picked up in Mount Isa. He also retrieved Jessica’s luggage which he’d loaded twenty-four hours and many, many kilometres ago. Ordinarily, Jess would never have left her plane in someone else’s care. She always checked her own aircraft. Made sure it was secure for the night and ready for a quick take-off in the morning if needed. Just this once, she was going to let Jack do it. The way she felt right now, she was more likely to make a mistake than he was. And she’d made more than enough of those recently.
    Adam’s car, the one she’d almost collided with the day before, was parked next to the hangar. On the way into town, Adam was all business. He gave her a running commentary on everything they passed.
    â€˜The town’s really changed in the past few years,’ he said, as they drove along a gravel road next to a high cyclone wire fence. As they passed a gate and a small guardhouse, a man in uniform waved. ‘That’s the mine. Uranium. It opened a bit over five years ago. The vein is really rich. The mine turned a two-horse truck stop into a thriving town. Brought in the railroad. Jobs. Me. And now you.’
    He turned and smiled at her in a friendly, if distant, way. That was just fine by Jess. If she was going to have to work with Adam that was exactly the way their relationship had to be.
    â€˜The highway runs south from here towards Birdsville. We go there every year to provide medical cover during the race meeting. You’ll get to come too this year. It’s only a few weeks away and it’s a lot of