‘Yes? You thought?’
‘It’s a more … upmarket suburb than the Springs.’
More like what she was used to …
He smiled, a fleeting indication that he genuinely cared about her welfare, and it occurred to her how easily she could fall for this gentle, softly spoken, work-weary man. He was everything her cocky, self-absorbed ex wasn’t.
No! Get a grip of yourself.
She hardly knew the man and it was way too soon. The painful sting of shame was still fresh in her memory and she didn’t want to risk going through the indignity again.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll manage,’ Sophie said.
‘I hope so.’ He took his keys from his pocket. ‘There’s just one thing more, before we go to the flat.’
‘Yes?’
‘I need to make a quick house call. A woman with pancreatic cancer. I’m sure it won’t take long. She only lives around the corner.’
Another surprise. Will did house calls … after hours … on top of what she calculated to be more than a sixty-hour working week.
‘You’ll like Bella Farris,’ he added.
‘And … well … the sooner I start, the harder it will be to chicken out.’
Sophie was determined to prove to her new employer she was prepared to tackle working in Prevely Springs head on.
Will knocked on the door of the tidiest townhouse in a shabby block of six and went straight inside without waiting for an answer. Sophie followed close behind, scanning the interior as she entered. The front door opened directly into a cramped living-dining area with a kitchen at the back. A boy of about thirteen or fourteen sat in front of a television screen connected to a games machine. He was overweight, pale, and his eyes didn’t leave the screen. A couple of empty fast-food containers lay abandoned on the floor beside him.
‘Hi, Brad. Is your mum upstairs in the bedroom?’ Will’s tone was cheerful and undemanding.
‘Yeah.’
‘How is she?’
‘Same.’ The boy’s gaze left the screen, flicked to Will, hovered on Sophie for a second and then returned to the noisy, animated action on the screen. ‘Aw, hell!’ the boy added when some bloody tragedy terminated another of his virtual lives.
‘Dr Carmichael and I will go up and see her, then.’
‘Mmm.’
Sophie followed Will up the narrow concrete stairs, vestiges of mud-brown fibres the only indication they had once been carpeted.
‘Bella, it’s Will,’ he called as he reached the dimly lit passage at the top of the stairs.
‘In the bedroom.’ The thin voice came from the only upstairs room with the door open. ‘Come through.’
Sophie followed Will into a sparsely furnished room with a single small window overlooking a weedy back yard.
This family was struggling in more ways than one, Sophie thought as she smiled and nodded, acknowledging the woman propped up in a narrow bed near the window. Her spindle-like arms protruded from the bed cover and rested on her swollen abdomen. Her sighing breaths came irregularly.
‘You’ve finally brought your girlfriend to meet me, have you, Dr Brent? About time too.’ The woman smiled and a hint of colour advanced then rapidly retreated from Will’s cheeks. She looked at Sophie and took a couple of deep breaths. Even talking appeared to be an effort for her. ‘I told Will I wasn’t going to leave this earth until he found a woman to replace me. He needs looking after.’
‘Enough of your cheek, Bella.’ Will put his medical bag down on the small table in a corner and sat on the end of her bed. ‘This isn’t my girlfriend. And you know that threat isn’t going to work because you’re not ready yet. Remember our little chat last week?’
He glanced over at Sophie, who was beginning to feel she was intruding in the relationship between these two people who were as close as a doctor and patient could be. Bella smiled with her eyes but her mouth remained in a grim line, suggesting she was in more pain than she let on.
‘Who is she, then?’
‘Dr Sophie Carmichael. She arrived this morning from Sydney to join the practice for a few weeks. Do you mind her sitting in?’
A look of disbelief flashed across Bella’s face, as if the last thing she’d expected was for Sophie to be a doctor.
‘Well, good for you, Sophie Carmichael.’ She turned her head slightly to address Will. ‘Of course I don’t mind. Two heads are better than one.’ She made a move to reposition herself on the pile of pillows behind her head, then grimaced and seemed to change her mind. ‘You make sure you look after her and she might even stay more than a few weeks.’ She turned to Sophie. ‘Once you get to know him, he’s not as bad as—’
‘Enough, Bella. This isn’t a social visit.’
Bella fixed her gaze back on Will and elevated an eyebrow. ‘Of course not.’
‘So what’s been happening? How can I help?’
‘Shelley insisted on calling you just to check. She thinks it’s a blockage. I’ve not had a bowel movement for four days and I’ve got a new pain.’ She pointed in the vague direction of her navel. ‘And the nausea’s a bit worse.’
Will got up and retrieved a file from the table where he’d left his bag and then returned to Bella’s bedside. He looked across at Sophie. ‘Shelley’s one of the palliative care nurses.’ He turned a couple of pages of the file Sophie assumed contained the nurse’s notes. ‘Your morphine dose has gone up in the last few days.’
‘I vomited a couple of doses of the liquid yesterday and had to increase my night-time tablet.’
‘What are you eating?’
‘Not much.’
‘How about fluids?’ Will didn’t labour the point.
‘I’m keeping down a bit of water.’
Sophie admired Bella’s uncomplaining courage, and as she watched Will examine his patient with large, gentle hands she felt admiration for him too.
‘Well, what’s the verdict?’ Bella said when he’d finally finished. ‘No beating around the bush.’
‘I’m fairly sure the tumour is pressing on part of your intestine, causing a partial blockage.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means your food and drinks are passing through very slowly. It’s probably why your pain and nausea are worse.’
‘Oh.’
Sophie could see the stoic acceptance on Bella’s face. She seemed to sense she didn’t have long to live and trusted Will to do what he felt was best to make her last few weeks comfortable.
‘I’ll contact Shelley and ask her to organise for you to have your morphine by injection.’ He went on to explain the device that would deliver a steady dose of the analgesic via a needle inserted into the fatty layer under the skin and a gadget called a syringe driver. It would overcome her problem of vomiting oral medication. ‘One of the nurses reloads the medication daily. We can also mix in other drugs if needed, like an anti-emetic for nausea.’
Bella looked exhausted. ‘Shelley said she’d come back this afternoon after you’d been.’
‘Good. She can set up the pump. I’ll also ask her to collect some dexamethasone from the pharmacy. If there’s any swelling due to inflammation in the intestine, it should