His daughter lay flat on her back on the hard, red ground. Her face was ashen and she lay as still as a corpse, her eyes open. His heart was lodged firmly in his throat now and he fought to breathe. The air was thick and muggy, choking him as he tried to force it into his lungs. He’d already lost one daughter. He couldn’t lose Lila too. His children were all he had left.
And then he saw her chest move. Rising and falling as she breathed.
She was alive.
The lump in his throat dislodged and he sucked in a breath.
Ginny was kneeling over her and Mitch crouched in the dirt beside her.
‘Lila!’
He wanted to gather her into his arms, to pick her up and carry her away, but he didn’t dare move her. He knew it wasn’t safe.
His daughter’s lips were parted, her eyes huge and dark in her pale face. They brimmed with tears and her bottom lip wobbled.
‘It hurts.’
Mitch could hear the catch in her voice and it was almost more than he could bear. ‘Where?’
‘My back.’
Shit.
‘You haven’t moved her, have you?’ he asked Ginny. He hadn’t acknowledged the governess until now. He’d been far too intent on Lila.
‘No.’ Ginny shook her head. ‘She landed like this.’
The ground was as hard as concrete. They’d had no rain in this distant corner of Queensland for three years, even the river was dry. The station was relying on water from the artesian basin for the cattle, there was nothing spare to soften the ground or water the gardens. Who knew what injuries Lila might have sustained? What damage had been done?
Mitch slipped his fingers into Lila’s palm. ‘Can you squeeze my hand?’
He relaxed ever so slightly as he felt the reassuring squeeze.
‘Don’t move your legs,’ he told her, ‘but see if you can wriggle your toes.’
Lila was wearing elastic-sided riding boots. He couldn’t see if she was moving her toes but she winced.
‘Could you do it?’ he asked.
‘Yes. But it hurt.’
That was a good sign, Mitch thought. Not that he wanted his daughter to be in pain but pain was often absent in serious spinal injuries. ‘I know, sweetie, you’re being very brave.’
Tears spilled from Lila’s lashes onto her cheeks.
Mitch wiped the tears from her face. ‘It’ll be all right, Lila.’
He turned and spoke to Ginny. ‘What happened?’ It didn’t really matter what had happened, what mattered was getting some help, but he had to know. He had to make some sense of the situation.
‘Ruff got loose. He spooked Fudge and she threw Lila off,’ Ginny explained. ‘I’m sorry. It all happened so quickly, there was nothing I could do.’
Ginny sounded upset but Mitch didn’t doubt her recounting of the incident.
He glanced over to where his stockman was standing with Lila’s horse’s reins firmly in his hands. Both Jimmy and the horse were standing quietly against the railing of the yard. Jimmy was keeping the horse as far away from Charlie and the dog as he could without going out of sight. Mitch knew that Jimmy would have calmed the horse and then stayed in the vicinity in case Mitch needed him. Seeing Jimmy settled his nerves to some degree. Despite his physical disability Jimmy was the best horse handler Mitch had ever seen and he knew that something must have happened that had been out of his control. Fudge had a placid temperament normally but for some reason she hated the little dog with a passion and Ruff reciprocated her feelings and delighted in nipping at her rear hooves. Jimmy never would have let the little dog within cooee of the horse.
But Mitch didn’t have time to think about the dog or the horse and he didn’t have time for recriminations either. Ginny had been the governess on the station for the past twelve months; she was responsible and level-headed, she’d grown up on cattle stations and knew her way around horses. Mitch knew she had the best interests of his children at heart—that was why he’d hired her. Ginny was close to tears and Mitch needed her to stay composed—he needed her to look after the boys. Neither Ginny nor Jimmy would have made a deliberate error. It sounded like an accident and he wasn’t looking for anyone to blame. He knew from past experience that it made no difference to the outcome. What was done was done, and his priority now was Lila.
Thankfully she’d been wearing her helmet. Thank goodness she’d had some protection. He didn’t remove it. He couldn’t risk the movement. Not until her injuries had been assessed. He knew what to do but she needed more attention than he was able to give her and somehow, when the situation was personal, it became harder to remain objective. He didn’t want to do the wrong thing. And that was the trouble—he didn’t trust his own judgement any more. Lila needed medical attention, but they were in Outback Queensland, hundreds of kilometres and a five-hour drive from the nearest hospital.
‘Go to the house,’ he instructed Ginny. ‘Call the flying doctor on the satellite phone and bring it back to me along with the medical chest.’
She stood up and Mitch noticed that her knees were shaking, her hands too, and her face was ashen. Everyone was on edge. ‘Take the dog,’ he called after her as she hurried away. Ginny came back and took Ruff from Charlie’s arms. ‘And make sure he’s tied up.’
He turned back to his daughter. ‘Do you know what day it is, Lila?’ he asked.
‘Wednesday,’ she replied, and Mitch breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Do you know what happened?’
‘I came off Fudge.’
As far as assessments for concussion went it was as basic as they came but hearing the correct responses was a positive sign. Her eyes were open, she wasn’t confused and she could move independently even if it hurt. Fourteen points out of a possible fifteen on the Glasgow coma scale, Mitch thought automatically, although that was only part of the story.
He sat in the dirt and held Lila’s hand as he waited for Ginny to return. Waiting was the hardest thing. He was useless until he had the medical chest and even that wouldn’t be enough. He was pretty certain that Lila had sustained fractures and there was the risk that she had also suffered internal injuries but he didn’t want to start an assessment. He didn’t want to be the one to cause her pain. He’d wait for the medical chest, at least then he’d be able to check her blood pressure and get a bit of an indication as to what they were dealing with but he was convinced she would have to be evacuated. They needed the flying doctor.
He kept talking. Soft, nothing words, just sounds really, letting her know he was there, that he wasn’t going to leave her.
Her eyes fluttered closed and he fought back another wave of panic while he reminded himself that she didn’t seem concussed. She seemed alert enough, even if she was in pain.
‘Is she going to be okay, Dad?’
Jed stood beside him and Mitch noticed that he had his arm wrapped around his little brother, comforting him. Mitch should be doing that but he found himself stretched to the limit, as had been the case so often in the past two years. There just wasn’t enough of him to go around.
‘She’ll be fine,’ he replied. He had no other answer. He didn’t want to lie but he had to believe she would be okay. He had to believe his own words.
‘You can fix her, can’t you, Dad?’
‘I’m going to need some help, Jed, but the flying doctor will be here soon. Why don’t you and Charlie go down to the kitchen for smoko?’
He