The Australian's Bride. Alison Roberts
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Alex was still on the cabin veranda. An open laptop sat on the table in front of him and he was talking on his mobile phone, his gaze sightlessly encompassing the broad, gently sloping track that led towards the camp complex.
Susie stayed near a large tree at the bottom of the slope but she was only half-hidden. She needed to watch to make sure Stella didn’t get into difficulties and lose her confidence as she walked—without her crutches— towards her father.
The moment Alex became aware of what he was seeing was obvious. He became very, very still. The conversation he was having was abruptly terminated, the phone slowly put down and abandoned. Alex sat, riveted by what he was watching. Poised to rush in and offer assistance if necessary but holding back—willing the miracle to continue.
Which was exactly how Susie was feeling. The grip on Stella’s crutches became loose as her palms got sweaty. The tight feeling in her chest was what reminded Susie to breathe. From either end she and Alex were walking every slow, measured step right along with Stella.
Susie could see the limp but she could also see every correction for balance.
‘Go, Star,’ she murmured aloud. ‘You can do it.’
She could feel the tension in Stella’s body as she concentrated hard on her task. Being a gentle uphill slope was helping. It would have been much harder going downhill. But there were steps at the end of her journey to get to the veranda. They had only practised steps once. Would Stella risk undermining her triumph by attempting something that could be too difficult?
Stella’s face was hidden but, from behind, the angle of the girl’s head suggested that her gaze was firmly on her father. She certainly had his undivided attention. He was half standing now, and even from this distance Susie could see the play of emotion on his face.
Amazement.
Pride.
Love.
It was impossible to swallow past the lump in her throat as Susie watched Stella reach the steps and barely hesitate. The grip on the handrail was tight but only one- sided. Would Stella remember which foot to lift first? Could she transfer her weight and lift her prosthesis and then position it well enough to transfer her balance?
Yes.
One slow step. And then another. It took for ever to get to the top but Alex, bless him, didn’t step forward to offer help and break the spell. He stood, his face raw with emotion, his arms held wide to welcome his daughter.
Susie could barely see the embrace through her tears. She turned away to give them a few moments’ privacy then she followed the route Stella had taken. Her reasoning for intruding was that Stella would need her crutches back, but the reality was that she wanted to share the moment.
More than that. She may be drawn to these two people for very different reasons but the pull from both father and daughter was way too powerful to resist.
It didn’t seem like an intrusion once she reached the veranda.
‘I did it, Susie! I did it!’ Stella pulled herself from her father’s arms to hug Susie.
‘I knew you could.’ Susie returned the fierce hug and this time she didn’t bother to try and blink back her tears. A big fat one trickled past her nose. ‘I’m so proud of you, hon.’
As proud as her father was?
Susie glanced up to share the pride and was unsurprised to see an identical tear to her own rolling down Alex’s cheek. He seemed oblivious, reaching out to touch Stella’s back as she hugged Susie. Connecting the three of them, his gaze still on his daughter.
On Susie.
And that was when she fell completely into the moment. Into an equal share of what felt like a victory. The first steps—literally—into a future that was, finally, full of hope.
In a flash of insight Susie could feel everything Alex had been through in the last couple of years. The pain and despair. She could feel the power of the love this man had for his child. The need to protect, the pain of not being able to shield her from suffering and the fierce determination to make things as good as they could possibly be from now on.
A tiny moment of time in her life. Just one of millions of heartbeats, but it was enough.
Enough for Susie to know that she loved this man. That the strength of how he felt about his daughter was mirrored by how she could feel about him.
No, not ‘could’.
Did.
It was true. You could fall in love with the speed of a lightning bolt and you could know, with absolute certainty, that this was it. That this person was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with.
Did Alex feel any of this? Was it possible to feel such a connection if each side wasn’t completely in tune with the other?
This wasn’t the time to seek an answer. This was Stella’s moment, but if even a part of the love she could see shining in Alex’s eyes was available for her, then she would happily wait to discover how much.
And she would have to wait.
The voice they could hear from the direction of the track, beyond the tree Susie had waited beside, was urgent.
‘Help! Someone! Anyone! Please, I need help!’
‘IT’S DANNY!’ Stella had moved with speed on her crutches behind Alex and Susie as they raced up the track towards the cry for help. ‘What’s wrong with him?’
‘He’s having a seizure.’ Alex dropped to a crouch beside Benita, who was holding the young boy on his side. ‘You’re doing a good job keeping the airway open,’ he told the nurse. ‘How long has this been going on for?’
‘Too long,’ Benita answered worriedly. ‘I thought it would stop in a minute or two. I sent Cameron to get help from the medical centre and one of the girls took the younger children back to camp, but it’s just gone on and on. Must be nearly ten minutes now—that’s why I was calling for help.’
‘What’s his history?’
‘He’s a few weeks post an autologous bone-marrow transplant.’
‘For what reason?’ Alex held Danny’s bald head as the boy’s muscles continued to twitch and jerk.
‘Intensive chemo post-surgery. They saved his bone marrow to put back afterwards.’
‘What was the surgery for?’
‘A neuroblastoma.’
‘Any secondaries?’
‘No. Or not that they know about. He had a really good result from the last round of tests.’
‘History of seizures?’
‘No.’
‘He’s very hot.’ Alex’s hands were gently cradling Danny’s head, making sure he wasn’t going to injure himself on the rough surface of the track.
‘I noticed he was looking flushed,’ Benita said. ‘But I thought he was just running around too much in the heat. He got really excited because we were off on a frog hunt.’
‘No flu symptoms? Did he get checked with the other children this morning?’
‘Yes. His temperature was up just a point or two but he seemed fine and it was still within a normal range. He said nothing hurt but, then, it takes a lot to slow Danny down.’
‘He looks awful,’ Stella whispered to Susie in horror. ‘Is he going to die?’
Susie