Outback Sunset Page 2

  Vanessa went cold all over and all the energy drained from her body. She dropped Sandy and it took all her strength to cling to the receiver. ‘An accident,’ she repeated dully. Her throat was tightening up, so much so that she couldn’t ask the question she wanted to ask. Lloyd’s words saved her from having to.

  ‘There was a twilight hunt at the Cooper’s and you know how he loves to ride the hunt. Came off his horse over a hedge. Damned silly fool.’

  ‘How,’ she took a deep breath, ‘badly is he hurt?’

  ‘The medicos aren’t sure. He was taken to the local hospital but he’s since been taken by ambulance to London. He, we’re at Guy’s Hospital right now. He’s still unconscious and the preliminary examinations have revealed a skull fracture, internal bleeding and a broken leg. He’s having more tests, a CT, I think, as we speak.’

  ‘What’s a CT?’ Vanessa asked.

  Lloyd, who had no medical background, explained as best he could. ‘As the doctor described it to me, it’s like an x-ray only more comprehensive ’cause it shows bones, organs and soft tissue damage.’

  Vanessa bit her lip to stop its trembling. Her voice was quavery as she said, ‘I’m coming over.’ As she spoke she stood and grabbed the black coat and evening bag. ‘Be there in twenty minutes.’

  God, how could she sound so normal when inside everything was being shattered. She had woven David into the very fabric of her life, her emotions. David — hurt, unconscious! She tried to stop her imagination from going into overdrive and couldn’t. What if … Oh, what if …? No. Don’t think that, you must think positively. And don’t cry. You don’t want him to wake up and see red rings around your eyes. David will be all right, he has to be …

  Lloyd and Robyn Benedict met Vanessa in the casualty area waiting room at Guy’s Hospital. She studied their tense faces as she approached. Robyn had been crying, her eyes were red and puffy. Lloyd, an older, taller version of David, and usually poker-faced, wore a haggard look.

  They hugged and then sat in the near empty waiting room.

  ‘How is he?’ Vanessa asked breathlessly.

  ‘We’re waiting to hear. A team of doctors is with him,’ Robyn said in a hushed tone. ‘It’s so awful.’

  ‘Was he wearing his riding hat?’ Vanessa knew David was vain about his thick, wavy blond hair and hated having to wear the mandatory riding hat.

  ‘I believe so. Neville said that his chin strap wasn’t done up and when he fell the hat came off. He hit his head on a log near the hedge.’ The corners of Lloyd’s mouth turned down. ‘A bad business, I’m afraid. Nev and Prue Cooper are devastated.’

  They were devastated? Huh! She was finding it hard to hold on to her self-control. Somewhere inside the double swinging doors to the right of them was the man she loved and he was badly injured. She couldn’t imagine life without him. They had such wonderful plans, they loved each other so much. Surely God wouldn’t, couldn’t take him away from her. He’d taken her parents, Gran. Wasn’t that enough? Not David too.

  Two white-coated doctors pushed the swinging doors open. They came towards the trio who were holding hands for mutual comfort.

  ‘Mr Benedict?’

  Lloyd nodded and introduced the women with him. ‘My wife, Robyn, and David’s fiancée, Vanessa Forsythe.’

  The younger doctor’s eyes lit up. ‘Of course, Miss Forsythe, I’d recognise you anywhere.’

  ‘I’m Dr Thomas, the neurologist,’ the older man with the neatly trimmed beard said. ‘I’ve examined David and we have the results of the scan. There is a build-up of pressure, caused by a collection of blood, against the brain. An operation is necessary to relieve the pressure.’ He stared speculatively at Lloyd. ‘I assume you’re the patient’s next of kin. I need you to give consent for the operation.’

  Vanessa’s throat constricted but from somewhere she found her voice. ‘An operation, doctor. There’s no alternative?’

  ‘Not if we want to save him, Miss Forsythe,’ Dr Thomas said with an almost impersonal frankness. ‘Time is an important factor. My surgical team can be ready within the hour, and the longer we delay, the greater the risk to the patient.’

  ‘I see.’ Lloyd looked at Vanessa. As she was David’s fiancée, he obviously wanted her to approve. ‘Well?’ His raised eyebrow became a question mark.

  Vanessa heard herself say as if she were a long way away, ‘All right, if there’s no other choice.’

  The younger doctor smiled at her, then nodded to Dr Thomas. ‘I’ll organise the paperwork.’

  Vanessa sat in the chair, her brown eyes glued to David’s face. His head was swathed in bandages. There were tubes up his nose and in his mouth, IV drips attached to his arms and an abundance of electronic equipment — several different types of monitors — behind the head of the bed. His right leg was encased in a plaster cast and elevated via a pulley system. The monitors, with their digital numbers, their graphs, the sounds some made, fascinated and the more closely she watched them, terrified her. A kindly sister had explained their function but because she wasn’t medically inclined and had good health herself, she found them intimidating and confusing.

  She, Lloyd and Robyn were taking turns to sit beside David in his intensive care bed. Already, it felt as if she had been there a week when in real time it had been less than twelve hours. In hospital, time seemed to crawl instead of flowing at the normal pace as it did in the outside world. Her back ached, her eyes were sore from staring at the monitors and her brain was as weary as the rest of her from the act of willing David to get better. She needed to see him open his eyes, to move, even fractionally, either of which in her mind would signify the operation’s success. The night sister-in-charge, had told her it was too early for any real sign of recovery because he was heavily medicated and wouldn’t respond to stimuli for another twelve hours at least. But still she hoped for some sign, anything to ease her anxiety.

  Another twelve, then twenty-four and thirty hours ticked by and David’s condition did not change. Vanessa heard the word ‘coma’ whispered by the attending sisters. Dr Thomas kept popping in to check the observation charts. He would stand at the foot of the bed with a serious, considering expression, not saying anything positive or negative, but playing, she assumed, like her, a waiting game.

  It was hard to sit still for long periods of time. Eventually one’s mind became as numb as one’s backside. In the early daylight of the fifth day Vanessa watched rain drops slide down the window to the right of David’s bed. The weather was still atrocious. Just for something to do she stood and walked towards the glass, to stare down into the street below. People, early shift workers most likely, hurried by, their umbrellas forming an almost unbroken line along the street. Great-coats, trench coats, scarves and mackintoshes were almost uniformly grey, black and fawn. She couldn’t remember any other time when she had felt so weary.

  And … as each hour stretched into another day, and another, the hopelessness of David’s situation increased, instinct telling her even before Dr Thomas had, that some sign of recovery should have been evident by now.

  Oh, David. She blinked back a rush of tears. What if he suddenly woke and saw them? No, she had to be strong for him. When he woke up she could relax and have a good cry; they would be tears of relief then.

  Standing there she continued to slip into deeper emotional misery by remembering happier times. How they’d first met, during, of all things, a literary luncheon for Australian author, Colleen McCullough, in a Savoy function room. He had been standing behind her in line, waiting for the author to sign a copy of her book, The Ladies of Missalonghi. He had introduced himself and they’d started to talk. He’d asked her to join him for coffee. She had said yes, and that was how their relationship had begun.

  At the beginning of the sixth day, Vanessa gathered enough courage to ask Dr Thomas the questions she had so far been afraid to ask. ‘Why isn’t David responding? What’s wrong?’

  Dr Thomas pursed his lips while his mind formulated an answer. ‘We’re not sure, Vanessa. Sometimes after the surgery David’s had, the brain, well it goes to sleep. That’s why he’s in a coma. That can be a healthy sign, a sign that the brain is healing itself in its own time.’

  She stared at him. ‘You don’t think that’s the case with David, do you? I — I’ve heard the staff saying things like ‘diminishing brain activity,’ ‘less response to stimulus’. You’ve put him on a respirator.’ Anxiety added a touch of anger to her tone. ‘I may not be medically wise but neither am I naive. I know those aren’t positive signs.’

  He returned her challenging stare for a moment as he deliberated over how much to tell her. ‘No, they aren’t. The coma’s deepened I’m afraid, and …’ he paused, stroked his beard with his hand, ‘all we can do is keep up the support systems, the intravenous feeding, the respirator … and hope! We’ve done everything that’s medically possible …’ He cleared his throat and, uncomfortable with her stricken expression, averted his gaze.

  But then, as if to a macabre cue, the cardiac monitor gave a beep, a different kind of beep. Vanessa’s gaze flew to the electronic graph. It was making uneven strokes. Up and down, then flat. Up and down again then flatter for longer and another sound, a continuing beeping that went on and on. The sound scared the hell out of her. In a flurry of activity, four or five sisters plus Dr Thomas converged around David’s bed. She heard the words over the ward’s speaker system, ‘Code Red, Code Red, room two three eight.’

  ‘Get her out of here,’ Dr Thomas barked to the closest sister, jerking his head to mean Vanessa, as he was given the electric paddles from the defibrillator.

  Entirely alone, Vanessa stood in the corridor leaning against the wall. At first she stared at the closed door of room two three eight, praying for i
t to open, willing the staff to come out wearing expressions of relief. Seconds ran into minutes. Five minutes passed, the door remained closed and no-one entered or left. A frightening emptiness began to invade her body, stripping her energy away and slowly, hands trembling, she covered her face and began to cry.

  After David’s funeral, Kerri Spanos had been Vanessa’s salvation.

  Kerri tidied up the flat, talked her through the early, worst days of her grief, comforted her and made Vanessa stay as her guest for almost a week to maintain a constant watch on her friend. She kept the media away, ensuring the message got through that Vanessa wanted privacy and no interviews would be given.

  The short-term contract Vanessa had, to play one of the leading female roles in a Sydney production of Private Lives, had been a godsend. It allowed Kerri to whisk Vanny away from a morbidly curious media, snuffing out their nosiness, and it gave her friend something other than being miserable to focus on.

  That Vanessa came good both on and off stage in Sydney told Kerri something she would keep to herself. Vanessa believed her heart had been broken by David’s death and, yes, it had been traumatic and dreadful but she, personally, believed Vanny wasn’t as grief-stricken as she might have been.

  How she concluded that was … complicated. Her dear friend and client had had several relationships over as many years. None had worked out and when David came along, Vanny had pinned her future happiness on their marriage, partly because she had dreamt of having the same kind of successful marriage her parents had enjoyed. She had believed David would provide that for her. Her Vanny would be sad for quite a while but she would get over this loss. However, she silently prophesied that it would take a different, special kind of man to re-awaken her. Yes, someone quite special.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Playing tourist was the kind of therapy Vanessa needed. Able to dress down, wear a floppy hat for protection from the sun, and sunglasses, she looked like everyone else on the bus as it drove from one tourist destination to another in and around Kakadu. Single blokes keen to crack on to the English tourist soon found out that she preferred her own company to theirs but she also enjoyed participating in group activities. After almost two weeks of never-ending sunshine, the sun had streaked Vanessa’s fair hair with whitish-blonde strips and noticeably darkened her already olive skin. With her day pack strapped to her back, a water bottle slung around her waist, she had become comfortable in shorts and singlet tops, socks and hiking boots which had, at first, been foreign garb.

  Resting her head against the bus’s seat on the return trip to Darwin at the end of the tour, Vanessa smiled as she wondered what Kerri and some of her London friends would say if they saw her dressed as she was today. There wouldn’t be too many compliments, she felt certain of that.

  As the bus began to offload passengers at their hotels, the woman in front of Vanessa, Fay Whitcombe, a retired Darwin businesswoman, turned back to her and asked, ‘This is your last day, Vanessa?’

  ‘’Fraid so, more’s the pity. I’d love to stay another two weeks, longer even. I can’t believe this country, it’s spectacular. I’ve enjoyed every minute,’ Vanessa replied, her praise genuine.

  She had begun the holiday with nothing more than a sense of adventure and an inkling of how pleasant it would be to see outback Australia. What she hadn’t expected was for the experience to touch her deeply. It defied logic, because she was English through and through but, curiously, something about the land, perhaps its vastness, its uniqueness had become imbedded in her psyche. So much so that she knew, one day, she had to return to explore more of its ancient landscapes and learn about its original inhabitants and those who’d come more recently to colonise what Territorians called the Top End. Having seen first-hand the ruggedness of the land, the magnificence of the outback sunsets — they were so unique — as well as the isolation, she had considerable admiration for what Aborigines and others had achieved.

  ‘Some of us, ten or fifteen people or so, plan to have farewell drinks and watch the sun set at the sailing club at Fannie Bay. Would you like to come along and say a proper goodbye?’

  Vanessa didn’t need to think long about Fay’s invitation. ‘I’d love to.’ During the tour she’d got to know at least half the people on the bus and was comfortable in their company. And, wouldn’t Kerri get a kick out of knowing they thought she was an out-of-work actress rather than how well known and well paid she was in the United Kingdom and, because she spoke Spanish fluently, the Continent. Contrarily, she liked the anonymity of not being recognised, of not being thought of as special. ‘What time?’

  Fay rolled her eyes with amusement. ‘Before sunset.’

  Embarrassed by her silly question, Vanessa laughed. ‘Oh, of course.’

  She should spend the night packing because her flight time was mid-morning, but that was too boring and much too sensible for her last night in Australia. She could and would be sensible, she decided, when she got back to London, and Sandy. God, the one thing, apart from Kerri, that she’d missed was her Jack Russell. Bella De Mondi, a fledgling actress, whom Kerri had vouched for, was house-sitting and caring for Sandy in her absence.

  After being dropped off at Rydges Hotel, she read the faxes waiting for her in her suite. One was from Kerri double-checking that Vanessa was taking the flight in the morning. Her eyebrows lifted at her agent’s lack of faith. The second one was from a London property agent; a buyer was interested in her Belgrave Square flat and had made an offer.

  Hmmm. She didn’t know about that. Lately she was having second thoughts about selling the flat. Initially the thought of living there with the memories of David had been unthinkable. But then, the nuisance value associated with moving, packing and relocating … was a headache, especially with her schedule for the next six months. Three months as star of The Glass Menagerie on the West End and, later, working as the presenter of a prerecorded television documentary series on a selection of historical homes in England for National Geographic were scheduled. Both would keep her occupied, too much so for the draining business of buying and relocating.

  Over several calls, Kerri had almost convinced her that the smart thing was to hire a professional decorator to redo every room to erase the memories of David’s presence. The exercise would be costly, but less arduous than moving … and … she and Sandy loved the flat because it was close to his favourite park.

  After a much appreciated shower, Vanessa changed into casual evening wear, lightweight slacks, a midriff top and sandals. One did not overdress in the Top End at night simply because, with the wet soon to arrive, it was as hot and humid in the evening as it was during the day. On The Esplanade she flagged down a taxi to take her to the club.

  Sunset was disappointing because there were no clouds to enhance the pink sky before night fell over a glassy, smooth Arafura Sea. Fay and Barry Whitcombe were natural organisers. The couple had commandeered two tables, well away from the three-piece band, for their group so people could talk without sending themselves hoarse. Over her gin and tonic, Vanessa sat back and let the conversation flow over and around her while, in a melancholy mood because her holiday was at an end, she reflected on her time in Australia.

  Several months ago, on the flight into Sydney she had been steeped in misery, certain that the time in Australia would be a drag. It had been anything but. Kerri and the cast of Private Lives had seen to that. She had found it impossible to be constantly depressed when everyone around her was upbeat and optimistic. She knew many Australian actors and entertainers in London. Making the best of things and brimming with optimism — sometimes without sufficient reason — was a definitive Aussie trademark. Their welcoming ways and friendliness had helped her shrug off the gloom, and talking to Trish, who’d played Sybil and Tom Reynolds who’d been Elliott in Private Lives, had been instrumental in whetting her appetite to see more of the island continent.

  She had begun the holiday with no comparable yardstick to judge it by, and though it defied commonsense that she should bond with a country so different to where she had been nurtured, curiously, she had. And when she first heard the guttural sounds of a didgeridoo, its sound had vibrated through her chest in a most peculiar manner, as if it were calling to her.