Breathe, just breathe.Noah will help Flo. He’ll know what to do.
It washerfault. All her fault.
Minutes, hours, days passed, and eventually, someone touched her shoulder.
‘The ambulance will be here soon.’ Noah’s voice sounded far away and distant.
She looked up, blinked against the blinding afternoon sun, wanting to know, not wanting to know. ‘Is she …’
Noah said nothing, but his barely perceptible nod sliced straight through her heart.
Gone. Flo was gone.
A loud keening wail, like death’s calling card, started deep in her belly.
Noah tried to help her to her feet, but she pushed him away. She didn’t deserve comfort. Didn’t deserve peace.
The ambulance arrived and Noah met the paramedics in the yard. Spoke to them for a moment before they all looked over at her.
She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. Didn’t want their sympathy, their enquiring looks.
A short time later, Noah was back, hauling her to her feet. With no strength left to resist, she let him lead her across the road to her place. At the front door, she pulled her hand from his. Sat on the top step and leaned against a post.
‘Beth, you don’t need to watch this. Come inside.’
She tuned out his voice. Ignored his every attempt to coax her inside. Focused her gaze on Flo’s front door and waited. Didn’t he know this was her fault? He should be forcing her to watch this.
Eventually, he gave up trying to get through to her and paced the yard, instead, speaking softly into his phone and glancing over at her every now and then. After a while, she started drifting off to the soothing sound of his voice.
‘Beth?’
She cracked her eyes open. Noah was sitting beside her.
‘It’s time.’
The shadows stretched long across the yard as the paramedics emerged through Flo’s front door, wheeling her out on a stretcher, her body covered with a pristine white sheet. In no time at all, they’d loaded her into the back of the ambulance and were driving away.
She was gone.
Beth sat there, still, silent and unmoving.
Noah crouched in front of her. ‘Will you let me take you home?’ Sapped of energy and the ability to care about anything, she nodded once and slowly got to her feet. Noah helped her into the passenger seat of his ute and she stared unseeing through the windshield as he headed for the centre of town.
When they hit the main road, he flicked on the indicator and prepared to turn right—in the direction of the Brennans’ farm.
‘No. Can you take me to Ellie’s?’ Her words scratched her raw throat.
A beat passed.
‘Sure.’ He flicked the indicator the other way. ‘Whatever you need.’
It took all her strength to make it to the front door of the B&B without falling in a heap. Inside, she headed for the stairs. Ellie appeared in the kitchen doorway, but Beth couldn’t look at her. She was already struggling to hold the pieces of herself together.
Her feet were heavy, so heavy, as she climbed the stairs.
‘She’s not talking.’ Noah’s voice drifted up to the landing.
‘I feel like I’m only making things worse.’
