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Doc laughed. ‘Clearly you’re out of practice enjoying yourself at a party, Margaret.’ He started the engine, put the jeep into gear, and headed towards the sentry at the front gate. ‘Is everything okay? You were quiet after dinner.’
‘Too much work makes Jill a dull girl and all that.’ She set an elbow on the door rim and cupped her cheek. ‘I apologise in advance if I fall asleep on the way home. I’ve had enough excitement for one day.’
‘Then I’ll endeavour to avoid all potholes, so I don’t wake you, unless you snore?’
‘Thanks, although I can’t comment on the snoring.’
It would be so easy to misconstrue his light-hearted question and familiar tone for more than it was. Doc knew she was engaged, but he was an honourable man.
Beneath bright moonlight the road unwound north to Townsville. Trees tipped with silver loaned the night a special magic. Imagining they were on the way home from a party, Meg dozed off.
Air raid sirens wailed.
Meg shot up in her seat, praying they were a nightmare. Ahead, the road lay clear in the bright light of a full moon. Above, a steady droning noise.
‘It’s a bomber’s moon all right. Blackout restrictions won’t help now.’
‘Should we turn back to Oonoonba?’ Meg held her hat and tipped her head back, scanning the sky. ‘There! He’s right above us.’
‘I’m pulling off the road.’ Doc wrenched the steering wheel and slid to a stop on the shoulder. ‘Get out of the car, Margaret. Now!’
She scrambled out, her legs like jelly, but she ran.
Doc grabbed her hand and drew her into the cover of some spindly trees. ‘Get down.’ His free hand pushed on her back and the other pulled her down.
Meg sprawled in the grass. Both hands covered her head, but the drone of the plane was clear. Inside her, something fierce and brave was awakened and she rolled onto her side. Under the light of the moon, the bomber pilot would be able to see the coast and the town. If she was going to die in a bombing raid, she preferred to face it.
A bomb dropped out of the belly of the plane and headed for them and suddenly Margaret wasn’t certain she wanted to see her end plummeting towards her. The bomb exploded further back along the road they’d travelled from Oonoonba. Was that the ground shuddering from the impact, or her frightened body losing control?
Unable to look away she watched the plane, waiting for more bombs to drop, accepting whatever fate had in store for her.
Light machine guns began firing from somewhere not far away. Doc shook his head. ‘The plane’s well out of their range, but look, Margaret. Look at the sky.’
More than a dozen searchlights criss-crossed, sweeping, seeking, trapping the enemy plane in their beams. They held it perfectly as it flew towards the town.
Rapid-fire artillery followed along the lines of light and burst in puffy explosions. She’d seen it before, that valiant, useless firing. ‘The ack-ack shells aren’t reaching it. They’re exploding way too low. The same happened in Darwin.’
But it wasn’t the same. This was night time. There were no waves of planes flying in formation and raining death and destruction on a vulnerable town. The searchlights had located and held a single bomber.
The ack-ack guns fired again before several RAAF fighter planes joined the aerial dance. Meg kneeled up, willing them to bring down the enemy plane. Red tracer bullets lit up a path towards the bomber. One long burst hit the bomber’s tail and a yellow light erupted.
Meg clasped her hands under her chin. ‘He’s hit! I think the bomber’s losing height.’
‘Maybe. It’s difficult to tell from here. Look, the fighter plane’s going back around. He’ll have another go at him. Damn, they’re moving out of our line of sight.’ Doc pushed to his feet and offered his hand to Meg.
She took it but stumbled in the tussocky grass.
Doc’s hands shot out and caught her as she fell sideways against him.
Her shoulder knocked into his chest, but the moment his hand touched her stomach, he stilled.
Meg froze. The moonlight revealed his frown. Surprise, disbelief, followed by indecision as he seemed to weigh up whether to ask her outright.
He knows. Confess it now and see what he says.
She moistened her lips and stepped away from him.
‘Margaret?’
