The Husband She'd Never Met

The very thought ate at Max’s innards, but he would worry about that when the time came. Till then, his role was clear.

* * *

Carrie edged carefully out of bed. Her feet reached the floor and as she stood she felt a bit dizzy, but the sensation quickly passed. The bump on her head throbbed faintly, but it wasn’t too bad.

She took out the clothes Max had brought—a pair of jeans and a white T shirt, a white bra and matching panties. There was also a plastic bag holding a pair of shoes—simple navy blue flats. Everything was good quality, and very tasteful, but Carrie found it hard to believe they were hers.

Where were the happy, dizzy colours she’d always worn?

Conscious of the man waiting mere metres away, just outside her door, she slipped off the hospital nightgown and put on the underwear. The bra fitted her perfectly, as did the pants, the jeans and the T-shirt.

She was surprised but rather pleased to realise that she was quite slim now. In the past she’d always had a bit of a struggle with her weight.

She combed her hair again and then checked the bedside cupboard and found a plastic hospital bag with more clothes—presumably the clothes she’d worn when she arrived here. Another pair of denim jeans and a blue and white striped shirt, white undies and brown riding boots. Crikey.

She felt as if her whole life and personality had been transplanted. These clothes should belong to a girl in a country style magazine. Which was weird and unsettling. How had this happened? Why had she changed?

Anxiety returned, re-tightening the knots in her stomach as she stuffed the bag of clothes and the brown handbag into the holdall. She checked her phone again. Still no reply from her mum.

Mum, ring me, please.

She needed the comfort of her mum’s voice. Needed her reassurance, too. At the moment Carrie felt as if she was in a crazy sci-fi movie. Aliens had wiped a section of her memory and Max Kincaid was part of their evil plan to abduct her.

She knew this was silly, but she still felt uneasy as she went to the door and found Max waiting just outside.

His smile was cautious. ‘All set?’

Unwilling to commit herself, she gave a shrug, but when Max held out his hand for the holdall she gave it to him.

They made their way down a long hospital corridor to the office, where all the paperwork was ready and waiting for her.

‘You just have to sign here...and here,’ the girl at the counter said as she spread the forms in front of Carrie.

Carrie wished she could delay this process. Wished she could demand some kind of proof that this man was her husband.

‘Will I see the doctor again before I leave?’ she hedged.

The girl frowned and looked again at the papers. ‘Dr Byrne’s been treating you, but I’m sorry, he’s in Theatre right now. Everything’s here on your sheet, though, and you’re fit to travel.’

‘Carrie has an appointment in Townsville,’ Max said.

The girl smiled at him, batting her eyelashes as if he was a rock star offering his autograph.

Ignoring her, he said to Carrie, ‘The appointment’s for two o’clock, so we’d better get on our way.’

Carrie went to the doorway with him and looked out at the landscape beyond the hospital. There was a scattering of tin-roofed timber buildings that comprised the tiny Outback town. A bitumen road stretched like a dull blue ribbon, rolling out across pale grassland plains dotted with gum trees and grazing cattle. Above this, the sun was ablaze in an endless powder-blue sky.

She looked again at her phone. Still no new message.

‘Carrie,’ Max said. ‘You can trust me, I promise. You’ll be OK.’

To her surprise she believed him. There was something rather honest and open about his face. Perhaps it was country boy charm, or perhaps she just needed to believe him. The sad truth was she had little choice...she was in the Outback and she had to drive off with a total stranger.

Max opened the door of a dusty four-wheel drive.

He was nervous, too, she realised. Above the open neck of his shirt she could see the way the muscles in his throat worked, but his hand was warm and firm as he took her arm. Her skin reacted stupidly, flashing heat where he touched her as he helped her up into the passenger’s seat.

A moment later, having dumped the holdall beside another pack in the back, he climbed into the driver’s seat beside her. Suddenly those wide shoulders and solid thighs and all that Outback guy toughness were mere inches away from her.

‘Just try to relax,’ he said as he started up the engine and backed out of the parking space. ‘Close your eyes. Go to sleep, if you like.’

If only it was that easy.

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_4bfb01aa-704c-56d1-9998-1825af4c828f)

THEY WERE ABOUT twenty kilometres down the road, with the small town of Jilljinda well and truly behind them when Carrie’s mother rang back.

‘It was such a relief to find your message and to hear your voice,’ her mum said.

‘It’s great to hear you, too, Mum.’ You. Have. No. Idea.

‘How are you, darling? Have you really lost your memory?’

‘Well, yes. Some of it, at least. The more recent things, apparently. I can remember all about Sydney, and about you and my friends, but I have no memory of meeting M-Max, or coming to Queensland.’

‘How very strange. It must be extremely upsetting, dear.’

Carrie’s stomach took a dive. She’d been hoping her mother would tell her this was all a terrible mistake.

Now, clearly, the impossible was not only possible, it was true. She was married to Max, an Outback cattleman.

‘Yeah, it’s very upsetting,’ she said. ‘It’s weird.’

‘And Max said this happened when you fell from a horse?’

‘Apparently.’ Carrie didn’t add that she had absolutely no memory of ever learning to ride a horse. The situation was bizarre enough, without giving her mum too much to worry about.

Just the same, she heard her mother’s heavy sigh. ‘I always knew something dreadful like this would happen to you out there. I warned you right from the start that you should never marry a cattleman. The lifestyle is just too hard and dangerous, and now this accident proves it.’

A cold wave of disappointment washed over Carrie. She’d been hanging out for maternal reassurance, or at the very least a few motherly words of comfort.

‘I don’t feel too bad,’ she felt compelled to add. ‘My headache’s just about gone. But I have to go to Townsville for more tests.’

‘Oh, dear.’

Carrie sent a sideways glance to Max. Clearly her husband wasn’t in her mother’s good books and she wished she knew why. Was it something he’d done? Or was it merely because he lived in the Outback? She wondered if he’d guessed her parent’s negative response.

‘Are you in an ambulance?’ her mother asked next.