Outback Secrets by Rachael Johns

Chapter Eighteen

The island was practically deserted when they disembarked. Glenn bid them farewell and flew back to the mainland for another charter, promising to return later that afternoon to collect them.

‘Wow.’ Henri glanced around as the plane became a distant speck in the sky. ‘I feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere and nowhere is paradise.’

Her hair was flapping around her face as the wind blew vigorously, but the only other sounds around them were the gentle waves nearby and the occasional cry of a bird overhead. They were standing at the edge of the red-dirt airstrip—island shrubbery and little shacks on one side, pristine ocean on the other. The sky was blue, the temperature comfortable, and Liam had to agree with her description.

‘What do you want to do first?’ he asked as she dug a cap out of her backpack to restrain her hair. ‘We could go for a walk and find somewhere to put the geocache, or do you want to start with a swim? I brought snorkel gear for both of us and snacks. Are you hungry yet?’

He was babbling as if nervous and perhaps he was. It had seemed like a good idea—albeit a risky one—to encourage Henri to try to conquer her fear of flying, but now that they were here alone, he wondered how he was supposed to be on his best behaviour around her for the next few hours with no one but the wildlife as chaperones.

But Liam didn’t need to be nervous.

It turned out they weren’t completely alone on the island. Glenn and another pilot for Geraldton Air Charter returned in just over an hour with a group of tourists and, on their walk around East Wallabi, Liam and Henri ran into a couple of islanders as well.

They didn’t exchange more than brief greetings with the other people over the course of the day, but when they were alone, he felt completely at ease and relaxed in her company. Yes, he was still crazy attracted to her, but the friendship developing between them felt even stronger—she knew things about him and he about her that no one else did—and he didn’t want to jeopardise that.

Liam had thought he was doing fine without such a friend in his life—that he got all the social interaction he needed in the pub—but Henri made him wonder otherwise. He hoped they’d stay friends and hang out again next time she was home.

They spotted a couple of wallabies, lots of birds and a large lizard sunning itself on a rock as they searched for the perfect place to plant their geocache, before they came upon the abandoned school.

‘I thought this might be a good spot,’ Liam suggested. ‘How about under that rusty old slide?’

‘You did do your research.’ Henri sounded impressed as he pulled an old biscuit tin out of his backpack and showed her the pencil, small notebook, Palace souvenir keyring, tiny first-aid kit and a Bunyip figurine he’d bought from the CRC. ‘It’s like you’ve done this before or something.’

‘I’d never even heard about geocaching until you mentioned it, but I guess I can see the appeal.’

She smiled triumphantly. ‘Told you it was fun.’

They worked out the coordinates and then Henri logged onto the app on her phone and registered their brand-new geocache. ‘Considering you can only get here via air or sea, it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes someone to find it,’ she said.

‘How’d you get into geocaching?’ Liam asked as they walked back towards the beach where they planned to swim, snorkel and picnic the next few hours away.

‘My dad.’

Her answer didn’t surprise him.

‘He heard about it from an old friend about fifteen years ago. Tilley was already married, and the boys weren’t interested either, but I thought it sounded fun. We’d always go on a hunt when I was home or if he came to visit me. Dad used to collect the stupid crap from Christmas crackers to leave in the caches. Oh God, look!’

A sea lion resting on the sand not far away derailed their conversation. Liam lost track of time as they watched the beautiful creature sunning itself. Eventually it shuffled over to a rock and then flopped into the water, and he and Henri decided to do the same. For over an hour, they stayed in the cool calm water, coming up occasionally for air and to marvel over the kaleidoscope of fish and other wonders they’d seen in the colourful coral below, before finally drying off on the sand, reapplying sun cream and then getting stuck into the lunch he’d packed early that morning.

Conversation ebbed and flowed as they ate. Under the sun, soaking up its gentle warmth, they talked about everything. Annoying habits, pet hates, food quirks, the school plays he’d performed in, the many detentions she’d been given at boarding school, the instruments they’d both been forced to learn as kids. He learned that when she was growing up her friends had devoured magazines called Dolly and Girlfriend whereas she’d much preferred her parents’ Farm Weekly and had asked for a subscription to Australian Flying and Aviation for her fifteenth birthday. He told her about breaking both his legs at summer camp and was surprised to hear Henri had never broken so much as her little toe. They even spoke about religion. They’d both gone to church while they were growing up, but Liam was now a lapsed Catholic and Henri an atheist.

‘At least I’m ninety-nine per cent sure that’s what I am.’

Although they covered a lot of ground, there were also stretches of time where neither of them said anything. He knew you couldn’t be like this with everyone—with some people silence was so awkward you felt compelled to say absolutely anything to fill it.

When the food had been devoured, they lay on their towels, Caspian gulls soaring overhead and diving down into the sea every few minutes to fish.

Liam decided it was time to broach the subject of her flying. ‘How do you feel about the fact we flew here? I know you were scared and I’m sorry if I pushed you.’

Henri turned her head to smile at him. ‘No—thank you. I think it was a great first step. Sure, I was terrified at first—I wanted to kill you—but I’ve forgiven you. I’m glad you encouraged me and damn proud of myself for following through.’

‘Me too.’ He grinned. ‘Do you feel less anxious about going back to work?’

She sighed. ‘I don’t know. I hope so. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.’

They were quiet for a while and Liam lay back, his hands resting behind his head, simply enjoying the serenity. ‘Is that an eagle?’ he asked when a grey and white bird that looked far too powerful to be a seagull flew high above.

No reply was forthcoming.

He turned to see that Henri had fallen asleep and he couldn’t help but smile at the sight. His only concern was that the sun would burn her, so even though they were both wearing sun-screen and it wasn’t very hot, he shook out his towel and lightly covered her body with it. She didn’t even stir. Then he positioned himself so that his shadow fell over her face.

Liam couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this relaxed, but he couldn’t nap in case they didn’t wake up in time for the flight back to the mainland.

‘Why’d you let me sleep so long?’ she asked when he gently shook her awake a couple of hours later and told her it was time to head to the airstrip. ‘We could have gone swimming again or explored some more.’

‘You looked so peaceful. I couldn’t bear to disturb you.’

She sighed and stretched her arms up over her head. ‘Well, I have to admit, I feel very refreshed. I hope I didn’t drool.’

‘Only a little,’ he teased.

They collected their things and walked back to meet Glenn, who was already waiting for them beside the plane.

‘Well, hello, hello,’ he said, raising a hand. ‘Did you two have a good day?’

Liam glanced at Henri—the expression on her face could only be described as blissed out. It gave him a kick inside. Hopefully his crazy plan to re-instil her confidence in flying was working.

She nodded. ‘The best day.’

‘Glad to hear it, although you’d be hard pushed to have a bad one out here,’ Glenn said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. Despite the fact it wasn’t really hot at all, and he’d just come from an airconditioned plane, he looked like he was burning up.

‘You okay, Glenn?’ Henri asked.

‘Yeah.’ He nodded but made a face. ‘My lunch didn’t agree with me, but I’ll be fine. I’ve taken an antacid and it’s only a short flight back.’

‘Are you sure?’ Henri said, exchanging a panicked glance with Liam.

Glenn waved away her concerns. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. It’s my own fault. I ate a pie for lunch, and pastry doesn’t agree with me now that I’m getting older. I should know better; my wife will say it serves me right.’

Henri smiled. ‘Your secret’s safe with us, right, Liam?’

He nodded. ‘Of course.’

They all climbed up into the plane.

‘Are you okay?’ Liam asked Henri as they fastened their seatbelts.

She took a visible breath. ‘I think so, but do you mind if I hold your hand again?’

Without a word, he gave it to her.

Five minutes later, they were in the air again and Henri looked a hundred times calmer than she had when they’d taken off that morning. This time as they flew, she happily looked out the window, pointing things out as they both admired the picturesque scene below.

They had to be about halfway back when Glenn suddenly gasped and clutched his chest.

Henri’s hand jolted in Liam’s as she gave him a panicked look.

He let go of her hand and leaned towards the cockpit. ‘Glenn?’ he asked. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I …’ He puffed out a breath. ‘I’m … This indigestion is worse than usual. It’s getting a bit … hard … to breathe …’

‘Do you know first aid?’ Henri asked before Liam could respond; she was already unbuckling her seatbelt.

‘Yeah.’ He did regular courses to make sure he knew the basics—in the country, you never knew how long it could take for an ambulance to arrive. Unfortunately first aid wasn’t always enough. Dennis, the fourth Poker Pensioner, had experienced similar symptoms in the pub last year and hadn’t walked out alive.

‘Then you take care of him,’ Henri ordered, already climbing into the front and positioning herself in the seat beside Glenn. ‘It’s okay,’ she reassured him, ‘I’m a pilot too. I know what I’m doing, and Liam is going to look after you. You’re gunna be okay. I promise.’

Liam held his breath as he watched her scan the dual controls in front of her. Come on, Henri, you can do this.

* * *

Henri’s hands trembled as she took over as pilot, and she felt as clammy as Glenn looked. Flashes of her last flight invaded her head and tears welled in her eyes.

Could she actually do this?

With one deep breath, she summoned every ounce of training she’d ever had. In an emergency such as this, there were three things she needed to do: Aviate. Navigate. Communicate. One step at a time.

Ignoring her racing heart, she scanned the instruments in front of her—the aircraft had already started a slight shallow descent. The altitude showed they’d lost 700 feet. Breathe. She needed to bring them up again. The moment her hand closed around the control yoke and she pulled it back to reset, her tremors abated and positive adrenaline shot through her.

Thiswas what she was trained to do. This was who she was.

Power went hand in hand with altitude, so she looked to see what it had been set on the engine, reset it to 2200 RPM and put the altitude to nose on the horizon.

Yes. She could feel the force in the controls now and needed to trim it out. Her hand on the control column, she used the electric rocker switch to pull the nose up and balance out level flight.

Phew. Aviation taken care of, Henri allowed herself a quick glance over to see how Glenn was doing. He was still holding his chest and panting, but his colour seemed okay.

Either way, she couldn’t worry about Glenn. Her priority was getting them back to the mainland, which meant she needed to navigate—to work out exactly where they were. Out the window she could already see the coastline, and a look at the distance-messaging equipment showed they were 180 nautical miles from Perth on a northerly bearing. They could be on the ground in fifteen minutes.

She reached for the radio to communicate their whereabouts to Perth Centre, inform them she had a medical emergency on board and needed immediate radar vectors, air traffic control clearance and priority landing at Geraldton Airport.

‘What’s the aircraft’s call sign?’ she asked Glenn, hoping he was capable of replying. ‘I’ll have them organise an ambulance to meet us on landing.’

He took his hand off his chest. ‘Don’t think that’s necessary, sweetheart. No need to fuss.’

‘Fuss?’ A suspected heart attack wasn’t a fuss.

‘Think it was a false alarm anyway,’ he said with an awkward chuckle. ‘Breathing’s fine again. Damn indigestion. Never having another pie for lunch in my life.’

Henri stared at the man who, five minutes ago, she was worried might not make it to the ground alive.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ She thought about her dad’s heart attack—she hadn’t been anywhere near him when it happened, so she wasn’t in the position to save him, but she’d never forgive herself if she ignored the warning signs and Glenn deteriorated. ‘Better to be safe than sorry.’

‘I’m fine,’ he assured her. ‘I’ll go see my doctor as soon as we get back, but maybe you should take us to the ground, just in case?’

That didn’t sit right with Henri, and she looked to Liam for backup, but he was gazing casually out the window as if nothing had happened.

And that’s when it clicked.

‘Hang on … Did you really have a pie for lunch, Glenn?’

He gave her a sheepish grin. ‘Nope, they really do give me terrible indigestion and I’ve learnt my lesson. I stick to salad sandwiches on rye bread now.’

‘What the hell!’ She glanced back at Liam, who was now grinning from ear to ear, then back at Glenn, who looked as healthy as anything. ‘Did you two set me up?’

The older pilot snorted and then started laughing.

‘How about you just focus on landing the plane and we’ll talk about this when we’re back on the ground,’ Liam said calmly.

Part of Henri wanted to tell him to take a hike, but now that she was back at the controls, another part of her desperately wanted to see if she could finish what she’d started.

‘I’ll deal with you later,’ she told him before turning back to Glenn. ‘You’re sure you’re okay with me doing this?’

‘Course, love, and remember, I’ll be right beside you every step of the way,’ Glenn said.

And he was. As she flew them back to the airport it felt so good. Better than good. She soon started the descent, then not long after slammed on the brakes as they touched down on the runway. It just happened to be one of the smoothest landings Henri had ever done and she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. Glenn congratulated her.

Only when the engine was switched off did she turn back to glare at Liam.

‘I can’t believe you did that to me,’ she spat, her heart still racing from the excitement. ‘You’re lucky I don’t murder you with my bare hands right this very second!’

‘I’m proud of you, Henri,’ he said with a smile. ‘I knew you could do it.’

Warmth bloomed inside her as she grinned back at him. Murder was actually the furthest thing from her mind.

What she really wanted was to kiss him.