Featured book this week is The Homestead Girls by Fiona McArthur.

There’s an extract to read too…

Moving to the outback to join the Flying Doctors will change Billie’s life forever.

After her teenage daughter Mia falls in with the wrong crowd, Dr Billy Green decides its time to leave the city and return home to far western NSW. When an opportunity to pursue her childhood dream of join the Flying Doctor Service comes along, she jumps at the chance. Flight nurse Daphne Prince – who is thrilled to have another woman join the otherwise male crew – and their handsome boss Morgan Blake, instantly make her feel welcome.

Just out of town, drought-stricken grazier Soretta Byrnes has been struggling to make ends meet and has opened her station homestead to boarders. Tempted by its faded splendour and beautiful outback setting, Billy, Mia and Daphne decide to move in and the four of them are soon joined by eccentric 80-year old, Lorna Lamerton.

The unlikely housemates are tentative at first, but soon they are offering each other frank advice and staunch support as they tackle medical emergencies, romantic adventures and the challenges of growing up and getting older. But when one of their lives is threatened, the strong friendship they have forged will face the ultimate test…

Extract from The Homestead Girls by Fiona McArthur

With intro from Fiona:

The Homestead Girls is a story about strength in women and part of the background is the heart-wrenching drama often seen by Australian flight nurses and doctors in emergency situations. The chosen scene is our first real look at some of that emotional territory for two of the main characters in the book and the start of their friendship.

…Soretta hadn’t been going to move him but the bleeding wouldn’t stop and she decided if they were very careful she had to put him on the board that stayed strapped to the back of the ute in case of emergencies like this. If she didn’t by the time the plane arrived and they’d all transferred here it would be too late but it was an agonisingly long time later that she and Klaus finally had her grandfather in the back of the utility. They were nearly there now, but her grandfather’s white face glistened with shock and pain as they bounced as gently as Klaus could navigate the potholes, over the rough track to the airstrip on the neighbour’s property.

Soretta’s face felt tight, petrified like the piece of mulga that had caused such damage, as she settled the blanket around his bony shoulders and tried to keep from crying.

One of the hardest things she’d ever done was shift her grandad onto the stretcher board and she hoped she’d done the right thing. His pale face, the beads of sweat as he’d tried to hold back the groans of agony and the way the bleeding had continued to seep around the wad of dressing she’d held had warned her there was no other option. ‘Hang in there, Grandad.’

‘Sorry, hon.’

His voice was so damn thready. ‘Don’t you dare die!’ She heard the squeak in her tone as she fought down the panic.

The drone of a plane caught her attention, held it along with her breath, and she watched it begin to circle until it flew over their heads, while she prayed like she’d never prayed before. Mentally hurried it onto the ground and the door to open. Sucked in a breath as her head began to swim. It was okay, she chanted to herself. They’d be able to get him to help before it was too late.

‘You were a beautiful baby.’ Her grandfather’s hoarse whisper held a smile. ‘Now you look like your grandmother. Even more beautiful.’

No! That sounded way too much like goodbye. ‘Save your strength,’ she said. Fiercely. ‘We’re nearly there.’

And then they were. Coming around the end of the airstrip as the plane taxied towards them. She turned to her grandfather to tell him but his eyes were closed. For a horrific moment she thought he was gone, but then she saw his chest rise as he drew another ragged breath.

Klaus jolted the utility to a stop, but her grandad was unconscious and didn’t notice. Soretta willed him to stay with her.

The hatch of the plane lowered, the steps followed, and then there was Daphne. Calm, kind and brilliantly efficient as she hopped down onto the ground and sprinted with her kit across to them. Soretta had never been so glad to see someone in her life.

Soretta eased back as Daphne skidded to a halt beside them. She saw the quick assessing glance that despite its speed seemed to encompass her granddad from head to foot. How did she do that?

‘I had to move him.’

‘I think you did. You did the right thing. ‘Daphne gently lifted Soretta’s hand and the wadded dressing she held clamped to the wound. Sucked air in through her teeth at the jagged, seeping wound. ‘Good job,’ she said.

Soretta didn’t know if she was talking to her or her grandfather but the relief of handing over responsibility made her head swim again.

Daphne went on in that quiet, steady voice, and some of the rigid tension in Soretta’s neck eased a fraction. ‘I’ll just reinforce this, strap it down more firmly so it won’t shift in flight and get a couple of intravenous lines in.’ Daphne shot her a look. ‘Can you hold this again firmly while Rex rolls him so I can slip the bandage under?’

Soretta hadn’t even noticed the pilot had crouched down beside them. ‘Of course.’ It was done swiftly. Much more securely than Soretta had been able to manage and then a bag of intravenous fluids was thrust into her hands.

‘And this, sweetie. Just hold it up when I say.’ What seemed seconds later two bags of fluid were raised over her grandad.

Fifteen minutes later she sat quietly in the spare seat in the tiny aircraft cabin and watched Daphne struggle to keep her grandfather alive as the pilot revved the engines.

Twin IV lines ran fluid into his veins on each wrist. Oxygen blew into the mask on his face and the compression bandage on his stomach had finally stopped seeping. But still her chest felt leaden with anxiety as she listened to the increasing timbre of the plane’s engines as at last they began to take off.

The Homestead Girls is available in eBook and paperback from all good retailers.
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