‘Yep.’ Zac slid the tube past the obstruction and blew up the balloon, then attached the bag to hand ventilate. They both shuddered with relief as Jock’s chest rose and fell with Zac’s squeeze of the bag. The simplified version of emergency airway.

Ava reached for his wrist. ‘Pulse one eighty.’ Her voice broke and she sucked back the sob that wanted to explode.

‘Same as mine,’ Zac said quietly and Ava blinked and then nodded.

‘Mine too. Thanks.’ Focus on reality, she told herself. Jock was breathing. He had a pulse. It could have been worse. She glanced at Hana, but her sister-in-law’s eyes were glued to the rise and fall of Jock’s chest, her lips moving in prayer. Bloody, bloody hell.

They put in a cannula for access in case they needed adrenaline and Zac gave some sedation in case Jock woke with a tube in his throat. Though he was still unconscious, they should be able to keep him stable until he could be airlifted out. What happened after that they could pray about. Ava fumbled until she found the blood-pressure machine.

When she’d completed the measurement she said, ‘His blood pressure is okay, Hana, which is a good sign.’

‘Mine isn’t.’

There was something in Hana’s voice that made Ava plead silently to God. ‘Hana?’

‘I fell. After I cut the rope. I hit my stomach and the contractions have started.’

Ava crawled away from her brother across the rocks until she knelt beside Hana and rested her hand on her sister-in-law’s stomach. The uterus below her fingers was rock hard. ‘Oh, sweetheart. You are so brave and wonderful. Hold on.’

Chapter Forty-three

Stella

The Royal Flying Doctor aircraft landed at Setabilly Station for the second time in a week, but this time they came from a distance and didn’t arrive until almost three in the afternoon.

Stella waited for the engines to wind down, and unlike her daughter-in-law’s calm last week, she wanted to run across to the plane and beat on the doors for them to open.

‘Zac says they’ll be fine. Zac says they’ll be fine.’ She chanted the litany over and over, mouthing the words, mashing her hands together, moaning a little between the sentences. She wished Lorenzo were here, but he’d gone out into the paddocks and couldn’t be contacted.

Stella relived the horror she had felt when Hana had phoned Ava. Jock hadn’t woken during the transfer from the hill. She and Mim had remained at the house to phone for retrieval, and they’d clutched each other’s hands until Jock had been carried in by Zac and Poddy, and Hana had limped in, held up by Ava.