Three Mile Cache

By Jen Silver

The story is set in Australia circa 1988. When archaeologist Carolyn Wells returns home to Sydney after several months away at a dig in Tunisia, she expects to be reunited with her lover, Detective Inspector Alex Graham. But she soon learns that Alex has been wounded in a hostage incident and is recuperating at a Royal Flying Doctor Service hospital at a place in the outback of New South Wales called Three Mile Cache. Carolyn decides to fly out there and surprise Alex with her arrival.
Surprises abound when she gets there. One of the doctors treating Alex has a rather intimate interpretation of a bedside manner. There are mysterious goings-on at a local homestead and Alex’s injuries haven’t stopped her from probing into the lives of the locals, much to their annoyance.
When Carolyn and Alex meet again, things don’t quite work out as either of them would like. Can their relationship recover from the series of events in Three Mile Cache that threaten to keep them apart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Affinity Ebook Press NZ Ltd
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990049170

Book preview

Three Mile Cache

Jen Silver

2021

Back of the Book

The story is set in Australia circa 1988. When archaeologist Carolyn Wells returns home to Sydney after several months away at a dig in Tunisia, she expects to be reunited with her lover, Detective Inspector Alex Graham. But she soon learns that Alex has been wounded in a hostage incident and is recuperating at a Royal Flying Doctor Service hospital at a place in the outback of New South Wales called Three Mile Cache. Carolyn decides to fly out there and surprise Alex with her arrival.

Surprises abound when she gets there. One of the doctors treating Alex has a rather intimate interpretation of a bedside manner. There are mysterious goings-on at a local homestead and Alex’s injuries haven’t stopped her from probing into the lives of the locals, much to their annoyance.

When Carolyn and Alex meet again, things don’t quite work out as either of them would like. Can their relationship recover from the series of events in Three Mile Cache that threaten to keep them apart?

Three Mile Cache

© 2021 by Jen Silver

Affinity E-Book Press NZ LTD.

Canterbury, New Zealand

Edition

ISBN:

ePub: 978-1-99-004917-0

PDF: 978-1-99-004918-7

Mobi: 978-1-99-004919-4

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author and publisher. Please note that piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights and is illegal.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Editor: Angela Koenig

Proof Editor: Alexis Smith

Cover Design: Irish Dragon Designs

Production Design: Affinity Publication Services

Acknowledgments

I would offer my heartfelt thanks to the Affinity Rainbow Publications team who have kept going through the difficulties of survival in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020/21. Their commitment to their authors and readers never wavers.

Thank you also to the 1980s TV series, The Flying Doctors, which provided the inspiration for this story.

Dedication

To the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia for the vital medical services they provide covering rural and remote areas of the country.

Also by Jen Silver

Single Stories:

Country Living

Deuce

Calling Home

Changing Perspectives

Running From Love

Christmas at Winterbourne

The Circle Dance

Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over

Arc Over Time

Carved in Stone

Short Stories:

There Was a Time

The Christmas Sweepstake (Affinity’s 2014 Christmas Collection)

Beltane in Space (It’s in Her Kiss—Affinity Charity Anthology)

Maybe This Christmas (Affinity’s Christmas Medley 2017)

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Epilogue

About Jen Silver

Other Books from Affinity

Chapter One

Carolyn sat on the floor cross-legged, surrounded by papers. She was poring over a map when her brother came back with the coffee.

Where shall I put yours, sis?

She answered without looking up, Oh, on the atlas.

The cover of the atlas already had round coffee mug stains on it, so he placed it there carefully. He would never have done that to one of his own books. It was a mystery to him how someone as organised as Carolyn in her professional life could live in such constant disarray. Possibly because she spent so much time living in tents.

Phil, where’s Three Mile Cache?

He looked at her bent head, unable to see her face through the fall of long blonde hair. Somewhere near Broken Hill, I think. But you won’t find it on that map. Philip Wells was a bush pilot in Northern Queensland. He ran a supply service between camps, and also ended up rescuing lost tourists. He’d come to Sydney for a brief holiday. Carolyn usually let him use her flat as she was often away on archaeological digs. However, this time she had arrived back from a North Africa trip unexpectedly. He’d been pleased to see her, and after she’d spent a relaxing day recovering from jetlag, they’d gone out for dinner. He was used to her being quiet on these occasions, but this evening she had been preoccupied more than usual. The question about Three Mile Cache was the first one she’d asked him all evening. He had made all the running in keeping a conversation going. He couldn’t put it down completely to the effects of the long-haul flight from Tunisia—she usually handled it pretty well—and she was in good shape, not being much of a drinker.

Are you planning another expedition?

No, just idle curiosity.

Carolyn, your curiosity is never idle.

Well, I am planning a little private trip.

Why Three Mile C? It’s in the middle of nowhere.

You could say that about most of Australia. She looked up at him then and brushed her hair back from her face. Someone I know lives there, but I can’t remember the name…

Sounds a bit tenuous.

Yes, it does, doesn’t it? I think I’ll go tomorrow.

Look, Sis. Why don’t you give yourself a break? You’ve been living in a tent in the desert for six months. Don’t you want to relax on the beach?

You know the beach scene bores me to death, Phil. Anyway, it’s better to do something than sit around feeling sorry for oneself.

Sorry about what? Phil wanted to ask. But he stopped himself in time. Carolyn wouldn’t tolerate questions about her personal life. He knew there was someone who mattered a lot to her, called Alex, but she didn’t let them meet. If Alex was giving her a hard time, he’d be glad to sort him out—he couldn’t be a very big bloke judging by the size of the boxer shorts he’d found in Carolyn’s washing machine one day.

These yours, Sis? he’d asked, jokingly, waving them in front of her face as she sat at the breakfast table.

No, they’re Alex’s, she’d said and then, unaccountably, blushed. She grabbed the shorts from him and disappeared with them into her bedroom. When she came back into the kitchen her face had calmed down.

He’d wondered at the time why she’d been embarrassed. Was she ashamed of Alex in some way? That would possibly explain why they’d never been allowed to meet. He and Carolyn had been close as children, but had started to drift apart as teenagers. It was easier now they were older,