Vic looked back at the month that had passed while they lived in seclusion in their desert hideaway. He had loved this uninterrupted time spent with Jane and the children. Even though he knew another man was their father it felt like the Jane’s children were fully his now. He had worked hard on the station in return for keep but the work was a pleasure, mostly doing things with his hands and knowing that each night he would return to his family who always greeted him with ferocious joy.
Now the weather was cooling at night and, at the main station, a stock camp had been assembled to start the season’s muster. Next week they would draft off the steers for fattening in the river paddock and brand all this year’s calves from the close in paddocks before they went mustering further out. Vic and Jane mostly stayed in their outstation cottage but a few times they had come in to the main homestead to join the others for dinner.
His Mum and Jillie had visited again the weekend before last to tell them that all the arrangements were now made for their wedding. Jane had sent Vic across to talk and drink with his Uncle for the afternoon, the children playing at his feet. She had closed the doors and put covers on the windows so he could not look in while she had taken Rosa and Jillie inside to help her select a wedding dress and make other style arrangements. Vic understood from Jane that her two bridesmaids would be Jillie and Anne while little Davie and Annie would carry flowers and follow her. He also knew Jane’s mother, father and a few other key friends would attend. He wanted to keep it low key but it was easier said than done. Jane had a penchant for issuing instant invitations as she did not see the need for secrecy. So it was hard to keep it quiet, but overall it seemed to have worked.
Sorting out the legal complexities had been tricky and Vic knew he owed a great debt to Buck, Alan, Anne and many others. However it had all come off as well as he could have hoped, much better than expected.
It had worked been worked out in two places at the same time.
Following on from the video the Northern Territory Government agreed to grant a pardon to Susan Emily MacDonald. It would be signed in two days time, on the Friday evening before their Saturday wedding. But it would not be announced until the following Monday, limiting the chance for journalists to go digging.
At the same time the English Government had privately organized to grant new identity papers, also released on the Friday, English time. This would happen once the NT government confirmed the pardon was signed. These documents, which changed the name of Susan MacDonald to Jane Bennet, had been lodged on Jane’s behalf by her parents, with the support of the psychiatrist, Ross Sangster. He confirmed her memory loss and the risk of severe mental or physical harm if Jane was forced to become aware of her past identity.
His statement was supported by an eminent English colleague who had been given the transcript of his previous interview with Jane along with the video and a summary of the trial information. He had fully concurred with Ross Sangster’s opinion. The English lawyers from Anne’s former firm had got a court order to suppress this identity change from public disclosure for a five year period.
So, barring unforeseen hold ups, it would all happen like clockwork. Scanned copies of the NT documents would be sent to the UK once signed and then scanned copies of the new UK passport and other identity forms would arrive in time for the Saturday wedding ceremony. The originals would be couriered in both directions on flights leaving Friday night from both London and Darwin. They would be available in both London and Alice Springs at the end of the following day. So the original documents for the wedding could be lodged the following Monday in time for official registration procedures, and the English passport would be in their hands before they boarded the plane on Monday morning.
The end result was Vikram Campbell was marrying Jane Bennet. It would be decreed in the official marriage ceremony. It would all be legal. And Vic lived in hope that no one outside their immediate circle would be any the wiser as to how Susan had become Jane, his bride.
Early on Monday morning they would fly from Alice Springs via Cairns for a month’s holiday in remote northern Scotland, staying on the family farm where Jane’s last childhood memories remained. She would travel under this new passport issued to Jane Bennet.
After that they would see what happened and decide on whether they could become public people again in either Australia or the UK or whether they needed to establish a new life in some other unknown location, perhaps New Zealand. Vic liked that idea as he had contacts who could arrange work there as a pilot, flying helicopters again in the mountains.
For now Vic was happy to know almost nothing of the detailed wedding plans. All he knew was that they would drive back to Alice Springs, tomorrow, Friday. Jane would stay in a very private resort with her parents and Anne that night. He would have a night with his mates, a low key bucks’ ceremony he insisted. He was determined not to have a hangover. He would stay that night at his sister’s place with his Uncle in two of Jillie’s kids’ bunk beds.
Jillie and his Mum would bring him and his Uncle to the church the next day, the one his sister belonged to. Jillie had squared away with the pastor that there be no publicity and no uninvited guests and, for extra security, Buck and Alan would take positions by the back door to only ensure invited guests came inside for the church wedding ceremony.
After the ceremony they would all go out to Desert Springs Park for a private evening reception, with paid security to ensure no uninvited guests like photographers turned up there either. That night they would go to a private resort in a gorge in the West McDonnells for their wedding night. Here they would have brunch with the wedding guests the next day before saying their goodbyes in preparation for Monday’s early departure.
The whole plan was not totally foolproof but, since the early leaks when he had first done a runner and brought Jane away, there had been no further squeaks. So Vic was quietly confident that it would all work and they could just fade into the sunset, like any other newlyweds.
Saturday morning had a slow, dreamlike quality. Vic sat at his sister’s kitchen table drinking endless cups of coffee, his hangover only minor. Jack had gone up town shopping, having been harassed by Rosa to buy a new suit so he looked the part of the head man of the family. Vic’s own suit hung in the cupboard, never worn though he was confident it would fit. He would do it all the proper way though this part of ceremony seemed unimportant to him. But he wanted it to be perfect for Jane. He could not quite believe his luck in marrying this delightful girl; it was an unimagined dream of barely six months ago. He promised himself to make their life together extra good from here. He could not wait to see her or their children again, he even wondered if a third one may have started its spirit journey in one of their nights of loving out in the desert. It was a wonderful thought.
The time drifted away until his sister harassed him into showering and dressing. He polished his shoes an extra time and adjusted his bow tie in the mirror, deciding he looked pretty spic.
Then it was time to go to church. After a brief hello to a few friends he moved to the front of the church to await his bride. The waiting was agony; all he could think of was all the things that could go wrong. Every second seemed like a minute and every minute seemed like an hour. At last he heard the distant noise of a car’s arrival and muffled voices. This was the moment of ended waiting. He looked down to the far end of the church. A shimmer of light started to drift through the door, part sunlight, part gossamer.
He realized it was the flounces of a wedding dress, as she paused for a second before coming through. White with tiny patterns of a faintest blue to turquoise that he could only just make out, they drifted in and out of view in the breeze. Then this gorgeous apparition wafted through, lightly holding her father’s arm. She was so beautiful she took his breath away, a huge lump formed in his throat and his hand brushed tears from the edges of his eyes.
She drifted towards him like that strand of gossamer floating above air eddies, weightless with her own exhilaration. Their eyes met in an iridescent smile, with just a trace of amusement in hers at his discomfiture.
The service had a mesmeric quality, words spoken; “I do, I promise,” finally a ring on his and her finger and the signing of the register. Her kiss was the barest brush of lips. They joined their arms to walk back down the aisle. They emerged through the crowd of well wishers, laughing, hugging and shaking hands, he still unable to believe his luck.
A man stepped forward. Dark skinned but different from his local black brothers. He thought he was coming towards him, but then he realized it was Jane he sought. As he reached them a microphone was pushed forward. Vic saw a camera on a tripod a few feet behind with its red record light running.
Words came from the man’s mouth. “Hello, Susan Emily MacDonald. How does it feel to have married the best friend of the man you killed?
“This is Jake SS reporting for the Truth in downtown Alice Springs.”
Vic felt overwhelming rage. He knew that name; he had read his by line in the newspaper on the day that Susan had vanished. He was the author of all those hateful words and still it was not enough.
He stepped forward, tearing the microphone free with one hand and casting it aside. He felt his fists move, hearing dull thuds as they connected with the hateful face, once, twice with each hand as the man slumped forward, then he hit into his chest and body as his rage powered him on.
He felt himself being grabbed from behind, pulled back. The man was slumped on the footpath, near the edge of the road. Buck moved across his view, picking up the camera and smashing it into the road, then grabbing this man and hauling him to his feel. Alan was by his side, a posse of two. Each held an arm and kept the man upright.
Buck’s voice spoke. “Listen you scumbag. You are lucky we pulled Vic off before he killed you, because he surely would have. I don’t want him to end up in jail for fixing filth like you on what should be his perfect wedding day.
“But I will give you a tip, if so much as one word of what happened today ends up in your scummy paper I will come and find you and string you upside down, hanging by your balls and dick, until your precious bits come away. Then I will take what is left of you and give it to the crocodiles, the ones that interest you so much. If you don’t believe me just try it on.”
Alan nodded, “To be double sure you shut your filthy mouth I will be there to help him too. This man and woman who got married today are both worth a hundred of you. They have earned the right to be left in peace.”
With that each took an arm and flung him backwards towards the road. He lay there, on his side in the gutter, with a stunned look on his face and blood oozing from cuts on his face and lips.
Vic felt his anger slowly cool, watching from the edge of his vision as this man sat there unmoving, making no attempt to interrupt further. It almost looked like an expression of shame had come onto this man’s bleeding face. Vic decided he would not to let it spoil his day.
Anne and David, along with other family and friends, had formed a tight knot around Jane, shielding her from view and further intrusion. This pleased Vic while he got his anger under control. Alan and Buck stayed nearby, not crowding, giving unspoken support and plenty of time to let him get himself back together.
He felt a tug at his elbow; it was Jane’s father with a big grin on his face.
“I always told her she needed to find a man with balls, one who would stand up and fight for her. I think you just proved you’re that one. It was the prettiest boxing exhibition I have seen, barely five seconds, eight lovely punches. Someone should put you in a ring against a pro. You could show a thing or two.”
Vic found himself grinning back and laughing. His anger evaporated. It seemed the words had passed Jane by, not understood, no damage done. He sensed, from this guy’s demeanor, that he would tell no further stories.
Time now to enjoy the night with his ravishingly beautiful wife!
He eased his way back through the crowd to her and she rewarded him with a smile that melted everything inside him.
“I belong to you, I love you and we are married,” she whispered with unadorned delight.
Now he kissed her and savored every inch of her wonderful body as it pressed to his. Then it was David and Anne, both the big and little who joined the hug circle and then it was Jane’s mother, father and brother too, and then it was his own mother and sister and uncle, then was a hug joined by every person who was there, all except one.
After a minute a second person detached from the group and went across to the man on the ground. She took his hand, spoke to him briefly, then pulled him to his feet, put her arm around his waist and led him away.
Vic did not recognize this person, not from his family or friends, not anyone he had met from Susan’s side. She had grey streaked hair and looked old, perhaps fifty or sixty, but she walked with the firm manner and had the step spring of someone half that age. Curious, Vic thought.
Gradually the people hug knot unwound and they made their way to their cars. For Susan and Vic it was only a short trip to an open place where a helicopter stood resting, waiting to whisk them off to afternoon photos and then the reception. The children would travel with Jane’s and his parents and the rest of the bridal party to join in the photos. Other guests would follow along in an hour or two.