“What does Troy think about a quiet wedding?” Her mum’s voice echoed over the phone.
“He’s just as keen as I am to get this over and done with, Mum.” Madelaine switched her phone to speaker. “When can you get here? Liam wants me to sign papers and there’s a whole heap of things to go through before…”
“Before?”
“September twenty-sixth—”
“What day of the week is that?”
“A Thursday. It’s just over four weeks away—”
“Why a Thursday?”
“—which is the absolute legal minimum required notice. I suppose no one wants me to get cold feet.”
“So you’ve booked the celebrant?” Carol asked.
“Troy said it was up to me so I asked Victoria McNeal from here. You know her. She does a good job. Well, a great job, but this isn’t her usual sort of job.”
“I’m sure she treats all her weddings as special.”
“For crying out loud, I meant that this isn’t one of her usual types of weddings.”
“It will be just another wedding. Why not enjoy it? Madds, I’ll be home in a day or two. I’ll come over to Australis and we can put some plans in place, so why don’t you visit the shops for a dress and—”
“No way,” Madelaine cried. “I’m not doing the whole bit. It’s going to be plain and simple and in my own place. Two witnesses, that’s all we need.”
Carol waited a beat. “Family will be there.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Mum, it’s a sham thing. A business contract, remember? No big fuss and bother. It’s not real.”
“Madelaine, it will be real. Absolutely. If Victoria McNeal is officiating it’s real, so no point not enjoying it for what it is.”
“I don’t know…maybe I’ll pull out of it.”
“Too late now.”
“No, it’s not. I don’t have to sign anything until later today.”
“But you’ve given Liam your word. Same thing in my book.”
Madelaine grew hot. “I have to go. Bye, Mum.”
“But—”
“Bye!”
Madelaine stood for a moment longer staring out to sea over her kitchen benches. Nothing else for it. She reached for her earphones. Turned and marched in to the cool room.
Engage the Tunes. She put on the iPod to sing away the blues.
***
Troy hadn’t gone back to Australis Island with Madelaine. Instead he’d stayed in Adelaide hoping to clear his head, and to keep a check on Liam who seemed to be making a helluva big deal out of his son’s impending nuptials.
Things were strange with Madelaine, really strange. She’d agreed to marry him, but had resolutely refused to go out with him either for lunch or for dinner.
She was polite, but reserved, and emphatic. No, no dates.
All he wanted was to reassure her that—
That what? That he was fine with the idea when she looked absolutely distraught? That he’d love being married to a girl who clearly didn’t want to be anywhere near him? That his life was arranged around some old fart’s notion of protecting family and financials?
Madness.
He would leave for Australis today and go back to Maddy’s place, stay there and work, until he found some other living quarters. Two of his cousins, Joseph McInerney for one, and Berry Lockett for the other, both had homes on Australis, big enough to squeeze him in for a few months.
Or for however long it took.
He packed a few more belongings. What chance he thought he might have had with Madelaine now seemed out the window.
God knew it was awkward, and that was the understatement of the year. He couldn’t get near her to tell her how he felt... Clearly Madelaine didn’t feel the same way about him.
He’d lock those thoughts away. He had a job to do, that was all: get married, satisfy the terms of Petny’s will, and get everyone off his back, then maybe, just maybe he’d go away for a few hundred years.