‘I don’t want to make love to you.’
‘No?’
‘Well…’ He smiled, and the warmth in the little room grew and grew. ‘Well, not so much…not as much as I want to talk to you.’
‘I’ve agreed to marry you,’ she said primly. ‘What else do you want?’
‘I want to say I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry…’
‘For ever doubting you. For being so bloody stupid. For causing you one moment’s pain.’ Mike closed his eyes. Hell, he was still so weary, but he had to say this. He must! ‘Tess, you are the loveliest…the most precious…the most wonderful woman I have ever met. I can’t believe you love me but if you do…you’ll have given me the most precious thing I ever could ask in life.
‘I love you so much, Tess. I want you beside me, and I want you beside me for ever. I’ve had my share of disasters. I want your love before I face any more. From now on, any disasters that come, we’ll face them together.’
‘Mike…’
‘Tess, marry me,’ he whispered. ‘Marry me and know I have no reservations. Marry me and know that I can’t be a doctor without you. I can’t be anything without you. You’re half of my whole. Tess…’
‘Oh, Mike…’ And she knelt and buried her face in his shoulder, and her arms came around him, tubing and all.
‘Mike, don’t be silly.’
‘I’m not silly. I’m asking-’
‘And I’ve already answered,’ she said steadily. ‘I fell in love with you the moment I saw you and I’ll love you for ever. Of course I’ll marry you. Of course I’ll marry you, my love. I intended to from the first and I intend to now. To love you without stopping. You just get yourself better, and then we’ll plan a wedding to die for. Or…’ She thought about what she’d said, and that irrepressible grin twinkled out. ‘Maybe we’d better say a wedding to live for. Because that’s just what it’s going to be.’
As weddings went, it was unusual to say the least.
Tess had announced where her wedding was to be held and the community had blinked. So had Mike, but she’d dragged him out there and held him close, and he’d seen what she’d seen.
And he blessed her for it.
Six weeks after Mike’s operation he stood, clad in dinner suit, white carnation in his buttonhole, the sea breeze ruffling his hair and with an almost overwhelming happiness in his heart, and waited for his bride.
The headland where the wedding took place was one of the loveliest places in Bellanor, nestled between two mountains about three miles from town. The homestead here had long fallen into disrepair. The land was used for cattle agistment and nothing else. The bush had reclaimed the land on the bluff and it had taken a working party three days to clear enough room for the portable chairs and the vast marquee and the tiny altar.
There was normally nothing here. Just sea and bushland and native birds-and one solitary grave.
This was the headland where Mike’s mother was buried. Her grave was covered with a mass of native orchids, almost an altar in itself, and it was here that Tess decreed she’d marry.
‘Because we’re going into this with our eyes wide open,’ she told Mile solemnly. ‘You’re not breaking any vow. You’re renewing it, with a difference.’
And so he was. He was renewing it, with joy thrown in for good measure. With Tess…
And here she was, pulling up in Harvey Begg’s Volvo, with Henry climbing out to proudly take her arm. Henry hardly had the need for his walking-frame now, and there was no way he was using it to give his girl away. His old eyes beamed with happiness and pride.
Louise and Hannah fluttered forward, fast friends now with no trace of the Horrible Hannah of old. They adjusted Tessa’s dress, a floating confection of white lace, cut low at the breast and flaring out in soft clouds to form a train behind. It wasn’t entirely white. It had soft, fine red ribbons laced through the bodice, and on her feet she was wearing…
Mike blinked. She was wearing red stilettos-the red stilettos he’d fallen in love with the first time he’d seen them! The first time he’d seen her.
Tess. His lovely Tess. His gorgeous, crazy, wonderful bride! Her wonderous red hair was floating free, and he thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
He glanced to the front row where Tessa’s mother was sitting. She was a firebrand just like her daughter, and she was sitting serenely with a dog lead in her hand. The lead was attached to a gleaming, groomed and handsome Strop, resplendent in crimson bow.
Strop was looking so mournful he was almost smiling.
Of course he was smiling. This was so right. All the pieces of Mike’s jumbled life were fitting together, and his Tessa was walking steadily toward him.
Tessa… His bride…
And her eyes were loving him.
There were no doubts in Mike’s heart now. There were no doubts at all. This was right. This was his fate. This was where he was meant to be.
Everything seemed to hush as Mike and Tessa made their marriage vows.
And it was right for this marriage to take place here. Drifting around them was the spirit of times past-the echoes of the love Mike had once had here with his mother. It was an echo that would now resound down the generations, with Mike’s and Tessa’s children, and with their children’s children, and beyond.
There was no judgement here. There was only love. There was love and there was happiness, and there was all the hope in the world for a future of joy.
Marion Lennox
Marion Lennox has had a variety of careers-medical receptionist, computer programmer and teacher. Married, with two young children, she now lives in rural Victoria, Australia. Her wish for an occupation that would allow her to remain at home with her children, her dogs, the cat and the budgie led her to attempt writing a novel.
