A New Beginning Pt. 02

"I'll reserve judgement until I meet him. I presume that you intend introducing him to your family before you marry him."

"I'll have to get back to you on that."

"Patrick, Darling." I stopped kissing him.

"Yes," He answered cautiously.

"You know how you wanted to meet my family?"

"Yes," Still cautious.

"I feel that I should warn you that they are all Lawyers. My father and mother are both Lawyers. So too are my two brothers. I'm afraid that I am a complete disappointment to them, and because of this they have had a strong antipathy towards any and all boyfriends that I have introduced to them. I felt that I needed to warn you, because I spoke to Mother today, and she wants to meet you."

"Well then we'd better get it out of the way, hadn't we?"

"I'm afraid, more afraid than I have ever been. What if they don't like you?"

"How could they not like me?"

"Oh if anyone can find a way, they can, believe me."

"Then that's their problem. Regardless of their feelings toward me. I am determined to marry you. They'll just have to wear that."

"Okay, I'll ring Mother again tomorrow and arrange a time."

"Now can we get back to what we were doing before you interrupted it?"

I answered in the best way possible.

And so it was that he parked his humble BMW behind the Aston Martin and Jaguar XKR in the driveway of this palatial mansion in Vaucluse. "There must be the odd dollar or two in the Law business." Patrick commented as he opened the door for me.

"Put a lid on your reverse snobbery for me." I whispered to him as the front door opened and Maria the Housekeeper ushered us inside. "They are waiting for you in the library, miss." She told us as she took our coats. I led Patrick down the hallway to the library and his certain doom.

"Mother, Father, this is my fiancé Patrick O'Laughlin."

"Patrick O'Laughlin, now that name rings a bell. Weren't you the man who was charged with murdering his wife about fifteen months ago?"

"The very same."

"Fortunately for you the prosecution was particularly inept." Father made it sound as if he considered Patrick guilty.

"The fact that I was innocent might have had something to do with it. The person who actually arranged it is currently receiving a thorough Psychiatric evaluation. Her Lawyers are working on the mental illness defence, and from my experience with her, she might just pull it off."

"When you say 'your experience with her', exactly what was your experience?" Mr. Becket asked.

"I contacted her recently to get some context on Rosie's final weeks, and she made it very clear that she was 'interested in me' if you get my drift. That interest quickly became an obsession, and she began stalking me." I took out my phone that had her last message to me and played it. "The 'bitch' she refers to is Rachel."

"I see."

"What would your interest be in this matter?" I asked him.

"We have been approached to act on her behalf. This tape puts a new light on the subject. I may need to call you as a witness."

"Should we be talking about this? Isn't there some law about discussing cases while the legal process is happening?"

"That applies to while the actual trial is in progress. It doesn't apply to the gathering of evidence."

"I see. I will need to contact my Lawyer and get his opinion on this. I'll get back to you if he tells me that it is okay to co-operate with you." Patrick was being cautious.

"Why the caution? Surely you want to see the person responsible for the murder of your wife receive the appropriate punishment."

"I do, believe me. I have made a full statement to the police, which they are acting on. My Lawyer and I have presented them with a large amount of evidence, forensic and other, and if the police allow you access to that, then you will have more than I can tell you."

"You seem all of a sudden very willing to co-operate with the police, why the change of heart?"

"The evidence that we gave them was conclusive, we gave them cause of death, and the fact that she managed to plant evidence in my car in an attempt to implicate me in the murder. Even though we do not yet have a body, we have established the window of opportunity that the killer used to carry out the crime, and that she needed to set the evidence that she hoped would implicate me. It's all there in the file."

Save by the bell. Maria announced that dinner was served.

It was a meal designed to demean Patrick. Silver service with bells on, from the entrée to dessert. The main course a glazed leg of lamb, carved at the table by a white jacketed waiter, with roast jacket potatoes, cut with a cross and garnished with sour cream and chopped fresh chives, crisp green vegetables, served from the platter on a tray-mobile by a waitress in black skirt and crisply ironed white blouse using a fork and spoon. It would have not been out of place in a 4 star Michelin cordon bleu establishment, definitely not the stamping ground of the Middle Class. The Chef, hired for the occasion, was in fact Michelin trained.

I felt sorry for Patrick, but I needn't have, he handled himself with aplomb. My parents could not fault him in any way, he knew which fork was which, he knew how to place his cutlery when he had finished a course, he knew not to tuck the napkin in his collar, and how to place it beside the plate when the meal was finished. If he burped they wouldn't have noticed, because he hid it behind his napkin. He was able to comment knowledgeably on the wines served with each course. My man was brilliant, and as the meal progressed I could see that, for the first time in my life, my chosen man had met with their approval.

"Rachel tells us that you two are engaged to be married, is this correct?"

"Yes Sir, it is."

"We would have appreciated some prior notice of this. Convention has it that you should have first sought my approval." He was attempting to sound miffed, but his new-found respect for my chosen man prevented that.

"We have not publicly acknowledged our engaged status, just my family and a couple of Rachel's friends. We thought that you should be the ones to make the formal announcements." I love his ability to deflect the not so veiled criticism.

"I understand that you have a couple of children, how have they taken this news?"

"They are happy, very happy. Ryan and Rhianna have both shown that they love Rachel, Rhianna even calls her Mummy."

"That must have been a relief for the both of you."

"It was never a problem. They loved Rachel from the very first time that they met, and we have kept them informed of our plans at all times. Rhianna wants to be the flower girl at our wedding."

The third degree over, the conversation became less formal, Patrick was accepted as suitable husband material. I don't now know why I was afraid of him meeting them.

The evening ended on a positive note. Mother made arrangements for us to get together in a week or two to work out the engagement notices and party, and to make a start on the wedding arrangements. By the look of it she had decided that she would take full control of the arrangements an the wedding will be a high society event, and covered by both the tabloid press and the gossip mags. I'm glad that they are footing the bill, because, I doubted if Patrick and his family could rake up enough cash for it.

Ryan and Rhianna were still awake when we got home. They had managed to convince Mum, Rosie's mother, who was baby-sitting for us, to let them stay up until we got home.

"Well, how did it go?" She asked.

"My wonderful man knocked them dead. They had set the usual traps for him, but he managed to avoid every one of them. They actually love him and want to bung on a humongous wedding for us."

"Did you ever doubt that he'd win them over?"

"I never doubted his ability, But I was unsure how far they would take this. They went further than previously, but he was equal to the task."

"I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Patrick asked.

"I have found out that Peter was not innocent of the rumours going around that he was exchanging sex for grades. The evidence that has been broadcast on social media is conclusive. I have instructed my Lawyer to file for divorce. I'm probably doing him a favour, because it will give him the opportunity to apply for a tenured position at a US University."

"What will you do?"

"By the time that I have finished with him I will have the house, and an income that will allow me to live quite comfortably. Don't worry about me, at first I was devastated, then I was angry at his betrayal of me and our marriage, then I thought, fuck you mate, I'm going to make the most of this opportunity."

"Good for you." Patrick said.

After she had left to go home, and the kids were in bed, we found ourselves in our nice warm, cosy bed. My nice warm cosy man in my arms, and my pussy, his lips on mine. He whispered something to me that I couldn't make out. "What did you say?" I whispered back at him.

"I love you. And what I was about to say was that I love everything about you, I even love your family. After what has happened to both of us, we can now put all the bad stuff behind us and look forward to our lives together."

Our old lives have ended, and this is truly a new beginning.