Freeing Kirsty Ch. 04

Oh dear!

They were still a few miles away from his mother's townhouse when he pulled over and parked.

"What's up?" asked Kirsty, coming out of her troubled thoughts.

"We don't have to go through with this, you know. I could phone mum and say you're gone down with a cold or something."

Kirsty looked shocked.

"Are you losing your nerve?"

The flush speeding on to her partner's face gave her the answer before the slow arriving quasi-denial sounded. "I'm only trying to do what's best for you."

"Drive on," commanded Kirsty, "but talk to me and try to make me laugh. It has been so lonely sitting here in the quiet while you are darkly brooding."

"Darkly brooding?" he queried, thinking it should be brooding darkly.

"Yes, darkly brooding in the fashion typical of a man with women trouble."

"Women trouble?"

"Must you repeat every second phrase I utter?"

"Are we having a row?"

"Would you like to have one? That would just be dandy, wouldn't it, arriving at your mother's home all flushed and bad-tempered and provoking her to rub her hands with glee? I can just see her now, writing up a note on her fridge door and saying, 'That's one-nil to me',"

Merrick looked horrified, and swept a hand nervously through his carefully brushed tan and blond-streaked hair as Kirsty had attempted to describe its color the first time they had been in bed together. Clearly he was at fault: Kirsty had felt the trauma of the occasion seizing her and instead of dragging her out of the hole she was in, he'd pitched in and was digging it deeper for her.

"Merrick you clown," he groaned aloud.

"Possible an apt description," smiled Kirsty, "but you could try to become ringmaster. Just don't allow your mother to dominate and we shall be fine. She may have a shred of sympathy for me."

Merrick asked how did she figure that out?

"She will have memories of being presented to her own prospective mother-in-law."

"Wow, an excellent though. Right, let's go. We are now late, which will mean we have her on the back foot."

Linda Jamieson answered the front door and Merrick's jaw hung dumbly when he saw his mother. A blonde wig now covered her thinning, ratty grey hair and the hand that dropped on to his shoulder as she turned a cheek to be kissed had fingertips sheathed in iridescent blue-tipped false talons.

That was only the start. Linda had regained a definite bustline again, she was wearing a natty white jacket and matching skirt with black trimming and the flatties had made way for high-heeled shoes.

"You look lovely, mum."

"Thank you, dear. The man I was living with on the coast encouraged me to get a makeover."

"Living with?" Merrick gulped. His mother was back into having sex. Good heavens, she was sixty-one.

"Mind your own business," she responded, with a motherly snap. "Well, do I have to introduce myself?"

"Er, no mum. Mum, I mean Linda Jamieson, I have great pleasure in introducing you to my fiancée, Kirsty Fallon."

"Hullo, Kirsty. Call me Linda, my dear. You look beautiful. Come, we'll go out on to the deck while my over-wrought child goes to the fridge and pours some sparking wine for us, or are you addicted to coffee?

"No, sparking wine will be a lovely treat, Linda."

"What a well-mannered woman you are. That pleases me greatly, my dear."

Merrick poured the bubbly, wondering if was dreaming all of this. Or had his mother was overdosed on her medication? He shook his head, not only was his mother back into having sex again, but she'd spoken about it openly in front of Kirsty, a complete stranger.

Dropping a flute he lunged and made a one-handed catch inches from the floor. Then he popped the bottle closure too fast and a spray of wine froth went over the kitchen cupboards and on to the jam and cream sponge. I need medication, he thought. Mum is right, I'm over-wrought.

"The wine will have qualified for vintage classification if we have to wait any longer for it," came the confident call of a mother in control from the front deck.

"This is a view to die for," gushed Kirsty, looking across rooftops to the sparkling blue waters of the harbor and to the Hauraki Gulf beyond, taking in the myriads of sailboats, the majestic blueish-tinged Rangitoto – a dormant volcano – and to the outer islands.

"When I bought this place last year I did not have the thought in mind," Linda said dryly.

My God, mother-in-law has a humor, thought Kirsty. Merrick made no mention of that. She laughed and Linda laughed with her, pleased that her prospective daughter-in-law appreciated oblique humor.

Merrick arrived with three flutes on a tray and placed them on the table without spillage, not helped by Kirsty encouragingly rubbing a shoe against his trouser leg.

"Now my dear, a piece of cream cake or dry low-cal biscuits?"

Kirsty's brain ordered dry biscuits but her body screamed for the cream cake. As the cream cake had obviously would have been made to impress her, she asked for cream cake.

"Very good, you need fattening up," said Linda, appalling Kirsty whose main pride in life was exhibiting a super-trim body on which she toiled and denied herself to retain its slimness and to nurture.

"Two 2-inch slices and cake forks for us if you please, Merrick. You may cut the usual greedy thick slice for yourself."

Seconds later he arrived back with the slices he'd already cut - two and a half inch slices for the women and a six inch slice for himself.

"Don't stuff all of that into your mouth at once," Linda said to Merrick, making no comment on the speedy service.

"Now Kirsty, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. My son already has had one failed marriage and failed to retain possession of his two children. So are you capable of assuring me that you can make a better success of the marriage than did your predecessor?"

"We'll have to wait and see, won't we?" Kirsty replied, raising her flute and saying, "Cheers".

Linda did not look at all cheerful at that moment, but replied to the toast and did Merrick whose face now glowed with pride.

Watching a seagull soar over the rooftop for a moment, Linda looked at Kirsty again. "That actually does not answer my question. Of course none of us can predict the future; it is intent and commitment to the task that I am talking about. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yes, of course. You are entitled to express a motherly concern and I have no problem with that. At the same time if I chose not to reply to any question in the manner expected, you are faced with having to accept that."

Like a tennis umpire, Merrick's glance went back to his mother. The smile had gone, the corners of her mouth had tightened. He felt certain that she was being outplayed, and that she knew it but would not give up just yet. This was enjoyable!

"So, I am to be treated as an outsider, am I?"

"No, not at all. It is my hope that you will adopt me completely as your own daughter by marriage. I wish for that to happen."

"But you are confusing me. You want total acceptance but without giving yourself completely?"

Kirsty gave an exaggerated sigh and smiled warmly at Linda.

"My attitude here is simple - my personal attitudes to my imminent marriage are just that, my very personal attitudes that I shall share only with my beloved. I daresay many things in the lead up to your own marriage and after it were never discussed with other people, your own parents and your in-laws in particular."

"Well yes, I shall have to concede that," Linda said with a heavy frown. "But as I have explained, Merrick has had a failed marriage and I have no desire for us to face a second failure."

Kirsty looked across the sea to the graceful shape of Rangitoto which collecting her thoughts. "Linda, it is good that we are having this discussion but please understand that the days of seeking parental approval are gone. Merrick and I are also mature adults, totally capable of making our own decisions. It is up to Merrick to decide whether I am suitable to partner him in marriage and he's made that choice unequivocally in that he's not asked me for concessions, assurances or to make changes within myself nor have I from him. As the risk of possibly shocking you, I must say it is not important that our marriage lasts a lifetime. What is important to me right now is that we do marry and do so optimistically and being very much in love. It is then over to fate and our individual manipulations to how we progress and endure together beyond our wedding day. Although Merrick and I have not spoken about this, I feel we both are in tune with this philosophy."

"That is correct, absolutely correct," Merrick said, earning a glare from his mother.

"But what about the spirituality and sanctity of marriage and the expectations of loved ones around you?"

"What about them, Linda? I see them simply as a framework some people prefer to have erected around them. Both Merrick and I only have very basic religious beliefs so the human-inspired rituals and protocols have no relevance to us. We have discussed this at length and are agreed."

"So, why get married?"

"Now that is a question that I can answer, but only from my point of view, Linda. "I love Merrick and wish to commit to him legally through marriage as that does provide mutual benefits to us and to children if were are to have them. But above all I see the simple ceremony of marriage before family and friends of our desire to be welded together in partnership in the most public and glorious way possible. It will, however, be an emotional and ceremonial bonding of us, not a religious bonding, although both of us believe there is a spiritual basis to our very being. That's all I really wish to say. If you desire more discussion, direct your questions to Merrick."

"Well, that's very direct."

"I am that kind of person, Linda. Please don't interpret it as rudeness and I accept your right to act as a concerned mother even though your son is thirty-five years' of age."

"Well, that's putting me in my place. I guess I must accept it. I expect there are some rough times ahead of you and me Kirsty."

"Only if we fail in our skills in communication, Linda, or any differences are actually irreconcilable."

"Quite. Well that ends the nitty-gritty session. I do not expect to hear anything from Merrick that I don't already know. He used words to describe how he loved you after his time with you in New York. I accepted what he told me about how he felt and what you were like and the influence you had on him. But it was that hound-dog look on his face whenever I saw him after his return from New York until your arrival four weeks later that convinced me that he loved you."

"Aw, how sweet," said Kirsty, jumping up and kissing Merrick on the forehead.

"Fetch another bottle, please Merrick," requested his mother. When he'd left them Linda told Kirsty that she now accepted her fully as her daughter. "Don't worry about that first marriage, my dear. The real fault lay with her; I never really liked the woman."

Merrick came out with another bottle of sparkling wine to find the women locked in a hug. He beamed, wrenched the cork out of the bottle and was horrified to see it spray over his mother and Kirsty. They broke apart giggle and began dabbling each other with their handkerchiefs.

Leaving Milford and a happily waving Linda behind them as they drove off, Merrick said innocently, "There, I was perfectly correct, wasn't I, in saying that in meeting mother for the first time you had nothing to worry about?"

"Yes, quite so, Merrick. I must thank you for the excellent manner in which you defused a potentially eruptive confrontation."

They looked at each other with love, and laughed.

"I'm taking you down through Devonport to park on Mt Victoria to see the spectacular city-harbor-gulf views and then, if you are still talking to me, we shall trundle down to the village for lunch. There are some great restaurants down there. But first I want to discuss something with you on Mt Victoria."

After they returned to the vehicle after Merrick had pointed out landmarks to his American fiancée, he told her about how Bella had re-established contact with him and had expressed the wish to one day return to live with him.

Anxiously watching Kirsty's face he waited for her reply.

"Nothing would please me more than to be the mother of an instant teenager. My only concern is will she accept me?"

"Oh darling, will she what! She's very much like me, she will adore you."

"Well, if that does occur in a few years hence we might already have a baby or two."

"Yes, I guess we have the instinct and intelligence to know how to handle that. I have kept the emails from her which I will give you to read when we get home. But there is one more thing - I suspect when Bella meets you in Los Angeles at the wedding she'll want to come back home with you and live with us immediately."

"Oh Merrick, that would be lovely. I really would like that to happen."

"In all probability it will involve a legal wrangle."

"Then let's get the best possible consul to represent us."

"We still may lose."

Kirsty smiled faintly. "I can't see that happening - the Courts today have become more sympathetic to the views of children capable of making sound judgments."

"Quite. Finally, what if the other side scrapes up dirt on either you or me? That could be embarrassing."

Color drained from Kirsty's face, "You mean my time with Spiro if they could prove he had criminal connections?"

"Exactly although such information is unlikely to be anything more than hearsay. Even so, that type of muckraking could influence a Court if this matter goes that far."

Kirsty brushed aside tears. "I want Bella to be with us if that's what she wants, Merrick. To achieve that I'll go through anything; it is also absolutely necessary to have Spiro at the wedding as that will establish we enjoy normal relationships with my ex lover. We also can hit back by dragging up dirt on Kate."

"Good girl, that's the spirit. In fact we should challenge Kate's suitability as a mother at the opening legal discussions, but our counsel will determine tactics. However, the best way is to avoid any legal confrontation."

"Your attitude on this makes me ever so happy. Thank you, thank you."

Kirsty reached across and stroked his neck: "Bella will deserve to live in a household like ours. What about you son Giles?"

"It is unlikely that he would choose to uproot - he always has been very close to Kate."

At the restaurant where they took an outside table under a huge umbrella, both ordering rock oysters to be followed by a dish of assorted grilled fish, Kirsty raised the question of Bella again.

"Have you told Bella much about me?"

"No, just that you are beautiful, have a wonderful brain and personality and we both want to get married. That's all."

"Well, that's not much. Does Kate get to read the emails?"

"No, I send emails to Bella's best friend. Brian suggested that."

"That's good of Brian to do that when Kate is his sister."

"There's not much love between them."

Washing half an oyster down with a dry white, Kirsty said that she would like Merrick to tell Bella more about her. "Tell her that we are living together and planning excitedly about the wedding and that you don't really have a clue about my wedding dress. Tell her that I am a young twenty-five year old who wears very interesting clothes and perhaps attach a photo of me. I want her to become curious, and wanting to know the answers to some of those matters you leave up in the air. I suspect she will email a request for me to start corresponding with her. I want that to happen very much, but she must initiate it - please understand that."

"I do," said Merrick, reading the label on the wine bottle. "You think exactly as I do on that score. I'll email my first mildly provocative message tonight. Poor thing, she won't be able to resist wanting to know about the wedding dress. I feel a bit of a heel being so sneaky."

"Is there another way?"

"No, the gently, gently lead-in that you have suggested seems absolutely the correct way. You do have the devious mind of a good journalist."

Merrick ducked as half an oyster shell shot passed his ear.

Two mornings later Merrick, clad only in underpants, called Kirsty to the computer.

Dressed only in a shirt-gown, she sat provocatively on his knee.

"Look at this."

It was an email from Bella. One sentence jumped right out at Kirsty and she screamed excitedly: 'Please ask Kirsty to email me details about her wedding dress'.

The scream coming on top of the bare skin against his thighs brought the end of Merrick's intention to have an early start on planning their South Island trip to Queenstown to do a six-page feature for an international magazine specializing in featuring world-class resorts. He picked up Kirsty who asked innocently, "Are you taking me somewhere?"

"Yes little Red Riding Hood, I'm taking you to beddy-bed," said Merrick, baring his teeth.

"Help! Help!" were the muffled cries of Kirsty as she sunk her teeth around his right nipple.

The small engagement party at Orewa on Thursday night was a lovely event. Brian had driven into the city to fetch Merrick's mother. Kirsty and Merrick would be arriving from the opposite direction as they had been up at Paihia in the Bay of Islands working on a magazine feature for the launching of a new fashion designer's label. Brian was aware that his parents would only have to make a minor diversion to pick up Merrick's mother but he thought that it was quite likely that the two women – who'd never met – would lived in different worlds and that his mother would only be too happy to make their passenger very aware of that.

It was a typical Kiwi engagement party: the women admiring the ring and asked about wedding details, being astonished that Kirsty hadn't really thought about her wedding dress, hadn't any idea how many children she wanted, where they would honeymoon or whether she would carry on working. The men were far less demanding in wanting information; their combined although unspoken sole objective was to get Merrick drunk.

On Sunday two hours after midnight, Brian was in the bar of a club pumping drinks into himself, Merrick, Kirsty, his parents and his brother Stan in celebration of his daughter, born less than three hours earlier with mother and daughter doing fine. That sex of the baby surprised Merrick because Marg had told him it would be a son but would not be named Trevor, the name he'd suggested to antagonize her as in New Zealand it held the image of an idiot in gumboots acting the fool thanks to a TV series screened years ago that had gone down very big. "Marg wouldn't have a scan," Brian declared, shaking his head. "She wanted to be surprised. Well, we certainly were surprised as both of us had become certain it would be a boy. We really hadn't agreed on a final name for a girl, it being a toss up between Pearl, Megan and...and, oh some other dumb name which I forget. Here, let's get another couple of bottles."

With his jacket off, tie undone and an unlit cigar in his mouth – Dr Brian Raymond was an avid opponent to smoking – and very unruly hair, he projected the classic image of a happy new father. Merrick, who'd captured the very new arrival in the arms of her mother on camera, also photographed the beaming, sloppy-looking father weaving back to the table at the club carrying two bottles of wine.

"I think you should call that sweet little grandchild of mine, Jennifer," suggested Brian's mother.

"Claire would be nice," said his father.

"I rather like Megan," offered Kirsty.

"Alice after my first girl-friend at primary school," said Stan, with a dreamy expression.

Brian and the others looked at Merrick, who shrugged.