Public Property (16 page)

‘
Oh God, I nearly didn’t see it at all! There’s a tiny boat moored at the edge of the bank
.
I
t’s white so it
’s
a perfect contrast to the bridge
.’ The assistant’s excitement was evident.

‘
You got it
.
S
o
,
shoot away, I’ve bought plenty of film
,’
Freya
said. S
he stepped away from
Sasha
and took her mobile phone out of her handbag.

She pressed
a key
and put it to her ear.

‘
Hello
,’ Emma answered.

Her friend sounded more exhausted than the last time they had spoken.

‘
Hi
Em
, how you doing?
How’s
Melly
?
’ She sat down and made herself comfortable on the grass.

‘
Oh hi
,
Freya
.
S
he’s not very well today
.
S
he keeps
being sick.’

‘Oh no.
H
ave you seen the doctor?
’

‘Yes, he hasn’t long left.
H
e thinks she probably has a bug
,
but she can’t keep anything down
.
We’re
having
to make sure she at least has some water at regular intervals. The doctor
’
s coming back tonight to see how she is
.’

‘
Oh poor
Melly
and poor you
.’

‘
Ye
a
h, I’m exhausted and
Yiannis
has been up all night too
.’

‘
Well
,
I won’t keep you long and feel free to dive off and mop up puke if you need to. Nick and I have set a date for the wedding and I wanted you to be one of the first couple of thousand people to know
.’

The knowledge that Sandra McNeill knew the news before the best friend still sickened her.

‘
Oh,
Freya!
How exciting! When? And what do you mean one of the first couple of thousand?
’
Emma queried.

‘
Well
,
believe it or not
,
I told two people and Nick told his brother and somehow Sandra McNeill found out
.
A
t this moment
the witch is
broadcasting it to the entire world.
It’s the twenty second of December.’

‘Twenty second of December. Well, that gives you over a year.
T
hat
’s
plenty of time to plan
.’

‘
Yes, well it would if it were
twenty second of
December
next
year
.’

‘
What? Oh my God! You mean
it’s
next month?! Are you crazy? You can’t plan a wedding in that amount of time! We planned mine in less than seven months and it was touch and go whether the dress would be ready on time
,’ Emma reminded her.

‘
Well
,
we don’t want a big wedding
.
W
e just want something small and uncomplicated with just us and the people we care about
.’

‘
You mean you could afford the most lavish ceremony anyone could think of and you aren’t going to make the most of that?
’

‘
Em
!
All that pomp and extravagance just because I can afford it?!
You know that isn’t me
.’

‘
I know you detest wasting money but sometimes a little bit of luxury, particularly for your wedding day
,
isn’t greed
.’

‘
We’ve discussed it, neither of us
wants
that. I can’t imagine anything worse than saying my vows and being drowned out by Channel
Nine
trying to take photographs from a helicopter
.’

She could picture the scene. Sandra McNeill would be harnessed up and hanging out, a notepad in one hand, a voice recorder in the other.

‘
So
,
have you talked about where you might do it? Are you going to get married in church?
’

‘
I don’t know. Nick got married in church the first time and I don’t know why, but every time I walk into a church I get the feeling I
’
m going to start spurting ectoplasm or disintegrate if I get splashed by holy water
.’

‘
You survived
my
wedding
.’

‘
I did
.
B
ut if you remember
,
I did tell you I had a close encounter with the cross on the altar when I was fruitlessly s
earching for your flowers. No, I don’t think a church. Apparently,
‘
cause
we live in
Mayleaf
we can get married in the town square if we want to
.’ Freya turned her attention to
Sasha
, watching her take
the camera off the tripod and move closer to the water.

‘
And would you want to?
’
Emma asked.

‘
Well
,
it does have the advantage
of
the protection of the Town Circle
. That
works like
some
invisible
cyber
cordon keeping away anyone who has any connection with the media
.’

‘
And what are your other options?
’

‘
Well, Las Vegas if I fancy sharing our big day with a couple of thousand fruit machines and a couple of hundred
Elvis
es
. Or should that be
Elvi
? Is
that the plural?’

‘
Las Vegas.
At one of those tiny little chapels where you get married in seconds and could get divorced even quicker?
’

‘
What’s good enough for Britney
Spears
is good enough for me
.’

‘
Why don’t you get married here?
’
Emma suggested.

‘
In Corfu?
’

‘
W
hy not?
You met each other here.
You got back together here.
Nick proposed to you here
.
W
hy not get married here? It doesn’t have to be in the church
. Y
ou could probably get married at
Villa
Kamia
, right here where I’
m standing in the garden
.’

There was definite excitement in Emma’s voice.

‘How cold is it there right now? Are you expecting snow?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘It’s sounding appealing.’

‘
Well
,
I think it
’
s a great idea
and
I bet Nick would love it. I
mean
,
you could even stay on and have your honeymoon here. No extravagance because you have the villa already, as little media attention as you
’
re going to get and you get to meet
Melly
and see me and
Yiannis
again
.’

‘
God
,
that sound
s so
tempting
.’

‘
It
would be
perfect!
’

‘
Well let’s hold the thought and I
’
ll speak to Nick about it tonight
.’

She watched
Sasha
move down the bank, towards the river, then lost sight of her.

‘
What did
Nick
say about Jonny?
’
Emma wanted to know.

‘
Oh
,
well I haven’t really h
ad time to talk to him about it.
W
e went to the hospital today because it was the
first day the new scanning equipment was going to be used and
…’
Freya began.

‘
Freya
,
you
have
to tell him. You can’t have secrets from each other, particularly now, when you
’
re planning your marriage. He
’
ll be hurt if you don’t tell him and he finds out from someone like Sandra McNeill
.’

‘
I know, I
will
tell him. I’m going to tell him
. I’m going to tell him
tonight
.’

‘
What are you so worried about? What
d
’
you
think he
’
s going to say?
’

‘
I don’t know
.
I
t’s just stepping back into that past life again when I have
so
moved on
.
I don’t want it to upset things
.’

‘
Freya,
got to go
.
Melly’s
been sick again
.
I’ll call you later
.’

Freya
put her phone away and
stood up
. She rubbed her cold hands together
and went in search of
Sasha
.

She found her at the edge of the riverbank, the camera trained on the other side.

‘
No fishermen today. There are usually a couple of them fishing a little up river about this time
,’ Freya remarked.

‘
Oh
,
Freya, you startled me. I was so engrossed in what I was doing
.’ S
asha
turned around to face her.

‘
That’s
OK,
I get like that a lot
.
A
herd of cattle could come running by and I wouldn’t notice. So
, how did you get on?’

‘
Well
,
I’ve nearly finished the roll but I guess we won’t see the result until we get into the dark room
.’

‘
Right, well shall we take some pictures from on the bri
dge? You can just about see Riley’s Hill from there
,’
Freya said
.

She
pick
ed up a bag and le
d the way.

That evening Freya decided
they
were going to attempt
the
Mayleaf
Round Robin
. That
meant
having
something at all of
Mayleaf’s
eateries. Although
Mayleaf
was a small town it had a Chinese takeaway, a diner,
a
barbecue
restaurant, a hot dog stand near Sam and Jolie’s store and a pizza
parlour
.

‘
We really shouldn’t
even be considering this, Freya.
W
e had four courses at lunch time
,’
Nicholas reminded her as they walked towards the Chinese takeaway.

The temperature had dropped a good few degrees and the clear, star-filled sky was a sign of a frost to come. At the moment it was actually too cold for snow.

‘
I know
,
but I thought about this
.
I
decided if we have really small, tiny, little portions at each place it would probably be less filling than ordering
one
huge main course at
Casey’s,
’ Freya replied.