Chapter 15: A New Job

Mary left him to it and went to check on her horses.

They had forgotten to put them in their stalls the night before. She did so now and grabbed the little ride-on shovel she used for cleaning up and ran it over the floor. She dumped the contents in a pile beside the compost bins and laid fresh straw.

She checked on the pigs and fed them. She collected the eggs and fed the chooks too. She went inside made fresh coffee and buttered some toasted fruit loaf for a snack. When she sat down, Marty grinned at her.

“Do you think Mary May would like to retire overseas?” he asked.

“Why?”

“Well, you can leave as Mary May and come back as Mary Connors. If we go to England or somewhere in Europe and we do need to go to Austria it won’t be so far,” he said looking at her.

She quirked an eyebrow. “How? And for that matter why Connors?” she asked.

“Well, with this passport if we get married, we can get an Austrian Embassy to issue you with a new one in your married name in a couple of days. When we get back, you can apply for Australian citizenship.”

“Your parents are listed as being born here on the passport. As long as you have the passport their birth certificates and the marriage certificate, the fact you don’t have a birth certificate is moot.”

“Well if I were to disappear, London would be a good choice. The only problem is that my parents were born over a hundred years ago, sweetie,” she said.

“Shit,” he swore. He tapped the table, thinking. He typed in a search and muttered a bit. He then picked up his phone and made a call.

“Hey, Harry, its Marty how are they hanging?”

“Yeah, mate, I’m great, but I have a problem.”

“Yeah, I know I only call when I do,” he said and laughed.

“My fiancée is in a bit of a pickle. She is of Australian parents but was born overseas and didn’t live here for most of her life. She has a passport but can’t get access to hers or their birth certificates to apply for citizenship.”

“A-huh.”

“Can they do that in London if we get married there or do, we need to go to Austria where she was born?”

“A-huh.”

“Thanks, mate. Yeah, you’re going to love her; that’s why I’m marrying her before she meets you,” he said and smiled at the look Mary sent him.

“It might be a couple of months before we can catch up. I’ll ring when we’re back in the country. Thanks again Harry,” he said, finalising the call and hanging up with a satisfied look on his face. “Okay, that bit is sorted,” he said.

“Pardon?” Mary asked in surprise.

“We’ll get the Austrian Embassy to sort out your Australian citizenship when we get married,” he informed her.

“Who said we are getting married?” she asked.

Marty held up his middle finger and wiggled it, so she looked at the ring on it. “Done and dusted my love, we just need the paperwork.”

Mary cracked up. She decided that he was correct. As far as the rings were concerned, they were a bonded couple, and they just needed the paperwork to make it official for the bureaucracy. She still found it a little scary having a partner.

She had been alone and independent for so long. She was used to not relying on or even considering another when she made decisions. She was used to past lovers, leaving her because she couldn’t love them or give them what they needed. Now she didn’t have a choice.

Marty had no idea how scared Mary was of the changes that were to come. It was easy for him to forget how long she had lived and had to rely on herself because of how she looked. He truly didn’t understand why she had never been married or why she preferred to live alone rather than risk heartache.

She felt that the rings had extracted the price of her independence from her.

“Okay, now for the properties, I need to know how you set up your Company,” Marty asked her happily.

Mary could see no harm telling him. If he did marry her as it seemed he wanted to, he would have to know eventually. She prayed the rings had picked true this time and that he could be happy with her, and she with him in the long term.

She really liked this bloke and his youthful enthusiasm, not to mention the awesome sex. Was that going to be enough for them to forge a life together? She didn’t know. However, she would have to try to make it work. She was stuck with him now and had to make the best of it if she was to have some happiness.

Marty listened attentively as Mary explained what she had done. He asked a lot of questions as he took some notes. Mary logged him into her server and gave him access to selected files. She left him for a bit so he could read while she did some other chores and started the dinner preparations. Her mind was still in turmoil.

Marty read through a multitude of files and got a good picture of what she had done. She had done an excellent job setting up the company. He had to think of how best to help Mary, and then he smiled.

“As your lawyer, I just need to you to sign me onto the company’s books, and I can get the properties titles transferred. It should only take a week or two to finalise as it’s not a sale and you own both the company and the land,” he told her.

“Isn’t that a conflict of interest on your part?” she asked.

He frowned and then picked up the phone and selected a number from his contacts list. “Hi, Lyall, it’s Martin. I hate to do this to you, but I have to quit.”

“Yeah, I know its short notice.”

“Sorry, I’ve been made a better offer, and I want to take the job.”

“I’m on holidays anyway so consider it my severance time if it’s a problem. You’re not going to get Mary’s land anyway so I wouldn’t bother pursuing it if I were you.”

“I see. Well, that is up to you Lyall if you wish to do it that way. I’ll drop the folder into the mail as soon as I can get to town.”

“Mate, I’ll delete your files except for the ones I need to keep for legal reasons, but in case you don’t remember it’s my personal laptop. So no, you can’t have it back since you didn’t give it to me in the first place.”