Seeing the perfect opening for what he wanted to say, Vere leaned back in the sagging chair to gaze at the scene so starkly different from home.
‘My grandfather is a great man, a general with so many medals he can scarcely fit them on his chest. My father was a brave officer killed by the enemy in a bloody battle. My elder brother is known as a famous hero. The younger one is certain one day to exceed his gallantry.’ He smiled at Simon’s rapt expression. ‘You could say I am like Kimber. Because I love to sketch and paint, I am different from the others. I once believed I should try to be like them, but if one is a wonderful tawny colour it is impossible suddenly to become black. One has to decide whether it is better to be like the others, not as happy but universally accepted, or to remain tawny and special.’
‘And have you yet decided?’ Kitty asked softly from the doorway.
Vere turned, wondering in dismay how long she had been listening, then got to his feet to take from her the tray bearing tea and little scones. He avoided a reply, but he had forgotten how persistent children could be.
‘Yes, have you, sir?’ demanded Simon, eager to bring the curious conversation to a satisfactory conclusion.
Avoiding Kitty’s eyes Vere said, ‘I’ll tell you my decision when you have made yours, Simon.’
They sat together in the shade looking out over a garden filled with gold, pink and cream rioting shrubs which contrasted in striking fashion with the awesome environs. They were a contented group — a man and a woman, a boy with his beloved dog. As the sun rose higher to intensify the colours of the blossoms around them, Vere slowly became aware that his attempt to help Simon had somehow cleared his own confusion. Two certainties had become linked in his mind: his love for Kitty, and the fact that he would inherit a thriving estate with a considerable fortune before too long. He was experienced enough to sense that the woman he planned to make his wife was gradually capitulating to something she had initially resisted. If this present contentment and peace were transferred to Knightshill he would surely demand nothing more from life.
There might be times when a trick of light turned ripe waving wheat into rippling sands, when the cawing of crows reminded him of a Dervish war cry; when the ring of a hunting horn on a crisp, clear morning would wing him, in imagination, to this country and a tented camp spread before the river Tugela; or when the assured voices of scarlet-jacketed men gathered in a room hung with portraits of Ashleigh ancestors would kindle a momentary spark within him. But a man without vivid memories was only half alive. They had been the missing elements in the Vere of two years ago, when he had believed the shallow Annabel capable of fulfilling his future in the home he loved.
With Kitty as his wife, Knightshill would provide an entirely different challenge. Simon reminded him very much of young Timothy. It would delight Vere to show him the green Wiltshire landscape and introduce him to the world of literature and art. He was an intelligent lad who would prove an apt pupil.
Vere recalled once telling a disapproving Annabel he would fill his home with artists, musicians and writers to chase away the warrior shades presently filling it. He had vowed to cease holding the annual Khartoum Dinner and the Waterloo Ball. The evening designed to honour Vorne as a hero would definitely have to be discontinued, but he no longer wished to remove reminders of his illustrious ancestry. He would create an exciting life for Kitty in which her new home would welcome friends of any profession or inclination. Knightshill would stretch its walls to embrace not only soldiers but men of learning, women of wit and beauty, artists, statesmen, financiers, actors and anyone with a tale to tell. None would arrive as a stranger and depart as such. He wanted the whole world to know and appreciate his wife … and he wanted to be constantly beside her on Knightshill’s many acres.
When evening came that day, and they followed the usual routine of dining together then retiring to the parlour where Kitty played the piano while he sipped port, Vere resolved to advance the situation. The dinners à deux, and the intimacy that followed, aroused desire he was finding more and more difficult to deny. Such evenings with Floria had led to passion. Kitty was no courtesan, but he was certain she also found their present relationship a strain. They were parting at a later hour every night and, while he gazed for a long while from his window at the moon-washed railway track, he often heard her moving restlessly about the room.
Desire for her was heightened tonight by his decision to speak his mind. She looked particularly lovely in a gown of black and silver figured satin, enlivened by an unusual silver necklet bearing a spray of diamonds on the right side. These tiny jewels lay against her skin in a fashion Vere found surprisingly erotic — a touch of temptation from a woman of dignity. Had William Munroe given her the necklet? Strong resentment rose in him of a man who had possessed then deserted her, but she claimed to have no more loved her husband than he had her. The piece of jewellery was so individual it must surely have been presented by someone who cared for her deeply. Her stepfather, who had honoured his promise to provide a wonderful new life in South Africa? A secret admirer?
When Kitty closed the lid over the keys and rose to pour herself a glass of water from the carafe, Vere said, ‘I’ve seldom seen so intriguing a necklet. The designer must be a man of great imagination.’
Her face was in a shadow as she came across to a nearby chair and sat down. ‘During the boom years men from all over the world came to Kimberley. In tiny premises along the muddy street, diamonds were polished and set in all manner of articles in the bid to become rich. Travellers brought in tortoiseshell combs and brushes, trinket boxes, picture frames, screens, purses and silk shoes. All these were adorned with the smaller stones then sent down on trains to merchants who shipped them out. It was possible to have the diamonds from your own claim fashioned into anything you fancied by young aspiring jewellers, silver or goldsmiths. You should have seen Kimberley in those days.’
‘Do you regret their parting?’ he asked.
‘How could I when for every success there was a tragedy? Kimberley was becoming civilized when I left and must have grown more so in the intervening years. My brother’s letters describe great changes.’
‘You have never considered going back?’
‘No.’
Her negative sounded surprisingly final. Vere realized that she had avoided further discussion of her necklet and was slightly piqued. ‘Let’s hope the siege will be lifted before shelling destroys much of what has been achieved.’
‘I have not heard from Gerald since the investment started so I have no news of his situation. I imagine only vital communications are now allowed to be sent from the city.’
He took up that point swiftly. ‘I wrote to you from Frere. As you have never thanked me for my letter, I suppose it is still on its way. When it arrives you will find my news out of date, but there is a sketch for Simon of the regimental goat in full regalia. I was then unaware of how very much it would please him.’
‘You know exactly how to do that, Vere.’ Her eyes darkened with feeling. ‘I must thank you for what you attempted to tell him this morning. I’m sure he was impressed by the parallel with Kimber. You are very good with children.’
‘I like them, and Simon reminds me so much of my nephew Tim.’
‘They have been reared in vastly different circumstances.’
Vere disagreed. ‘Not so different. Tim had few friends because his zealous father discouraged them, and he was denied the advantage of going to school where he would have mixed with other boys. He had a sister and a large loving family, of course, but I believe he suffered the same feeling of isolation Simon knows because his father became obsessed with a cause and metaphorically deserted him. Luckily, his step-father loves him and understands his needs. He’s now attending a splendid school in South America. After that, it will be Oxford and a commission in the family regiment.’ He smiled in recollection. ‘He always claimed to be an Ashleigh in all but name.’
When there was no response from he
r he realized she had grown still and tense. ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked quietly.
‘You told Simon this morning of a grandfather who is a famous general, and brothers who are surely no ordinary men. Now you speak of a nephew following a tradition which suggests that the Ashleighs are a family of some consequence. Don’t you think it’s time you told me who you really are?’
It was a setback. He had intended to enlighten her when he believed the moment to be right, but she had overheard too much this morning. He had no option but to answer frankly. ‘I am merely the man you have come to know during these wonderful, peaceful days.’
‘Go on!’ she demanded stonily.
‘I am the second grandson of General Sir Gilliard Ashleigh, owner of Knightshill which stands on a large estate in Wiltshire. The family has a record of distinguished military service dating back to the formation of the West Wiltshire Regiment in the sixteenth century. I am the first male Ashleigh to break with tradition, and my grandfather has vowed that he will never forgive me for becoming what he terms “an effeminate wielder of brushes”.’
There was passion now in Kitty’s voice. ‘Is that why you once tried to become the perfect warrior, why you rashly risked your life to help to bring in an ammunition wagon at Colenso?’
He sighed. ‘Possibly.’
‘Does his approval mean so much to you?’
‘It did … until I met you and realized nothing else in the world mattered.’
She rose abruptly then, her eyes blazing. ‘You must be in the grip of some madness if you believe that. I am a diamond-fields woman who is scarcely accepted by the simple burghers of this settlement. Your fellow-travellers were far more perceptive than you. They saw no cameo, but a supplier of food and beds. That is all I am, Vere. You should never have come back. Why, in God’s name, did you?’
Vere got to his feet all control lost. ‘You know damn well why! You’ve known it since our first meeting but won’t acknowledge it.’
He kissed her with force, subduing her initial resistance until she was responding in a manner that overwhelmed him. Beneath her dignity, Kitty Munroe was a true woman of this country — exciting, challenging and wild. As their passion mounted, something which might not have happened elsewhere became inevitable in a small inn lost in the heart of a vast untamed land. He picked her up and mounted the stairs. Moonlight flooded her bedroom, making the gradual baring of her supple body even more sensual. His fingers shook with emotion as they pulled the pins from her hair to set it cascading in a mass of dark red curls over her shoulders.
For a woman who claimed never to have loved her husband, Kitty was remarkably familiar with sexual desire in its most erotic form. She was graceful and feminine, yet there was an element of boldness in all she did which made her more pleasurably sensual even than Floria Pallini. Perhaps the unconventionality of her background allowed her more freedom of expression. Vere was totally captivated by it.
Moonshine was blending with dawning daylight when they finally lay spent. After a while Kitty led Vere to an adjoining bathroom where a large tub of water stood beside a contraption which substituted for a shower. They stood with bodies touching while Vere worked the handle to pump water to a perforated tin above their heads. He found the whole business erotic rather than cooling, so it took longer than it should have done.
They eventually sat by her window to watch the sun come up from behind a flat-topped hill and gild the blooms on the shrubs so that their colours became intensely vivid. This natural spectacle, the stillness, and the pure immensity of what he saw moved Vere to describe the depth of his present joy.
‘As a child I was constantly ailing. I believe I cheated death on several occasions, and was not expected to survive to manhood. Until I was twenty-five I lived with the belief that each succeeding year might be my last. It took a desert to prove everybody wrong.’ He touched her swollen lips with his fingertips and looked deep into her glowing eyes. ‘If I should die tomorrow, I still would have had more than any man deserves.’
She seized his fingers and kissed them fiercely. ‘You deserve far more. I’ve come across all kinds of men, witnessed their every mood, but if I should die tomorrow your face would be the only one I saw as my eyes closed.’
Vere brushed her bare shoulder with his lips. ‘Neither of us will do anything tomorrow, my darling, other than to arrange to become man and wife.’
She drew away from him, her expression sobering. ‘That’s not possible, Vere. Marriages are conducted by a regional minister who comes to Vrymanskop every three months. He is due here again in six weeks, perhaps not even then because of the war.’
‘Then we’ll go to Durban. I know a delightful hotel where you and Simon can stay while I sort out the formalities.’
She put her hand on his bare arm and shook her head. ‘One has to have a permit from the army in order to get a seat on a train. Even Daniel Farren from Millbrook’s has been unsuccessful in obtaining authorization to go down the line on urgent business. Trade has come to a standstill since you were last here.’
He sighed with frustration. ‘I shall have to leave on the next available train, in that case. Neither of us will be content now this has happened and I can’t allow it to continue until I have arranged to make you my wife. One of the army chaplains would agree to officiate at a marriage in the midst of so many funerals. It would then be easy for me to get permits for you and Simon to travel up to join me.’
She stood, pushing back her heavy hair with the hand wearing Munroe’s thin wedding band. ‘I think you should wait.’
‘Wait? Why wait?’ he demanded, also getting to his feet.
‘Because this country has bewitched you, my dear. You have mentioned the fact several times. When you stumbled in here two weeks ago, it was surely in response to an impulse resulting from that enchantment. No, allow me to finish,’ she begged, as he made to take her in his arms. ‘You are a man of culture and intellect from a country that has been civilized for centuries. South Africa, for you, is wild, spectacular and haunting. Those who live here see it as a challenge; an opportunity for wealth and power, or a last hope of survival. I see it as a trap.’
Sitting on the side of the bed she looked up at him frankly. ‘My stepfather tied me to a man I could never love, then died beneath tons of earth in a major landslide. Bill Munroe tied me to Vrymanskop by his desertion, then died by means unknown. I was fortunate to be left with this hotel, but it is in the lonely heart of a country you see as romantic, and Simon deserves the opportunities a city can offer a strong, healthy, intelligent boy.’
‘He also deserves a father,’ said Vere sitting beside her again.
She placed her fingers against his mouth to silence him. ‘The best I hoped to do for my son was to save enough to move down to Durban. I have put aside some money, but there is little profit to be made in a hotel like this and the war has now almost put an end to business.’ After a significant pause, she added, ‘Marriage to you while you are bemused enough to imagine it is what you dearly want, would open the door of my trap. That is why you should wait.’
Vere studied the face he had likened to a cameo and knew his first assessment had been right. It mirrored emotions without artifice. He put up a hand to stroke a fall of red curls made vivid by early sunlight, asking gently, ‘Are you asking me to believe that you set out to seduce me into offering you an escape, that what you did last night was prompted by no more than a wish to resolve your difficult situation?’
‘Perhaps it was,’ she whispered. ‘I have been alone too long, and you are so very different from the men who come here. On that first evening I sensed danger when you treated me as you doubtless treat the women of your own social class.’
He rose to that swiftly. ‘You are the granddaughter of Sir Ralph Brinley.’
‘A Brinley only by the blood in my veins. Kitty Munroe is a diamond-fields woman.’
He took her shoulders in an angry gesture. ‘Please stop using that expression! I will not a
ccept what you are trying to say, and I’ve yet to hear a valid reason for asking me to wait.’
‘Because you don’t wish to understand,’ she cried with matching anger. ‘You’re bewitched by me only because I am part of this land you see through the eyes of an artist. I’m drawn to you because I see the possible provider of all my grandparents denied me. You have lured me into looking through your rosy glass.’
Suddenly fearful, he held her close, saying against her temple, ‘If I am bewitched, it’s because I believed I would never find a woman who could succeed where a military uniform and a reputation for painting humanity failed. You’ve given me the answer to everything. You’ve shown me who I really am and what I want for my future.’ He kissed her fiercely. ‘I love you so deeply and I don’t believe for one moment that all you feel for me is a desire to escape your trap.’ He drew back, still holding her by the shoulders. ‘Now listen to me! I have to fulfil my contract with The Illustrated Magazine, so I’ll go back up the line on the next train. When Buller relieves Ladysmith I’ll arrange transport for you and Simon. One of our generals is a friend of my grandfather so there will be no difficulty. We’ll be married in Ladysmith. I’ll hire a house there for us which I’ll use as my base until the war ends. Then we’ll sail for England and look at life through a rosy glass until the end of our days. Is that clear?’ There was a hint of tears in her eyes as she said in smiling protest, ‘I fell in love with a peaceful man of gentle nature, not a domineering firebrand.’
His kiss was more tender this time. ‘Say you’ll marry me in Ladysmith and I’ll become anything you want me to be.’
*
The fat burgher told Vere that a train was due to pass through heading for Frere at eleven the following morning. As they were invariably heavily laden, and there was a long curve in the track leading from the Vrymanskop halt, trains travelled slowly enough to enable an unauthorized passenger to jump aboard. The time passed too quickly for Vere, who was loath to leave his love in the trap she felt she was in. They spent the night in each other’s arms again, but he carefully avoided speaking of Knightshill and his plans for their future. During breakfast Vere told Simon that he planned to marry Kitty as soon as Ladysmith was relieved, and would be sending for them both very soon. The boy flushed with undeniable delight but said only that he could not leave without Kimber.
A Distant Hero Page 17