by Anne Hampson
‘You’ve never been in here before, have you?’ he asked.
She shook her head. The nearest she had been to his land was when she took the boat, which was tied up along the river which divided his land from her uncle’s. She had crossed a little wooden bridge and then untied the boat, the temptation to take it down the river being too great for her to resist. She had known the rapids were there, but she’d had no intention of going that far. She had not got very far at all when the swimmer had caught on to the side of the boat and got aboard. Chad had brought it back to where he had it moored, had gripped Beth’s blouse by its collar at the back of the neck and hauled her on to the bank. His homily had not hurt as much as the indignity of being brought out in that way, her feet scarcely touching anything firm until she was dumped unceremoniously on to the grassy bank of the river. To a girl of twelve, just emerging into that state where preserving her dignity was becoming more and more important, Chad’s treatment of her was mortifying to say the least. This, plus the dressing-down he gave her, was just too much.
She retaliated, forgetting all about preserving her dignity as she glared at him fiercely and called him all the names she could think of. He had done no more than sweep her up as if she were a doll, and the punishment was well and truly meted out to her. She had run back to Jacana Lodge weeping copious tears, exaggerating what Chad had done to her and then waited with satisfaction for her uncle to have it out with his neighbour. But a further indignity was to be hers; Uncle Jack boxed her ears in front of her two cousins and she was sent up to her room afterwards.
It was not easy to forget all that, and never again had she willingly come into Chad Barret’s company. But now she saw the impossibility of avoiding him, and she did begin to wonder if she ought to think seriously about the truce he had advised them to maintain. He was speaking, telling her to wander around and he would join her in a few minutes. He was going to get his houseboy to fetch some refreshments. She watched him stride away, a noble, arresting man even from the back view. His strides were long and rhythmically smooth. Grudgingly she admitted to his inordinate attractions, to his being superlative among men ... and to his possessing that particular kind of dominance and mastery that would appeal to ninety-nine women out of a hundred.
She, of course, was the hundredth.
CHAPTER THREE
Chad invited the three girls to go over to Mangwe Farm for a sundowner and to meet his niece.
‘I’ll expect you at about half past seven,’ he had said, having called on his way back from Warrensville where he had been having his car serviced. It was long and low, metallic green, a car as superlative as the man who drove it. Jo had fallen for it the moment she saw it.
‘Cor, what a beauty!’ she had exclaimed. ‘Too good for him, and that’s a fact!’
Carole had frowned at her cousin.
‘I can’t see why you two should dislike Chad,’ she said. ‘He’s charming to me, always has been.’
Jo had looked at her, the brown eyes flickering. ‘You look fragile and feminine and a little helpless. Chad likes to be the big he-man, so it’s natural that a girl like you will appeal to him, bringing out his finer qualities, as it were.’
‘Finer qualities?’ Beth had lifted an eyebrow sceptically at this. ‘Chad Barret hasn’t any finer qualities,’ she stated. .
‘You’re prejudiced, Beth, because of what he did to you.’ Carole’s eyes flickered oddly. ‘Some girls would have liked it,’ she added with an odd inflection.
‘Don’t be daft!’ interposed Jo swiftly. ‘Would you like it?’
There was a moment’s silence before Carole answered.
‘I don’t know I’ve often wondered what it
would be like to have an association with a he-man. They’re few and far between, remember.’
‘An association?’ frowned Beth, secretly scoffing at her cousin’s sentiments. A he-man indeed! Who on earth wants to be dictated to and domineered all one’s life?
‘Well, I suppose I meant marriage.’
‘You’d like to marry Chad?’
‘Er—no. I’ve got my Richard, haven’t I?’
‘That remains to be seen,’ warned Jo. ‘For myself,
I’m finding that a little coolness has crept into David’s letters and it wouldn’t surprise me if he calls the whole thing off long before the year is up. There’s a saying, you know: out of sight, out of mind.’
‘My Richard isn’t like that.’ Carole’s voice could not be called wholly confident, though . and that dreamy look in her eyes had nothing to do with Richard, Beth was thinking.
The three girls arrived at Chad’s house promptly at half past seven, to be immediately introduced to his niece. She was young, only seventeen, with very dark brown hair and eyes, a small oval face that carried a sort of ethereal beauty that was very appealing. The girls all took to her on sight and she to them. She was very quiet, her eyes going all the time to Chad who, the cousins were to learn later, was not really related to the girl, being only cousin to the man who had adopted her when she was a baby. She now lived with this cousin’s sister and her husband and she was very devoted to them. She visited Chad several times every year for holidays and the reason why she was here for her birthday was because the couple with whom she lived wanted to visit relatives in England and this was the most suitable time for them to go. So Valerie was to be with Chad for a month, her birthday falling in the third week.
His manner with the girl was an eye-opener to Beth; she could hardly believe he was the same man whose treatment of herself had been so brutal. Valerie’s sweet smile invariably brought her a response, her gently-spoken requests were always attended to, and it was soon apparent that there was a very happy rapport between the two of them.
The drinks were brought out to the stoep by Lizzie, one of Chad’s three housegirls, and Chad passed them round. There were dainty biscuits and several kinds of nuts. Chad, the perfect host, looked immaculate in casual slacks and loose-fitting jacket of white linen. His brown hair shone, the silver sprinklings at his temples giving him a distinguished look, mature and aristocratic. Undoubtedly he was something, as Jo later said. Tall and slender, carrying not an ounce of unnecessary weight, he had a physique that was rarely seen outside the pages of glossy magazines where impossibly handsome faces and bodily perfection tempted an envious male sex to buy clothes which never could look the same on them. ,
He was sitting opposite to Beth and, suddenly becoming aware of her concentrated attention, lifted an eyebrow in a gesture of sardonic amusement that made her wish she could throw her drink at him. Why did his every word or gesture rile her like this? If it went on for a year she would be a nervous wreck, she was thinking.
‘I envy you three,’ she heard Valerie saying to Carole. ‘It’s an exciting adventure, looking after the farm for a year. I wish I had cousins, or brothers and sisters.’
‘Yes,’ returned Carole, ‘it is an exciting adventure, although it was a wrench at first, as we had to leave our fiancés behind.’
Valerie nodded her head.
‘I was here, on a visit to Chad, when your uncle was discussing his plan with Chad. I think it’s a good plan, though,’ she continued with a maturity that was out of keeping with her youth. ‘For myself, I’d be very afraid that someone would want me only for my money.’
The cousins exchanged glances. It would seem that nothing was unknown to these two, and only now did they realise just how deep the friendship was between their uncle and his neighbour. He seemed to have confided everything to him, and it was very plain that his fear of their being married for the money they would get was very great indeed.
Carole said quietly, a tinge of tartness in her voice,
‘My Richard isn’t interested in money—at least, not in any money that might come to me. I sometimes wonder why I bothered to come here, because I know I shan’t change my mind about marrying him.’
Valerie looked interested.
‘If you marry him, t
hen you’ll lose anything that your uncle might have left you?’
Carole nodded.
‘I’m afraid so. However, I think such a lot of Uncle Jack that I agreed to his plans for me. I suppose,’ she went on musingly, ‘that deep down inside me I’m hoping he’ll relent at the end of the twelve months and not disinherit me after all.’
Chad was looking at Beth.
‘What about your young man?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t he mind your coming away like this?’
‘No, not at all. We weren’t engaged, as you probably know,’ she thought to add, and he was nodding immediately.
‘The affair wasn’t really serious, then?’
She paused, reluctant to talk about Kevin but also reluctant to snub Chad before his niece.
‘I suppose,’ she admitted frankly, ‘I am cautious.’
Chad seemed to find that extremely amusing, for his blue eyes twinkled and his fine lips twitched. Beth naturally coloured, and much to her annoyance she knew that she had attracted the attention of the other three girls. Chad’s next words did not help the situation and she mentally made a note to tell him off when the next opportunity arose.
‘I would never have included caution among your many and varied traits, my dear.’
Silence, with Beth’s colour mounting and a small giggle heard from the direction of Jo’s chair. Valerie looked puzzled and asked,
‘What’s the matter? Have you and Chad a secret, Beth?’
‘We have a secret, yes,’ from Chad suavely before Beth could speak. ‘And because it is a secret we’re not telling you about it.’ His eyes moved to Carole, who had given a start, but Jo was nodding and it was plain that she believed she knew what this secret was —the spanking Beth had received when she was a child. Carole’s eyes flashed to Beth, who was decidedly uncomfortable, and in consequence almost tempted to do battle with Chad regardless of the audience. But she thought better of it, deciding to save it for a more suitable time.
This came sooner than she expected. She was strolling along the dry river bed the following day when she saw him riding the gelding. Magnificent they looked, horse and rider, silhouetted against the theatre wings of hill scenery. Beth knew he had seen her; she realised with a little sense of shocked bewilderment that she wished she was not so hot and sticky from the blistering heat. Even her mind seemed hazed by it. Chad reined in and the horse’s head came down to one side, then it stopped, to stand there, still as the kopjes behind him. Chad sprang down, flicked the reins over the low branch of a mahogany tree that had been ruthlessly lopped for some reason.
‘Waiting for me?’ That familiar quirk of his mouth showed a flash of even white teeth in a smile. ‘How nice! I’m flattered. What can I do for you?’ She threw him a look of disdain.
‘How bright we are! How do you manage it?’
‘By keeping a cool head, and my temper.’ His keen eyes flickered over her, taking in the damp tendrils of hair at her temples, the shine on her nose, the little beads of perspiration on her wide, intelligent forehead. ‘The heat doesn’t agree with you,’ he observed. ‘Come into my place and I’ll give you an ice-cold drink.’
The temptation was great and she found herself nodding. But she just had to say,
‘I’m as near to Jacana as I am to your place.’
‘What an awkward little bitch you are,’ he told her calmly. ‘Give yourself a break and be happy.’
For some reason she could not explain she had to laugh. Chad seemed startled by the unexpectedness of it and it was a few seconds before he could appreciate the change in her.
‘You’re rather attractive when you discard that bad-tempered expression,’ he commented.
‘Let’s change the subject before we start another fight,’ she said, but added that she had a complaint to make.
‘About last evening, and the secret I mentioned,’ he returned, taking the wind out of her sails. ‘Forget it, child. It’s wearing, harbouring grievances, and it ages you. You’re getting lines on your face—’
‘Oh, I am not!’
Chad laughed as he took the reins in his hands again.
‘So you can be feminine after all, it would seem.’
‘You ought to know!’ was her pointed retort, and again he laughed.
‘You’re referring, of course, to our pleasant little love scene in the grounds of the Club. Yes, you were feminine then. I enjoyed your kisses.’
Beth turned away and said,
‘I won’t bother coming for that drink after all.’
He turned, frowning.
‘Scared? No need to be. I never become amorous at this time of the day. The heat saps one’s energy.’ He was not frowning now, but laughing satirically with those keen blue eyes of his. Beth wanted to hate him ... but for some reason she did not hate him, and wondered at the change taking place within her. The trouble was, the man was too darned attractive!
She walked beside him along the river bed, coming to a lovely little rock pool that lay in an incised meander and formed a little fairy grotto with hanging ferns and sweet-scented wild flowers and orchids clinging to the branch of a willow tree that bent to the pool. The water trickled out from between a rock fault and made a little waterfall. Beth knew the place, of course; she and her cousins had played there many a time in the past. Chad stopped, to look down into Beth’s hot face. She was oddly affected, not only by him but by the isolation of this little place. All was so quiet except for the dripping of the water and the inevitable whirring of cicadas in the trees. A lizard, brilliant green in colour, darted from between a break in the rocks at the side of the pool and disappeared into some bushy undergrowth.
‘It’s lovely here,’ she murmured, forced to break the silence because it seemed too intimate, too fraught with danger in some nebulous, unfathomable way. Danger ...
She did not really fear Chad; she knew for sure that he would never do her any harm. But she was on her guard, remembering that night at the Club. She wondered if she ought to go to his home like this. He might just take it into his head to start kissing her again. She looked up into his impassive face and said,
‘I don’t know if I ought, to trust you.’
He raised an eyebrow enquiringly.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘If I go to your house ...’
‘Oh, you think I might take advantage of you—or chastise you even yet again,’ he just had to tack on. ‘Haven’t I said I never become amorous in the heat? And as for the chastisement—well, you haven’t done anything to earn you one—not yet.’
‘Why,’ she wanted to know, ‘do you have to make yourself so damned objectionable?’
‘Retaliation, or self-protection. Call it what you like. Come, smile, for the lord’s sake, Beth. I’ve said you’re not the vixen you’d have me believe you are.’ He began to walk on again and she fell into step beside him. Fifteen minutes later they were on his shady back stoep drinking iced lemonade made from his own delicious fruit. Beth was oddly happy, wondering where the animosity had gone, for they had been chatting amicably for as long as five full minutes!
He talked about her uncle, saying he was a lonely man but yet a happy one, until he had seen the three men to whom his nieces had become attached.
‘He was greatly perturbed when he got back from the trip to England last time,’ Chad went on, looking at Beth over the rim of his tumbler. ‘He came to me for advice, but that was something I couldn’t give. It was none of my business.’
‘But you were his greatest friend here?’
‘Yes, I was, but there are things which even friends shouldn’t interfere in. I hadn’t seen these young men, so wouldn’t become involved. Your uncle’s one concern was that his money shouldn’t go to any of them.’ Chad paused to take a drink. Beth watched him, noting how cool he seemed, totally unaffected by the heat. He was used to it, of course, and that made a difference. ‘I don’t say I blame him for being concerned,’ continued Chad presently. ‘He’s worked hard for all he’s m
ade, and if, as he feared, the three of you had married and then been divorced, then half of all he’d worked for would have gone out of his family. It’s just not on, and I must admit I can see no sense at all in your British law concerning marriage and divorce.’
‘It has certain advantages,’ said Beth reasonably. ‘For instance, at one time, the lot of a wife was pretty grim if she couldn’t stick the life and decided to leave her husband.’
‘She shouldn’t be wanting to leave her husband.’
‘Oh, come off it!’ protested Beth hotly. ‘Even you must surely admit there are men with whom it would be impossible to live.’
‘All right,’ he conceded, nodding. ‘I’ll give you a point there.’ His attention strayed and he was watching some of his men at work in a vast orange orchard. They were spraying the healthy, shiny leaves and the barks of the trees.
‘Well, if a wife decided to leave her husband and home she got nothing—nothing, Chad! Even if she’d gone out to work and earned money all her life. Now, though, even her housework is considered as work and of value, so, if the marriage does break up, she gets half of everything.’
‘Well, put like that it is fair,’ he agreed.
Beth went on to explain the part of the law which had troubled her uncle, and again Chad agreed with her, this time when she said it was not right that the property should be halved.
‘It would seem,’ he said reflectively, ‘that there’s black and white and no grey.’
Beth agreed wholeheartedly.
‘That’s right. There should be a system by which each case is judged on its merits, and perhaps this does happen sometimes, but I can’t understand why Uncle is so perturbed. He’s probably heard of someone who claimed money and property that shouldn’t have gone to them.’
Chad looked at her for a long moment.