The Whistling Thorn

by Isobel Chace

  Annot didn't understand anything at all, but now hardly seemed to be the time to say so. The discontented look on Judith's face disturbed her, and she didn't dare to look at James at all. If he wanted to make Judith jealous, he had a funny way of going about it, and what was the point of it anyway?

  But Judith had no such hesitations. 'What are you about?' she demanded.

  He wasn't half as angry as Annot expected him to be. 'That's none of your business,' he murmured to Judith, 'you're only here because you asked to come along, glad as we are to have your help.'

  Annot was surprised by that. 'I thought you asked her to come?' she said.

  'You think too much!' James rounded on her.

  'Dorcas wanted to come,' Judith put in huffily. 'She took to Annot on the plane and she wanted to see as much as possible of her during the holidays. She has these sudden

  passions for people—she had one for Jeremy—and I didn't want to disappoint her.'

  'You'd do better to give her more affection yourself,' James said quietly. 'She's hungry for your attention, my dear, not for other people's, though she may be trying to make do with them.'

  'That was hardly the case with Jeremy,' Judith said dryly. 'She doted on him! She still quotes every word he ever said to her.'

  James gave her an amused look. 'You remember pretty well what he said to you too,' he reminded her. 'Isn't that why you're here?'

  Judith's temper flared. 'Sometimes I can understand why Annot hates you, James Montgomery!' she declared. 'You know exactly how I feel about Jeremy. Why, more often than not, he's not even clean!'

  James held up his hands in surrender. 'Okay, so you don't hold much of a brief for him, but I know better than to believe what any woman says. Annot hasn't got it within herself to hate anyone!'

  Oh, hadn't she! Well, she was doing a pretty good imitation of hating him now! He had a knack of making her feel uncomfortable and ridiculously conscious of the difference of sex between them. She didn't enjoy either sensation: particularly she didn't enjoy the weak, helpless feeling she had in her middle whenever he came near her, nor the hollow, empty feeling she had when he wasn't there! Oh yes, she hated him all right.

  She watched them pile into the Range Rover, trying to ignore the loneliness that the sight gave her, eating into her and making her long to cry out that she was going with them whatever James might say. But there was Dorcas to consider. A full day out in the sun chasing the orange and yellow balloon would have been too long for the little girl, even Annot could see that, but it didn't stop the tears from

  stinging her eyes nor the wretched sense of loss in her heart at knowing that James had deliberately left her behind, probably because he had really wanted Judith with him all the time!

  `Are you crying, Annot?'

  Annot felt Dorcas's hand slip easily into hers as she shook her head. 'You've just missed seeing them off,' she said. 'They certainly stirred up the dust as they left.'

  `You've got it all over your blouse,' the small girl confirmed. 'I'll bet Mama was driving! She can make it spin up from the back tyres better than anyone else can!'

  `Perhaps they try not to,' Annot suggested mendaciously.

  Dorcas giggled. 'Jeremy says Mama has a flair for the unexpected, and that it's caused by reality slipping into the game of let's-pretend she plays with herself.' The girl frowned, her laughter forgotten. 'It's such a pity Mama doesn't like Jeremy. I don't think she pretends about that, though. She was always trying to stop me seeing him, but he wouldn't let her most times. He's more fun than anyone I know!'

  Annot joined her in a nostalgic sigh, remembering the adventures she herself had had with Jeremy when she had been Dorcas's age. 'Jeremy and I once photographed a week-old elephant,' she said aloud. `It was so small and so exactly like its mother, even down to its baggy skin!'

  Dorcas squeaked with joy. 'How did you take it?' she demanded. 'Did Jeremy put you on his shoulders so that you could see better? He did once with me when we were watching two lionesses kill a zebra. It was horrid! But they were awfully clever the way they worked together. Jeremy explained it all to me. Did you know that James has lions on his farm sometimes?'

  Annot confessed she did not. `What about your mother's farm?' she asked.

  Dorcas made a face at her. 'We don't have anything like

  that at our place. Jeremy says it's because it's over-civilised ! '

  Annot could almost hear him saying exactly that; no won-,der Judith didn't like her uncle much. She had probably carefully nurtured that civilising process along—and she had been successful too! Her house had a very English feel to it, like fires in the evenings and hot buttered crumpets - for tea, a feeling was totally lacking in James' place. His house had grandeur and comfort, but it was firmly based in the continent where it had been built. It was just like he was himself, a little bit frightening, standing proudly in the land he loved, and with never a nostalgic look over his shoulder for another greener, more familiar countryside such as the one he had left behind.

  She looked down at Dorcas, her eyes a little dreamy from her thoughts, and became aware that the child was already dressed in her swimming-suit.

  'You're not to go into the pool alone, Dorcas!' she bade her, seriously enough to gain Dorcas's fitful attention.

  'I'm going swimming with my friend,' Dorcas answered. 'Why don't you come too?'

  Annot smiled 'I haven't been invited.'

  'He won't mind,' Dorcas assured her airily. 'He didn't invite Mama to tea yesterday either, but she came all the same. I'll tell him you're coming, shall I?'

  It seemed suddenly a very good idea to go to the pool for a swim. Annot had learned to swim almost before she could walk, taught by her still adolescent uncle whose contempt for all things female had been only slightly mitigated by her star performances in front of his friends.

  'I'd love to,' she said, 'if you don't mind my horning in on your date?'

  Dorcas reassured her gravely. 'He's not a particular friend,' she explained with a nicety her mother would surely have appreciated. 'He can't be that because he doesn't speak

  much English, but he's nice all the same. Do you speak German, because it would be a great help if you can?'

  'I'm afraid not. Hasn't he any English at all?'

  'A bit,' Dorcas admitted, screwing up her face, 'but it's not a very useful bit. He got it out of a phrase-book he has. He's working in Tanzania, actually, something to do with some work they're doing on the harbour. He speaks quite a bit of Swahili, only it's much more correct than mine, so I can only guess at what he means half the time.'

  Annot took Dorcas to the swimming-pool herself. Although it was well within the confines of the lodge, the vivid pictorial story of a man being killed by an elephant because he had ventured outside the compound on foot had taught her a lesson that had made her determined not to let Dorcas out of her sight while she was in charge of her.

  The small girl's German friend was much more charming than she had been led to believe, but she raised her eyebrows a little when she saw Dorcas's confidence that he had nothing better to do than play with her.

  'It's kind of you—' she began, speaking slowly and clearly so that he should understand.

  'Kind, no!' he denied. 'Dorcas is my friend.' He looked deep into Annot's eyes, a sparkle in his own. 'And my friend has other delightful friends, no?'

  'I told you so!' Dorcas crowed from the shallow end. 'Fritz wants to be friends with me! He told Mama so yesterday, but she didn't believe him!'

  Fritz sat on the edge of the bath, working on what he wanted to say in his mind. Finally he said, 'The little one has no father. Is that so?'

  'Yes, he's dead.'

  'Poor little one. But soon she will have a new father, yes?'

  Annot was tempted not to answer. She could easily have

  pretended not to have heard and have dived into the pool, thus ending their brief conversation.

  'Yes, I think she will,' she said reluctantly.

 
; 'This Jeremy she talks about?'

  'No,' Annot controlled her breathing with difficulty. 'Jeremy is my uncle,' she explained, 'the brother of my sister. She must have meant James Montgomery.'

  'Ah yes,' the German said. 'Her mother spoke of this James, but the little one speaks always of Jeremy—and of you tool'

  Annot managed a laugh. 'Her mother doesn't approve of Jeremy,' she told him.

  He gave her an uncomprehending look. 'What is this?'

  She said it again, in Swahili, stumbling a little over the words. He understood immediately and smiled kindly at her. 'And you have no one?' he asked her.

  Too late she realised that she was the one who was supposed to be engaged to James, and that if the German was ever to hear about it, he would think her odd indeed. 'It's difficult to explain,' she began.

  'Too difficult,' he agreed with a promptness that could only increase her dismay. 'You may have me! We go well together, yes?'

  'You have Dorcas!' she exclaimed hastily.

  'I have Dorcas, yes, but she is too young to mind me having you as well! ' he said with a smugness there was no mistaking.

  Annot stared at him in consternation. 'I have work to do!' she muttered. 'A quick swim and then I must work!'

  She dived into the clear blue water before he could say anything else to her, and swam up and down the pool as though she was in training for the Olympics.

  'You swim marvellously well!' Dorcas's piping voice congratulated her. 'Will you teach me to go as fast as that?' 'Some time,' Annot muttered, not best pleased. 'Just now

  I have to go and develop the photographs we took yesterday. You won't leave the pool except to come to our room, will you? And please knock on the bathroom door when you come, I'm using it as a darkroom. Okay?'

  'Okay,' Dorcas sighed. 'Only it's a bit disappointing for Fritz and me. We thought you were going to swim properly with us.'

  'I'll swim with you again this evening,' Annot compromised. 'Be good, pet!'

  'I'm -always being good,' Dorcas returned, determined to make the most of her grievance. 'I'm bored with being good!'

  Annot gave her a look of helpless pleading. 'Dorcas, you won't be stupid and go out, or anything like that, will you? You could be killed—'

  'I know! I'm not a baby!' The child smiled a small, wavering smile 'This evening will do, Annot. But you will teach me to swim fast then, won't you?'

  'It's a promise!' Annot agreed in relief, and avoiding the hot, smouldering look in the German's eyes, she rushed away to the sanctuary of their chalet and her work.

  It turned out to be a quiet day, but it had its own excitements all the same. The first and most important of these was the quality of the photographs that James had taken. She had had no idea that such intimate, engaging pictures of wild animals were possible. When she first saw their quality she knew a moment's wild jealousy that they should be quite so good. Photography was her field, not his! Why couldn't he stick to his farming, or ranching, or whatever it was he called if? And if he had to trespass in her field, why did he have to be so good? Where did that leave her?

  The second excitement was over the lunch table. Fritz had joined them as a matter of course, inviting them to have a drink from the bar before they ate. Dorcas had been

  pleased to be asked, relishing the way that the German treated her as though she was just as much grown up as anyone else.

  'I'll have some passion-fruit juice,' she had said.

  This had caused an endless discussion because Fritz was unsure what she wanted and refused to allow the waiter to accept the order until he did.

  'What will you have?' he asked Annot sourly, once he had got it sorted out to his satisfaction.

  'I'll have some passion-fruit juice too,' she said meekly. But this was too much for him. 'You are afraid to have something stronger?' he demanded angrily.

  'Not afraid, I just don't like it in the middle of the day,' she answered.

  He ordered himself a beer, glowering at her over the top of it. It was frustrating, she told herself, not to be able to hold a proper conversation, but did he have to make such a mouthful of it? She smiled back at him and met with an immediate response that had worried her more than a little.

  'Look, Dorcas,' she pointed out in an attempt to divert everyone's attention to something other than herself, 'look at all those donkeys grazing where the honey-badgers were last night.'

  'They're lucky!' Dorcas sighed. 'They can go where they want to, while we have to stick inside our cage like animals in a zoo!'

  Which was true, Annot supposed. Human beings were the ones who were caged up in their vehicles and in the lodges in these great animal reserves. It was the animals that went free.

  'Let's go into lunch,' she suggested.

  That was when her troubles really began. It started quietly, with Fritz getting to his feet and suggesting they should all eat together as a matter of course.

  'We did yesterday,' Dorcas chimed in.

  'It would be very pleasant,' Annot said, wondering what on earth they would find to talk about with the few words they had at their disposal.

  Fritz was in no doubt at all. To get to the dining room they had to travel down a short covered walk, where some monkeys had gathered, hoping to steal some nuts and other edibles from the guests. Fritz took Annot's hand firmly in his and pointed out their antics to her; he even produced some peanuts out of his pocket and invited her to feed them. Annot passed the nuts on to Dorcas.

  'Be careful, though,' she warned her, 'they may hurt you if you allow them to snatch them from you. Put them down somewhere where they can pick them up by themselves.'

  But Fritz Slapped Dorcas's hand away, taking the peanuts forcibly from her and returning them to Annot. 'I wish for you to have them!'

  Annot stared at him in dismay. 'But—' she began.

  'You are beautiful!' he said, and he stroked her arm with his hand. 'Brown. Very nice!'

  Annot froze to the spot, casting him a look of complete dislike. 'I've changed my mind. Dorcas and I would prefer to eat alone!'

  'But he's my friend,' Dorcas objected, 'I like him!' 'Dorcas!' Annot warned her.

  `And I like you,' Fritz said with a grin, `so, we eat to gether, no?'

  It seemed more trouble than it was worth to insist that he left them alone, and so Annot gave way. In a funny way she knew she was going to regret that moment of weakness, and now she was regretting it. She was regretting it with every mouthful of delicious cold salad that she took.

  'I could have gone out to see the animals this afternoon,' Fritz was saying.

  'Why didn't you?' Dorcas asked him reasonably enough.

  'I'd go like a shot, only everyone says I'll be in the way. James has promised I shall go some time, though.'

  'It is better you should sleep this afternoon,' Fritz told her sharply.

  'That's what I intend to do,' Annot murmured. She thought with pleasure of the evening she was to spend with James, although she tried not to. If she looked forward to it too much, she was sure that something awful would happen to prevent her going with him. That it was strange that she should want to be with him was something she preferred not to think about at all.

  Fritz shook his head at her. 'You and I swim,' he said.

  She glanced at him uncertainly; his explosive way of speaking could have been because of his lack of words in which to express himself. 'I don't think so,' she said pleasantly enough. 'The food here is so good and I eat so much that I'd sink like a stone if I went into the pool straight away.'

  'Not understand,' said Fritz. -

  'I'm not swimming!' Annot almost shouted at him.

  The hot look came back into his eyes. No, not swim,' he agreed quickly, too quickly. 'The little one will sleep. You and I will talk.'

  Annot took fright. 'Certainly not!'

  Fritz refused to believe her. 'Otherwise I would have gone to see the animals,' he told her. 'I prefer you!'

  But Annot did not prefer him. 'I don't want to ta
lk, I want to sleep!'

  A smile played on his lips. 'Of course, sleep—if that is what you wish?'

  Annot lost her temper completely at the sly note in his voice. 'Will you please leave me alone!' she snapped. 'I prefer to spend my afternoon by myself!'

  To her relief he shrugged his shoulders. 'If you wish it, but this evening you will spend with me!'

  Worn out with making her point about the afternoon, Annot said nothing more. By evening, she hoped, the others would be back and there would be nothing for her to worry about as far as Fritz was concerned. It was a prospect that pleased—and not only because she was going out with James. She had had more than enough of Dorcas's friend Fritz!

  Lying flat on her back on her bed, Annot felt more and more uncomfortable about the whole incident. What was worse was that there was the evening swim to be faced yet, and she couldn't possibly put it off, for she had promised Dorcas faithfully that she would give her a swimming lesson after tea.

  She sighed and turned over, staring out of the window at the cloud formations on the horizon. The rain was coming nearer every hour; she hoped it wouldn't rain that night. A short, sharp shower would be wonderful, laying the worst of the dust, but if it poured, as it so often did in Africa, the dry lake from which the reserve took its name would turn into a bog in a matter of moments. Then, even as she watched, the clouds began to lift and the distant hills came into view one by one, crowned by the steamed-pudding shape of Kilimanjaro, the snow-topped extinct volcano reaching high into the skies. It was a fascinating moment, one to be treasured for as long as she lived.

  Silently, she slipped off her bed and found her spare camera, going to the window to catch the moment on film.

  'It would be better with flowers in the foreground,' Dorcas said from the trestle-bed which had been specially put up for her. 'Why don't you take it from round by the swimming-pool?'

  For a moment Annot hesitated. 'Would you- come with me?' she asked.

  Dorcas shook her head. 'I'm reading. It's your book, as a matter of fact. It's splendid!'

  Annot was only glad that James wasn't there to hear her say it. If they shared the same taste in novels, he would think her more of an age with Dorcas than ever. 'It's meant for grown-ups,' she said aloud, with more asperity than she had intended. 'Haven't you anything else to read?'