The hood was down and the cool afternoon breeze eased away the tension and exhaustion of the spectacular and grandiose wedding and reception. They were beginning to feel relaxed and refreshed. For a moment, Dirk's gaze rested on the beautiful profile and slim figure beside him.
'You were ravishing, my darling, but you look no less sweet in the casual outfit you're wearing now.'
She nuzzled her face like a kitten against his shoulder. A tangy masculine smell met her nostrils. 'You smell nice,' she whispered, 'and I love you.'
A little sigh escaped her.
'Tired?'
'Just happy.'
'Did you listen to the marriage vows?'
'Yes.'
'You realize what you promised?'
'Yes. I'll love, honour and obey you.'
'And I'll cherish you. With my body I thee. ...' he began, but she put a little hand across his lips, silencing him. He bit her fingers playfully with his strong white teeth.
After a while she peered up at him, wondering at his silence. His face was set. 'Is something worrying you, Dirk?'
'Why do you ask?'
'Your mood seems changed.'
'I was just thinking.'
'About what?' .
'About myself ... my reputation.'
'With women?'
He shot her a quizzical glance. 'You know?'
'You can't help it if women chase you.'
'I'm no saint, my dear.'
'I love you, no matter what.'
'Since I met you, I've changed, Gillian. I'll always be faithful to you. Do you trust me?'
'With all my heart.'
They passed a woman sitting under a thorn tree. A little black baby, wearing only a string of beads below its stomach, was sucking hungrily at her wrinkled breast. Gillian smiled and waved to them.
'Do you like children?' Dirk wanted to know. He cast a swift glance at her and saw that she was blushing. 'You look lovely when you blush. I must make you blush more often. When would you like a family?'
She felt the colour deepen on her cheeks. 'You're teasing me, Dirk.'
He reached for her hand and held it on his black corduroyed knee. 'In a way I am, but I'm serious too. A man must know.'
She looked at him with big innocent eyes. 'Why?'
An amused smile played around the corners of his mouth; then he said earnestly: 'Tell me, would you mind having a baby soon?'
'Of course not!'
'Fruit!' she cried, half an hour later, pointing to a roadside stall, stacked with tropical fruit. Dirk braked and reversed.
'Like some?'
'Please.'
Baskets plaited from dry maize leaves were strung from the ceiling of the roughly constructed stall. Dirk bought one and the beautiful Swazi girl behind the counter filled it with fresh luscious paw-paws, avocados, pineapples and bananas.
'What shall we do with so much fruit at the hotel?' Gillian queried, a little worried. 'I mean, will the management welcome a huge basket of fruit in one's suite? It could attract cockroaches.'
'There'll be no hotel, honey. There'll be no suite. I warned you.'
Her eyes lit with excitement. 'Are we caravanning?'
'Wait and see.'
'Oh, Dirk, wouldn't that be lovely? To caravan or camp? You did say "casual wear", so I visualized a small hotel in the mountains. You did promise me "the simple life".'
'I stick to a promise, never fear. Now you stick to our agreement. The locale is to be a surprise; so don't you start wangling information from me.'
They branched off into a dirt track and sped along in silence. At last Dirk drew up at an archway with a signboard bearing the emblem of an Impala buck. 'We've arrived,' he informed her importantly.
'Where are we?'
'The Mlilwane Game Sanctuary - little known and very private.'
A uniformed Swazi took an entrance fee from Dirk and they sailed through an untidy avenue of hoary oaks and ancient eucalyptus trees. They laughed gaily at a comical warthog bustling clumsily up a grassy slope.
Do you see that big hump in the tamboekie grass?'
'I do. What is it?'
'A rhinoceros at rest.'
'Oh no! Isn't it dangerous?'
'The warden imports all types of wild animals and tames them. They walk freely through the camp - the rhinos too.'
The rhino rose up frighteningly and snorted as the car passed. Gillian shivered.
'Before announcing ourselves,' Dirk informed her, 'I'm taking you on a circular drive, so that you can become orientated.'
'That'll be lovely!'
The sanctuary lay cupped amongst rolling verdant hills and forest-carpeted mountains. To Gillian's delight, herds of impala buck and springbok vaulted gracefully over the road. They sighted zebra, wildebeest and wild ostriches. Flocks of guinea-fowl and pheasant flew from the tall grass.
Dirk drove her to a clearing in virgin bush on a high bank above the river. They were glad to get out of the car and stretch their limbs. Arm-in-arm, they gazed at the water far below them. Flocks of wild duck, spur- wing and coot were bobbing up and down in the slanting sunshine.
'How utterly quiet it is,' Gillian whispered, loth to disturb the serenity of the moment.
'A veritable sanctuary,' Dirk murmured, slipping his arm around her waist.
A bluebottle buzzed past. To their ears, made sensitive by the quietness around them, it sounded noisy as a city buzz bike. The sound of wings splashing in water rose up clearly from far below. They heard a movement behind them, and turned to see a magnificently horned eland peering at them with large, trusting eyes. A dry twig snapped under Dirk's foot. The enormous buck ducked and disappeared silently into the bush.
Gillian, her eyes filled with wonderment, gazed up at Dirk. He gathered her roughly into his arms and she felt his heart beat stormily. Then he bruised her lips with hot, passionate kisses and pressed her against him. Filled with a sudden, unreasonable and overpowering fear, she struggled against him. 'No!' she whispered. 'No, Dirk, please! You frighten me!'
He ceased his caresses and, still holding her, searched her distressed face with smouldering eyes. Then he set her free.
The sun, a ball of fire, was sinking slowly behind the dark fir-fringed mountain when they entered the camp. Squat guinea-fowl and long-legged blue cranes scattered before the wheels of the Aston-Martin. Dirk helped Gillian from the car and together they walked across to the office to greet the hospitable warden and his wife.
The woman was feeding a newly-born springbok heifer from a baby's bottle. Gillian's gaze rested on Dirk's raven-black hair as he bent over the little buck and she marvelled at the gentleness with which his sturdy hand caressed the trusting little animal. She warmed to her husband and the panic in her heart was momentarily stilled.
Dirk claimed the key of their hut. 'It's the animals' feeding time,' he informed her. 'Before we offload, let me show you something.'
He took her to a row of cages. In one, three vicious- looking lynxes were striding restlessly to and fro with panther-like steps. A Swazi in a blue denim overall approached with a bloodied, unplucked duck cut in three portions. He threw these over a high fence. Snarling ferociously, the lynxes grabbed a portion each and tore fiercely at the white feathers, plucking the meat before devouring it.
'This is my wife, Abraham.' Dirk introduced Gillian to the Swazi, who flashed her a delighted smile. 'Abraham feeds the animals and does much of the taming. Tell her about Niga and Jill,' Dirk prompted.
'Niga and Jill, the rhino,' Abraham explained, 'were caught at Umfolozi and at first were very wild and dangerous. We put them in strong stockades, right in the camp and near the people. There was no grass there and they grew very hungry.'
Gillian caught a mocking look in Dirk's eyes. 'I'm taking tips on how to tame my own personal little wild animal,' he said under his breath.
'Then we fed them with fresh lucerne,' Abraham continued. 'We talked to them kindly. Today they walk about in the camp and allow visitors to come n
ear them.'
Dirk led Gillian up a flight of roughly-constructed steps to a little wooden watch-tower, silent and private and high above a large dam. They peered unseen through peepholes and watched the birds cavorting on the water.
A pair of bronze and green birds settled on the dam.
'What are they?' Gillian wanted to know.
'Mexican duck,' Dirk murmured, drawing her close. 'Watch the male.' It flapped its wings vigorously, stretched its neck and loudly proclaimed its arrival with its mate.
'See how docile the female of the species is?' he mocked. Gillian gave him a tantalizing smile. 'You do believe that man is woman's master, I hope.' He looked at her piercingly.
She bared her even teeth at him playfully and turned once more to her bird-watching. 'Oh, look, Dirk, look!' On the bank, three gorgeous crowned cranes with golden crests had spread their wings wide and high and were performing a graceful and intricate ballet to the accompaniment of their own sonorous humming. 'Isn't it lovely?'
'I ordered it specially for my bride.' His voice was tender and he touched her soft lips gently with his, smiling as a warm flush coloured her cheeks. She moved from his embrace, rising from her seat. He followed her down the rickety steps, a frown puckering his brow.
Dirk carried their cases to their isolated thatched-roof hut and set them down beside the door. Unlocking the door, he swooped to carry his laughing bride dramatically over the threshold.
Gillian was charmed by the rusticity and simple comfort of their hut. They unpacked quickly. Then Dirk fetched a surprise hamper from the car and soon they were standing, drinks in hand, cooking their braaivleis over a communal barbecue in the merry company of the few other guests in the camp. Dirk seemed to be in high spirits and communicated easily with their companions, but Gillian grew quiet as the evening wore on and an inscrutable look settled on her pale little face.
The waxing moon was rising when he guided her towards their hut and they stopped to admire a grass fire wreathed upon a distant hill. They collected their nightwear, towels and toilet accessories, and Dirk took her to the door of the ladies' ablution block.
'Please, Dirk,' Gillian said, 'I'm scared to walk back by myself. I'd hate to meet a rhino in my path. Will you fetch me when you've had your bath?'
'Of course, little chicken-heart,' he teased.
He was standing guard when she emerged, clad again in the slack suit, her dainty nightwear draped over one arm. He quirked an eyebrow at her, as if to say: 'What now?' With pretended unconcern she crooked her free arm in his.
They entered the hut together. Dirk closed the door. Gillian laid the garments carefully over the back of a chair and busied herself unnecessarily with the towel. She folded it meticulously, first this way, then that, and slowly hung it over the rail. Dirk stood waiting, feet apart, arms folded across his chest, his sardonic gaze on her back.
When there was nothing more with Which she could ostensibly busy herself, she swung round and faced him in open rebellion, but his gaze quelled the defiance in her eyes, in which apprehension began to dawn. He looked saturnine in the crimson silk of his dressing gown and its embossed dragon spitting fire.
'Gillian!' His harsh voice cut into the tense silence. She-slanted him a pleading look. 'Come here!' She did not move. Fear leapt into her eyes. 'Gillian! Obey me!' His gaunt face seemed cruel, his voice threatening. 'Come here, I said!' Slowly she moved towards him.
'What's the meaning of this?' he asked sternly. 'You're my wife, aren't you?'
'Yes.'
'Are you too damn innocent to know what that means?'
Her mouth quivered. 'I'm frightened,' she whispered.
'Of me? . 'Yes.'
'Why?'
She hung her head in silence.
'Answer me!'
'At... at times you seem cruel and ruthless.'
'So I am - cruel and ruthless, but you knew that all along? If it's a gentle lover you're after, why didn't you mate with Graham?'
'I -I didn't love him.'
'But you love me?'
'Yes.'
'Then show it, dammit!' he gritted. With one hand he crushed her struggling body to him. She resisted till he flung her from him in fury. 'Little cheat!' he hissed. 'I swear, if you now ever should desire me, you'll have to come to me. Hear me! I'm not asking you again.' With that he stalked out of the hut.
For a long time Gillian stood staring into the warm African night, her nerves strung to breaking point. As the tempest raging within her subsided, she prayed for him to return, but knew her prayers to be in vain. He had sworn. Nor could she go to him, pride held her back - and modesty.
At last, exhausted by the emotional storm that had racked her, she began slowly to undress behind the door which she would not close lest she should shut him out irrevocably. She reached a bare arm for her nightie and screamed in abject terror as a great open grotesque beak appeared in the doorway, and. a huge feathered monster shuffled towards her menacingly.
In a flash Dirk was in the hut and she hurled herself into his arms. He shooed the bird unceremoniously out and kicked the door shut. 'Little one,' his now gentle voice soothed her, his lips against her silken hair, 'it's only a harmless old pelican! It's tame, honey - just come to say hullo to you.'
Her arms still clung in panic round his neck.
'It scared me,' she whispered against his bared shoulder.
Tenderly he caressed her, till terror was eased away, and she lay quiet in his arms. Gradually passion took the place of terror. She began to tremble and made a move towards him. It was enough. He crushed his mouth on her lips and pressed her close, and Gillian surrendered to the ecstasy of his lovemaking.
Outside, an affronted pelican waddled into the brooding African veldt.
Red Feather Love Page 17