Love's Golden Spell

by William Maltese

  “He’s here for gold, is he?” Roger said, flashing a don’t-feed-me-that smile.

  “Yes, gold!” Janet emphasized: “Mr. Van Hoon’s main interest in life is profits, whether any of you choose to believe that or not.”

  “I do see your predicament,” Jill said, ignoring everything Janet had said. “Craig and Christopher are a bit too much of a good thing to deal with at one time, aren’t they?”

  “I’m so pleased your recent bout of sickness hasn’t damaged your sense of the absurd,” Janet said with no trace of amusement. Arusha stopped the Land Rover in the hotel parking lot.

  “What time are we out tomorrow, Janet?” Roger asked, deciding it was best to change the subject.

  Janet told him, thankful the teasing had stopped. It was painful knowing that everything that they playfully hinted at was what she wanted to be true. They couldn’t know that, but it still hurt. “Arusha will see that the Land Rover is out front before breakfast, so you can load before or after you eat. Any questions?” Thankfully there weren’t any. “If you think of anything later, I’ll be in my room, although I do plan to make an early night of it. I’ve a splitting headache.”

  “Is that what we tell Christopher if he asks?” Jill asked with a wide smile. She was clearly feeling much better. “That you have a headache? Not very original, Janet!” She giggled, and Janet was hard put to control her temper.

  “Yes, that’s what you tell him,” Janet said, knowing Christopher would ask. She had agreed earlier to eat supper with him. He would wonder why she had changed her mind. It might even be better if she left a written message for him. She didn’t want him on her doorstep for explanations that evening. She couldn’t handle any confrontations with him until she had had time to get her thoughts and emotions in order.

  She wrote him a note in her room, saying the day had taken more out of her than she had bargained for. That was an understatement! She said she had taken her crew to the waterhole, and that hadn’t left her feeling well, either. She had decided on bed instead of eating. She hoped he understood.

  The officer on duty at the front desk assured her that Mr. Van Hoon would get the message.

  She returned to her room and put on her pajamas. Washing them free of perfume was the first thing she had done after unpacking the night before. She had thrown the black silk negligee in the wastepaper basket. If the maid had rescued it, she was welcome to it.

  At first, Janet couldn’t sleep, anticipating Christopher’s knock. When she finally dozed, it was to enter a restless dream world in which she desperately searched endless rooms and hallways, looking for something very valuable that she’d lost.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  JANET’S HEART STOPPED. When it started again, its wild thumping battered painfully against her rib cage.

  Christopher stood in the door of the restaurant, the gaze of his black-flecked golden eyes sweeping the room. Displaying a wide smile, he spotted Janet and headed toward her.

  Her hopes of reprieve vanished. For a short while, she had thought she would get to finish her breakfast and leave with the government team before Christopher’s arrival. She should have known better. The fates never gave her any breaks, and they weren’t starting now.

  “Hi!” he said cheerily, joining her in the corner booth she had chosen for its inconspicuousness. “Feeling better?”

  She had slept horribly, her attempts at rest disturbed by haunting nightmares. She was torn apart by what had brought him to Great Zimbabwe, and she hadn’t recovered from the shock of losing all hope for happy tomorrows. “I was just leaving,” she said. That wasn’t what she had planned to say. She had planned painful accusations. Suddenly, though, she didn’t have the willpower to go through with them. She needed more time. She should have skipped breakfast, but she was hungry from missing lunch and supper the day before.

  “Oh, stay for a couple of minutes more,” he cajoled, reaching for the menu. “It looks as if your teammates are taking care of everything outside. Why be the big cheese if you can’t delegate authority on occasion?”

  “Really, I have to go,” she said, starting to stand up. It wasn’t any physical move on his part that caused her to sink back into her seat, other than his pained expression. He put the menu aside, no longer interested in it.

  “There’s something wrong, isn’t there?” he said. How very perceptive!

  “I don’t want to go into it right now,” she said. He wouldn’t let it go at that.

  “No, I see you don’t,” he observed dryly. “But I do. I thought we were off to a fresh start. Why the change? Did your friend, Captain Sylo, do some bad-mouthing on your flight back yesterday? Was that the reason you skipped supper last night and are running scared this morning?”

  “Don’t blame Craig for any of this!” she said angrily. “He tried his best to make me see your good points.”

  Christopher settled back in his seat and folded his strong arms across his chest. Not many hours ago, she had been in those strong arms, had felt their sensuous embrace as he kissed her breath away. How cruel life was. “Why do I find the thought of Captain Sylo championing my romantic interests so unbelievable?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Why shouldn’t he?” Janet wanted to know. “He wants you on the side of wildlife as much as I do. He thinks I can persuade you.”

  “Do you find it flattering that he’s willing to foist you off on another man for the sake of a few animals?” Christopher baited her. “I wouldn’t give you up for that cause or for any other. I’m suspicious of any man who claims he could.”

  Janet was torn between feeling flattered by his compliment and feeling disgusted by his disdain for the cause to which she and Craig hoped to convert him. “I didn’t need Craig to tell me what really brought you to Great Zimbabwe,” she said, fighting for self-control. She didn’t want to become hysterical. She wanted to put her case to him, and she wanted him to come up with excuses to make her doubts disappear once and for all. Unfortunately, not even the Great Van Hoon was that extraordinary a magician! “You’re part of a Van Hoon Afrikaner Minerals work team.” She was challenging him to deny it.

  “That didn’t bother you yesterday,” he said. He wasn’t denying anything. He was condemning her violation of their verbal truce.

  “I didn’t know it yesterday!”

  “Captain Sylo told you on the plane ride home, did he?” Christopher asked, a mocking grin twisting his usually handsome features.

  “There’s no point in trying to discuss this!” she said, standing up.

  “Sit down!” he commanded, the power behind his words in no way diminished by the low timbre of his voice. She hesitated. She didn’t like him ordering her around. She had a will of her own. She wasn’t a puppet on strings, getting up and sitting down whenever he wanted. “Please, sit down,” he amended softly.

  She sat. Her legs wouldn’t support her anyway. “When Craig mentioned the V.H.A.M. team, he thought I knew,” she said with a defeated sigh. “So don’t blame him.”

  “You did know,” he insisted. He lifted his right hand to stop her interruption. “I told you over supper at Lionspride.”

  “You did not!” she protested. He was always trying to put the blame on her.

  The waiter appeared, and Christopher impatiently waved him off. “Why else would I have been here a couple of months ago?” Christopher challenged. His eyes sparked golden fire.

  “How should I know?” Janet replied, frustrated. “You said nothing about a V.H.A.M. team.” This was true. But he had insinuated as much over supper at Lionspride when mentioning his visit to the ruins, Janet now recalled. Great Zimbabwe had been cordoned off for months because of the poaching and the proposed elephant transfer. Christopher’s connections might have gotten him special permission to play tourist, but it was more likely his presence was authorized because of other reasons—such as researching the possibilities of converting old gold mines into new for government—and Van Hoon—profits. Janet hadn’t put two and two tog
ether fast enough, which left her arguments less forceful than they might have been.

  “Yesterday I thought you intelligent enough to see how I used the presence of my team here as a convenient excuse to join you,” Christopher said. “It was the excuse my ego demanded if you didn’t believe the truth and left me feeling like a fool for running after you. I could tell myself I really came to look in on business. But damn it, I didn’t come for business! And you have no right to make a turnabout at this late date and make me lie to myself or to you that I did.”

  “I don’t believe you. And now I’m sorry I was too busy wanting to believe you to think clearly,” she said bitterly. She hated the ease with which he always came out on top. “I would like more than anything to pretend it doesn’t make any difference that your men are out digging for evidence that will convert this land into one massive landscape of mine tailings. But I’m here to save wildlife, and you’re here to destroy it. I can’t stand the idea of this becoming another Lackland.”

  “What about Lackland?” Christopher asked, his eyes darkening with suspicion.

  Had he finally guessed who she was? She should have told him, not betrayed her secret like this. But she still felt he wouldn’t forgive her for a thirteen-year-old girl’s apparent rejection of his well intentioned love. “You told me at the Van Hoon Deep Levels that the mine was built on the frustrated plans of that animal preserve, remember?” she said, desperate to cover her trail. “You boasted about it in fact.”

  “And that’s what you think is happening here?” Christopher asked. “That’s the fear that made you go from hot to cold overnight?”

  “I can’t help my convictions,” Janet said. It wasn’t an apology, either. “I’ve had them a good deal longer than I’ve known you.” She had nursed the dying rhino at the Seattle Zoo before she came to Africa for that long-ago fateful summer. “And I can’t imagine even you respecting me for dumping them on such short notice just because you want me to.”

  “Damn it!” he said. He gripped the edge of the table and pushed himself deeper into his seat, scrutinizing her carefully. He was going to get up. He was going to leave. It was the final goodbye of all their goodbyes. “Why did this have to happen?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “Can you give me the answer to that? I would appreciate hearing it.” He released the table, leaning across it. “It is happening, though, isn’t it—another conflict of interest, shall we say? I’m stuck with that, aren’t I? So if I make an ass of myself, at least I can rationalize that an occasional failure builds character, can’t I? You might remember that axiom, too, Janet. It’s not healthy to insist upon winning all the time. In fact, life is full of compromises.” Janet wondered how many times Christopher had been defeated or forced into giving way an inch. “Are you following this, Janet?” he asked.

  She knew what he was saying. She wanted to believe that he cared enough about her to be upset at the thought of their being at cross-purposes. But wanting to believe and believing weren’t the same thing. “No?” he challenged her. “Then at least follow this much. Our efforts indicate there’s no profit to be made from reopening these old mines. I’m not saying we won’t come up with something yet. I’m telling you what we’ve got so far. So for the present you’re battling a boogeyman that isn’t there. That’s a waste of effort, don’t you think?” He reached for her hands, resting nervously on the tabletop, and squeezed them. She didn’t pull away. She wanted the reassurance he was giving. “Janet. Janet, Janet,” he chanted. The way her name sounded on his lips sent shivers of pleasure along her spine. “Why make life more complicated than it is? If my team turns up a bonanza of gold in the next couple of days, can’t we deal with that when it happens? There are too many constructive things we could be doing in the meantime—getting to know each other better, for one. Don’t you want that? I thought you did yesterday. Was I wrong?”

  “Hey, you two!” Janet and Christopher were so engrossed that Roger had reached the table without their noticing. Janet was startled, and quickly attempted to pull her hands free of Christopher’s strong fingers. Christopher refused to let go, however. A glass of water almost tipped over during the momentary tug of-war. “We’re moving out,” Roger announced, flashing an I-hate-to-bother-you-two-love-birds smile.

  “Fine,” Christopher said, unfazed by Janet’s embarrassment. “We’ll be along in a minute. Oh, yes, Janet will be riding with me for the first few miles. Right, Janet?” As usual, he caught her off guard. She had expected to use the next couple of hours to carefully analyze all he had said to assure herself that it made as much sense as she thought it did. “I have an old mine site to check out in the direction your group is headed,” Christopher explained. “I’ve arranged to tag along part of the way—something about safety in numbers.”

  “Oh,” Janet said, wishing she had something else to say. She was on an emotional roller coaster. She went from the depths of despair one moment to the heights of ecstasy the next. She was definitely on an upswing now.

  Roger didn’t stick around for Janet’s confirmation, already out the door to tell Tim and Jill the latest development. He had done the same thing at Lionspride when Christopher had told him Janet was staying for supper. This time, however, Janet didn’t mind as much. She would find time to herself later. She would methodically go over all of this. She was enjoying this latest turn of events while she could. Heaven only knew what waited around the next perilous corner.

  “Ready?” Christopher asked, coming to his feet without releasing her hands.

  “Yes.” she said, standing. She wasn’t angry with him any longer. She was angry with herself for not getting things out in the open the night before. She could have saved herself a night of tossing, turning, and worry.

  They followed Roger outside to the official caravan. As head of the government research team, Dr. Jom Nhari was in the first Land Rover with three associates. Dr. Nhari was one of the Shona tribe, whose forefathers were thought to have built the city of Great Zimbabwe. His ancestors had walked the land when there had been nothing but themselves, the wildlife and the uncivilized landscape. Dr. Nhari had two degrees from Oxford and could hold his own in any intellectual circle. However, he hadn’t lost sight of his roots. He had been one of the first exiles to return to Zimbabwe after the revolution, bypassing far more prestigious jobs to join the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management. Even then he had balked at any cushy desk job, preferring to spend his time in the field. He, unlike Christopher, saw the importance of insuring that wildlife remained part of the African heritage.

  In the second Land Rover were two more of Dr. Nhari’s assistants and the tagging equipment. Arusha was driving. Roger, Tim and Jill, all grinning from ear to ear, were in the third vehicle, Roger behind the wheel.

  As soon as Janet and Christopher appeared, the cars started up. Christopher’s Land Rover brought up the rear as the expedition took to the dirt road. At the military encampment, two armed soldiers joined the party. Craig didn’t make an appearance. He knew where everyone was going. Christopher and Dr. Nhari had dutifully filed reports the night before.

  The ruins of the Great Enclosure were a ring of blackness in the morning twilight, exuding a special aura of enchantment. The ruins on the Acropolis were undefined among the shadows still shrouding the hilltop. A two-man helicopter lifted from a spot among the nearby trees, its lights preceding the caravan into the gradually diminishing darkness.

  Fifteen to twenty elephants had been spotted the previous afternoon, and it was those animals that concerned the team today. A radio transmitter would be attached to one of the elephants, making the whole herd easier to locate in the future. This method of marking, already used on several elephant groups, monitored herd movements. Knowing where the elephants were at any given time allowed the research team to return later for more detailed counting and the final transporting to Wankie.

  Any interruptions of a signal, or its too-long transmission from the same place, warned of a possibly d
ead elephant. Daily checks from the air were run on all “bugged” herds in hopes of keeping poachers in check, but the method wasn’t foolproof. Time and expense prohibited the team from affixing transmitting devices to every elephant, and poachers had no trouble spotting those animals wearing them. By leaving a marked animal alone, but killing its unmarked companions, poachers could remain undetected on government monitoring devices.

  The dawn broke in the east, splashing pale yellows across the horizon. The tip of the sun appeared through a break in the distant trees. “Beautiful!” Christopher said. He wasn’t looking at the sunrise but at Janet.

  “Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said, nonetheless pleased by his compliment. The only thing making the morning less than perfect was the presence of his high-powered rifle.

  “I’m not the only one in the group with a weapon,” Christopher reminded her. Just by looking at her, he seemed to be able to tell what she was thinking. “It doesn’t mean I’m hell-bent on killing every helpless animal I see. It means I have protection against the men who might not like me nosing around.”

  “I know that,” Janet said. Christopher had more than enough money. She didn’t envision him stalking animals on the game reserve when there were spots in Africa where he could legally hunt most animals, elephants included, by paying across the table.

  The next couple of hours were wonderful. The presence of the gun continued to disturb her, so Janet blanked out the thought of it. Her immediate concern was saving elephants, and his rifle wouldn’t be used for killing any of them—not here anyway.

  She and Christopher didn’t keep up a running conversation, which was more relaxing than making the attempt. Only people uncomfortable with each other tried to fill every silence. If Janet wasn’t completely at ease, she wasn’t in her usual state of panic, either. It helped that Christopher was being less aggressive these days. At the falls, it had been Janet who had initiated the kiss on the edge of the gorge. It had been Janet who had ended it. If she could continue at her own speed, there was a chance they might discover the joys of a meaningful relationship. Not that Janet was holding her breath. She had been dealt too many blows in the past to hold out much hope for Christopher’s becoming a major part of her future. But she was learning to seize the pleasures of the moment. Riding with Christopher, his hair catching the morning light, was definitely a pleasure. He looked more at home than at Lionspride, or decked out in gear for a descent into the mine.