Love's Golden Spell

by William Maltese

  She was afraid, very afraid. She shivered, even though she was now walking in the full blast of the afternoon sun.

  “Janet!” It was Roger calling her from the dirt road. He had spotted her emergence into a small clearing. She didn’t hear him. He called again, but she was still preoccupied. He hurried to intercept her, standing directly in her path. She looked through him, her thoughts elsewhere. “Janet? Are you okay?” he asked in a concerned tone.

  Her eyes focused. She was surprised to see him. “Where did you come from?” she asked. He seemed to have materialized from thin air.

  “The question is: where were you?” Roger countered. “You looked a million miles away.”

  “Did I?” Janet said noncommittally.

  “I’ve spent hours looking for you,” Roger chided. “I never would have found you if Dr. Nhari hadn’t told me where he left you earlier.”

  “I had some thinking to do,” Janet confessed.

  Roger didn’t pry. “Well, now you’ve packing to do,” he said. “We’re kicked out as of ten o’clock tomorrow morning. This latest incident was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.”

  “Which latest incident?” Janet asked. Time was rapidly running out for her.

  “One of Christopher’s people was badly wounded,” Roger said. “The guy apparently stumbled onto a couple of poachers knocking the horns off a rhino they’d killed.”

  “Melissa? Suzy?” Janet asked, horror-struck.

  “No, but those poachers weren’t too happy to see him,” Roger said. “They turned on him. It’s a wonder he didn’t die on the spot. I got some footage, in case you want something besides the stampede to emphasize how poachers are no more concerned about human than animal life. But it might be too gory.” They were walking side by side. The hotel appeared through the trees. “That makes two, and Captain Sylo refuses to take the responsibility for one of us making it three,” he said. He anticipated her question. “That soldier who got it in the stampede died early this afternoon.”

  “Oh, no!” Janet said, shaking her head. She had to talk to Christopher, even if she didn’t know yet what she planned to say to him. She hoped she would when the time came.

  “Christopher was anxious to tell you himself,” Roger said. “He ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, looking for you a while ago. I told him I’d get word to you that supper was off for this evening. He seemed sincerely disappointed about breaking the date.” Roger suppressed a smile. The moment didn’t call for levity. “But he felt his place was at the hospital.”

  “Does he know about Craig’s decision?” Janet asked. If Christopher was at the hospital, he had too much on his mind to hear her confessions.

  “I’ll say he knows,” Roger verified. “Captain Sylo was seeing red when he told him. The wounded man was shot miles from where he was supposed to be. Captain Sylo kept waving papers in Christopher’s face, saying the military wasn’t responsible when people filled out reports that put them in a different place from where they actually were.”

  Janet could imagine Craig’s frustration. He had expressed concern about that very problem when he and Janet were returning from Victoria Falls. He had regretted not talking to Christopher about it then. He couldn’t position his men to protect someone when he didn’t know where that someone was. It was natural that he would want the area cleared, considering these continual violations of procedure.

  At least Christopher knew Craig’s deadline. He would get to her before then. He loved her. It wouldn’t end like this. They had arrangements to make; there were things unsaid that needed saying.

  “Janet, are you sure you’re all right?” Roger asked.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted, and gave him a reassuring smile. She wasn’t fooling anybody—not Roger—certainly not herself.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ROGER, TIM, AND JILL insisted she join them for supper. They argued that her missing another meal was the last thing she needed.

  The restaurant buzzed with the latest gossip, and it didn’t take Roger long to find out what had happened. He was in good with most of the men on Dr. Nhari’s research team, the doctor included. He table-hopped after he ordered his meal.

  “Okay, fill us in,” Jill said, chewing on a piece of tough steak. She hadn’t waited for Roger’s return before starting to eat and had avoided close-ups of the wounded man from the V.H.A.M. team for fear of ruining her appetite. She was learning how to survive in the field.

  “Looks like Van Hoon threw a monkey wrench in Captain Sylo’s attempts to vacate the area of all civilians,” Roger informed. “Van Hoon went over Sylo’s head with a few phone calls. Word came down that the captain was overruled. He’s understandably miffed.”

  “We get to stay?” Janet asked, her heart leaping at the news of her reprieve. She should have known Christopher would find a way for them to stay together awhile longer.

  “Not we,” Roger said, digging into his steak and mashed potatoes. “Van Hoon and his team. If you can convince the government people in Salisbury that we’re here to make them rich by finding gold, too, we might get to stay. Since that’s unlikely, we’re scheduled to leave tomorrow. So are Dr. Nhari and his people. Think we’ve got enough footage to put a show together?”

  Janet didn’t know or care about the footage. She didn’t care about her show. Christopher was staying in Great Zimbabwe, and she was leaving. Christopher’s primary concern was the possibility of finding gold. Company profits came first. He apparently thought he and Janet could pick up their relationship elsewhere, at any time. Maybe in Fort Victoria. He could stop by a seedy hotel room on weekends and tell her he loved her between references to the latest geological reports. She could go back to Johannesburg and wait for him at Lionspride, amusing herself with closets full of designer clothes and shelves stocked with expensive perfumes. Of chief importance was the Great Zimbabwe gold potential and the efforts of Christopher and his team to define it.

  She needn’t have been worried about the part she’d played in his past. He didn’t really care. She was a diversion, cast aside whenever more important things came along. It had happened at Lionspride when the diamond showed up. It was happening here with the gold. If he came back and found her gone, he would accept it with a shrug. He had succeeded in keeping his men on the spot, and that was what was important. They could give him gold. He was lucky to get a kiss from Janet.

  “Excuse me,” she said, getting up from the table. None of them was surprised, but their sympathy for her was evident. Janet wished she had someone to talk over her problems with—maybe Roger. But no, she couldn’t—not with him, not with anyone. What was wrong with her was too personal to be shared, even now.

  She went to her room and packed, after which she sat in one of the armchairs and waited. An hour later, Roger, Tim and Jill stopped by to make sure she was okay. She said she was fine and sent them on their way. She went back to the chair.

  She waited for Christopher, even though she knew she waited in vain. He was too tied up in outmaneuvering Craig to give her a thought. Nevertheless, she wanted him to care.

  By five after two in the morning, the normal sounds of the hotel had long since subsided around her. She heard the tapping on her door. The sound was almost imperceptible. So was the voice. “Janet?” It wasn’t too much to hope it was he, even it 2:00 A.M. Her room lights signaled her invitation. She opened the door.

  “Hi,” Christopher said. “Sorry about the hour, but I couldn’t get away sooner.” Because she thought it was a dream, she fell into his open arms. Because she wanted it to be real, she lifted her eager lips to his. She experienced the wondrous taste and feel of him. “A greeting like that makes me want to turn around and come back in again,” he said, ending the deep and lengthy kiss. His hair was golden. His eyes were molten, as hypnotizing as the glow of the porch lamp that mesmerized dancing night insects. “Think it’s safe to let me in?” he asked. A wide smile dimpled his cheeks. “It might cause talk.”

>   She stepped back, dazed and overjoyed by his return. “I’m sorry about the man from your team,” she said.

  She suddenly knew why Christopher was there. He wanted to convince her it was now or never for them. She must leave Great Zimbabwe, kicked out as a result of Craig’s understandable paranoia. Christopher must stay on for business. They didn’t have much time. He’d gone through too much trouble to let things stand without one final shot. He’d played the perfect gentleman since Victoria Falls, and he wanted his just desserts for his restraint.

  “Hey, what’s this?” he asked. It was obviously her suitcase, and he knew it. He looked at her, shaking his head. “You think I’m going to let you walk out of my life!” he said. It wasn’t a question.

  “Do we have a choice in the matter?” she replied. She wanted him to say yes. “Craig’s instructions say ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”

  “I fixed that, or didn’t you hear?” he said. Janet resisted her desire to return to his arms.

  “You fixed it for you to stay,” she said, and moved farther away from him. “Something was said about the government’s greed for gold overriding Craig’s concern for your safety. That has nothing to do with me.”

  “Oh, Janet, you little fool!” he said.

  “Don’t touch me, please!” she warned him. If he took her in his arms again, she was his—for a moment, for an evening, for as long as he wanted. She wanted her pride, and he could steal it with a kiss. He won, but she didn’t want him to know about his victory. Yet she was disappointed when he didn’t reach out and take her triumphantly in his arms, when he didn’t kiss her, when he didn’t take her in his arms.

  He took hold of her suitcase instead. He would help her on her way. Good riddance to a tease! The suitcase keys were on the corner of the dresser; he saw them. “Christopher?” He opened her bag, carried it effortlessly to the bed. “Stop it!” she insisted as he upturned the contents on the spread. He dropped the empty bag on the floor.

  “I’ve unpacked for you,” he said, scooping her belongings up in two massive fistfuls and stuffing them into the dresser drawers. The scene was so ludicrous, she almost laughed. “There,” he said. One drawer was so overflowing he couldn’t shut it. He folded his arms across his chest, leaned against the open drawer and faced her. “You should have known better than to pack in the first place.”

  “Oh? How should I have known that?” Her heart beat faster. Her throat muscles constricted, making it difficult to speak.

  “You knew I was staying. You didn’t think I would let the woman I love leave, did you?” His left eyebrow arched. “Or did you?”

  She could play his game, fall into his arms and thank him for not forgetting her. She could surrender her body to his. In the morning, when it turned out he was lying and she must leave anyway, she would have memories of one night together. But that wasn’t enough.

  “What do you want?” he asked. She hated the easy way he put the responsibility on her shoulders.

  “You didn’t make arrangements for me to stay,” she accused him hotly. “You know why? I’ll tell you! I don’t have the expertise to find gold. Gold is your chief interest. All the rest is a clever diversion to get me into bed. That’s all it’s ever been.”

  He was surprised. Apparently he didn’t think women had much reasoning power. They merely fell all over him, believing every lie and cockamamie story he told them. She was the exception. It made no difference that she wanted to believe him, because she knew better.

  “And that’s what you think?” he asked, shaking his head. He almost managed to make her feel guilty for seeing through him. “Well, that’s great. Great! I do all I can to get us more time together, and you think it’s a plot to get you in the sack for one evening. Well, I won’t deny I want you in bed, although God only knows why I’m stupid enough to keep trying for the impossible! But you’re wrong to think I’d be satisfied with one night. As I’ve told you before, you underestimate yourself—which continues to be to my advantage. You’d have a field day if you knew what control you really have over me.”

  She wouldn’t be fooled. She wasn’t buying his role of gullible male. She’d bought it at Victoria Falls, and look what it had gotten her. “Why here at Great Zimbabwe?” she asked, pleased with herself. He looked confused, and she made her question clearer, “Why not invite me to Lionspride for a get-acquainted holiday? Or suggest I take a hotel in Johannesburg while we explore our relationship a little further? It’s Great Zimbabwe because of the gold. You can’t simultaneously find gold and seduce me elsewhere.”

  She sensed his anger. His muscles tensed beneath the hugging contours of his tight-fitting shirt. “I have more faith in our relationship than you apparently do,” he said. He was twisting things. He always did. He was good at shifting the blame, but she was prepared this time. There was no way this was her fault.

  “Gold!” she repeated. “It’s what runs in your veins instead of blood. If you really cared, you’d leave with me instead of staying to find it.”

  “I seriously considered leaving with you tomorrow,” he said. He was up to something. She could feel it in her bones. He was determined to win her over. It was a game, always a game. The more she insisted, the more important it was for him to triumph. “How easy running would be,” he said. “Too easy.”

  She didn’t see it that way. What was he saying? He wanted to confuse her. “I see what I see!” she said with finality. She saw a man she loved and had loved for sixteen years. He was pretending to offer her so much while offering so little.

  “You think our running would solve the problem?” he asked. “It wouldn’t, Janet. Whether the elephants get to Wankie or are slaughtered on the spot, the Zimbabwe government will want mineral experts back here. You and I won’t change that by leaving before the job is done. Nor does the Great Zimbabwe Reserve have a better chance of survival without Van Hoon Afrikaner Minerals poking around. My company isn’t the only one with the expertise to analyze the area’s gold potential. We happen to be the one contracted for the job. Pull V.H.A.M. out, and someone else takes our place and reaps the profits. That’s the reality, but you and I surely can face it and survive.” Oh, he was so clever! “Finding gold here can bring the bogeyman out of his closet and make us deal with him. I’ve been in business long enough to know a satisfactory compromise can be worked out between two people. You may not see one right now—I might not see one, but we’re not solving anything by refusing to admit the problem exists or by refusing to look for a solution. No relationship is perfect, Janet. Never. In fact, perfection is horribly boring, don’t you think?”

  She wanted perfection. She had had it sixteen years before. Or had she? All the heartache, longing and sorrow that had come after that summer was what had made those weeks so special in the end. She resented Christopher for giving her that insight. It made no difference that she was in Africa to smash childhood illusions; she wasn’t going to let them go. She had never intended to let them go. She wanted a return to those good times; that’s what she was doing here. He was telling her there wasn’t perfection in his arms, and there never had been. Not only that—she would find it boring if there were. “I think. I might like a perfect relationship—for once in my life,” she said.

  He shook his head. He knew better. He knew everything. He knew nothing! “It’s the downs of a relationship that make the highs so ecstatic,” he told her. “It’s the give and take, the ability to make something work, no matter what the odds, that give the greatest satisfaction. Our love can work, Janet. We can make it work—together I’m willing to take the chance. You should be willing, too.”

  “I’m scared,” she said. She was, in fact, panic-stricken. She wanted it to work too much, and that was the problem. When her marriage to Bob had been on the rocks, she had told herself it would have been different with Christopher. Whenever she found her life wanting, she had told herself the same thing. What if it wasn’t?

  “Of course you’re scared,” he said. He came to
her. She wanted him to take her in his arms and hold her close, and he did. She wanted him to tell her everything was going to be all right, but he didn’t. “I’m scared, too,” he said. “More scared than you, because I haven’t loved in sixteen years. At least you had your husband.” Yes, she had loved Bob in her way. Not this way, though—neither this deeply nor this intensely. The fear of losing Bob had never filled her with the horror she felt at even the prospect of losing Christopher again. “But fear is part of it,” Christopher assured her. “Conquering fear is another part—a wonderful part,” he insisted.

  He kissed her then. It was a kiss like none she’d had before, not even in his arms. It took hold, its magic once again transforming dreams into reality.

  He loved her and he wasn’t going to let her leave. He wanted them together, facing whatever the future held. He was confident things would work out, and she couldn’t be a coward. She was a fool to complicate their lives with problems that hadn’t materialized and possibly never would. So far there wasn’t enough gold at Great Zimbabwe to warrant the expense of getting it out. There was a good chance there never would be. She hoped so, but Christopher was right. Maybe if they worked together they could find a solution to whatever emotional conflict a major gold discovery at Great Zimbabwe would bring.

  With hungry lips, he demanded the willing response she gave him. Their mouths opened slightly with the pressure. He took her breath away, and his own breath was ragged with emotion.

  She slid her arms around him, savoring the hardness of his muscle beneath his contoured shirt.

  “I love you,” he said. There was never any doubt in Janet’s mind that she loved him. She had loved him for sixteen long years.