Jennifer sighed as she picked a leaf off the tree and twisted it between her fingers. 'You must remember how crazy he used to be about flying.'
'I remember,' Mike smiled reminiscently. 'He used to spend every free moment careering about the sky.' His hand tightened on Jennifer's arm. 'He crashed his Cessna, is that it?'
'He overshot the runway for some reason, and ploughed into the trees,' she explained, the horror of it all swimming before her eyes. 'The fuel tank exploded almost at once.'
'Were you there when it happened?'
'Yes, I was there,' she nodded, then she shut her mind to the memory of that terrifying morning on the airfield, and said firmly, 'Let's talk about something else.'
'I second that.'
She glanced up at Alike curiously. 'Are you married yet?'
'Not a chance,' he laughed, his eyes crinkling up at the corners in the old familiar way. 'I intend playing the field for some time before I put the noose of marriage around my neck.'
Her smile was slightly admonishing, but when she glanced back at the house, she said: 'It looks as though Dr Tremayne is ready to leave.'
'I hope we'll meet again, Jennifer, and I don't mean under these circumstances,' he remarked as they strolled back towards the house. 'Will you have dinner with me some time?'
'I'm afraid I can't promise you anything,' she replied ruefully. 'I must be here if Mrs Maynard should need me. You understand that, don't you?'
'You'll find my telephone number in the book,' he persisted. 'Give me a ring if you have any free time, and I'll think up something entertaining.'
'I can imagine what that "something entertaining" will be,' she laughed knowingly, and an injured look flashed across his lean face.
'I've always been on my best behaviour with you, haven't I?'
'Only because I've always been able to see right through you,' she reminded him humorously.
'That's unfortunately true,' he grinned down at her moments before they joined the others.
Jennifer had a few words with Dr Tremayne and Mike when they eventually walked out to the car, but she was conscious of Hunter's glowering expression as he accompanied them, and it made her feel decidedly uncomfortable.
'See you, darling,' Mike said lightly, winking at Jennifer as he climbed into Dr Tremayne's car, and when it disappeared down the drive Hunter turned to face Jennifer with that familiar chilling hostility in his glance.
'Knowing Mike Hoffman's reputation with women, I take it that you and he were lovers once?'
Jennifer's first reaction was one of anger, then she changed her mind and said lightly, 'You may take it whichever way you please.'
'Quite a coincidence, isn't it, that you should run into each other here in Oudtshoorn—and very convenient too, I might add,' Hunter remarked, narrowing his mocking eyes against the sun, and Jennifer clenched her right hand at her side when she felt her palm itching with the desire to make violent contact with his smug face.
'Your insinuations that I knew of Mike's presence here in Oudtshoorn are quite unfounded, but it is convenient meeting an old friend once again,' she replied, and she would have walked up to the house to join Alice Maynard on the verandah if steely fingers had not latched on to her wrist.
'What you do in your free time is no concern of mine, Sister Casey, but I hope you don't intend to neglect my mother.'
She twisted her wrist free of his disturbing touch and raised her glance to find his eyes blazing down into hers with a contemptuous look that seemed to sear her soul, and she resorted to defiance as her only weapon against the inexplicable pain lunging through her heart.
'I'm not in the habit of neglecting my duties, Mr Maynard,' she said, raising her chin and holding his glance, 'and personal pleasures have always had to take second place.'
His mouth tightened ominously. 'I'm very glad to hear that.'
Hunter strode off in the opposite direction to what Jennifer was taking and, thankful for this slight respite, she joined Alice Maynard on the verandah.
'I have been hoping that your relationship with my son would improve in time, but it seems as though my hopes were in vain,' Mrs Maynard observed shrewdly, her glance travelling to the imprint of Hunter's fingers which were still clearly visible against Jennifer's wrist.
'Don't let it trouble you, Mrs Maynard.'
Alice's grey glance rested on the white-clad figure of the slim young woman seated in the cane chair opposite her, then a slight frown appeared on her brow. 'How well do you know Dr Hoffman?'
The question was unexpected, but Jennifer's calm expression did not waver for an instant. 'I've known him since I was a student nurse, but he left Cape Town eighteen months ago, and somehow we lost contact with each other, as neither of us are very good correspondents.'
'Was he someone special?'
'Not in the way you mean, Mrs Maynard,' Jennifer replied with a spark of laughter in her hazel eyes. 'He was a special friend, and nothing more.'
The older woman lowered her glance a little guiltily. 'I suppose you think I'm a prying old woman.'
It was a statement, not a question, and Jennifer's glance softened as she leaned forward in her chair to clasp her patient's hands. 'I think you're a wonderfully warm-hearted person who takes an avid interest in the people around her, and that's a quality I admire very much.'
The conversation drifted in a different direction after that, and mainly to Dr Tremayne's suggestion that Alice Maynard was improving to the extent that she could make use of crutches in future, instead of relying so constantly on the wheelchair. She was excited about this development, and confessed that she could hardly wait for Hunter to collect the crutches in town that afternoon.
Jennifer did not see Hunter again until they sat down to lunch, and then he ignored Jennifer completely by speaking only to his mother. It hurt, strangely enough, but she was determined not to let his manner affect her in any serious way.
'I'm going to my room,' Alice Maynard said at last, and Jennifer rose thankfully from the table to accompany her from the dining-room.
Hunter was nowhere in sight when Jennifer stepped out on to the verandah some minutes later to see Stanley Maynard climb out of his car and walk towards her where she awaited him on the steps.
'Good afternoon, Stanley,' she welcomed him with a smile and, feeling a little uncomfortable under that hungry glance of his, she said quickly, 'I'm sorry, but Mrs Maynard is resting at the moment. She would have been glad to see you, though.'
'I came to see you, Jennifer.'
'Oh,' she managed, taken aback.
'I'm on my way to town, and I thought you might like to go in with me,' he explained, his imploring glance meeting hers.
'I'm afraid I can't come with you.'
Anger instantly sparked in his eyes. 'Aunt Alice certainly keeps you securely tied to her wheelchair, doesn't she?'
'It's not like that, Stanley, and you know it,' she replied gently. 'Until your aunt is more mobile I must stay close in case I'm needed.'
'Yes, of course, I know that,' he acknowledged grudgingly. Is there anything I could get you in town?' he asked after a moment of deliberation.
'You could perhaps save Mr Maynard a trip into town by collecting his mother's crutches from the hospital.'
'Not on your life, I won't!' he brushed aside her suggestion roughly, and Jennifer glanced at him in surprise.
'Why don't you like your cousin?'
'I can't stand smart alecks who always think they know better than anyone else,' he replied with a sullen look on his face as she walked with him towards his car. 'Hunter thought once he could come and shunt me around on my own farm, but he was mistaken,' he added fiercely.
Jennifer could think of nothing to say, not after having heard from Alice Maynard how Hunter had tried to give assistance to his cousin who was by nature a lazy, unmethodical farmer, and she could not help thinking again that Stanley's angry remarks had been sparked off by a certain amount of jealousy and envy.
'Jennife
r…' Stanley's hands gripped hers unexpectedly. You will come out to Featherstone with me one day soon, won't you?'
Jennifer had always felt a certain sympathy towards someone who had been unfortunate enough to be endowed with a weak character, and smiling up at Stanley, she said: 'I would like to visit your home very much.'
'I'll be looking forward to that day, then,' he smiled, releasing her hands and climbing into his car. 'Cheerio.'
Jennifer waved him off, but her hand fell swiftly to her side moments later when a mocking voice behind her remarked, 'Poor Stanley. Someone should really warn him that he's wasting his time.'
'I wouldn't do that, if I were you, Mr Maynard,' she replied in a similar vein as she turned to face him. 'You might just spoil the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.'
'Friendship?' he snorted contemptuously. 'Is that what they call an intimate relationship these days?'
'When one wants to be discreet about it, yes,' she replied coolly, raising her glance from the strong brown column of his throat to face the onslaught of his eyes.
'My God, I was right!' he exploded harshly, those wide shoulders tense beneath his bush jacket. 'Women were made by the devil himself!'
Their glances became locked together in fury and something else which she could not quite define, but a familiar red sports car flashed past them moments later, and his features relaxed visibly as he turned towards the dark-haired girl who slid out of her car and tripped lightly across the gravel drive to join them.
'Hunter!' Carla's lilting voice exclaimed, and wrapping her arms about his neck she kissed him unashamedly and lingeringly on the lips. 'Darling, I've missed you!'
Amusement lurked in his glance as he looked a long way down into Carla's large, liquid-brown eyes. 'Have you?'
'You know I have,' she replied to his teasing query, and Jennifer experienced yet another stab of something she would rather not define, then Carla directed her gaze away from Hunter. 'Hello, Sister Casey. I passed Stanley on the way here. Has he become a regular visitor lately?'
'Not yet,' Hunter replied to her query before Jennifer had the opportunity to do so. 'Stanley is still hoping that Sister Casey will allow him to become one of her… er… special friends.'
'Really?' Carla observed dryly, her eyes searching Jennifer's cool, expressionless features which hid successfully the churning anger within her. 'I can't think why anyone would want Stanley as a special friend, can you?' she asked Hunter, but her curiously speculative glance did not stray from Jennifer.
'Perhaps Sister Casey would be the best one to answer that,' Hunter flung the ball into Jennifer's court with a marked cynicism in his voice.
A cold, clinical anger sliced through her as she faced him, and her voice assumed an icy tone which surprised even herself. 'I owe no one an explanation for being civil to a member of your family, Mr Maynard. If you've misinterpreted my actions, then I can't help that, but I won't be mocked, and I won't have a degrading inference placed on the two innocent encounters I've had with your cousin.'
Having dispersed with some of her pent-up anger, she turned on her heel and headed towards the house, but Hunter's mocking voice stopped her in her tracks when she reached the steps.
'That was a superb performance, Sister Casey,' he announced, and when she turned reluctantly to face him, he added derisively, 'I didn't know you could add acting to your list of accomplishments.'
Jennifer stood as if turned to stone while the heat of humiliation stole into her cheeks. She could have tolerated that, and more, she realised afterwards, but Carla's high-pitched laugh had sliced through her composure, and she had fled into the house with inexplicable tears blurring her vision.
She could not care less what Hunter Maynard thought of her, she told herself when she reached her room and had managed to regain control of herself. He was her temporary employer, and a man she had met barely a few weeks ago. His opinion meant nothing to her, and yet… Why did it hurt so much that he should treat her with such hostility and contempt?
She opened the doors leading out on to the balcony, hoping for a cool breeze to cool her face as well as her room, but the unfamiliar sound of Hunter's soft laughter drifted up towards her, and she closed the doors almost forcibly once more before she flung herself on to her bed and tried to rid herself of the feelings clamouring so madly within her; feelings which demanded to be analysed, but which she knew she dared not.
Carla's car was not there when Jennifer went down to Mrs Maynard's room later that afternoon, and when Hunter did not have tea with them, as was his usual custom, she surmised that he had gone off somewhere with Carla.
Jennifer's assumption proved incorrect, however, for Hunter arrived home an hour later in his truck, and from the cab he produced a pair of crutches which he placed against the wall beside his mother's chair.
'Dr Tremayne asked me to repeat his warning that you don't try to do too much too soon,' he addressed his mother without so much as a cursory glance in Jennifer's direction.
'Dr Tremayne fusses like an old woman,' Alice Maynard grumbled.
'He was nevertheless insistent,' Hunter told her dryly, 'and I echo his wishes.'
'Yes, yes, I'm sure you do,' his mother replied impatiently. 'Help me out of this chair so I can try these infernal crutches.'
'I would like to suggest that you leave that until after you've had a good night's rest, Mrs Maynard,' Jennifer interrupted for the first time. 'You'll find the effort strenuous at first, and you'll need all your wits about you to adapt to walking with crutches.'
'Sister Casey is right,' Hunter acknowledged her existence for the first time. 'I suggest you take her advice.'
'What is this?' Alice Maynard demanded crossly. 'Are you both taking sides against me?'
'What I suggested was for your own good, Mrs Maynard,' Jennifer replied with calm, unmistakable sincerity.
'I know that,' her patient sighed, 'but you can't blame me for being in a hurry to get out of this contraption and on to my feet once more.'
'Be patient a little longer,' Jennifer advised, and Alice Maynard nodded grudgingly, her eyes following Hunter as he took the crutches through to her bedroom.
Jennifer's glance followed that tall, broad-shouldered frame as well, but her eyes mirrored a certain relief as her nerves slowly and painfully began to unravel themselves once more.
The following morning, while Jennifer was massaging Alice's legs and assisting her with her daily exercises, the older woman said unexpectedly, 'Tell me about your fiancé. Did you love him very much?'
Taken aback by this query, Jennifer could not at first reply, then she said quietly, 'I found in him all I ever wanted in a man.'
Alice Maynard smiled wryly. 'That still doesn't answer my question.'
'I loved him very much, yes,' Jennifer admitted reluctantly, but suddenly she had the uncomfortable feeling that she was referring to something which never existed, and she wondered vaguely why this should be so.
'You'll learn to love again,' Mrs Maynard announced knowingly, and Jennifer shook her head a little confusedly.
'I don't think so.'
'Oh, of course you will,' the older woman insisted, puffing a little from the exertion of the exercises Jennifer was putting her through. 'It will be a different kind of love, perhaps, but you'll learn to love someone again.'
Jennifer smiled inwardly. 'I should like to think I might.'
'I wish Hunter would find himself a nice girl to love; someone who would give him back his faith in women,' Alice remarked at length with a sigh. 'He's become hard over the years, and at thirty-five he's not so young any more.'
'Was there someone once?' Jennifer questioned her cautiously without looking up from her task.
'When he was in his early twenties, yes,' the older woman admitted, then she paused almost guiltily before continuing. 'She was a beautiful girl, and I think he was coming close to thinking of marriage when he discovered that he was merely one of the many men in her life. That seemed to finish him as
far as women were concerned, and now he's become a crusty, boorish old bachelor.'
A glimmer of understanding lifted the shadows in Jennifer's heart, but only just a fraction as she looked up at Alice Maynard and said: 'He seems to be fond of Carla von Brandis.'
'I know.' Alice Maynard's expression became shuttered. 'I think you can help me get dressed now, then I'd like to try out those crutches, if you don't mind.'
Mrs Maynard's voice sounded abrupt, and very much like Hunter's at that moment, but Jennifer also received the impression of vague displeasure in her manner. She wondered why, but it was not her place to delve too deeply into her patient's personal affairs, and she left it at that.
CHAPTER FOUR
Alice Maynard displayed a unique determination when she attacked the problem of walking with crutches. She persevered, enjoying the freedom of movement until her armpits ached, and Jennifer finally had to adopt a threatening attitude to encourage her into a chair.
'You're overdoing it, Mrs Maynard,' she accused severely.
'Nonsense!' Alice protested. 'I'm sure I could walk normally if I tried.'
'You will do no such thing!'
Alice Maynard looked up suddenly and laughed. 'You remind me of my sister when you use that tone of voice.'
'Please don't do anything silly like putting your weight on to that leg until Dr Tremayne thinks it's safe for you to do so,' Jennifer pleaded, relaxing her attitude slightly, but not entirely. 'I would be neglecting my duty if I didn't warn you of the consequences of such an action.'
'I know, I know,' Alice muttered. 'I could injure my hip and the whole process would have to be repeated from the start, but I warn you, my patience is wearing thin.'
'Your patience will be rewarded, I promise you,' Jennifer assured her, taking her arm and lowering her into a chair in the living-room.
It was a cool, cloudy day, with the promise of rain in the offing. The Swartberg mountains were shrouded in mist, and by the time Agnes served them with warm scones and tea, it was pouring outside.
'Baas Hunter won't be come for tea, Oumies Maynard,' Agnes told Alice. 'Baas Hunter and Danny are working on the tractor in the shed.'
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