by Anne Hampson
As they were leaving he mentioned his cousin Linda. She would be coming in a fortnight’s time, along, with his sister and her children.
‘Linda’s an orphan and lives with Susan,’ he went on to explain. ‘She used to get on famously with Mirrie - and so she’ll be bound to be over to see who has come to live at Karunda.’
‘We’ll be delighted to have her,’ returned Jon. ‘In fact, you must bring them all. Perhaps you’ll come to tea one afternoon?’
‘Thanks, we will.’
A short while later Teri and Jon had left Brand’s lovely house, set in its beautifully-landscaped grounds with its graceful lawns, and its rock gardens planted with succulents indigenous to this semi-arid countryside. They walked along in silence for a while, enjoying the peace, the air blowing cool and fresh on their faces, its saturation of exotic perfume assailing their nostrils. Etched against the purple sky, gums and poplars straggling the river’s edge marked the boundary between the two farms; they swayed, repeatedly blanking out the stars, and then revealing them again.
‘I thoroughly enjoyed that little break.’ Jon spoke at last, breaking the vast silence around them. ‘Did you enjoy it, Teri?’
She smiled in the darkness and said,
‘Yes, Jon, I enjoyed it.’ A sense of guilt hung over her, because unconsciously she leant on her brother all the time. Her hurt should have been less than his, and yet she felt drained again once the company was left behind.
‘We’ll forget, in time,’ Jon murmured, as if sensing her thoughts. But his voice contained a little break and her heart went out to him. His home broken up, everything that he and Rosalind had collected with loving care, gone to strangers, for all their possessions had been put into the saleroom on Jon’s deciding to move to Africa.
‘It’s a tragedy that happens so often nowadays.’ Teri spoke her thoughts aloud and instantly regretted them, for in the ensuing silence she knew her brother’s thoughts were in the past.
‘I believe the answer’s in work,’ he said at length, ‘and also in mixing. Can we afford to invite those people to our house - for dinner, do you think?’
She shook her head.
‘Not just yet, Jon, but we can ask them for a sundowner, like Brand did this evening.’
‘We’ll do that, then.’ He was fighting, whereas she was allowing herself to become enmeshed in the coil of misery that seemed to be forever tightening. She would try, she suddenly decided, for what was past was past and neither she nor Jon had the power to undo it.
Brand brought Linda over on the day following her arrival at Candida Lodge. Teri saw them in the distance, swinging along at a leisurely trot. Then they crossed the bridge and a few moments later they were dismounting in the yard.
Brand introduced his cousin, a slim, vital girl with dark hair and laughing brown eyes. Teri had expected someone younger — in her teens - but now she guessed Linda’s age to be about twenty-two.
‘Hullo.’ Linda looked Teri over and presently added, ‘Yes, I approve of the new owner.’
‘Your manners, Linda!’ sharply from her cousin, but Linda merely laughed.
‘I’m like that,’ she told Teri. ‘You see, I loved this place - I still do, and I’d have hated it to have gone to someone I couldn’t like.’
Teri smiled; it was impossible not to do so for Linda was delightful, and so disarmingly frank.
‘I’m only joint owner,’ she informed Linda. ‘Mr. Royce will have told you Mirrie gave Karunda to my brother and me.’
‘He did.’ A pause while Linda looked up at her cousin. ‘Why the formality?’ she inquired of no one in particular.
‘Can’t say.’ Brand looked hard at Teri. ‘Everyone else uses my Christian name.’
Teri flushed and murmured that she had not liked to call him Brand.
‘You mustn’t be shy with him,’ scoffed Linda airily. ‘Women aren’t — not usually.’ A great deal seemed to be conveyed by that statement, and by the arch glance Linda cast at her cousin.
‘Where’s Jon?’ he asked, abruptly changing the subject.
‘In the dairy. I’ll fetch him.’ But first, she invited them inside and asked them to sit down. ‘I’ll make some coffee in a few minutes.’ She left them, and ran over to the dairy, feeling a strange lightness within her. It was almost a subconscious thing and no matter how she tried she could not account for it.
‘Brand’s here, and Linda,’ she said, and Jon immediately came out into the sunlight.
‘Have you given them refreshments?’
‘Not yet.’ She looked around. ‘Where’s Wendy? I thought she was with you.’
‘She’s with Johnson. He and a few of the boys are felling some trees.’
‘Felling trees?’ She frowned. Teri loved trees and always felt hurt if they had to be felled.
A small hesitation from Jon and then,
‘Over on the rough veld. Brand says that land can be put to good use when it’s cleared.’
Teri’s frown deepened.
‘I like the thick vegetation. It won’t be half as attractive when it’s cleared.’ Faint resentment again ... but it was not as strong as it would have been a week or so ago.
‘We’re here to make money, Teri,’ her brother reminded her gently, but although she nodded in agreement she just had to say,
‘Mirrie’s husband never bothered to clear it.’
‘Because he had cattle,’ with slight impatience from Jon. ‘We, on the other hand, are planting citrus trees.’ And he walked off, towards the stoep, where he took the steps two at a time and swiftly disappeared into the house.
Wendy came running in while they were having coffee, but at the door she stopped, looking at Linda.
‘Haven’t you brought your children?’ Her disappointment was written all over her face.
‘Children?’ Linda stared for a moment, then glanced at her cousin. ‘What’s all this about?’
‘Wendy’s a little mixed up.’ Brand beckoned to the child, who came into the room and stood close beside him. ‘This is Auntie Linda,’ he smiled. ‘It’s Auntie Susan who has the children.’
‘So you’re Wendy.’ Linda’s eyes settled on the child, then moved to her father’s face. ‘She’s sweet,’ she murmured, almost to herself.
‘Thank you.’ Jon gave his daughter a glass of lemonade which Teri had ready on the table. ‘You’ll have company tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Uncle Brand tells me that Auntie Susan had to go somewhere else today, but she and the children will come and see us tomorrow.’ Wendy’s face cleared at that, and she took a drink of her cordial.
‘I didn’t know there was another lady,’ she said, smiling at Linda. ‘Haven’t you got any children?’
‘No, Wendy, I haven’t, because I’m not married.’
‘You mean you haven’t got a daddy?’
‘That’s right.’
Wendy’s brow puckered.
‘When you do have a daddy will you have children?’
Linda laughed; she seemed delighted with the child.
‘I expect I will,’ she replied, still laughing.
‘Will you come and see us again?’ Wendy asked when Linda and her cousin were leaving about an hour later.
‘Yes, indeed I shall.’
‘Come lots of times.’
‘Very well - if your daddy and auntie don’t mind?’ she thought to add, glancing at Jon, who said she must come just whenever she liked.
They all came out into the yard and stood talking for a few minutes. Suddenly glancing down at Wendy, Teri saw that the child’s small hand was tightly clasped in that of Linda. Teri smiled to herself. Wendy was about the most uninhibited child she knew. All her life she would be popular, for even at this age she gave out, with amazing generosity for a child who was passing through the ‘yours and mine’ stage of development. The goodbyes were being said; Linda’s other hand came up from her side and touched Wendy’s fair curls.
‘So long for now, Little Dainty,’ she smiled, looking down at t
he child after mounting the gelding. ‘I’ll come and see you tomorrow.’
‘Will you stay longer than this?’ Wendy wanted to know, and Linda nodded.
‘Yes, I’ll stay longer.’
‘All right - and don’t forget to bring the children, Uncle Brand,’ Wendy said, transferring her gaze to the big man who was now astride his horse.
‘I’ll do that, you can be sure.’ Brand looked at Teri. She stood a little distance from the horse, her pale face caught in the shadows cast by a large plane-tree, but now and then the branches moved and sunbeams escaped, highlighting the beautiful contours of her face. Brand’s dark eyes flickered strangely and she wondered what he was thinking. Did he consider it strange for her to come here, burying herself on a farm where she could not possibly find male company? Had he - as she had already suspected - guessed there was a mystery? — something which both she and her brother were determined to conceal?
CHAPTER THREE
THE following morning Linda came on her own, driving Brand’s white car. She was going into Oaksville to do some shopping later on, she told Teri, but she was not in any hurry, apparently, because she took her coffee in a leisurely fashion and afterwards wandered about the garden, Wendy skipping alongside her. Teri watched them from the kitchen window, where she was busy watering the indoor plants. Jaru was cleaning out some cupboards which Teri had decided could be dispensed with, so giving her more room, for she wanted eventually to buy a unit she had seen in Oaksville. It was not expensive and when the maize was sold she felt she could afford to treat herself. She turned as Jaru spoke, asking if he could throw out some old pans. She nodded, thinking they could very well do without him, but he had been with Mirrie and immediately on their arrival he had turned up at Karunda and before Teri knew what was happening he had settled himself in.
Jon appeared, driving the tractor on to the yard; Teri saw him smile at Linda and after jumping down he stood talking to her, while Wendy played about, touching the flower heads and bending to smell them. After a while Teri went out to join Jon and Linda, and she seemed for the first time really to appreciate her surroundings. Flowering shrubs moved gently in the breeze, sending off their sweet scent into the warm air. The garden was alive with colour - the flash of a bluewinged insect among the flowers, the darting of a bird among the branches of the trees. Wendy was now fingering the long sword-like leaves of the cannas, then she bent again to put her small snub nose to the yellow flowers. Linda saw her and smiled. Her words came to Teri as she approached the place where Linda and Jon were standing.
‘I think your little daughter’s absolutely delightful, Jon. You must be very proud of her?’
‘I am, rather,’ he returned at once, but Teri heard the bitterness in his voice and knew he was thinking about Rosalind.
Linda opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. What had she been about to say? Teri wondered, feeling she might have been going to voice a question concerning Wendy’s mother.
Jon and Linda turned as Teri came up to them.
‘I really must be going,’ Linda said, smiling. And then she added apologetically, ‘As I told you, I always loved this place - much more than Brand’s farm. I don’t know why, because it never was so neat and orderly as his.’
‘Perhaps we shall eventually have it neat and orderly,’ returned Jon, and Linda immediately interrupted him with,
‘Don’t spoil it, Jon. Brand’s house is modern and orderliness suits its surroundings, but this house is older and should be allowed to rest in its rather higgledy- piggledy gardens.’
One of Jon’s rare laughs was heard, but it was Teri who spoke.
‘We’ll not spoil it, Linda, not if it rests with me. I love the gardens as they are. It’s easy to see that Mirrie simply planted things she liked, just anywhere where there happened to be a space.’
‘She did - and she was always begging from other people, or going out and collecting wild things.’ Linda spoke quietly and almost reverently. ‘I’m glad you’re not going to alter it too much.’ A moment later she slid into the car and started up the engine. ‘Brand and Susan and the children will be over after lunch as promised. I’ll be coming too, of course. ‘Bye for now.’
‘Goodbye, Auntie Linda - and mind how you go!’
Teri glanced swiftly at Jon; his face had paled and a tightness settled about his jaw. Wendy had learned those words from her mother, who always said them to Jon each morning when he went off to work in the car. Mind how you go. ... Rosalind must have been anxious about her husband in those days ... or was it all pretence?
Jon was waving as the car swung round. Linda waved through the window in response.
‘Shall we ask them to stay to tea?’ Jon spoke as the car disappeared behind the belt of oaks bordering the curving drive.
‘Ooh ... yes!’ Wendy said excitedly before Teri could reply. ‘It’ll be like a party.’
‘I think we can afford it,’ agreed Teri, and spent the rest of the morning baking and making a huge salad, which they would have with chicken. Then she made a trifle and Wendy stood there all the time she was decorating it with nuts and cherries and tiny coloured balls.
‘Do you think Karen and Selena will like me?’ she asked, looking anxiously at her aunt.
‘I’m sure they will.’
‘But the boy - Uncle Brand didn’t tell me his name, did he? Will he like me?’
‘I expect so. There isn’t any reason why he shouldn’t.’
‘No...’ Wendy became thoughtful, puckering her face as she always did, as if the effort of thinking caused her some pain. ‘But he’s a boy, and boys aren’t always nice to girls, are they?’
‘No, Wendy, they are not.’ The words spilled out, born of Teri’s own experience, and her voice broke. But instantly she added, to reassure the child, ‘I’m sure Uncle Brand’s nephew will be nice to you, though, my pet.’ Who couldn’t be nice to Wendy? The silent question was answered with a deep and shuddering sigh. Rosalind seemed to have adored Wendy, and yet she could leave her, not knowing who would care for her.
From lunch time onwards Wendy was in a state of excitement, for since coming to Karunda she had never had a playmate. At home in England there were the neighbours’ children, and also Wendy had attended a nursery school for three half-days a week.
‘She’s a gem, really,’ Teri said to her brother when on noting his daughter’s excitement he remarked on her lonely state. ‘She enjoys being with one or other of us, and she has certainly taken to the boys.’
Jon nodded, remembering how Wendy had shrunk from them at first, asking why they had black faces. But now she was perfectly happy to be with them, either on the tractor or in the fields. They in turn were wonderful with her, delighted that she was already learning their language.
‘Do you know how long Brand’s sister is staying?’ Jon asked, and Teri said she had heard Brand say they would be with him for about three weeks. ‘Then we must have them over as much as possible,’ announced Jon firmly. ‘Let Wendy have as much of the children’s company as she can.’
Jon had finished work at lunch time and while Teri laid the table in the dining-room he took possession of the bathroom, emerging later looking more like the office manager he once was than a farmer. Then Teri took over, seeing to Wendy first and then herself.
‘I haven’t got a line, Daddy.’ Wendy arched her neck to show him. ‘You can’t have when you’ve got visitors coming, can you?’
‘You shouldn’t have a line at any time,’ he said, trying to look severe. Wendy only laughed at him and turned to her aunt.
‘You look lovely—! Oh, here they are!’ Wendy raced for the door and ran down the steps. ‘Hello, Uncle Brand!’ She was fairly dancing and on sudden impulse he bent and picked her up, tossing her into the air and catching her again. As he put her down, that twisted, rather sardonic smile appeared as his eyes met those of Teri.
‘Hello, Little Dainty!’ Linda introduced the children to one another while Brand introduced his s
ister. Susan was small and plump and homely - very different in appearance from her brother.
‘It’s nice to see Karunda being looked after again,’ she said as they all sat on the stoep watching the children running around the garden. ‘We felt so sad when it was being neglected.’
‘We’ve a long way to go before it loses its neglected look,’ Teri returned rather self-deprecatingly. ‘If we were a little more experienced it would help, but I expect we shall make many mistakes before we really start progressing.’ She was merely being conversational but saw by the sudden lift of Brand’s eyebrow that she had said the wrong thing. And so did Jon, who endeavoured to mend matters by adding, ‘We’re taking advice from your brother, though, so that should minimize our blunders.’
A faint smile touched one comer of Brand’s mouth as his gaze remained on Teri. Her lashes came down and for the next few minutes she deliberately remained aloof from the conversation. She had thought no one would notice, but Brand had, as she saw on raising her eyes a short while later, for he had a look of faint contempt on his bronzed and handsome face. She was a coward, he was concluding, making a retreat simply because she could not have her own way. Well, let him go on thinking that. She cared nothing for his private assessment of her character.
‘Wendy is certainly enjoying herself,’ Linda was saying, her eyes on the children as they raced about, shouting and laughing as they played some game of their own. ‘It’s a pity there aren’t other children near. She’s going to miss them when we go.’
‘We’ll be coming again,’ put in Susan, glancing at Teri. ‘We come to see Brand about three times a year. The next time Alec will be with us.’