The Blue Mountains of Kabuta (23 page)

‘Shall we go in for breakfast, Jon? Geoffrey came early as we want to drive down to Big Bend today and must start early. Tim is late, but he can have his breakfast later.'

‘Of course.'

They sat round the breakfast table in an awkward atmosphere of several speaking at once, laughing nervously, and then there being a long silence. Jon hunted in her brain for something to say to the old man that would interest him.

‘Are you very good at bridge?' she asked.

Dorcas brought in the paw-paw and placed the plates before them.

‘We don't have this in England,' the Colonel said. ‘I think it's such a pity. Apparently they can't pack it or something.' He smiled at Jon. ‘I'm not very good at bridge, but I enjoy it.'

‘You're English?' she asked.

Her mother laughed. ‘Very much so. He lives in one of those adorably converted oasthouses in Kent.'

Dorcas removed the plates and brought in a large plate of scrambled eggs and fried mushrooms.

‘Your
favourite, I know,' said Ursula, smiling at the Colonel.

He smiled back. ‘You spoil me.'

‘I enjoy it,' Jon's mother said with a sudden gay little laugh, then she leaned forward. ‘Let's stop behaving like idiots. I've told Jon all about you, Geoffrey darling, and she quite understands.'

Jon saw a slow red flush come to his cheek and was startled by the nervous way he smiled at her. ‘And you don't mind?' he asked earnestly.

Jon was puzzled. What was there for her to mind about? That he was teaching her mother to play bridge and taking her out for the day?

‘Of course not,' she said politely.

The Colonel smiled. ‘Bless you! I thought you might resent it if I took your lovely mother away.'

Jon was even more puzzled. After all, it was just for the day!

She looked at her mother, who smiled back. ‘Geoffrey wants to take me to Big Bend to meet his children and as soon as the guest house is ready for Tim, darling, we'll be getting married. I hope you'll be our bridesmaid and Alex our best man.'

Jon stared at her. She couldn't speak for a moment. She looked at the Colonel and saw the nervousness in his smile and the wistful look in her mother's eyes.

It couldn't be true, she thought, feeling that
everything
was rushing madly at her and she was too confused to think.

‘I hope you'll be very happy,' she said, then thought how stiff it sounded. She jumped to her feet, went to her mother, put her arms round her and kissed her. ‘I'm so happy for you, Mum. I know you've often been lonely and I always hoped one day you'd marry again.'

She saw her mother dab quickly at her eyes before she smiled.

‘Bless you, darling, I knew you'd understand.'

Jon moved to the side of the aristocratic-looking, white-haired man, and kissed him gently on the cheek. ‘Welcome to the family, Stepdaddy,' she said warmly.

‘How very sweet of you!' He spoke huskily as if very emotional, and Jon thought they needed a gayer note.

‘Pity it's breakfast time, Mum. We should celebrate this with champagne,' she said cheerfully.

‘We'll do that at the wedding, darling. Just the four of us. Geoffrey and myself, you and Alex. It'll be lovely.' She glanced at her watch. ‘I'd better go and get ready, Geoffrey.' She laughed and looked at Jon. ‘He's a stickler for punctuality and is always ready half an hour before I am,' she said, and left the room.

They talked as they finished breakfast. Jon poured him a second cup of coffee and
thought
he was much nicer as she got to know him. There was a gentleness about him, also a wistfulness.

‘The years since I retired have been lonely ones. My children hardly know me, because I had to leave them with my married brother as I didn't want to interrupt their schooling. Your mother is so lovely I can't believe my good luck.'

Suddenly Jon wanted to hug and kiss him and she knew he was going to be right for her mother.

‘Excuse me a moment,' she said. ‘Would you like to wait on the stoep?'

He smiled. ‘You want a short chat with your mother? Understandable. Tell her she can be late for once.' He was chuckling as he went outside to the stoep.

Jon hurried to her mother's room. ‘Mum darling, are you sure he's not too old for you?'

Her mother turned, her face more serene than Jon had ever seen.

‘You're as old as your heart is, darling. In some ways he's younger than me. I need someone to fuss over and someone to fuss over me. We share the same interests. We'll travel round the world. He isn't all that old, you know. I'm forty-one and he's only ten years older. He's been very ill and had to retire from the Army early, also his hair went white when he was thirty. That's what makes him look older than he really is.'

Jon
hesitated. ‘Mum, I always thought . . .' It was difficult to put into words. She spread out her hands and pretended to look at her nails. ‘Mum, I thought you were going to marry Alex.'

‘
What?
' her mother cried out in amazement. ‘You must be joking! Me marry Alex? Whatever made you think that?'

‘Well, you've spent a lot of time together. I mean, he was always driving you to Qwaleni . . .'

‘That was to see Geoffrey. He had a bad back and was under treatment and Alex used to drive me and fetch me back.'

‘But I thought . . .'

Ursula patted her hair and straightened the charming ruby-red silk frock. ‘I do hope his children like me,' she said worriedly, then turned to look at Jon. ‘You were joking, darling, weren't you? I mean, about Alex. Whatever made you think he was in love with me? I'm years older than he is!'

‘Only five years, Mum. It was . . . well, he always looked after you, and . . .'

Ursula laughed. ‘Exactly. He treated me like a piece of delicate Dresden china. That told me that he saw me as an older woman. When a man loves a woman, he isn't that kind of attentive. Besides, we share no interests at all. I think he's crazy over his animals. With all his money he could have a wonderful life, but he prefers to bury himself here and . . .'

‘But
he's happy here.'

Her mother laughed. ‘Fair enough! Let's hope the girl he marries will also be happy here, but it certainly isn't my cup of tea. Darling, I must go. See you much later tonight.'

Jon watched the long white car drive away and walked slowly back into the house, ignoring for once the dogs. She sat down heavily in a chair, staring ahead of her, just staring at nothing.

All these months she had been so sure that Alex loved her mother and that her mother loved Alex. How could she have been so stupid? Was it fear that had blinded her? Fear of not winning his love? Could fear invent a rival?

The telephone bell shrilled impatiently. Jon answered it. She sat very still, listening, and then asked him to repeat it again.

‘Your farm manager has just cashed a cheque which leaves you very much in the red, Miss Hampton,' her bank manager said. ‘Unfortunately I was engaged or I would have phoned you before allowing it to be paid. I thought you ought to know. You may have signed other cheques.'

‘How much was it for?' Jon asked, puzzled. Why should Tim need to cash a cheque today? It wasn't pay day, nor had they ordered anything that required payment by cash. ‘How much?' Her voice was horrified as she listened.
‘I
haven't signed a cheque for that amount!'

‘Then it must be a forgery. I'll get on to the police,' he said crisply.

‘But he wouldn't . . .' Jon felt stunned.

‘I suggest you ring Mr Roe,' the bank manager said curtly. ‘He's better at handling these things than you.'

‘Yes, Mr Baker, I will—at once,' said Jon.

She stood up, her limbs suddenly heavy. It couldn't be true. Tim forging her signature? Cashing a cheque that size . . .

Somehow she walked to Tim's room and opened the door. In a few moments she knew he had gone. And so had the portable radio they had loaned him! All his clothes, his books, suitcases. Everything that was Tim's had gone, including, she suddenly noticed, the clock they had lent him with a strong alarm.

Tim . . . how could he do this to her? She walked back to the phone and rang Alex's number. The phone rang and rang, but there was no reply.

Jon went outside on the stoep and the dogs leapt to greet her, but she stood still, unable to believe her eyes. In the middle of the lawn was an ostrich.

Instinctively she turned to the phone. The ostrich must have escaped from Alex's sanctuary! Then she remembered that she had tried in vain again and again to get Alex and there was no reply.

At that moment, the dogs got out through
the
back door and went racing round the garden barking at the ostrich, who looked up at them, then got aggressive, racing towards them, beak ready, long neck outstretched, running through Jon's precious plants, trampling on everything.

‘Rex, come here! Sandy! Jock!' Jon screamed and screamed and finally got the dogs inside and shut them on the stoep. She went back to the phone just as the bell shrilled—her party call, three short and one long.

It was Madeleine. She sounded furious. ‘Jon, is Alex there? We've been trying and trying to get him, but there's no reply.'

‘I tried and there was no reply. No, he isn't here. I don't know where he is, but I must find him. His ostrich is in our garden.'

‘Oh no, Jon! Wait until you hear this. The giraffes are in ours and Dad is furious. They're eating all our trees and the kids are having a whale of a time. What can have happened?'

‘I haven't a clue. Maybe someone left the gates open.'

‘Or knocked down the wire fence.' Madeleine gave a cry of delight. ‘I bet you it was that Tim Dean!'

‘Tim Dean?' Jon drew a deep breath. ‘That's absurd. Why would he do a thing like that?'

‘Because he hates Alex—he knows we're both in love with him. Did he propose to you?
Tim,
I mean.'

‘Why? I mean, why are you asking me?'

Madeleine laughed, an ugly, malicious laugh. ‘Because he proposed to me three weeks ago. Yes, he did. I turned him down, of course. I told him about Alex and me.'

‘About Alex and you?' Jon said dully.

‘Yes, don't tell anyone, but we're secretly marrying in two weeks' time, Jon. We're not telling anyone as Alex loathes publicity and he's so wealthy the reporters would rush at him like madmen. I wouldn't mind, but what he wants goes. I told Tim I loved Alex. Did you tell him the same?'

Jon clutched the receiver. Her head was whirling, everything was happening too fast. ‘I told him I couldn't marry him because I didn't love him.'

‘There you are, see!' Madeleine sounded triumphant. ‘I bet that made him mad. Two rich girls and both in love with a semi-millionaire. Dirty trick, isn't it, when all Tim is after is money. Have you got the police on his trail?'

‘The police?'

Madeleine laughed. ‘Come off it, Jon. Everyone knows he's been cheating you right, left and centre. Didn't the bank manager ring you earlier today to tell you about that enormous cheque and that Tim had forged your signature?'

Jon stifled a groan and rested her head on
her
hand. That was the worst of these party-telephone lines. There was always someone like Madeleine who liked to listen in and later gossip.

‘You really were fooled, weren't you, Jon?' Madeleine was gloating, now. ‘Or did you do it on purpose to get yourself in a mess and then weep at Alex's feet? If you did, I wouldn't advise you to try it. If there's one species of females Alex despises, it's women who weep and use tears as weapons. It'll get you nowhere, Jon. Your best plan is to quietly sell the farm to Alex and slip away, otherwise you're going to be laughed at wherever you go, and
if
—mind, I only said if—Tim has broken down the wire fence of Alex's sanctuary and lost his valuable animals, Alex will never ever forgive you. You know that, don't you?'

Her nasty voice went on and on. Jon was hardly listening and automatically put the receiver back on the hook, not caring what Madeleine thought, but knowing she had told the truth.

If anything had happened to Alex's animals and they got hurt he would never forgive her. It was all her fault. Right from the beginning she had been a nuisance to him—and since she engaged Tim, an even worse one, it seemed. And the money she must have lost. Uncle Ned's money . . .

She went to look out of the window. The ostrich was peacefully eating in the vegetable
garden,
but how could she catch her and get her back in the sanctuary? If only she could contact Alex! He ought to know before too many escaped.

The phone bell rang at that moment and Jon dashed to answer it. She was breathless as she spoke:

‘Jon Hampton speaking.'

‘Jon, Alex here. I was wondering . . .' Alex began, but she gave him no time to finish.

‘Alex! Oh, Alex, I've been trying to get you. Something awful has happened!' Her voice rose almost hysterically.

‘Calm down. It can't be as bad as that. What's happened?'

‘Alex, I just don't know how to tell you, but . . . but your sanctuary . . .'

‘My sanctuary? What about my sanctuary?' His voice had changed, was sharp, alert. ‘Now tell me calmly, don't get hysterical, because it won't help either of us.'

‘Alex—your ostrich is in my garden!'

‘
What?
' Alex's voice rose this time.

‘And . . . and the two giraffes are at Madeleine's.'

‘Oh no! What happened, Jon?' he asked. ‘Any idea?'

‘No, no idea at all,' she said. After all, Madeleine didn't
know
if it was Tim's doing, she only guessed it.

‘Well, look, Jon, keep calm. Get your car— the ostrich won't get aggressive if you keep
away
from her. Drive up to the Sanctuary and see if someone left the gates open or what the guard has to say. I'm at Mbona and I'll drive back immediately. Should take about forty minutes. Maybe I should get help . . . anyhow, I'll work that out. If the wire fence has been damaged by a poacher, see if you can get it fixed to stop any more escapes. See you!' Then there was the click as he hung up.