Endangered

by Linda Chaikin

  Sable smiled. After a moment she said, “Kash always said I thought more of what the family expected than I cared about him.” An old ache she thought had healed returned, as strong as ever. Maybe he’d been right. Maybe Kash had been trying to find out how much he meant to her….

  “Sometimes I think his suggestion we marry in Nairobi was a test,” Sable went on.

  “Maybe. With Kash it’s hard to know. He did ask me if I thought you were serious about marrying Dr. Adler.”

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “I told him yes, if you became engaged. That you weren’t the frivolous type. He knew that already, of course.” Kate looked at her gravely. “Are you in love with Vince?”

  Sable sighed. “I wish I hadn’t come back.”

  “You don’t really mean that. If you’re like me, that’s where our faith comes in. We honor Him when we leave our tomorrows with Him and decide He’ll give us the very best, even if it looks like a wilderness in comparison to what others may have. ‘He makes streams in the desert …’” she quoted from Isaiah, “‘…and the wilderness a pool of water.’”

  Kate left her outside the tent entrance, and Sable watched her sister walk back toward the Maasai women and children awaiting her care.

  For the first time in weeks, Sable’s heart warmed with a strange joy and peace. I’m proud of you, Kate, she thought.

  Nine

  Sable was unpacking her overnight bag and putting her things in Kate’s small closet when Mckibber’s friendly voice called, “You got company, Sable.”

  If Mckib was here, then Kash would be, too.

  Sable smoothed her hair and, pushing aside the tent netting, stepped into the sunlight. Mckibber was already walking away toward his jeep as Kash stood nearby waiting for her.

  She scanned him, rugged-looking in Levi’s and canvas shirt. “You’re in time for lunch,” she said airily. “Kate’s expecting you.”

  “I’d like to talk to you alone first, if you don’t mind.” He gestured his head toward the long, low kitchen tent. “Vince here?”

  “He’s in Nairobi trying to hire a guide.”

  Kash seemed satisfied. Sable, too, wished to hear what he had to say in private. There were so many things to ask him that could not be discussed at the lunch bench if the others were there. Still, she hesitated, judging the appropriateness of being alone with him in a tent.

  “All right, but wait a minute.” Stepping back inside, she pulled the curtain divider across the sleeping section, leaving the “sitting area.” She quickly arranged the canvas folding chairs, then came back to where he stood and announced loftily, “I suppose it’s all right to come in for a few minutes. The sun is hot, and Kate won’t mind.”

  She ignored the faint amusement showing in his smile. “Thank you,” he said with grave dignity. “It’s encouraging to know the young woman I once held in my arms trusts my honor to remain a gentleman—at least for a few minutes.”

  “Never mind the past.”

  He laughed lightly, deliberately disregarding her oversimplified dismissal, and entered.

  Sable refused to dwell on the fact that his presence made the small space feel stifling. He reminded her of a panther—lean, strong, and graceful. Despite the insects, she drew back the netting and allowed the noonday heat unhindered access. As he tossed his hat down and remained standing, she snatched hers up and fanned her face.

  “We’ve much to talk about,” she managed in a businesslike tone. “Where would you prefer to start?”

  The silent moments slowly, agonizingly, ticked by, and she impatiently turned to face him so as to elicit some response. But despite her efforts at directness, there was no holding back the foolish warmth that began its ascent upward into her cheeks.

  Kash looked at her as she stood in the center of the tent illuminated by the sunshine streaming in. The silence between them became strained. It was Kash who finally broke the tension by pulling out a canvas chair for her. “You’ve been away from this heat too long. Better sit down.”

  Sable did, consenting to her defeat, and he walked to the tent opening and looked out across the plain. “There aren’t enough hours in the day to discuss the things that need to be said between us.” He looked over at her intently. “Did Zenobia mention the Mombasa shipping?” The strong cobalt color of his eyes shadowed over.

  She didn’t think he wanted her to know yet, but she had to be truthful. “Yes, because I found the ivory in the gift shop. It wasn’t in keeping with Gran’s love for animals, and I asked her what it was doing there. In the process of explaining, she told me about your grandfather and the Australian gold pieces.”

  “Would you believe me if I told you Vince was using the shipping to supply ivory and skins to a Far Eastern cartel selling on the black market?”

  “You’ve mentioned his involvement in poaching before, and my response remains the same,” she said tiredly. “He would have no cause.”

  “Money,” he stated flatly. “Not for himself, but to finance a cause he believes in as strongly as you do about showing the JESUS film.”

  She shook her head. “He’s a wildlife conservationist. It makes no sense to think he’d be working with such groups.”

  “People don’t always respond logically when they feel themselves backed into a corner. One thing I’ve learned in my business, they always fight to survive.”

  His “business”? What was Kash’s business if not working with Smith and Browning?

  “It’s true Vince is a fighter,” Sable said, “but not for personal agendas. He cares deeply.”

  “Yes, I know, you told me. He broods over man and beast. A noble man, Vince.”

  She stood. “I can see there’s no use our discussing Dr. Adler. Shall we go to lunch?”

  “If he fights for any cause, it’s for his work with Dr. Willard at Lake Rudolf.”

  “Dr. Willard is a colleague, and so is Katherine Walsh, but Vince isn’t involved at Rudolf.”

  “He wouldn’t admit it yet because he knows their philosophy clashes with Christianity. Yet he doesn’t believe in the Bible himself. I don’t know how you could ever think he did. His past philosophy was evolutionary, and he’s working with and privately funding a dig at Lake Rudolf. Vince is adamant he’ll unearth a find that will make him more famous than Leakey.”

  She drew in a surprised breath, staring at him. “That can’t be true, Kash, but even if he’s associated with a search at Lake Rudolf, that doesn’t prove Vince is committed to evolution or to using money from illegal poaching to fund it. He could have friends there,” she said defensively. “Why not? It’s no secret he has worked for years for a private research lab outside Toronto.”

  “Have it your way. You want to believe in him, and you will. Even facts won’t change some minds.”

  “And just where are your ‘facts’ about his involvement? Or are your accusations as wild as his are about you?” She stopped, for she hadn’t wanted to alert him that Vince knew of Kash’s suspicions—that Vince was somehow involved in Seth’s death.

  Kash walked up to her, standing so near she could feel the heat emanating from him. “Did he mention Seth?”

  She turned away. “Yes,” she said quietly.

  “He denies it, naturally. What would you expect of him?”

  “I expect both of you to be wiser with your allegations.” She turned, her eyes searching his and finding a spark of restrained anger.

  “When will you stop treating me like a little boy in your Sunday school class? I always thought men were to be the spiritual leaders.”

  “They are, if they’re ready,” she snapped, then felt unfair for having said it.

  “There’s no question Dr. Adler is your type of leader. In the end you may find the so-called experts have the same hold on you that other false leaders have on their adoring followers.”

  Sable whirled, ready to flatly deny his charge, then confronted by a steely gaze, she clamped her jaw and remained stubbornly silent.
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br />   “I realize any spiritual warning coming from me is unwanted and unexpected. However, I’m protective enough of your noble ambitions to want to see them guarded against charlatans like Adler.”

  Charlatans! “Thank you. But I’m wise enough to know a charlatan when I see one. And Dr. Adler doesn’t come close. Have you anything else to say? Because I don’t care to discuss him or his work any longer.”

  Kash lifted both palms as if surrendering. “Far be it from me to force such an independently minded young woman into discussing a subject she refuses to deal with.” He settled into a canvas chair, and as she watched him cautiously, he dug into his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded envelope, holding it up between thumb and forefinger. “From your father.”

  So he did have it. Sable reached for it with excitement, but he held it back. “Not yet. Please sit down.”

  Her lashes narrowed, but she did so with deliberate elegance. “Gran said you delivered the letter over a week ago. She thought she had placed it in her office, but when she searched, it was gone. Did you take it back or never give it to her?”

  “The day I arrived with the letter Vince came in. I decided to wait and give it to you myself. Zenobia is easily distracted, and she assumed I’d given it to her.”

  “I suppose I don’t need to ask why you didn’t want Dr. Adler to see it,” she stated.

  “No. It would have ended up in his pocket, then in shreds.”

  The idea seemed preposterous, and she wondered why Kash persisted. “That’s absurd!”

  “Is it? I suggest that’s what happened to the letter I sent you in Toronto. Yes—I know you didn’t receive it. Zenobia told me so on the phone this morning.”

  She turned away, refusing to discuss it. “When did you see my father last?” she asked, keeping her anxiety over her father’s condition quiet. She was not willing to bring up what Vince had told her about Skyler’s strange behavior. Yet if it were true, Kash would surely know it.

  “It’s been two months,” he said. “I stopped at the camp with a friend of mine. He flies a Cessna for the Missionary Aviation Fellowship.”

  “I’m surprised you’d know anyone working with MAF.” She expected him to defend himself, but he did not. “How did you meet this MAF friend of yours?”

  “Why do you want to know? Are you interested in me, or just in maintaining your unflattering opinion of me?”

  She shrugged. “It’s odd, is all.”

  “Odd that a missionary pilot and a poacher would have anything in common?”

  Her eyes reluctantly came to his warm blue gaze. “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t need to. You forget how well I know you.”

  “You don’t know me at all—you never did.”

  “I know you better than Vince does. No—don’t protest, and I don’t want to hear another speech on his wondrous merits. I happen to think he has few that will stand up under scrutiny, but never mind that now. I’ve said enough for the moment.”

  “Maybe too much.”

  “Maybe. Every time we get to within feet of each other you get as prickly as a thornbush.”

  Sable gave a laugh and folded her arms. “I don’t think that’s true at all. It so happens we have a great deal to discuss, but leave Vince out of it.”

  “I can hardly do that when his big footprints are everywhere. Skyler’s one of the most knowledgeable men I’ve met when it comes to elephants. And Vince knows it, too.”

  Why did he bring that up, and what was he suggesting now?

  “Do you know what’s in the letter?” she asked.

  “I was there when he wrote it.”

  “If he trusted you to deliver it to me, then…?” She held out her hand.

  Kash smiled. “He also trusted me to deliver you to him.”

  Sable looked at him blankly. “What do you mean?”

  “Most ordinary guides won’t touch the area with the fighting about ready to erupt again. He hired me to bring you to Samburu, but,” he admitted nonchalantly, “I’ve since changed my mind.”

  So Kash Hallet was the safari guide her father had contracted out of Tanzania—the man Vince had mentioned last night who’d changed his mind and returned the money to the safari organization. Did Vince know it was actually Kash? And why had Kash changed his mind?

  He appeared reluctant to hand the envelope to her. “I admit I’ll be very pleased if you’d realize you’re making a mistake going there.”

  “Does Vince know my father hired you?”

  “No.”

  “But he knows Father hired someone,” she protested. “He told me last night the guide had returned the money.”

  Kash looked thoughtful. “Then he does know about the association I’m with in Tanzania.”

  “Was it supposed to be a secret, at least from Vince?”

  “Yes, and I’d prefer you wouldn’t let him know you told me.”

  Her curiosity grew. “Why is it a secret?”

  The blue of his eyes softened, his hand rising to touch a wisp of her hair. “You ask too many questions, but never the right one.”

  Sable’s heart beat like a drum. She leaned back.

  “Change your mind about Samburu,” he said gently.

  She shook her head. “I can’t…please don’t ask me to. Kate won’t stay away either.”

  “I know. Dean can be counted on, though, and they share the same vision.”

  “Dean?” she inquired, searching his eyes.

  “The MAF pilot. He flies in and out of Tanzania and Rwanda. He’ll be flying to Samburu as well. Kate can always call him on the radio if she needs him.”

  It never dawned on Sable to ask why she, too, couldn’t make use of the radio set if she needed help, or why Kash didn’t seem to think it was enough where she was concerned.

  “What of Mckibber? He’s willing to help me.”

  “Mckibber’s working with me and Dean.” He looked innocent. “He didn’t explain that?”

  She smiled ruefully. “No. Was he supposed to?”

  “Not exactly,” he admitted, returning her smile.

  “When are we leaving?”

  Kash stood and walked over to the tent opening, looking about the camp. “I didn’t say I’d take you. I returned your father’s money to the safari operators.”

  “I’ll pay you again,” she insisted, rising from her chair to stand next to him.

  “You don’t have enough. My expenses run higher than most. And…you’re in debt up to your neck”—he smiled—”to me. Have you forgotten I now own half of Dunsmoor shipping?”

  Sable hadn’t but hoped to avoid discussing it just yet. She remembered the wells and how she had entertained the thought of borrowing the twenty thousand from Kash against some of her shares in the company. With his present attitude, he probably wouldn’t cooperate.

  “You can’t let us down now, Kash. What of my father and the elephants? And Kate’s work?”

  “All true, but what’s your reason for following Vince up there? You’re not a nurse.”

  “I’m not following Vince. I’m expected to help Father with his research. He wants me there. He hired you to bring me, and…I’ve other plans. I’ve brought a JESUS film, some Bibles.”

  He scanned her, his lashes narrowing. “That’s what I thought.”

  “You don’t agree? About the film showings? It’s going to be difficult to arrange, I know, yet I’m going to try.”

  “I agree wholeheartedly—if it were Dean doing it.”

  Or you, she wanted to breathe. Oh, why can’t it be you?

  “Your cause is very commendable, but very risky,” Kash went on. “Many of them are Moslems. Do you want to be run out of a village under a bombardment of rock throwing?”

  “Are you saying I should retire to a nice safe hotel room and knit?”

  He smiled. “Only when you’re expecting a bundle of joy.”

  Taken off guard, she walked away, her back toward him. He had made it sound as if they would have
the “bundle of joy.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t bring up matters like that!”

  “Why not? You wanted to marry me once, remember?”

  “It was you who walked away.”

  “And I’ve come back, haven’t I?”

  “Have you?” she whispered. She turned. “Or is it only that you don’t want Vince to have me?”

  “I don’t want any man to have you except me,” he gritted.

  Sable walked to the tent opening, composing herself. “If you care, as you say, you’ll bring Kate and me to my father’s camp in Samburu. You’ll show me proof of all these evil charges against Vince. Until then, I can only think you’re after him and will even use me to do it.”

  He watched her, looking frustrated but restrained. After a long moment he said evenly, “All right. I’ll accept your challenge.”

  Sable was surprised. She’d expected him to back off. Her eyes looked directly into his now, uneasy at the determination she saw.

  “I’ll bring you to your father’s camp.”

  Her lips parted. “You’re serious?”

  “You want to go, don’t you?”

  “You know I do.”

  “Then you’ve got what you asked for. And after Samburu, Sable, I’ll expect you to keep your half of the bargain.”

  She tried to still her beating heart. “Only if what you say about Vince is true.”

  He seemed to look not at her but through her—to her very soul and heart. Sable shivered despite the heat.

  “And if I do prove Vince is guilty, will you break away from him?” Kash demanded.

  She swallowed, her throat dry, and no words would come. She nodded softly. It seemed to be enough for him.

  He briefly scanned her and snatched up his hat. “You’ve got yourself a bargain.”

  She wondered if she might not regret her haste, but Kash didn’t look sorry and settled his hat on his dark head.

  “When are we leaving for Samburu?” she asked. “When can I tell Kate the good news?”