by Isobel Chace
'After all,' she struggled on, 'you have Judith to consider—'
'And what about you? Whom do you have to consider?'
The question shocked her and it hurt too. Whom did
she have to consider? she wondered. Was there no one she really cared about? It wasn't normal not to have someone interested in her at her age, yet she couldn't think of anyone who mattered a row of pins to her at that moment.
'I don't know many people in Kenya,' she said defensively.
`I didn't imagine you did. What about in England? Or are you heart whole and fancy-free?'
That sounded a little better than overlooked, she thought, but she didn't trust him not to take advantage of her lack of commitment to the boy back home to admit there was no such person.
'I don't want to marry for years and years,' she began cautiously, 'but I wouldn't call myself fancy-free exactly, either.'
'He doesn't seem much of a reason for you not to oblige me,' he said on a derisive note. 'If he allowed you to come out here on your own, he can't have your interests much at heart.'
'I'm over twenty-one, let alone eighteen,' Annot protested, 'nobody allows, or disallows, me from doing anything I choose.
James put his hand on his hips, his feet slightly apart, and looked at her, the glint very much back in his eyes.
'I would—if you were mine,' he said.
`Then thank goodness I'm not!' she retorted.
He favoured her with a wry smile. 'You might find there were compensations,' he suggested.
`I can't think of any! '
`No? Most women need someone to care about what they do. Certainly, I'd see you had something better to do than act as nanny to that uncle of yours. Didn't your young man have anything to say about that?'
Annot reviewed the young men she knew in her mind's eye. Not one of them would have had the faintest idea of what was involved in such a search and, if they had, she doubted they would have expressed much interest. They were interested in their own affairs and surroundings and really hadn't wanted to know about the reasons why she had made her sudden departure for East Africa.
`He knows I'm planning to finish Jeremy's assignment for the magazine.' She lifted her chin, looking him straight in the eyes. `He respects the fact that I have a career of my own ! '
`A paragon indeed,' James mocked. 'What a pity he means so little to you.'
'He does not!'
He flicked her angry cheeks with his fingers in a gesture that angered her the more because she thought it so contemptuous. 'My dear Annot—'
'I'm not your dear anything!'
'Nor anyone else's,' he told her firmly. 'If you were, he'd be out here with you, keeping you in order, and not letting you run round loose with anyone you pleased.'
'Have you thought that it might be because he trusts me?' Her attempt at sarcasm passed him by. 'I suppose you wouldn't trust any woman further than you could see them she allowed herself to be goaded into adding, rapidly losing the slender hold she had on her temper.
'You think not?' He was openly amused now. 'I might, once I was sure you knew you belonged to me—and to nobody else! Once I'd removed your doubts on that score, I think I could trust you not to get involved with anyone else.'
'Well, you couldn't!' she denied. 'I'm not the faithful type!'
'Then if it means so little to you,' he came back at her, 'you may as well act the part of my fiancée, at least until we find Jeremy. There won't be many other women around at Amboseli, Annot, have you thought of that?'
She wished she'd been more careful before she had allowed her tongue to run away with her. It had seemed imperative at the time to get the better of him verbally, if she couldn't any other way, but he had turned the tables on her with a vengeance. If she wasn't given to fidelity, and if she didn't care what her friends in England thought, why shouldn't she pretend to be his fiancée? There was nothing to stop her except Judith's feelings on the subject, and somehow she wasn't as disposed to consider them as she had been earlier. Whatever else being James' fiancée—even a temporary, let's-pretend fiancée—might entail, it would never be dull!
'We could take another woman with us,' she pointed out. 'We could take Judith and Dorcas,' he agreed promptly,
`but not if she thought I was about to make her my wife on the strength of it.'
'But you might do?'
He didn't answer directly. 'It wouldn't be kind to build up her hopes and then not go through with it, would it?'
This aspect of the situation hadn't previously occurred to Annot. 'I suppose not, but won't she find it odd that we should have teamed up together in a matter of a few hours?'
James lifted a cynical eyebrow. 'I think she's half expecting it,' he said.
Annot could not believe that. 'Why should she?' she demanded.
'I told her the circumstances of our first meeting. After that—' He shrugged, leaving the rest of the sentence to her imagination.
'You mean, you told her that you found me asleep in your bed?'
'Something like that.'
The knowledge. disturbed her. First of all she thought, Poor Judith! And then she thought, how dare he put me in this position?
'But she would be bound to think—' She spread her hands in an expressive gesture. 'Don't you care what she thinks?'
'Not particularly.'
'Well, I do! I care very much! That anyone should think such a thing of me is bad enough, but that you'd let her think I'd let you—allow you—'
`To make love to you?' he supplied in matter-of-fact tones. 'You might not have had any choice.
'How dare you?'
His expression was bland. 'It wasn't lack of courage that prevented me,' he assured her.
'No, I know that! It was lack of interest! And so you can tell Judith!'
'If,' James said in pained tones, 'you would allow me to finish without these furious interruptions, it was because you looked more like a child than a grown woman asleep—'
'I did not!'
'I beg your pardon, but you couldn't see yourself asleep,' he rebuked her. 'I have yet to be persuaded of your sophistication, Annot Lindsay, and if you're wise, you won't seek to prove it to me by issuing challenges that if I took up would frighten you half to death. You'll have your hands full enough playing the part of a loving wife-to-be, without striking sparks off me to see how far you can go. It'll be your fingers that will get burnt, not mine!'
She tried to think of some way to get back at him without exposing herself to any more of his barbed observations, but unfortunately she could think of nothing that would make any impression on his thick-skinned arrogance.
'I think you're perfectly horrible!' she burst out. 'How could you tell Judith such a thing about me? How could you?'
He gave her a distant look. 'I thought you might find out you cared about your reputation after all,' he put in dryly. 'Let this be a lesson to you. Your innocence is as plain as the nose on your face to someone like me, so don't try to confuse me with horror stories about your past. If you must know, I don't feel called upon to tell Judith anything about you at all. Somehow or other, you've worked it so that it's my responsibility to look after you and to guard you as best I can from the consequences of your ill-judged rush to come out here and look for Jeremy. It seems to me that the best way of doing that is to form some kind of a link between us that will save endless explanations as to why we're together, and which will protect you at the same time. Other people besides yourself have old-fashioned ideas about
people of the opposite sex going off together into the bush! Okay?'
'But if you didn't tell Judith that, what are you going to tell her?' Annot demanded.
'As little as possible.'
She glowered at him. 'She won't like it!' she pointed out.
He shrugged. 'Too bad. It may tempt her to come to Amboseli with us, if only to dislodge you from your position as my fiancée. You'd better start thinking whether you want her and Dorcas along, or not! '
/> Annot was silent, trying to sort out her own chaotic emotions. She didn't know whether she was coming or going, but one thing was quite clear: James might be a reluctant knight-at-arms, but once his chivalry was aroused, neither she nor anyone else was going to stop him. And, just as at the tourneys of old, women were superfluous to the serious matters of the day, and he had every intention of relegating both her and Judith to the sidelines now. Any fighting they would be allowed to do would be to compete as to whose favour he would deign to carry. Well, she thought, feeling suddenly more cheerful, she had the advantage there. Jeremy was her uncle, not Judith's!
She looked up at him with a fleeting smile. 'Dorcas will probably like to come along. She's a quaint little thing.'
'Judith would say she'd make a suitable playmate for you,' James murmured.
'And you? Do you think so too?' she asked him
'I'm not telling you what I think. I'm warning you that Judith will push Dorcas on to you every moment you allow her to, and more! You'll have to fight for yourself if you want any adult society.'
'I shan't mind,' Annot assured him. 'I like Dorcas.' She met the glint in his eyes squarely. 'I find her a great deal more refreshing than any adult society I'm likely to encounter at Amboselil '
'I see,' he said. 'You're abandoning the field to Judith?' 'Isn't that what you want me to do?'
He put up a hand, cupping her cheek in his palm. 'Do my preferences come into it?'
His touch sent the blood singing through her veins, and she bitterly resented that he should have such an effect on her, especially as she couldn't understand why he should. He was quite the most unlikeable person she had ever encountered!
'You seem determined to be in charge of everything,' she said sweetly, 'why not of my free time too?'
'I'll bear it in mind,' he answered, amused. 'But I won't be able to protect you from Judith all the time—'
'I'm not asking you to!'
'No? When you know your own mind, I think you'll ask quite a lot, and you'll probably get it too. Nice, apple-fresh girls have a way of undermining all resistance—in the nicest possible way, of course!'
'I wish I thought so!' she retorted. 'If I should live so long, I should undoubtedly faint if you gave in about anything! '
'Perhaps you haven't tried the right technique on me yet,' he suggested smoothly. 'I might prefer a little flattery to the prickles you've so far displayed. Try a little honey, my dear, and leave the vinegar alone for a bit. It would work wonders for my morale!'
She choked. 'I'm sure Judith will be delighted to oblige, though there are dangers to gathering honey too. You never know when a bee might not sting you!'
`You prefer to be an antidote?' he asked her, looking amused.
'Where you're concerned, I wouldn't be anything else!' she answered with spirit. Her eyes fell before his. 'Not that I'm not grateful, of course,' she added hastily.
'Of course not,' he agreed at once. 'Only with you that, too, is a sweet and sour emotion.'
`Do you mind?' She hoped he didn't know how much his answer Mattered to her.
James was silent for a long moment and she found she was holding her breath. Then he said, 'No, I don't mind. Sweet and sour is less cloying than pure sugar in the long run. Come inside, my dear, and we'll make our plans for getting to Ainboseli, and then I'll run you over to Judith's place. Will that suit?'
`It'll suit very nicely,' she said.
CHAPTER FIVE
JUDITH DRUMMOND made Annot much more welcome than she had expected. Her house was small and badly in need of repair, but it was comfortable and, as it was on the main road to Nairobi, very much more accessible than was James' place.
Only once had Judith referred to Annot's unexpected engagement to James.
'I wish I knew your secret,' she had said almost wistfully. 'There's nothing to know,' Annot replied. 'It's more convenient if you see what I mean?'
'No, I don't think I do,' Judith put in.
Annot hadn't been in the least surprised; she didn't understand it herself. 'James wanted it that way,' she said bluntly.
'Don't you?'
Disconcerted, Annot made a face. 'I don't know,' she sighed, 'I really don't know!'
If Judith's questions had disturbed her, however, it was nothing to the inquisition that Dorcas had in mind for her.
'How could you, Annot?' she had demanded. 'You knew I was hoping he would look after Mama!'
Annot felt completely defeated. 'One doesn't choose these things,' she said on a note of desperation, 'they just happen!'
Dorcas opened her eyes wide. 'Do they? I suppose you mean you're in love with each other?'
'Something like that,' Annot agreed. 'You see—'
'Oh, I quite understand that!' Dorcas told her. 'If I were' older, I expect I'd be in love with James too. He's gorgeous!' She turned to Annot with a gamine grin. 'All right, you can
have him, if you really want him. I withdraw Mama's claim to him. It's almost as good to have you marrying him really, because I can come over and see you all the time, can't I? Then Sijui won't forget who I am. You can remind him about me and show him my photograph while I'm away at school.'
Annot seized with relief on this much safer topic of conversation. 'Yes, but I don't think dogs can see photographs. I'll let him smell something of yours every now and then. How about that?'
`Perfect!' the little girl responded. 'I wish you could have brought him with you to stay with us, don't you?'
`I think he prefers being with James,' Annot said without thought.
Dorcas looked crestfallen. 'Like you,' she said. 'You prefer James too, don't you?'
Annot didn't know the answer to that. 'I like you both equally. I don't have preferences like that.'
For a moment Dorcas looked much older than her years. 'I shouldn't tell James that,' she advised frankly, 'he wouldn't like it and Mama says he can be absolutely beastly when he's crossed.'
That Annot could believe. She gave her small companion a flustered look, wondering how it was that James Montgomery could put her into a blind, delicious panic even when he wasn't there to do it himself. 'Then we'd better not cross him,' she said aloud.
Dorcas giggled. 'I'm not afraid of him!' she declared. `To tell the truth, I like him almost as much as Jeremy. I can't wait for him to take us to Amboseli, can you?'
'I'd like to get started,' Annot admitted.
Dorcas poked her in the ribs. `Do you think James will bring Sijui?'
Annot shook her head. 'Dogs aren't allowed In the game reserves. I'm afraid there's no chance of his coming with us.'
Dorcas accepted this philosophically. 'James says he's great friends with his cook, so I expect he'll stay with him, don't you?'
A few tears were shed, however, when the party of four who were to go to Amboseli gathered on James' verandah. Dorcas hugged the dog to her, ignoring his feeble efforts to win free of her. 'I wish you were coming!' she whispered into his ear, and she burst into tears, hiding her face in Sijui's neck.
Her mother ignored this unnecessary show of emotion, leaving it to Annot to cope with her small daughter. But, surprisingly, it was James who took Sijui from her and, taking her hand firmly into his, diverted her attention by taking her down the drive to look at the Range Rover they were going to travel in. Annot accompanied them, not from choice, but because Dorcas determined that she should by the simple expedient of hooking her free hand into hers and pulling her along behind them.
Dorcas's voice rang out loud and clear. 'You're sure Sijui will be happy with Joel?' she questioned James. 'It's so sad he has to be left behind!'
`Sijui, like all animals, has a special feeling for the person who feeds him,' James responded. 'Even when Jeremy's here, Joel feeds Sijui as often as not. He knows just when to go to the kitchen and where his plate will be put down for him to eat his meal. That's very important to him—it wouldn't be very kind to upset his routine for a sentimental reason, one has to have a more important reason than that. It
takes a dog a long time to feel secure when the things he knows are taken away from him.'
`I see,' said Dorcas. 'People are animals too, though. Do we need familiar things to make us feel secure?'
James took the question completely seriously. `Do you?' he asked her.
She nodded with enthusiasm. 'I hate it when I have to
go back to school. I'm never in the same dormitory two terms running and it takes ages to get used to being in a different room. I don't even like changing my desk for another one. I think I must be very like Sijui, and that's why I like him so much!'
`I daresay you're right,' said James.
Dorcas ran her eyes swiftly over Annot and then came back to James again. 'You'll have to be very patient with Annot,' she announced, 'everything is strange to her out here. She's got used to England now.'
`But when I was a child—' Annot began.
`That was ages ago!'
`But one never forgets,' Annot insisted. 'The funny thing is not how strange everything is, but how familiar. We had a cook just like Joel, too. He was the best story-teller in the world ! He lived in a but a short way away from our house and Jeremy and I used to visit him whenever we could. We would sit round his fire, holding our breath until he began a new story by saying the magic words, Ugai Wm. It could have been yesterday,' she added dreamily.
James smiled at her. `Rukirika, it is finished,' he said to her. 'Wake up, sweetheart! We have more to do than tell stories today!'
Sweetheart? That brought her back to earth with a bump. `You have no right ' she began angrily.
'I'll call you what I like! Why shouldn't I call my fiancée sweetheart?'
`Because I'm not!'
'A bitter-sweetheart,' he amended, tongue in cheek. `Do you prefer that?'
Annot was very conscious of Dorcas staring at them, wide-eyed, even if he wasn't. 'Of course I don't object to your endearments,' she said stiffly, 'only they don't seem to suit me very well.'
He put a hand on her shoulder, apparently not noticing
how she winced away from his touch. 'How little you know about yourself!' he said, and then when she would have argued that with him too, he put his forefinger across her lips and shook his head at her. 'While we're at Amboseli you may be lucky enough to see a male lion approaching a female. Her first reaction is usually to snarl, too.'
