by Isobel Chace
Annot leaped out of the Volkswagen, thus stalling the engine, and rushed towards the Range Rover. James opened his arms wide to receive her and she ran straight into them without the slightest hesitation at all.
'I did it, I did it!' she crowed. 'I did it all by myself!'
He cradled her chin in his hand, lifting her face up to meet his. `So you did, my love,' he said on a note of laughter. `So you did—with a little bit of help from your friends!'
Dorcas was delighted to hear about how they had been bogged down. 'Could you really hear the lions all the time?' she asked, her eyes as round as saucers.
'We certainly could!' said Annot, shivering at the memory.
'I wouldn't have been frightened at all,' Dorcas claimed. `After all, you had Jeremy with you. Isn't it super that he's coming home with us? I was beginning to think I wouldn't see him at all these holidays, and that would have been awful !'
'He looks a bit thin,' Annot said.
`So would you, if you'd been eating nothing but a mixture of blood and milk for weeks together!' the small girl retorted knowledgeably. 'The Masai never eat anything else!'
'I think they do.' Annot objected, 'I think that's their diet on special occasions, when they're about to make war, or are being circumcised, times like that! They must eat something else sometimes.'
`I'll ask Jeremy,' Dorcas decided. 'He knows everything like that. I can't wait for him to take me on an expedition with him. He never nags me, or makes out I can't do something because I'm a girl!'
Annot was amused. `Do other people do that?' she asked.
'At school, all the time!' the girl sighed. 'One is never allowed to be alone for two minutes put together. They don't understand that at home I'm often by myself for hours and hours without anyone minding, or worrying about me.'
`Don't you like school?' Annot asked her.
'I hate it! But Mama can't have me here all the time as she has so much to do on the farm. I wish I could go and live with Jeremy whenever she's busy, but she'd throw a
fit if he took me off to live with the Masai! She doesn't even like me to get dirty when I'm doing something important. She'd carry on like mad if I came home smelling like you did last night!'
Annot thought the girl was probably right. Her own mother hadn't relished her return from various outings with Jeremy when she had been a child, and Jeremy had been her own brother.
`When you're back at school I'll come and see you if you like,' she offered. At least Dorcas would tell her how James was, and what he was doing. It would be better than never hearing about him at all.
Dorcas flung her arms round her neck. `Will you? Will you really? Oh, Annot, I'll love you forever if you do!'
Annot wished her own problems could be as easily solved. She had mentioned the cost of the balloon twice to her uncle and it was clear he had no intention of helping her to meet the bill.
'If James was fool enough to hire Norman's balloon, let him pay for it!' he said.
`We were trying to help you,' Annot pointed out to him. `Rubbish, girl. He was indulging himself, as anyone with half an eye could see! You talk to him about it!'
But Annot was shy of bringing up the subject with James. She might have done if she had seen him alone, but ever since they got back he had had Judith glued to his side— a Judith who looked pale and unhappy, and who never looked at Jeremy at all.
`Your uncle,' she had said in the privacy of their bedroom, `would have been no loss if he'd never come back!'
'I think Dorcas would have been disappointed,' Annot had answered.
'Dorcas? What does she know about him? If he had his way she'd grow up as wild as a hawk! He doesn't even approve of her going to England for her schooling!'
Annot was frankly surprised that her uncle had voiced his opinion on such a subject. 'I can't think it's anything to do with him,' he had said.
'It isn't, but when has that ever stopped Jeremy?' Judith had retorted. 'He never gives an inch about anything!'
Annot had thought she had detected real despair in that last remark and that had surprised her too. Why should Judith care what her uncle thought or did?
Certainly, when it came to the drive back to Nairobi, Judith flatly refused to go with Jeremy, who had by that time re-possessed himself of his own Range Rover. Nor would she allow Dorcas to go with him.
let him take his niece!' she said nastily, getting into James' vehicle. 'We'll take Dorcas with us and they can have Okumu with them!'
James gave her a sidelong look of disapproval. 'Since when has this been your party?' he asked her.
Tears flooded into her eyes. 'James, don't be beastly, please. I can't stand much more!'
Apparently James agreed with her, for he endorsed the arrangements she had made without a single word to Annot. Indeed, he had hardly addressed a single word to her since she had run into his arms in triumph after getting the Volkswagen out of the mud. She thought he was avoiding her, and she was sure of it when he drove off without looking once in her direction.
'I'll go and see to my luggage,' she said to Okumu, trying to hide the hurt James had dealt her.
Okumu shook his head at her. 'I will arrange all the luggage,' he replied kindly.
She gave him a startled look for she had thought that such work would have been beneath his dignity. But she need not have worried, for he did no more than summon another African from the reception to get the suitcases from the
rooms, his achievement being to direct from afar the manual labour of putting them in the back of the Range Rover.
Annot got in reluctantly beside her uncle. The springing of the seat had given way under months of ill-use and the windows rattled, which James would never have allowed in a vehicle of his.
'What are you looking so down in the mouth about?' Jeremy threw at her, his own temper obviously stretched to its limits.
'I wanted to ask James what I should do about paying Norman,' she answered. 'I asked Norman and he said James had already paid him. Jerry, I can't pay out such a sum all at once. Won't you help a bit?'
`You talk it over with James,' he said firmly, and positively refused to discuss the matter any further.
The only cheerful member of the party on the road was Okumu. He produced Annot's set of three beaded collars out of the fold in his loincloth and gave them back to her with a knowing smile. He exchanged a joke in his own language with Jeremy and Annot, suspecting it was something to do with her, looked inquiringly at her uncle.
'What was all that about?'
'He heard you complaining you had no engagement ring. He said you'd be all right as long as you went on wearing your beads.'
'Why, do the beads have some meaning?'
Jeremy grinned. 'A Masai man gives the woman of his choice a chain, but there wasn't one for sale on the stall, so James gave you those instead. Okumu says the women will soon be eating honey and your father will be brewing honey-beer for his friends.'
`But—'
'I don't suppose Okumu has ever set foot in a church,' Jeremy remarked dryly. 'He's not a Christian, are you, old son?'
Okumu laughed and shook his head. 'I'm a Samburu. It is enough.'
After that they travelled most of the way in silence. Annot wouldn't allow herself to hope that Okumu was right about James' intentions; Okumu didn't know about Judith, but she did, and she'd be a fool to allow her longing for James to run away with her.
'Are you driving me to Judith's place?' she asked sleepily as they drove across the Athi plains towards Nairobi.
'No, niece of mine, I'm not. I'm delivering you to James' door and not a yard further. He can take you on to Judith's himself—if that's what he wants to do.'
She roused herself, trying to take an interest in the world ahead. 'Are you going to stay with James?'
'I've got my own place,' he said, 'I'll be going there.'
And he was as good as his word. He dropped Annot and the luggage on to James' verandah and drove straight off down the drive again. A
nnot watched him go, wishing she had more control over him. Why should everything be left for James to cope with, when it had been her uncle's disappearance which had caused them all to go to Amboseli in the first place?
Sijui, the dog, came out of the door to greet her, his tail a blur of welcome at one end of his fat little body. Dorcas came running after him
'Isn't he a darling?' she said.
Annot bit her lip, unable to answer. 'What time is your mother leaving?' she asked.
'Mama? She isn't,' Dorcas said with massive indifference. 'I'm going to spend the night here and Sijui is going to sleep on my bed! James said he could!'
'And what did Judith say?'
'She doesn't know.' Dorcas's face crinkled into a smile. 'She has other things on her mind,' she reported. 'James said I wasn't to bother her with my affairs just now.'
Busy doing what? Annot wondered. She picked up the nearest suitcase and put it down again as she realised she hadn't the faintest idea where to take it.
'Oh, damn!' she said aloud.
'Annot! Dorcas reproved her. 'You shouldn't say that. Sijui and I are going to look at the stables. Are you coming?'
'No, she isn't,' James' voice answered her, 'she's staying with me. I want to talk to her.'
Annot wove her fingers together in an agony of embarrassment. 'Isn't Judith—I mean—'
'No, she isn't. And as you don't know what you do mean, my love, why don't you give in gracefully and come and talk to me?'
She longed to do exactly that. 'Where is Judith?'
James came and stood beside her, his gaze on the distant sweep of his land that led towards the but where Jeremy squatted when he was at home.
'I guess she's about two-thirds of the way to Jeremy,' he said.
Annot opened her mouth in astonishment. 'On her feet?' 'He'd expect her to walk. He might not accept her other-
wise. Poor girl, he's making her go all the way—'
'And you allowed it?' The indignation in her voice would
have been funny had it not been so deeply felt.
'It's their affair, my dear.' -
'But Judith wants to marry you!' Nothing could have stopped the words bursting from her lips. 'What has Jeremy got to do with her?'
'I think in the end he means to marry her,' said James.
CHAPTER TWELVE
'But why?' Annot demanded. 'Why should he want her to walk all the way to that dreadful hut of his?'
`It's a long story,' James said, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth. 'Neither of them would give an inch. Judith wanted a comfortable living, a father for Dorcas, and someone to run her farm. Most of all she wanted security, a nice clean kind of security her friends would understand and envy. It was the very antithesis of what Jeremy wanted. He wants the freedom to live as he likes, to come and go as he pleases, and most of all the freedom to despise the very things Judith holds dear—things like washing machines and soft living. It was obvious they were incompatible from the start.
`So what happened?'
`Judith put on the pressure and Jeremy went away.' lust like that?'
`You know your uncle better than I do. What would you expect Jeremy to do?'
Annot's brow creased into a frown. 'You think he always caves in under pressure, don't you?' she said.
'I thought that,' he admitted, 'I'm not so sure now. Perhaps he knew what he was doing all along. All I knew was that I wasn't best pleased at being cast in the role of desirable husband for Judith when I knew she was in love with someone else, however unsuitable she considered him to be! I got a bit fed up and I thought I'd bring Jeremy back to face up to her himself. That was when I wrote to your mother. If his family was here, he'd be sure to come back, I reasoned, if only to see them. When I saw you I thought rather less of that plan!'
'You didn't like me?'
`I found you disturbing, shall we say?'
She had found him disturbing too, but there was no point in dwelling on that now. 'It was a disaster, the whole thing!' she said.
`Was it?' Amusement spread over his face. 'I thought we'd come to a rather successful conclusion myself!'
'How can you say so? Judith's been humiliated; Dorcas will find out her hero has feet of clay; and I owe you so much money I can't think how I'll ever be able to repay
you ! '
James took a step towards her. 'My dear, sweet Annot, can't you guess why I found you so disturbing?'
She looked as confused as she felt. 'No,' she said baldly. 'I don't understand anything!'
The glance he gave her was warm and affectionate and tinged with amusement still. 'You had no reason to be jealous of Judith—'
'You think not?' she retorted bitterly. 'It was obvious from the start that you weren't sure of her, and I didn't like being used to hurt her!'
'I hadn't thought of that. Is that why you went on about her? If I was using you at all, my darling, it was to clear the temptation of my own respectable self out of her way. I knew Judith wanted Jeremy, and when she came with us to Amboseli I knew that she knew it too. I told Jeremy so at the Masai village. She'd made up her mind to have him on any terms, though his were rather steeper than she can have expected. Would you walk across the wilderness to me?'
Her heart thudded against her ribs. `Me?' she breathed, her lips dry. 'Why should I?'
James took her hand in his, drawing her down on to his knee as he seated himself on the nearest chair. 'That is what I want to talk to you about.' The honeyed note was back in his voice and she could feel it in every fibre of her being.
She felt weak at the knees and she couldn't bring herself to look at him at all.
'I don't think—' she began.
'Far better not to ! ' he agreed promptly.
`But—'
`Darling, do you think you could shut up and listen for a change? It becomes a girl to allow her fiancé to talk every now and again —without argument from her!'
She struggled against his restraining hand. 'And that's another thing! You're not my fiancé! You—'
He was much stronger than she was. She found herself cradled against his chest and when he put his lips against hers all desire to quarrel died and refused to be revived, no matter how she tried to flog her usually ready tongue into renewed action. It was bliss to have no say in the matter, but to be kissed so thoroughly that every other thought flew out of her mind, leaving her with only a strong desire to be kissed by James again.
`Now are you ready to listen?'
She fiddled with the button of his shirt with trembling fingers. 'You can't want to marry me!'
She felt his amusement against the palm of her hand. 'It's a good thing you're no mind-reader, or you'd have fled from me that first morning as far and as fast as you could go! I meant to have you when I first saw you fast asleep in my bed, and now—'
`And now?' she prompted him, her eyes alight with a dawning glory.
He pulled gently on the lobe of her ear. 'Remember at the Masai village you asked how you'd know you were in love? Well, now, my sweet, is the moment for you to find out. You're about to fall in love with me!'
A smile curved her lips. 'On your say-so?'
`Is there anyone else you'd trust enough to believe on such a momentous issue?'
`I'll have to think about it,' she murmured.
'That was quite what I had in mind,' he said dryly, 'I had hoped you'd let me do your thinking for you. Your thinking only muddles up every idea I try to put into your head!'
'James! How can you?'
'My dear girl, anyone else would have guessed I was in love with you long before we got to Amboseli, whereas you don't really believe it now, do you?'
'I'm trying to,' she said She wriggled into a more comfortable position against him. `Okumu knew,' she confided, 'he said he knew when you gave me that Masai jewellery. He said they didn't have any chains for sale.' She jerked upright again. 'Why do they give their women chains, d'you suppose?'
James pulled her back into her former p
osition. 'It could be to show them whom they belong to—not a bad idea at that!'
`I'd sooner have a ring,' she hinted, smiling. 'Besides, they probably know who they want to belong to—'
'Do you?'
She refused to answer. 'I wouldn't be a Masai woman for anything!' she declared.
'Nobody's asking you to be one. And'—the threat in his voice suggested that Annot ignored his question at her peril—'don't change the subject! I asked you—'
'I know what you asked me, but please, James, don't make me answer yet. I can't really believe you prefer me to Judith, though I'm trying to. She's so much more—more everything!'
'Are you trying to tell me I'm going too fast for you?'
She grasped at the straw he was offering her, though a part of her wondered that she should be such a coward. Supposing he decided later on he didn't want her after all, and she never had another opportunity of finding out what it
would be like to be loved by James? What a fool she was!
`Yes,' she said on a strangled gasp. 'I mean—'
He groaned out loud. 'Annot Lindsay, what a fool I am! And as for you, would you ever forgive me if I let you get away with taking over my big moment! You, my darling, are going to be very sweet and meek and you're not going to say another word! Instead you're going to listen to me!'
`Well, really!' she said indignantly.
He put a finger across her mouth, effectively silencing her. `Yes, really!' he repeated. `To think I almost believed you! Just as if I hadn't had the evidence of my own eyes that you're the most unrepentant flirt south of the Equator!'
She made to bite his finger, but he was before her, pushing her head back on to his shoulder by moving his hand from her mouth to her chin. -
'I never flirt!' she denied hotly.
'You're a walking invitation to every man who sets eyes on you, but you're going to belong to me! Is that too hard for you to understand?'
'I won't be bullied—'
'Annot, shut up!'
`And we're only just south of the Equator,' she went on, a delicious panic firing her blood and sending her thoughts into a tizzy that it made it imperative to go on talking come what may. 'What about north of the Equator?'
