Yesterday's Promise

by Linda Lee Chaikin

  Rogan lifted a brow, making no effort to hide his caution and doubt. He believed none of Julien’s flattery. His silence was suggestive.

  “Very well,” Julien said cheerfully. “I see I will need to work harder to convince you of my fair-mindedness. That I do indeed wish to be an uncle to you. I shall begin with Henry.” He leaned his head back, looking toward the tent roof, and drew on the cigarette. The diamonds on his gold ring winked in the lantern light.

  “Let’s see… It was nearly two years after Henry left the Cape that I first returned to Rookswood to talk to him about his plans for an expedition to the Zambezi. By that time I’d heard the rumor of gold beyond the Limpopo, perhaps a new rand, so I knew I must begin to reconsider the reasons why I’d turned him down. Henry wasn’t looking like such a reckless fool after all. I’d become an associate with Cecil Rhodes, and he’d convinced me of the need for British expansion in Africa. Some believe the Zambezi area is the golden Ophir mentioned in the Bible. Working with Henry on the expedition seemed a good way to benefit from his map. Now you own it, and again it is beneficial to work together for the good of Britain, the Company, and our family dynasty.”

  His explanation was consistent with the calculating way Julien would think and act. Rogan gave his uncle a measured look. Maybe… he was telling the truth for once.

  “Henry turned you down?”

  Julien crushed out his smoke. He stood again, hands shoved in his pockets as he paced.

  “I was never able to talk with him about the idea. By the time I arrived in London, he was withdrawn, secretive, as though one matter or another was eating away at him.”

  “But you were in London the night of his death,” Rogan countered.

  “Quite so. It’s also true that I’ve a credible alibi for the night of his death. Your aunt, Lady Elosia Chantry, informed the Scotland Yard Inspector that I was in her company from dinnertime—say 8:00?—until well after 1:00 A.M. We were playing a card game. Her butler, Mr. Ames, is a witness. He looked in and saw me sitting with my back toward him at the table. Since, according to the Yard, Henry was dead by 11:00 P.M., I couldn’t possibly have left London and taken the train all the way to Grimston Way and Rookswood.” He looked over at Rogan, and a faint smile touched his lips. “You see? All you had to do, all these years of dark suspicion, was check with the Yard.”

  When one of the Rookswood maids had discovered Henry dead in his third-floor office, the physician, Dr. Tisdale, had testified at the inquest that Henry had died between 9:00 and 11:00 P.M.

  Rogan digested the news. So Julien’s alibi was established by Aunt Elosia, of all unlikely people. He could hardly doubt his stuffy, highbrow maiden aunt!

  Julien watched him. “You look disappointed.”

  “Someone murdered him. If it wasn’t you, then who?”

  “He took his own life.”

  “Rubbish, Uncle. You don’t believe that any more than I do. We know Henry was too much a fighter to kill himself.”

  Julien didn’t answer.

  “All right, then, it looks for now as if you’re in the clear, but what about the Kimberly Black Diamond?”

  “I realized later Katie didn’t steal it from Henry. But at the time, because Henry had lied to me so often, I felt I couldn’t believe anything he told me. I thought they were in it together, that they had agreed to trick me. Katie, too, had often lied to me. Oh, I knew her well. I knew how strongly she felt about her baby.”

  Julien reached for the decanter of brandy and filled his glass again, his mouth tightening. “I was convinced she’d knocked Henry unconscious with the wooden club in the stables, then took the diamond. I believed it was buried in the massacre at Rorke’s Drift. We all did, including Henry, so I never looked for it until near the end of his life.” He stared at the amber liquid in the snifter. “Something changed his mind. He never explained what it was. I wish he had.”

  His interest aroused, Rogan stared at him intently. This he had never heard before.

  “What could have changed his mind? There was no hint at all?”

  “No, but I’m convinced something did.” Julien set the snifter down without drinking it. “Unfortunately, I had no time to discuss it with him.”

  Rogan studied Julien’s frown. He’s troubled. Now, this is curious… and unexpected.

  “But you did talk to Henry before his death. I saw you there for the London wedding.”

  Julien looked calm once more. “Yes, I talked to him. We were alone at Rookswood a few days before his death. That’s when you must have seen me. Henry was in an intractable mood. He wouldn’t tell me what was on his mind, but he did tell me he was prepared to come to Capetown and discuss the past with me.”

  “Rather odd, wasn’t it? It was you who drove him out of South Africa to begin with. Why should he tell you he was coming back? And then there was the lack of money for the expedition. Henry didn’t have it…unless he got it from…” Rogan’s voice trailed off.

  Julien noticed and looked up from the table. “From your father?”

  Rogan didn’t answer. His thoughts had suddenly stumbled.

  “No, Lyle wouldn’t have sponsored the expedition without telling me,” Julien said. “And he never mentioned it.”

  Rogan’s father, so firm on some matters, like the marriage of Arcilla, was negligent about others. He had long given up the hope of seeing his father stand up to Julien.

  “No, I don’t think Henry had an expedition on his mind,” Julien said. “I wish he had trusted me, but he didn’t.”

  “You’ve yourself to blame for that.”

  He waited for Julien to explode.

  “Before I could talk to him again, he was dead.” He picked up the snifter and gulped it down. He banged the small glass on the table and walked over to the tent entrance, looked out, then turned to face Rogan again.

  Rogan watched him. Was he being forthright for once, or merely trying to fool him? Did Julien feel some guilt over his stepbrother’s death? That emotion did not suit him. It would take more than regret and a pretended confession to convince Rogan, even though he couldn’t discount some change in Julien. This surprised him, made him cautious.

  “And the diamond?” Rogan reminded him.

  “He’d become convinced Katie didn’t take it. I could see he was troubled about having blamed Katie…as was I.”

  Rogan tightened his jaw. “Then why not tell Evy that now? She’s still under that cloud cast on her mother’s reputation.”

  Julien made a frustrated gesture and walked about. “I will tell you something, Rogan, that I didn’t learn until after Henry’s death.” He looked across the tent at him. “The Kimberly Black Diamond, when taken from Henry in the stables, was carried to the Zulu King Cetshwayo, at Ulundi.”

  Zululand!

  Cetshwayo had been defeated and exiled around the time of Evy’s birth. Did that mean the Black Diamond was lost forever?

  Wind sucked against the canvas siding, then settled. Far in the distance a hyena cackled.

  Rogan considered Julien’s murky disclosures as a duelist would test his opponent’s skills.

  “How do you know this? If the Black Diamond was brought to Cetshwayo, then by whom, and when?”

  “I recently received a letter from Jakob van Buren. The fellow claims to be a cousin of Katie. He’s an old man now, a cantankerous Boer, with a mission station in the north. He wrote me of Jendaya, a Zulu woman who once worked for me at Cape House. She fled to Dr. Jakob for safety after the Zulu defeat. She knew Katie, you see. He seemed the reasonable man to go to. Her brother Dumaka also worked for me when Katie was alive. Jendaya told Dr. Jakob it was her brother who stole the Black Diamond and carried it to Zululand. Dumaka was seen at Rorke’s Drift when Katie and the Varley missionary couple were killed.”

  “And you didn’t send anyone to meet Jendaya to find out whether it was true?”

  Julien appeared to ignore the skepticism in Rogan’s voice.

  “You should understand wel
l enough. Who can safari into that area at a drop of a hat?”

  No one, obviously, which proved nothing.

  “The van Buren station is somewhere on the Zambezi. This is another reason for both of us to support this expedition.”

  If what Julien said was true, yes. Rogan wanted to meet this Jakob van Buren as soon as possible and talk to the Zulu woman. Did Evy know she had a cousin? A missionary? He didn’t think so.

  “How did Jakob get his letter to you?”

  “Always skeptical. Well, so be it. From what I hear, he comes in from the wilds now and then to visit his family in the Boer Transvaal Republic. There are a few other van Burens still farming in the area who are related to Katie.”

  Rogan remembered Heyden van Buren. He had never liked or trusted Heyden, a dedicated Dutch expansionist who loathed the British in South Africa. But Heyden was a cousin of Evy and would be related to Jakob van Buren as well. Yet not even Heyden had told Evy of her mother’s cousin who ran a mission station on the Zambezi. It also seemed that Julien had kept this information from Evy. But then he’d kept a great deal from her.

  “I’ve only recently received news of Jakob,” Julien said. “And I knew nothing of the Black Diamond’s being taken from Henry and carried by Dumaka to that savage Zulu king!”

  Rogan believed him about Cetshwayo, but not about Jakob van Buren. Even when Katie was alive, he must have known she had van Buren relatives. But Katie, judging by her desperate actions, had not known, or she may have considered turning to Jakob for help when Julien insisted she give up her newborn.

  “Naturally I went to see Jakob. He was staying at the van Buren homestead in the Transvaal. Heyden was there as well. Breathing fire against the British incursion into Africa, as usual. That young man is dangerous. He would even provoke a war between the Boers and the British.”

  “And the Zulu woman, Jendaya? I don’t suppose you had the good fortune to question her while you were there.”

  Julien shook his head. “Jakob was alone. He claims he got up one morning soon after she told him about Dumaka’s theft of the Black Diamond to find she’d disappeared. He doesn’t know what happened to her, or even if she is still alive.”

  Rogan’s optimism was fast turning into an extinguished flame. “And her brother, Dumaka?”

  Again, Julien shook his head. “Jakob claims he’s never met him. But Lobengula’s tribe is related to the Zulus, as you know. Jakob is inclined to believe Dumaka may be among them in or around Bulawayo.”

  “If you had told me this sooner, I could have asked about Dumaka when I was there.”

  Julien dismissed Rogan’s impatience. “You’d never find him. Dumaka was always insidious. Looking back now, I should have ordered him killed when I had the chance.”

  Rogan was not surprised by his bluntness. If only he’d known all this then.

  “Too late now,” Julien grumbled. “It is reasonable that he may have taken refuge with Lobengula after the Zulu defeat at Ulundi. He would be older now. I doubt I’d recognize him if I saw him face to face.” He looked at Rogan sharply. “The induna who said he knew Henry… Jube … I wonder?”

  Rogan mused over all this with growing frustration.

  “So there you have it, Rogan. The story as I know it. And it’s likely the Kimberly Black is lost to us forever. But not Henry’s gold discovery.”

  “It would serve my interests to be able to talk with Jakob myself,” Rogan murmured half to himself. He noted Julien’s alert watchfulness after he’d spoken.

  “That is quite possible. His compound is near our destination on the Zambezi.”

  They looked squarely at each other. Rogan realized he’d just been handed another reason for joining the BSA expedition. Rogan cared little about Julien’s intentions. He had his own, and he wanted them fulfilled. He needed to talk to Jakob for himself. He owed it to himself and Evy.

  “I agree with your conclusions about the Kimberly Black Diamond,” Rogan told Julien. “In the British raid at Ulundi, it’s likely Cetshwayo escaped with little. And whatever he had, the British would have discovered when they captured him—unless it was buried in the heap of ruins at his kraal.”

  Or a Zulu induna may have saved it and taken it away to who knew where? Lobengula? The person most likely to know its fate was Dumaka himself or his sister, Jendaya. Was it possible that Jube could be Dumaka?

  Rogan made up his mind quickly. He would begin by meeting with the old Boer missionary, Jakob van Buren. And he would join Rhodes’s expedition.

  Julien, too, appeared to sense that his strong-willed nephew had come to the conclusion he and Peter had waited for. “Then we agree on some things, at least.”

  “A letter to Evy from you would mean much to her at this time,” Rogan said. “There’s no reason she must continue to live under the illusion that her mother ran off with the Kimberly Black.”

  Julien showed no positive response.

  “It’s wise, Rogan, for you to forget about Evy Varley. You need not worry about Katie’s daughter.”

  Rogan didn’t appreciate the cool dismissal of his request.

  “If I don’t trouble myself to be concerned, does this mean you will step up to the responsibility at last?”

  At last. Those two words, calmly but decisively spoken, seemed to sting Julien, for he looked at Rogan even more intently.

  “You’re quite concerned about her, aren’t you?”

  Rogan kept silent.

  “No need to worry, my boy. I’ll soon be informing Evy of her inheritance in the diamond mines through Katie van Buren. In the meantime, a comfortable allowance will be set up with lawyers in London. It will allow her to remain in Grimston Way or move to London, as she chooses. But could you be apprehensive there may be a blood relation between the Chantrys and van Burens? And could it be, Rogan, you have long made plans to lay hold of the van Buren inheritance through marriage to Evy?”

  The accusation jolted him. It was the last thing he’d expected Julien to say. Attraction toward Evy, yes—more than that; but in order to gain her inheritance? Until recently he hadn’t known she had one.

  Sensing weakness, Julien approached like a lion ready to pounce on its prey.

  “Even as a young lad you were too inquisitive about Evy’s status. I still remember Lady Camilla arriving at Rookswood with indiscreet whispers about a secret child. At once you began to suspect Evy. It’s the van Buren inheritance that has always piqued your attention, that and the Kimberly Black.”

  Rogan reacted without thinking and grabbed Sir Julien by the front of his shirt, his fist ready to plow into him.

  All of a sudden cool sanity rushed through his brain, clearing away rage.

  Julien’s cold, unblinking eye stared back with challenge.

  Rogan’s hand loosened from Julien’s shirt.

  Julien remained silent.

  Rogan suddenly laughed, easing his own tension. “You’re lying. It’s the other way around, isn’t it? It always has been. Even with Katie. Who knows what Carl van Buren truly entrusted to you until his child came of legal age? You wanted to manipulate Katie’s marriage to keep authority over the van Buren share of diamonds. That she rebelled and went her own willful way must have infuriated you.”

  Instead of exploding with anger, Julien grew more cool, more precise, using words like daggers. “By the way, Lord Bancroft has written me recently about your scheme.”

  Lord Bancroft? Patricia’s father… Their names tossed in Rogan’s face momentarily blinded him.

  “I brought the letter from Lord Bancroft with me from Capetown.” Julien looked triumphant.

  What could be in the letter that gave Julien cause to accuse him of wanting Evy’s inheritance—and now, of all things, the Black Diamond! Until this moment the battle of wills with Julien had been all about Henry’s map.

  Julien brought the tips of his fingers together in a thoughtful pose. “Lord Bancroft fears you are in the process of betraying his daughter in exchange for Evy van Buren
, the heiress.”

  This was the first time Julien had spoken of Evy using the van Buren name, and now he had added the word heiress. This final comment proved to Rogan that his uncle’s actions were manipulative. One moment Evy was the forgotten daughter of Katie, to be left in the dark at Grimston Way. The next she was a diamond heiress, and Rogan was plotting to lay hold of her wealth.

  Any quick denial of his intentions toward Evy would only serve to bolster Julien’s attack. He could see where Julien wanted to take him, and he would avoid going there.

  “If His Lordship has concerns about Patricia, he can write to me himself,” Rogan clipped.

  “Easily said, but you can understand his worries that you’ll ignore the long-standing agreement made between you and his daughter.”

  “There is no agreement,” Rogan stated coldly.

  “Ah, but His Lordship feels quite differently.”

  “We can dispense with how His Lordship feels. It is my life, my marriage, and I will jolly well do with it as I please.”

  “And dispense with Lady Patricia’s feelings as well? She is more than upset by your betrayal—”

  “Betrayal, rubbish! Where is the letter? I want to see it for myself.”

  “She’s become ill over your tacit decision to leave her dangling while you make plans to gain hold of Evy’s inheritance. Very brutish of you, Rogan, my boy.” Julien found the envelope, conveniently inside his pocket, and handed it to him with a disappointed parental frown.

  Rogan snatched it from his hand, meeting Julien’s single eye with a challenge of his own. He would not be bullied. If there was to be a betrayal, then he himself would not become the victim! He looked at the envelope and saw that it was indeed from Lord Bancroft and written to Sir Julien Bley.

  “Lady Patricia is now staying at Rookswood with your aunt Elosia,” Julien said. “Naturally, the young woman fled her whispering friends in London society. You can well imagine the embarrassment she must be suffering because of you.”