Solitaire

by Masterton, Graham

  Barney blew out his cheeks. ‘I tried as hard as I knew how. How can you say I didn’t try?’

  Mooi Klip turned around in her chair and took Barney’s hands. Her eyes were dry of tears, but there was a look of such hopelessness and regret on her face that Barney felt as if he wanted to vaporise everything around him, dissolve Vogel Vlei, and return to those months in the bungalow when there was nothing but laughter and lovemaking and evenings around the fire. The months before Joel’s rape, and Sara Sutter.

  ‘I just came down here to make sure that you really were married,’ said Mooi Klip. ‘Well – I knew that it had to be true if Mr Ransome had told me. But I wanted to say goodbye, too. I shall probably marry Coen Boonzaier, I suppose, and spend the rest of my life in a strooidak farmhouse, speaking Afrikaans and baking soda bread.’

  ‘I promised I would drape you with diamonds, didn’t I?’ said Barney, sadly.

  She ran the tip of her finger across the four bruised hills of his knuckles. ‘Don’t worry about keeping promises. Promises are only a way of saying that you love somebody, and that you want to give them everything. Lovers don’t expect their promises to come true.’

  ‘Natalia …’ said Barney, but Mooi Klip rose from her chair, and took hold of his arms, and shook her head to show him that she did not want him to say any more.

  ‘You’re married now. You love your wife. Don’t spoil everything.’

  Barney could not look at her. It was only now, seeing her here, that he realised what a catastrophic mistake he had made. He felt as if the walls of the house were slowly collapsing in on him; as if every second of every minute for the rest of his life had now become a claustrophobic burden. He had married Sara with such confidence and happiness, and he knew that it had been the right thing to do. Sara had been a little ‘mature’ for marriage, but unquestionably pretty, and still a good colonial ‘catch’. She would guide him and grace him through countless business receptions and dinners and political soirées, her big breasts rising from her low-cut evening-gowns with patriotic buoyancy, her hair fussily plaited with ribbons and clips and pearls, and her voice as sharp and cultured as the diamonds on which her fortune depended. She and Barney would make love, once or twice, in tolerant breathlessness, and she would probably be fertile enough to bear him a son, and a daughter, and a second son with a penchant for breaking windows. They would travel widely, on steamers, in separate staterooms, and reach a wealthy and honourable old age, white-haired, forgetful, and eccentric, their memories of Africa fogged by time and distance and their own preposterous anecdotes. It had been the right thing to do; to marry Sara; for Queen and Empire and personal fortune.

  The only agony was: he loved Mooi Klip.

  ‘What I told Mr Ransome … that was all true, you know,’ he told her ‘I still love you. I would still have you back.’

  ‘You can’t. Think of your wife.’

  ‘Natalia, I don’t know what to say. I just didn’t believe that you felt anything for me any more. I was lonely. You don’t even know how lonely. And, well, I thought that I loved her.’

  He found that his throat was blocked with rising grief, and that he could not even tell Mooi Klip how much he wanted her. But he held her close to him, and through the linen of her travelling-suit he felt the body that he had loved on so many nights, and which had once been swollen with his own baby. A body that the laws of marriage and adultery now decreed that he should no longer touch. Lord, he could remember her naked shoulders, and the dark twin moles on either side of her spine. He could remember the way her neck felt, under her hair, when he stroked her. He could remember her nipples, wide and brown, and the softness of her breasts. He could feel in the palms of his hands the ghostly and half-forgotten sensation of her whole body, in the same way that an amputee can feel a ghostly image of his lost leg.

  He could remember lying next to her in bed, their foreheads touching, doing nothing at all but talking for hours. He could remember teaching her the English for ‘passion’ and ‘heady’ and ‘adorable’.

  He had lost it all now, and he felt as shattered as if somebody close to him had died.

  ‘I’d better go,’ said Mooi Klip. ‘I can’t do you any good here. But I will write to you, and tell you how I am; and you can see Pieter whenever you want. He misses you.’

  ‘I miss him,’ said Barney, with tears in his eyes.

  ‘Ssh,’ whispered Mooi Klip, touching his tears with her fingertips. ‘You are a rich, successful, proud, well-married man. Don’t let your servants see that you are human, too.’

  He gave her an unhappy smile. ‘I guess you’re right. Well, you are right. There’s no use crying over – mismatched marriages – is there?’

  ‘There’s one thing more,’ Mooi Klip told him, her voice so soft that he could scarcely hear her.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘It’s to do with diamonds. Kitty told me, but she wanted me to make sure that she wouldn’t be punished, or sacked.’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Barney.

  ‘First you must promise that you won’t be angry with Kitty.’

  Barney dropped his head down in resignation. ‘Okay, if it’s really necessary. I promise.’

  ‘Kitty says that Gentleman Jack found a huge diamond on your property. It happened while you were away in Durban. But this diamond is so big that Kitty says it looks like the sun. As bright as the sun, she said.’

  Barney looked up, startled. ‘She’s actually seen it?’ he said, louder than he meant to. ‘She’s seen it, and it’s mine?’

  ‘You’ve heard about it?’ asked Mooi Klip.

  ‘Well, sure I’ve heard about it. Harold Feinberg told me this afternoon. I was probably the last to know, though. It sounds as if every diamond trader and every digger and every gossipy kaffir in Kimberley has been talking about it.’

  ‘Kitty said that Gentleman Jack brought it along to the bungalow, a few days before you came back. He showed it to Joel, and Joel told Gentleman Jack to borrow Kitty’s kitchen scales, so that he could weigh it.’

  Barney glanced towards Kitty, but Kitty was scrubbing a tea-towel on her corrugated scrubbing-board with almost maniacal violence, determined not to hear what was being said about her at any price at all.

  ‘Did Kitty hear Joel say how much the diamond weighed?’ asked Barney. He felt extraordinarily light-headed, and his voice seemed to echo flatly inside his ears. So the giant diamond was more than a drunken kaffir’s fantasy: it was real. And what was more incredible about the whole story, the diamond was his. Or it would have been his, if Joel had not taken charge of it.

  Mooi Klip turned to Kitty and asked her something in Afrikaans. Without looking around, Kitty said, ‘Twee en ’n half ons.’

  ‘Two and a half ounces,’ said Mooi Klip. ‘They were careless enough to leave the weight on the scales when they brought them back into the kitchen.’

  Barney made a quick calculation. Then, awed, he mouthed to Mooi Klip, ‘Two and a half ounces is three hundred fifty-five carats. Do you know how much a stone like that could be worth?’

  Mooi Klip shook her head. ‘I don’t care what it’s worth. It’s your fortune, Barney. It’s all yours. But when Kitty told me, I couldn’t resist passing it on. It isn’t very often that you get the chance to take your revenge on somebody who’s done you wrong; and I do think that Joel deserves everything he’s going to get.’

  ‘God, I should have married you the first day I set eyes on you,’ said Barney.

  She reached up and kissed him. ‘Don’t say any more. Please.’

  ‘But this diamond –’ he said, spreading out his hands. ‘Why didn’t Kitty tell me as soon as I got back? Or Gentleman Jack?’

  ‘They’re servants,’ said Mooi Klip. ‘All they want to do is get through the day without problems. They don’t want trouble. Even when it’s not their fault, they know they might lose their jobs. So, they say nothing. Anyway – who are they to tell tales on Mr Joel Blitzboss, really? They’re employed to do wha
t they’re told, that’s all. And Mr Joel Blitzboss told them to keep their mouths shut. He probably even paid them, too.’

  Barney paced across the kitchen, and them smacked his fist into the palm of his hand. ‘It all makes sense now! Joel wanted to leave for Capetown on the first possible waggon. Gentleman Jack wanted to know all about the legal rights of ownership of diamonds. It all makes complete sense! They found a giant diamond, and Joel decided to keep it a secret!’

  Mooi Klip watched Barney with cautious respect. ‘You won’t hurt him, will you, Barney?’

  ‘Who, Joel? I’ll break his back!’

  ‘Barney – don’t even think of it. That’s not the way you are. Why do you think I still love you? I know that you honour your loyalties, that’s why. I want Joel to lose that diamond, but I don’t want you to hurt him.’

  Barney looked at Mooi Klip, and then abruptly pulled over a chair, and sat down. ‘I’m broken apart,’ he told her. ‘Lord God, I’m broken apart.’

  Mooi Klip knelt on the floor beside him, and grasped his hands tightly. ‘I know,’ she said, gently. ‘I know you’re upset. But try to be strong. Remember I love you, and that Pieter loves you. Remember who you are.’

  Barney looked at her wryly. ‘I’m a tailor, that’s all. Blitz, Tailors, of Clinton Street, New York.’

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘not to me. To me, you’re Barney Blitz, the grand diamond millionaire. And you’re Barney Blitz, the gentle lover, too. Think of both of those things when you talk to Joel. Remember that you’re both of them; the strong and the sensitive. Then you won’t think of hurting him. Only pitying him, for everything he’s done.’

  The kitchen door opened suddenly, and Gentleman Jack walked in. When he saw Barney and Mooi Klip together, he hesistated for a moment; and when Kitty flashed him a quick and cautionary look, he retreated towards the pantry.

  ‘Jack,’ said Barney, without looking around.

  ‘Yessir, Mr Blitzboss?’ said Jack, freezing in alarm, like a partygoer caught in a game of ‘statues’.

  ‘Jack, a funny thing has happened.’

  ‘What’s that, Mr Blitzboss?’

  ‘Well,’ said Barney, sitting up straight in his chair, but still keeping his head turned away from Gentleman Jack, ‘it turns out that somebody has found a diamond on my property – a quite considerable diamond.’

  ‘Mr Blitzboss?’

  ‘You don’t have to act stupid, Jack, You can save that for the Kimberley Dramatic Society. I understand that they’re sorely in need of a black individual for their Christmas production of Robinson Crusoe.’

  Gentleman Jack said nothing, but stood up sheepish and straight, and placed his hat on the draining-board.

  ‘I’m not the kind of man who likes to punish people for innocent mistakes, Jack,’ Barney continued. ‘I believe that everybody’s entitled to an error or two. I make them myself.’ (And here Mooi Klip squeezed his hand.) ‘But when it comes to stealing, that’s different; and all I can say about people who steal is that they’re breaking the eighth commandment which was given to Moses by the Lord Our God.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Gentleman Jack, tentatively.

  ‘So – when it turns out that somebody has found a diamond on my property – a quite considerable diamond – and when I haven’t yet had any sight of that diamond, regardless of the fact that I’ve been back here at Vogel Vlei for more than a day or two – well, I can only assume that whoever found that diamond is hiding it from me.’

  ‘I’d say that, yes, sir,’ said Gentleman Jack.

  ‘I didn’t ask for your comments, or what you’d say,’ said Barney, coldly. ‘All I’m asking you to do is to pass it on to whoever is hiding my diamond from me that I intend to search this house from attic to basement, even if it means tearing up the floorboards, and that I’m going to unearth that diamond no matter what.’

  ‘I don’t know who took it, sir, I promise,’ said Gentleman Jack.

  Barney suddenly turned around and stared at him. ‘I know you’ve been paid to keep your mouth shut, Jack, and I know that you’re worried about your job. But let me tell you this: I have enough evidence to implicate you in the disappearance of this diamond, and if you don’t co-operate by flushing it out for me, than I’m going to pass you over to the soldiers and have you hanged from a camelthorn tree, frock coat or not.’

  Gentleman Jack reached for his hat, and smirked in terror. ‘Whatever you say, boss.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Barney. ‘Whatever I say.’

  There was a frigid pause, and then Gentleman Jack tugged open the kitchen door, and rushed out.

  When he was gone, Mooi Klip stood up, and kissed Barney’s forehead. ‘I have to be going, too.’

  ‘At night?’

  ‘I’m staying with some Griqua people in Kimberley, then I’m going back to Klipdrift tomorrow.’

  ‘I’ll come up to see you soon. I promise.’

  ‘Don’t make promises, Barney. Just think about the love we used to have, and the child we gave birth to, and that will be enough.’

  ‘Natalia, don’t go.’

  ‘I have to, Barney.’

  ‘Don’t. Stay with me here, tonight.’

  She shook her head. ‘Our stars may have said that we should have been happy together; my almanac says that we should. But stars aren’t everything. Time is more important, isn’t it, and circumstance.’

  ‘You’ve learned some long words.’

  ‘Mr Ransome taught me. He said, “It’s a question of circumstance.” ’

  ‘Yes,’ said Barney, reaching out for Mooi Klip’s hand. ‘I guess that Mr Ransome is right.’

  Mooi Klip kissed him again, with great tenderness. ‘Ek het jou lief, Barney, wat ookal gebeur.’

  Joel was almost asleep when there was a furtive scrabbling at the door of his bedroom. He opened one eye, and listened. The room was filled with a warm and dusky radiance as the sun set over the veld, and there was a noisy chorus of birds outside on the trees. The scrabbling was repeated, and then a stage whisper said, ‘Mr Blitzboss, it’s me, Jack. You have to open the door, Mt Blitzboss.’

  ‘Jack?’ said Joel. ‘What in hell do you want? I’m trying to sleep.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Blitzboss; but it’s urgent.’

  ‘Come in, then, it isn’t locked.’

  Gentleman Jack opened the door, and stepped into the room in one long-legged stride, quickly closing the door behind him. ‘Mr Blitzboss, we have absolute problems now.’

  ‘What problems? Pass me that glass of water, will you?’

  Jack handed over the water, and then stood beside Joel’s bed flustered and fidgety while Joel drank. When he was finished, Joel handed him the empty glass.

  ‘Now, what’s so urgent that you have to wake me up?’ Joel wanted to know.

  ‘It’s the diamond, Mr Blitzboss. Mr Barney’s found out.’

  ‘Found out what? What are you talking about? He’s found out that someone discovered it, or that we’ve got it?’

  ‘He’s found out everything, sir. He knows when it was picked up, and how much it weighs, and he knows that you probably have it hidden, sir.’

  Joel pulled himself upright in bed. ‘Who told him? Who the devil told him? Was it you? I’ll cut your worthless black ears off, if it was you!’

  ‘Not me, sir. That Griqua girl Natalia Marneweck. She was here this afternoon, sir, talking to Mr Barney.’

  ‘Of course, damn,’ breathed Joel. ‘She’s a cousin of Kitty’s, isn’t she? Or something like that. That damned Natalia. What was she doing here anyway? Didn’t she know that Barney was married?’

  ‘I don’t know, sir.’

  ‘Well, she probably did,’ said Joel. ‘That’s probably made Barney seem all the more attractive. She was always one of those snooty schwarzehs who only want what they can’t get.’

  Joel swung off the bed, reached for his stick, and then walked across to the ugly rosewood bureau at the side of his room. He fished a small brass key out of hi
s vest pocket, and opened the second drawer down. Inside, wrapped in a blue silk scarf, lay the huge 350-carat diamond. Gentleman Jack looked at it nervously.

  ‘Mr Barney said he was going to search the house, sir. Top to bottom. Rip up the floorboards, he said.’

  Joel picked up the diamond and clutched it tightly in his hand. He had held it like this over and over again in the past few days, since Gentleman Jack had brought it from the mine. Sometimes, when the pain in his hips and legs had kept him awake nights, he had sat in his straight-backed armchair by the window with the diamond cupped in both hands, feeling with a kind of silent passion the way it absorbed his warmth. It was his diamond, and nobody else could have it. Nobody else could understand the mysterious grandeur of its incredible size, or the glittering dreams that were secretly crystallised within its depths. Joel had kissed it, and licked it, and held it against his heart. He had even caressed his penis with it, his eyes closed, his mind aroused with fantasies of riches and beautiful women.

  ‘We’re going to have to say that Kitty was lying,’ said Joel.

  ‘Lying, sir? But what would she lie for?’

  ‘Just to get her own back, that’s what for. She never liked me. We’re going to have to say that she heard rumours about someone in Kimberley digging up a giant diamond, and that she thought she’d get me into trouble by saying it was me. We’re going to have to deny everything – deny it completely.’

  ‘But what if Mr Barney searches the house, Mr Blitzboss? That’s a big diamond, difficult to hide.’

  ‘There are plenty of places where he’d never find it, Jack. I could bury it in the garden.’

  ‘They’re hoeing the garden right now, Mr Blitzboss. Someone would see you; or maybe they’d even dig it up. And, anyway – how are you going to be sure that you can recover it in time to take it to Capetown with you? Mr Barney’s going to be absolutely suspicious, sir, especially when you leave. You’re going to have to be careful he doesn’t insist on searching your luggage.’