'I realise that,' Kate replied quietly, a strange calmness taking possession of her, but deep down inside of her there was an ache that nothing could assuage at that moment.
Barbara's glance darted swiftly in Rhyno's direction before settling once more on Kate. 'I know what you must be thinking, but—'
'At the moment I'm not thinking anything except that it's time the three of us sat down and had a serious discussion,' Kate interrupted her.
'The discussion can wait,' Rhyno spoke for the first time, and his voice sounded harsh and angry as he added: 'Barbara has enough problems at the moment without you adding to them.'
Kate flinched inwardly at his obvious determination to shut her out, but Barbara intervened. 'Kate is right,' she said. 'It is time we talked this thing out.'
'Barbara!' he warned, but she silenced him with a gesture of her hand, and drew Kate further into the room.
'You should have taken Kate into your confidence months ago, Rhyno,' Barbara reproached him.
'Possibly, but before anything else is said there are a few questions I would like to ask.' Rhyno's expression was granite-hard as he turned to face Kate, and she felt her insides quiver with apprehension. 'Who gave you this address?' he demanded bitingly.
'You're not the only one who can carry out a successful investigation, you know,' Kate replied at once, relying heavily on sarcasm in order to hide her incredible nervousness and misery.
'Did my mother tell you?' he shot the next question at her.
'No,' Kate shook her head and forced herself to endure his angry surveillance. 'I hired someone to get the information I wanted.'
Rhyno's eyebrows rose sharply. 'You know about Stephanie?'
'I've known about her for more than a week now,' Kate confessed with a calmness which belied the turmoil within her.
'And you never said anything?' Rhyno persisted relentlessly.
Kate shrugged helplessly, lowering her lashes to hide the pain mirrored in her eyes. 'I was hoping you would tell me voluntarily.'
There was no sign of remorse on his hard face, only a cynical twisting of his mouth. 'I hope you were satisfied with the information you received?'
'The only fact I'm in possession of is that Barbara had to relinquish her studies when she became pregnant,' Kate replied with rising resentment, then she gestured vaguely with her cold hands. 'The rest is pure supposition.'
'You've drawn your own conclusions, no doubt.'
Kate stared at him for a moment, aware of Barbara observing her with an equal intensity, and a feeling of intense isolation made her shiver involuntarily as she said: 'I have.'
There was a brief, strained silence which was disturbed only by the ticking of the clock on the mantelshelf, and the heavy, painful thudding of Kate's heart, then Barbara stepped forward and gripped Kate's hands with her own.
'Kate…' she began, and the note of anxiety in her voice was unmistakable. 'Rhyno isn't the father of my child.'
'I know.' Kate swallowed convulsively, and ventured a quick glance in Rhyno's direction to glimpse his frowning disapproval. 'Whatever else he may be, he would never shirk his responsibilities.'
A profound silence followed her disclosure. She had spoken the truth, straight from the heart, and for some reason she had left them stunned.
Barbara was the first to recover. She tightened her grip on Kate's hands, and glanced at Rhyno to state triumphantly, 'I told you she would understand, didn't I?'
'So you did,' Rhyno acknowledged, the expression in his dark eyes unfathomable when they met Kate's.
'Please sit down, Kate. I'd like to explain why I needed to consult Rhyno so urgently.' Barbara ushered Kate towards the sofa and sat down next to her, but Rhyno turned towards the fireplace and lit his pipe in that methodical manner Kate knew so well while Barbara proceeded to explain. 'My parents have looked after Stephanie all these years, but they're not as young as they used to be, and they're finding it difficult to cope with a small child in the house. I've never been much good at making decisions on my own, and I'm afraid I've always leaned rather heavily on Rhyno in the past.' Her smile was tinged with guilt as she added: 'That's why he's here.'
Relief, perhaps, made it all sound so extraordinarily uncomplicated, and when Kate thought of that lovely child playing outside in the garden, her compassionate heart drove her to say reprovingly, 'You're not thinking of putting Stephanie into some sort of home, are you?'
Barbara lowered her eyes with an embarrassed laugh. 'Can you imagine what people will say in Stellenbosch when they discover that I'm an unmarried mother?'
'The tongues may wag for a while, but they'll soon find something else to talk about,' Kate brushed aside her remark. 'If you want Stephanie with you, then there's really nothing to stop you from taking her back to Stellenbosch with you. The important thing is your happiness, and the child's.'
'That's what Rhyno has been telling me, but—'
'Then why don't you take his advice, and we'll back you up all the way?' Kate suggested, her eyes meeting Rhyno's across the room. She searched for something; approval perhaps, or some sign of softening, but his rock-like features conveyed nothing on which her hungry heart could feed, and then Barbara was hugging her profusely, drawing her attention away from Rhyno.
'Oh, Kate, you're wonderful!' she seemed to be crying and laughing simultaneously. 'I feel much happier now that you know everything, and I'm going to take your advice. To hell with what people might say. From now on I'm going to take charge of my daughter.'
Kate's smile was a little wary when Barbara finally released her. She felt unsure of herself, and not quite certain what she ought to do. Rhyno had not moved from his stance beside the fireplace, and when her eyes sought his she caught a fleeting glimpse of something that made her heart leap wildly in her breast, but it was gone so quickly that she could only think she must have imagined it.
Barbara's parents arrived at the house just as Kate was about to leave, and they made it totally impossible for her to refuse their invitation to stay to lunch. Their presence eased whatever tensions might have arisen, and Kate found herself accepted on the strength of their long-standing friendship with Rhyno.
Throughout lunch Kate could not help but notice the change in Rhyno. He seemed relaxed in the company of Barbara and her parents, and his rare smiles appeared more frequently. It filled Kate with an aching longing to see him smile at her just once, but whenever their eyes met across the table his expression became coldly detached. She had intruded into something from which Rhyno had wanted to exclude her, and she began to suspect that this was what he was trying to convey to her. She was an intruder, an obnoxious weed in a bed of silky-petalled poppies, and the sooner she left, the better.
She took her leave of everyone immediately after lunch. Barbara begged her to stay a while longer, but she refused and, to her surprise, Rhyno accompanied her out to her car. The silence between them was awkward and uncomfortable. She wanted to say something, anything to relieve this terrible tension, but- her heart felt heavy, and her mind remained a frightening blank.
'I'll be following you in a few minutes,' he said when she slid behind the wheel of her Mercedes.
She tried to speak, but her throat felt too dry, and she simply nodded her head abruptly as she stared up at him. His eyes were shuttered, but it seemed as if he was about to say something else, then he changed his mind and closed the door firmly, shutting out the cold breeze which had sprung up from a south-easterly direction.
The engine purred to life beneath her trembling fingers, and as she drove away she glanced into the rear-view mirror. Rhyno was no longer standing where she had left him, and his absence seemed to fill her with a biting desolation.
On the way back to Solitaire she debated her actions that day. It had perhaps been wrong of her to burst in on them the way she had done, but now, at least, she knew the truth… or most of it. Several questions still pounded through her mind, but they would have to remain unanswered. She had intruded far eno
ugh, and she dared not intrude further until she was certain of where she stood.
The weather changed abruptly from mild to cold. Clouds gathered in the sky, and when Kate arrived at Solitaire that afternoon it looked as though they could expect rain. She changed quickly into denims, a warm sweater, and her leather jacket, and she was on her way to the cellars when Rhyno's Citroen came up the circular drive.
Her heart skipped an uncomfortable beat at the sight of him, but she did not pause in her stride. It was only when he called her name that she stopped and turned to see him walking towards her. What now? she wondered, her eyes on his stern features. Was she going to be berated for intruding where she had not been wanted?
His hand brushed against hers when he fell into step beside her, and that light, impersonal touch activated a thousand little nerves, but it was nothing in comparison to what she felt when he said evenly, 'Thank you for being so understanding.'
Her steps faltered and stopped. She turned to face him, and had to look a long way up to meet his eyes.
'Did it surprise you to learn that my mind is not as twisted as you imagined?' she flung one of his earlier insults back at him, and his eyes darkened with anger.
'Dammit, Kate, I—'
'There's one question I would like to ask, and if you don't want to answer it, then we'll leave it at that,' she interrupted him boldly now that her confidence in herself had been restored. 'What happened to the father of Barbara's child? Why didn't she marry him?'
'He was already married,' Rhyno told her bluntly after a momentary hesitation. 'He was a very close friend of mine, but not even I knew that he had a wife until Barbara confronted him with the news that she was expecting his child.'
'I see,' Kate murmured, understanding a great deal more than before. 'So you allowed everyone to think that you were the father?'
'It didn't matter to me what people thought,' he replied harshly. 'I felt responsible for the mess she'd landed herself in.'
'Why?'
His expression became grim. 'I introduced them to each other.'
'And that made you feel guilty?'
'Does that surprise you?'
'I never credited you with such sensitivity,' she replied sharply, lowering her eyes before the mockery in his, then she shrugged and turned away. 'If you'll excuse me, I have work to do.'
'There's something else you ought to know.' His fingers snaked about her wrist, preventing her from leaving, and her pulse throbbed beneath those strong fingers. 'I asked Barbara to marry me at the time, but she refused.'
Kate was too stunned to reply, and it took her a few seconds to pull herself together mentally before she could speak. 'I think I would have done the same,' she said stiffly, twisting her wrist free of his clasp. 'No woman wants to be married for any other reason except love.'
Rhyno could have reminded her that love had had nothing to do with their reasons for marrying each other, but he didn't. He merely thrust his clenched fists into the pockets of his pants, and cast a frowning glance across the vineyards as he said: 'Marrying me would have saved her quite a number of problems.'
'It would also have made you both thoroughly miserable,' she countered logically.
'I doubt it.' He turned to look at her, but she had a horrible feeling that he did not actually see her, and that hurt more than anything else. 'I have a lot of work to catch up on,' he changed the subject.
'So have I,' she said tritely, and they parted company, going in opposite directions.
They were always going in opposite directions in every possible way, and she resisted the temptation to look back at him when she felt those ridiculous tears in her eyes which seemed to come so easily these days.
CHAPTER TEN
Kate's life changed drastically during the following two weeks. The relationship between Rhyno and herself was strained, but he did not exclude her from his efforts to ease the way for Barbara when she arrived in Stellenbosch with Stephanie and, surprisingly, the child's presence caused no more than a minor upheaval in the community. Aunt Edwina also returned during this time from her visit to Cape Town, and she arrived at Solitaire with more vigour than when she had departed. It was good to have her back, and her presence somehow eased a great deal of the tension in the house.
The third, and most distressing thing that happened during this time was the fact that Kate was beginning to suffer from slight bouts of nausea. It disturbed her only vaguely at first, but it eventually filled her with grave concern.
'You haven't eaten a thing, Kate,' Aunt Edwina complained one morning at the breakfast table when Kate pushed her plate aside and helped herself to a cup of coffee.
'I'm not hungry.'
Edwina Duval eyed her niece critically. 'Have you been to see a doctor?'
'For goodness' sake, Aunt Edwina,' Kate laughed uneasily, 'I'm not ill, and I'm simply not hungry.'
'It wouldn't do any harm to see a doctor.'
That awful suspicion leapt into Kate's mind once again, but she thrust it aside forcibly, and smiled at her aunt. 'If it would set your mind at rest, then I might just do that.'
'Why don't you ring him now and make an appointment?'
'I'm in no hurry,' Kate shrugged, shrinking inwardly from the mere idea of having to see a doctor, but her aunt was in no mood to be crossed.
'Kate!' she said in that authoritative tone which Kate knew so well. It meant, 'Do it now, or I'll do it for you.'
'Oh, very well!' Kate sighed, and with a great deal of reluctance and trepidation she left the breakfast-room to telephone the doctor's consulting-rooms and make an appointment.
That afternoon, while she sat leafing idly through a magazine in the doctor's waiting-room, she tried to convince herself that her problem was nothing more than a digestive upset, but when she emerged from the consulting-room half an hour later her worst suspicions had been confirmed. She had felt tempted to shout, 'It can't be! It's impossible!' And yet, when she thought about it, she had done absolutely nothing to prevent something like this happening. The signs had been there, but she had ignored them while so many other problems had taken priority in her mind.
She could no longer evade the truth, or thrust it from her. She had to face facts. She was going to have Rhyno's child, and she dared not let him know it. She had become acquainted with his deep sense of responsibility, and it was not difficult to guess what he would do, but continuing with their marriage for the sake of the child was an abhorrent thought.
She sat in her car, hovering somewhere between hysterical laughter and choking tears, but she surrendered to neither, and drove instead to Hubert Walton's offices. He was the only one she could turn to with this new problem, and she clung to the desperate hope that he could help her.
'Come in, Kate, and sit down,' Hubert said some fifteen minutes later, then his glance sharpened, and he stared hard at the girl approaching his desk. 'You don't look too well, if you'll forgive me saying so.'
'I'm fine,' she lied grimly. 'Just fine.'
'What can I do for you this afternoon?' he asked the moment she was seated, his eyes dwelling on her pale, pinched face.
'Would it affect my inheritance in any way if I went away for the remaining months of my marriage?'
'I'm afraid it would, Kate,' he frowned. 'Why do you ask?'
'It—It's important, that's all,' she stammered helplessly, reluctant to tell him the truth. 'I must go away.'
'But why, Kate?' Hubert insisted. 'If you explain your reasons for wanting to go away then I might still be able to help you in some way.'
Restlessness and a certain amount of anxiety drove her to her feet, and she crossed the room to stand staring out of the window at the slow-moving traffic in the street below. She could not face this man who knew her almost as well as her own family, but she knew that she owed him the truth and, staring fixedly at nothing in particular, she said bluntly, 'I'm pregnant.'
She sensed his surprise in the brief silence that followed, then he said hesitantly, 'So your marriag
e—'
'Is a real one,' she filled in for him when he paused awkwardly.' She turned then to face him, and her eyes were wide and pleading in her white, strained face. 'You've got to help me, Uncle Hubert!'
'I'm afraid I don't understand.' He shook his head as if to emphasise this fact. 'Perhaps you should sit down again, my dear, and tell me why it's so important for you to go away.'
She obeyed with a sigh, and clasped her hands tightly in her lap. 'I don't want Rhyno to know that I'm going to have his child.'
'But why not, for heaven's sake?' Hubert Walton demanded with incredulity mirrored in his eyes.
'For the simple reason that I don't want him to feel obliged to continue with our marriage when this year is up.'
'But if your marriage has progressed this far—'
'He doesn't love me,' she interrupted chokingly, and the attorney was clearly taken aback.
'Are you sure of that?' he demanded at length with a deep frown settling between his heavy brows.
'I'm positive.'
'And you, Kate? How do you feel about him?'
She stared at him across the desk, and her face went a shade paler. Her own feelings were too painfully raw as yet to discuss with anyone and, lowering her gaze to her tightly clenched hands, she said unsteadily, 'My feelings don't matter in this instance.'
'Kate…' Hubert got up and walked round his desk. He pulled up a chair close to hers, and sat down, then he took one of her clenched hands in his, and uncurled the finger gently. His touch was fatherly and comforting, but there was no comfort in his words when he spoke. 'I can't alter the wording of your father's will, my dear. I can only suggest that you and Rhyno sort this problem out between yourselves.'
'But I can't tell him I'm going to have his child!' she protested, her voice hoarse with anxiety and fear. 'I know what he'll do. He'll insist on continuing with our marriage, and I'd rather die than have him stay with me for that reason alone!'
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