Power of the Sword - Smith Wilbur (электронная книга TXT) 📗

You keep out of it. Without another word he left for the university, where he was a lecturer in the law faculty. She knew that in ten years he could have the chair, if only he didn't get into trouble before that.

After she had cleaned the house and made the beds, she put the children into the big double pram and pushed them down the sidewalk towards the centre of the village. She stopped once to talk with one of the other university wives, and again to buy sugar suckers for the two big children.

Then, as she was paying for the candy, she noticed the headlines of the newspapers piled on the counter.

I'll take a Burger as well. She crossed the road and sat on a park bench while she read the story of the explosion of a goods train somewhere in the karoo. Then she folded the paper neatly and sat thinking.

Roelf had left after lunch the previous day. The explosion had occurred at a little before ten-thirty p.m. She worked out times and distances, and slowly a cold crippling dismay made her belly cramp. She put the children back in the pram and crossed to the post office. She parked the pram beside the glass telephone booth where she could keep an eye on it.

Central, please give me the main police station in Cape Town. 'Hold the line. Suddenly the enormity of what she was about to do broke m upon her. How could she turn Manfred De La Rey over to the police without betraying her own husband to them at the same time, and yet she knew it was her duty to stop Roelf doing these terrible things that must lead to disaster.

It was her duty to her husband and to her babies.

This is the Cape Town central police station. May I help you? 'Yes, Sarah stuttered, and then No, I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. It isn't important. She hung up, ran out of the booth and wheeled the pram determinedly back towards the cottage. She sat at the kitchen table and wept softly, bewildered and alone and uncertain. Then after a while she wiped her eyes on her apron and made herself a cup of coffee Shasa parked the Jaguar across the road from Blaine Malcomess home, but he did not get out at once. He sat and considered what he was about to attempt.

Probably make an idiot of myself again, he thought, and tilted the rearview mirror so that he could see himself in it.

He ran a comb through his hair and adjusted the eye-patch carefully. Then he climbed out.

Vehicles were parked bumper to bumper down both sides of Newlands Avenue. It was a big party, two or three hundred guests, but then Blaine Malcomess was a big man and his daughter's engagement an important event.

Shasa crossed the road. The front doors were wide open, but still it was difficult to get into the house. Even the lobby was crowded, and the party was in full swing. A coloured band was belting out The Lambeth Walk and Shasa could see into the lounge where the dancers were prancing around merrily. He pushed his way through to the bar. Even Blaine Malcomess couldn't offer whisky, it just wasn't obtainable any longer. Nowadays it was considered patriotic to drink Cape brandy, but Shasa ordered a ginger ale.

My drinking days have come and gone,he thought wryly and, glass in hand, eased his way through the packed rooms, shaking hands with old friends, kissing the cheeks of the women, many of whom he had at one time or another kissed with more purpose.

So good to see you back, Shasa. They tried not to notice the black eye-patch, and after a few seconds he moved on, searching for her.

She was in the dining-room with the coloured chef and two maids, supervising the final touches to the elaborate buffet dinner.

She looked up and saw him and froze. She was wearing a filmy light evening dress the colour of ash of roses, and her hair was down to her shoulders. He had forgotten how her eyes could shine like mother-of-pearl, grey mother-ofpearl.

She made a gesture dismissing the servants, and he went slowly to meet her.

Hello, Tara, I'm back,he said.

Yes, I heard. You've been back five weeks. I thought you might, she stopped and studied his face. I heard you were decorated, she touched the ribbon on his chest. And that you were wounded. She studied his face frankly, not avoiding looking at his left eye. Then she smiled. It makes you look very dashing. it doesn't make me feel dashing. I can sense that, she nodded. You have changed. Do you think so? she shook her head, irritated that she could not find the precise word. Yes, you aren't so, Not so brash, so cock-sure. I want to talk to you, he said. Seriously. All right, she nodded. 'What is it? Not here, he said. Not with all these people. No 'Tomorrow? Tomorrow will be too late. Come with me now.

Shasa, are you mad? This is my party, my engagement party. 'I'll bring the jag around to the tradesmen's entrance, he said. 'You'll need a wrap, it's cold out. He parked the jag close in against the wall. This was where they used to conduct those long lingering farewells.

He switched off the headlights. He knew she would not come, but nevertheless, he waited.

His surprise was genuine, his relief intense when she pulled open the door and slid into the passenger's seat. She had changed into slacks and a rollneck sweater. She wasn't going back to the party.

Drive! she said. Get away from here. They were silent for a while, and he glanced at her every time a street lamp lit the interior.

She was looking straight ahead smiling faintly, and at last she spoke.

You never needed anything or anyone before. That was the one thing I couldn't stand about you. He did not reply.

I think you need me now. I sensed it the very moment I saw you again. You truly need me at last. He was silent, words seemed superfluous. Instead he reached across and took her hand.

I'm ready for you now, Shasa, she said. Take me somewhere we can be alone, entirely alone. There was enough moon to light the pathway. She clung to him for support and they laughed breathlessly with excitement and stopped halfway down the cliff to kiss.

He let them into the shack and lit the paraffin lamp. With relief Shasa saw that the servants from Weltevreden had followed his orders. There was fresh linen on the bunk, and the floor had been polished.

Tara stood in the centre of the floor, her hands clasped protectively in front of her, her eyes huge and luminous in the lamplight, and she began to tremble when he took her in his arms.

Shasa, please be gentle, she whispered. I'm so scared. He was patient and very gentle, but she had no yardstick by which to recognize how immensely skilled and certain he was. She only knew that he seemed to sense each nuance of change in her feelings, anticipating each response of her body so that she felt no shame at her nakedness, and all her other fears and doubts dissolved swiftly under his tender hands and soft loving lips. At last she found herself running ahead of him, learning swiftly to guide and encourage him with subtle little movements and small gasps and cries of approval.

So that at the end she gazed up at him with wonder, and whispered, huskily, I never thought, I never dreamed it would be like that. Oh, Shasa, I'm so glad you came back to me. The Fordsburg branch of the Standard Bank serviced all the gold mines of the Central Rand complex. all the wages of the tens of thousands of weekly paid black mine workers were drawn from this branch and the senior accountant was a member of the O B.

His name was Willem De Kok, a small pasty-faced runt of a man with myopic misty eyes behind thick lenses, but his looks were deceptive. Within a few minutes of their meeting Manfred De La Rey found he had a quick mind, a complete dedication to the cause and almost too much courage for his small body.

The money comes in on Thursday afternoon, between five and six o'clock. They use an armoured car and there is a police escort on motorcycles. That isn't the time to do it.