Abe in Windhoek to find out what time they took off. If all is well, we can leave for Johannesburg tomorrow. What time, Blaine? As early as you like, he told her. This afternoon I will clear my desk and make my peace with the Ou Baas. The weather should be fine this time of year, perhaps a few thunderstorms on the highveld. She took his wrist and turned it to see his Rolex watch. Cheri, you can still get to the cabinet meeting if you hurry. She went with him to the garage to see him off, still playing the dutiful wife, and kissed him through the open window of the Bentley.
I'll ring your office as soon as Shasa arrives, she murmured in his ear. I'll leave a message with Doris if you are still in the meeting. Doris was Blaine's secretary, and one of the very few people in the world that knew about them.
As soon as he was gone, Centaine rushed back into the bedroom and picked up the phone. The line to Windhoek was noisy with crackles and hisses and Abe Abrahams sounded as though he were in Alaska.
They left at first light, almost five hours ago, he told her faintly. David is with him, of course. What's the wind, Abe? They should have a tail wind all the way. I'd say twenty or thirty miles an hour. Thank you. I'll wait at the field for them., That might be a little awkward. Abe sounded hesitant.
There was a lot of secrecy and deliberate vagueness when they got in from the mine yesterday evening, and I wasn't allowed to see them off from the airfield this morning. I think they might have company, if you will excuse the euphemism. As a reflex, Centaine frowned, though she truly could not find it in herself thoroughly to disapprove of Shasa's philanderings. She always excused him with: It's his de Thiry blood. He can't help himself, feeling a covert touch of indulgent pride in her son's effortless successes with the opposite sex. Now she changed the subject.
Thank you, Abe. I've signed the new Namaqualand leases so you can go ahead and draw up the contract. They spoke business for five minutes more before Centaine hung up.
She made three more calls, all business, then phoned her secretary at Weltevreden and dictated four letters and the cable to her London broker to Sell all Krupp and Farben at best. She hung up, sent for Hadji and Miriam and gave them instructions for the running of the cottage in her absence.
Then she made a quick calculation. The Dragon Rapide, a beautiful blue and silver twin-engined aircraft which Shasa had prevailed on her to buy, could cruise at 150 knots, and with a tail wind of twenty miles an hour they should be at Youngsfield before noon.
So we will see just how much Master Shasa's taste in women has improved recently. She went out to the Daimler and drove slowly around the shoulder of the mountain, below District Six, the colourful Malay quarter, its narrow lanes reverberating to the cries of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, the hoot of the fishsellers horns declaring their wares and the birdlike cries of children, and past the hospital of Groote Schuur and the university which adjoined Cecil Rhodes magnificent estate, his legacy to the nation.
it must be the most beautiful situation of any university in the world, she thought.
The colonnaded stone buildings were set against a backdrop of dark pines and the sheer sky-high cliff of the mountain, while on the meadows abutting them grazed small herds of plains animals, eland and wildebeest and zebra.
Sight of the university set her thinking about Shasa again.
He had just completed his year, with a respectable second-class.
I always suspect those who pass first class in everything, Blaine had remarked when he heard Shasa's results. Most of them are too clever for their own good or the good of those around them. I prefer those lesser mortals for whom the achievement of excellence requires considerable effort. You accuse me of spoiling him, she had smiled. 'But you are always making excuses for Shasa yourself. Being your son, my love, is not the easiest of tasks for a young man, he had told her, making her bridle furiously.
You think I am not good to him. You are very good to him. As I have suggested, perhaps too good to him. It's just that you do not leave much for him. You are so successful, so dominant. You have done it all. What can he do to prove himself? Blaine, I am not domineering. I said dominant, Centaine, not domineering. The two are different. I love you because you are dominant. I would despise you if you were domineering. Still I do not always understand this language of yours. I shall look it up in my dictionary. Ask Shasa, English was his only first. Blaine chuckled and then put his arm around her shoulders. You must slacken the rein a little, Centaine, give him space to make his own mistakes and enjoy his own triumphs. If he wants to hunt, even though you do not approve of killing animals that you cannot eat, the Courtneys have all been big-game hunters. Old General Courtney slew elephant in their hundreds and Shasa's father hunted; let the boy try his hand at it. That and polo are the only things you haven't done before him. What about flying? she challenged.
I apologize, and flying. Very well, I will let him go and murder beasts. But Blaine, tell me, will he make the polo team for the Olympics? Frankly, my darling, no. But he is good enough! You said so yourself., Yes, Blaine agreed. He is probably good enough. He has all the fire and dash, a marvelous eye and arm, but he lacks experience. If he were chosen he'd be the youngest international ever.
However, I don't think he will be. I think Clive Ramsay has to get the ride at number two. She stared at him, and he stared back expressionlessly. He knew what she was thinking. As Captain, Blaine was one of the national selectors.
David will be going to Berlin, she had followed up.
David Abrahams is the human version of a gazelle,Blaine had pointed out reasonably. He has the fourth best time in the world for the two hundred metres and the third best for the four hundred. Young Shasa is competing against at least ten of the world's best horsemen for a place. I would give anything in the world for Shasa to go to Berlin. Very likely you would, Blaine had agreed. She had built a new wing to the engineering faculty at the University of Cape Town the Courtney Building, when it had finally been decided that Shasa would go there rather than to oxford; yes, he knew no price was too high for her to pay.
I assure you, my love, that I will make very certain he paused, and she perked up expectantly, that I excuse myself from the room when, and if, Shasa's name ever comes up before the selectors. He's so damned virtuous! she exclaimed aloud now and beat her clenched fist on the steering-wheel of the Daimler with frustration, until a sudden vision of the ivory and gold inlaid bed stopped her and she grinned wickedly.
Well, Perhaps virtuous is not the correct word again. The airfield was deserted. She parked the Daimler beside the hangar, where Shasa would not see it from the air. Then she took the travelling rug from the boot and spread it under a tree on the edge of the wide grassy strip.
It was one of those lovely summer days, bright sunlight with only patches of cloud over the mountain, a sharp breeze ruffling the stone pines and taking the edge off the heat.
