and her occasional fits of weeping. But even worse was the silent
reproach in Garrys face. Early each Monday morning, with the joy of a
released convict he set off for Lion Kop and Sean's welcome: 'What
about those bloody axe handles, Mike?'
Only in the evenings they talked freely sitting together on the stoep
of the homestead. They spoke of money and war and politics and women
and wattle-and they talked as equals, without reserve, as men who work
together with a common purpose.
Dirk sat quietly in the shadows and listened to them. Fifteen years
old, but Dirk had a capacity for hatred out of all proportion to his
age, and he used it all on Michael. Sean's handling of Dirk was in no
way different; his school attendance was still spasmodic, he trailed
Sean about the plantations and received his full share of rough
affection and even rougher-disciPline yet he sensed in the relationship
between Sean and Michael a terrible threat to his security. Merely by
reason of age and experience he was excluded from the evening
discussions on the stoep. His few contributions were received with
indulgent attention, then the talk would be resumed as though he had
not spoken. Dirk sat quietly planning in lurid detail his
assassination of Michael. On Lion Kop that summer there were small
thefts and unexplained acts of vandalism, all of which affected only
Michael. His best riding-boots vanished, his single dress shirt was
ripped down the back when he came to don it for the monthly dance at
the schoolhouse, his pointer bitch whelped a litter of four puppies,
which survived only a week before Michael found them dead in the straw
of the barn.
Ada and her young ladies began preparing for the Christmas of 1904 in
the middle of December. As their guests, Ruth and Storm came down from
Pietermaritzburg on the twentieth and Sean's frequent absences from
Lion Kop left a heavy burden of work on Michael. There was an air of
mystery in the Protea Street cottage. Sean was strictly excluded from
the long sessions in Ada's private rooms, where she and Ruth retired to
plan the wedding dress, but this was not the only secret.
There was something else, which was keeping all the young ladies in
fits of suppressed giggles and excitement. With a little eavesdropping
Sean gathered it was something to do with his Christmas present from
Ruth. However, Sean had other worries, chief of which was maintaining
his position in the fierce competition for Miss Storm Friedman's
favours. This included a heavy expenditure on sweetmeats, which were
delivered to Storm without Ruth's knowledge. The Shetland pony had
been left in Pietermaritzburg and Sean was required to substitute at
the cost of his dignity and grass stains on the knees of his breeches.
As reward he was invited to take tea each afternoon with Storm and her
dolls.
Favourite among all Storm's dolls was a female child with human hair
and an insipid expression on its large china face.
Storm wept with a broken heart when she found that china head shattered
into many pieces. With Sean's help she buried it in the back yard and
they stripped Ada's garden of flowers for the grave. Sullenly Dirk
