growing confidence and at last with sureness and pride she made Lion
Kop into a home of beauty and comfort. The coarse grass and scrub
around the homestead fell back to make room for lawns and flower-beds,
the outer walls of Lion Kop gleamed in a crisp new coat of whitewash.
Inside, the yellow-wood floors shone like polished amber setting off
the vivid Bokhara carpets and draped velvet curtains.
After a few disastrous experiments the kitchens began to yield a
succession of meals that moved Michael to raptures, and even Sean
pronounced them edible.
Yet, with a dozen servants, she had time for other things. To read, to
play with Storm and to ride. Sean's wedding gift to her was a string
of four golden palarninos. There was time also for long visits from
and with Ada Courtney. The two of them established an accord stronger
than that of mother and daughter.
There was time for dancing and barbecues, there was time for laughter
and for long quiet evenings when she and Sean sat alone on the wide
front stoep or in his study and talked of many things.
There was time for love.
Her body, hard from riding and walking, was also healthy and hot.
It was a sculpture sheathed in velvet and fashioned for love.
There was only one dark place in her happiness-Dirk Courte they.
When her overtures were met with sullenness and her small specially
cooked gifts were rejected, she realized the cause of his antagonism.
She sensed the bitter jealousy which was eating like a canker behind
those lovely eyes and the passionately beautiful face.
For days she prepared what she would say to him.
Then she found the opportunity when he came into the kitchens while she
was alone. He saw her and turned quickly to leave, but she stopped
him.
'Oh, Dirk, please don't go. I want to discuss something with you He
came back slowly and leaned against the table. She saw how tall he had
grown in the last year, his shoulders were thickening into the shape of
manhood and his legs were strong and tapered from the narrow hips that
he thrust forward in a calculated insolence.
'Dirk. . . ' she began and paused. Suddenly she was unsure of
herself. This was not a child as she had imagined; there was a
sensuality in that beautiful face she found disturbing-he carried his
body with awareness, moving like a cat. Suddenly she was afraid, and
she swallowed jerkily before she went on: 'I know how difficult it has
been for you-since Storm and I came to live here. I know how much you
love your father, how much he means to you. But . . . ' She spoke
slowly, her carefully prepared speech forgotten so that she had to
grope for the words to explain. She tried to show him that they were
not in competition for Sean's love; that all of them-Ruth, Michael,
Storm and Dirk-formed a whole; that their interests did not overlap,
but that each of them gave to Sean and received from him a different
kind of love. When at last she faltered into silence she knew he had
not listened nor tried to understand.
'Dirk, I like you and I want you to like me.