I have kept my oath, she thought, and crossed to the chair.
'Poor Garry.' She forced her voice to croon gently, and she stroked
the hair back from his forehead. He looked up at her, surprised, but
eager for affection. 'Poor Garry. Tomorrow we'll go home to
Theuniskraal.
She moved the bottle on the side table closer to his hand.
Then she kissed his cheek lightly, and went on into the bedroom of the
suite-smiling again, secure and safe in his weakness.
Four months passed quickly. Sean, distracted by the responsibilities
of his office, the mountains of correspondence, the meetings and
sessions, the petitioners and the schemers-offered only a token
resistance to Michael's sugar plans. Michael went off to the coast,
purchased the land, and became deeply involved with the seller's eldest
daughter. This young lady had the dubious distinction of being one of
the few divorcees in Natal. When the scandal reached his ears, Sean,
secretly pleased that Michael's chastity was at last shed, boarded the
Rolls and went off on a flying mission of rescue. He returned to
Ladyburg with a penitent Michael in tow. Two weeks later the young
lady married a travelling salesman and moved from Tongaat to Durban,
whereupon Michael was allowed to return to Tongaat and begin the
development of the sugar estate.
Ruth no longer accompanied Sean on all of his absences from Ladyburg.
Her swiftly increasing girth and a mild malady which assailed her in
the mornings kept her at Lion Kop, where she and Ada spent much time in
the design and fabrication of baby wear In this Storm rendered
assistance. The matinee jacket, which took three months to knit, was
certain to fit the infant perfectly-provided it was a hunchback with
its one arm twice as long as the other.
Kept busy from early morning to nightfall in the capacity of overseer
on Mahobo's Kloof, Dirk found little time for distraction.
Ladyburg was now well covered by Sean's espionage system, and Dirk's
few visits were reported in detail.
But on the far side of Ladyburg, derelict and shabby from want of love,
brooded the great homestead of Theuniskraal, In the night a single
window showed a pale yellow square of light as Garry Courtney sat alone
at his desk. In front of him lay a pathetically thin sheaf of papers.
Hour after hour he stared at it-but no longer seeing it.
He was dry inside, deprived of the juice of life and seeking its
substitute in the bottle, which was always near him.
The days drifted into weeks, and they in turn became months-and he
drifted with them.
Each afternoon he would go down to the paddocks, then leaning against
the heavy wooden paling, he would watch Ins blood stock Hour after hour
he stood unmoving and it seemed that, in time, he left his own body and
lived within those richly gleaming skins, as though his own hooves
drove deep into the turf as he ran, as though his own voice squealed
and his muscles bunched and moved in the savage mating of heaving
bodies.
Ronny Pye found him there one afternoon; without Garry being aware of
