A Delicious Mistake (16 page)

She
shivered. She didn’t want to end up dead, hacked to pieces. She knew now that
she feared the passion Africa had stirred in her. She should pack up and go
home. She should leave. She’d forget Benjamin. She’d marry—or maybe not. She
could spend the rest of her life looking after her parents, being comfortable.
But so very alone.

That
thought didn’t entice her.

Yet,
somehow, she found the strength to hold back and not run to Benjamin the way
she wanted to. But how long could she hope to keep her feelings at bay?

Sarah
bit hard on her lip and let her gaze shift to the ancient grandfather clock
ticking against the wall opposite to the bed. She didn’t have much time. She
needed to find all her answers. But first she needed to find her courage. And
she would have to do that in her own way.

* * *

               
Her voice followed him everywhere. Sometimes she was a whisper, a quiet thirst
that unexpectedly rose in his throat. And then suddenly he would remember every
detail about her—the delicate silk of her hair trailing across his skin, the
way her delightful curves felt beneath his fingertips, and how she tasted
against his lips and underneath his tongue. Benjamin didn’t want to be filled
with thoughts of Sarah, but as much as she tried not to think about her, she
was never far away from his mind.

As
he drove across the untouched wilderness of the Serengeti plains in his
favorite open Land Rover, he chose instead to dwell on the last couple of days
and on how the news had spread rapidly that he was an innocent man. No longer
did the shadow of suspicion hang over his head. But he still did not know what
Sarah Hutton thought.

There
he went, thinking about her again. He truly was hopeless.

He
pounded a fist against the steering wheel to vent part of his mounting
frustration. Never had he felt so exasperated. No one made his emotions rise
the way Sarah did. How could she not see how she made him feel?

Benjamin
sighed and looked into the distance. The setting sun glittered through the
shiny shrubs that dotted the horizon. One of the delights of the Serengeti was
its sunsets. He longed to share a moment such as this with Sarah. There was so
much he wanted to show her. His life ranging the park had always left him
filled with purpose. Now he questioned its meaning without that one person who
somehow made it all complete. When it came to Sarah, it wasn't just about how
she excited him physically. He didn't want her just for her extraordinary
beauty or the precious construction of flesh and bone. His feelings weren’t
just tied to the topography of curves on her frame. It also wasn’t all about
the way her eyes and lips spoke to him with the deepest sensuality. He didn't
want just her body—he wanted her to yield to him her sweet, ravishing heart.

Given
the chance, he would have loved to know where things between them could lead.
But how could there be anything if trust did not first exist?

With
a sigh, Benjamin shook off his morose thoughts and turned the Land Rover back
toward home as darkness began to cloak the plains completely. He very much
feared that Luke’s death was still a shadow that would forever stand between
him and Sarah.

* * *

               
“It’s good of you to come, despite the lateness of the hour.” Gideon Mara
nodded to Benjamin and gestured for Benjamin to sit down inside the cramped
hut.

Benjamin
eyed the man before him. He stayed standing. “I’m glad you have sent for me.”

Gideon
had the proud bearing of the tall, slender Maasai. Benjamin knew Gideon had
gained a western education before he returned to take his place as leader of
his tribe. He also often worked as a nomad guide, aiding mobile safari
companies whose travelers liked to follow herd migration as closely as
possible. 

Like
Gideon, Benjamin now wore the traditional
shuka—
a red checkered
blanket—across his shoulders. It was a sign of respect both for Gideon and the
Maasai people.

“You
have news?” Benjamin asked hopefully.

Gideon’s
tribe kept to the life of a nomad, following their herds of cows. This was in
marked contrast to the Bantu who had adopted a more settled, agricultural life.
Over many years Gideon’s tribe had helped with apprehending and tracking any
poachers they encountered. In fact, poachers were known to fear the possibility
of being found by the Maasai more than they feared the anti-poaching rangers or
government enforcement units.

Turning,
Gideon nodded to one of his men. The man went outside. Minutes later, the man
hustled in another young man who looked around him, his eyes so wide that white
shone bright. Welts and swollen bruises marked his face. He cowered in the grip
of the powerful warrior who held him captive.

“He
was caught by warriors of my tribe while attempting to raid cattle off the
western Bunda plains,” Gideon explained.

“Please,
spare me!” the young man cried out in his native tongue. “I needed to raise
some money to pay the bride wealth for my marriage. I’m a poor farmer with no
other way to get the cash. I’m no poacher.”

Benjamin
frowned. “Cow theft is not something that can be brushed aside. If you’re
handed to the village officials, you will be beaten. Which is far less than you
deserve.”

The
man young man shivered and slumped lower.

Gideon
turned to Benjamin. “He says he has information. About what happened on the
night the Luke was killed.”

Benjamin’s
head shot up. “What?”

“He
knows we’ve been asking about how Luke died. This man says he saw it happen.”
He glanced at the man. “Tell him what you told us.”

The
man glanced around him. “I…I wasn’t hunting. But I was out. And I heard the
engines they were near water and I thought I might ask tourists for food. I
came upon them—poachers. I knew it as soon I saw them loading bush meat and
tusks into their trucks. I saw Luke—I think he was able to track them down from
one of their snare lines. They saw him and a shootout started and Luke was
injured. They captured him and then they argued. One man, he was the one who
got tired of the others saying to go and just leave Luke. He pulled out his
blade and said he would make it look a lion attack. He struck at Luke, again
and again. They left him there near the water. I—I am sorry. I stayed in the
brush. I thought they would kill me next if I ever spoke of this.”

“But
now the poachers are in jail,” Gideon said.

The
main nodded and hung his head.

Benjamin
froze. Once he was able to regain some control over his emotions, he punched a
fist into the man’s chest. “Is this true?”

The
man nodded hastily. “It is, all of it. I feared backlash from the poachers and
could not come forward with the information earlier, before they were caught.”

Gideon
sighed. “Sadly, it would seem that it was a case of being in the wrong place at
the wrong time for Luke Hutton.”

 “What
do you intend to do with him?” Benjamin asked after a few moments.

“He
is an eyewitness. Though the police have evidence from the blood, I’m sure they
would like to hear from him. He can point out the man who killed Luke.”

Benjamin
nodded, feeling weary in his bones. He watched the warriors take the man out
again. He turned to go, but Gideon held him back.

“One
more thing. There is someone else here that you might be interested in seeing.
Sarah Hutton.”

Benjamin
staggered back a step. “Sarah’s here?”

As
he spoke, a side door opened and Sarah stepped into the room. She rubbed her
palms down the thighs of her jeans. She glanced from Gideon to Benjamin and
then straightened. “Luke wrote to me about Gideon—in his letters. I was sure he
might know something about how and why Luke was killed.”

“She
got in contact with me through one of my clan brothers who works at the Hutton
Game Lodge,” Gideon said. “I arranged to meet her here after we caught that man
who was an eyewitness. I thought she needed to know. We all did.”

Sarah
nodded. “There’s something more. That man saw the face of the person in charge of
the poachers. He can identify him, and he said the man is a top local official.
We’re hoping this can help expose those behind the poachers. That would at
least give Luke’s death some meaning.”

“I
always suspected they had to have help in high places to get away with their
deeds so easily,” Benjamin said.

Gideon
turned to Sarah and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Please accept my deepest
sympathy for losing your loved one to this atrocity. Now we can take steps to
see that something like this will never happen again.”

“Thank
you,” Sarah whispered. “Hearing the whole story has lifted a heavy load from my
mind.” She looked down at her clasped hands, before she finally lifted her gaze
to meet Benjamin’s intense look.

To
his relief, she nodded and smiled. Under Benjamin’s watchful gaze, a look of
genuine peace began to settle on Sarah’s features, a kind of serenity that
hadn’t been there before. He knew then that her true healing had begun. And
perhaps that could now be true for everything between them.

Chapter Ten: A Life for a Life

               
On the sultry, warm night following her encounter with Gideon Mara, Sarah
thought of Benjamin as she fell into a peaceful sleep for the very first time
in what felt like forever. The air was thick with the sweet scents of the
Serengeti plains, and the quiet whisper of the one river flowing in the
distance joined in with other sounds to lull her into slumber. With all her
anguish for Luke’s resolved and laid to rest—he could be buried now—a softer
sorrow gently fell upon her.

               
She had no more regrets, just a certainty Luke could now rest, too.

She
didn’t know how long she slept. Eventually, she was gently roused by a soft touch,
a hand that stroked her hair with the utmost care. Sarah opened her eyes to
find Benjamin Ndlovo sitting on her bed. She didn’t think to ask him how he had
entered the house, let alone her bedroom. Not that she really needed to.
Lindiwele had been keeping an eye on them both. She could imagine that the old,
loveable woman had been only too happy to let Benjamin in and allow him to
reach her. The cook was probably already dreaming of having surrogate
grandchildren from the two of them and cooking massive breakfasts for all of
them. That didn’t sound like such a bad idea, now that she thought about it.

Sarah
shook her head. She hoped Benjamin would think she was trying to shake off
sleep. He really didn’t need to know she was entertaining the notion of
marriage and children, even if for one fleeting moment.

And
then she felt
it. She sensed it. The warmth of Benjamin body, the look
in his dark eyes, revealed now by the moonlight flooding through her window all
wove into a single awareness. He stared at her with a loving gaze that felt as
if that look was just for her.
It had better be!
She thought in a sudden
fit of jealousy. She didn’t want him seeking other women—or other women coming
to him. She wanted him and no one else. And the look on his face just now made
her feel utterly cherished and protected by his love. Shielded. Safe.

With
her brother’s death fully resolved—with a reason given for why he had
died—Sarah looked for her own courage. Her brother had been a very brave man.
How could she do anything but honor him by finding her own strength. She looked
at Benjamin now and saw the utter truth—he loved her. Loved her as only a
strong man can—with a love that is almost too much to speak. But he could show
it.

How
blind she had been. Willfully blind because of her fears. How could she even
begin to suspect this gentle man of ever harming her brother, someone they both
loved so desperately much? But grief had left her wanting to lash out and hurt
others. And she had not wanted to face the fact that she would never return to
England.

It
was like Benjamin had told her during their confrontation in her brother’s
study. She truly had known this all along. Why else would she have given
herself to him in the complete way that she had?

She
heaved a deep breath. There were some things that needed to be said. “I’m
sorry. I’m so sorry, Benjamin. I’ve been such a—”

Benjamin
stopped her words by placing a gentle finger upon her lips. “It’s all right.”

Pulling
back just enough to speak, she shook her head. “It’s
not
all right,
Benjamin. It most definitely is not.”

“Words
don’t matter. Actions do.”

Sarah
tried very hard not to react as he began to undo the top buttons of her thin
nightgown. Her skin tingled. “Will you listen to me?”

He
looked up at her and stopped, visibly amused. “What?”

She
rolled her eyes. “Words do matter. And you’re impossible, you know that? I’m
trying to apologize here.”

“Fine.
Apology accepted.”

Sarah
blinked. “Just like that?”

“Well,
no. Of course not.” His grin widened and his dark eyes took on a devilish
glint. “You’ll have to show me just how sorry you are.”