Jackal's Dance (68 page)

‘I am.' In truth, Dan's heart sat squarely in his mouth.

‘And what about my career?'

‘What about it? There's a whole world out there.'

They sat in her lounge. It was two in the morning and they'd just returned from the theatre.

‘Where would we live?' Gayle was wavering.

‘In a house, where else? Unless of course you'd prefer a mud hut.'

She ignored that. ‘What would I do all day?'

Dan leaned forward. ‘South Africa has a thriving theatre industry. I can't see you as the little house mouse.'

‘And I can't picture you hanging around backstage.'

He sat back, smiling. ‘I'm fifty-seven, never married. You're forty-nine, never married. We're both pretty set in our ways but I believe we can work something out that suits us. We don't have to be joined at the hip. What do you say?'

‘What's on offer?'

‘Will you marry me?'

‘Say that again.'

‘You heard.'

‘Marry you! Christ! A farmer's wife! You're actually asking me to be a farmer's –'

‘Gayle?'

‘I must be mad.'

‘Gayle?'

‘Leave all this behind. The play's got months to run. How on earth –'

‘Gayle?'

‘What?'

‘Shut up and come here.'

She did.

L
ogans Island Lodge, which features prominently in this novel, is strictly a figment of the author's imagination. While Logans Island does exist, it remains free of human interference and is as untouched today as it has always been. Ekuma hide and man-made waterhole on the edge of Natukana Pan (mentioned in
Chapter 6
) are also fictitious. The entire Ekuma area is off-limits to tourists and remains (rightfully so) the sole domain of its prolific wildlife. Both the lodge and waterhole have been invented so this story may be told. All other facts and figures are, as far as the author has been able to establish, correct.

At the time of writing, UNITA rebels have conducted, and continue to carry out, a number of armed incursions into the Caprivi Strip in Namibia. Tourists have been targeted and harmed. This work is not based on those tragic facts. Etosha National Park remains safe, spectacularly beautiful, and well away from the trouble spots.

Not a pretty sight. Certainly not one the authorities on Mauritius, that gem of a tourist destination in a trio of idyllic islands once known as the Mascarenes, would like to become public knowledge. Their carefully nurtured image was of sparkling blue sea, emerald green palm fringes haphazardly angled along pure white beaches . . . This was ugly, messy.

When Australian journalist Holly Jones flies to Mauritius to cover playboy adventurer Connor Maguire's search for buried ancestral treasure, it promises to be a relaxing two weeks in an exotic island paradise. What she hasn't planned on is an infuriating, reluctant subject with a hidden agenda. Or one who stirs the fires in a heart grown cold. But can she trust him . . .

After the body of a young woman is washed up on a beach, Holly finds herself caught in a deadly murder investigation and the island's darkest secrets.

A compelling, passionate tale from Beverley Harper, author of the bestselling
People of Heaven, Echo of an Angry God, Edge of the Rain
and
Storms Over Africa.

‘We have our own Wilbur Smith in the making here in Australia'

SUN-HERALD

The poacher didn't shoot her. Bullets cost money and a shot might alert the rangers . . . On the third night, after enduring more agony than any man or beast should ever have to face, the rhinoceros took one last shuddering breath, heaved her flanks painfully, and sought refuge in the silky blackness of death.

In 1945 two returning soldiers meet on a train bound for Zululand. They have nothing in common; Joe King is a British–South African landowner, Wilson Mpande a Zulu tribesman. Yet destiny will link them for generations.

Michael King and Dyson Mpande, the sons of enemies, share a precious friendship that defies race and colour. But as the realities of apartheid transform an angry South Africa, the fate of the Zulu nation is as precarious as that of the endangered black rhinoceros, hunted for its horn. Each must fight for what he loves most.

And a great evil between their families will test their friendships beyond imaginable limits.

Passionate, suspenseful, evocative, Beverley Harper's fourth novel is a worthy successor to her previous bestsellers,
Echo of an Angry God, Edge of the Rain
and
Storms Over Africa.

‘Harper is Australia's answer to Wilbur Smith'

AUSTRALIAN GOOD TASTE

Likoma Island in Lake Malawi is renowned throughout Africa for its exotic and treacherous beauty – and its secret history of human sacrifice, hidden treasure and unspeakable horror. A history that cannot be hidden forever.

Lana Devereaux travels to Malawi seeking the truth behind her father's disappearance near Likoma Island fifteen years ago. But Lana soon finds herself caught in a web of deceit, passion and black magic that stretches back over two hundred years and has ramifications that reach well beyond the shores of Lake Malawi.

Beverley Harper is fast becoming one of Australia's most popular storytellers.
Echo of an Angry God
is her most thrilling adventure yet and follows the enormous success of her previous novels,
Storms Over Africa
and
Edge of the Rain.

‘a fast paced yet affecting thriller with . . . compelling authenticity'

WHO WEEKLY

‘a terrific adventure'

GOLD COAST BULLETIN