The man at Kambala (12 page)

`I thought I already did that.'

'Air, but that was a basic rundown-in company. I want to know about the girl who came stalking round the corner of the house with a man hot on her heels. Had Steve been doing something he shouldn't?'

`No.' The denial was too quick; she could see that by his smile and the flick of his eyebrow. 'We'd just been having a few words, that's all,' she tagged on hastily. `He thinks I'm still in rompers!'

`Short
sighted of him. I'd say that you'd a whole lot more poise and sense than many girls your age I could think of. The life you've led out here for the last few years is bound to have made you more independent, for one thing. That's probably what he objects to,' on a dry note. 'In Steve's book women do as they're told when it's for their own good.'

`Including your sister?' she asked after a moment.

`Sure. Di's no fool when it comes to playing up to male vanity. She'll accept things from Steve York that any other man would get flattened for even attempting

to put across.'

Sara said with care, 'Does that mean she's in love with him?'

Don laughed. 'About that now I wouldn't exactly know. Di got past the habit of confiding her feelings in me a long time ago — if she ever did it. I'd say she's definitely attracted, and interested enough to make this trip against her natural instincts. My sister is more of a hothouse type than an outdoor plant. She's out of her element here and she knows it, but that doesn't stop her from playing the game through to the end. If she really does decide to want Steve then she's even capable of changing her whole life-style to get him. Anyway, that's enough about those two. I'd rather talk about us.'

`Us?'

`You and me.' He was watching her with a smile which taunted yet somehow failed to grate as it did when Steve looked at her like that. 'We are going to be friends, I hope.'

Sara felt her pulses quicken involuntarily. Don Milson was undoubtedly a very attractive man, and unlike Steve he obviously didn't see her as a mere child... Without having to think about it she found the right note of response.

`It all depends what friendship with you entails.'

The smile widened appreciatively. 'Just as much as you want it to — or as little. I'm a man content to follow where others lead. Perhaps you could show me where to get the best camera shots, for a start.'

The other were coming back, Sara could hear Diane laughing as they mounted the steps. She gave Don a
wide smile. `I'd be pleased to try.'

The day slipped into night almost unnoticed. Temu came back from the Lodge with the Milsons' luggage about seven, and Diane retired to her room to change from the clothes in which she had travelled. When she appeared in the living-room just before dinner she was wearing an expensively simple linen dress in a pale shimmering green which was wonderful with her hair. Sara was suddenly glad that Jill had only bothered to change her shirt. For the first time she began to see the desirability of looking feminine on occasion, although she could never hope to come anywhere near Diane in sheer eye-catching appeal, she told herself firmly.

She missed Kimani's presence on the veranda that night after the meal. By now he would be safely in hospital with his leg properly set and at ease. From her usual seat by the rail she found herself watching Diane as she talked with the men, admiring the easy manner which seemed quite unaware of anything beyond the conversation in hand at the moment. Yet the other couldn't fail to have noticed how Steve's glance lingered on her lips as she talked, how the slight smile came and went around the corners of his own mouth as if at memories conjured up by the very sight of that full redness. When he kissed Diane it would be nothing like the way he had kissed her that afternoon, she thought, and pressed herself suddenly and abruptly to her feet.

haven't seen to the animals yet,' she announced to no one in particular.

`I'll come with you.' It was Don who spoke, voice casual. 'I need to stretch my legs before bed.'

He waited until they were out of earshot of the others before saying, 'Is this how you spend all your free time out here, just sitting and talking?'

`I suppose it is,' answered Sara after a moment. `Most of it, anyway.' She glanced at him the moonlight. 'Are you bored?'

`Already?' he added for her with a smile. 'No, but I'm surprised that you're not. I'll tell you one thing, Jill isn't going to prove too adaptable to changing conditions.'

`What does that mean exactly?'

`Simply that she's used to leading a fairly full life one way or another. She's a live wire, is our Jilly. More so than I think Steve realizes.'

B
ut she seemed so pleased to be here this afternoon.'

`It's a novelty to her — and she'd welcome any chance to see something of him for a change. How long is he expecting her to stay?'

`I'm not sure. Perhaps until my father comes back in about a month's time.'

`Then he's going to have to work in it.'

`I don't really see that there's so much he could do,' she commented reasonably. 'After a day in the open the men never seem to want to do anything but get their feet up with a drink.' She waited just a bare moment before adding casually, 'Is he so different away from here?'

`Well, he certainly doesn't seem against organized entertainment.' His tone was thoughtful. 'Maybe Di will start having second thoughts about him on this trip. I certainly don't see her putting her feet up night
after night, even for Steve York.'

Sara couldn't either. But Steve wasn't planning on doing this kind of job for much longer according to his sister. Obviously Don didn't know that, but how about Diane? With that knowledge in mind she could afford to put up with a few days of boredom just to make sure that Steve didn't forget.

Don waited outside the pen while Sara bedded the fawn down for the night. When she let herself out again he was smoking a cigarette and listening to the night sounds.

`I once heard a recording of all this,' he said. 'I never really believed it was all genuine track until now. Is it always the same?'

'No, it can get noisier,' she smiled. The baboons are rather quiet tonight. Now when they get going it's a real racket !'

`Well, let's hope that nothing disturbs them.' He leaned against a fence post, reminding her of that first night Steve had been here. 'No immediate hurry to get back, is there? Stay and talk for a bit.'

`They'll be wondering where we've got to,' she hedged.

`Let 'em wonder. Do 'em good. For my part, I promise to curb my natural inclinations and refrain from molesting you.'

She looked at him uncertainly, saw his grin and relaxed suddenly. 'What a relief ! I believed you might be what the magazines call a fast worker.'

`Don't you believe all you read about men, honey,' he jeered. 'Things aren't always what they seem to be.'

`No?' Guilelessly she added,
Jill thinks you're probably not half as cynical as you make out.'

`Does she now?' He sounded faintly surprised. 'I didn't know she'd given any time to considering it one way or the other. What else did she have to say about me?'

`Only that you've been married and . ..' Sara caught herself up, aware of already having said too much.

`And?' he prompted. 'I'm sure she didn't leave it hanging in mid-air like that.'

`Well, no. She said your wife had . . . gone away.' `That's a polite way of putting it. The usual version is "found herself another man".'

Something in his tone drew Sara's eyes to his face. `Isn't that what happened?' He was silent for so long that she felt herself flushing. 'Sorry,' she offered. 'I shouldn't have asked. It's none of my business'

`That's all right. I invited it.' He flicked ash from the end of his cigarette. 'Sometimes it's easiest to let people think the obvious, but the truth of the matter is that Caroline left me because she resented Diane living with us.

`Couldn't Diane have found a place of her own?' she asked hesitantly.

`I suppose she could, but why should she have? The farm is half hers, which makes the house half hers too. I could hardly ask her to leave under the circumstances, only Caro wouldn't see it that way.' He made a small sound of disgust. 'Women!' He was silent for a few seconds, then he threw down the remains of the cigarette and trod it beneath his heel. 'That's a fine subject
to get on to. Let's leave it that there were probably faults on both sides. It's been water under the bridge for the last five years.'

Sara was only too glad to leave the subject, only too sorry that she had brought it up in the first place. Don had been badly hurt in the past, and was obviously regretting this brief invasion of his privacy. So she would forget it as he said, together with the small voice which deplored the total insensitivity of a woman who would see her only brother's marriage falter on the rocks rather than make a small sacrifice herself — if she could forget that part.

She thought that Steve eyed the two of them a little sharply when they got back to the house, but he said nothing. When a few minutes later Jill professed herself unusually tired with the events of the day and the change in the air, she was almost glad of the excuse to suggest an early night for them both and accompany the other girl to the room they were to share.

Later, lying in the narrow bed while Jill breathed evenly and deeply in the other, Sara listened to the soft murmur of voices drifting in through the opened window from along the veranda, and imagined Steve out there alone with Diane; two adult people who both knew exactly what they wanted from life. They were well suited, she had to admit.

HAVING Jill and the Milsons around certainly made a difference to life at Kambala, Sara found over the following couple of days. Even Ted so far bestirred himself as to don a cravat of sorts at dinner time instead of appearing as usual in the comfortable old open-necked shirts he favoured. Sara herself got no further from her normal attire than glancing irresolutely once or twice through her wardrobe, hating to admit to herself that she envied the gay little dresses in which Jill appeared every evening. Very little of what she possessed would even fit her now, she realized, and what did was hardly in the same class. Even three years ago she hadn't been all that interested in clothes.

The whole party went out each day in one car, leaving Ted to look after the Station as always. Steve was excellent at finding game, of course, murmuring `Couple of jackal off there to the right,' or 'Lions left of that boulder there,' long before anyone else had noticed anything at all. They were days of cruising slowly and steadily across savannah and plain, sometimes through grass deep enough to almost cover the car completely, at others over burned areas which appeared devoid of life of any kind. On the second day they spent a whole hour watching a large herd of giraffe on the edge of the forest, and being watched back with the same wide-eyed curiosity until a sudden impatient movement on Diane's part sent them cantering off with

that oddly unco-ordinated motion which was so much a part of their charm.

So far as Diane was concerned it was soon obvious that the real bright spots in the days were the noon hours spent at the Lodge where she could shine in her own particular fashion. Unlike Don, she found the endless parade of wild life boring and repetitive, although she accepted the ordeal with amazing good humour. Whatever her faults, Sara decided, watching the striking, bikini-clad figure climbing from the pool, one had to admire Diane. She herself would have given a great deal for just a little of the other's unfailing self-confidence in circumstances so far removed from her normal mode of life.

Don surfaced a few feet away from her dangling legs, pausing to tread water and toss the hair out of his eyes before hauling himself out of the pool and sprawling on the grass at her side.

`I must be out of condition,' he panted. 'I feel decidedly winded after that last couple of lengths. Are you going in again?

`I don't think so.' Sara's eyes were on Steve, standing on the far side with Diane laughing over some shared joke. His body above the white trunks was bronzed and superbly fit, with not an ounce of spare flesh in sight. She looked round quickly at Don. 'I thought Jill was with you.'

`She was, until that young Frenchy came and took her off right under my nose. She's having a tete-a tete with him on the terrace right at this moment over a pot of coffee — or that's what he suggested, I think. My French is strictly of the schoolboy variety. I don't

suppose you've got a cigarette on you.'

Sara laughed. 'Do I look as if I might have a cigarette on me — even if I smoked in the first place?'

`Well no, I suppose not,' considering her with a practised eye. 'There'd hardly be room in that suit.' He gave a mock sigh. 'I'd give a great deal to be nineteen again, with everything in front of me.'

`Do you think things would be any different?' she ventured.

`It depends. If I'd met someone like you they might have stood a better chance. I have a strong notion that when you fall in love it will be for keeps, regardless of any outside influence.' His voice lightened deliberately. `Would you call thirty too old for a new start?'

`Hardly.'

`I'm glad you're so certain It gives me renewed hope.' He stood up, extending his hand to pull her to her feet beside him. 'Let's get changed and have a drink before we get back on the trail.'