Today's Embrace (23 page)

“Is that what the Shona house servant said?” Parnell asked doubtfully.

“Of course the servants aren't going to come out and admit it. Or the cat knocked the inkwell off the desk.”

Parnell turned to Arcilla, a mocking smile on his lips. “Mere coincidences,
Arcilla, my dear. So get over it, my girl.” He whipped back toward Darinda, his smile gone. “But no one can yet explain how a bottle of red ink tipped over by the cat ended up on the wall some twenty feet away! I'm with you, Arcilla, and so is Retford. The ngangas are up to no good.”

Ngangas. Mere medicine doctors, some say, but not Dr. Jakob van Buren or Derwent Brown. They say most ngangas seek advice from dark spirits
.

Arcilla stole a wary look toward the porch, where the doors stood open. The breeze entered, stirring the curtains on the other windows like the passing of ghosts.

“Now you're giving me the jim-jams,” Darinda said. “Really, Arcilla, sometimes I think you're deliberately playing all this up just to get Peter to leave Bulawayo. You must stop dwelling on the war with Lobengula. That's all over now.”

“Is that a false bravado I hear in your voice?” Parnell's lips turned back from his white teeth in a wolfish smile. “Ask your gallant captain if he thinks the repercussions of war are all over.”

They stood looking at each other evenly.

“Maybe I will,” Darinda challenged.

Parnell will never win her like this
, Arcilla thought.

“If Julien follows through on his expedition to locate Lobengula's burial cave and the Kimberly Black Diamond, there'll be more than just red ink splashed on the wall of his office. Julien's got to be stopped.”

Darinda's gaze swerved accusingly. “So it was you who contacted Anthony in London!”

He walked to the teapot and refilled his cup. His face was testy.

“Julien isn't himself recently. He's obsessed with the Black Diamond. He'll never give up his search, no matter what Capetown has to say about the expedition. The diamond has a power all its own. It will destroy anyone who is determined to possess it!”

“I hope you're wrong about why Anthony came,” Arcilla interjected. “I hope he came to tell Peter about a new position in London.”

Parnell gave a short laugh. “Is that why you came here to the bungalow to see him? None of us will go anywhere that Julien doesn't want us to go, regardless of Capetown or London.”

“Do stop it, Parnell,” Darinda said wearily. “You're free. You can leave anytime you please.” And she turned her back and walked over to the open door, then stood there looking out at the sunset.

“Am I …,” he asked in a husky voice, “free?”

Arcilla felt a twang of pity. Her temper flared toward Darinda. “We both ought to go
home
, Parnell,” she said daringly. “No one appreciates us here.”

Darinda cast her a glance but made no reply. “Anthony's come about the Black Diamond, all right, that's clear,” Parnell stated.

“There's no proof Lobengula had it, only some wild rumors,” Darinda said.

“Julien thinks there is more to it than rumors. And if he gets up an expedition for the Matopos, we'll all end up like Tom Willet.”

Arcilla's skin crawled, then she turned toward the window on the other side of the room. “What was that? Did you hear something—out there?”

“You imagined it. Parnell, can't you talk about something else?”

“Heyden van Buren wouldn't mind getting his hands on the Black Diamond either,” Parnell murmured thoughtfully.

“Don't worry about Heyden. He's nowhere around Bulawayo,” Darinda insisted.

“I wouldn't be so sure. Remember, Dr. Jakob, one of his relatives, is here.”

“Next thing, you'll be agreeing with Arcilla that some nganga's put a curse on the house.”

“Derwent says Satan can't hurt us if we have Christ's Spirit living in us,” Arcilla said, then turned to the window again, where a rattan blind tapped the wooden frame in a gust of wind. “He says that the evil spirits
can suggest things to our minds, but they can't control a believer or what he thinks—we have a new Master, Jesus.”

“Well, well, little sister. What's happened to you? You're sounding like ‘Vicar Derwent.' ” Parnell's lopsided smile was far from antagonistic.

Arcilla wasn't used to talking about such things, and she wasn't inclined to now. But the possibility of evil frightened her and made her more aware of Christian values. She sometimes felt like the lost sheep wanting to find the protection of the Shepherd.

“Well, it wasn't some dark spirit who threw that red ink on the wall in Peter's study,” Darinda said dryly. “If there is anything going on around here, it's humanly inspired.”

Parnell scowled at the bumping rattan shade as the wind kicked up. “The other night I could have sworn I surprised Uncle Julien—it looked like he was casting bones in his office.”

Casting bones … a dark ritual of the ngangas …

Two hot red spots formed on Darinda's cheeks. “Absurd! Grandfather? Whatever for? We're all Christians here.”

Arcilla rubbed her arms. “Please close the window, Parnell.”

“Dark spirits eavesdropping?” He smiled wryly and walked over to the window. He drew up the rattan shade to shut the window. “I doubt they need open windows, but—”

Arcilla watched him glance out into the deepening twilight. As he did, she saw him stiffen, then momentarily pause.

Arcilla stood slowly, hugging herself. “What is it?” came her uncertain whisper.

Parnell shook his head. Darinda edged up beside him and looked out, but Arcilla drew farther away.

“I could have sworn something was crouching below the window,” Parnell murmured, surprise in his voice.

Arcilla strained to hear the rustle of leaves on the trees and vines.

Darinda shut the window with a bang. “You must have seen a shadow. It's windy. Twilight is always a difficult time to see clearly.”

Arcilla glanced toward the veranda. The slowly setting sun had painted the western sky ablaze with reds, golds, and violets.

“Who … who would wish to eavesdrop on us?” Arcilla's weak voice encouraged her own fears.

Darinda turned, scowling. “There was no one there. Don't imagine things. You'll soon have yourself worked up into a dither.”

“I'm not imagining things! And not every woman wishes to feel safe by toting a .45 around her hips. You seem to forget that!”

“Look here, you two,” Parnell scolded. “This is no time for a catfight.”

Darinda's mouth turned. “Huh, most catfights, as you call them, are between tomcats.”

“I wish Derwent were here,” Arcilla stated suddenly. “He and Dr. Jakob always have wise answers about the Umlimo. I think I'll ride out to the mission tomorrow and see how the chapel is coming. Ryan is helping them build it on his time off.”

Darinda looked at her with an arched brow. “Ryan?”

Arcilla smiled sweetly. “Captain Ryan Retford. You do know who he is, Darinda?”

Parnell shot Darinda a dark look. “Oh, quite,” he stated acidly. “By all means, Darinda knows who the dashing captain is. He seems to be hanging about Government House like a stray cat looking to be fed.”

Darinda shrugged. “You seem to have cats on your subconscious today. Is Captain Retford about? I hadn't noticed. But if so, it's because he's working for Grandfather and Peter.”

“He's a guard, too,” Arcilla said, still being too sweet. “That makes us feel so much safer, doesn't it, Darinda?”

Arcilla believed Darinda had an eye for Ryan Retford but pretended otherwise.

“I can take care of myself,” Darinda said. She glanced at Parnell. “After that spitting cobra incident, I knew that if I didn't learn to use a gun
myself
, no one else was likely to come to my aid.”

Parnell remained silent.

Arcilla fumed. “If I recall, Captain Retford shot that snake for you.”

“All this silly talk,” Darinda said. “I've more important things to do. I'm going back to the house. Are you coming with me, Arcilla? It's getting dark.”

“I'll walk back with Parnell,” she said loftily.

“Have it your way.”

Darinda walked to the open door and left through the screened porch without a backward glance.

Darinda left Anthony's bungalow and walked along the path back toward Government House. Twilight deepened, bringing out faint noises of the wild. Arcilla might make disparaging remarks about the pistol she wore, but with dangers from animals and poisonous snakes, along with rumors of unrest among the Ndebele, Darinda felt it wise to be armed. It gave her a sense of independence. After frightening chatter from Arcilla and warnings from Parnell, the pistol was comforting.

Who had Anthony gone to meet? He'd left after their argument, and she'd thought he was on his way to see Parnell, yet that couldn't have been, since Parnell had come to the bungalow looking for him. Maybe Anthony had gone back to Government House to confront Julien? But somehow she didn't think Anthony would confront Grandfather. Julien had always told Anthony what to do, and she didn't think that had changed, even if the high commissioner had sent Anthony here with a letter for Julien.

Darinda slowed her steps on the trail, listening. The breeze was up, and she brushed a strand of her dark hair away from her cheek and glanced about. Her instincts were on edge. That silly Arcilla! She was beginning to affect even Darinda's own steady nerves.
I wish she and Peter would be sent back to London. Arcilla is an embarrassment to womanhood. Giggling, primping, fainting, screaming, always dressing improperly. Silks and lace, and the absurd shoes she'd worn tonight, obviously designed for a ball. Whatever did Peter, a sensible man, see in her?

Diamonds
. Arcilla was a Chantry, and that meant a sizable inheritance in the family diamond mine.

Darinda thought of her own inheritance. She was by far the greatest of diamond heiresses. Whoever married her would become tremendously rich and politically powerful. Did Parnell actually think Grandfather Julien was seriously dangling her before his eyes? Grandfather wouldn't give his granddaughter in marriage to any man unless he had something to offer in return that her grandfather felt was crucial to the family conglomerate. Grandfather had gained influence in Parliament through Peter's marriage to Arcilla.

It didn't seem to her that Grandfather was actually planning to have her become Parnell's wife. Parnell had the impression that Grandfather had promised her to him, and so Parnell was serving him dutifully. Julien best utilized Parnell by continuing to let him think Darinda would become his without ever following through.

Darinda would have been outraged by this, except that Parnell's avid interest in her had not been based on love. The one man Grandfather might have wanted to let her marry was Rogan Chantry, and mostly because Rogan always contested him and in many instances had gotten the best of him. Grandfather Julien would have been pleased to get Rogan on his side, but Rogan had surprised them by returning suddenly to England and marrying the illegitimate daughter of Katie van Buren and Anthony Brewster. Oh! How furious Grandfather had been about that turn of events!

“He did this behind my back,” he had shouted. “It will never stand! I'll see to that.”

What her Grandfather had meant, she didn't know. But Julien had seen the marriage as a cunning move on Rogan's part to undermine his control.

The last rosy flush of sunset in the western sky was turning the polished rock of the distant, brooding Matopos Hills to a marbled pink.

She walked slowly along the path with a dark stand of trees on her right.

She shuddered when a bat, noiseless in flight, swooped and flittered past the Rhodesian wisteria. Now in October, the lilac-blue flowers were in bloom in a showy display, while the tree was leafless. She paused to take it in, for she had always loved nature.

She passed on, nearing a wait-a-bit tree, of which there were many across the land, with what she considered curious hooked clutching thorns. The multistemmed branches drooped with hairy leaves that had two thorns. It was the thorns that caught her interest—one thorn went straight up, while the other thorn was curved, coming up from the leaf base. There were fruits on it too, round and dull red. They were edible, and some animals liked to browse on them, but she hadn't found their taste particularly exciting. Derwent Brown was often suggesting that “the Great Creator designed all these things for His glory and the good of His creatures.” Darinda wondered. She hadn't been raised to believe in a good and loving God who had concern for His creation. She didn't know what she believed, actually. She had never read the Bible that Dr. Jakob van Buren taught at his mission. She had prayed several times in her life, though she had no clear concept of to whom she was speaking.