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The sky was beginning to flame and it enhanced that spell which was simply known as ‘the bush’. Strangely enough, the beer had a calming effect and she felt almost at peace, ready to face anything.

Idly her eyes scanned the faces of the occupants in those cars which were parked on a rise, in a half-moon, round the waterhole. When she saw Hugo watching her from the Swazi Signature Kombi her green eyes widened and then registered shock. She saw the anger on his face. In the next car a child was shouting, ‘Look, Mummy, a whole herd of elephants!’

Tirza’s shocked eyes swung away and she caught her breath at the sight of the herd which had ambled out of the dry bush. The great beasts moved towards the water. Except for the calves, they were so huge, and yet quite soundless. It was an eerie, breathtaking experience and Tirza was caught up in it. Regardless of Hugo Harrington, who was sitting in the Kombi, and the anger in him which was wrestling to be released, she reached for her bag and took out her Nikon camera and then opening the door she slipped her legs out of the car and stood up, camera held in position. It made no difference to her, at the moment, that she was in for a showdown with Hugo Harrington in the near future.

He was beside her, it seemed, in an instant and in one lithe movement. ‘What the devil do you think you’re doing? Get back into the car!’

When she was back in the car and he was next to her he said angrily, ‘Visitors to the reserve are requested not to leave the safety of their vehicles.’ With wide eyes she watched him as he shrugged off the jacket he was wearing and tossed it on to the back seat. ‘You’d do well to remember that, in future.’ She was aware of those dark blue eyes and was shocked at the anger in them, behind their thick black growth of lashes. His expression chilled her and she had had nothing to say for herself.

In the car next to them a man was complaining in a loud voice. ‘What the devil do those two think they’re up to? If those animals charged, we wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. We’re completely blocked in here by cars ... can’t even reverse and turn, until some of them get away first.’

‘We are parked next to a very precise man,’ Hugo went on, still in that angry voice, ‘and I heartily endorse what he has to say.’

‘I ... I’m ...’ Tirza started to say, but he interrupted her rudely. ‘Save it, Miss Harper. It’s a wonder you hadn’t arranged for a representative of the
News of the World
to be present!’

Humiliation washing over her she turned miserably away from him. The elephants were beginning to drink now. The great bulk of an elephant produced a shock and exercised fear, mingled with fascination. The bull elephants were much larger than the females and had powerful tusks and broad-based trunks. The tusks of the cows were slender and three nurslings pressed themselves against their mothers who, encouraging them to drink, shoved them on with their trunks. It was so silent, Tirza found herself thinking. The animals had moved out of the bush as silently as a lizard. They sucked up the water with their trunks and then poured it into their mouths. A very small calf did not drink, but its mother sprayed it all over and it began to squeal immediately, and made to run away, but was held back. The squealing of the calf instantly caused a rustle of panic on the part of the game-spotters.

In the car next to them the man was talking again, still in that same loud voice. ‘I don’t like this,’ he was saying. ‘I don’t like this at all. I reckon we try to get away from here before they charge. If they do, mark my words, panic is going to set in. There’ll be a pile-up equal to none, quite apart from the fact that those animals could make concertinas of the cars.’

Tirza was feeling tight with tension, and added to this was the fact that she had blatantly helped herself to Hugo’s car and was going to have to answer for it.

The protective movements of the female elephants towards their young increased the feeling of anticipation. The cows seemed almost to be nursing calves between their thick legs and they began brushing the calves’ heads with their trunks.

A giant elephant stood slightly apart from the rest, showering his head and great body. He had been the last to arrive, and as he stopped and fanned his huge ears, there was more agitation on the part of the game-spotters.

Immediately the first car started, all the others followed. Panic was beginning to take over and people who honoured the trusting and unwritten code that doors to rest-huts were left unlocked were showing the ugly side to their natures as they swore at other people who might be blocking the way to escape and, in so doing, jeopardised the endeavour to save the skins of their families and themselves.

Hugo, who was now in the driver’s seat, made no attempt to start the Alfa-Romeo, and Tirza realised that if panic had its way somebody was going to have to give, for there were children, and even babies, in some of the cars.

The whole peaceful sunset scene was changing into a kind of nightmare of anticipation.

At the waterhole, one of the calves huddled against its mother, searching for the source of the sound of engines, and this movement was immediately followed by the loud trumpeting of the giant elephant.

There was a fresh surge of panic and then, in the midst of all this panic and confusion, the herd wheeled and, in their strange, shambling, and almost comical run, made for the bush on the opposite side of the water. Silent, and without charging, that was the miracle of it all ... Tirza allowed herself to sag and a long-pent-up breath escaped her. She and Hugo were the only two people who were not trying to make a getaway. Eventually, they were the only people left in the raised clearing which looked down on the waterhole, with its almost creamy coffee-coloured water.

He made no attempt to say anything and she was determined not to be the first to speak. A tall, awkward bird with prancing steps approached the waterhole and, to calm her shrieking nerves, Tirza kept her eyes on it.

And then Hugo spoke. ‘What the hell are you up to?’

She turned her head to look at him and saw his eyes on the beer can which she had placed on the open flap of the glove compartment, and her heartbeats threatened to suffocate her.

‘In Swaziland,’ he went on, ‘you arrived in a storm and you boasted about your enjoyment of ... nature’s pyrotechnics. Now I find you here, complete with sundowner and this fine network of nerves of yours completely unruffled to the fact that you were in danger the minute you stepped out of the car with your Nikon. Not only that, you endangered the lives of those about you.’ Listening to him, she was ashamed to admit, even to herself, that his every movement held an overwhelming fascination for her and, without replying, she brushed back a wisp of hair from her cheek.

‘What did you expect me to do,’ he continued, ‘when I saw you pass through the gates in my car ... run up a flag?’

‘Yes,’ she said, on a small furious breath, ‘that’s exactly what I did expect.’

‘That’s the sort of answer I should have expected. You have a passion for the dramatic and, very often, the absurd.’

When she made no reply he said, ‘Are you listening to me?’

‘Oh ...’ she shrugged in what she hoped was a careless fashion, ‘intently.’ To stop herself from shaking she hugged herself and then after a moment she said, ‘I’m sorry about the car. I—I don’t know what got into me.’

The flaming colours in the sky were fading and the air was cooler.

‘Anyway, we’ll save it,’ Hugo was saying, ‘we’d better get moving. The gates will be closed by the time we get back, and there just happens to be a fine.’

‘Oh, to hell with the fine,’ she snapped, ‘to hell with the gates! I’m not interested.’ Something seemed to be breaking up inside her. ‘I don’t care about the gates,’ she said again.

‘You don’t care about anything, let’s face it.’ His fingers dug into her shoulders as he turned her round to face him. She gazed at him and he returned her gaze, coolly, fixedly, not blinking, but holding it intensely, interminably, until at last she was forced to lower her lashes and then his mouth was on hers. His hands, tanned and long-fingered, possessed unexpected strength and, in the confined area, he held her close. He kissed her with an almost brutal intensity, his mouth biting into her own. Tirza was powerless to stop her mouth from answering his and she satisfied the longing she had to touch the hard skin beneath his shirt, opening his shirt so that she could feel more of his body against her own. She freed her lips from his so that she could kiss his chest, burying her face into the wiry hairs there. His fingers sought her chin and he turned her face upwards so that he could go on kissing her. She was only vaguely aware of the far-back cry of some animal and her world had narrowed down to nothing more but the hard, close circle of Hugo’s arms.

He released her suddenly, and she stared at him with eyes that were a little out of focus. Humiliated, she said, ‘I think you are detestable!’

‘If you think that you’d have stopped me,’ his blue eyes went over her and she tried to slap his face, but he caught her wrist. ‘I’m warning you, if you try that again, Miss Harper, I may just retaliate, and you seem hellbent on discovering this for yourself.’

‘I’ll try it, anyway,’ she told him, watching him as he got out of the car.

‘I’ll follow you,’ he called out, not looking at her.

They reached the camp to find the gates had been closed by the black game guards. With their slouch hats and khaki uniforms they appeared efficient and polite, and Tirza, watching Hugo pay the fine, felt young and lonely—and ridiculous.

‘Okay,’ he said, coming towards the Alfa-Romeo, ‘you know where to park my car.’

She sat in hostile silence, staring up at him, and then she set the car in motion and drove in the direction of the bungalows.

Without waiting for him, she got out of the car and ran up the steps to her bungalow, and at the sight of the golden thatched room and twin beds, covered with golden-yellow covers, she felt an urge to collapse and never get up again. She felt nervously drained and exhausted.

A moment later Hugo was at her door. ‘Please be ready to dine at the restaurant.’ His eyes went over her. ‘There’ll be time for you to slip under a shower, if you like.’

‘I have no wish to dine,’ she said, assessing his masculinity as he stood there, looking at her.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said.

‘I’m not being ridiculous. I loathe you. I loathe the lot of you, and I have no wish to eat in your company.’

‘That doesn’t worry me. Anyway, honesty is better than lying,’ he told her. ‘You’re improving.’

‘Thank you,’ she said sarcastically.

‘Before we eat, however,’ he went on, ‘I’m going to buy you a drink.’

‘I said no! Leave me alone and get back to your lady-friend and her mother.’

‘They’re included in the invitation,’ he said.

Pointedly, Tirza moved towards the shower-cubicle and was shocked when his hand shot out and he grasped her wrist. His fingers were hard and unyielding.

‘You’ll do as I say.’

‘How do you profess to
make
me?’ She was furious now. ‘How? Just tell me that?’

‘I’ve had some experience in making women do things they don’t want to do. Don’t provoke me, Tirza.’

After a moment she said, ‘Damn you and your insufferable air of superiority!’ She was feeling angrier than she had ever felt in her life.

Wearing cream slacks and a spice-brown body-shirt, which she left daringly unbuttoned, to match the mood she was in, and several strands of pink pearls, she waited tensely in her bungalow until she felt it was time to join the others outside.

There was an awkward pause when she did, but Cathy broke it by saying, with a slight pursing of her lips, ‘Isn’t it a heavenly night? Hungry, Tirza?’

Tirza felt stunned—just as though nothing had happened to cause the ill-feeling which was nothing short of potent. I’m not letting her get away with that, she thought.

‘I could ask you the same question, Cathy.’ There was a wealth of meaning in the tone of her voice.

‘I asked first,’ Cathy laughed lightly, but there was tension in the sound.

‘Well, no, Cathy, as a matter of fact I’m not hungry,’ Tirza replied coldly.

‘A drink will soon put that right,’ Hugo cut in. ‘Let’s go.’ He was the type of man who became impatient when women kept him waiting and was used to putting an end to it by handing out orders.

They walked the short distance to the magnificently constructed restaurant of stone, thatch and wooden beams, which blended so perfectly with the surroundings.

Over drinks, which they had in the tremendous lounge, conversation was stilted. Dinner was not what could be described as a pleasant meal. There was too much of an atmosphere and, into the bargain, the air-conditioning was turned up to its highest, and Tirza felt herself shivering. Deliberately, however, she left the warming liquid in her glass untouched.

When she was back in her bungalow, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her whole visit to Swaziland had been distorted by the two women her father had introduced into her life.

Before getting into bed she went to check the latch on the screened door to the veranda, for there was no key to her room. The latch on the door was broken and although, in the Game Reserve, latches and locks were of little concern this added to her tense and unhappy state.

Outside, the sky was restless with glittering stars and somewhere close by a wild dog barked, and the bark ended in a wild yap, yap, yapping, increasing in volume when more dogs joined in. The camp, however, was very quiet, with the people who had dined in the restaurant either in bed or preparing for it. All that mattered in this part of the world was a good night’s rest, after an exciting day of game-spotting and who was going to be the first out of the gates at sunrise for more game-spotting. The glowing fires where people had grilled meat over charcoal had practically died out.

Having no key and a broken latch bugged her. After all, she was alone in the bungalow. Cathy had Paige and Paige had Cathy, and Hugo was all arrogant male. She felt tired, emotionally and physically drained, and it was not surprising, therefore, that she had the recurrent dream.