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‘Where can I get something to tie round your leg until we get there?’ he asked.

‘There’s a cabinet in the kitchen,’ she told him, ‘where the breakfast nook is. If I remember correctly, there should be new dish towels in there and clean, torn up sheets which Delphina uses when she irons.’

She was afraid to take her fingers from the gaping wound and was holding her leg when Hugo came back. Suffering now from reaction, she was silent while he bound the leg with a strip of sheeting and then she found herself swept up in his arms as he prepared to carry her to the car.

When he had got her settled he asked, ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes.’ She inclined her head, keeping her pain to herself with a kind of self-sufficient quality which stemmed from being very much alone. He held her hand all the way to Gerry’s house as he drove.

Immediately Gerry Strauss saw the wound he said, ‘Tirza, this is one hell of a bite. You know that? It’s going to have to be stitched, I’m afraid. All right?’

‘I know it’s going to have to be stitched,’ she answered. Her face was deathly pale and she had begun to shake badly. She glanced at Gerry for reassurance and was very quiet while he stitched the torn leg, catching her breath a little.

‘Okay?’ Hugo went down on his heels beside her, sweeping back a curtain of her tawny hair.

‘Yes, fine, thank you.’ After a moment she said, ‘Gerry—what about—rabies?’

‘Look,’ he said, ‘put rabies out of your mind, Tirza.’

‘But Delphina says I’m the second person the dog has bitten recently.’

‘I’m going to cover you with antibiotics,’ he told her.

‘But how will you
know?'
Her voice was strained. ‘The dog might be rabid. I can hardly believe that dog has been inoculated. Have you seen it? It’s nothing but a cur. I can’t think what she’s doing with it.’

‘Just you leave everything to me,’ Gerry told her. ‘Unfortunately, we have to wait fourteen days before we know the verdict.’

‘Fourteen days?’ she gasped. ‘Oh no!’

‘Look, I only say unfortunately because you’re going to worry—not because I happen to think the dog is rabid. You’re going to worry and I’m not going to be able to stop you, but try not to think about it. I’m certain everything is going to be okay.’

‘And then?’ Tirza was white to the lips.

‘If the worst comes to the worst, which I’m certain it won’t, you’ll undergo a course of twenty-one injections.’

‘I see.’ Her hair slipped forward over her
cheeks.
Well, that’s that, I guess. Will I have to stay here for that period?’

‘I suggest you remain here until the stitches come out, anyway. You said you were staying, anyway, didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ she replied dully, ‘I did.’

‘That bite is in a difficult spot. The stitches are probably going to bother you.’

‘Well, fine.’ She stood up and Hugo’s arms steadied her.

Gerry tried to make light of things. ‘I’ll bet this is not what you had in mind when you mentioned that a bite would be appreciated!’ He glanced at Hugo. ‘When I said that Tirza could organise a bite for you before you left, I didn’t mean this. Didn’t you get the steaks?’ He laughed and then looked embarrassed.

‘Quite a surgery you have here,’ Hugo commented.

Gerry looked around. ‘Well, yes, I guess you could say that. Just as well. Sometimes my work doesn’t always revolve around animals. I’m often having to help out.’

In the car going back, Tirza said, ‘You go on ahead. I’ll stay here until I’m fit to make a plan about getting back to Cape Town. Perhaps my father will be back. He can come and collect me, if he is.’ Her voice sounded small and lonely. Hugo’s departure was going to be like a tolling bell in her heart.

There was a sudden silence, as though they had simultaneously run out of words, and then, not looking at her, he said, ‘I’ll be staying on.’

‘But why? It’s not necessary.’ She made an attempt to control the surge of joy. ‘I mean, why should you?’

‘Just let’s say it’s a dumb decision on my part,’ he spoke almost gently, however. ‘Do you think I’d leave you like this?’ He parked the car beneath the large pillared portico and looked at her for a moment, before getting out and coming round to her side so that he could help her.

The scent of eucalyptus leaves hung in the still air and it mingled with the perfume of double white petunias growing in a white urn. White petunias were used again and cascaded over tall urns on the long paved area in front of the huge windows and intricately carved door. The sky was a sheet of gloriously tinted gold and pink and the sun had gone. Delphina had turned on the lamps and the house was ready waiting...

‘Okay,’ said Hugo, after he had carried Tirza inside. ‘Sit here and I’ll get Delphina, and directly she’s prepared your room you’ll get into bed and stay there and start on the capsules Gerry has given you.’

While he was away Tirza sat with her leg outstretched and closed her eyes. Her head was swimming from shock, and yet she found herself thinking about the time she had come here with her father, just before she had met Nigel Wright. It seemed a hundred years ago. Her father had been in the planning stage of marrying Cathy and, even then, he had not thought fit to tell her about Cathy and Paige Mobray. On that occasion, her father had invited friends along—Gilbert and Nancy Winters and their son Paul, and she had known that Paul had been invited along on purpose when D.H. had said, ‘Bring some pretty clothes along. We’ll probably entertain a lot, give a couple of weekend parties, while we’re there.’ To satisfy him she had, and then she had left most of them behind—long and short skirts, jeans and shorts and tops to go with all of them, caftans, undies and sleepwear and, what was now a staggering thought, she had not even missed them after she had got home. Poor, spoilt little rich girl. Well, those clothes, which she had left behind in a fit of anger, would come in useful now, for she had packed very little for her Swaziland trip. Those clothes were also going to give Hugo Harrington something more to think about, when she started wearing them.

He came back into the lounge with Delphina and she opened her eyes. ‘I have already prepared the bed for you and your husband, Miss Tirza. Everything is ready.’

For a moment Tirza was thrown off guard and then she said, ‘Not my husband, Delphina. Mr Harrington will have the room opposite mine.’

‘Oh, you are not married? I’m sorry, I thought...’ Delphina looked embarrassed.

‘We’re thinking about marriage,’ Hugo told her, and his eyes were amused. ‘No problem.’

Tirza was in the kingsize bed with its satin-quilted bedhead when he came to her room. ‘As Gerry said,’ he gave her a smile, ‘that was one hell of a bite. You handled it well.’

‘Thank you.’ She was surprised at the tone of his voice. There was a softness in his expression—a softness she hadn’t suspected was there.

‘Gerry is sending a doctor here in the morning. You’re going to need a prescription,’ he told her.

‘Yes, I realise he gave me only enough pills for tonight. Anyway, thank you for—everything, Hugo. By the way, please feel free to help yourself to whatever you want. My father’s bar is well stocked. Will you do that?’

‘Frankly, I could do with a drink. I’ll leave you— unless there’s anything you want?’

‘No—not now. Later. Delphina is going to cook for us now. I’d just like to rest. Okay?’

Delphina had removed the pale pink and green bedspread and placed it on a small stool at the foot of the bed. The only thing that went to indicate that the kingsize bed belonged to one person was the one satin-shaded lamp that stood on a low antique-white lacquered cabinet, on one side.

Tirza lay back and was aware of the dull throbbing that was setting in at the back of her leg. Delphina brought her a steak, chips and a salad, and the tray was on the lacquered cabinet when Hugo returned to her room.

His eyes went to her plate. ‘So you’ve eaten?’

‘Yes.’ She moistened her lips, unsure of herself.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

‘Not too bad, considering.’ She was wearing a pale apricot nightdress which, although sleeveless, with a low square neckline, was demure, and she saw his blue eyes go to it.

‘Your room is like a flower garden,’ he said. ‘How many flagons of perfume do you go through a month?’

She saw he had been drinking. ‘Oh,’ she shrugged, laughing a little, ‘like my Parisian sister I adore perfume, I guess. Don’t you like it?’

‘I didn’t say that, did I? They say that French women wander, like tipsy bees, from blossom to blossom.’ While he was speaking she was beginning to wonder, a little excitedly, what he would be like to kiss with the smell of whisky on his breath. ‘Anyway,’ he went on looking down at her, ‘don’t they say that the average man is fascinated by the seductive aura of a particular perfume?’

‘You seem to know all about it?’ Tirza bit her lip.

‘Well, I purchase it, from time to time,’ he replied carelessly, ‘and that’s what they tell me.’

Moodily, she watched him as he sat down on the mattress. ‘That tiny gap between your two front teeth is very fascinating. Did you know that? It’s just the kind of imperfection, in an otherwise beautiful woman, that can haunt a man’s memory.’ Suddenly his eyes hardened. ‘But of course that gap has been written about before today.’

‘I don’t ask for publicity,’ she said. ‘In fact, I hate it.’

‘Do you?’ He went on regarding her. ‘You look worried. Is it because you know I’ve had a few drinks? I was suffering from reaction too.’ He laughed softly, ‘But I don’t have a drinking problem.’ His eyes went on mocking her.

‘I didn’t say you did.’

After a moment, to break the silence, Tirza went on talking. ‘I’ll have to phone my father, of course. He might have phoned Swaziland from Hong Kong. Or he might even be home, and if he discovers I’m not there and that I’m not at Cathy’s he’ll be worried. What’s going to happen about your business, if you stay here with me? I’ve been worrying about that.’

‘I can handle things from here. You have a phone, don’t you?’ Hugo took her hand and touched her fingers with his lips. ‘I’ll be brief with you,’ he said. ‘I want to stay with you.’

‘You’re only saying that because you’ve been drinking,’ she said, feeling on dangerous ground now. Her heartbeat quickened. When he began to stroke her jawline, beneath her hair, her green eyes did not leave his face. Sometimes, she thought, his face could be so hard. After a moment he sat back, his dark blue eyes, half-closed, surveying her intensely, and she realised the desire he was feeling for her and the undeniable hunger. That’s all he thinks of, she told herself bitterly, but when he took her into his arms she felt bitterness slipping away from her and responded eagerly. A wildness rose up in her and fought off all thinking from her mind. He had undone the tortoiseshell clasp in her hair and it fell about her face and he moved it away impatiently, so that he could kiss her lips. His hands moved in exploration of her body and his weight on her became heavy.

‘I have been drinking, yes,’ he said, against her mouth, ‘but believe me, my physical reactions are still good enough for me to want to make love to you.’

For a moment the pain was so severe that she
thought he must have torn the stitches from her leg, and she cried out, ‘Hugo—my leg!
Get off me!'

When he drew away from her he sounded more than usually cold when he said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m being unreasonable. Sleep in peace, Tirza.’

After
two days and nights of dragging pain Tirza was beginning to feel drained and helpless. She could not walk without difficulty and her head ached. To add to this, she lived in fear that it would be discovered that Delphina’s snarling, saliva-dripping mongrel was rabid. Certainly, as she had looked into those curious yellow eyes she had been aware of canine madness. Waiting for the verdict stretched before her, like a death sentence.

Hugo spent most of his time in the pool and she would follow him outdoors to watch him moodily from a chaise-longue. It was strange the effect he had on her. There was always an intense awareness of herself and because she longed for him to touch and comfort her, she felt cheated.

In a garden smelling of flowers and wild tobacco plants, her father’s gardeners kept everything in perfect order. Sun-umbrellas, patterned in massed poppies, white daisies, pink carnations, yellow lilies and cerise cosmos splashed against a background of wrapping-paper brown were dotted here and there. It was all so typical of Douglas Harper’s luxuriously appointed homes. Everything was larger than life—even the sun-umbrellas. It was just another perfect house in a perfect garden in perfect sheep farming conditions, Tirza thought with some bitterness, waiting for an owner who seldom came ... like the chalet in the Berg and the house that clung to the dunes at Plettenberg Bay. Wild pink roses clung to white pillars and to cope with the heat there were tall grasses, trees and flowering shrubs and that oval, glittering expanse of blue water, filtered and invigorating. The roof tiles of the house, although giving the appearance of blue slate, were of asbestos. This, together with fibre-glass insulation, kept out a great deal of summer heat.

They could have been in a world that time had forgotten. In fact, it was a private oasis, brought to life by people who were being paid, and paid well, by Douglas Harper. An oasis in the semidesert like Karroo which could be harsh, both in winter and in summer, and yet so strangely beautiful and exciting.

Delphina made rusks and
koeksusters
and
melkterts,
the recipes of which had been handed down from generation to generation.

In different circumstances, Tirza thought wistfully, it could have been wonderful. She gazed at Hugo, who was in the pool now, and then she closed her eyes in frustration, her fingers going to the back of her knee which was still paining her. Her slim shoulders slumped in an angry impotent gesture. How she would love to be there in that sparkling water instead of just sitting here in her bikini! The tiny bra of the bikini left most of her bosom uncovered and her small breasts had taken on a coppery colour, and even her buttocks blended in with her tanned legs.