The man at Kambala (20 page)

She made a start on packing immediately after breakfast, getting Njorogi to bring in a couple of packing cases to the living-room to hold her father's books and personal papers. By midday the shelves were bare and the room was beginning to look denuded with its walls shorn of the few prints hung there over the years in occasional attempts to brighten up the place. She couldn't imagine Molly having any use for half a dozen worn skin rugs, so she left them where they were together with the curtains and cushion covers. She wasn't sure yet where they would all eventually be living, but wherever it was such items would more than likely have been provided long before she got home. In any case, she couldn't leave the banda completely cheerless.

She was on her knees sorting through the pile of records when Steve came back at four. He stopped in the doorway to run his eyes over the already filled crates, mouth cynical.

`Great little worker, aren't you?' he said. 'Maybe we should keep you here after all. What are you going to do for the rest of the week?'

`I haven't finished yet,' she answered without looking up. 'Would you like the record player? It's a relic, but at least it works.'

`Sure. Why not? It will help to fill the gap when Ted

and I run out of conversation.' He moved across and helped himself to whisky, added without turning his head, The tribe are getting ready to move out in the morning. If you like I'll run you over later on to say good-bye to Mgari and his wives.'

Sara sat back on her heels heavily. It was all coming to an end at once. Somehow that seemed fitting. The Masai belonged to a chapter in her life which she would never forget; she wanted to remember them as she had last seen them on the night of the ngoma.

`They don't like good-byes,' she said.

`Suit yourself.' From his tone he couldn't have cared less whether she went or not. He had made the gesture and that let him out. He finished his drink and left her there.

By Sunday night Sara had done all that she needed to do. The crates were packed and labelled ready for Friday's plane out, and her own plans were made. That they involved leaving the station short of a vehicle had been a matter for some concern at first, but with Kimani gone she felt that the remaining, three cars should suffice for a few days. She refused to even consider the fact that someone was going to have to drive back the car she herself was borrowing. It was the only way she had of getting away before the weekend, so that was that. It was simply unfortunate that the Department should have to be put to any trouble because of her.

The evening seemed unbearably long. After dinner Sara made an attempt to interest herself in a book, but the words kept jumping up and down in front of her eyes. She could hear the murmur of voices as the two
men talked out on the veranda, but couldn't bring herself to join them for fear of betraying herself by some word or gesture. This was the last time she would ever sit like this in this room, the last time she would ever hear the familiar sounds of the night floating in out of the darkness out there. By this time tomorrow she would be back in Nairobi, alone in a hotel bedroom with four more days to get through somehow. But anything was better than staying on here right now. Anything at all!

Steve came in some minutes later to refill both glasses. He glanced at her briefly in passing, but made no comment until he was putting the bottle back again.

`What about the dik-dik?' he asked abruptly. 'Do you want me to have it shipped out to a zoo?'

She looked up in dismay. 'You wouldn't do that!'

`I might not have a choice. It's still too young to be turned loose, and I'm not at all sure that it would work now, anyway. You've made it too dependent on you, too used to human company. It's always a mistake to allow wild animals to become attached. You should have known that.'

`Why can't she just stay here on the station?' she asked on a faintly tremulous note. 'She wouldn't be any trouble. Ted would take care of her.'

His lips firmed. 'Ted has enough to do without looking after your menager
ie.
The monkey is bad enough, but at least he can fend for himself.'

`One tiny fawn isn't going to disrupt his work schedule all that much.' She laid the book down on the arm of her chair and sat looking at it for a moment before

saying in a low tone, Do you want me to plead with you, Steve? Is that it?'

'It would be a novelty,' he answered with satire. `Sara Macdonald brought to her knees at last ! It's quite a thought, but not, as it happens, what I'm after. It's the animal I'm thinking of.'

Her eyes came up then and met his, one pair bright, blazing blue, the other cool, grey and unreadable. `Then you must do as you think best,' she said with 'forced steadiness. 'Strictly speaking it's no longer my concern. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?'

A muscle jerked suddenly in his jaw; he took a single step towards her, then checked, lip curling. 'Oh no, you don't! I'm not rising to that again. From now on you can play your vicious little games elsewhere ! Only make sure you choose your partners very carefully, kitten, or one of these fine days you're going to get just what you're asking for!'

Sara didn't move as he picked up the glasses and walked past her out on to the veranda again. She felt deadly tired and more than a little sick. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough !

It rained heavily during the night, but the morning was fine and dry with a delicious freshness in the air. Sara waited with deliberation until Steve was out of the way before emerging from her room, listening to the dying sound of his engine with a complete lack of emotion of any kind.

Ted was already about his business. She ate a solitary breakfast, not in the least bit Hungry but conscious

of the fact that it would be the last food she would get until the evening, apart from a couple of packets of chocolate and some fruit. She didn't want to risk being seen taking food from the kitchen in case either of the two houseboys took it into their heads to mention it to Ted before she was away. The thought of the long drive ahead didn't worry her too much, although it would certainly be the longest period she had ever spent behind the wheel. Once she got to Narok the going would be fairly easy.

The Land-Rover she had chosen to take was the one parked right down near the top of the track. At a little after eight-thirty, after having made sure that Ted was well out of earshot in the rear sheds, she made her way out to it cautiously, carrying the single suitcase which contained all her immediate personal needs. With that stacked in the back and the tail gate up, there was still plenty of room to spread the piece of blanket for the fawn. She went and fetched it quickly, pressing her cheek to the smooth coat as she lifted it into the car. What she was going to do with the little animal when she got to Nairobi she still wasn't at all certain, but it would not be going to any zoo. Perhaps Don would help her out. There was plenty of room at the farm for a young antelope to grow in freedom and safety, and as Steve had said, it was quite accustomed to human contact.

There was no one around when she finally climbed behind the wheel. Neither did anyone appear when she started the engine and headed for the gates. Not that it would have mattered so much at this point. Even if Ted had seen her setting off he would more than likely

have assumed that she was kicking over the traces again to go out alone on to the reserve. He would only know the truth when he eventually went into his own room and saw the letter she had propped up on his pillow. If there was one thing Sara really regretted about this whole affair it was not being able to say good-bye properly to the man she had been so fond of all these years, but that was impossible. If he had any idea at all of her intentions he wouldn't hesitate to call Steve in to stop her.

She avoided looking in the mirror until she swung the wheel to enter the trees which shut off all sight of Kambala.

It took her well over an hour to reach the Escarpment. By then the sun was high in the sky and it was already growing uncomfortably warm in the car. Sara stopped for a few minutes to give the fawn a drink from the flask she had brought with her, pouring a small amount of water into the cupped palm of her hand and holding it out to the long black muzzle. If she could keep up round about the same speed she should make Nairobi just before dark, she reckoned. That was always providing she met with no unforeseen difficulties. It meant that when she did get there she would have the choice of either going straight out to the farm with the fawn, or leaving it in the car overnight outside whichever hotel she stayed in. A decision she would make when she eventually got there, she decided after a moment or two.

She had been going another forty minutes or so when she first noticed the dust cloud far back on the track behind her. Whatever was coming was coming

fast, driven furiously without regard to springs or shock-absorbers. With her heart thudding sickeningly into her throat, Sara put her own foot down, watching the needle swing up to the forty mark and hover there. It could only be Steve in the car behind her. No one else would risk that speed on a dirt road.

He was overtaking her — there was no doubt about that. In the few moments which had passed since she had first spotted the following car he had closed the gap between them by several miles. She increased her own speed again, hardly knowing what she hoped to achieve by running away from him miles from anywhere, only conscious of the need to keep as much distance as possible between them. Whatever happened, she thought wildly, she would not go back. She had finished with that part of her life for ever!

Despite all her efforts the other car gradually crept closer, hidden at times by bends in the track, but always that bit nearer when it appeared again. Soon Sara could see the man behind the wheel through her mirror, although he was still too far away as yet to make out any expression. Not that she needed any confirmation.

Something had to happen, of course, and when it did it happened quickly. Rounding a particularly tight corner, Sara found herself almost on top of a troop of baboons scattered across the track. Instinctively she slammed on the brakes and swerved with a screaming of tortured rubber, heading straight for the belt of trees and bush which came almost down to the road at this point. There was a heart-stopping moment when she was sure that she wasn't going to be able to avoid a
collision, then her front wheel hit a boulder hidden in the long grass, and the whole side lifted to teeter sickeningly on the brink of overturning for an interminable second before crashing down again with a jolt which shook every bone in her body and tore the wheel from her grasp. But at least she had stopped.

The baboons had vanished into the trees by the time the other car came round the bend. Steve drew to a skidding halt and leaped out, striding across the grass to where Sara sat waiting. His face was tight, his eyes chips of grey ice.

`What are you trying to do, kill yourself ?' he demanded, taking in the damage in one sweeping glance. `It's a wonder you didn't overturn taking a bend like that at the speed you were travelling !'

`You shouldn't have chased me.' Her voice was astonishingly steady, Sara noted with oddly detached interest. 'And you were moving even faster than I was when you came round that bend.'

`I kept control of the car,' he pointed out grimly. `I'm not prepared to stand about arguing about it either.' He moved to the back end, his mouth hardening even further when he saw the fawn cowering down scared half out of its wits. 'Come and get a hold of this and put it in the back of mine. I'll bring your case.'

`I'm not going back to Kambala with you,' she stated flatly, and saw his eyes spark dangerously. `No?'

`No.' The detachment was fading fast, feeling flowing back into her numbed senses. This time her voice shook just a little. 'I — I won't go through another

four days like the last two. I don't have to, and I won't! The car isn't badly damaged. I can carry on from here.'

To what?' he demanded. 'Don?'

'Oh, be damned to Don!' she burst out in a sudden upsurge of fury. 'I couldn't care less if I never saw him again either ! I'm going to Nairobi because I can't stand being in the same house with you any longer, because I'm sick and tired of being treated like some silly little teenager who isn't even capable of knowing her own mind ! You've done nothing but push me around since that very first day — and make fun of me.' There was no holding the torrent of words, they were spilling from her like a dam bursting its banks. 'I pity Diane if she ever marries you. I really do! Not that I think you have a chance. She's too independent a person to subjugate herself to your kind of tyranny! I hope she finds someone else 'while she's down at the coast. A man capable of some real feeling. You couldn't feel deeply about anything or anyone if you tried! All you want is for everyone to toe the line: Yes, Steve; no, Steve; three bags full, Steve!' She was begining to sound ridiculous; she knew it, and still she couldn't make herself stop. 'You don't want a wife, you want a doormat!'

`You're starting to repeat yourself,' he said mildly, and she looked at him sharply. A complete change had come over his expression. His lips were twitching, his eyes glinting with laughter. 'Nice to have the original model back. Now we all know where we stand.'

Colour swept into her face, then out again as swiftly. She had given herself away for certain this time. Steve
knew, and was amused by the knowledge. She turned away.