Yesterday's Promise (31 page)

Rogan slowly stood from the chair. He smiled unpleasantly. “What do you plan this time? Another accident? You know I do have Henry's map in my possession.” He could have mentioned the attack on
Derwent and the search of his saddlebags, but he believed Darinda and Parnell had done it on their own. “You'll need something other than suicide, though. I'm not known for backing off when I'm right. But then, neither was Henry.”

Julien's mouth tightened like a bar of steel. His cheek twitched. He set his snifter down carefully.

“Are you daring to accuse me of killing Henry?”

“Henry was murdered. Even when a boy I could figure out that much. Someone entered Rookswood for the Black Diamond, or was it the map?”

Julien stared at him. As though stunned, he shook his head. “So that's what you think… That's why you won't cooperate with me?”

“The authorities couldn't prove it, nor can I, now. But it's clear that every person interested in the Kimberly was in London the week of his death, including you. I also saw you at Rookswood searching his rooms on more than one occasion when I was a young boy. I knew what you were looking for, and I made it my ambition to find it before you did.”

Confronted with the challenge in Rogan's voice and his calm stare, Julien wore a surprised look on his rugged face, his eye as brittle as glass.

“And you were successful,” Julien said after a moment. “My hat's off to you. Even at twelve you were clever.” He suddenly chuckled, reaching for a camp chair. “Yes, I'll go right ahead and admit to it. I went to Rookswood several times searching for Henry's map.”

“And the Kimberly Black Diamond? Or did you already have it?”

“I?” A brow shot up.

“Someone clobbered Henry from behind in the stables. Why not you? You were there that night. You arrived at the stables in time to find him as he was stirring awake. You could have arrived sooner.”

“Absurd, Rogan. If I'd had the Kimberly in my possession these many years, I'd have put it on the market. This colony is costing a great deal of money. We're all invested in it.” He slapped his hands on his knees and stood. “Very well. I shall be transparent with you. I didn't waste time searching, because I knew Henry did not possess it. Oh yes,
in the beginning I thought he'd stolen it, but I learned later I was quite in error. Someone did steal the Black Diamond from Henry in the stables all right, but it wasn't me, and it wasn't Katie.”

Rogan's temper simmered. “You knew all those years Katie van Buren didn't steal it from Henry, yet you kept it a secret from Evy?”

Julien lifted his head. “We won't talk about Katie van Buren or her daughter.”

“Sorry, Julien, but we
will
talk about them. I told you in Capetown I meant to have the truth. You owe an explanation. And I want it—now!”

“I owe you no explanation. None! Do you understand me? I came here to warn you about your intransigence, and will you now cross-examine me?”

“For Evy
van Buren's
sake.”

His emphasis of Evy's true bloodline silenced Julien. For a moment it appeared he would strike him, but when Rogan refused to be intimidated, Julien's stern dignity unexpectedly diminished. He lowered himself back into the chair.

“Sit down, Rogan,” he said shortly. “There's no reason to carry on like this. We can discuss this like two reasonable gentlemen. We'll never get anywhere if we don't come to grips. I can see that.”

He reached for a box to lift a lid, but Rogan warily laid his hand over the box first.

Julien looked startled.

Rogan opened the lid fully expecting to see a revolver. Inside was a stash of Turkish cigarettes.

Julien chuckled. He reached over, took one, and leaned back in the camp chair, crossing his long legs, watching Rogan with malicious amusement.

“You really think I want to get rid of you.” His voice carried an edge of disdain. “On the contrary, I've had a growing interest in you for the last few years. You always had spunk, much more than Parnell. You've
emerged into a strong-willed young man with the kind of courage it takes to survive in South Africa. I like that. I'd prefer a better working relationship with you. I have great plans for you, if you'll lay down your guard.”

Rogan lifted a brow, making no effort to hide his caution and doubt. He believed none of Julien's flattery. His silence was suggestive.

“Very well,” Julien said cheerfully. “I see I will need to work harder to convince you of my fair-mindedness. That I do indeed wish to be an uncle to you. I shall begin with Henry.” He leaned his head back, looking toward the tent roof, and drew on the cigarette. The diamonds on his gold ring winked in the lantern light.

“Let's see… It was nearly two years after Henry left the Cape that I first returned to Rookswood to talk to him about his plans for an expedition to the Zambezi. By that time I'd heard the rumor of gold beyond the Limpopo, perhaps a new rand, so I knew I must begin to reconsider the reasons why I'd turned him down. Henry wasn't looking like such a reckless fool after all. I'd become an associate with Cecil Rhodes, and he'd convinced me of the need for British expansion in Africa. Some believe the Zambezi area is the golden Ophir mentioned in the Bible. Working with Henry on the expedition seemed a good way to benefit from his map. Now you own it, and again it is beneficial to work together for the good of Britain, the Company, and our family dynasty.”

His explanation was consistent with the calculating way Julien would think and act. Rogan gave his uncle a measured look. Maybe… he was telling the truth for once.

“Henry turned you down?”

Julien crushed out his smoke. He stood again, hands shoved in his pockets as he paced.

“I was never able to talk with him about the idea. By the time I arrived in London, he was withdrawn, secretive, as though one matter or another was eating away at him.”

“But you were in London the night of his death,” Rogan countered.

“Quite so. It's also true that I've a credible alibi for the night of his death. Your aunt, Lady Elosia Chantry, informed the Scotland Yard Inspector that I was in her company from dinnertime—say 8:00?—until well after 1:00 A.M. We were playing a card game. Her butler, Mr. Ames, is a witness. He looked in and saw me sitting with my back toward him at the table. Since, according to the Yard, Henry was dead by 11:00 P.M., I couldn't possibly have left London and taken the train all the way to Grimston Way and Rookswood.” He looked over at Rogan, and a faint smile touched his lips. “You see? All you had to do, all these years of dark suspicion, was check with the Yard.”

When one of the Rookswood maids had discovered Henry dead in his third-floor office, the physician, Dr. Tisdale, had testified at the inquest that Henry had died between 9:00 and 11:00 P.M.

Rogan digested the news. So Julien's alibi was established by Aunt Elosia, of all unlikely people. He could hardly doubt his stuffy, highbrow maiden aunt!

Julien watched him. “You look disappointed.”

“Someone murdered him. If it wasn't you, then who?”

“He took his own life.”

“Rubbish, Uncle. You don't believe that any more than I do. We know Henry was too much a fighter to kill himself.”

Julien didn't answer.

“All right, then, it looks for now as if you're in the clear, but what about the Kimberly Black Diamond?”

“I realized later Katie didn't steal it from Henry. But at the time, because Henry had lied to me so often, I felt I couldn't believe anything he told me. I thought they were in it together, that they had agreed to trick me. Katie, too, had often lied to me. Oh, I knew her well. I knew how strongly she felt about her baby.”

Julien reached for the decanter of brandy and filled his glass again, his mouth tightening. “I was convinced she'd knocked Henry unconscious with the wooden club in the stables, then took the diamond. I believed it was buried in the massacre at Rorke's Drift. We all did,
including Henry, so I never looked for it until near the end of his life.” He stared at the amber liquid in the snifter. “Something changed his mind. He never explained what it was. I wish he had.”

His interest aroused, Rogan stared at him intently. This he had never heard before.

“What could have changed his mind? There was no hint at all?”

“No, but I'm convinced something did.” Julien set the snifter down without drinking it. “Unfortunately, I had no time to discuss it with him.”

Rogan studied Julien's frown.
He's troubled. Now, this is curious… and unexpected
.

“But you did talk to Henry before his death. I saw you there for the London wedding.”

Julien looked calm once more. “Yes, I talked to him. We were alone at Rookswood a few days before his death. That's when you must have seen me. Henry was in an intractable mood. He wouldn't tell me what was on his mind, but he did tell me he was prepared to come to Capetown and discuss the past with me.”

“Rather odd, wasn't it? It was you who drove him out of South Africa to begin with. Why should he tell you he was coming back? And then there was the lack of money for the expedition. Henry didn't have it…unless he got it from…” Rogan's voice trailed off.

Julien noticed and looked up from the table. “From your father?”

Rogan didn't answer. His thoughts had suddenly stumbled.

“No, Lyle wouldn't have sponsored the expedition without telling me,” Julien said. “And he never mentioned it.”

Rogan's father, so firm on some matters, like the marriage of Arcilla, was negligent about others. He had long given up the hope of seeing his father stand up to Julien.

“No, I don't think Henry had an expedition on his mind,” Julien said. “I wish he had trusted me, but he didn't.”

“You've yourself to blame for that.”

He waited for Julien to explode.

“Before I could talk to him again, he was dead.” He picked up the snifter and gulped it down. He banged the small glass on the table and walked over to the tent entrance, looked out, then turned to face Rogan again.

Rogan watched him. Was he being forthright for once, or merely trying to fool him? Did Julien feel some guilt over his stepbrother's death? That emotion did not suit him. It would take more than regret and a pretended confession to convince Rogan, even though he couldn't discount some change in Julien. This surprised him, made him cautious.

“And the diamond?” Rogan reminded him.

“He'd become convinced Katie didn't take it. I could see he was troubled about having blamed Katie…as was I.”

Rogan tightened his jaw. “Then why not tell Evy that now? She's still under that cloud cast on her mother's reputation.”

Julien made a frustrated gesture and walked about. “I will tell you something, Rogan, that I didn't learn until after Henry's death.” He looked across the tent at him. “The Kimberly Black Diamond, when taken from Henry in the stables, was carried to the Zulu King Cetshwayo, at Ulundi.”

Zululand!

Cetshwayo had been defeated and exiled around the time of Evy's birth. Did that mean the Black Diamond was lost forever?

Wind sucked against the canvas siding, then settled. Far in the distance a hyena cackled.

Rogan considered Julien's murky disclosures as a duelist would test his opponent's skills.

“How do you know this? If the Black Diamond was brought to Cetshwayo, then by whom, and when?”

“I recently received a letter from Jakob van Buren. The fellow claims to be a cousin of Katie. He's an old man now, a cantankerous Boer, with a mission station in the north. He wrote me of Jendaya, a Zulu woman who once worked for me at Cape House. She fled to Dr. Jakob for safety after the Zulu defeat. She knew Katie, you see. He seemed the reasonable
man to go to. Her brother Dumaka also worked for me when Katie was alive. Jendaya told Dr. Jakob it was her brother who stole the Black Diamond and carried it to Zululand. Dumaka was seen at Rorke's Drift when Katie and the Varley missionary couple were killed.”

“And you didn't send anyone to meet Jendaya to find out whether it was true?”

Julien appeared to ignore the skepticism in Rogan's voice.

“You should understand well enough. Who can safari into that area at a drop of a hat?”

No one, obviously, which proved nothing.

“The van Buren station is somewhere on the Zambezi. This is another reason for both of us to support this expedition.”

If what Julien said was true, yes. Rogan wanted to meet this Jakob van Buren as soon as possible and talk to the Zulu woman. Did Evy know she had a cousin? A missionary? He didn't think so.

“How did Jakob get his letter to you?”

“Always skeptical. Well, so be it. From what I hear, he comes in from the wilds now and then to visit his family in the Boer Transvaal Republic. There are a few other van Burens still farming in the area who are related to Katie.”

Rogan remembered Heyden van Buren. He had never liked or trusted Heyden, a dedicated Dutch expansionist who loathed the British in South Africa. But Heyden was a cousin of Evy and would be related to Jakob van Buren as well. Yet not even Heyden had told Evy of her mother's cousin who ran a mission station on the Zambezi. It also seemed that Julien had kept this information from Evy. But then he'd kept a great deal from her.

“I've only recently received news of Jakob,” Julien said. “And I knew nothing of the Black Diamond's being taken from Henry and carried by Dumaka to that savage Zulu king!”

Rogan believed him about Cetshwayo, but not about Jakob van Buren. Even when Katie was alive, he must have known she had van Buren relatives. But Katie, judging by her desperate actions, had not
known, or she may have considered turning to Jakob for help when Julien insisted she give up her newborn.

“Naturally I went to see Jakob. He was staying at the van Buren homestead in the Transvaal. Heyden was there as well. Breathing fire against the British incursion into Africa, as usual. That young man is dangerous. He would even provoke a war between the Boers and the British.”