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someone who had experience of being jilted at the altar. . . ." Shane
was actually smiling and she added swiftly, "You know what I
mean!"
"Yes, my dear, I do know what you mean."
My dear.... The second time he had said that. It meant nothing. Clair
did not want it to have any significance whatsoever!
"Tell me more about your mother," she said. And then, "I believe
Marie mentioned that both your parents were dead?"
"They are." He spoke calmly; Clair did not feel the need to say
anything sympathetic to him and she merely waited, while he spent a
few moments in thought. That he was in the past was clear, and when
at length he spoke it was to mention several incidents of his
childhood. Clair learnt that there had been another child, a girl, who
had died at the age of three years. Avice was two years younger than
Shane, and between the two there existed a close, but carefree,
relationship. "We don't see very much of one another," he went on. "I
shall probably have a trip to England in the not too distant future."
"You know England?"
"I've been a couple of times, that's all." Shane changed the subject
reverting to the topic, of his mother. "She combined beauty, glamour
and a sort of severe nobility with the charming qualities of
understanding, compassion, and love. She loved deeply - her husband
and her children. We were a remarkably happy family."
Clair looked at him across the table. He was staring vacantly in front
of him, absorbed in memories, and so she had the opportunity of
examining his every fine line and feature. It was clear from where he
had acquired that air of severe nobility, those inordinately handsome
features. But did he possess the finer qualities of which he had
spoken? Had his mother passed on to him understanding,
compassion, and the ability to love deeply? Something caught at
Clair's heartstrings. She suddenly knew he could love with a depth
that would release those less fine qualities - passion and primitive
desire. The girl whom he eventually married would experience love
in all its primeval forms; she would be brought to complete surrender
by the strength of her husband's passionate lovemaking.
Colouring at these thoughts and pictures, Clair lowered her head,
concentrating on the delicious pastry which lay on her plate.
"It's time we were moving." Shane spoke some time later, sending
Clair a smile as he did so. He had spoken about his parents all the
time, telling Clair how and when the Boers had come to settle here.
They had wandered away from their British rulers to stake claims on
the eastern plateau.
"It was a wilderness, but they desired solitude - in fact, my ancestors
had a passion for it. Hence the lonely locations of the homesteads, so
far-flung from one another, as you will already have noticed."
"I too love the solitude," Clair had told him, and he had seemed
pleased at her statement, casting her a strange look ... an almost
tender look. And now, as he waited for her to gather up her handbag
and her cardigan, he was sending her a similar glance. One of her
tremulous smiles fluttered and she saw his eyes widen. He opened his
mouth to speak, then closed it again. Clair felt a sense of loss,
subconsciously wishing he had voiced the words which had plainly
risen to his lips.
As they went along the street he asked her what she wanted in the way
of shopping.
"If you do it I can then carry it back to the station wagon for you," he
added.
"Mainly I came to send off the two letters," she told him. "But I was
intending to buy a kaross for my parents' bedroom. I thought they
could take it back, as a souvenir."
"I think you'd better leave it, seeing that there's no urgency now. You
might like to take your parents on a trip to Pretoria while they're here,
and they'll have"much more choice there."
"A good idea," agreed Clair. "In that case, I haven't much to get - just
a few groceries and a tube of toothpaste for Jean."
An hour and a half later she was back home. Her face was flushed, her
eyes sparkling. Unaware of these attractions, she was taken aback
when Sharon in a dry voice asked her the reason for them.
"You've just mentioned that you had tea with Shane - so it might be
that the answer to my question lies in that direction?"
"I don't know what you mean ?" But her increased colour gave the he
to this.
"Then don't bother answering me." Sharon and Jean exchanged
glances. Jean said slowly, and in a voice that sounded distinctly flat,
"Shane seems to like you enormously, Clair."
Swiftly she shook her head, remembering her slight suspicion that
Jean was attracted by Shane.
"We're friends, that's all."
"You talked, in the cafe?"
"Yes, he told me about his parents, and his sister."
"About all his family, in fact. Hmmm. Significant."
"Don't be silly," frowned Clair. "Shane would never look at me in that
way " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]