Storms Over Africa (23 page)

Although there were points of comparison between hunting and poaching, Richard never connected them. His poaching had been a means to an end. Hunting was altogether different.

He drove down to Harare the morning David arrived, leaving Steve at Pentland Park. He wanted to tell his son about her before introducing them. He did not expect Penny to be at the airport, as she hadn't been in contact with him recently. It worried him greatly that her involvement with Tshuma seemed to be taking hold of her. There had been no opportunity for him to get her on her own and try to make her see sense. In any case, Penny would have resented it and been even more determined to carry on seeing the man.

David's flight was on time for a change and he swung out of Immigration carrying, as usual, hand baggage and nothing else. Pale from the European winter and the long trip, he nonetheless looked very handsome. He had filled out a bit since Christmas and drew admiring looks from several young women. He appeared relaxed and more confident as well.

‘You look well, son.'

‘Thanks, Dad, so do you.' David clapped his hand on his father's shoulder in an unusual show of affection.

‘Good trip?' Richard asked, surprised.

‘Not bad.'

‘How's school?'

‘Okay.'

Well at least his son's attitude to conversation had not changed. He was as taciturn as ever.

They walked out of the airport building and over to the car. Richard told him about the arrangements for the hunting trip.

‘Do I have to go?' David asked, as they got into the car.

‘Of course you have to go,' Richard said, instantly irritated. ‘I arranged the whole thing around your holiday. Why wouldn't you want to come? You always loved hunting.'

David shrugged. He had no intention of telling his father he planned to spend his holiday trying to track down a girl called Steve whom he fervently hoped was still in Zimbabwe. Instead he asked, ‘When do we leave?'

‘On the third.'

‘How long is the hunt?'

‘Seven days.'

‘Okay, Dad.' That gave him a week to try and find her. ‘How's Maxwell?' he asked, as Richard wove through the traffic away from the airport. They had to pass through the city to get onto the road to Pentland Park.

‘He's a bugger. He chews everything in sight.'

‘I'll bet he's grown.'

‘You won't recognise him.'

Once on the road to the farm Richard wrestled with the right words to tell David about Steve. Finally, he blurted out, ‘Son, I've met a woman I like.'

‘Oh!' David sounded surprised.

‘I know how close you and your mother were. I hope you don't get upset, but this girl is the only one I've met since she died that I could get serious about. I'm sure you'll like her.'

David remained silent.

‘Aren't you going to say anything?'

‘Gee, Dad, I don't know what to say. I never really thought about you getting seriously involved with anyone else.'

‘I didn't plan it this way. I'm not a very good husband as you well know,' Richard shot his son a wry smile, remembering, as he was sure David was remembering, the time his son had once attacked him physically for forgetting Kathy's birthday. Kathy had been unable to hide her hurt from her son, and David, who was only ten, faced his father fearlessly and pummelled him with his small fists, sobbing, ‘You are the meanest man in the world. I hate you.'

‘Can you be sure you won't hurt her?' His question surprised Richard. He and his son hardly ever spoke of deeply personal matters.

‘No,' he answered honestly.

‘Why did you do it, Dad?'

‘What? Be thoughtless? I never meant to be, it's just the way I am, I guess.'

‘But why?'

Instead of brushing the question aside as he might have done in the past, Richard took the
opportunity offered by David to have an adult conversation.

‘I really couldn't say. I was brought up differently to you. My mother was always too busy with her committee work to show much affection. My father was hardly ever home. I grew up believing that affection was not to be shown at any cost, it was not the done thing. My mother once told me it was lower class.'

David was not about to let his father off the hook that easily. ‘You hurt Mum a lot. Why? Didn't you love her?'

Richard swallowed the rush of irritation when he heard the sincerity in David's voice. ‘I loved her, David. Very much. She always knew that. She understood why I was like I was. In fact—' he glanced across at David, wondering how far to go, then decided to go the whole way, ‘—in fact, son, your mother drew me out to a degree. She taught me it was okay to have a softer side.'

‘I never saw it.'

Richard grimaced. The boy was direct, he had to give him that. ‘No,' he admitted, ‘I wasn't all that crash hot on showing it to anyone but your mother. And even with her, I could only do it in private.'

‘That's weird,' David said.

‘You
would
think so. Your mother showed you a lot of affection. You have her softer nature.'
‘You don't approve of that, do you?'

Ouch!
But he pressed on. ‘I find it hard to deal with, yes.'

‘Why?'

‘Jesus, David, how should I know. I just do. Maybe because it's so different to me.'

David changed the subject. ‘Do you love this girl?'

‘Yes.'

‘How old is she?'

‘Twenty-eight.'

‘What's her name?'

And Richard, without even knowing it, broke his son's heart. ‘Steve.'

Steve! It had to be her. There was no way there could be two Steves.

‘She's an Australian photojournalist,' Richard went on, oblivious to David's sudden pain. ‘We've been up to Kariba together and she's staying at the farm. I think we'll get married. I wanted to ask her but decided to wait until she'd met you and Penny.'

David was in turmoil, knowing his father was waiting for a response, unable to think of anything but the wonderfully beautiful girl he had carried in his heart for ten weeks.

‘When did you meet her?' he finally managed, his voice scratchy.

‘The night you flew back to school. She was staying at Meikles.'

God, no! The night after we'd been together.

Richard laughed, not yet having picked up on David's silence. ‘Actually, son, I have you to thank in a way. If you hadn't been going back to school I might have missed her.'

‘What does Penny think of her?' David was stalling for time, trying to get the chaos in his brain together.

‘Penny hasn't met her yet. She has been very busy in Harare lately, I haven't seen much of her.' Richard frowned, as he usually did when he was talking about Joseph Tshuma. ‘She and that bloody Tshuma are coming up the day before we go to Tuli. They're joining us on the hunt.' Then his face cleared. ‘Penny will meet Steve then. I'm sure she'll like her, it's impossible not to like her.'

His words acted like a buzzer. David's heart, so full of adolescent love until then, turned to black hatred. He felt betrayed and cast aside. He hated Steve and he hated his father.

‘So what do you think?' Richard asked.

‘Do whatever you like,' David said coldly, ‘It's never stopped you before.'

Richard slammed on the brakes and skidded the car to a stop. ‘Jesus H. fucking Christ, David, I just don't understand you,' he shouted, exasperated. ‘What's the matter with you, anyway? I thought you'd be adult enough by now to understand that a man needs a woman at his side. Your mother has been dead five years. Why can't you accept
that I might fall in love with another woman?'

And David, from many years of practice, went into himself and refused to allow his father to see what he was really feeling. ‘Sorry, Dad.' Richard recognised the tactic and knew he would never get through it. He pulled out onto the road again and drove dangerously fast, convinced his son was being difficult out of respect for Kathy's memory. They drove to Pentland Park in silence, each one busy with his own thoughts.

By the time they reached the farm, David had regained his composure. He was ready to be introduced to Steve, he was even looking forward to it. ‘Does she know?' he wondered. The initial shock and hurt had been replaced by anger and a burning need for revenge.

At the sound of the car approaching, Wellington went to Steve in the study and said, ‘The young master has come.' Then he went outside with Elizabeth and their son, Thomas, to greet David. Steve was walking through the lounge when the car swept up the drive. Through the window she saw the passenger door open and Richard's son jump out, greeting the servants in rapid Shona. Her steps faltered and she gave a small gasp of shock. David saw her through the window. She was standing stock still, one fist pushed against her teeth, her eyes wide.
It's her all right, the bitch.

Steve felt rooted to the floor. She hadn't given much thought to the young man at Meikles all those weeks ago. She had a normal appetite for sex, and she'd felt lonely on her first day in a strange country. She had not seen any harm in the encounter. If she'd really thought about it, she might even have excused it away as a bid for freedom from a relationship which had lost its lustre. She had not caught the young man's last name in the din of the dining room, had not made the connection between a casual dalliance with a young inexperienced boy and the man who caused the depth of feeling in her that Richard did.
God, what will I do?

Richard came into the house and, with a pounding heart, she took a deep breath, put a smile on her lips and went to greet his son. ‘David, I'd like you to meet Steve Hayes. Steve, this is my son, David.'

She put out her hand and said, ‘I'm pleased to meet you, David,' her eyes pleading with him not to give her away.

David took her hand and shook it. ‘How do you do.' His eyes, and the set of his mouth, told her how angry he was.

Richard, behind his son's back, raised his own eyes in a ‘don't mind him' attitude.

Steve stammered that she had to get back to her writing. ‘I'm sure you're tired after your long trip,' she added. Then she said to
Richard, ‘I'll see you at dinner,' before taking refuge in the study.

Once there she paced the floor. The situation was impossible. Of all the rotten coincidences. ‘Serves me right,' she muttered to herself. ‘Serves me bloody-well right. What am I going to do?' She knew she could not carry on as though nothing had happened between David and herself. She had to tell Richard. What would he do? She felt sick at the thought. What if she lost him? How could she keep him? David was his son and she had slept with him. God, what a mess!

Richard popped his head around the door and found her pacing. ‘I'm just off to see Samson.' He thought she was having trouble with her work. ‘Be back in an hour or so. Then we can have a drink with David. Don't worry, he's a bit upset but he'll get over it. The news that his old man is in love came as a bit of a shock I guess.' He kissed her briefly, leaving her shaken and scared.

As soon as the sound of his vehicle died away she went upstairs and knocked on David's door. ‘Who is it?' he sounded sullen and angry.

‘It's me. Steve.'

‘Go away.'

‘Please, David, we have to talk.'

‘There's nothing to say.'

‘Please, David,' she begged.

She heard him moving to the door. When he opened it her heart went out to him. His face was so young and vulnerable and so very, very white. ‘What do you want?'

‘Can I come in?' He stood back and let her in.

‘What do you want?' he repeated.

‘David, I'm so, so sorry,' she said softly. ‘I had no idea.'

‘I'll bet.'

‘I didn't, really I didn't. I missed hearing your last name that night.' She wrung her hands in her anguish. ‘What are we going to do?'

‘That's your problem.'

Steve ran her hands through her hair, dislodging the knot. Distracted, she secured it again with a pin but bits of it floated down around her face. ‘I'll have to tell him,' she said, finally giving up on her hair. ‘We can't keep it from him.'

‘He won't hear it from me. I just want to forget it.' His hurt made him want to hurt her but his youth did not give him the means. Steve was not insensitive to this. She had a younger brother in Australia and knew how betrayed David must feel. She tried to find the words to make things right between them, realising how badly she must have broken his heart.

‘David, what we shared that night is
something many people share. You find yourself alone, wanting company, and along comes someone you like. You're not looking for it but the time is right, the mood is right and sometimes nature takes its course. As you gain more experience you'll realise that time we shared together was natural but it doesn't necessarily lead anywhere.' He was listening so she went on. ‘We shared a beautiful evening together. I will never forget it. But that was all there was to it. The difference in our age alone would make anything else impossible.'

‘What about the difference between you and Dad?'

‘That's not the same thing. We're both adults.'

He sneered at her. ‘You seemed to think I was pretty adult that night.'

‘I think you know what I'm saying, David.' She still had his attention so she continued. ‘Even if I hadn't met your father nothing could have developed between you and me, can't you see that?'

‘Yeah, right. Keep talking. You're bound to make yourself feel better.'

His angry words hurt. ‘I want to make things right between us.' She sighed. ‘As for your father and me, that's a different matter. What happened between you and I is likely to break us up.'

‘Like I said, that's your problem.'