Master of the Game (18 page)

The words reverberated in Kate’s head.
Kate, you’ve got to learn to control your temper…

It was so long ago. She was four years old, in the middle of a fistfight with a boy who had dared tease her. When David appeared, the boy ran away. Kate started to chase him, and David grabbed her. “Hold it, Kate. You’ve got to learn to control your temper. Young ladies don’t get into fistfights.”

“I’m not a young lady,” Kate snapped. “Let go of me.” David released her.

The pink frock she was wearing was muddied and torn, and her cheek was bruised.

“We’d better get you cleaned up before your mother sees you,” David told her.

Kate looked after the retreating boy with regret. “I could have licked him if you had left me alone.”

David looked down into the passionate little face and laughed. “You probably could have.”

Mollified, Kate allowed him to pick her up and carry her into her house. She liked being in David’s arms. She liked everything about David. He was the only grown-up who understood her. Whenever he was in town, he spent time with her. In relaxed moments, Jamie had told young David about his adventures with Banda, and now David told the stories to Kate. She could not get enough of them.

“Tell me again about the raft they built.”

And David would tell her.

“Tell me about the sharks…Tell me about the sea
mis…
Tell me about the day…”

Kate did not see very much of her mother. Margaret was too involved in running the affairs of Kruger-Brent, Ltd. She did it for Jamie.

Margaret talked to Jamie every night, just as she had during the year before he died. “David is such a great help, Jamie, and he’ll be around when Kate’s running the company. I don’t
want to worry you, but I don’t know what to do with that child…”

Kate was stubborn and willful and impossible. She refused to obey her mother or Mrs. Talley. If they chose a dress for her to wear, Kate would discard it for another. She would not eat properly. She ate what she wanted to, when she wanted to, and no threat or bribe could sway her. When Kate was forced to go to a birthday party, she found ways to disrupt it. She had no girl friends. She refused to go to dancing class and instead spent her time playing rugby with teen-age boys. When Kate finally started school, she set a record for mischief. Margaret found herself going to see the headmistress at least once a month to persuade her to forgive Kate and let her remain in school.

“I don’t understand her, Mrs. McGregor,” the headmistress sighed. “She’s extremely bright, but she rebels against simply everything. I don’t know what to do with her.”

Neither did Margaret.

The only one who could handle Kate was David. “I understand you’re invited to a birthday party this afternoon,” David said.

“I hate birthday parties.”

David stooped down until he was at her eye level. “I know you do, Kate. But the father of the little girl who’s having the birthday party is a friend of mine. It will make me look bad if you don’t attend and behave like a lady.”

Kate stared at him. “Is he a
good
friend of yours?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go.”

Her manners that afternoon were impeccable.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Margaret told David. “It’s magic.”

“She’s just high-spirited,” David laughed. “She’ll grow out of it. The important thing is to be careful not to break that spirit.”

“I’ll tell you a secret,” Margaret said grimly, “half the time I’d like to break her neck.”

When Kate was ten, she said to David, “I want to meet Banda.”

David looked at her in surprise. “I’m afraid that’s not possible, Kate. Banda’s farm is a long way from here.”

“Are you going to take me there, David, or do you want me to go by myself?”

The following week David took Kate to Banda’s farm. It was a good-sized piece of land, two morgens, and on it Banda raised wheat, sheep and ostriches. The living accommodations were circular huts with walls made of dried mud. Poles supported a cone-shaped roof covered with thatches. Banda stood in front, watching as Kate and David drove up and got out of the carriage. Banda looked at the gangling, serious-faced girl at David’s side and said, “I’d have known you were Jamie McGregor’s daughter.”

“And I’d have known you were Banda,” Kate said gravely. “I came to thank you for saving my father’s life.”

Banda laughed. “Someone’s been telling you stories. Come in and meet my family.”

Banda’s wife was a beautiful Bantu woman named Ntame. Banda had two sons, Ntombenthle, seven years older than Kate, and Magena, six years older. Ntombenthle was a miniature of his father. He had the same handsome features and proud bearing and an inner dignity.

Kate spent the entire afternoon playing with the two boys. They had dinner in the kitchen of the small, neat farmhouse. David felt uncomfortable eating with a black family. He respected Banda, but it was traditional that there was no socializing between the two races. In addition to that, David was concerned about Banda’s political activities. There were reports that he was a disciple of John Tengo Javabu, who was fighting for drastic social changes. Because mine owners could not get enough natives to work for them, the government had imposed a tax of ten shillings on all natives who did not work as mine laborers, and there were riots all over South Africa.

In the late afternoon, David said, “We’d better get started home, Kate. We have a long ride.”

“Not yet.” Kate turned to Banda. “Tell me about the sharks…”

From that time on, whenever David was in town, Kate made him take her to visit Banda and his family.

David’s assurance that Kate would grow out of her high-spiritedness showed no signs of coming to pass. If anything, she grew more willful every day. She flatly refused to take part in any of the activities that other girls her age participated in. She insisted on going into the mines with David, and he took her hunting and fishing and camping. Kate adored it. One day when Kate and David were fishing the Vaal, and Kate gleefully pulled in a trout larger than anything David had caught, he said, “You should have been born a boy.”

She turned to him in annoyance. “Don’t be silly, David. Then I couldn’t marry you.”

David laughed.

“We
are
going to be married, you know.”

“I’m afraid not, Kate. I’m twenty-two years older than you. Old enough to be your father. You’ll meet a boy one day, a nice young man—”

“I don’t want a nice young man,” she said wickedly. “I want you.”

“If you’re really serious,” David said, “then I’ll tell you the secret to a man’s heart.”

“Tell me!” Kate said eagerly.

“Through his stomach. Clean that trout and let’s have lunch.”

There was not the slightest doubt in Kate’s mind that she was going to marry David Blackwell. He was the only man in the world for her.

Once a week Margaret invited David to dinner at the big house. As a rule, Kate preferred to eat dinner in the kitchen with the servants, where she did not have to mind her manners. But on Friday nights when David came, Kate sat in the big dining
room. David usually came alone, but occasionally he would bring a female guest and Kate would hate her instantly.

Kate would get David alone for a moment and say, with sweet innocence, “I’ve never seen hair that shade of blond,” or, “She certainly has peculiar taste in dresses, hasn’t she?” or, “Did she use to be one of Madam Agnes’s girls?”

When Kate was fourteen, her headmistress sent for Margaret. “I run a respectable school, Mrs. McGregor. I’m afraid your Kate is a bad influence.”

Margaret sighed. “What’s she done now?”

“She’s teaching the other children words they’ve never heard before.” Her face was grim. “I might add, Mrs. McGregor, that
I’ve
never heard some of the words before. I can’t imagine where the child picked them up.”

Margaret could. Kate picked them up from her street friends.
Well
, Margaret decided,
it is time to end all that
.

The headmistress was saying, “I do wish you would speak to her. We’ll give her another chance, but—”

“No. I have a better idea. I’m going to send Kate away to school.”

When Margaret told David her idea, he grinned. “She’s not going to like that.”

“I can’t help it. Now the headmistress is complaining about the language Kate uses. She gets it from those prospectors she’s always following around. My daughter’s starting to sound like them, look like them and smell like them. Frankly, David, I don’t understand her at all. I don’t know why she behaves as she does. She’s pretty, she’s bright, she’s—”

“Maybe she’s too bright.”

“Well, too bright or not, she’s going away to school.”

When Kate arrived home that afternoon, Margaret broke the news to her.

Kate was furious. “You’re trying to get rid of me!”

“Of course I’m not, darling. I just think you’d be better off—”

“I’m better
off here
. All my friends are here. You’re trying to separate me from my friends.”

“If you’re talking about that riffraff you—”

“They’re
not
riffraff. They’re as good as anybody.”

“Kate, I’m not going to argue with you. You’re going away to a boarding school for young ladies, and that’s that.”

“I’ll kill myself,” Kate promised.

“All right, darling. There’s a razor upstairs, and if you look around, I’m sure you’ll find various poisons in the house.”

Kate burst into tears. “Please don’t do this to me, Mother.”

Margaret took her in her arms. “It’s for your own good, Kate. You’ll be a young woman soon. You’ll be ready for marriage. No man is going to marry a girl who talks and dresses and behaves the way you do.”

“That’s not true,” Kate sniffled. “David doesn’t mind.”

“What does David have to do with this?”

“We’re going to be married.”

Margaret sighed. “I’ll have Mrs. Talley pack your things.”

There were half a dozen good English boarding schools for young girls. Margaret decided that Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, was best suited for Kate. It was a school noted for its rigid discipline. It was set on acres of land surrounded by high battlements and, according to its charter, was founded for the daughters of noblemen and gentlemen. David did business with the husband of the headmistress, Mrs. Keaton, and he had no trouble arranging for Kate to be enrolled there.

When Kate heard where she was going, she exploded anew. “I’ve heard about that school! It’s awful. I’ll come back like one of those stuffed English dolls. Is that what you’d like?”

“What I would like is for you to learn some manners,” Margaret told her.

“I don’t need manners. I’ve got brains.”

“That’s not the first thing a man looks for in a woman,” Margaret said dryly, “and you’re becoming a woman.”

“I don’t want to become a woman,” Kate screamed. “Why the bloody hell can’t you just leave me alone?”

“I will not have you using that language.”

And so it went until the morning arrived when Kate was to leave. Since David was going to London on a business trip, Margaret asked, “Would you mind seeing that Kate gets to school safely? The Lord only knows where she’ll end up if she goes on her own.”

“I’ll be happy to,” David said.

“You! You’re as bad as my mother! You can’t wait to get rid of me.”

David grinned. “You’re wrong. I can wait.”

They traveled by private railway car from Klipdrift to Cape Town and from there by ship to Southampton. The journey took four weeks. Kate’s pride would not let her admit it, but she was thrilled to be traveling with David.
It’s like a honeymoon
, she thought,
except that we’re not married. Not yet
.

Aboard ship, David spent a great deal of time working in his stateroom. Kate curled up on the couch, silently watching him, content to be near him.

Once she asked, “Don’t you get bored working on all those figures, David?”

He put down his pen and looked at her. “They’re not just figures, Kate. They’re stories.”

“What kind of stories?”

“If you know how to read them, they’re stories about companies we’re buying or selling, people who work for us. Thousands of people all over the world earn a living because of the company your father founded.”

“Am I anything like my father?”

“In many ways, yes. He was a stubborn, independent man.”

“Am I a stubborn, independent woman?”

“You’re a spoiled brat. The man who marries you is going to have one hell of a life.”

Kate smiled dreamily.
Poor David
.

In the dining room, on their last night at sea, David asked, “Why are you so difficult, Kate?”

“Am I?”

“You know you are. You drive your poor mother crazy.”

Kate put her hand over his. “Do I drive you crazy?”

David’s face reddened. “Stop that. I don’t understand you.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Why can’t you be like other girls your age?”

“I’d rather die first. I don’t want to be like anybody else.”

“God knows you’re not!”

“You won’t marry anyone else until I’m grown up enough for you, will you, David? I’ll get older as fast as I can. I promise. Just don’t meet anybody you love, please.”

He was touched by her earnestness. He took her hand in his and said, “Kate, when I get married, I’d like my daughter to be exactly like you.”

Kate rose to her feet and said in a voice that rang through the dining salon, “You can bloody well go to hell, David Blackwell!” And she stormed out of the room, as everyone stared.

They had three days together in London, and Kate loved every minute of it.

“I have a treat for you,” David told her. “I got two tickets for
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
.”

“Thank you, David. I want to go to the Gaiety.”

“You can’t. That’s a—a music-hall revue. That’s not for you.”

“I won’t know until I see it, will I?” she said stubbornly.

They went to the Gaiety.

Kate loved the look of London. The mixture of motorcars and carriages, the ladies beautifully dressed in lace and tulle and light satins and glittering jewelry, and the men in dinner clothes with piqué waistcoats and white shirtfronts. They had dinner at the Ritz, and a late supper at the Savoy. And when it was time to leave, Kate thought,
We’ll come back here. David and I will come back here
.