The Brigandshaw Chronicles Box Set 2, page 69
part #4 of The Brigandshaw Chronicles Series
“Don’t worry, Princess. Everything will be fine.”
“What about my children? What about me? I was the most expensive wife ever to come to Elephant Walk. You two try to fly in a machine, you will kill my husband. What then for Princess? Stop it. The ancestors will rise from their graves. They have already spoken to me. A man flying in the air, they said, is against the laws of God. No man can fly in the air.”
“I can, Princess. I am a qualified pilot. With a British licence.”
“What’s that?”
“A piece of paper that lets me fly aeroplanes.”
“How can a piece of paper let you fly aeroplanes?”
“Maybe best you stay on the ground, Tembo,” he said to his assistant; they were all speaking Shona, the aircraft terms difficult to translate into the African language.
“I come up. My first wife says it won’t work; no questions. My second wife laughs in my face. My third wife says I will die which is all right by her. Ever since I bought Princess from her father for twenty cows, my third wife has sulked and become difficult to make pregnant. We fly and you write the boss in England. When Boss Harry come back?”
“Not for a long while. His wife doesn’t like living in Africa.”
“Tell him when you write to buy another wife. He has something called ‘pots of money’, your sisters say.”
“We don’t buy our wives, Tembo.”
“Then how you get them?”
Down by the river, far away from the airstrip, black children were swimming bare-arse in the Mazowe in great excitement. At the family compound of houses, Tinus could hear the pack of dogs barking and chasing each other round the flowerbeds and being yelled at by his mother. All work had stopped on the farm with everyone lined up to watch Tembo fly up into the air.
The small school started by Paula, Tinus’s older sister, was empty of children. Even Paula did not think the old plane would fly and had taken the precaution of sending the children to stand at the top of the runway.
After everything had been checked, the wooden chocks were put in place in front of the wheels. The end of the lengths of rope from the chocks were given to Princess to hold. Tembo went to stand in front of the engine ready to turn the propeller. Tinus got into the rear cockpit.
“Contact,” he shouted imperiously. The crowd fell silent while nothing happened.
“Contact,” Tinus shouted again.
The engine let out a single loud bang, which bounced round the valley making the impala buck, and the buffalo leave the runway in a stampede. Again, silence.
“Contact!”
The engine fired properly. Tembo jumped back from the whirling propeller and clambered up into the front cockpit. The aircraft strained against the chocks.
“Let go, Princess,” shouted Tinus.
Princess, now totally in command of the situation, yanked on the ropes freeing the wheels, sending the plane lurching forward down the airstrip, Tinus shouting with excitement at the top of his voice as he pushed down on the throttle. Then they lifted quickly, up over the river, the naked children standing in the shallows looking up in awe. Then the aircraft climbed to join the white fluffy clouds still motionless up in the African sky.
“A penny for your thoughts.” The girl had come to stand behind Tinus as he looked out at the rolling sea as the SS Corfe Castle sailed nearer England.
“Sweet memories, Vera. When will I go back again, I wonder?”
“Come for a swim. You didn’t come down to breakfast.”
“Overslept. Have you ever flown in an aeroplane?”
“Are you going to fly at Oxford?”
“University Air Squadron. Andre Cloete put down my name six months ago with a copy of my pilot’s licence. This year he’ll be in the Oxford first eleven. Do you think school friends can last a lifetime?”
“I hope so for your sake. You always talk of Andre Cloete.”
“After the swim we run round the deck ten times.”
“You can run round the deck, young ladies walk. Are you excited?”
“Of course. A whole new life. The start of my real life with so much to do.”
“Aunty Janice says she’ll introduce me to people in the theatre. To start my career. There was no point in making a stage career in Cape Town. Dead end.”
“I know a famous film star.”
“You don’t. There are no famous film stars in Cape Town or Rhodesia.”
“Have you heard of Genevieve?”
“Of course. Everyone has. She’s going to America.”
“She’s a friend of mine. Fact is, in a roundabout way, she’s my Uncle Harry’s niece.”
“You’re just dropping names.”
“Maybe. I can still see her in my mind’s eye.”
“What’s her surname?”
“She doesn’t have one. Her mother and father were never married.”
“You mentioned before that you have a Rhodes Scholarship. What’s that?”
“An educational endowment set up by Cecil Rhodes who was up at Oxford after he made his fortune in Africa in the Kimberley diamond fields.”
“So you’re a Rhodes Scholar?”
“That’s right. And I do know Genevieve.”
“Then introduce me when we get to England.”
“Of course.”
“That’s a promise?”
“Of course. We flew right up the Zambezi River to the Victoria Falls where we landed to refuel at the new airfield.”
“Who?”
“Me and Tembo.”
“I never quite know what you are talking about, Tinus.”
“Memories. Sweet memories that never die.”
“Why don’t you write them down?”
“I’m going into business. A man has to be rich to get on in the world. Very rich.”
“How are you going into business?”
“By joining Anglo-American.”
“Then you’ll be an employee.”
“Not when I am right at the top. Right at the top, I will be a director of the company. And rich.”
“You’re boasting.”
“I never boast. Vain boasting is a waste of time. Ever since I went to Bishops, I set myself goals. To fly. To play cricket and rugby for the school. To go up to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. To be a director of Africa’s largest mining house. My Uncle Harry says you always have to set yourself difficult goals.”
Vera took him by the hand. She liked him but not when he went off about Uncle Harry. The boy was too young for her, but there was no one else on the boat. In a week they would arrive in England and go their separate ways. The idea of a boy out of school knowing Genevieve was too far-fetched. Everyone had a second name. Bastards – if the poor girl was a bastard – generally took their mother’s family name if the father had not stayed around to get married. The boy had a vivid imagination though; what with the sea air and constant closeness, she had a good mind to seduce him before the ship reached England. He was an athlete with a perfect body. Seducing people would be part of her job in London if she was to get anywhere with a career on the stage. Even Genevieve was said by the newspapers in South Africa to have slept her way to the top, which had to be true; the girl had not sued the newspapers for libel. Then again, she thought, she only read the occasional newspaper when a scandalous headline caught her eye.
When they reached the small swimming pool on the top deck, King Neptune was sitting in his throne in full regalia. The crew had erected a small dais next to the pool. Vera had forgotten the ceremony of crossing the line. Passengers who had not before crossed the equator were given parchment scrolls by King Neptune. Vera had crossed twice before and received a scroll with her name on when she was ten years old and travelling to England with her parents. Now being alone made the idea of seducing Tinus possible.
“Do you have your own cabin, Tinus?”
“No. Share it with a chap from school who’s going up to Cambridge.”
“What a pity. Are they going to throw anyone in the pool?”
“They always do. Part of the ceremony.”
“Why don’t you volunteer to be thrown in? I know you are a good swimmer. Didn’t you say your great-grandfather started this shipping line?”
“We don’t own it anymore.”
“Why ever not?”
“My Uncle Harry disappeared in the Congo while trying to fly from England to Rhodesia. He was legally presumed dead. When he came back, the family shares in the company had been sold.”
“Why didn’t Uncle Harry demand his shares back?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I'm sure it is.”
Vera was giving Tinus a knowing look, which told him she did not believe a word he said. She almost had her tongue in her cheek. Behind King Neptune hung a row of lifeboats on davits that caught her eye. The open boats were covered in tarpaulins tied on by ropes to their sides and easy to release in an emergency. There was a walkway at the level of the hanging lifeboats with iron steps leading up to them from the deck behind King Neptune. In five days’ time, she would be in the safest part of her monthly cycle, which made her speculate.
“Could you climb up to that walkway behind his majesty?”
“Of course.”
“At night?”
“Why ever not?”
“With me?”
“What for? Look, they are throwing my friend from school into the pool. It’s his first time over the equator… Well done, Roberts! Well done! Jolly good show.” Then he turned to Vera. “Have you got your costume on under your clothes?”
“Yes. My dress comes off in a flash.”
“Come on then. Once the victim has been thrown in, the ceremony is over.”
Vera smiled, a little less sure of herself. The boy was completely innocent. A virgin. The best excitement a girl of twenty-three could have; an eighteen-year-old virgin straight out of school; wicked, plain wicked.
2
Seven days later Andre Cloete met the boat at Southampton. He was driving an open two-seater Morgan sports car, its three wheels glittering with aluminium trim. The two friends had not seen each other since Christmas 1933 at Hastings Court. Instead of paying for a trip home to Cape Town in 1934, Andre’s father had bought him the Morgan.
When the friends shook hands it was brief and casual, befitting two undergraduates. Andre was wearing his Oxford second eleven blazer. On his head at an angle was a boater, and on the back of the car was strapped the cabin trunk Tinus had packed on Elephant Walk.
Tinus had said goodbye to his cabin-mate Roberts after breakfast. It had taken an hour to clear customs with the rest of the passengers. Vera had waved goodbye from the other side of the customs shed. With her was an older man who had met her when the ship docked. Vera had said the day before she was being met by her theatrical agent. She had on a wide-brimmed hat with blue ribbons. The white dress made her tiny waist look even smaller than Tinus remembered from the lifeboat when he had almost got both of his hands to touch around her middle as he hoisted her up the vertical metal ladder that had taken them to the lifeboat in the dark of the night, both of them sneaking out of their cabins on the night of the farewell ball.
After days of clear skies and millions of stars in the tropical heavens, layer upon layer of stars going deeper into space than Tinus could imagine, the night sky was overcast and getting her up the ladder was more difficult than he had first imagined it would be. Tinus had unlaced one side of the tarpaulin, the side facing the sea. There was a heavy swell rolling the ship. Thankfully for what they were about to do, both of them were good sailors. In the bottom of the lifeboat on top of three cork life jackets Tinus found Vera had already taken off her panties in her cabin. It was all over in ten seconds without Tinus feeling her as he went inside the excited girl. After that, she did something to herself in the dark under the tarpaulin before they went back to their cabins.
As Tinus waved to her in the customs shed, he doubted he would see her again. After the event in the lifeboat they had barely spoken. Genevieve and the introduction were no longer mentioned; Tinus just hoped the girl was not going to be pregnant.
“Have a good trip?” asked Andre Cloete, straightening up from putting his boater under the dashboard.
“Very good, Andre. I like the car. How fast does it go?”
“They say it can do eighty on a straight road. Present from the pater. Spring in England is the best time of year, don’t you think? Lots of flowers and that sort of thing. Start of the cricket season. You been playing?”
“A little bit.”
“Mater wrote you were captain at school.”
“Waiting for a place at Oxford kept me at school for an extra term. Just the oldest pupil, Andre.”
“You’re modest. Who was the girl in the picture hat waving to you in the customs shed?”
“Just a girl I met on the boat.”
“Well, you have a surprise waiting for you at Hastings Court. Genevieve is staying with your Uncle Harry. Sorry to hear about your great-grandfather.”
“Thanks, old chap. I always called him grandfather. Thought him indestructible… What is Genevieve doing at Hastings Court?”
“She and her father are visiting. Did you know they have the same mismatched eyes?”
“You called in on your way down, I suppose?”
“Spent last night with them to be in time for the boat. Bit out of the way. Your Uncle Harry said it would save me the cost of a hotel room. Anyway, I like staying at Hastings Court.”
“Hear you’re playing first eleven for Oxford this summer.”
“Never count your chickens before they hatch.”
“You are too modest.”
“Put your hat under the dashboard. There’s a piece of straight road up ahead. What was her name?”
“Vera.”
They arrived at the old house with the façade of turrets and battlements in time for tea and straight into a commotion. The pack of spaniels had met Anthony and Beth at the bottom of the driveway as the Morgan turned into the grand entrance to the home that had belonged to his Manderville ancestors for centuries. Uncle Harry had inherited the house from his Brigandshaw grandfather who had bought the house from Sir Henry Manderville under dubious circumstances, circumstances Tinus had yet to fully understand; his grandmother Emily said some skeletons were best left in the cupboard, whatever that was meant to mean.
Since eloping with his grandfather Sebastian, Uncle Harry’s father, grandmother Emily had never been home to England until she brought her father back to Hastings Court to be buried in the Manderville family mausoleum. To everyone’s surprise she had returned to Rhodesia on the next boat saying Madge, Tinus’s mother, could not run Elephant Walk on her own, which to Tinus had seemed at the time strange. Ralph Madgwick ran Elephant Walk as the manager, his mother ran the houses in the family compound while Paula his sister ran the school for the children of the black workers. There was even talk of offering Ralph Madgwick a share in the farm to keep him on as manager until Uncle Harry came home and Ralph could go off on his own farm with substantial capital from the sale of his share in Elephant Walk.
The first thing Tinus saw of his English family was cousin Beth careering into the rhododendron bushes on her bicycle, the dogs yapping with delight at her ankles as she pedalled to get away. Cousin Anthony, back from his prep school for the night, was leaning on the handlebars of his bicycle smiling at the ruckus as Andre Cloete slowly turned the Morgan into the drive.
“Why don’t you do something, Anthony?”
“Hello, Tinus. Heard you were coming. Hello, Andre. I like your car. What is it?”
“A Morgan. Don’t you think you should help your sister?”
“Why? She kicked Gunner who gave her a nip.”
“Now she’s stuck in the bushes. Be a good chap. I’ve got a cricket bat for you. Are you all right, Beth?” Tinus called.
“No. Gunner wants to bite me.”
“No he doesn’t, silly. It’s all a game,” said her brother.
“See you both up at the house for tea,” said Tinus.
“Can I go for a ride?”
“Only if you help your sister. Gunner! Come here.”
The dogs broke away from the bushes to rush back to the car, barking with excitement at something new. Tinus understood; the dogs, like the dogs on Elephant Walk, were bored.
“I told you they were only playing. Do you want some help, old girl?” called Anthony, his face on his hands on the handlebars.
“How old are they?” said Andre as they drove up the tree-lined driveway away from the gatehouse.
“Twelve and ten, or round about.”
“And he calls his sister old girl! What’s it all coming to?”
“There’s Uncle Harry coming down the steps.”
By the time they got out of the car, the boater was back on Andre Cloete’s head.
“Beth rode her bike into the bushes. Nice to see you again, sir.”
“What’s all this ‘sir’? Is she all right?”
“Gunner tried to nip her heels.”
“Come up. Your aunt is somewhere. She likes houseguests now we live in the country. You’ll have lots of good company. Tomorrow you and I will go for a walk on our own. I want to hear everything without a rush. You’re just in time for tea. Thank you for picking him up, Andre. The tea’s laid out on the lawn at the back of the house. Mrs Craddock has baked you some fresh scones. It’s such a beautiful day we can all take tea outside for once. I never get used to not having a dry season when you know for certain there won’t be any rain for months and months. You remember Genevieve, Tinus? She’s staying with us for a few days with her father and agent. I think you met William Smythe. They are both famous now. As a foreign correspondent and a film star, will you believe it? My first wife, Genevieve’s aunt Lucinda, would have been so proud. I can still hear the shot that killed her but there’s no point in feeling sorry for myself. Then we have Jesse from Kentucky, an acquaintance of Cousin George in America.”
