'I wish you had let me give you something more appetizing." 'It will be only two days,' Moses said, and she was reminded ho little store he set by creature comforts.
Moses replaced the panel, but he did not tighten the retainin screws fully, so that they could be loosened by hand.
'All right, pass the books to me now." He repacked the ches replacing the bundles in the same order as he had found them, s that to a casual glance it would not be apparent that the contents c the chest had been disturbed. Carefully Moses closed the chest an replaced the bronze statue on the lid. Then he stood in front of th desk and surveyed the room carefully. 'I will need a place to hide." 'The drapes,' Tara suggested, and he nodded.
'Not very original, but effective." The curtains were embroidere brocade, cut full, and they reached to the floor.
'A key to that door - I'll need one." He indicated the hidden doo: in the panelling.
'I will try --' Tara began and then broke off as there was a knoc on the interleading door. For a moment he thought she might panic and he squeezed her arm to calm her.
'Who is it?" Tara called in a level voice.
'It's me, Mrs Courtney,' Tricia called respectfully. 'It's one o'clock and I'm going to take my lunch." 'Go ahead, Tricia. I'll be a little longer, but I'll lock up when I leave." They heard the outer door close, and then Moses released her arm. 'Go out and search her desk. See if she has a key to the back door." Tara was back within minutes with a small bunch of keys. She tried them in the lock and the third one turned the door in the panelling.
'The serial number is on it." She scribbled a note of the number on Shasa's noteblock and ripped off the top sheet. Tll return the keys to Tricia's desk." When she came back, Moses was buttoning his uniform jacket, but she locked the door behind her.
'What I need now is a plan of the building. There must be one in the public works department, and you must get me a copy. Tell Tricia to do it." 'How?" she asked. 'What excuse can I give?" 'Tell her that you want to change the lighting in here,' he gestured at the chandelier in the roof. 'Tell her you must have an electrical plan of this section, showing the circuits and wall-fittings." 'Yes, I can do that,' she agreed.
'Good. We are finished here for the time being. We can go now." 'There is no hurry, Moses. Tricia will not be back for another hour." He looked down at her, and for a moment she thought she saw a flash of contempt, even disgust, in those dark brooding eyes, but she would not let herself believe that, and she pressed herself to him, hiding her face against his chest. Within seconds she felt the swelling and hardening of his loins through the cloth that separated their lower bodies, and her doubts were dispelled. She was certain that in his own strange African way he loved her still and she reached down to open his clothing and bring him out.
He was so thick that she could barely encompass him within the circle of her thumb and forefinger, and he was hot and hard as a shaft of black ironstone that had lain in the full glare of the sun at midday.
Tara sank down onto the thick silken rug, drawing him down on top of her.
Every day now increased the danger of discovery and both of them were aware of it.
'Will Shasa recognize you?" Tara asked Moses more than once. 'It is becoming more and more difficult to keep you from meeting him face to face. He asked about my new chauffeur a few days ago." Isabella had apparently drawn Shasa's attention to the new employee for her own selfish reasons, and Tara could cheerfully have thrashed her for it. But there had been the danger of establishing the importance of her new driver even more clearly in the child's devious mind, so she had let it pass without comment.
'Will he know you?" she insisted, and Moses considered it carefully.
'It was long ago, before the war. He was a child." Moses shook his head. 'The circumstances were so different, the place so remote and yet for a short while we were close. I believe we made a deep impression upon each other - if merely because of the unlikelihood of such a relationship, black man and white boy becoming familiar, developing an intimate friendship." He sighed. 'It is certain, however, that at the time of the trial he must have read the intelligence reports and known of the warrant for my arrest which, by the way, is still in force. Whether he would connect the wanted revolutionary criminal with his childhood friend, I do not know, but we cannot take that chance. We must do what has to be done as soon as possible." 'It seems that Shasa has been out of town every weekend for the last five years." Tara bit her lip with frustration. 'But now that I want him gone, he won't leave Weltevreden for a single day. Firsl it's this damned polo b ' ' usmess. The Argentinian polo team was touring the country, and Shasa was hosting their stay in Cape Town, while the polo fields of Weltevreden would be the venue for the first test match of their visit. 'Then immediately after that it will be the British prime minister, Harold Macmillan's visit. Shasa won't be leaving Cape Town before the end of the month at the very arhest.
e ' ' She watched his face in the driving-mirror as he pondered it.
'There is risk either way,' he said softly. 'To delay is as dangerous as to act hastily. We must choose the exact moment." Neither of them spoke again until they reached the bus stop, and Moses parked the Chev on the opposite side of the road. Then he switched off the engine and asked: 'This polo match. When will it take place?" 'The test match is on Friday afternoon." 'Your husband will be playing?" 'The South African team will be announced in the middle of the week, but Shasa is almost certain to be on the team. He might even be chosen as captain." 'Even if he is not, he will be the host. He must be there." Yes,' Tara agreed.
'Friday - that will give me the whole weekend." He made up his mind. 'We will do it then." For a few moments Tara felt the suffocating desperation of somebody trapped in quicksand, sinking slowly, and yet there was an inevitability about it that made fear seem superfluous. There was no escape and she felt instead an enervating sense of acceptance.
'Here is the bus,' Moses said, and she heard the faintest tremor of excitement in his voice. It was one of the very few times that she had ever known his personal feelings to betray him.
As the bus drew up at the halt, she saw the woman and child standing on the platform at the rear. They were both peering eagerly at the parked Chev, and when tara waved the child hopped down and started across the road. The bus pulled away and Miriam Afrika stayed on the platform at the back of the bus, staring back at them until it turned the next corner.
Benjamin came to meet them, his face bright with anticipation. He was growing into a likely lad, and Miriam always dressed him so well - clean white shirt, grey shorts and polished black shoes. His toffee-coloured skin had a scrubbed look and his crisp dark curls were trimmed into a neat cap.
'Isn't he just too gorgeous?" Tara breathed. 'Our son, Moses, our fine son." The boy opened the door and jumped in besides Moses. He looked up at him with a beaming smile and Moses embraced him briefly.
Then Tara leaned over the seat and kissed him and gave him a brief but fierce hug. In public she had to limit any show of affection, and as he grew older, their relationship became more difficult and obscure.
The child still believed that Miriam Afrika was his mother, but he was almost six years old now, and a bright intelligent and sensitive boy. She knew that he suspected some special relationship between the three of them. These clandestine meetings were too regular, and emotionally charged, for him not to suspect that something had remained to be fully explained to him.
Benjamin had been told merely that they were good friends of the family, but even at his tender age he would be aware of the social taboos that they were flouting, for his very existence must be permeated by the knowledge that white and black were somehow different and set apart from his own light brown, and sometimes he stared at Tara with a kind of wonder as though she were some fabulous creature from a fairy tale.