It was fascinating listening to his talk. He seemed then as though he forgot the need to score over me, which I believed had its roots in my repugnance to him and the terms I had insisted on before marrying him.
When I saw him as the director of the Company, the man who understood opals and loved them-for this came out whenever he talked of them -I saw a different side to his nature from that of the conceited male whose dignity had been affronted because the woman he had been forced to marry for the sake of a fortune had insisted on the marriage’s being, as he called it mockingly, ‘in name only’.
So we sat there while the storm raged round us and as’ll listened to his talk of the life to which I was going, my feelings towards him changed a little. I had realized that there were many sides to his nature and I must not allow my dislike of one to blind me to the existence of the rest.
Our first port of call was Teneriffe and when we called there Joss took me for a tour round the island. We went to Santa Cruz in a gay little carriage drawn by two donkeys and Joss, who was very knowledgeable about the place, enlightened me a good deal. The weather was gently warm and I felt so exhilarated that I did not want the day to end. I admired the wonderfully coloured flowering shrubs and the lushness or everything. joss snowed me banana plantations and we lunched in a small restaurant overlooking the sea on potage de berros - a sort of watercress soup and fish which we had been told had been caught that morning and was served with a delicious sauce with the name of mo-j’o pi con. It was very exotic and exciting. As we sat overlooking the sea Joss told me that when the Romans had come there they had found this group of islands to have a larger population of dogs than any other country they knew, so they called them Canaria, the Islands of Dogs.
The natives were the Guanches - a savage people-who were in due course subdued by the Spaniards.
As we ate young men and women came to dance the local dances and there were singers too. We enjoyed the isa and the tolia which, said Joss, were characteristically Spanish. He was dearly gratified by my wonder and delight in everything and even his pleasure in his superior knowledge failed to dampen my pleasure.
I was sorry when we had to go back to the ship, and as we sailed off he and I leaned over the rail and watched the dominating peak of Pico de Tiede fade out of sight.
When we reached Cape Town, Joss had some business to do and he suggested that I go with him to the house of a man whom he had to see.
It would be good for me, he said, now that I was a shareholder in the Company, to learn everything I could about it.
Cape Town must surely be one of the most beautifully situated cities in the world. I was overwhelmed by the magnificence of Table Bay with flat-topped Table Mountain clear in the sunshine and the Twelve Apostles Mountains looming up beside it.
We had a horse-drawn carriage to take us up the slope to Joss’s business associate. The house was delightful in the Dutch Colonial style, and to step inside those beautifully cool rooms was like walking into a Dutch painting. There were stone steps leading to a terrace and on this was a table with chairs ranged round it.
As we came up the steps Kurt van der Stel and his wife came to greet us. They were clearly very pleased to see Joss, who introduced me as the wife he had recently married in England.
Grete van der Stel was a rosy plump woman, rather severely dressed, and she bustled around serving us with wine, which she explained came from a nearby vineyard, and with cakes which she had made herself.
When Joss told them of Ben’s death they were deeply distressed.
“It’s sad to think we shall never see him again,” said Grete.
“He had never been completely well since his accident, replied Joss.
That is one of the hazards of mining,” Kurt reminded him.
“And one of the reasons why people like you must pay high prices for that which the miners have risked their lives for,” answered Joss.
The van der Stels talked for a long time about Ben, his exuberance, his unpredictability. They agreed that the opal world would not be the same without him.
Then Grete asked me if I would like to see the house and I told her that I should.
How beautiful that house was with that ambience of peace and order which I had experienced before through the intriguing interiors of the Dutch school of painting. Everything was highly polished and treated with loving care.
Grete told me that her family had been in Cape Town for two hundred and fifty years.
“It is beautiful and it is home,” she said.
“Life is full of chance.
Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, two Dutchmen were shipwrecked here. They were enchanted by the place, as all must be-the climate, the fruit, the flowers and the possibility of making a great colony occurred to them, so they went back to the Dutch East India Company and reported what they had found, and as a result they sent out three ships under the command of Jan van Riebeck. Here they settled and then more Dutch came out to join them and so we built a city, and it has been home to us through the generations. “
I stood at the window and looked out at the sparkling sea with the Mountain-indeed resembling a table-rising proudly out of the waters.
Grete took me into the garden where exquisite shrubs flowered in abundance about the one-storey dwelling where her servants were housed, and then went back to the terrace on which the two men were sitting, before them the rolled-up cases which I had so often seen in Ben’s possession. They were discussing the opals which lay in the cases.
Grete said that luncheon would be served in a few moments so Joss rolled up the cases. As he did so we heard the sound of horses’ hoofs on the road below.
“He’s here,” said Kurt van der Stel.
“I’ll be interested to see him,” said Joss.
“Perhaps he’ll be able to give me some news about what’s going on at the Fancy.”
A man mounted the steps to the terrace and Joss rose and shook hands with him.
“It’s good to see you, David,” he said.
“You too. Joss.” The newcomer shook hands with Kurt and as he did so Joss drew me forward.
“I want you to meet my wife,” he said.
The man ‘found it difficult to hide his astonishment.
“Jessica, this is David Croissant,” said Joss.
I had heard that name before. David Croissant, the merchant who knew more about the quality of opals than any other. He was not tall, and his dark hair grew low on his forehead, meeting in the centre in what we called a ‘widow’s peak’. He had light eyes which because of his general darkness gave him an unusual appearance, and those eyes, I noticed, were too closely set together.
“You’ve not heard about Ben,” said Joss. David Croissant looked startled and Joss told him.
“Good God!” said David Croissant.
“I had no idea. Ben … old Ben!”
“We shall, all miss him sadly,” said Kurt.
“What bad luck,” murmured David Croissant.
“If he’d still got the Flash you’d think it was that. I wonder what happened to Desmond Dereham. He disappeared off the face of the earth. He went to some outlandish place, I don’t doubt. Perhaps he’ll escape the bad luck.”
“Why should he?” asked Grete.
“Some say there’s evil in that stone and if that were so it might favour someone who stole it.”
“What a crazy idea,” said Joss.
“I’m surprised at you, David, an opal man, talking such nonsense. Ill luck! For heaven’s sake let’s put a stop to all that talk. It’s not good for business.”