Part 16 (1/2)
They stood looking at each other for a long ony faithfully
”Johnny-” Her voice was husky, and she reached out and laid the paled, and heon to her shoulder He sighed, a ragged broken exhalation of breath
”Co him there she went to the s and closed the curtains
It arm and safe in the half dark of the curtained roo years before Clinging together, so their breathing led, and it was not necessary to speak
When they became lovers it seemed that they had waited all their lives for that th flowing back into hi it from her When he sat up in the bed the beone
His Jaas out and his eyes were bright
”We've still got three days, he said
”Yes” She sat up beside him ”Go, Johnny Go quickly, don't waste another ully I'll find those diamonds They are there I know they are there I'll take her right down into the jaws of Thunderbolt and Suicide, I'll find those bloody dias off the bed, reached for his clothes, glancing at his wrist watch as he did so
”Four o'clock I can get to Cartridge Bay a few minutes after dark
Will you call the coe Bay and have a flare path set forby to run me out?”
”I'll phone theo on Don't waste tierly, and Johnny let his eyes drop down over her body He reached out and touched one big white breast alo”
”It will all be here, waiting for you, when you get back”
”It wasn't the way I'd planned it It wasn't good the way I'd drearily over the floor of the Old Man's study, swinging towards the s and pausing to stare out at the mountain across the valley
”You hurt him You crushed him” Ruby moved restlessly in her chair across the roos defensively under her, sitting like a cat in the big chair She orried, and it showed in the tiny crows” feet at the corners of her eyes and the way she held her lips pursed She should have anticipated this reaction from him, she should have known-that this moment of triumph could never eof disappointment She realized that her safest course was to leave him alone now, she should never have returned with hi Hill She stood up
”Darling” She crossed to hiet rid of them I want to wipe out every ether” She stretched up to kiss hioing, are you?” His expression was petulant, his lips pouting spitefully
”We're both tired, darling Let us both rest a while - and I'll co the orders, are you?” He laughed nastily
”Darling-”
”And cut out all the darlings We pulled a deal and it didn't work out You were meant to be a club to break his skull - and do you know so hihted to get rid of you”
”Benedict,” She stepped back
”Listen” He stepped close to her, and pushed his face towards hers ”If you're so bloody anxious to go, why don't you bloody well go - and keep going If he doesn't want you then I sure as hell don't want you either”
”Benedict,” she whispered The colour faded fro it washed white as beach sand She stared at hian to fall into ruins around her ”You don't mean that”
”I don't? Is that so?” He threw back his head and laughed again ”Listen, you got so house in Bishopscourt - now, that's pretty good pay for a whore”
”Benedict-” She gasped at the insult, but he wasn't listening
”I proved I could have you, didn't I?” I proved I could take you away froo on hoirl”
”The fisher” It was a ed shape and the blood flooded into it His voice when he spoke was unsteady, thick with rage for his lips seemed to have swollen
”Try it,” he whispered back at her ”Go on, try it They'll give you fifteen years in a woman's prison, my beauty And think about this also-” He showed her his hand, holding it like a blade before her eyes
”I'll kill you I swear before God, I'll kill you with h about me now” She backed away fro his hand at her throat
”You've been paid Now get out” A few seconds longer she stood before hie to see the fear in her eyeselse that made her eyes slit and drew her lips back to show the little white teeth
”All right,” she said ”I'll go” And she walked fro against her shoulders
Ruby drove slowly for her vision was blurred with her tears Twice other drivers hooted at her but she kept both hands clenched on the wheel and stared ahead, following the De Wool Drive around the lower slopes of theoff the road and drove up through the pine forests until she reached the car park behind the Cecil Rhodes Memorial She left the car and walked down on to the wide paved terrace below the Greek columns and stone steps where the mounted statue eternally searched the horizon with one hand lifted to shade his eyes
She went to the parapet and looked across to the far blue ed herself about the shoulders for the wind through her silk summer dress was as cold as her misery
Now the tears broke over her lids and slid down her cheeks to fall unheeded on to the silken front of her dress
They were tears of self-pity, but also the tears of an anger as searing cold as dry ice
”The swine she whispered through lips that tre on the parapet, kicking their legs over the drop beneath the each other in the abandon of first love, turned to glance at her
The boy whispered to the girl, and she giggled in unthinking cruelty but looked away as Ruby directed a long venolare at her Then in embarrassment the couple scra her alone
Never for oneaside
Benedict's threats- her only concern was to take the action which would injure him most severely The consequences to herself were not part of her calculations
She wanted only to select the swiftest and most terrible vehicle of retribution As the dark clouds that fogged her reason slowly cleared, theat the Tulbagh Hotel