The covenant - James A. Michener [155]
There in the darkness the ugly thought leaped forward in his mind: Annatjie can't live forever. She's almost sixty. One of these days she's got to die. He had respected her for all she and her family had done for him, and had honored his obligation to treat her with civil affection, but now the world that he had built was being threatened, and he wished that she were deadand he began to watch her health as closely as he did Geertruyd's.
Annatjie did show signs of rapid aging. Her hands were withered and heavy lines marked her face. She moved more slowly than when he had married her, and her voice cracked now and then. Her deficiencies were the more notable in that he continued as young as evera vital, hard-working man with a smooth face that displayed his enthusiasm: After all, I am nine years younger. If I had this place by myself ... He was thrilled by the prospect of what he could accomplish; and this was not fatuous, for one had only to look at the buildings of Trianon, those handsome, well-proportioned masterpieces, to realize what this man could achieve.
And now the battle for Trianon began. Sometimes at meals De Pre would seem to strive for breath; he felt surrounded by enemies who were trying to wrest his vineyard from him, and all he could see in the kitchen were hostile faces. Annatjie he could dismiss; she was almost sixty and must soon die. Sarel showed no signs of improving because of marriage, and could be ignored. With peasant cunning Paul saw that his real foe was Geertruyd, this deceptively quiet orphan from Amsterdam. Watching her closely, he found to his dismay that she was watching him. No matter what he did to make his good wine, he could feel Geertruyd spying on him, noting how he acted and why.
She never confronted him, for in the orphanage it had been drilled into her that the sovereign quality in any woman was meekness. So when De Pre railed at her, she kept her eyes lowered and made no response. She also refrained from trying to defend Annatjie when Paul shouted at her, for she was determined to avoid diversionary squabbles. But when De Pre, in his strategic assault, humiliated Sarel, trying to convince the young man that he was incompetent, she felt her anger rise. But still she fought to maintain self-control.
Four times, five times at supper Paul scorned his stepson, without rebuttal from Geertruyd or Annatjie, and this convinced him that he could beat down these women. One evening he launched a series of destructive attacks: 'Sarel, wouldn't it be better if you kept away from the slaves? They ignore your orders.'
Sarel said nothing, only fumbled with his spoon, so De Pre stormed on: 'And don't meddle with the wine casks. Certain things around here have to be done right.'
The young man reddened and, still silent, looked down at his plate, but when De Pre dredged up a third humiliating point'Stay clear of the new vines'Geertruyd had had enough. Very quietly, but with frightening determination, she interrupted: 'Monsieur de Pre . . .'
'Haven't I told you to call me Father?'
'Monsieur de Pre,' she repeated menacingly, 'since Sarel will take over the vineyards when you are dead . . .' She delivered the word with such brutal finality that De Pre gasped. He had often contemplated his wife's death, never his own.
'So Sarel and I have decided,' she continued, her face flushed with anger, 'that he must become familiar with all stages of making wine.'
'Sarel decided?' De Pre burst into derisive laughter. 'He couldn't decide anything.'
Everyone turned to look at Sarel, and he realized he ought to respond, both to combat his stepfather and to support his wife, but the pressure was so ugly that he could not form words.
So in her first attempt at defiance, Geertruyd lost, and she noticed that this made De Pre even more arrogant. For the first time he put aside his pledge to treat Annatjie with the respect due a wife and became publicly