The covenant - James A. Michener [269]
'We must halt here,' Hilary said, anxious to try to heal any wounds that might still exist between him and the man who had stolen his bride. 'Hello, Thomas!' he called, and when the builder appeared at the door of his forge, Hilary was astonished to see how the years that had handled him so roughly had scarcely touched this bright-faced young man.
'I'm Saltwood,' Hilary said hesitantly.
'Why, so it is! Vera, come here!' And from the house beside the shop came the former Miss Lambton of Salisbury, now a matron with two blond children. No longer the timid spinster studying watercolors, she was now in her mid-thirties, mistress of a house and keeper of accounts for her husband's thriving business.
'Good morning, Hilary,' she said graciously. Then, with a mischievousness she could never have disclosed back in Wiltshire, she teased: 'You're the reason I sailed so far.'
'Are these your children?'
'They are.'
'I have three now,' he said quietly.
'We haven't stopped, you know,' Carleton said, putting his arm about his wife.
'Has my brother any little ones?' 'Like all of us. He has one.'
During this colloquy Emma had remained on her horse, quietly to the rear, and now Vera cried warmly, 'Here is your wife!' 'It is. Emma, as you know.'
The wagon builder helped her alight, took her by both hands, and asked, 'Didn't you tell us you're a Madagascan?' 'I did.'
'How in the world did you get down here?'
'I was born here,' she said in the slow, beautiful English she had acquired from her Oxford-educated husband. 'But my parents were . . . How do you say it, Hilary?'
'Kidnapped.'
'They were kidnapped by Portuguese slavers. It was quite common. Still is, I think.'
'Little woman like you, three children!' Carleton shook his head and returned to his work.
In the days prior to Dr. Keer's arrival, the Karroo couple participated in many friendly meetings like this, for the indignation caused by their marriage had abated. Grahamstown was now a typical rural English settlement with a thriving marketplace to which many Boer wagons came. They were heartily welcomed, not only for their trade but also because of the commandos they provided whenever untamed Kaffirs from across the Fish River attacked.
Hilary overheard one tough English farmer joking with a Boer: 'After we were here eighteen months, and the Kaffirs had attacked us once and you Boers five times, our minister said on Sunday, "See how the heathen restrain themselves in the face of God! They always prefer to raid the Boers." And a man in the back of the church cried, "It isn't God, Dominee. It's cattle. We don't have any and the Boers do!" '
Hilary was particularly pleased to renew acquaintance with his brother Richard, whose exuberant wife Julie had undergone a transformation somewhat similar to Vera Lambton's, except that whereas the latter had descended from the role of Salisbury elite, Julie had climbed the ladder from Dorset illiterate to solid gentlewoman, wife of a former major in the Fifty-ninth. She found no difficulty in accepting Emma Saltwood as her sister-in-law, partly because everyone knew that Emma would be returning to the Karroo as soon as the convening ended, and could thus pose no problem with her miscegenation, but partly also because of Christian charity. Julie saw that Emma was a remarkable woman and no doubt a fine mother, and as such she merited acceptance.
The trouble came with Dr. Keer, for when he dismounted, tired and hungry after the long ride from Golan, he gasped when he saw Hilary, and thought: Dear God, this man's ten years younger than me, and look at him! To reach Keer's hand, Hilary had to stoop, which made him appear even older and more haggard than he was; in