The covenant - James A. Michener [345]
He was confused on other matters, too, for in these days of anxiety when no one knew how soon Mzilikazi would strike again, he learned to his disgust that Ryk Naude had not crossed the Drakensberg but had encamped some miles away. On several nights Tjaart had ridden over to seek Minna, and again spied on their love-making and he was bewildered: Why would a man with a wonderful wife like Aletta bother to plow the furrow with someone like Minna? He loved his daughter and had worked diligently to find her a husband, but he could never delude himself into thinking that she was in any way the equal of Aletta. Yet here was this young no-good imperiling his marriage by sneaking out at night to make love to a plain and married woman.
Tjaart became so disturbed by his daughter's misbehavior, relating it always to his own renewed infatuation for Aletta, that one day he resolutely confronted Ryk to upbraid him for his adultery: 'Ryk, we're about to engage Mzilikazi in a battle where we might all die. If God turns against us for our sins, we might perish. Don't you feel any responsibility?'
'I feel love for your daughter.'
'Love?'
'Yes, I should have married her, as she said.' 'But you have a beautiful wife . . .'
'Old man, tend to your battle. Guns will win it, not commandments.'
This was so blasphemous that Tjaart could not decide how to respond, but Ryk saved him: 'In two days we march northto face Mzilikazi. We may all be killed, but I'll be happy knowing that Minna . . .' He did not finish this extraordinary statement, just walked off to prepare his horses.
Tjaart was angered by the young man's insolence, and surprised, too, for he had not thought of Ryk as brave enough to oppose an elder. More tantalizing were some of the deductions that could be made from what the young husband had said: if Ryk did not think much of his wife, if he did not want her, what wrong could there be if someone else approached her? None, he concluded, and as to the adultery he would be committing, he avoided any consideration of this by simply erasing Jakoba from his mind.
So he resumed his old habit of placing himself in Aletta's path, a foolish, dumpy man in belt and suspenders offering himself to the most beautiful young woman among the trekkers. He was ridiculous, and he knew it, but he was powerless to stop. One afternoon he waited till she was apart from the others, then grabbed her, pulled her behind some wagons, and started kissing her furiously.
To his surprise, she did not resist, nor did she participate. She simply leaned against him, even lovelier than in his dreams, smiling between the kisses and whispering at the end, 'You're not such a silly old man, after all.' And with that she walked slowly away, completely untouched by his embraces.
The encounter was an agony for Tjaart. During one spell he railed silently against his son-in-law: Why doesn't that damned fool Theunis manage his wife? Where in God's hell did I find such a man to bring into my family? And for more than an hour he mentally reviled the little sick-comforter as the cause of his own malaise.
Then he envisioned the forthcoming battle against Mzilikazi, and when he recalled the fearlessness with which those first Matabele had kept storming the laager, he grew frightened: If twice that many, three times that many, come at us, what shall we do? Then he recalled the mutilated bodies of De Groot's people, and a sickening rage overcame him: We must slay them, slay them! No Voortrekker ever raised a finger against Mzilikazi, and he did that to us. We must destroy him.
And then he paused, and like all Boers, reflected on the fact