The covenant - James A. Michener [405]
The little northern dwellings were occupied by General de Groot, the big farm by the Van Doorns, and it was to the latter that Micah led the horses. 'Hello, there!' a rough voice called from the barn. 'You that Mr. Rhodes' man?' The English words came uneasily and with heavy accent.
'Yes. Frank Saltwood.'
'We don't hold much with that Mr. Rhodes. He's a bad one. But you're welcome.'
The farmer held out a big hand and said, 'Jakob van Doorn. Mama!'
From the house emerged not an older woman but three of the prettiest little girls Frank had ever seen. With a bang they burst onto the edge of the stoepand then behaved quite differently. The oldest girl, about fifteen, stopped shyly when she saw the strange man and stood by a pillar, her blond pigtails reflecting the light. The two younger ones, who seemed to be about the same age, seven or eight, were not abashed by the stranger; they came rushing right down into the yard to embrace him, their pigtails flying.
'The twins!' Jakob said proudly. 'Anna and Sannah, but which is which you'll never know.'
The girls did not try to be cute or tease about their names. They simply took Frank by the hand and led him toward the stoep, where through the front door appeared Mevrou van Doorn, in her late thirties, holding an infant on her hip. 'This is my wife, Sara, and the ruler of our roost, little Detlev.'
With delighted tugging, the twins carried their baby brother about the stoep. 'Come in,' Mevrou van Doorn said. 'We wondered about your telegram.'
'Yes, I came to see the general. I understand he went to Zimbabwe once.'
'He was there. But only as a little boy.'
'Will he remember?'
'The general remembers everything,' Mevrou van Doorn replied. 'My father was there, too,' Van Doorn said. 'He led a party north of the Limpopo. Tsetse fly drove them back.'
'Will I run into the tsetse up there?'
'You will.' The Van Doorns took him into their house and showed him where he would sleep. As the twins helped him unpack, their mother made coffee and rusks, and then Jakob opened a bottle of witblits (white lightning), a fiery homemade brandy. 'We drink to your coming. Do you speak Dutch?'
'Alas, not much. I was brought up in the Grahamstown area, you know, where there were few Boers.' And before they could respond, he added, 'Our family bought De Kraal, you know.'
'You did!' Mevrou van Doorn cried. Vaguely the family had known that trustworthy English settlers had purchased the farm, but their name had been lost.
'Are you the family that collected the money from London for my father's slaves?' Van Doorn asked.
'Yes. I've heard that story.' Frank shook his head in disgust. 'What a bad thing the London government did to you people on the slave deal.'
'What do you mean, deal? Van Doorn asked.
'The cheap way the slaves were paid for. Or not paid for.'
'That was a bad time,' Van Doorn said, but then he added brightly, 'You'll want to see the general right away, I suppose?' When Frank nodded, he cried, 'Come along, children,' and led a procession around the end of the lake.
Saltwood was totally unprepared for the primitive conditions in which this great general, a hero of the Boer republics, lived. But when De Groot came forward to extend a rough welcome, any thought of meanness or privation vanished. The man was a giant, but hunched over like some mountain denizen in a German fairy story. When he gripped Saltwood by the shoulder, his fingers were like steel.
Then he laughed heartily and said, 'I want you to meet my wife,' and from the rude hut came a handsome woman in her sixties, erect, white-haired, blue-eyed. As a girl she must have been beautiful, and even now her dignity was striking. 'This is Mevrou de Groot,' the general said, and as he spoke he took her hand, and they stood facing their visitor.
But then they saw the three Van Doorn girls, and Sybilla de Groot bent down to embrace the twins while the general bowed gallantly to Johanna. At this point Jakob said, 'This is Frank Saltwood. It was his grandfather who got us the payment for our slaves.