The old bull lay like a great grey boulder on the riverbank. Inkosi had not died easily. The ground around was soaked in blood, and churned from the thrashing of giant limbs as he’d struggled to stand on wounded knees. Bullets had ripped open the heavy folds of his flank, and one great tusk ploughed into the ground to half its length. The other arched over Nandi’s head, where she crouched beside the body. She ran a hand along its smooth surface, then glanced back at Luke, her expression full of sorrow.
Inkosi had not been killed for his ivory, although no doubt men would risk venturing onto Themba land to claim the tusks. He’d been killed for rampaging through the local farmers’ fields once too often, and was the fourth elephant to die for this crime in a month.
Luke slid down the bank to join Nandi, hollow with sadness. Stroking the great lifeless trunk, still warm. He loved all Themba’s elephants, but this old bull had a special place in his heart. He remembered the day they’d first met with vivid clarity, not far from this very spot. Inkosi bathing in the river, allowing Luke the best view of an elephant he’d ever had. Vast upturned tusks, as thick as a man’s body at the base. They must have weighed two hundred pounds each. An old bullet hole in one of his huge flapping ears. The strange prehensile trunk with its soft, fleshy tip, searching the air.
Luke had moved nearer, and nearer again, drawn by the tusker’s ancient eyes, eyes that stared straight into his soul. Overcome with a feeling of such majesty that he could not turn away. It was dangerous to approach an elephant so closely, especially a bull, yet something told him not to be afraid. When Inkosi moved off upriver, Luke went with him.
That began an odd alliance between the elephant and the man. They would disappear together for days at a time. Why Inkosi tolerated him, Luke never knew. Sometimes young bulls would join old ones to learn the laws of the savannah from the patriarch. Where to find choice seasonal fruit and seed pods. How to find water in the desert. When to seek out females in oestrus. Perhaps Inkosi accepted him in this time-honoured role. Whatever the reason, the bull seemed to enjoy his companionship and Luke became well-versed in elephant lore.
He would have risked his life to stand between his old friend and the guns. Yet now he faced the dreadful task of hacking Inkosi’s tusks from his skull and burying them. He’d be damned if others would profit from the bull’s death. After that, he’d lead Cain and Abel’s pride to the riverbank. The brothers were seven years old now, and in their prime. They had many young cubs, and the carcass would provide them with weeks of meat.
Luke offered Nandi his hand and pulled her to her feet.
‘We must not let this happen again,’ she said. ‘We must keep the elephants from the farms.’
‘How? The season is dry,’ said Luke. ‘They’re hungry.’
‘Hungry for maize, yes. Hungry for beans. But not hungry for chillies.’
‘Not hungry for chillies . . . why do women talk in riddles?’
‘When I was a child at the mission, elephants sometimes came through the compound at night, trampling fences and hurting people. We made a brick of chilli mixed with elephant dung and put hot coals on top. The smoke kept them away.’
‘We can’t do that all the way along our boundaries.’
‘No, we can do better. Elephants hate chillies. You are a rich man. Pay our neighbours to grow chillies instead.’
Luke turned the concept over in his mind. Nandi was famous for coming up with unusual solutions and he’d learned not to dismiss her ideas without proper consideration.
‘Chillies won’t feed people’s families.’
‘But they bring a high price,’ said Nandi. ‘If you can support farmers until their harvest is ready, they will earn more money than with maize and beans. And buffer rows of chilli plants will protect their own food crops.’
The more Luke thought about it, the more he liked it. It would keep Themba’s elephants out of conflict with man, and improve the lot of local farmers at the same time. Everyone would win
‘Nandi, you’re a genius.’ He picked her up, and spun her around until they were both dizzy. When he set her back down, she was breathless and glowing. She looked very beautiful, with her laughing face and polished skin. He fought a sudden urge to take her in his arms again.
‘You are pleased?’
‘You know I am, Nandi. Everything about you pleases me.’
She held his gaze. There was an invitation in those dark, lustrous eyes. He reached out to touch her cheek. Nandi was a strong, intelligent, desirable woman who shared his passion for the animals of Africa. She had feelings for him – he didn’t need Tau to tell him. He cared for her too, loved her in his own way.
But she wasn’t Belle.
Luke took one last look at Inkosi, wishing his friend a silent goodbye. ‘Time to go, Nandi. We must fetch the river pride before the hyenas come.’
That night Luke lay awake, listening to the distant roar of lions and the barking of jackals. Thinking about how much his life had changed, and how much it had stayed the same.
The fortune of a king, yet he slept in the same humble room as before. Money to travel the world, yet he spent each day working for the animals of Themba alongside his staff. Famous enough to woo and win the world’s most beautiful women, yet his heart remained stubbornly true to a girl he hadn’t seen for fifteen years. A girl he didn’t deserve, could never have, and who was married to another man. What was wrong with him? No wonder Tau thought he was crazy. Put so bluntly, it sounded insane, even to him.
The last two letters from Becky lay unopened on the table beside his bed. The life she talked about back in Australia seemed more and more unreal to him. He refused to return, even briefly. It would open up old wounds. Instead he worked on convincing his mother and sister to come and live in South Africa.
They’d been over for visits, but Mama complained the climate didn’t suit, and Becky remained wedded to her teaching. Even the promise of an estate in Constantia couldn’t sway them. It didn’t help that the damn war still raged in some provinces, although it didn’t touch Themba’s little corner of the veldt.
Small feet pattered on the roof above and something buzzed near his face, hopefully outside the mosquito net. Luke waved it away, then sat up, reaching in the dark for the bottle of tonic water beside his bed.
Problem was, he didn’t feel any different today than when he was eighteen and running from the law. If Belle was with him right now, he still wouldn’t feel worthy. He’d failed her, and Daniel, and Bear. Failed the son he’d never known. Nothing could ever change that.
Luke lay back again and closed his eyes. Images of the old life in Tasmania danced inside his lids. Cool, rugged ranges clothed in eucalypts and ancient rainforests. Wildlife that seemed strange and exotic to him now. Kangaroos and devils and platypus. Animals that hopped and had pouches and laid eggs. The dazzlingly beautiful tiger cubs. It felt like a different world, another lifetime.
He had to stop living in the past. Time to let go of his old life, to really let go. Time, perhaps, to explore his feelings for Nandi. But as Luke drifted into sleep, Belle’s face appeared at the edge of dreaming.