Men of Men - Smith Wilbur (книги бесплатно без txt) 📗
"Salina -" she repeated, laughing now, and her laughter was warm and sweet as her smile. "I'm Salina Codrington." And then when it was apparent that the name meant nothing, "I'm your cousin, Ralph. My mother is your father's sister, Robyn Codrington, but she was Robyn Ballantyne., "Good God" Ralph stared at her. "I didn't know Aunt Robyn had a daughter."
suppose not. Uncle Zouga never was a good correspondent." But suddenly the smile was no longer on Salina's lips, and Ralph remembered abruptly that he had never taken the trouble to unravel the tangled skein of family history, except to comprehend vaguely that there was ill-feeling and unsettled scores between Zouga and his Aunt Robyn. Then it came back to him, he had overheard his father recalling bitterly how Robyn had taken unfair advantage by publishing her own version of their joint expedition to the Zambezi months before Zouga's Hunter's Odyssey, thereby robbing Zouga of his fair share of critical acclaim, and royalties.
Ralph's touching on the family enmities must account for Salina's quick change of mood, but it was fleeting.
She took his arm again, and was smiling as they came up the bank.
"Not one daughter, Ralph. We Codringtons will not let you off so lightly. There are a whole tribe of us, four of us, all girls." And she stopped, lifted the straw hat to shade her eyes and looked down the winding overgrown track that meandered away across the grassy savannah.
"Oh dear!" she exclaimed. "I came ahead to warn you and I was only just in time!"
Down the track towards them pelted three small figures, jostling one another for advantage, their faint squeaks of excitement gaining rapidly in volume, long hair flying wildly, fluttering skirts of faded and patched cloth lifted high above the knees so that bare legs flashed, faces freckled and flushed, contorted with exertion and excitement and recrimination.
"Salina! You promised to wait!"
They bore down on where Ralph stood with the lovely blond girl on his arm.
"Good God!" Ralph whispered again, and Salina squeezed his elbow.
"That's the second time that you have used the Lord's name, Cousin Ralph. Please don't." So that was the reason for her faint displeasure.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry." And he remembered too late that Salina's parents were pious missionaries. "I didn't mean -" Again he was thick-tongued, for suddenly this girl's opinion was the most important thing in all the world. "I won't do it again. I promise."
"Thank you," she said softly, and before either of them could speak again they were surrounded by what appeared to be an ocean of small females, every one of which was bobbing up and down with remarkable rapidity, competing vocally for Ralph's attention and at the same time shrieking accusations at their eldest sister.
"You cheated, Salina. You told us "Ralph, Cousin Ralph, I'm Victoria, the eldest twin."
"Cousin Ralph, we prayed God to speed you to us."
Salina clapped her hands, and there was a barely noticeable reduction in the volume of sound.
"In order of age!" she said calmly.
"You always say that because you are the eldest!"
Salina ignored the protest and picked out a dark-haired child with a hand on her shoulder.
"This is Catherine." She drew her forward to face Ralph. "Cathy is fourteen."
"And a half, almost fifteen," said Cathy, and her manner changed with this declaration, becoming ladylike and controlled.
She was thin, and as flat-chested as a boy, but the young body gave the immediate impression of strength and suppleness. Her nose and cheeks were peppered with freckles, but the mouth was full and frank, her eyes the same Ballantyne green as Ralph's own, and her thick dark brows were a frame for their bright intelligent gleam. Her chin was a little too large, as was her nose, but they had a determined set and thrust. Her thick dark hair was plaited and piled on top of her head, leaving her ears expose small and pointed and lying flat against her head.
"Welcome to Khami, Ralph," she said evenly, and bobbed a small curtsey, holding her skirts up as she had obviously been coached; and Ralph realized that the skirt was made of old flour bags that had been stitched together and dyed a muddy green. The lettering still showed through: "Cape Flour Mills".
Then Cathy reached up and kissed him quickly, and it left a little wet spot on Ralph's lips. Kissing was obviously the accepted family salutation, and Ralph glanced with trepidation at the eager but grubby faces of the twins.
"I'm Victoria, the eldest., "And I'm Elizabeth, but if you call me "baby", I shall hate you, Cousin Ralph."
"You won't hate anybody," Salina said, and Elizabeth hurled herself at Ralph's neck, got a fair grip and hung on as she plastered her mouth to Ralph's.
"I was teasing, Ralph. I shall love you," she whispered fiercely.
"Always! Always!"
"Me!" howled Victoria indignantly. "I'm older than Lizzie. Me first."
Salina led them with that gliding walk which did not move her shoulders and barely ruffled the white-gold curtain of her hair, and every once in a while she turned to smile at Ralph, and he thought he had never seen anything so lovely.
The twins each had hold of one of Ralph's hands, and they gabbled out all the things they had saved up for weeks to tell him, and skipped to keep pace with his stride. Cathy came up behind them all, leading Tom. She and the pony had formed an immediate accord.
oh, he's beautiful, Ralph," she had said and kissed Tom's velvety muzzle.
"We don't have a horse," Victoria explained. "Daddy is a man of God, and men of God are too poor to have horses."
The small party straggled over the first low rise beyond the river, and Salina stopped and pointed down into the shallow basin ahead of them.
"Khami!" she said simply, and all of them looked to Ralph for approbation.
There was a notch in the next line of granite hills, a natural divide and shed for underground water, which accounted for the spread of lush grass that carpeted the valley.
Like chickens under the hen, the small huddle of buildings crouched beneath the hills. They were neatly laid out, thatched with yellow grass and painted dazzlingly white with burnt limewash. The largest building had a wooden cross set proudly on the ridge of the roof.
"Daddy and Mummy built the church with their own hands. King Silly Cat would not allow any of his people to help them," Victoria explained.
"Silly Cat?" Ralph asked, puzzled.
"King Mzilikazi," Salina translated. "You know Mama does not like you using fun names for the kings, Vicky," she rebuked the child mildly; but Victoria was shaking Ralph's hand excitedly and pointing to a distant figure in the valley below them.
"Daddy!" shrieked the twins in unison. There's Daddy!"
He was working in the precise geometrically laid out gardens below the church, a lanky figure whose shoulders remained stooped even when he stood upright and looked towards them, stabbed his spade into the earth and came striding up the hill.
"Ralph!" He swept off the sweatstained hat, and he was bald, like a monk, with just a fringe of silky hair forming a halo around his pate at the level of his ears. It was immediately apparent from whom Salina had inherited her glorious white-gold tresses.
"Ralph," the man repeated, and he wiped his right hand on the seat of his pants and then held it out. Despite the stoop, he was as tall as Ralph, his face deeply tanned, his bald dome as shiny as if it had been waxed and polished, his eyes pale blue as a summer sky, washed out by heat haze; but his smile was like Salina's, calm and tranquil, so that as he took the hand Ralph realized that this was the most contented and deeply happy man he had ever met in his life.
