Moonflower (22 page)

Every
frustrating delay, each crisis management meeting that meant he got
to bed in the early hours of the morning, had convinced him of the
rightness of his decision, and caused him to be even more resolute.
He knew what he had to do. Damn thing was, everything seemed to be
out to thwart his plans.

At last,
the car approached the gates of Labour’s End and with a quick wave
they were through, racing along the road to the house.

As soon
as they came to a stop Reuben jumped out. He’d stripped off his
blazer in the car. He worked loose the knot of his tie as he ran up
the path and took the stairs two at a time.

The tie
was yanked off and discarded in the entrance hall as he crossed the
room and headed quickly down the passage. He burst into Sara’s
office. She looked up, startled, from the pile of receipts on her
desk.

‘
Where is she, Sara?’ he asked, fearing that he was too
late.

‘
She should be at the cottage, collecting her bags,’ Sara said
without missing a beat.

‘
She will come back here to say goodbye, won’t she?’

Sara
shook her head. ‘She did that this morning.’

Reuben
spun around and headed back along the passage, flinging over his
shoulder, ‘Good to see you again, Sara. We’ll catch up
later.’

He rushed
to the back of the house. There was a short cut from the verandah
to the cottage. He leapt down the stairs, raced across the lawn.
When the cottage came into sight, his heart began to hammer in his
chest. He knocked on the door. No answer.

‘
Come on, Sophie,’ he muttered. ‘Open up.’

He
hammered again. No answer. Tried the door. It was open. Her bags
were inside. Stacked neatly beside the bed. But there was no sign
of Sophie.

Reuben
swore under his breath. This was not how he’d imagined it would
go.

He raced
down the stairs and out to the garages, loosening his cuffs as he
went, folding back the sleeves of his shirt.

The
storeroom and her office were empty. He found Sipho in the garages,
speaking to Patience in what sounded like a low and seductive
tone.

‘
Mr Reuben,’ they both stammered.

Patience
was the first to recover, pulling herself up to her full height and
regally lifting her turbaned head. ‘Can we help you, Mr
Reuben?’

‘
Oh God, I hope so,’ he said, running a hand through his hair.
‘I need to find Sophie. You know where she is?’

‘
She took one of the Land Rovers out,’ Sipho said.

‘
Thanks,’ Reuben called as he grabbed a set of numbered keys
from the open strong box on the garage wall and headed for one of
the smaller Land Rovers that would be faster and easier to
manoeuvre along the dirt roads.

But where
to find her? He would try the hikers’ cottage first.

He spun
the vehicle in that direction, sending up a cloud of
dust.

Sophie
wasn’t at the hikers’ cottage. Reuben looked at his watch
again—11:55. She’d be heading back to the cottage by now to collect
her bags. He should have stayed there, knowing she’d have to
return. Damn!

Reuben
jumped back into the vehicle and hit the gas. A moment after
passing an enormous guava tree, he spotted her standing in a
clearing beside her vehicle, and for a moment was filled with
doubt. Why hadn’t she been to the hikers’ cottage? He thought he’d
find her there. It was the first place they’d made love. Was she
over him? Had there been too many doubts for her; too much
pain?

He drove
slowly up to the other vehicle and stopped. Sophie turned at the
sound of the engine, and her lovely mouth dropped open at the sight
of him. But she did not come to him. She looked more beautiful in
that moment than she ever had. Gone were the khakis; she was
dressed in blue jeans and a cream sleeveless blouse that swirled
about her in the breeze. Her hair was loose and she tucked it
impatiently behind her ears as it blew like a fiery cloud across
her face.

Reuben,
all sweat-soaked shirt and dishevelled hair, took a step towards
her but was stopped by the hardness in her voice.

‘
Why did you come back?’

He
thought he saw something like pain flicker in her green eyes, but
then it was gone, replaced by a harder, more resolute
emotion.

‘
You don’t think I’d let you go?’

‘
What’s the point? Except to make this as difficult as
possible, or assuage any guilt you might feel.’

‘
Guilt?’ Reuben said, confused.

Sophie
covered the space between them, put her hands against his chest and
shoved him.

Reuben
had never been shoved by a girl before; he was temporarily
speechless.

‘
Of course you’d have no guilt,’ she said. ‘You were always
upfront with me. Never lied or deceived. That was good of you,
Reuben. “This is all I can give you, Sophie. Only what we have
now.” It’s my fault. Silly, naïve Sophie who thought she could
punch above her weight.’ She shook her head.

He
watched her swallow and knew she was trying not to cry. He couldn’t
stand to see her in such pain. He tried to take her hands but she
pulled away.

‘
Please go, Reuben,’ she implored him.

‘
No, Sophie.’

She
fumbled in her pocket. The keys fell to the ground. She bent to
pick them up and as she straightened, he caught her gently by the
wrists. She struggled against his grasp but he wouldn’t let her
go.

‘
Stop it, Sophie. Just listen to me.’

‘
There’s nothing you can say that I want to hear,’ she said,
trying again to wrench her wrists from his grasp.

‘
Then I won’t say anything, I’ll show you.’

He let go
of her wrists suddenly. His arms circled her back and he pulled her
to him, bringing his mouth down to hers.

Sophie
was stunned to stillness for a moment, and then pulled back and
shook her head. ‘You said: “I can’t let sex threaten everything
I’ve worked so damned hard for.” That’s what you said to me the
last time we spoke. Do you think I want to be a sexual distraction
that threatens your life’s work? Some sort of addiction? Of course,
not, Reuben, and that is why I must go.’

She
stepped away from him; held up a hand when he made as if to go to
her. ‘Did Mr Solomon ever tell you about the moonflowers he’s been
putting in our bedrooms?’

Reuben
frowned.

‘
I thought there was something special about those flowers,’
Sophie told him. ‘Didn’t you feel intoxicated whenever you breathed
in their scent? He told me that those magnificent pure white
flowers give off their intoxicating scent only at night. They are
the embodiment of the romance of night’s darkness. A siren song of
narcotic sweetness used by traditional healers and diviners to draw
you deep into sacred dreams. He told me that weak infusions of
their leaves are used as an aphrodisiac, but if the dosage is
wrong, they’re deadly poisonous. You’re my moonflower,
Reuben.’

Tears
began to flow down her cheeks, although she didn’t make a sound.
She shook her head, swiped at the tears on her cheeks, leaving a
dirty streak, then she took one last look at him and began to walk
away.

‘
You’ve got it all wrong, Sophie.’ He flung these words at her
back with what he hoped was all the cutting precision of a leopard
dragging down its prey.

She
turned to face him. ‘No, I don’t think so, Reuben. I love you, but
I won’t be your bit on the side.’

Words
that caused such sweet, devastating pain. ‘Sophie!’ A sound that
was both longing and command. ‘Is that what you believe you are to
me?’

‘
I am a woman who exists only on an African farm. That is my
world. It is not yours.’

With
that, she turned and began walking towards the vehicle. From the
strength in her step he knew there was little he could say to turn
her back this time.

‘
Marry me, Sophie Kyle.’

She had
reached the vehicle; her hand hovered above the door handle. She
was very still.

He chose
that moment to come up gently behind her. ‘Sophie,’ he whispered
against her hair. Hoping the longing in his voice would convey all
that was in his heart.

Her voice
was hesitant when she said, ‘You are joking with me.’

‘
Never.’

She
turned slowly, and frowned up at him. He lifted her into his arms
as if she were the lightest of things; held her against him so her
feet dangled above the ground and she could not escape from
him.

‘
Why would you say something like that to me?’

‘
I mean it, Sophie, my darling.’ Reuben was confused. He had
expected a different homecoming. Something more joyous. Since Sara
had called with the news a month ago that Sophie had tendered her
resignation, he had been working hard to get back to
her.

‘
Just put me down for a minute,’ she told him.

‘
Promise me you won’t run away again.’

‘
Okay.’

Reuben
lowered her carefully to the ground. His fingers caressed her neck.
He could not take his eyes off her skin that glowed gold in the
midday sun. No matter how many times he’d recaptured her in his
mind while he was away, he could never recreate the vitality of her
skin, her eyes, her hair.

‘
This doesn’t solve anything,’ Sophie told him.

Reuben’s
hand came to rest at the curve of her breast where he could feel
her heart beating against his palm. ‘It solves
everything.’

She
placed her hand over his, pressing it to her chest, and smiled at
him sadly. ‘I would still be here, and you would be a world away.
Even marriage would not bridge that gap.’

‘
No challenge is ever that irrevocable. You don’t honestly
think I’d offer marriage without a plan?’

He could
see it was Sophie’s turn to be confused.

He
frowned at her. ‘Perhaps I should take you to London, so you can
see the kind of man I am when I make a decision. I never come to a
conclusion, much less move, without careful consideration and a
plan based on sound strategy.’

‘
Your proposal is based on sound strategy?’ Sophie was no
longer frowning. She looked utterly dumbfounded.

‘
Yes!’ Reuben said.

She held
up a hand. ‘You’re going to have to explain this to me.’

‘
Okay. I’ve spent the last month selling off non-essential
assets and many of my subsidiaries. Consolidated Investment Group
is a vastly scaled down version of its former self. Mark is more
than ready to play a more senior role in the group, and I have
every faith in him. Thanks to modern technology, I’ll be able to
keep a finger on the pulse from Labour’s End, with the odd trip to
the UK from time to time.’

Sophie
was silent for a moment, still staring up at him. ‘You did all that
for me?’

‘
Yes,’ Reuben said. Then he took her by the shoulders. ‘You are
the wild creature who has driven me out of my mind with passion
these past months, are you not, Sophie? How could you have doubted
what we’ve experienced together? We are the lucky ones, don’t you
see that? You don’t just give up on something this magical.’ He
shook her gently.

Sophie
let out a choking sob and a tear slid down her cheek. ‘Why didn’t
you just pick up the phone?’ she asked him.

Reuben
drew her head to his chest. ‘I realise now I should have done that.
But I didn’t want to make what might have sounded like empty
promises to you over the phone when I heard you’d resigned. I
wanted it all squared away before I spoke to you. I wanted to get
back here and propose to you in person, not over the
phone.’

‘
Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through?’ Sophie
asked against his chest. ‘I was so sure you’d moved on and I
couldn’t carry on here without you. Too many reminders
everywhere.’

‘
I can make it all better, Sophie,’ he said, and with a finger
beneath her chin, he kissed the tears on her cheek, then her mouth,
tasting the saltiness on his tongue.

He drew
away. ‘I would go to the ends of the earth for you, Sophie. I
realised that when Sara told me you’d resigned. No question about
it.’

Then came
the reaction Reuben had hoped for; had imagined many times as
voices had droned on in boardrooms, or at night in the stillness of
his penthouse apartment.

With a
cry, Sophie flung her arms around his neck and rained kisses on his
cheeks, his chin, his lips.

Reuben
took her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers, sliding
his tongue over hers, drinking deeply at the well of passion his
parched brain had dreamt of so often in past weeks.

Sophie
pressed her body to his, moving her hips against his hardness. He
drew away from her to watch as desire flared in her
eyes.

She
pulled his shirt from his waistband and raked gentle fingers over
his back, around to his muscled belly. Fingernails moved along his
sides, making him shiver with pleasure.