Elizabeth looked at them reprovingly.
‘Do you mind?’ she said, putting a languid hand to her head. ‘I have a headache. Do try and behave like polite children and not hooligans!’
Any two children less like hooligans Caroline could not have imagined, but she put Miranda firmly off her knee and rose to her feet. ‘Aren’t you feeling any better, Elizabeth?’
Elizabeth sighed. ‘It’s so hot, isn’t it?’ Then she seemed to gather herself. ‘Has Charles called yet?’
Caroline shook her head. ‘I expect he’s giving you time to rest before disturbing you,’ she comforted.
Elizabeth’s blue eyes hardened. ‘I should have thought he could have made the effort to be at the airport last night instead of leaving us in the hands of—of—foreigners!’
Caroline glanced at the children, realising they were listening to every word of this exchange. ‘You know perfectly well that it was impossible for him to leave La Vache yesterday, Elizabeth,’ she said, guiding the other woman out of the children’s bedroom. ‘Go get washed, you two,’ she added over her shoulder. ‘Then we’ll have something to eat.’
In her own bedroom, Elizabeth was quite happy to be helped back into bed. ‘You’re so capable, Caroline,’ she sighed, resting back against her pillows. ‘I’m so glad you agreed to come with us. I don’t know how I should have managed in this dreadful place without someone to help with the children.’
‘You relax,’ advised Caroline, straightening the bedclothes. ‘The children and I will go down to the restaurant for breakfast. Shall I have you something sent up?’
Elizabeth blinked. ‘Well—perhaps some coffee,’ she conceded. ‘And do you suppose one can get toast here?’
‘I’ll see.’ Caroline’s lips twitched. ‘You just rest and leave everything to me.’
‘But what about Charles? Do you think perhaps you should telephone him——’
‘Charles will get in touch with you when he’s able,’ replied Caroline firmly. She walked towards the door. ‘You’ll be all right?’
Elizabeth plucked at the sheet. ‘I suppose so. Caroline, you do think I was right to come out here, don’t you? I mean—well, what do you think La Vache will be like?’
Caroline hesitated. ‘Your place is with your husband, Elizabeth. And if his work is in some Central African state then that’s where you should be.’
‘Oh, I couldn’t live here!’ Elizabeth was horrified.
‘No one’s asking you to live here,’ retorted Caroline calmly. ‘Just to spend a few weeks with your husband because he’s unable to come to England and spend them with you.’
Elizabeth nodded. ‘I suppose you’re right.’ But she didn’t sound convinced.
‘Now look,’ said Caroline, ‘if my husband spent the better part of nine months of the year away from me, I’d have to do something about it.’
‘Would you?’ Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. ‘Like not getting married, for example?’
Caroline flushed now. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Oh, yes, you do, Caroline.’ Elizabeth didn’t look half so defenceless when she was on the attack. ‘As soon as you discovered that Gareth Morgan had no intention of giving up his overseas appointment and settling to an office job in London, you turned him down—flat!’
‘Elizabeth, I was only seventeen——’
‘That doesn’t matter. You had more sense than to tie yourself to an engineer with wanderlust in his veins instead of blood——’
‘It wasn’t like that——’
‘Wasn’t it?’ Elizabeth sounded sceptical. ‘I wonder what he’s doing now? Gareth, I mean. Where he is? The last time I heard he was in charge of a hydro-electric project in Zambia——’
‘I’ll see about your toast and coffee.’ Caroline refused to discuss the matter further.
Elizabeth was instantly contrite. ‘Oh, Caroline, I haven’t offended you, have I, darling?’ she began, resuming an appealing tone.
‘No, of course you haven’t offended me,’ exclaimed Caroline rather shortly, and went quickly, closing the door behind her.
But it was not so easy closing the door on her own thoughts. After all, there had been some truth in Elizabeth’s allegations, even though the passage of time had served to nullify the less pleasant aspects of that situation seven years ago. She even felt a sense of guilt at not having told Elizabeth that she knew that Gareth Morgan was working in Tsaba now, building a dam on the River Kinzori not too many miles distant from La Vache. But how could she tell her that when she had no idea how Gareth would take her presence in Tsaba, when he himself had no idea that she was coming?
Thrusting the difficulties she might have to face at some future date away from her, Caroline went in search of the children. Miranda was obediently putting on the cotton dress she had worn to travel in and Caroline made a mental note to find a sunsuit for her to wear after breakfast, but David, it appeared, had not yet come out of the bathroom and when Caroline went to see what he was doing she found him naked under the shower, and the floor swimming with water.
‘Oh, David!’ she gasped in exasperation, quickly kicking off her sandals to walk barefooted through the pools of water to turn off the shower. ‘Go and get dressed at once before I find a more painful method to put a tan on your small bottom!’
David giggled and grabbing a towel edged his way out of the bathroom, leaving Caroline to mop the floor. Fortunately the tiles soon dried, and she emerged in time to prevent the children going into their mother’s room.
‘Mummy’s resting,’ she explained quietly. ‘We’re going down to the restaurant to have our breakfast, and then later on I expect Daddy will telephone and let us know how and when we can go to La Vache.’
Miranda tugged at her short fair curls which were so much like her mother’s. ‘Will it be today?’ she asked excitedly. ‘Will we see Daddy today?’
‘Possibly.’ Caroline didn’t want to raise their hopes too high. ‘La Vache is all of seventy miles from here, and the roads aren’t like our roads in England. They’re just tracks after you leave the city behind.’
‘How do you know?’ asked David, practical as ever. His hair was plastered to his head now, but Caroline thought that in this heat it wouldn’t take long to dry. She herself was already sweating from the mild exertion of mopping up the bathroom floor and she dreaded to think how Elizabeth would cope if she was expected to do anything physical.
But now she said: ‘I’ve read books. And I know what your daddy has told us when he’s been home on leave. Besides, if you knew a little more about the climate you’d realise that things don’t stay the same here as they do back home.’
She saw that Miranda was frowning at this and as they traversed the wide corridor to the lifts she tried to explain how lush and luxuriant was the vegetation that could overnight
