"Ballantyne 02 - Men of Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

"Zouga, it's not fair to me or the children," she began, but he interrupted her.

"I can arrange a passage for you and the boys with a transport rider. He has sold his stock and he leaves in the next few days. He will take you back to Cape Town."

They undressed in darkness and silence, and when Aletta followed him into the hard narrow cot the silence continued until he thought she had fallen asleep. Then he felt her hand, smooth and soft, touch his cheek lightly.

"I am sorry, my darling." Her voice was as light as her touch, and her breath stirred his beard. "I was so tired and depressed."

He took her hand and held the tips of her fingers to his lips.

"I have been such a poor wife to you, always too sick and weak when you needed someone strong." Timidly she let her body touch his. "And now when I should be a comfort to you, I do nothing but snivel."

"No," he said. "That's not true." And yet over the years he had resented her often enough for just those reasons.

He had felt like a man trying to run with shackles on his ankles.

"And yet I love you, Zouga. I loved you the first day I laid eyes on you, and I have never ceased to love you."

I love you too, Aletta," he assured her, yet the words came automatically; and to make up for the lack of spontaneity, he placed his arm around her shoulders and she drew closer still and laid her cheek against his chest.

"I hate myself for being so weak and sickly," she hesitated, "for not being able to be a real wife any more."

"Shh! Aletta, do not upset yourself."

I will be strong now, you will see."

"You have always been strong, deep inside."

"No, but I will be now. We shall find that capful of diamonds together, and afterwards we shall go north." He did not reply, and it was she who spoke again. "Zouga, I want you to make love to me, now."

"Aletta, you know that is dangerous."

"Now," she repeated. "Now, please." And she took his hand down and placed it under the hem of her nightdress against the smooth warm skin of her inner thigh. She had never done that before, and Zouga found himself shocked but strangely aroused, and afterwards he was filled with a deep tenderness and compassion for her that he had not felt for many years.

When her breathing had become regular once more, she pulled his hands away gently and slipped out of the cot.

Leaning on one elbow he watched her light the candle and then kneel by the trunk that was lashed to the foot of the cot. She had plaited her hair with a ribbon in it, and her body was slim as a young girl's. The candlelight flattered her, smoothing out the lines of sickness and worry. He remembered how lovely she had been.

She lifted the lid of the trunk, took something from the interior and brought it to him. It was a small cask with an ornate brass lock. The key was in the lock.

"Open it," she said.

In the candlelight he saw that the cask contained two thick rolls of five-pound notes, each bound up with a scrap of ribbon, and a draw-string pouch of dark green velvet. He lifted out the pouch and it was heavy with gold coin.

"I was keeping it," she whispered, "for the day it was really needed. There is almost a thousand pounds there."

"Where did you get this?"

"My father, on our wedding day. Take it, Zouga. Buy that claim with it. This time we will make it all right.