my knees, my nose in the dirt, begging your forgiveness than visiting your grave, because, baby, that’s where they would have put you if they’d had their way.
Mina dashed away the tears which blurred her vision as she read Ray’s confession. She heard the voice of a young, scared boy between every comma and period. She saw the terror in a pair of blue eyes staring back at her that day in the storeroom when he’d called her that abominable name. Were these words enough to earn her forgiveness? She wasn’t sure, but they were a start.
Mina closed her eyes. Still holding the letter in her hands, she leaned her head back.
A ‘what if’ slowly formed in the back of her mind. A vision of her and Ray on Nooitgedacht, the Le Roux wine farm. In her arms, their baby. On his face, unencumbered joy.
“I love you, baby.” He cupped her cheek as he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on baby Lullu’s head …
9
A loud banging on the back door wrenched Mina from her dreams.
Who in the seven fucks was that, and in a storm no less!
She’d nodded off where she sat, Ray’s letter still in her hands.
Lullu was fast asleep, it seemed. Carefully, Mina slipped out from beneath the covers, placed the letter in the drawer of her bedside table, and grabbed her nightgown draped across the end of her bed. Not wasting time to slide her feet into her slippers, she trotted to the kitchen barefoot.
“What the blerrie hell …?” She pulled open the door to find a drenched, pale, Klein Piet with a jacket pulled over his head for protection against the whipping rain.
“Miss. It’s the roof of the mess and warehouse three. The wind. Ma said I must let you know. Baas Ben has the men protecting the abalone babies and that you mustn’t—”
“Get your arse inside. Go get a towel from the passage cupboard, then come sit down here in the kitchen and make a cup of coffee.”
“Where you going, miss?” the boy asked.
“On second thought, go fetch Becky. I’ll need her to watch Lullu.”
Mina grabbed her polymer garden shoes and headed out toward her warehouses. The wind sprinted up off the ocean bringing with it sand and garden debris. Lightning lit up the sky and rain lashed at her face and soaked her clothes.
She’d be dammed if she lost any more stock. Not that she had control over the weather, but God and his angels should have known better than to threaten her livelihood.
Stumbling into the damaged warehouse, Mina wiped soaked tendrils of hair from her face and scanned the area.
“What the f—” Ben stomped toward her. “We have everything under control, Mina. You shouldn’t be out in this.” He placed his balled fists on his hips. Around him, inmates and employees scurried as they shifted and pulled protective tarps across the baths filled with baby sea snails.
“Don’t think to tell me what to do, Ben Meintjies! How bad’s the mess?”
His lips pulled tight as he heaved a sigh. “It’s totalled. We’ll need a new roof and to check all electrical equipment and sockets. Thank fuck you never tiled and left only concrete as flooring. Can you keep an eye? I need to go check the other warehouses for damage.” Ben turned and headed out in to the angry night.
Mina nodded, then turned her attention to what was going on around her. Standing on the far side of the room, clad in only a T-shirt and shorts, hard at work saving her stock, stood Ray. Mina walked closer, forgetting about the chaos as she focused on the way his limbs moved and his muscles flexed. For a man who’d abused his body for more than a decade with drugs and alcohol, it looked as beautiful as it had when they were lovers.
Ray grabbed a nylon rope and tied it around a pylon, stretching a tarp over the pool. The rope unravelled, too slippery.
Without thinking, Mina walked up and grabbed the corner, pulling it down.
He glanced up, his eyes widening and his mouth opening then closing.
“Grab it.” Mina motioned toward her hands pulling down hard on the rope. Ray nodded, then wound the rope tighter around his hand and pulled. He swung it around the pylon and began knotting it.
“Thanks.” He nodded and made to move onto the next job when a voice echoed out across the warehouse.
Mina turned; Becky was sprinting toward her.
“I tried to make her stay, I swear, but she