to get off a single shot, but the prince shouted and the cat turned, so the shot wasn’t true. It hit the leopard in the leg just before it landed on Ryder. He managed to get his left arm down its mouth and he held it with his right hand. It clawed and struggled, but it was the only chance Ryder had. If he’d let go, it would have killed him for certain. His only hope was to suffocate it. So he kept shoving that arm down its throat and squeezing with the other as it mauled him.”
I shoved the cup aside. The whisky was sour on my tongue. “How did it end?”
She shrugged. “The cat bled out or Ryder suffocated it, he never knew which. But they lay on that ground for almost half an hour, eye to eye, just staring at one another and waiting for one of them to die. He told me later it was the most spiritual experience of his entire life. He saw God in that leopard, and God let him live, Miss Drummond.”
I didn’t speak.
“He knows death and he knows God. Most men are too afraid to look either one in the face and he’s walked right up and shaken hands with them. It makes him special and it makes him stupid.”
I roused myself. “Stupid?”
She flapped a hand. “That business in the station with Anthony. He shouldn’t have whipped him, at least not publicly. It’s bad form for a white man to be lowered so much in the eyes of the Africans. Could cause trouble. There are far more of them than of us. If we start letting them lose respect for us, for any of us, it could have consequences.”
“Speaking of consequences, will he face any for assaulting Mr. Wickenden?”
She laughed, a deep belly laugh. “Child, the lieutenant governor told him off for doing it in public, but believe me, the government doesn’t care about family squabbles.”
“Family squabbles?”
She poured more whisky into my cup.
“Didn’t you know? Ryder is my nephew. Now finish your drink. My cook is appalling and dinner will be foul. Much better to be drunk by the time it’s served.”
I sipped at the whisky and thought of what Ryder had said to me that first afternoon, my assumption that he had been defending a paramour when he thrashed Anthony Wickenden. But Jude was his cousin, and I thought of his casual greeting to her when we’d arrived. I could smell attraction on a man. I knew what it meant when his eyes were hot, and I knew that it meant more when he never looked at a woman at all, keeping his need bound up and secret. Ryder and Jude had been perfectly comfortable with one another; they talked with the ease of siblings. But why had he been so needled by Kit’s presence?
I thought of Kit’s warm lips on the skin of my neck and I took another sip of my whisky. Tusker was watching me closely.
“I suppose you’re also going to tell me that he’s a good man and not to hurt him,” I said sharply.
She laughed again. “You couldn’t, Miss Drummond. To hurt a man you have to hit him in his heart and Ryder doesn’t have one. Oh, he can be kind, but he doesn’t really let anyone or anything in. You see, he was married once, years ago. And losing her changed him. He closed himself off. One can’t blame him, of course. It’s quite a common reaction. He thrashed Anthony as much for the family name as for hurting Jude. He’s loyal and he’s strong, and he’s put up a wall so high you can’t even see to the top of it. Take my advice and don’t even try.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I told her, arching a brow.
“I like you, Miss Drummond. In fact, I like you so much I’m going to call you Delilah.”
“By all means.”
“And I’m going to give you a piece of advice.”
“Oh, dear.”
She snorted. “Pay attention to your elders, child. We have the wisdom of the ages within us.”
“Very well. What advice do you have for me?”
“Don’t risk your happiness on a man with a stone for a heart.”
Her lip trembled for a moment, and I wondered about her own happiness. She seemed hugely content with her lot in life, mistress of a vast property in a beautiful wilderness, doing work that she loved. She ought to have been happy. But something softened her mouth, making it vulnerable.
I covered