The Blue Mountains of Kabuta Read Free Page A

women living alone.’
    â€˜I expect we’ll have a night-watchman, Mum.’
    â€˜If we can trust him.’ Jon’s mother played with a piece of bread, gazing out of the window across the valley to the distant blue-grey mountains. ‘I wonder where the town is. We didn’t pass any shops or houses on the way here. I wonder if we did the right thing in coming out, Jon. Maybe we should have taken Mr Williams’ advice and sold the farm.’
    â€˜But he didn’t
advise
us to sell it, Mummy. He merely said that if we were unhappy here we
could
sell it. Uncle Ned wanted me . . . us . . . to live here and we must give it a try.’
    Her mother sighed. ‘I suppose so, but somehow I can’t see us settling here for good. Now, be honest, can you, Jon?’
    Worriedly Jon looked at her mother. How frail and unhappy she looked! If this sort of life was really impossible for her, Jon thought, but somehow she managed to smile: ‘Let’s give it a chance, Mum, and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll think about selling it.’
    Her mother smiled, lifting her hand to touch her pretty dark hair. ‘All right, darling, but somehow I have a feeling that we won’t be here for long.’
    They had coffee outside on the mosquito-screened stoep. It was very hot and the mountains were vanishing in a haze.
    â€˜It’s so terribly quiet,’ Jon’s mother said. ‘Almost eerie. I wonder if we have any people near us. It’s so lonely. Maybe we’re the only people for miles and miles.’
    â€˜There must be people, Mum. Alex said he would introduce us to some this evening.’ Jon stifled a sigh. Strange how different she and her mother were. Already Jon loved the quiet serenity of the silence, the isolation, the scent of the gardenias, the lovely colour of the purple creepers, the tiny lizard she had just watched scuttle over the stones and up the wall as if aware of danger, but her mother was yawning, seeing none of the beauty.
    â€˜Well, I don’t know about you, darling, but I feel like a good rest.’
    â€˜You are feeling better?’ Jon asked anxiously.
    Her mother laughed. ‘Yes, but I must confess I prefer being on
terra firma
. That last flight really scared me.’
    They went into the quiet house, separating to go to their own bedrooms.
    Jon liked hers. It was austere in a masculine way with a single bed against the wall. Uncle Ned must have been fond of yellow for her curtains, too, were that colour. There was a chest of drawers with a small mirror on the wall and a large cupboard. But Jon stood by the open window, shielded from the mosquitoes by a screen, as she looked almost hungrily at the mountain peaks, fast vanishing in the heat haze. She unpacked, hanging up her clothes. Thinking of the trunks and crates that were coming out by sea, she knew a moment of dismay. Had they done the right thing, she wondered, making such a decision, giving up the flat, selling the furniture and rushing out here? It had been her mother’s idea,
then
, yet now . . .
    â€˜Alex Roe is coming at four o’clock,’ Jon’s mother said urgently, standing by Jon’s bedside.
    Slowly and with difficulty, Jon woke up. She yawned, stretching herself. ‘I must have been tired.’
    â€˜You’ve only got ten minutes.’ Ursula Hampton hesitated. ‘Jon, I wonder what we should wear tonight? First impressions are so important.’
    Jon slid out of bed and shrugged. ‘We’ll ask him if it’s black tie.’
    â€˜Black tie?’
    Jon laughed. ‘That’s what they call it when you have to dress up. Surely you knew?’
    â€˜My friends never dressed up, unfortunately,’ Ursula Hampton said sadly. ‘Bill always said it was too much bother. If they knew what it means to us! It’s so much more fun. Well, darling, you’d better get going. Alex Roe is a busy man and . . .’
    â€˜I know,