‘She’s disgraced us,’ Joubert said.
‘I’m talking now. My daughter has broken God’s commandment. Who here will judge?’
The sisters looked at each other. Their mother seldom spoke, but when she did their father didn’t dare oppose her.
‘I think Soela should stay here for a few days. Until she’s recovered. She needs help in any event, with the baby.’
‘I can’t be without her,’ David said, uncertainty creeping into his voice for the first time. ‘Drieka and Sanna are there to give her a hand. She doesn’t need more help than that.’
‘He’s right,’ Joubert said. ‘He’s sorry for what he’s done. And Soela …’
Elsie shot him a look.
‘Soela what? She deserved it? Soela will stay here for a week. It will give her time to gather her strength, and it might be that, after that, David will have forgiven her. From what I can see, she’s still paying for her sin.’
David looked at the flinty eyes of the stern-faced woman in the chair opposite him. He hadn’t expected the encounter to turn out this way, with Soela not getting a proper upbraiding, and Elsie Joubert effectively telling him that he was going home without his wife.
‘My father will wonder what’s happened. I’ve kept this from him.’
Elsie gave one of her rare smiles.
‘Then now is the time to tell him. So that there’s nothing standing between you when she returns.’
David waited for Joubert to come to his aid, but the farmer said nothing. For the first time, David saw who was really in charge. He put on his hat and got up.
‘I will be back in a week.’
‘We’ll be here,’ Elsie said. ‘Go in peace.’
For the first few days, Soela stayed studiously out of her parents’ way, ashamed of the embarrassment she’d caused them, but also relieved that she no longer had to live in fear of being found out. Sanna had been right: her father had shown his disappointment for a day, given a lecture on morality in marriage, and then warmed gradually to forgiveness, enchanted by having his grandchild in the same house. Soela’s mother never mentioned the incident.
After a few days, Soela got used to living at home again and to being with her sister, enjoying Diena’s stories of the new knecht, Lourens’s clumsy attempts at courtship.
A week later David arrived, bearing a barrel of butter and ten bars of soap.
‘I’ve come for Soela,’ he said to his mother-in-law who was sitting on the stoep shelling peas. ‘My father sends his regards, and this butter. The soap is from me.’
‘Thank you. Come, sit down,’ she pointed to a chair on her right. ‘Was the ride uneventful?’
‘Yes. I’ve promised my father we’d be home before sunset.’
‘Soela’s decided to stay.’
‘What do you mean?’ he asked, a flush rising fast and hot up his neck.
‘She doesn’t want to go back.’
All the niceness melted from his eyes.
‘But she can’t just decide that. Who will care for my child? I won’t be parted from Bessie.’
Elsie looked at him.
‘She says you’ve said otherwise, that Bessie’s not yours.’
‘I was angry. I said the first thing that came into my head, to hurt her. Where’s Oom Jan? I’d like to speak to him. Is Soela in the house?’
Elsie settled the cushion more comfortably behind her back.
‘Jan’s away until tomorrow evening. Soela and Diena are lying down with the baby, this hot weather makes everyone sleepy. You can wait if you wish, but Soela won’t go with you. The matter rests with me, and I’ve told her she can stay.’
David suppressed his anger.
‘You’re encouraging her to stay away from her husband?’
‘That would be wrong. I’m encouraging her to consider herself.’
‘Herself?’
‘Her feelings. And her feelings, right now, are not good. She doesn’t have warm feelings for you. She needs time.’
‘I won’t come back again, if I leave.’
‘You’ll come back because you need a wife, and she needs a husband.’
He was confused.
Elsie continued. ‘If you’re sincere about changing yourself and …’
