Read Online Straight on Till Morning by Mary S. Lovell - Free Book Online Page A

doctor who diagnosed probable cancer of the womb, and had her admitted to hospital at once. It wasn’t cancer, but the condition (probably worsened by several incompetently performed abortions in earlier years) was serious enough to require a hysterectomy, which in the early 1950s was still regarded as major surgery. ‘Beryl told us she hated hospitals and wouldn’t stay there to recover from the operation, so the next day we brought her home and put her to bed in the cottage,’ Doreen recalled. ‘She wasn’t supposed to be moved and she did, actually, look awful. The next morning there was a fearful racket in the yard and I looked out of the window to see my dog and a strange dog having a fight. Then Beryl’s boxer dog Caesar joined in the fray. I was on my way out to put a stop to it when the door of Beryl’s cottage burst open and Beryl erupted into the yard in pyjamas. She strode over to the dogs as if there was nothing wrong with her, and taking each by the scruff of the neck she hurled them aside. Then she grimaced at me, wiped her hands together as if to say ‘That’s that then!’ and strode back to bed without a word.’
    To the Bathurst Normans’ dismay Beryl’s behaviour showed little sign of improvement as she gradually recovered from the operation. Eventually, Charles felt he could no longer tolerate the upheavals in his home, and said Beryl would have to leave; but Doreen would not allow it, for Beryl had nowhere to go and no money. Leaving Naro Moru would not resolve Beryl’s problems. Charles himself then became ill with what turned out to be an infected bile duct, which eventually required surgery. At times he felt very unwell and found Beryl’s tantrums particularly trying but because Beryl had virtually become part of their family they agreed to tolerate her behaviour.
    George and Victoria were then taken back to school in England as the Mau-Mau troubles grew in intensity and Charles refused to allow Victoria to stay on the farm. One day Charles and Beryl visited a local farm owned by a white hunter called Eric Rundgren 10 who was in the process of selling up. They had gone there to buy some chickens from the young Dane, Jørgen Thrane, who was in charge of the farm whilst Rundgren and his wife were away on safari.
    They stayed talking, Jørgen expounding the profits that could be made from growing wheat in the area and adding sadly that he would be leaving when the farm was sold. Charles asked, ‘Would you come and grow wheat like that for me?’ ‘Yes,’ said Jørgen without hesitation. On the drive home Beryl said to Charles, ‘I suppose you do realize that when that chap said Yes he meant just that?’ According to Beryl, Charles looked dumbfounded but immediately made plans to see Thrane again. He wrote about it to Doreen who was in England on the ‘school run’. ‘I’ll tell you all about it when you return. I call it “last chance in Africa”…’ the letter said. Doreen came back to find Jørgen Thrane installed, and was instructed by Charles to get to know him better and let him know what she thought. Asked to describe him at that time Doreen said
    How can you describe someone who after thirty years you regard as one of the greatest friends you have ever had? I’ll do my best. Jørgen had originally arrived in Kenya with two words of English – ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ – and ten shillings 11 in his pocket. On the recommendation of a friend he had obtained a job in the Trans Nzoia before leaving Denmark. His lack of English and Swahili got him the sack, and he arrived by way of another job at the Rundgrens where he became involved in growing wheat. The district was swarming with Danes, Charles used to call it ‘the last of the Norse Sagas’.
    Jørgen quickly became a friend and was delighted to be at Naro Moru. He was one of six children, the