Read Online When Time Fails (Silverman Saga Book 2) by Marilyn Cohen de Villiers - Free Book Online

But when she tried to stop him doing the same thing to Beauty – I thought he was going to kill her. That’s why I ran to get you.’
    ‘But Beauty is a child. How could he...’
    ‘Pretty was only thirteen when she had Beauty. That’s why she’s never had any more children. Because she was too small when Beauty was born. She nearly died. They had to take her to the hospital.’
    Annamari was stunned. She’d always suspected that Pretty was probably younger than her – and she’d been seventeen when Arno was born – but she’d never really thought about it, not like that.
    ‘Only thirteen? Oh my word, she was just a child! Who was ... who did it... who made her pregnant?’
    ‘I don’t know. I heard he was a young whit e baa s . He lived in town. They said he came to th e lokshi n all the time to sleep with the girls. But when he saw Pretty, he didn’t want any of the others anymore, and then after Beauty was born... well, he stopped visiting. But then others also ... and it wasn’t just the whites. Th e lokshi n girls, they think it’s something they have to do. It’s the only way to get money to feed their children. But Pretty, she didn’t understand. She just did what she was told. I think the other girls took her money. Anyway , Baa s Stefan never paid her. He just said he’d fire her if she didn’t let him.’
    Annamari wondered if she knew Beauty’s father. She knew almost everyone in Driespruitfontein.
     
     
     

Chapter 9
1991
     
    Annamari hesitated, thenpushed the key into the lock. It turned surprisingly easily. Twisting the handle, she pushed the door open and walked into the gloom. She pulled back the curtains and tiny dust motes danced in the unaccustomed rays of sunlight. It was all exactly as she remembered. Her eyes rested on the neat piles of magazines on the coffee table – Landbouweekbla d , Koringfoku s , Farmer’s Weekl y . Christo had always liked to remain abreast of developments in agriculture...
    She walked through to the bedrooms – the rooms, Christo told her when she teased him about building a three-bedroomed house – where his children would sleep, one day. After he found the right girl to marry. He wasn’t in a rush, he was young, there was plenty of time he always said. But time was no match for an AK47.
    The bed in the spare room was covered with one of Rosie’s bright, multicoloured crocheted blankets. The cupboards were empty. In Christo’s study, there were papers strewn all over the desk. Odd – Christo had always been so meticulously neat. A ribbon of fax paper curled from the fax machine over the edge of the desk. A new message. She wondered if Christo had ever read it. She opened the cupboards. Books, textbooks mainly.
    The second bathroom. Christo had obviously never used it. Not even a tube of toothpaste in the cabinet. She opened the cold tap; it burbled and rattled and some brownish water spluttered out. The tap coughed and fresh, clean water rushed into the dusty basin. She wiped away the splatter with her hand. The toilet flushed and water gurgled in, refilling the cistern. In the bathroom mirror, a white round face; pale blue eyes fringed by pale lashes; mousy hair scraped back into a ponytail; pale lips; double chin – Annamari looked away.
    Then reluctantly down the passage, towards the open door at the end. She tiptoed into her brother’s bedroom. Everything was neat, orderly. Like it should be. She gently, softly, stroked the slight indentation in the blue and grey duvet where he must have sat, probably for the last time. To put on his shoes? To get something from his bedside pedestal? Had he had the slightest inkling of the horror that was awaiting him just a few hundred metres away? She wrenched her eyes away and focused on the cupboard. She pulled the door open, and quickly closed it. She’d ask Petrus to go through Christo’s clothes – take what he wanted, give the rest away.
    Into the ensuite bathroom: a small bundle of clothing in