A Holiday to Die For by Marion Leigh

Author:Marion Leigh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

chapter

35

Henny was glad to be back on the road. Two blustery nights in Lüderitz was enough. The wind had sand-blasted them throughout their visit to Kolmanskop, the ghost town that had once been the hub of the local diamond industry. Finally it had abated. Now every kilometre they covered brought him closer to the moment when he would hand over his group to the Master.

He checked his rearview mirror. Megan and Hilary were suspiciously quiet.

‘There it is!’ Hilary had spotted the “feral horses” sign.

‘We saw them already.’

‘Well, we want to see them again. We love horses.’

Henny gritted his teeth and drove down the track to the observation deck. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. He was the tough guy, the one in charge.

There wasn’t a single wild desert horse in sight.

‘We’ll wait.’ Megan selected a few of the brochures and pamphlets she and Hilary had been accumulating since they arrived in Namibia. Their collection had grown in inverse proportion to their ability to download information onto their mobile phones. Most of it ended up on the floor next to their seats.

‘This says the owner of Duwisib Castle – that’s where we’re going this afternoon – was a fanatical horseman. Some of the horses came from there,’ Hilary announced.

An hour later, after repeated cajoling, Henny got them back in the van. He decided to skip the visit to the castle.

‘Isn’t this where we should be turning left?’ Hilary leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulder. ‘The map says that’s the scenic route to the castle.’

‘We’re behind schedule,’ he ground out.

‘Who cares?’ Megan said. ‘We’ve paid for this trip and we want to make the most of it, don’t we, girls?’

A chorus of voices from behind her confirmed her thinking.

Megan found the pamphlet she was looking for and began reading loudly enough for the whole bus to hear.

‘Duwisib Castle has a fascinating though rather sad history. Hansheinrich von Wolf and his wife Jayta commissioned the building of the castle in 1908. They lived there from 1909 to 1914, breeding horses and cattle. In 1914, they left for England to buy another stallion. While at sea, they learned of the outbreak of the Great War. The German liner they were sailing on had to find sanctuary in Rio de Janeiro, where they were interned by …’

Henny tried to tune out Megan’s shrill voice and focus on the rough gravel road along which he was driving. If it went on like this, he’d rather go back to Port Nolloth. He’d soon find employment maintaining the vacuum hoses and on-shore suction pumps for independent divers. And if he kept a few stones for himself, he’d be set for life. Then he could retire to a shack in the hills with a few women to assuage his appetites and do his bidding.

‘You don’t have to read the whole thing, do you?’ he screeched.

‘Why not? It’s really interesting. Von Wolf found passage to Europe aboard a neutral ship and joined the German forces. He was killed just fourteen days later during the Battle of the Somme.

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