The Temptress by Paul Spicer

Author:Paul Spicer [Spicer, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0312584180
Amazon: B0085SFBFS
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 2011-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

Eight

The Return to Happy Valley

WHENEVER ALICE ARRIVED IN NAIROBI FROM EUROPE, it was her habit to go immediately to stay with Joss and Idina at Slains. But this was 1933, and Happy Valley was much changed. Joss and Idina had separated in 1928, and Slains had been sold while the divorce was still in progress. And so instead of making her way to Slains on her arrival in 1933, Alice went immediately to Idina’s new home, Clouds, about six miles up the road from Wanjohi Farm, on Mount Kipipiri (an old Masai word meaning “rain”). Here she took up temporary residence in one of Idina’s three guest rooms while Mr. Barratt, the lawyer, gave notice to the family renting Alice’s farm. Clouds was another settler house in the typical manner, with a large central drawing room opening up onto a sixty-degree veranda, where Idina often dined with her many guests. Along with her new residence, Idina had a new husband: In 1930, she had married an American, Donald Haldeman, but the union was an unhappy one, with Idina intent on carrying on her usual affairs. Donald’s money came from a clothing-manufacturing business, and after one of the couple’s blazing rows, Idina was heard on the veranda of Clouds wailing, “You makers of shirts, how can you understand us who have been wanton through the ages!” Another legend has it that Donald shot at the tires of one of Idina’s boyfriends in protest.

Joss, meanwhile, could be found living in great style at Oserian, built on the beautiful shores of Lake Naivasha, where hippos roamed freely at night. The house had been awarded to his new wife, Mary, as part of her divorce settlement and was a much-crenellated and-domed North African–style castle, complete with minarets. Here Joss had installed squash courts and a swimming pool, and he bred polo ponies and hosted matches on a weekly basis. Locals called Oserian the “Djinn Palace,” and although it did indeed look like an oversized Aladdin’s lamp, the pun on the word gin was intentional. Through the years, plenty of alcohol was consumed at Oserian, most of it by Mary, who was developing a serious dependence. The poor woman desperately wanted to conceive a child, and when this did not happen, she fell back on her favorite Black Velvet cocktails. It didn’t help that Joss and Mary’s closest neighbors were Kiki and Gerry Preston: Kiki was the “girl with the silver syringe,” the American socialite whose conquests included Prince George, Duke of Kent. Addicted to heroine, Kiki is said to have introduced Mary to the habit. What did Joss see in Mary? The general consensus was that he had married her for her money.

At the time of Alice’s return to Kenya, Joss had begun another new chapter in his life. Kenya’s governor, Sir Joseph Byrne, had recently nominated Joss for the position of councillor on the Naivasha District Council. Meetings, speech giving, and the responsibilities of public office now became part of Joss’s regular routine.

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