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CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHERE WAS HE?
Wolf still hadn’t come to bed yet and now it was after midnight.
Alexandra had spent the past three hours waiting for him, two and a half of those hours in bed. Two and a half hours where every minute felt endless, where she jumped at every creak outside, where she waited nervously, anxiously, stomach churning, imagination worked overtime.
Where was he? What was he doing? Who was he with?
Some questions were more easily answered than others. She knew he was here in the camp. A sixth sense told her Wolf was with Joy. And as to what they were doing, Alexandra didn’t even want to imagine that …
If only he’d return. Or if she could only fall asleep and escape her crazy, punishing thoughts.
Instead she lay restless in the big bed beneath the thatched roof with the white gauzy mosquito netting draped around the mattress.
Why had Wolf married her? Why had he thought it necessary to go through with the wedding? Was it really about the lethal cocktail she’d ingested and the fallout of publicity and her family’s outrage? Or was the wedding an attempt to cover something else?
To cover for someone else?
A stunt to distract everyone from what was really happening …
What was really happening?
Tears stung her eyes. She rolled over onto her stomach, pressed her face into her pillow, hoping to make the tears stop.
Alexandra woke much later to the mattress sagging beneath Wolf’s weight as he slid into bed. Her heart thumped as she felt him adjust the covers. She wondered if he’d reach for her, hold her or even say something. But he didn’t come near her. And lying there in the dark, she listened as he sighed a deep gut-wrenching sigh. The sound was so heavy, so sorrowful that Alexandra’s heart fell, tumbling all the way down.
Now that Joy had arrived, nothing was going to be the same.
The next morning the cast sat down with Daniel for a second read-through. Daniel again asked Alexandra to join them, not to read anyone’s lines this time but to listen and learn. “You’re the one who wants to be a director,” he said, offering her a chair to his left.
Wolf was already seated at the table, four chairs down from Daniel. When Joy arrived with her cup of hot tea, she grabbed a chair next to Wolf, sliding in with a conspiratorial wink.
“You’ve already done a read-through,” Joy said, getting comfortable before lifting and blowing on her tea. “But who played me?”
It was quiet for a moment and then Wolf answered, “Alex did.”
Joy took a tiny sip of her tea, her dark-winged eyebrows arching higher. “Alex who?”
There was another odd moment of silence as various cast members glanced at Wolf and Alexandra. Wolf cleared his throat, gestured to Alex, who was sitting with Daniel. “Alexandra. My wife.”
Joy hesitated ever so slightly and then laughed, a light tinkling laugh to fill the strained silence. But she never once looked at Alex or acknowledged her directly. “That’s right. You’re married now. I forgot. Silly me.”
Alexandra stared at Joy for a long moment, even as one of the vervet monkeys who’d decided to make Kafue Lodge home tossed pieces of grass down on the table. Alexandra seethed on the inside. How could Joy have forgotten that Wolf was married?
Or did Joy just intend to pretend that Wolf was still single? That everything between them was still the same?
Temper boiling, Alexandra leaned forward. “Did your husband come with you, Joy?”
Joy looked almost startled by Alexandra’s question, and Wolf looked furious.
Joy forced a tight smile, shook her head. “No.”
Daniel intervened at that moment, crisply directing everyone to open their scripts to the first scene, and Alexandra opened her notebook but not before she saw the look Wolf was giving her. He looked stunned. And furious. There was, Alexandra thought shakily, her bravado giving way, going to be hell to pay later.
She was right. As everyone took a break for lunch, Wolf immediately made a beeline for Alexandra. “Let’s take a walk,” he said tersely.”
She’d been standing next to Daniel at the time, and the director gave her an apologetic look before disappearing.
“I don’t feel like a walk right now,” she answered, trying to hang on to her anger, trying to find the courage she’d felt earlier. Wolf was her husband. She had a right to stand up for herself. She had a right to tell other women to back off, too, especially if the other woman happened to be Wolf’s former lover.
“It’s not really an option.” Wolf’s tone was clipped, grim. “We need to talk.”
What Wolf really meant was that he needed to talk and Alexandra needed to listen. As they crossed from the lodge, the raised wood deck gave way to a dirt path, and they followed the path a short distance along the river while the peering eyes of half-submerged hippos followed them.
“What was that back there?” Wolf demanded, stopping beneath one of the many large evergreen waterberry trees shadowing the riverbank.
Alexandra knew she couldn’t feign ignorance. She knew why he was upset, but maybe it was time he discovered how she felt. “You insisted we get married, Wolf. You said you had a responsibility to me.”
Monkeys chattered above them in the tree, dropping bits of leaves and fruit stems on their heads.
“I’m perfectly aware of my responsibilities.”
“Then why do I feel like you’d rather be Joy’s husband than mine?”
“Don’t be absurd.”
“I’m not.” Her voice throbbed with outrage. “You’re the one that didn’t come to bed last night until two in the morning—”
“You were awake?”
“I waited for you.”
He sighed impatiently, brushed a stem off his shoulder. “Alexandra, you know Joy’s a close friend of mine. She’d just arrived in camp. It’s a long trip here, she’d had a series of misadventures—”
“Then she should bring her own husband, not use mine!”
Wolf took a step back, jaw dropping. He lifted a hand to his mouth, giving her a look that wasn’t hard to decipher. He thought she was childish, beyond childish. He loathed her right now. “Don’t be petty or unkind,” he said quietly. “It doe
sn’t suit you.”
Then he turned and walked off, heading back to the lodge.
Everyone was eating lunch outside, scattered around the cold fire pit or on the deck with views of the river. Tom had pointed out the family of crocodiles sunning themselves on the opposite side of the river, and everyone passed binoculars as they ate the African barbecue lunch of borewors—grilled sausages.
Alexandra ate with a couple of the lighting technicians since Wolf was deep in discussion with Daniel and Joy. He didn’t look at her once during lunch, and his cool dismissal stung.
After lunch everyone returned to meetings and Alexandra pulled a book from her carry-on travel bag and found a chair at the deserted boma at the river.
She was still sitting there two hours later when Daniel deVoors appeared. He hadn’t shaved in days and the gold-brown bristles on his face glinted in the sunlight. “Beautiful here, isn’t it?” he commented.
She nodded, put down her book. “I love it. Reminds me of Montana.”
He laughed, pulled up a chair. “Reminds me of South Africa. I grew up there until I was sixteen and then my family moved to Australia and then the States.” He dragged another chair toward them, put his feet on the seat. “Wolf is a total beast today. What’s going on?”
Daniel had been there at the very beginning. He and Benjamin had helped set up the meeting with Wolf. “We got in a fight,” she said lowly. “About Joy.”
“Joy’s beautiful.”
Alexandra nodded. “I guess I’m jealous.”
Daniel cocked his head. “Wolf married you.”
“Because Joy was already married.”
“What does Wolf say?”
“That I’m being petty.”
“What do you think?”
She looked up at him, expression serious. “I think she’s a threat. I think Wolf still has feelings for her.”
“And I think Wolf always will. Wolf’s the most loyal person I know. He takes care of his friends.”
She made a rough sound, hating the rush of emotion. “So what do I do?”
“Be nice to Joy?”
She said nothing, and after a moment Daniel leaned forward, patted her knee. “If they really wanted to be together, they’d be together, Alexandra. It’s easy to get a divorce.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “Chin up and don’t let things you can’t control get you down.”
