The Curse of the Blood Diamond Part 2 Chapter 12

“You’re looking well, dear,” Frances commented when Esson opened the cottage door. “You spend so much time holed away here, we hardly know what you look like anymore.”

“Forgive me for not having been more sociable. I am keeping myself busy while Hector is away.”

Hector and Royston had taken a ten-day trip into the interior on “men’s business”. Esson knew their trips had something to do with ivory purchases and big game hunting but, when she asked Hector, he merely replied: “A bit of fishing, a bit of hunting, terribly boring for you, my dear.”

“What are you doing that is keeping you so busy?”

“I am completing the final volume of my father’s botanical research. Your library has proven most useful, by the way. Quite fascinating.”

Since her encounter with the sangoma, Esson’s writing and research had taken quite a different turn. Her attention had been focused on African spiritual lore and the African interpretation of good and evil. Raised in the Church of England, Esson had always been God-fearing and fixed on the Bible’s interpretation. But her research in Hector’s library had led her to the accounts of witchdoctors, who believed good and evil could be manipulated through various roots and plants.

Could evil assume a tangible form? Could an inanimate object like a plant or ... a diamond ... be evil. Or was that hocus pocus?

She had returned from her meeting with the sangoma in an agitated state. How could the woman know so much, if there was nothing in what she said? She had taken out the diamond to consider her course of action. She had never been acquisitive. Money, beyond the freedom it bestowed, meant very little to her. Yet the thought of destroying so exquisite an object felt almost like a physical pain.

“I will need your diamond in a few weeks’ time.” Frances said now, surprising Esson by seeming to read her mind.

“Oh? Whatever for, Mother?”

“We need to have it insured and a friend of my husband’s - regarded as something of a world expert – is arriving from England to value it. My husband believes it to be some talisman
from one of these native tribes. If he can locate its origin, there might be more.”

“How long will he need it for the assessment?”

“Oh, a week or two. It all depends on whether he is able to identify it. If not, we might need to send it back to England. In which case it will be a few months ... Are you all right?”

Why did she feel so odd? This was perhaps the solution she desired – to have the diamond removed from her possession - and yet, surely she needed to answer her questions first. Yes, that must be it. She had to find her own answers before she would destroy so rare a beauty.

“A few months… I wouldn’t be happy with that,” Esson objected, standing up to Frances for the first time since her wedding day.

“My dear, it’s for your own good. Some say that stone is the only one of its kind in the world. If this is the case, you are a very wealthy woman indeed.”

“That might be so if it were sold, but I would never sell it.”

“So you have become attached to your wedding gift. I knew you could never resist such an offer.”

“If you are suggesting I married your son for a jewel, you are mistaken. I married Hector because I believed him to be a kind and worthy gentleman.”

“Believed…?” Frances raised her eyebrows. Esson lowered her eyes. The woman knew; she couldn’t fool her. But Frances must also know that she had won. There was nothing Esson could do now.

Esson had assumed that motherly love had prompted Frances to accept her so readily. But now she realised that Frances knew very well what he was like. A mother always knew. Hector was a strange and complex man. Like Stevenson’s character, he had a kind and vulnerable side. But something dark lay within him, something frightening that was released when he was not in total control of himself.

There were probably few young women of Hector’s standing who did not have some inkling of the kind of man he was. If Frances hadn’t acted when she did, it would have become
increasingly difficult to find him a bride. And Esson had perfectly suited her purposes: alone in the world, and unconventional enough to be outside the range of randlord gossip.

“You no longer share the marital bed,” Frances said in her coldest tone. “The servants talk, you know. I suggest you resume your rightful place when Hector returns. He won’t put up with it for long.”

“I have not been well.”

“I should be on my way. I’m off to the theatre - I’m a patron, you know. Funds must be raised for a new production, now that Hamlet has run its course. Oh and lest you forget, Hector returns tomorrow. Do make yourself attractive. It’s important for women to make an effort, even once they have secured a husband.”

Once Frances had gone, Esson could no longer concentrate. She had no doubt Frances had mentioned Hamlet on purpose. That no longer surprised her. But what did it mean that Hamlet’s run had ended? Would William return to England? Had he perhaps already returned? She did not intend ever to see him again. Yet, if he returned home, there was no longer the remotest possibility that she might run into him by chance. And that thought was almost too painful to bear.

Unable to sit at her books, Esson made her way to the attic. She opened the safe and removed the diamond, which seemed to glow more brilliantly than ever.

As if you know you’ve been spoken about,” she said to the diamond. “And you like it.”

Copyright Ranulph Moore

A PDF download of Blood Diamond is available in our shop.

Ranulph Moore describes himself as an explorer, who became a writer to purge himself of the adventures that were crowding his life. He says he has seen it all, in a life spent observing the lives of others. He will travel anywhere – as long as he can make a decent cup of tea and launder a linen jacket. He describes Africa as one of his great loves. He has spent time in every country on the continent. If he can’t find a good champagne, he has been known to resort to gin. He has homes in Paris, Jura and Cape Town. At present, he lives in Madagascar, where he is researching his latest book.

Read an interview with Ranulph Moore.