03 The shock
Chloe is at a loss of words. She wants to speak but the words don’t come to her mind. She feels she must stop him before he goes any further, but almost instinctively realize that it’s too late. Leo’s right-hand leaves her breast and reaches into his pocket. The next moment he shows her a beautiful Golden Cushion engagement ring.
Her knees become weak of shock as she realizes that he has already made the step and that he will not easily be convinced that she is not ready for this.
Leo looks deep into her eyes and displays the ring in front of her eyes like a trump card; a cherry on a cake. “Chloe, your father made it abundantly clear before all at the dinner table that he wishes for his youngest daughter to marry someone that can look well after her and the farm. I took over the farm as manager three years ago when he had a heart attack and became ill and was forced to appoint a manager. You know he was talking about me because I made a success of everything. The farm is now highly profitable with different nest eggs and he knows I can make it even better. Your dad and I understand each other and furthermore, he is not blind to how well we are clicking.
“Your father has only you, Zoey and Lyle. Zoely is no farm girl at all and will never be. You told me how she ran away from the farm with her worthless, playboy husband. Lyle is only fourteen now and can’t take over the farm. You’ve helped me tremendously with the administration but your first love is the furniture shop.
“Marry me, Chloe, and everything falls in place. You focus on your furniture ventures and me on the farm and when Lyle is ready one day, we make a success together with Eastwood Estate as a family enterprise.”
Leo gets down on one knee and offers the ring to her while he makes his final point. “Chloe, I ask you formally here on this veranda of the Eastwood Estate, I love you dearly and will never disappoint you; marry me!”
She finally finds her voice.
“Leo, you and Ronnie are like my two brothers. I’ve never thought of you in this way, although I love you both to bits, but like brothers. How much did this expensive ring cost you? Are you now going to pay it off? You are placing me in a very difficult situation because I do not want to disappoint you, but tonight I am just thinking about freedom and independence, and now I must answer a difficult question here on my coming of age party.”
She shakes her head despondently from side to side. “No, Leo. This is out of the blue and I am not ready for such a drastic change in my life. You will have to give me time to ponder and process your question.”
To her surprise, he smiles while he stands up. “I understand it is unexpected, Chloe, and that you need time. I hope in future you will look through new eyes towards me and that you will consider my proposal carefully.”
He puts the ring back in his pocket. “Does my proposal make any sense to you?”
She speaks slowly and carefully. “It makes complete sense in any many instances, Leo, but I haven’t even slightly contemplated taking a husband with all the consequences thereof. You know, I don’t even feel comfortable in a dress, you know me well!”
Leo smiles and winks naughtily at her. “I can’t wait for the day the woman in you awakes, Chloe!”
“Leo. Let’s go in now. Soon they will be looking for us.”
“Chloe, you go now. I am going to stay here and lick my wounds and think about what could have been.”
She steps forward and gives him a little peck on the cheek. “Shame, I’m sorry, Leo. Don’t let this spoil our friendship, please.”
Leo put his hand over her little kiss as if he wants to catch and save it. “You know me better than this, Chloe. Doesn’t matter what you do; you will always be my angel.”
~*~*~
The next morning Chloe is up just after five o’ clock and in her pajamas knocks on the door of the bathroom. The door opens suddenly and Leo stands in front of her. “Leo, why the swelling on your face! What happened to you?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I tripped and fell in the dark over the steps and injured my face, Chloe.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Leo. You have a nasty swelling all around your left eye and even your cheek is swollen badly. That must have been more than one nasty bump that ravaged you; it rather looks as if someone assaulted you!”
Leo shows irritation with her questions. “I don’t know how I did it, Chloe, but it was dark. Why are you awake? Usually, you surface much later?”
“I’m going to surprise dad in bed with a wonderful breakfast just to say thank you for everything. He usually gets up at six promptly when his alarm goes off and I want to surprise him before that.”
Chloe hears footsteps on the wooden floor of someone coming up to her and when she looks behind her, she is just in time to see how Ronnie glares at Leo. Leo answers Ronnie’s look trying to outdo his own dirty one. Ronnie pecks her in the neck and walks away and vanishes through the front door at the end of the corridor.
Leo quickly pecks her on her forehead. “See you later, Chloe. Sam and the guys are waiting for me. We have lots to do this Saturday.”
~*~*~
After finishing her make-up and clothed in her usual farm outfit, she silently stalks Hayley that is helping Susan in the kitchen. She wonders whether Hayley ever wears trousers because even in front of the stove she is dressed in a smart, red dress with high heels on her feet like a lost city girl. Chloe hugs her lovingly from behind. She whispers in her ear and gives her neck a peck. “Why is my soul mate up so early?
“Susan told me about your plan to surprise Tony and I keep myself busy trying to help her a little.”
Chloe smiles en winks mischievously at Susan. “Good morning, Susan. Is she helping or is she merely in your way?”
Susan quips back. “I am enjoying her little visit very much because we gossip about your naughty school days. She should have visited us long ago. I am now finding out of all your little secrets, my child.”
“Why! You naughty girls, busy with mischief, hey?”
But now Hayley explains her early appearance. “I usually don’t sleep more than four hours each night and I can’t sit still. Chloe, you know me, man. What on earth am I going to do with myself here? This farm is going to drive crazy this weekend!”
“You, Zoey, Lyle and I are going to ride horses and the jump in the dam.”
“What! Never! You are joking, right? You’ll never get me on one of those creature’s backs. Not for all the money in the world! Just imagine me and my lovely dress on a moving horse high in the air. And, in a farm dam, I won’t even put my toe... Never, my dear. Are you out of your mind, perhaps?
Chloe laughs happily. “I can lend you one of Ronnie’s trousers. By the way, I can’t believe that this is your first visit to the farm. I only see you at our furniture shop in the city.”
“You don’t have a choice, my dear, because you are the link between Ronnie at the workshop here on the farm and me at our clients in the shop. Let’s keep it that way, thanks. The farm is hopelessly too quiet for a chic, city girl like me.”
Changing the subject, Chloe asks: “Hayley, what did I miss last night? Why is Leo’s face swollen like that?”
“Oh no, Chloe! I hoped that you wouldn’t ask me, because I can never lie to you, but Tony made us promise not to tell you as to not upset you and spoil your day.
“What are you hiding from me? Tell me!”
“I came out on the veranda just to see Ronnie on top of Leo hitting him with his fists. I shouted at them but to no avail. You know how strong Ronnie is. I ran inside and grabbed Tony. We returned and found Ronnie with a deadly stranglehold on Leo. Tony scolded them harshly and they separated.”
“What on earth! From our school days on I’ve never seen Ronnie in a fight. He is such a gentle giant. What came over him?”
“I don’t know, Chloe, I could barely believe my eyes but it happened right in front of me and Leo had blood all over while Ronnie was unharmed. Tony asked them what was going on and then the whole story came out. Ronnie said he had been at the dark side of the veranda when you and Leo spoke to each other. He said Leo is taking advantage of you and Leo said Ronnie must be mad for he only told you how much he loves you. Chloe, what did Ronnie imply when he said Leo is taking advantage of you?”
“Leo asked me to marry him with an exquisite, expensive ring and all.”
“My goodness! And what was your answer, sweetie?
“You know I want to be a free birdie and here he proposed at my coming of age party! You of all people should know it well, you are also still independent. That nonsense my father uttered at the table last night and tried to advertise Leo to me also didn’t help much.”
“Yes, I winked at you and had to hold my laughter because you looked very funny at that moment.”
“It’s not funny at all, I suspected that these two guys have wrong plans for my life and that jealousy between them burn hot, but I didn’t realize how hot. These two are going to seriously harm each other if it goes on like this and the fact that Tony likes Leo so much is oil on the fire. Ronnie knows that Tony prefers Leo and his feelings for me make the situation even more difficult after Tony voiced his preference so clearly last night. Hayley, what am I going to do? My presence here is surely not healthy for the two of them.”
“Chloe, you don’t realize how special you are. Any man will lose his head over you and these two hunks and you are every day isolated on the farm. It’s strange that the fat hasn’t yet been in the fire.”
“Speaking of fires, I am deeply worried about Zoey. She confided in me last night after she and Quinn had a terrible fight. This is now critical, Hayley.”
“I saw there is a dire situation. Quinn drank too much and misbehaved last night.”
“Zoey told me that he gambles and uses drugs and blows all their money and get loans from undesirable people in the underworld. His motor trade is buried in debt and last night he wanted to ask Tony for a loan for supposed expansion of his business when Zoey suddenly interrupted him.”
“Yes, I noticed. It was strange that she was so rude to him when he was talking to Tony after you enquired about his business. You gave him the opportunity to ask Tony for a loan but she quickly prevented him from doing so.”
“Well, after a heavy fight, Zoey threatened to divorce him if he goes so far. He then wanted to spite her and started to booze heavily. She was in a state of mind and afraid that he would make a disgrace of himself in front of all the people. Later I found her in the kitchen, Hayley, crying her heart out.”
“She is so beautiful, she deserves better.”
“You know, she was rebellious at school and wanted to run away from the farm and Tony’s strict rules and that’s when she became involved with the bully of the school. He was a gang leader and everyone was afraid of him. His father was a violent alcoholic that abused his wife and son. No wonder he turned out so badly.”
“When Zoey became pregnant with Lyle, it looked as if Quinn was changing his bad habits. After Tony loaned him money to start his business in George, it was really looking as if things were falling in place. But now he mistreats Lyle and when he and Zoey have an argument he yells at her telling her she was a school slut and that Lyle isn’t his child.”
“Good heavens, poor boy, he’s such a cute and lovely boy, he seems to be quite independent.”
“Luckily he doesn’t encounter his father much, because he comes to his granddad’s farm every holiday. Tony is much more a father to him and he adores his granddad and Tony enjoys this very much. Tony also got him into an Agricultural school and trains him for the day he will be taking over the farm. Lyle is a hard worker and learns quickly. He is crazy about the farm and wants dearly to fulfill his granddad’s dreams.”
Susan takes Chloe by the shoulders and points to the clock on the wall. It is 5:45 and the breakfast is ready, just like you requested, Chloe.”
Chloe gives Susan a little hug. “Thanks, Susan. Only you know precisely how he likes his breakfast. And by the way, thank you so much for the meal for kings that you prepared yesterday. I hope there was enough left over for the workers.”
“There was too much left over for us, Chloe. Buddy and Batista overindulged completely. As the pedigree boerboels that they are, nothing was wasted.”
Chloe takes the tray with the breakfast and coffee from Susan and she and Hayley together walk down the corridor to Tony’s bedroom. “As you have the tray in your hands, I will knock him awake and open the door for you, Chloe.”
As they reach the door, Hayley knocks, but there is no answer. “Maybe he has already risen and is somewhere, Chloe?”
“No ways. Tony promptly awakes at six. Knock again, Hayley. You know he loves his whiskey very much before he goes to sleep; maybe he has overdone it a little bit last night. Clea had the same tendency. Open the door, Hayley, and let me peek into the room to see if he is still asleep.”
Hayley turns the knob and carefully pushes the door wide enough for Chloe to peep inside. She smiles and winks at Hayley. “Still fast asleep on his back. I’m going to l surprise him nicely, thanks for helping me, Hayley.”
“Okay, then I’ll leave you two alone.” She turns and walks back to the kitchen.
Very quietly Chloe goes up to his bedside table upon which a quarter of a bottle of whiskey and his glass still stand. She smiles. He probably overindulged with his Jim Beam Black last night. Clea always had Glenfiddich because Jim Beam disgusted her. Chloe lets the edge of the tray rest on the table and puts the bottle and glass on the floor to make a place for the tray.
Tony is sleeping so soundly that she doesn’t even hear him breathe. She bends over and kisses him gently on his forehead. She turns ice cold and lameness from the shock engulfs her whole body. His forehead is hard and cold and she sees now that his complexion has a strange blue-green colour.
Her brain refuses to register what she is seeing. Anxiously she grabs him by the shoulders and shivers when she feels that he is cold and stiff. She suddenly loses her head completely and tries to wake Tony like a madman by shaking him. “No, wake up dad, you can’t do this to me. Damn, wake up, wake up …”
Her anxious yelling reverberates through the quiet farmhouse!