Vain (The Seven Deadly, #1)(29)

“He isn’t?” I asked. “Why not?” Dingane stopped breathing altogether and I stifled the snort threatening to escape.

“He says he will never marry,” one little girl answered.

“Never marry. How interesting. Do you think it is because no girl will have him?” I teased.

He turned around then and shot me a look to kill, but I just shrugged my shoulders in question.

“No,” she answered, “he is handsome enough.” No kidding, kid. “I think it is because he doesn’t think he deserves to marry.”

“All right, that’s enough!” Dingane said, parting through the line of children before us like he was Moses and they were the Red Sea. “I have to talk to Miss Price. Excuse us.”

He grabbed my arm.

“He likes Sophie,” the little boy who had asked where I was from proclaimed, making me want to squeal in happiness at Dingane’s obvious want to squirm.

I looked up at him as he led me away, but he refused to acknowledge me.

“He does? I do not think so,” Namono added.

“Yes, he stared at her in class all morning.”

My mouth gaped open at Dingane and he closed his eyes tightly before focusing them on me.

“I did not stare at you,” he whispered.

“When I said I thought her the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, I asked if he agreed and he nodded his head yes,” the little boy added for confirmation.

Dingane led me to the front of the line. “Two, Katie,” he asked and she handed over two plates of rice and beans. I took one and he forced me to a table by the door.

We sat down and I just stared at him as he began to eat.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I told him, digging in myself.

“I was not staring at you,” he told his plate.

I leaned over. “Did you hear that, Dingane’s lunch? He was not staring at you.”

He looked up at me crossly. “I was not staring at you.”

“I never said you were.”

“I was merely explaining that Henry was exaggerating. I did not stare at you.”

“Okay,” I stated, implying in my tone that he had done just that.

“I didn’t. I-I wasn’t.”

“I believe you,” I told him.

“I may have looked at you a few times to make sure you were doing your job.”

“Oh, I see then.”

“But I certainly wasn’t staring.”

“We’ve established that you were not staring.”

He breathed deeply a few times, his eyes burning into mine. “Good.”

He’d definitely been staring. The butterflies in my stomach fluttered and flew.



When lunch was over, I circled the children’s desks while Dingane taught penmanship, which was both in English and what I’d learned was Bantu. He then taught geography, where I got a chance to show Henry and all the children where California was, science, and we ended the day with an hour of reading then discussing what they’d read.

All in all, I was impressed with the day’s activities and knew those kids were actually learning valuable lessons they could take and create lives with. After school was out, all the kids congregated in the courtyard under the baobab tree and played football with a ball that had almost completely deflated. My heart hurt a little when I saw that. I saw a flock of girls building little dolls out of straw. They had obviously zero interest in playing soccer and that made me laugh.

Dingane caught my attention and pointed away from the children. “Kate, Joseph and Ruth will watch them before dinner. Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“Our day has only begun,” he explained.

“Who are the others I saw this morning around Masego?” I asked as Dingane took me outside the fenced property.

“You’ve met Kate. Joseph does maintenance and guards at night occasionally when it’s needed. Ruth heads the kitchen and she and Mercy, who only works part-time, care for the laundry, which is quite a task. Ruth is married to Solomon, who does maintenance and helps guard as well. They have two kids, Sharon and Isaac. They have their own home just off property.”

Dingane stopped and cupped his hand over his eyes to see farther toward a grove of trees. “No, we’ll have to get my jeep,” he told me.

I followed him to his jeep and hopped in. “What are we doing?”

“We got a call yesterday that there were men loitering around that grove of trees,” he said pointing off into the distance, “near our swimming hole. We’re going to see if the rumors are true, to check for tracks.”

“Why would they be there?”

“If they’re Lord’s Resistance Army soldiers, they could be scoping us out, or they could have been men just looking for shade and water.”

“How can you tell?”

“The LRA wear boots that most here cannot afford. It’s a good indicator.”

We stumbled along uneven terrain and I had to keep myself from sliding into Dingane’s hip several times. Finally, we came to a stop just inside the canopy of trees. Dingane reached over my lap and my blood began to boil before running ice cold when the gun he’d pulled from his glove compartment came into view.