"Smith, Wilbur - Courtney 03 - Rage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

Rage

WILBUR SMITH

HEINEMANN.LONDON William Heinemann Ltd 10 Upper Grosvenor Street, London
WIX 9PA LONDON MELBOURNE JOHANNESBURG AUCKLAND First published 1987
Wilbur Smith 1987 Printed by CTP Book Printers, Cape BD6662

i dedicate this book to my wife.

Tara Courtney had not worn white since her wedding day. Green was her
favourite colour, for it best set off her thick chestnut hair.

However, the white dress she wore today made her feel like a bride
again, tremulous and a little afraid but with a sense of joy and deep
commitment. She had a touch of ivory lace at the cuffs and the high
neckline, and had brushed her hair until it crackled with ruby lights in
the bright Cape sunshine. Excitement had rouged her cheeks and although
she had carried four children, her waist was slim as a virgin's. So the
wide sash of funereal black that she wore over one shoulder was all the
more incongruous: youth and beauty decked in the trappings of mourning.
Despite her emotional turmoil, she stood with her hands clasped in front
of her and her head bowed, silent and still.

She was only one of almost fifty women, all dressed in white, all draped
with the black sashes, all in the same attitude of mourning, who stood
at carefully spaced intervals along the pavement opposite the main
entrance of the parliament buildings of the Union of South Africa.

Nearly all of the women were young matrons from Tara's own set, wealthy,
privileged and bored by the undemanding tenor of their lives. Many of
them had joined the protest for the excitement of defying established
authority and outraging their peers. Some were seeking to regain the
attentions of their husbands which after the first decade or so of
marriage were jaded by familiarity and fixed more on business or golf
and other extra marital activity. There was, however, a hard nucleus to
the movement consisting mostly of the older women, but including a few
of the younger ones like Tara and Molly Broadhurst. These were moved
only by revulsion at injustice.

Tara had tried to express her feelings at the press conference that
morning when a woman reporter from the Cape Argus had demanded of her,
'Why are you doing this, Mrs Courtney?" and she had replied, 'Because I
don't like bullies, and I don't like cheats." For her that attitude was
partially vindicated now.

'Here comes the big bad volf,' the woman who stood five paces on Tara's
right said softly. 'Brace up, girls!" Molly Broadhurst was one of the
founders of the Black-Sash, a small determined woman in her early