Sins Of The Past
A/N AU, ok people here we are, the newest most recent fic, I had a few ideas for this then they started going a little crazy so I have no idea where this one will end up…..anyway I have switched things up a little bit for this fic, the situation is reversed somewhat family situations, who co-owns Leopards Den and other people will be showing up but not with the family ties you are familiar with…..anyway read on and as always hope you enjoy my story xxx
Alice dragged her feet through the front door and came to a stop at the top of her veranda, sipped her coffee and watched as the golden sun slowly rose over the horizon. It was a sight she never tired of, watching her land slowly coming to life, browns and lush greens, animals coming from their dens to stroll around freely, elephants nudging her pockets for oranges and the wild boars scampering here and there.
South to her she could see the sunlight glistening from her surgery windows and she couldn't hold back the swell of pride she felt, she had worked hard to get here! She inhaled deeply and filled her lungs with the sweet clean taste of an African morning. Her eyes drifted shut and she was reminded of the date, the pride, her enjoyment and the contentment which seemed constantly elusive filtered away leaving melancholy in its wake. What could be a quiet perfect morning was now spoiled, spoiled because something was missing, it seemed there was always something missing. As time passed she had learned to live without it, adapted to life without it….and some days she was able to fool herself, forget and be happy, but other days, like this one, no amount of lying to herself was going to make this better.
Bowing her head Alice looked into her coffee mug studying the variation of colours within, if he was here what would she say? Would she try to explain or would it be futile, had too much time passed? Would her words mean a thing to him? It seemed like she was forever asking herself these same questions and no answer was ever forthcoming, the one question though that lingered longer than any of the others, had she done the right thing? Was he happy?…..throwing the contents of her mug into the nearest bush she began to make her way inside the house. It didn't matter now, none of it did, the deed was done and nothing she did could change it! All these thoughts did were remind her of things she couldn't have, not then and definitely not now! And regardless of what date it was she needed to remember that…..and as reasonable as that seemed it was also completely impossible!
After having a long shower and forcing all of the negative thoughts from her mind she felt human enough to begin her rounds or at least try and eat something, Nomsa had been on at her for not eating enough so to save Nomsa stalking her carrying a basket of food she was going to have to have something. Tying her hair back she exited her room to find Nomsa a blur in the kitchen stirring scrambled eggs, flipping bacon making the kitchen smell heavenly. It didn't matter that there were only four of them to eat it, she always made enough to feed a small army…..time to test her acting skills.
"Good morning Nomsa," Alice said brightly as she entered the kitchen, "Morning Caroline."
Caroline sat eating steadily and nodded at Alice in reply. Alice looked around, "No Dupe?"
Caroline began to chuckle softly. "He crawled home from Fatani's last night, I found him passed out on the steps at five am. Someone must have put him in a taxi and threw him out while it was still running."
Nomsa shook her head, "Probably worried that they were get drunk from the fumes coming off him!"
Alice smiled sat down, poured herself a glass of orange juice and picked up a slice of toast.
"You need to eat girl!" Nomsa scolded, pushing a heaped plate towards her.
Alice looked at the plate and grimaced, "Girl? I'm almost thirty, hardly a girl, I haven't been a girl since, well forever…." she looked back down at her plate and shook her head, even if she was hungry, which she wasn't she still couldn't eat all that!
"A girl doesn't become a woman until she has a family to take care of!" Nomsa told he pointedly gestured with her wooden spoon. "Isn't that right Caroline?"
Caroline nodded.
Alice exhaled and rolled her eyes, she was roping in Caroline? Really? No disrepect but she married Anders Du Plessis! That kind of negated your right to an opinion on marriage!
Nomsa hit Alice on the top of her head with the spoon, "Don't make that expression at me! Caroline and I have made you our project!"
Alice who was wincing while rubbing her head looked between the two women, "Project?" she asked hesitantly and found herself moving away instinctively at the look on Caroline's face, her eyes widened, "Look I don't know what you two are planning but….."
"Within eighteen months you my dear girl will be married!" Caroline cut her off, leaving no room for argument.
Alice felt her worries melt away and she picked up her juice to drink. "Good luck with that."
"We don't need luck!" Caroline retorted.
"Really? Because unless you plan to tie me up and drag me down the aisle I very much doubt that will be happening within the next decade never mind in 18 months, but go ahead try, I look forward to it."
Nomsa shook her head.
"Married, pfft!" "Alice carried on shaking her head in derision. "Marriage is nothing but a load of malarky why do that to yourself?"
Nomsa went to hit her head again but Alice moved just in time before she connected. "Marriage is important!" Nomsa reprimanded. "Family is important….."
"I know family is important ok!" Alice snapped. "But marriage isn't the be all and end all of life!" her eyes flaming, chest heaving, "I don't need that in my life! Not now, not ever!"
"Alice dear." Caroline said softly breaking through her haze, patting her hand gently. "We love you and want what's best for you. Recently you have seemed so down, its so unlike you. You're so secluded out here with just three old people for company, we won't be around forever."
Alice bowed her head and ran her hands through her hair feeling like a heel for losing her temper with them so quickly. It wasn't their fault, they didn't know the significance of the date, they didn't know much about her past. They loved her and unfortunately they were a bit old fashioned and believe the path to true happiness was marriage and kids, and yes in that order. Alice raised her head, "Look." she started much calmer. "I'm grateful really I am but I'm fine. I don't need a man in my life, I don't even want one right now and even if I did I'm too busy to fall in love never mind have a child, in a few months I'll think about but right now? No way." Alice hoped that the stalling tactic she adopted would deter the ladies, at least for a little while…..no such luck!
"You need to go out and meet someone." Caroline told her.
"How do you expect to find a man locked away like an old maid." Nomsa added.
Alice's head bobbed from Caroline who sat at the kitchen table to Nomsa who was up to her elbows in bubbles. Alice pushed her plate of food away untouched and narrowed her eyes. "I am hardly an old maid, I'm 29 not exactly past it! I will get around to it I'm just busy right now."
"Life will pass you by Alice, we were your age once and before you know it you're our age!"
"Dear god!" Alice breathed, "Your concern is noted and logged ok." and she went to leave.
"At least until you start looking keep your eyes open, it takes seconds to meet the one, you'll know as soon as you see him." Caroline advised.
Alice stopped walking and closed her eyes a moment as an image of a boy filled her mind, tall and smiling promising her they'd be together forever, nothing coming between them. As the image dissolved she turned her head and looked at the two women. "I will, now I need to go."
Nomsa and Caroline watched her leave the house, concern etched over each of their faces. "I wonder why she is so against marriage." Caroline murmured.
"It's obvious isn't it? Someone has hurt her in the past, someone she loved."
"But Nomsa she has lived here for five years and hasn't been with anyone, how could anyone have hurt her?"
"The girl had a life before." after drying her hands on a tea towel Nomsa retrieved a plate and sat by Caroline at the table.
"But that's kids stuff, not serious, puppy love."
"What if he was her first love? You still remember your first love don't you?" Nomsa challenged.
Caroline nodded. "Ok, but still shouldn't she have got over it moved on by now?
"Who needs to get over what?" Dupe asked sauntering into the kitchen in his customary vest and boxers. Voice rough from lack of sleep.
"Alice needs a man." Caroline told him.
Dupe scratched his head and yawned as he sat down. "I can get her one if she needs one."
Caroline levelled him with a look, "Someone nice, presentable, not someone who only wants one thing!"
"Ach!" Dupe groused. "It's about time I say! It's not normal for a young girl to not bring men home, when she moved in I was expecting to have a lot more to be angry about! Like the men disrespecting her! No chance of that!" he was piling bacon on his plate when Caroline removed the source from his reach. "This isn't her, its us." she told him.
Dupe froze and looked at them wearily. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean she has to want to go out with him!" he shook his head. "Don't tell me we're gonna be adopting someone else!"
"We can't possibly make it worse can we?" Nomsa replied.
"What if we find her the perfect man?" Caroline added.
"Oh God!" Dupe muttered, this wasn't going to end well! There was going to be bloodshed, he best lock away all his guns! "I want no part of this." he told them before starting to eat.
Caroline made a face at him and began to plot with Nomsa, "We just need the right man, someone solid, dependable, reliable…."
"Single, handsome, clever…." Nomsa added.
Dupe looked at them, "Does such a man even exist?"
"Quiet!" Caroline told him. "We'll go to town and start an initial search there, we'll find someone I'm sure of it!"
Dupe hid his face in the palm of his hand.
Alice completed her rounds in the surgery and went to all the callouts, then she visited her friend Vanessa who owned Mara. She and Vanessa couldn't be more different, Vanessa was elegant, always looking professional in her pant suits, manicured, perfectly groomed, tall and blond every inch the executive she seemed to be. Alice however enjoyed jeans and boots and didn't mind getting very dirty in her quest to save the world one animal at a time. They were sat in Vanessa's office, the day had passed quickly and Alice had skipped dinner it was now after three and she was aware that she was going to have to go home and eat, as it was she was enjoying her conversation with Vanessa. She had yet to tell her friend about the gruesome twosomes plan for her though.
"You'll never guess what Caroline and Nomsa have planned for me, they've got it in my head I need to get married! Sometimes I swear they are worse than Dupe!"
"So you are going to finally start dating then?" Vanessa asked signing a form, she had known Alice a while and she had shown zero interest in men.
"Not you too." Alice moaned. "Why do people seem to think I need to get married or meet a man? I don't need a man in my life to be happy!"
"Alice." Vanessa said simply swishing her blond hair. "None of us need men in our lives, but we want them."
"Well I don't want one either, I'm happy as I am. Foot loose, fancy free and answering to no one but me!"
"What about kids? Don't you want them one day?"
Alice pinched the bridge of her nose, Vanessa comment reminding her of the life she had planned one day, "It doesn't matter, if I have kids one day great, if I don't I can live with that."
"There is always adoption I suppose." Vanessa surmised. "You're stable, you own your own house and business."
Alice lowered her hand. "No adoption." her voice final and she looked out of the window at the couples hand in hand, her eyes moving the families in the swimming pool splashing and having fun.
"Alice are you ok? You've been in a funny old mood recently." moving her paperwork into her top drawer.
Alice studied her friend wanting to confide in her but unable to. How do you explain something like that? How she was always wondering, how every year it got harder, how sometimes just so she could forget she immersed herself in work so much she drove herself to exhaustion. Fifteen years ago her life had been so different! She had no career, no direction, she just had a boy who loved her and she loved back, and she thought that was all she needed. Again his face materialised, his cheeky grin, the way his nose crinkled before he laughed, the intensity of his gaze before he kissed her, the scent of him when he held her close….
"Alice!" Vanessa almost shouted.
Yanked from her memories she shook her head trying to chase them off, "I'll be fine Vanessa, I'm just working too hard."
"It's more than that Alice, we both know that. I'm always here if you need to talk, any time you need me."
Alice smiled and nodded, "Thanks Vanessa." she checked her watch. "I'd better be going, I've got a lot on in the coming days, I need to go down and start airing the luxury guest hits, I'm booked solid. Thankfully Caroline and Nomsa take care of that side of business but when we're this busy they need me to chip in sometimes."
"You'll have to come over one night and me and you can hit Jo'burg."
Alice laughed. "Since your divorce came through you're going out like you have something to prove."
"That marriage was a mistake from start to finish! The only thing I don't regret is Gracie. She and her dad are on a month long cruise around the Caribbean islands, its quiet when she isn't here." Grace was Vanessa's fifteen year old daughter. Vanessa was slightly older than Alice at 36, she had married her husband when they were 20 when she found out she was pregnant. Alice had never seen her happier than when her divorce finally came though. "I'll call you and pencil in a night, as is duty calls." her rumbling stomach reminding her of her lack of lunch.
"Don't work too hard, I need you well rested for Jo'burg!"
Alice grinned then waved as she left.
After starting her truck and making her trek home her thoughts once again returned to the boy she once knew. Danny, he'd been so tall back then, 6 foot if he was a day and she'd been in love with him since she was 13 and he was 15. Ever since she first met him she had been unable to see herself with anyone else. It was a few weeks before her nineteenth birthday when it all began to fall apart and by the time her 20th birthday came about they had broken up and started divorce proceedings. Prior to the divorce they hadn't seen each other in six months. This was a love that was supposed to last forever, something which had been so simple became hard and unbearable. Her home appeared in the distance but instead of going into the house she went to her surgery to dispense medication, it could have waited another hour but she needed a distraction and her animals were it.
Nomsa and Caroline were setting up the luxury guest hut for the guests arriving tomorrow. They had been to town to buy some shopping and the lack of decent men around have been depressing.
"The men in town are completely unsuitable for Alice." Nomsa breathed. "The decent ones have already been snapped up! She's left it too late."
"There are still good men out there Nomsa, we'll have to look a little harder for them, I mean we were setting sights a little low by looking in Glen Afric town centre weren't we?"
"But Alice needs to meet someone soon. It takes time to get to know each other!" she told her smoothing the sheet on the bed over. "Maybe one of the men staying in here might be eligible. They asked for separate beds so they aren't together and they said they wanted to mix business with pleasure while they were here. You never know, prince charming might well be from another country!"
Caroline shook her head, "They are only staying two weeks we want long term is the first flaw in that and second Alice would never fool around with a guest, its unprofessional and bad for business."
"Or good depends on how you look at it."
Caroline narrowed her eyes.
"Ok, ok, but what if she did like one of them and she could use him as a, I dunno, a re-initiation." Nomsa sat on the freshly made bed. "Maybe we could ask Vanessa I'm sure she knows lots of young men."
"Vanessa can be a last resort, the less people who know about this the less chance Alice has of finding out about us doing it covertly. Until then keep your eyes open, the right man could be the next person we see!"
And as if on cue Fatani walked up the stairs to the hut and pushed the net aside.
"Caroline Dupe told me you were here, I need the invoice for the surgery Alice performed on my mothers dog."
Caroline looked at Fatani and then at Nomsa, "Fatani!" she told Nomsa.
"Fatani? Really?" Nomsa questioned not convinced.
"He's perfect, he's single, owns his own business, is dependable, loves his mum….."
"Yeah I think a little too much!" Nomsa said softly.
"I think I've missed something." he told them.
"See, clever too!" Caroline added.
Nomsa studied him and shrugged, "I suppose he'll do, for now anyway."
"Do for what?" he questioned confused.
Caroline shook her head. "Nothing, Cedric, come in sit down. I'll take you up to Alice in a moment."
He sat on a seat and folded his hands together.
"So Cedric, you're single aren't you?" Caroline asked plumping a pillow.
He glanced over, "Yes."
"Are you looking for love?" Nomsa enquired.
Fatani began to fidget in his seat. "Um, I suppose so."
Both Nomsa and Caroline were quiet and Fatani was relieved that the subject of his love life, or lack of one was dropped. That is until Nomsa and Caroline moved with surprisingly speed and surrounded him as he sat on his seat. He was blocked into a corner and couldn't get up.
"When was the last time you had a date Cedric?" Nomsa asked looking into his eyes.
"A few weeks ago." he stammered.
"Oh yes, I remember Dupe mentioned it didn't go very well." Caroline told him full of sympathy.
For some reason Fatani didn't believe that she felt all that sympathetic! "It didn't."
"What if we could get you a date with a beautiful woman?" Caroline asked.
"Wh…what would I have to do?"
"Ask her." they chorused.
He swallowed hard, "How beautiful is she?"
"Very!" Nomsa assured.
"Do I know her?"
"Yes, but not very well. We think a lot of men would like to get her better but she seems to be shy." Caroline replied.
Fatani began to relax, for a moment he had been worried that perhaps Nomsa wanted a date or they were going to set him up with an old woman, but very beautiful meant she had to be young! "Ok who am I going out with?"
"Alice." they said together.
"Alice who?"
"Our Alice." Nomsa told him.
"Alice Alice?" he asked pointing towards the house.
Nomsa and Caroline nodded simply.
"No, no, no, no, no." came out rapidly. "I couldn't…."
"What exactly is wrong with Alice?" Caroline shrieked raising herself up to her full height, back so stiff it looked close to breaking.
Fatani realised his mistake and began to back track. "Nothing!" he assured, "She's beautiful and funny and….well I'm just not attracted to her, she's a good friend but not….well… I couldn't see us in a relationship."
"You will ask her out Fatani or I will make sure my husband doesn't step foot in your bar again!" Caroline warned.
Fatani rubbed his face. "But Alice doesn't like me either." he moaned.
"Well if that is true than she'll say no and you're off the hook aren't you?" Nomsa reasoned.
Fatani closed his eyes, "Fine!"
"Oh and on final thing, you can't tell her we had the idea for this." Caroline added.
"But…."
"It defeats the purpose if you tell her about us Cedric, do you think she'd go out with you of we asked you to do it? If you tell her Anders won't…."
"Ok!" he yelped. "But I know she is going to say no, we are just friends."
"Well you have nothing to worry about then do you." and Nomsa smiled at him.
Fatani was about to leave when they heard the rumble of a truck in the distance. Nomsa peeked out and saw Alice climbing from the truck. Caroline ushered Fatani into the bathroom while Nomsa met Alice halfway smiling at her. "Alice what are you doing here?"
Alice halted at the foot of the stairs and looked up at her, "I thought you and Caroline needed me to sort out this hut for our guests tomorrow."
"It's fine, we had less to do than we thought. Have you seen Fatani recently?"
Alice shook her head, "No, why?"
"He needs the invoice for Queenies leg and he said he had to talk to you about something."
"Is Queenie still ill?"
Nomsa shrugged. "I have no idea, he might still be up at the house if you hurry you might catch him."
Alice nodded. "If you see him before I do will you tell him that I can Dupe to drop off the invoice." and Alice retreated and started the truck to go home.
Fatani appeared beside Nomsa when they were sure the truck was out of sight.
"I gave you the opening of asking her out." Nomsa informed Fatani.
"Thanks a lot." he replied dryly.
A/N Ohhhhhh Dupe is right, this isn't going to end well, Alice is upset about something in her past and Nomsa and Caroline are now trying to set her up with Fatani!
Keep reading, like I said more people coming in who we are all familiar with AND some very familiar pairings too…..
I have a non AU fic planned too but i have no time to write or type :( xxx