A Dark Horizon

...‘Everything has been fine and they’ve all been friendly,’ Rachel was saying to Joseph later that evening. They were sitting in the veranda after dinner catching up on their week.
‘All?’ Joseph laughed incredulously. ‘There’s a certain individual who wouldn’t be friendly to you if it killed him.’
‘He’s been nice as well,’ Rachel smiled at the skeptical look on Joe’s face. Geoffrey’s animosity towards Rachel was no secret. ‘I know what you think Joe, don’t worry I won’t let my guard down. I know that’s what he wants me to do but I’d never trust him.’
‘So you don’t trust me either?’ Paul who had been silently listening to their conversation asked with a teasing smile.
‘Why wouldn’t I trust you?’ Rachel asked, slightly confused.
‘Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed my efforts to be friendlier to you?’ Sheila and Joe laughed when she looked at him as if she had no idea what he was talking about. ‘Have they been that dismal?’ he clutched his chest in mock dismay.
Rachel chuckled at his efforts. ‘I believe your intentions aren’t malicious Paul. Geoff on the other hand is a real monster and he would do anything to get his way.’
‘Maybe his reputation is overrated,’ he put in.
‘Underrated more like. He has the capability to do a lot of harm and he has done in the past.’
‘I still don’t know why your Dad didn’t get rid of him when all that stuff came out. He is obviously a liability to anyone’s effort.’ Sheila was referring to a fraud scandal that had rocked the company a few years earlier. It had spelled the downward spiral and there had been no real recovery since. Luke had made them believe that things had improved but ever since Rachel had taken over she had realized the reality. ‘A real mock to human effort he is.’
‘It’s to do with loyalty. They founded the company together and it grew from strength to strength under their command,’ Rachel said in defense of her father’s actions but she was occasionally angry with him herself.
‘It’s a shame Geoff does not show the same loyalty,’ Joseph said bitterly. ‘He gives you a hard time for trying to sort out his mess.’
‘It’s a good thing you’ve been there to fight my corner,’ she smiled tenderly at Joe. ‘I always feel I have to fight just to prove myself and it can be quite a drain. I don’t know how I would have coped on my own.’
Paul observed them thoughtfully and felt slightly embarrassed with himself. He was beginning to understand why they were so close. Rachel’s resilience was humbling, especially considering that she did not seek pity. She was talking and laughing, seemingly unfazed by the unpleasant individual they were discussing. One had to admire her for that.

Ford Penchant owned most of the tea estate and it had been in his family since the 1920s when tea farming had started in the region. He was a good humored burly man in his early fifties and was also very easygoing. He took Paul and Rachel on a tour of the estate the following morning. It took the best part of the morning to see most of the farmed land. Rachel had known it was an extensive piece of land but it appeared much larger in real life than when imagined from figures written on paper. It was like a small town in itself. He showed them a local school the farmers in the area had collectively built for their workers and local children.
‘It’s quite impressive. It must be a nightmare trying to coordinate all this,’ Rachel said to Ford.
‘It’s the only thing I know,’
‘That certainly helps, it becomes second nature then,’ she said. ‘How do you feel about the proposed land reforms?’ Rachel decided to ask. The land reforms were a sensitive subject and it had been hard to get honest opinions from anyone since it was a hot political subject.
‘Worried and unhappy,’ he said simply. Negotiations between the government and white commercial farmers were uncertain.
‘Don’t you think the black farmers need a bigger piece of the pie? The current statistics are not very fair,’ she asked. Ford looked thoughtful. The white commercial farmers constituted about one percent of the population yet they owned almost thirty-two percent of the agricultural land and a lot of black farmers were still living in the unfavorable land they had been settled in during colonial times. Some had been resettled after independence but there was still a long way to go.
‘The reforms are fine; it’s the likely conditions that I’m not happy about. The fact that we may not be compensated is hard to swallow,’ he turned to look at her. ‘Farming is a business and I have partners, you can’t take bits of a business and hand them out for free and expect it to survive.’ There was a hint of anger and frustration and Rachel thought it would be wise to drop the subject but if she wanted to make informed decisions she had to get the whole picture ...