She was a woman of thirty, refined, intelligent, and still a maiden I learned later. Her hair was black and glossy. She had a boyfriend who had not gotten beyond stroking her neck and watching her purr. He would come and sit in the parlor with her, holding his straw hat on his knees and glancing at her out of the corners of his eyes.

“He’s her fiancé,” Vinandratsy explained. “He loves her, but she doesn’t love him at all. She tolerates him, that’s all.”

“That’s an awful thing.”

“But it’s true. The others, there were plenty of them, they’ve stopped coming, married other girls—but he persists.”

Once I was standing against the corral fence watching a herd of zebu and English cattle and her fiancé came up beside me, and we stood together watching, silent at first. He seemed to be waiting for me to speak first, so I did.

“Are you a cattle rancher too?” I asked.

“No, I’m an exporter.”

“Of what?”

He seemed a bit ashamed, like he wasn’t sure I’d think it was much.

“Vanilla beans.”

“You smell like vanilla,” I said readily.

That seemed to make him comfortable and cheery.

“You and Vinandratsy are becoming close,” he said.

“We’re becoming friends,” I amended.

“Yes.”

“Miandra doesn’t like me though.”

“No,” he agreed. “But as for me, I think Vinandratsy has a right to such a woman.”

I stared at him.

“You know, Miandra doesn’t like me either. Oh, I guess she likes me, but she doesn’t change. I’ve known her since she was a girl. Haven’t you ever seen such a beauty in the world? Such a beauty that threatens a man with pleasure?”

“Threatens?”

“Ah, pleasure is a dangerous thing, didn’t you know that?

There’s no escaping such a woman. I persist, and she’ll give in to me one day. One fights for such a woman and then one pays for her.”

“Don’t wait too long,” I said. “And don’t pay too much.”

I looked away from him at a zebu cow standing beside an English bull.

“But I’m a prattler,” he was saying. “Vinandratsy says I talk just to hear my own words.”

But I’d never heard him talk much. I’d never heard him say one word sitting beside her, holding his straw hat in his lap and looking like a big bear in armor. She’d throw him indifferent glances while she’d fan herself with this antique raffia fan, though the house had air conditioning.

46

At the kitchen table, Vinandratsy and I sat examining maps. Miandra stood at the stove making a tea out of scorched rice, something for us to take on our journey. It was supposed to give energy and be more refreshing than ordinary tea or water.

Vinandratsy began telling me what I should wear. We were going into the mountains to see a place where pirates and fugitive slaves once hid out. Now there was barren rock and a few scattered mountain villages. But I still wanted to see it for myself and include a description of it in my book. And there was a certain orchid that grew only in that barren region.