Golden Fields

By Klavs Skovsholm

Golden Fields is a story of adventure, love, and war. The setting will take you from Southern Africa to Flanders in the period between the Boer War and WWI.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jul 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452518602

Klavs Skovsholm

“KLAVS SKOVSHOLM was born in February, 1963, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has a twin sister and two elder brothers. In 1988, he graduated with a Master’s in Law from the University of Copenhagen. He is specialized in various international legal fields, including European Union law. From 1989-1993, he worked with legal translation at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. Then, in 1993, he moved to Belgium to work as an administrator with the Council of the European Union, which is where he still works. He is a specialist in the European Union’s bilateral fisheries agreements with African countries. He has travelled extensively in Africa, both privately and professionally, and he has a special interest in colonial history. He enjoys outdoor sports and engages regularly in hiking and rowing. At the Bay is Skovsholm’s second book which is intertwined with his first book Golden Fields, but can be read independently.”

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 Klavs Skovsholm.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1859-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1861-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1860-2 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 07/16/2014

Contents

The Karoo, the Cape Colony, shortly before 1900

Straateind, October 1899

Straateind – a year later

Pretoria, August 1904

Straateind, September, same year

Pretoria, about the same time

Pretoria – a year later

Straateind – some years later

Off to War

To Olga

South Africa facts sheet

The Karoo, the Cape Colony, shortly before 1900

One summer afternoon, Theodora Villiers removed scones from the oven. It was a bit too hot to bake this time of the year, she thought; during the summer she preferred to bake early in the morning. Earlier that day, when her partner Lily Wood left the house they shared to do water colours in the nearby veld, Theodora told her she was going to bake scones for their afternoon tea. Lily said she need not bake on her account; she would be happy with just tea. She was going to do it all the same, Theodora replied, just in case they had visitors. Lily had laughed her lovely laugh and said she hardly imagined that they would have any visitors, but nevertheless she looked forward to the scones.

Lily was right; Theodora had no reason to assume they were going to have visitors, but she liked to follow her instinct.

Leaving the scones to cool on the kitchen table, Theodora took a small bucket of peas and a bowl and went to sit outside on a bench in front of the house. She loved to sit on this bench, which was flanked by lovely white English roses that Theodora managed to grow on the shady side of the house. She grew them for her English Lily. Placing the bucket and the bowl on the bench, she looked up at their house. It was a simple but spacious Karoo house with high windowless gables, wooden shutters and a black thatched roof. It was much simpler than the large Cape Dutch house where she had lived in Stellenbosch until a few years ago, when her husband was alive. Mariette, her only daughter, still lived in such a house with her husband, the local judge in Stellenbosch. Mariette did not like Theodora’s house. Mariette simply could not understand why her mother would live in such a simple house when she could afford to live in something much grander. This was only one of many points where Theodora did not agree with Mariette who also did not care much for Lily. Mariette did not say as much, but Theodora could sense that her daughter found Lily’s impeccable English manners to be pretentious.

A tall slim woman, today Theodora wore a light long cotton dress and a black apron. Unlike most Afrikaner women, she rarely wore a hat and usually kept her long silver-white hair in a braid. Today was no exception. She was a little vain about her abundant hair and liked to show it off, while Lily mostly hid hers under a straw hat.

Sitting down to shell the peas, she looked down the main road of Straateind. The little village was quiet; most people were busy either in the fields or inside their houses. Looking further beyond the village towards the mountains surrounding the little valley, Theodora felt pleased to be up here in Straateind on the edge of the Karoo. Perhaps it took a whole day to reach Stellenbosch from here, but thanks to a newly built station a few hours away, it was not very difficult to have goods sent up from Stellenbosch or even Cape Town. The sun would soon start to set, bathing the Karoo in brilliant reds and golds, so Lily would be home soon, she thought.

Soon absorbed in her pea shelling and her own thoughts, it was only when a horse stopped at the front gate and a tall young rider dismounted that she looked up. Her face broke into a big smile when she saw her grandchild Antonius.

"Antonius, myn jongen! Wat heerlyk jouw te zien!"

She rose from the bench and with open arms went to hug him.

"Liefe God, I must be shrinking," she exclaimed as she looked up at Antonius. He had blond hair, a long slender nose, and very long eyelashes that gave his eyes a slightly feminine appearance.

Come sit down here in the shade while I get you something to drink. I have some freshly pressed apple juice.

She turned and disappeared into the darkness of the house. Antonius admired the white roses growing up against the wall. The sky was cloudless and stark blue with no sign of haze.

Here, my dear! Theodora said, handing him a big glass of