Under the Whispering Filaos

By Jean-Claude Perdriel

In October 1957, Jeremy left his island paradise to become a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, leaving behind, Maureen, the young girl he intended to marry as soon as he had completed his training. Unbeknown to him, family quarrels instigated by his controlling mother caused a breakdown in communication as their letters went undelivered, leaving the young couple to think that the other had broken the vow. Finding herself pregnant, Maureen leaves the island to live with her married sister in South Africa so as not to bring shame to her family.

The Cold War is in full swing and the “Wind of Change” about to sweep the continent, soon bringing with it some of the toughest battles since WW2, on the borders of the country. Maureen, married and now widowed, returns to her island with her married son and small family. What had become of him, she often wonders. Did he ever think about her and their child? Had time erased his love for her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398481312

Jean-Claude Perdriel

The author was born in a small village in France and lived in that countryuntil the end of WW2, thereafter on the island of Mauritius and East Africa. He served in the Royal Navy and later moved to South Africa with his wife and children, eventually moving to Canada where he presently resides.

Book preview

About the Author

The author was born in a small village in France and lived in that country until the end of WW2, thereafter on the island of Mauritius and East Africa. He served in the Royal Navy and later moved to South Africa with his wife and children, eventually moving to Canada where he presently resides.

Dedication

To my wife, Diane, and my granddaughter Claire, who was able to decipher my hand-written scribblings. My love and thanks to both.

Copyright Information ©

Jean-Claude Perdriel 2023

The right of Jean-Claude Perdriel to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398481305 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398481312 (ePub e-book)

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First Published 2023

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Part 1

Chapter 1

The almost total absence of motion was greeted with immense relief by the twenty-two passengers aboard the hundred and thirty feet long Voorschoten Fluytschip of the Dutch East Indian Company, their home for the past one hundred and thirteen days, when they sailed on the smooth waters of Saldanha Bay on 25 April 1688.

Although, their ultimate destination was the Cape Colony, Captain Frans Villierius had prudently decided to take his ship into the calmer waters of the bay to effect repairs caused by a storm.

In a letter carried by a Hottentot messenger addressed to the Governor of the Colony, Simon van der Stel, at his residence in the castle of Good Hope (today Cape Town), Captain Villierius explained his reason for delaying his arrival.

The governor immediately dispatched the cutter Jupiter to pick up the stranded passengers, among whom was a man by the name of Camille Andre Bertrand de Vallière, accompanied by his wife, Catherine, and their three children, who were part of the first group of twenty-two French Huguenots to arrive in the Colony.

Like many of their compatriots, they had fled their homeland for Holland, following the promulgation of the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 by King Louis XIV who ‘resented the presence of heretics amongst his subjects’. The Edict was the revocation of the Edict of Nantes issued in 1598 by King Henry IV, granting the Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution from the State.

The de Vallières came from the nearby town of Beaucaire and cultivated their vines on a plateau which dominated the city of Nimes.

In the sixteenth century, Nimes had been a very active Calvinist city and one of Camille de Vallière’s ancestors, Bertrand Gaspard de Vallière, had served under the Protestant General of the War of Religion, Francois de Coligny, and when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, Camille de Vallière and his family became targets of persecution.

Fortunate to have escaped to Holland with very few possessions, Camille de Vallière had brought with him precious vine cuttings from his ancestral vineyard, which he intended to cultivate in his country of adoption. He and his family, like many other French Huguenots, settled in a valley located in the Western Cape, that became known as le Coin Français (French corner) and later became Franschhoek, Dutch for ‘French corner’.

The Mediterranean-like climate providing perfect conditions for planting vineyards and fruits. Like a few others, the de Vallières named their farm Beaucaire, to remind them of the area from which they came.

Few, if any of the settlers, could have foreseen that the events in Europe would affect their lives in their new homeland. Many were aware of the long and tangled history of conflicts between the British and the Dutch, but the two nations had become allies for much of the eighteenth century, the Dutch allowing the British fleets to call at the Cape en route to their expanding empire in India.

But in 1795, the Prince of Orange was driven out of the Netherlands by Napoleon, a pro-French Batavian Republic being proclaimed, effectively placing the Netherlands colonial possessions under French influence, and eventually, allowing Napoleon to have control of the Cape and use it as a base from which to cut off the maritime highway upon which so many British interests depended.

Following deep concerns from British strategists, a short-lived occupation of the Cape occurred in 1795, followed by a more powerful force in 1806, wrestling the Cape permanently from French-Dutch control.

Faced with British administrators who were only concerned about the expanding empire, of which they were a part, whole sectors of Boer frontier in the mid-1830s simply removed themselves from British influence and set off into the unknown in a movement known as the ‘trek’.

Inevitably, entanglements occurred with British authority who refused to accept the Boers’ right of independence, with a series of skirmishes between British troops and Boer citizen militia, marking the first steps in a protracted struggle which would intensify, leading eventually into the first Anglo-Boer war in 1880-81 and the second between 1899 and 1902.

Camille de Vallière’s descendants, like many of their neighbours unlike the settlers from the Eastern Cape, stayed put, refusing to get involved in a struggle against a power they knew they could not defeat and simply went on cultivating their plantations and raising their families.

The small body of French Huguenots had a marked influence on the character of Dutch settlers, so much so perhaps, that in 1701, the Dutch East India Company instituted a policy which dictated that schools teach exclusively in Dutch. The consequence being that by the middle of the eighteenth century, the Huguenots ceased to maintain a distinct identity and the knowledge of French disappeared.

When one of Camille de Vallière’s descendants, Albert Henri, married Marguerite Malherbe in 1899. Both only spoke Afrikaans as their first language, with some English as the second one.

It would not be until the 1950s, that some of the de Vallières would reconnect with their ancestral language and culture by taking courses at the French government sponsored Alliance Francaise schools, located in various parts of the country.

By the time André Hugo de Vallière took over as the effective C.E.O. of the Beaucaire winery, following his father’s death in a riding accident in 1930, he and his wife, Christina Helena, had three children of their own. The first born, Hugo, followed by Marguerite and André-Philippe.

The boys had inherited their father’s physique, both being of medium height, with dark hair, brown eyes, roman noses and well-shaped mouths, the whole moulded in slightly rectangular faces. The only striking difference being that Hugo sported a short beard, while André-Philippe preferred a trimmed moustache.

As for Marguerite, she had inherited her mother’s oval face, auburn hair, grey-blue eyes and a rather slim, but straight nose, beneath which fleshy lips always seem to smile, giving the correct impression of an outgoing, happy personality.

The land originally cultivated by the various de Vallières was doing well, its production by 1947 making it one of the best producing and largest wine estate in the Cape Province. Hugo, after receiving a degree in chemistry, had returned to the family business and married Loretta Marie du Plessis, with whom he had three children.

Sister Marguerite had married Christiaan Jean Malan, a pilot flying for South African Airways, and lived near Johannesburg, with their first-born, a boy named Jean-Francois. The youngest, André-Philippe, having chosen medicine, was completing his studies at Cape Town University School of Medicine.

The political climate was about to change, the country being divided between two major factions, with the Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts representing the United Party and the National Party. The United Party had issued a report stating that complete racial segregation in South Africa was not practical and restrictions on African migration into urban areas should be abolished.

The report called the Fagan Report, went against everything the supporters of the National party who wanted to implement a segregationist policy, and on 4 June 1948, Daniel Francois Malan took over as prime minister, and immediately began the comprehensive implementation of segregation, or apartheid.

While politics had never been a subject of great deliberation in the de Vallière’s household, the family nevertheless supported Jan Smuts United Party, agreeing with the Fagan Report. Like their ancestors, the de Vallières had always treated their workers and servants fairly and humanly. The result being that very few of their work force wanted to leave the de Vallière’s employ.

By the time the National Party had taken over the helm of the country, André-Philippe was in the second year of his medical studies, going back home as often as he could. A home now updated in the style of Cape Dutch architecture with a white painted long horizontal structure, double-storeyed with dormer windows, thatch roofing and ornately rounded gables.

It was during his time of residency at the Groote Schuur hospital that he met and fell in love with fellow medical student, Joanna Huxley. They were married in 1956, both eventually joining her father’s medical practice in the Cape Town suburb of Wynberg. The young couple purchased a thatch-roofed cottage in nearby Constancia suburb where Joanna’s parents lived.

Both celebrated their twenty-ninth birthdays that year; their birthdays being only one month apart. Happy and looking forward to their challenging careers, they toasted their future. In August of the following year, Joanna announced that she was pregnant, news greeted with great joy by parents whose only child she was, and by André-Philippe who lost no time in informing his family in Franschhoek.

In the early hours of the morning in mid-October, Joanna woke her husband complaining of a very severe headache, so severe that André-Philippe phoned his father-in-law for an opinion. Very concerned, the Huxleys arrived soon after the call and after a brief consultation the two men decided to take Joanna to the hospital as the symptoms were not those of an ordinary headache or severe migraine.

A short time after her admission, Joanna died of a ruptured aneurism. The devastating news left the Huxleys and André-Philippe in a state of shock, unable to comprehend or even believe that Joanna had been taken away from them.

Returning home, Patricia Huxley was given a sedative and put to bed while both men sat in silence in the lounge, each nursing a whisky, their red-rimmed eyes staring vacantly into space, their medical minds unable, for the time being, to cope with the tragedy.

With the funeral over, it was time for the two doctors to return to their work, and they were glad to do so for their busy schedule would stop them reliving the past events. Patricia Huxley was suffering from depression, and her elder sister, Deidre, a widow, was spending the days with her.

Huxley believing that their closeness would help heal the emotional trauma; both keen gardeners, they often visited the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden nestled at the Eastern foot of Table Mountain, where Patricia found some sort of inner peace.

Christmas that year was a subdued affair; the Huxleys and Deidre attending midnight mass. They were now able to talk about their beloved daughter. The time spent with Deidre obviously helped Patricia on the road to recovery making their relationship closer still.

As for André-Philippe, unable to face the empty house in which he and Joanna had shared so many happy days, decided to visit his family in Franschhoek, now that the religious celebrations were over.

The reason for delaying his travel to Franschhoek was caused by an episode of religious abnegation, beginning in his late teens when religion ceased to interest him. Somehow, and rather suddenly, the mysteries of the dreaded hell, so often quoted by the pastor during services (who always seemed to stare at him when he uttered that word), together with the Judgement Day, among the many, to him, incomprehensible mysteries made no sense.

Religion had simply failed to capture his imagination. He simply never did have sufficient faith in what he could not quite understand to keep these fires burning bright.

Out of respect for his family’s religious belief, and above all, for fear of not being able to explain to his parents why he felt the way he did, to say nothing of having to admit that sin to the pastor, he continued to assiduously attend Sunday church service with his family.

His vivid imagination allowed him to escape the confine of the church and roam freely wherever he chose, blocking off the sounds of the congregation or pastor, as they prayed, sang, all the while keeping a studied expression on his face.

Freedom from religious obligation arrived when he entered university. His interest, apart from his medical studies, leaning towards philosophy, particularly the branch known as ethics.

He read the English biologist and anthropologist, H.T. Huxley’s, definition of what he coined as ‘agnosticism’ and accepted that definition for himself. He would, however, never divulge his new philosophical reasoning to his family for fear of creating confusion and arguments.

After a little while after his arrival, André-Philippe told his family that he needed a change of scenery, too many things reminded him of his life with Joanna, both in the work environment as well as in the house they shared. Seeing their look of surprise and concern, he quickly reassured them that although he had not decided on the location, it would certainly still be in the Cape Province.

It was Trevor Huxley who mentioned the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, a location he and his wife had once visited and liked for its friendliness and scenic attractions.

Take a couple of weeks off, he suggested. You’re bound to enjoy the scenic drive and the city, adding after noticing the frown on his son-in-law’s face. And if you’re worried about the practice, don’t, because we can get a locum easily enough.

Eventually convinced, André-Philippe dropped a suitcase in the trunk of his car and headed for the city by the sea, two days after his replacement had arrived.

It was during an overnight stop in the town of Knysna on the famed Garden