The following tale was meant to raise questions about our deepest loyalties. There have been several news articles about keepers and animal enthusiasts who have trusted their big cats too far. George Adamson once destroyed one of his favourite lions when it killed one of his friends and assistants. But it was my mother who once told me of the famous circus performer Clyde Beatty who might easily have died from wounds received when he was once mauled. I think it was this incident more than any others that helped me shape some of the events in ‘Rivalry’.

RIVALRY

Regina looked for what might have been the hundredth time at her son in the cage with Uhura the great lioness - watched him fussing the mighty predator behind her ears with all the familiarity he might use on her own Persian Blue. Regina knew he was in no danger. He had kept Uhura in his safari park complex since her birth. Her history was not that of another Elsa because she had known no other life but the cosy prison of the Gates family’s five hundred acre estate. The great cat was very special to him, that other history she might have had as a huntress and killer on the Serengeti would never be written.

“How he loves that animal!” said Regina taking a long, cool drag on her Players king-size.

She was stating the obvious. Her husband Andrew and she had, if the truth be known, little left to say to each other. Although he was keeping her company at the breakfast table, he was busily engrossed in his morning paper as they sat on the verandah at Regina’s splendid country house.

Regina, blond and well-manicured and immaculately turned out, contemplated her nails.“It’s funny, really. I know he’s safe; I can feel it in my heart; that animal feels a special something for him - always has.............. and yet -”

Andrew, her husband, was in fact listening - well, sort of. He looked over the top of his newspaper at the beautiful Uhura and his son at play. He knew what Regina was thinking - one blow from the lioness and there would be no more Peter Gates. Uhura would not even need to bite. She was in her prime - two hundred and fifty pounds or so - kept fit and well - all her dinners provided - a huntress who had, as far as they knew, never killed. One blow from the great tawny queen and it struck him as ironic (though he did not say so) that Peter might just as well have called the cat Alice as anything else...............

“He’s safe enough,” said the husband. Andrew never quarrelled with Regina. She was - yes - spoilt and talkative and it was true he felt no passion for her now as he had once; but she was very wealthy, had been when he had married her and still was now. She had kept him in comfort all their married lives - made work an option for him, and he was decent enough to be grateful to her for that.

“If only,” Regina was saying to him, “if only.........”

And he knew what was coming next. Strange, he thought, how little he and his wife talked nowadays while still contriving to communicate a great deal.

She wanted to say to him how much she wished that Peter and Alice could be happier in their marriage, in their life together. If only she could feel that there was a future for Peter and Alice, that he still needed to be with her instead of fooling about out here at eight in the morning, fussing over this great cat which, of all his safari collection, he loved best.

There was no need for Peter to be out here just now. He had John and Andy and Kate and Rachel and ten others to run the park for him. Peter could have a lie-in any time he liked - be with Alice more - take her on holiday somewhere nice.

Andrew Gates did not wait for Regina to finish what she had to say. He had heard it all before. In his time he had been only too pleased to play consort to this wealthy woman, but he could not bleed for their son’s mismatch - 

“They’ll have to sort it out themselves, dear. You’ve got to let them deal with it.”

“But they used to be so good together! They were - they ARE such a good-looking pair. You know what I mean, Andrew. Do you remember how it was at the Café Royale, and at the Reunion Ball? Oh, I don’t know what to think! I sometimes wonder if you’re even listening to me!”

“I am listening, Regina.”

She looked away from the red nails and the lioness and the cage and turned to her husband just to see what exactly he meant by that -

But he was already looking at her, waiting.

“We’ve been over all this before, darling.”

“He’s my son, Andrew!”

“And mine too - and frankly he should have sent her packing after that summer she had with whatsisname!”

Regina sighed. The trouble was that Alice was her sort of woman - so pretty - so educated - so good for her son to be seen with - 

Regina had heard rumours even before the marriage that Alice had a history, might prove tricky - but Peter had been so very, very fond of his glamorous secretary - so much in love - and there had been nothing they need ever want for - no need for Alice to go hunting elsewhere when all her needs could be provided here. Julia, Regina’s best friend, had advised her that it might not end up as the perfect match and Regina had resented the advice, thinking Julia to be a jealous bitch.

Why did Alice have to be so very lovely?

The quarrels had followed as a natural part of the saga - such angry, unpleasant words! Regina had unsuspectingly come upon the two of them one day and it had been more than enough to convince her. All couples argue but there had been something so final about this - something so close to truth where you simply could not pretend.

When Peter Gates sat down on his bottom in the enclosure, Uhura came right up to him and nuzzled him with all the affection a woman might have given. How big Uhura was and how powerful and yet there had never been so much as a suggestion that she might hurt him. In Peter’s view it was only his mother, Regina, who had harboured any fears. She would insist that he keep his favourite enclosed; that is why the reinforced netting was there as a barrier now, keeping his mother safely at her breakfast on the patio. 

 Just in case - just in case - remember Clyde Beatty and half a dozen others............

After a while, Peter left Uhura in her prison and came over to speak his mother.

Alice, his wife, hated the safari park and had urged him to give it up. His parents, Andrew and Regina, were not wholeheartedly behind his plans either; but they did agree that, where Alice was concerned, the wayward wife, would have found something else to protest about.

“When he liked U2 and Bon Jovi, she liked soul music and rap or anything that he didn’t like,” observed Andrew shrewdly. Andrew had, after all, known how to be grateful for all he had received by marrying wealth.

Regina saw her son approach. Her thoughts were on Alice whom she had heard that day - heard the harsh words - 

“You think more of the fucking animals than me! I notice that when mummy dear wants something, she doesn’t have to ask and plead!”

“The animals are special - the use of the estate for their enclosures has been a massive success - people come from all over!”

“To see what - your prisoners? I’m not here to have my life run by you, Peter! I won’t be told! And as for your precious creatures - if you truly loved them, you’d let them be free! Look at the name you give to your most precious pet! Uhura! Named from your precious ‘Star Trek’! And do you know, I wonder, what the name actually means?

“She was named, if you must know, after a novel I once read - about the Mau Mau in Kenya.” 

“What the hell does it matter?”

“The word means ‘freedom’, Alice - I do happen to know!”

“Then set her free! Stop keeping her a prisoner here!”

The storm had ended abruptly but only after Alice had raged on for a while longer. The storm was now over - but the dreadful business of their marriage was not.

Alice had considered leaving him. She felt that it might be too early for a divorce but, she thought she might leave. She could not forgive herself for the crucial error she had made - the error of thinking that what they had shared in London with the same college and the same friends and a few parties - that these things were enough.

Now she was trapped - caged in this bloody estate with no one to blame but herself.

And Alice felt alone and misunderstood and she found that she resented all that his people had done for her.

Alice was indeed very beautiful - a beautiful, blond haired woman of medium height with a fine figure. When dressed for the ball she looked stunning; when making her first appearance of the day, as she did now, in T-shirt and jeans, she still looked alluring. Men had always found her so and perhaps that was part of the trouble.

Alice was alone and she hated her life here on the frontier in this fine country house; and she had cried a great deal just lately because she was so depressed and unhappy.

As she came out by the patio that day, she saw the golden boy and his interfering, super-wealthy mother before her, and she wanted to be free of them and all their possessions - wanted to have back, above all, the one thing she could not have - the peace of mind that gives true freedom. But, as she knew, there could be no freedom, so she wanted to give some hurt to those who were hurting her.

Uhura strode up and down the reinforced mesh of the enclosure, the great gate closed against her. Alice had heard some gossip from the workers about the great lioness. Peter had apparently tried to keep it hidden, but the truth was that the cat had got loose once and killed two cows. It was clear proof, mused the unhappy wife, that the mighty predator did yearn for her freedom after all and had seized this one opportunity to be her true self.

But the golden boy that was her husband was never going to listen to her plea about dismantling the safari park. She saw him before her now, his attention so dutifully bestowed upon his doting mother.

And it was then that Alice realised that the freedom was hers to give if she chose, and the wonder of it made her catch her breath. How simple it was, this chance to strike a blow for liberty; so simple that she found herself moving quietly and stealthily towards the enclosure - unnoticed she went ever nearer to the high gate - and she thought, “I will do it! Give her that freedom -”

Like a dreamer she crept - ever closer - in a dream she came ever nearer to the huntress. The dream went on, taking Alice where she had never been before - into the enclosure..........

.............. and suddenly her rival became aware that the two of them were sharing the same space and a million years of instinct - or jealousy - seemed to possess Uhura as she gathered herself......

Alice had not even heard the call from her mother-in-law - nor was she aware of her husband’s acceleration as he charged for the rifle kept in its place reserved for emergencies. Reluctantly Peter had agreed to this safety measure when the first dangerous animals had been brought to the estate.

Uhura’s yellow eyes focused on the intruder and the gleam in them was one of hatred. The great muscles tensed and all the killer in her surfaced.

Alice was frozen with terror; she lost her sense of where the open gate was, of what she was doing. All she saw was the cat become a killer, crouched and moving and ready to bring that terrible end the unhappy wife had so wanted just lately, and which was now on its way........

Peter Gates shot Uhura dead with seconds to spare. It was a headshot. He only needed one. He had always been a good marksman. The lioness died instantly.

He did not look at his terrified wife at first. Instead he moved to where the huge cat lay - his steps were those of a man in shackles - and he bent down and ruffled the dead ears which were all that was left of the once stunning head.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a quiet, mournful voice. “But you would have killed her.”