The head housemaid Maria had gone out of the room, and Paddy was now alone with his wife Pola and their son.
The landlord kneeled by the right side of the marital bed and kissed a couple of times the right hand of the Mistress of the house who was sitting upright and leaning against the headboard.
Paddy silently implored the heavens to restore her, for she was pale and visibly still exhausted by the baby's delivery.
Pola observed her husband for quite a while without saying a word since the latter had entered a quiet meditation.
And as soon as the baron was done praying, the Mistress of the house looked at him straight in the eyes, a bit vexed, and questioned him about his whereabouts when he left the manor along with their infant and the driver Lungelo by the end of the afternoon.
Paddy saw the anger on Pola's face and given the circumstances, he didn't want her to get more upset and thus deteriorate her health.
So he begged her to lie on the bed as he was also going to do so and recount to her the whole story.
The landlord took off his jacket which he ranged in the wardrobe at the left corner of the room and remained with the rest of the pieces of his suit.
Thereafter he removed his black and white Oxford shoes which he left on the foot of the bed, then jumped on the mattress and lay by the left side.
Paddy fixed his gaze on his spouse Pola and patted her disheveled hair before tenderly kissing her on the cheek.
Then he began the tale. He first started by reminding the Mistress of the house about the genesis of the birth of their infant.
He recalled her of his dream, while being on his sickbed nine months ago and fearing death, in which a good spirit announced to him that he wasn't going to pass away and would get an heir, for she would become pregnant with a son.
He then retold her about the bad spirit who threw a spell of deafness and dumbness upon their child along with a curse of poverty upon him at the kid's first sunset.
Paddy went on and revealed to his wife that when he carried the infant in the afternoon right after his birth, the evil spirit came to the room and spoke to him mystically, mocking him, for the spell was soon going to be effective.
The landlord explained to his spouse that he hence took a moment to supplicate the sky to have mercy upon him and do something to reverse the spell.
And while he was sitting behind his desk, an angel appeared to him and ordered him to go right away to the Ngwempisi river and baptize the newborn with its holy water.
Paddy told Pola that this was why he took the infant from her and left the manor in a hurry with his driver Lungelo.
He disclosed to her that on the way to the stream, the car faced a low fuel issue and they had to find in an emergency another means to reach the holy water before sunset.
The landlord continued the story by telling the Mistress of the house about the grace of God upon them as they found a bike with apparently no owner that was pulled over on the side of the road and which Lungelo used to finish the last remaining kilometer to Ngwempisi river.
Paddy then concluded the tale by recounting to his wife the happy ending, for they reached just before the sunset the coast of the stream and he baptized his heir and himself with the holy water.
And when the landlord thought he had related everything to Pola, he remembered about the indeliberate savior of the day, the bike owner, the young Siyabonga who ran after them to the shore and took back his two-wheeler.
Paddy detailed to Pola that at first the young man was pissed off because they had taken his bike without him knowing, but ultimately he turned into the nicest man in the world and helped them with a can of fuel which they used to refill his black Jaguar and return to Mankayane.
The baron told his wife that he had thus invited Siyabonga to the manor house tomorrow morning and intended to give the youngster special treatment for his kindness.
Pola heard attentively the Master of the manor and was very pleased and hoped the holy water had indeed cast away the spell.
She thereupon looked at her husband and asked him what was the name of the infant, to which he replied: "Churchill Junior".
TO BE CONTINUED...