A VERY SPECIAL WEEKEND
God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.
Isak Dinesen
Lewis Lyon's estate in Mombasa
The weekend at Lewis Lyon’s magnificent estate in Mombasa over looking Lamu Island from a steep bluff, was profitable and unbelievably wonderful. Gina Genet Lyon, Lewis’ wife took to Alexandra Delamere as Alexandra warmed to the sharp and innovative Gina who has increased her husband’s coffers by running three major boutiques in his Mall in the Mara not to mention helping start his astounding construction company. Gina has also borne two lion cubs with Lewis using the French procedure. For a multibillionaire couple they are as happy and wholesome as clams. The Greek shipper that spoke with Shane was a charming man of older years. He wanted to sell his shipping line and Shane's Simba pride had been a potential buyer. Glitches took place with the Simba pride not wanting to engage in further investments beyond their already booming resorts in the Mara and Mombasa. When Shane told Lewis of this matter, the lion tycoon had a solution.
“Shane, I’ll front the money for the shipping line. We’ll be partners, if that suits you. You can pay me off for half of my interests when the money begins to accrue. With the new ports being built in Mombasa, it should be a lucrative arrangement for both of us. Your being president doesn’t hurt matters a bit either.”
“Are you sure, Lew?”
“My dad handpicked you to follow him in the presidency. He thinks the world of you. He’s the one that suggested that I do this if your pride didn’t come across.”
“Let’s put the deal together, Lewis. I can’t think of anyone I would be more pleased to have as a business partner than you.”
So that weekend, amidst a great deal of celebration and increasing camaraderie, Lewis and Shane became partners in a shipping venture incorporated as Simba-Lyon Shipping. And that, my friends, is how the two most powerful lions in Kenya’s history became linked in business. They also remain the best of friends and tennis partners.
On Saturday night, after a day of boating and water sports off of the presidential yacht, they repaired to Lewis and Gina’s home on the bluff and ate a wonderful meal. Much later in the guestroom overlooking the indigo moonlit Indian Ocean, Shane and Alexandra kicked back.
“So you are to be a shipping magnate too?” teased Alexandra tickling Shane’s face with a feather from the plush pillows adorning the bed.
“I am and would prefer to be one with a gorgeous new wife at my side,” he said, rolling her on her back and kissing her.
“Have you ever gotten married on a beach?”
“No, I can’t say that I have done that."
“I would like to marry on the beach someday. I think it would be so romantic.”
“Marry whom on the beach, Alex?” he asked.
“How about you, for starters?” she laughed.
“How about me for finishers?”
“Of course, that is exactly what I meant, wonder boy.”
“Are you being serious or just putting me on which is a habit of yours?”
“I am very serious. I have tested you as far as is needed, you have played out well,” she said, trying to give him a kiss.
The kiss failed to land. He was out of the bed in a snap. He pulled her with him, holding her tightly against him until she could hear his thudding heart.
“Alex, let’s marry here and now at Lewis and Gina’s house?”
‘Whoa, we can’t put that on them. They have been such splendid hosts already,” she protested – but to no avail.
When Shane and Alexandra went down stairs, Gina and Lewis were still on the front veranda. When told that the lion president and the human descendant of a former colonial governor of Kenya wanted to wed, Lewis and Gina were delighted. Sharing a bottle of the most expensive champagne available, the foursome planned a wedding on the lawn in front of the Lyon’s home which provided a view of the beach and ocean. It was decided that this choice would afford more privacy. To counteract a great deal of publicity, Gina and Lewis would be the only guests and serve as those standing with the couple to be wed. A full guest list arriving on the premise would alert the jackals of the paparazzi.
Alexandra and Shane on his yacht before the wedding....
I picked up the phone in my office at the State House. It was Shane Simba. I knew he was spending the weekend with the Lyons in Mombasa but thought he would be in the office today. It was still early.
“Maurice, I am still at Lewis’ home. I will be out of pocket for a few days. Please call a press conference and tell the reporters that I have married Alexandra Delamere. We married yesterday afternoon at Lewis and Gina’s home. They were the only guests. We needed complete privacy so there wouldn’t be a media storm.”
I was astounded but managed to keep my cool, assuring him I would take care of matters.
“Is there anyone else you want me to inform?” I asked.
“No, I’ve already called Staci. Sean’s at school and the others are too young to care that much,” he said. “I’ll be back in the Mara in a few days. I have to give my new wife some of my undivided time before I reach there,” he chuckled.
When I called in Wilda Wildebeest and his press secretary Amy Chui, Wilda was decidedly unmoved by the romance of an elopement at a dear friend’s ocean home.
“That prick,” she honked in disgust.
Amy looked crestfallen. She had hoped to get a piece of Shane’s action, I think.
At two that afternoon when the media had gathered on the lawn of the State House for their appointed press conference, there was bedlam when Amy announced the marriage. My main thing was to get to Betty before she watched the evening news. I made my way to my home on Leoparde Drive earlier than usual and poured myself a stiff drink.
And in the Seychelles on their honeymoon....
I walked slowly to Betty’s house. I was in no hurry to impart my message. I owed her this one though. Betty is the one that told me that my lover Lawrence Leoparde had died in Montecore’s Paris apartment in what seems eons ago, my being cosseted now in the caring presence and love of Lachlan. Babs answered Betty’s door and led me to where she sat on her veranda, laptop in tow.
“Oh Maury, it’s time for sundowners. Let’s have one together,” said Betty, giving me a hug.
I let her make drinks for us, feeling like a two bit traitor in doing so. I was about to cut her throat emotionally and was allowing her to make us libations in her kitchen with a freaking smile on her face. Finally we were seated on Betty’s redecorated veranda with a view of the new tree that had replaced the one under which Betty had married Shane Simba.
“Betty, Shane married Alexandra Delamere yesterday. He only told us today,” I blurted out.
She reacted as I thought she would. She screamed “Oh God” and dropped her drink which smashed on the tile floor into smithereens. She curled in a fetal ball on the chaise in which she had been sitting and moaned wretchedly. Babs and I tried to offer some form of comfort. Betty was having none of it. I finally placed a call to Lachlan at the mental health center which I rarely do. When he answered I told him about the news and one local reaction.
“I’ll be there with a sedative. You and Babs just sit tight,” he told me.
Thank God, Wilda arrived just as Babs and I were placing cold cloths on Betty’s head. Things began to pop. Joshua and Jason Simba came home too, bringing Solly from his soccer practice. The twins, Jalil and Tarek, at the commotion, came to the veranda followed by their nannies. I paced frantically waiting for Lachlan’s arrival with the magic elixir that would knock out the anguished Betty. When Lachlan did arrive, he took another approach. He sat next to Betty on the chaise, taking her hand in his large paw.
“Betty, I hate to knock you out. You will only have to wake up again and absorb this. You knew it would happen and you have already moved on with your life. How about a few drinks with friends instead of an injection?”
“Oh, Lachlan, this is killing me,” she sobbed.
“Let’s go with the drink then. Maybe close friends can offer comfort and your children are here,” he said soothingly.
The doorbell rang. Babs hastened to the hall. She came back followed by Staci Simba Mnyama.
“I knew this would be a shock to Betty so I wanted to be here too,” she announced to those assembled around the stricken member in the chaise. “I just found out late yesterday, myself. It’s already all over the news right now.”
Betty stood up shakily and embraced her former stepdaughter who had been courageous and thoughtful enough to come to her side.
“It’ll be okay, Betty,” crooned Staci. “You know Daddy. He’ll probably be divorced again in less than a year.”
Solly, standing aside in the near crush of animals, asked, “What about Daddy?”
All eyes turned on him. “Sweetheart, Daddy married again,” explained Betty.
“Did he marry Johanna?” asked Solly.
“No, Solly, he married Alexandra,” said Staci in clarification of the matter which held the young cub in a state of confusion.
"Who?" inquired the puzzled Solly.
In the penthouse in Lyon Towers Johanna was watching the evening newscast. Fortunately, she was in the company of her new best friends, Chloe Cougar and Chris Simba. She went into premature labor and had to be taken by Chris and Chloe to the Exotic Animal Clinic where she lost her baby. It was four days before Shane found out. By that time, Johanna was recuperating in Chloe Cougar’s penthouse with Chris Simba hovering about. When Shane did find out by way of Sam Simba through his father-in-law, Dr. Frank Tigeres, Shane was saddened but slightly relieved. He turned his penthouse over to Johanna for as long as she wanted to live there but called on her only once and very briefly. Like Betty and Jane Leoparde, the Shane Simba chapter was closed for Johanna.
Shane mentioned nothing of Johanna’s miscarriage to Alexandra, preferring to wait until they were settled in the new bush home which was completed and decorated by CHANGING SPOTS. He now asked the same design studio to redo the mansion so he could start life anew with his bride. The newlyweds spent three idyllic days in the Seychelles on a brief honeymoon. The paparazzi stampeded them whenever they made even a remotely public showing.
The newlyweds arriving in the Masai Mara from the Seychelles....
The next big piece of news to hit us was the announcement made by Lewis Lyon that he and Shane Simba were in the shipping business together. I waited for the flack from that bit of information but none was forthcoming. The world was enchanted with President Shane Simba and his human bride; they cared nothing for the fact that the lion leader would join the ranks of the animal moguls of Kenya in this our new age. The populace of Kenya was also enthralled with Shane Simba and his charismatic dealings with internal problems and international issues. He was further improving our lives which had been Ralph Lyon's legacy to his country. Kenya felt their lion leader was entitled to his personal wealth and happiness. The only ones that harbored ill feelings toward him were his former inamoratas and ex-wife.
Alexandra had four of her horses transported to the bush house in the Masai Mara. She would still have to oversee her plantations in the Kenyan Highlands so with that in mind she signed on for flying lessons. For Alexandra Delamere Simba, there would be no sitting around mooning over her new husband, although she loved him greatly. She would still be a woman of properties and a full life of her own. As Lachlan had already gleaned, Alexandra is no clinging vine. In fact, she is such a non-clinging and independent sort, she had not even shared the news of her own pregnancy with him.
The new Mrs. Shane Simba on one of her horses at the bush home...
Johanna, Chloe Cougar and Chris Simba had become such a tight threesome that one night over multiple drinks they decided to get in bed together. This was very new and heady stuff for the formerly lackluster older brother of Shane Simba. With the buxom and sexy leopardess and his brother’s former human lover of great beauty, Chris was in sexual heaven. The two lived conveniently in the same building with him. Chris began to go about with a new spring in his step. His mode of dress became less stale and formal. He took on a new vibrancy and relished the fact that those under his supervision as the director of the Nathan Leoparde Memorial Foundation, had no idea of his saucy and titillating private life – nor would they have ever guessed.