Free The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice De Janze and the Mysterious Death of Lord Erroll by Paul Spicer

early-morning rides would have thrilled her: the beauty of the vistas, the unpopulated landscape, the sense of breadth and possibility, and, above all, the chance to see wild animals in close proximity. When she spied monkeys gamboling in the trees, she expressed a longing to own one as a pet. Joss and Frédéric duly obtained a tame monkey and gave it to her. Alice christened him Roderigo, and he seldom left her side; she carried him shoulder-high everywhere she went.
    Alice would have cut a striking figure in Kenya, monkey at her ear. True to form, she had brought with her a sophisticated collection of Paris fashions and shoes, which she continued to wear, especially whenever she visited Nairobi. At Slains, however, she began to sport the cord trousers and loose blouses preferred by Idina. Like Coco Chanel, who had already shocked French society by wearing men’s clothes, Idina and Alice carried off their masculine look with immense elegance. Alice also had several sets of khaki safari outfits made for her by Ahmed, the tailor in Nairobi, to her own design, complete with wide-brimmed hats and calf-high leather mosquito boots to protect her ankles from bites. Alice probably wore her boots only when visiting lower altitudes, however, as mosquitoes generally cannot survive Wanjohi Valley’s cold nights and high altitudes.
    During their stay, Idina would take Frédéric and Alice by car to the nearby town of Gilgil to collect their mail. Letters from Aunt Tattie and Frédéric’s mother, Moya, were soon arriving care of the post office, filled with news about the children. Alice would write back, regaling the children with tales of her morning rides and the beauty of the African countryside. She described for them the scurrying warthogs and how they would suddenly stop, their tails sticking straight up in the air. She told them about the sweet little dik-dik (tiny antelope with cloven feet) and about the monkeys, especially Roderigo. But despite her eagerness to communicate with her family in France, the truth was that Alice was relieved to be away. She had never been comfortable in her role as a mother. As a child, she had been abandoned, once as a result of her mother’s death and again when she was removed from her father. On some level, she must have been very comfortable with the idea of her children being cared for by Aunt Tattie—after all, this had been her own experience as a child.
    The de Janzés remained in Kenya for three months, a month longer than originally planned. During that time, they met most of the key players in Kenya’s white-settler community. Alice’s charm and good looks captivated many. One of her most important social conquests was Hugh Cholmondeley, the third Baron Delamere, known to everyone as “D.” Thirty years her senior, the baron took a shine to Alice’s beauty and her deep-voiced American drawl. He also liked the fact that she was able to hold her drink, quaffing brandy and soda or pink gin with ease. Acceptance by D counted for a lot in the colonial community of the 1920s. Lord Delamere was the undisputed leader of the Kenyan settlers. He had arrived in Kenya in 1901, plunging his considerable personal wealth and energies into 100,000 acres of land near Njoro and encouraging his aristocratic friends in England to join him. Delamere, like his fellow settlers of all classes, had many setbacks in the beginning, particularly with the cattle he had imported, which quickly caught diseases and died. Over time, he learned to dip his herds to protect them from flies. He also mastered the art of growing wheat, employing a horticulturalist to develop a new variety of grain that would withstand local conditions. He began ranging his sheep on the edge of the Kinangop (a lower ridge of the plateau en route to the Wanjohi Valley), where conditions were clement and where his flocks soon thrived. D’s tireless experimentation in farming often brought him to the brink of bankruptcy, but the wisdom