ALICE SILVERHORNE - DE JANZE FALLS FOR THE BAD BOY RAYMOND DE TRAFFORD

The people who came to Kenya's Happy Valley in the early 20th century, were people who wanted an escape from the restrictions of their lives, who were searching for something else or more.  

Invited by the pregnant Idina Sackville and her then-husband Josslyn Hay, to visit them at their house called Slains, the de Janzes were introduced to the Happy Valley life.

Idina thought of Alice as her best friend. Now the mother of two small daughters, Alice was not especially enjoying her husband as a lover. During this time Alice and Joss became lovers, just as Idina had planned. I wonder if the two women friends had talked about it and came to an agreement or if it happened naturally.

Perhaps it was the bright African sun, for Kenya was right on the equator, but Alice did feel cured of her depression. However, Alice still must have felt something like "is that all there is?"  She was not besotted with her husband and the affair with Joss made her realize it more so. She did not have designs on Joss as her next husband, but Alice dreaded going home to Europe or America.  So, she and Frederick bought a 600-acre farm and started to build a house on it. (Implied is that it was her money.) After Idina gave birth, her third child and a daughter, in 1926, Alice and Frederick went back to France, to visit their children, which were being raised by his mother. Then they returned to Africa. 

When Alice was introduced to Raymond de Trafford there was an instant attraction. He was 26 and raised Catholic but he had left a trail of broken hearts.  A British aristocrat who was part of Cold Stream Guards, Raymond had escaped having to serve in World War I.  He had recently been to South America where he played polo and went to cattle runs.  Importantly, Raymond was not an heir unlike so many of the Happy Valley Set and had to find a way to make his own money. Not penniless, he bought a small farm which would have to turn a profit. Then he decided that he would trap live African animals and sell them to zoos to earn income.

Now Alice had three men in various stages of relationship with her. Her husband, Frederick, didn't like Raymond but they didn't fight over her either. She also managed to conduct an affair with Raymond without her husband or Joss finding out. The situation didn't please Adina.  Alice knew that her affair with Joss was not the way out her marriage. Joss was on his way out of his marriage with Idina. 

Something I felt aware of as I read the book, The Temptress, was that when it came to money, there were just as many men seeking to marry women with money as there were women seeing to marry men with money.  Idina had married one of the richest men in Great Britain, her first husband David Euan Wallace, but all the money in the world would not have kept her in that marriage. By leaving him, however, she had taken a daring risk - for a woman of those Edwardian times - that was difficult to recover from.

Joss was moving on from Idina, as he had met Mary "Molly" Ramsey-Hill, who was married to Cyril. They lived lavishly.  She had wealth of mysterious origin but perhaps it came from a first husband that she'd married at 16. From that point on, Joss befriended her husband so he could be invited to their impressive home and see Mary. Confident of himself as a seducer, the man certainly seems to have been premeditated in his pursuit, for he would succeed with her.

Frederick came back from a safari with malaria and almost died.  Alice was there for him as he fought the disease. the dutiful wife. In order to overcome the disease, he had to go back to France - alone.  He was medically advised that he should never come back to Africa because another bout of Malaria would kill him.  Alice insisted that their children be in his custody. The heartbroken man left the country and did not argue.  They were Catholic - no divorce.

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