"Jess"
This is reminiscent of both "Joan Haste" and "Beatrice", as well as "Mary of Marion Isle", in its theme of misplaced love and an eternal triangle.
Jess Croft (23) and her younger sister Bessie (20) are the neices of Silas Croft (70). They have lived with Silas a Mooifontein, in the Transvaal, since they arrived there twelve years before, having left their drunken father in England and sailed to South Africa with their mother. Unfortunately their mother had died on the shipp, and the girls had to make their own way to Mooifontein - with some help from their fellow passengers. Though Jess was only 11 at the time she was greatly affected by her promise to her mother to look after her sister.
Although the household is happy, Bessie and Jess are of quite different natures. Bessie is playful and gentle; Jess is seemingly cold and serious. In fact this hides smouldering emotion, which she keeps carefully in check. The other principal member of the household is the Hottentot Jantje.
As Silas is getting old he arranges for a partner to help with the 6,000 acre farm he has built at Mooifontein. Captain John Niel, a 34 year old 14 year veteran of the British Army, accepts the offer, and arrives on probation. If he proves acceptable he will be taken on for a one-third share for £1,000. Niel, who is inexperienced as a farmer, however much he may know of the world otherwise, arrives to rescue Bessie from an attack by a rogue ostrich.
Bessie is sought by the half-Boer, half-English Frank Muller, the richest man in the Tranvaal. Though rich and handsome, Bessie hates him, and will have nothing to do with him. Jantje also has his own secret reason for hating Muller - he shot his parents and uncle.
Bessie and Niel grow attached. But unfortunately Jess is also drawn to Niel, and the latter is not insensible to the attractions of Jess, who is of a far more spiritual and intellectual stamp than her sister. However when Bessie confesses to her sister that she loves John Niel, and that the feelings are beginning to be reciprocated, Jess vows to herself to not get in her sister's way, in accordance with her mother's request. To be out of the way, and allow Bessie and John to settle matters betwen them, Jess goes to Pretoria for a lengthy stay with friends.
John Niel fought Muller in an argument over the latter's mistreatment of Jantje. Since Muller now suspects Niel is a rival for Bessie, this causes him to hate him more than ever; he tried to shoot him during a hunting party. A cowardly Boer neighbour named Hans Coetzee warned John against Muller, and that the Boers are soon to rebel and proclaim a restoration of a burger republic.
Silas Croft came to rely more an more upon John. Bessie and he agree to marry. Immediately thereafter Muller overtook Bessie in a field and asked her to marry him. He was however frightened off by Jantje wailing in the voice of Muller's long-dead mother.
It is 1880. The Boers rebel, and John resolves to go to Pretoria to bring Jess back before the town is invested by the rebels. He only manages to get through Heidelberg, the rebels capital, by being mistaken for the Bishop of Pretoria's chaplain, and he realises that he is likely to be trapped in Pretoria. This indeed happens.
Niel becomes a sergeant in the Pretoria Carabiniers, but there is not a lot he can do, especially after he is wounded. He and Jess are throen much together. Jess knows that her's is by far the stronger will, and that she can bend John to her will if she chooses to do so.
Hans Coetzee, acting as a messenger for the Boer leadership, the triumvirate, enters Pretoria. He promises Jess to get a pass for them to leave - in consideration of her talking to her uncle about a certain £500 loan outstanding. He tells Muller, who manages to get one from the general (unnamed), one of the triumvirate.
Muller's secret plan is to dispose of John Niel and Jess Croft, so that the way will be open for him to get Bessie. With Jess dead she will also be the heiress of Mooifontein, which he also covets.
At night and during a storm Muller's two henchmen, acting as guard to Niel and Jess, drive their wagon into the Vaal river, away from a ford at which they were aiming. Their vehicle floats however, due to the wind getting under the tent, and although their Zulu servant Mouti is shot, Niel and Jess are unharmed. They remain all night on the river, expecting instant death at any moment. During this time Jess confessed she loved John, and he replied that to his shame he loved her, despite the prior claim of Bessie. To their surprise and disappointment they find that they are still alive in the morning, and manage to get ahore. The discover that the two would-be murderers were killed by lightning during the night and that Muller has fled. They took the two horses of the dead Boers - their own having perished in the river - and rode for Mooifontein. But they are stopped by a party of Boers, and their pass proves insufficient warrant when the latter see that Jess and Niel are riding Boer horses. Bessie is released, and makes for Mooifontein as quickly as she can. Niel is later released by a Boer woman who has a degree of moral ascendancy over her menfolk.
Meanwhile all has not gone well at the farm. Silas Croft continued to fly a large Union Flag, which rankled with his Boer neighbours. Muller sent Bessie a letter telling her Captain Niel was dead - as indeed he believed him to be - through the amiable person of Hendrik, his one-eyed witchdoctor henchman. They don't know whether to believe it or not, but are downcast.
Frank Muller, Hans Coetzee, Hendrik, and a score of Boer neighbours arrived at Mooinfontein, calling upon Silas Croft to give himself up for trial as a traitor to the republic, and for the attempted murder of Coetzee, whom Muller compels to try to arrest Silas. He replied that "I surrender to no rebels against the Queen". But he collapses when he is told that the British Government has made terms with the Boers.
Meanwhile, Hendrik, having asegaied the dog Stomp, who had bitten him on his previous visit, robs the house and then sets fire to it. However Jantje has seen what happened, and hit Hendik on the head and dragged him into the house, where he burns. The Boers are unable to save the house.
Muller threatens to have Silas condemned and shot, unless Bessie agrees to marry him. If she refuses her uncle will be shot and he (Muller) will take her anyway, but without the cover of marriage. Initially she refuses, but after the show trial (which condemns Silas) she finally relents. By this time Jess has arrived, and discovered Jantje hiding near the ruins of the house. She hears Muller and her sister talk, and resolves that the only solution is for Muller himself to die, since he hasn't yet signed the death warrant, and the farmers are in his power and don't really want to shoot their old neighbour.
Jess persuades Jantje to kill Muller, working on his private wrongs, which she has discovered. But he is unable to carry it out, so Jess herself stabs Muller as he lay in his tent. She staggered away to a cave, where she finds John Niel lying exhausted. She falls on him, and expires of exhaustion and fever.
John awakes, is destraught, enters the farm to find all in confusion with Muller dead, and orders that Silas be released. The farmers are happy to do so.
John Niel and Bessie Croft marry. Mooifontein - or what is left of it - is sold, and they move to England, where John becomes land agent on a large estate in Rutlandshire.
This story is like "Joan Haste" and "Beatrice" in that it concerns strong-willed women falling in love where they shouldn't, and tempting men from their lawful allegiance. But whereas Joan was selfish, though she tried to atone for her wrongdoing, both Beatrice and Jess are self-effacing. Jess sacrificed herself for her sister's sake. John Niel is not entirely blameless. There is repeated references to "burnt fingers", so it would seem that he is not without experience. It must be remembered that he was 34, and had seen much of the world. Jess, though the elder sibling, was only 23, and had lived most of her life in a secluded South African farm.
It is also worth noting that there is an historical context which is absent from "Joan Haste" or "Beatrice". Haggard is always more confortable when he has an African setting, and when he can throw in rebellious Boers he is at home. This was published less than a decade after the events which it describes, and Haggard's opinion of the British army and Government is clear. Silas curses both government and homeland when he thinks he is betrayed, and Haggard also seems to feel strongly that the settlers in the Transvaal ought to have been protected against the Boers. The Kafirs (not a term of contempt in Haggards use) are also victims here, suffering in the hands of the oppressive Boers, and looking to the British for help.
Niel is a rather shallow character, a weak man. Jess is far stronger, and is matched by Muller, who is (as Coetzee keeps saying) a devil of a man. But this makes him all the more interesting. Of course it is Jess's story. She is dominant in character, though mostly very reserved. But there is a brooding energy which makes one speculate what her fate would have been had see survived and travelled to Europe as she planned.