I searched the drawers until I found a long, wooden spoon and handed it over. She began stirring dreamily. Now I looked properly I could see she was exhausted. Her eyes were half-closed and she was almost swaying.

‘Let me do that,’ I said. ‘You go and lie down.’

‘I’m fine,’ she said, stirring more quickly.

‘You’re dead on your feet.’

‘No, I want to stay. I haven’t seen you for a while.’

‘I’ve been busy.’

‘Drawing up timetables?’

‘Something like that.’

She laid down the spoon and peered underneath the cloth covering a nearby tray. ‘He’s left bread, too.’

‘I ran into Freddie the other day,’ I said, opening the oven door for her. ‘He sends his love.’

‘Oh?’

‘I didn’t tell him you disapprove of him.’

‘I know he’s your friend.’ She slid the tray into the oven. ‘And he’s very charming.’

‘But –’

‘But. He has so much power, and he thinks of others so little.’

I grinned. ‘He talks a good talk, but he’s not Prime Minister. Yet, anyway.’

‘Not just politically.’ She wiped the flour from her hands onto her skirt. ‘He could order his totos to wear rags and bark like dogs and they’d have to.’

‘He wouldn’t.’

‘But he could, because he’s got the money and the land and he’s in charge. But he’s only that way because he was born somewhere else and born with money.’ She picked up the spoon again. ‘That’s what his type don’t understand – they blame people who don’t have the same opportunities for not doing as well in life, instead of being grateful for their own privileges.’

‘Freddie works hard at his farming. They all work hard at it. An aristocratic background doesn’t exactly guarantee success there.’

‘But it does mean failure isn’t a matter of life or death.’

I shrugged. ‘Alright, what about Father then? You know we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the railway.’

‘But –’

‘We took Kenya and Uganda as territories when they were just a bunch of natives and built the railway so Uganda could have access to the coast for trade. And then we needed to pay for it, so the government encouraged the settlers to come and farm. And they needed land, so the government took it from the Africans.’

‘I know.’

‘If you want to blame the Africans’ lack of opportunities on something you can’t forget the role he played.’

‘I know.’

She looked so bothered I put my arm around her shoulder, smiling. ‘Don’t take it so badly. If we hadn’t done it, someone else would have.’

‘That’s not an excuse.’

‘You want to farm, don’t you?’

‘That doesn’t mean I don’t want them to have their own land, or be able to farm for themselves. I want to provide employment. I want to give something back.’