Maud was still up when I arrived.

‘It’s getting worse,’ she said when I came in, lowering the book she’d been reading. She was wearing a plain black dress and I saw new shadows under her eyes.

‘What is?’

‘Everything, I suppose. We can safely say the rains have failed this year.’

‘There’ll be other years.’

‘But not enough money.’ She closed the book and stood up. ‘And one of the totos has leprosy – we’ve never had it here before.’

‘Oh God.’

‘I don’t want to fail them, Theo. I’ve been writing letters to the newspapers, to Parliament, but all the money’s being diverted in case of war.’

‘You can’t help it.’

‘But they’re so dependent on us. If we’d devolved even a little bit of power before now, given them more land, maybe they wouldn’t be dragged down with us.’

‘But we didn’t.’

‘No, poor them. Bulawayo’s been talking to the others – Joseph told me. He’s been saying they’ll be sent off to fight, the white masters will send them to die first.’

‘Cheeky devil.’

‘Is he?’ She started pacing in front of me. ‘We’ve done it before. I tried to tell him I wouldn’t let them take him, any of them. I said we needed them here more than they were needed to fight. He listened to me, but I don’t know if he believed me. And now he won’t talk to Joseph – he keeps saying Joseph is making trouble for him.’

I put my arms around her, stopping her in her tracks. ‘Never mind Bulawayo, anyway. How’s Father?’

‘He keeps asking about you, how it’s going in the office.’

‘MacDonald’s alright.’

‘I’m worried about him.’

‘He’s pretty dour, but he’ll settle in.’

‘Not MacDonald.’ She pushed me away, but I saw her lips twitching.

‘I’m going to bed, Spanish.’

‘Do you want a drink before you go?’

‘Not tonight. How about we take the boat out tomorrow?’

‘We’ll see.’

There was a shuffling sound behind me. ‘Is that you, Maud?’ My father tottered into the sitting room in a white nightshirt. I was shocked by his appearance. His eyes were dark, and swivelled disconcertingly, but the rest of him was the same colour as his clothes.

‘What are you doing up?’ Maud asked.

‘I heard voices. Who’s this?’

‘It’s Theo, Daddy.’

I looked down at my feet, a vein throbbing in my forehead. This was all Freddie’s fault, I told myself, and hated him even more.

‘Theo,’ my father said. ‘You must be the man of the house now, look after your sister and your mother.’

‘I will.’

Maud crossed over to him and took his elbow. ‘Let’s not worry about that now. We should get you back to bed.’