The cat reached my mother and started to rub himself against her leg, purring and arching his back. My mother reached down and scratched his head, and I suddenly wondered what it would feel like to be him, to stroke my face against her long, smooth leg, and have her fingers gently massage the ticklish spot just behind my ears. I looked away from the two of them.

‘How much longer before we reach Nairobi?’ I asked.

‘Oh, sixteen hours or more,’ my father said.

‘Is it as far as Edinburgh to London?’ Maud asked.

‘Much further.’ He dabbed his mouth with his napkin. ‘That’s why it took so long to build. That and the lions, of course.’

‘The lions?’

‘In Tsavo,’ my father said. ‘Slave trader caravans used to cross the river there, and two lions developed a taste for human flesh. They must have been eating the bodies of dead captives left by the wayside before we showed up.’

Maud put down her cutlery.

‘They ambushed the workers at night and dragged them off. After a while most of the workers ran away – we had a devil of a time trying to get them back. The lions ate more than a hundred men until Patterson found them and shot them.’ He shook his head. ‘He took them home as rugs. Beautiful specimens.’

When we returned to the carriage, the guards had made up our bunks with crisp sheets, soft pillows and blankets. Our parents were in the compartment next door, and I shared with Maud. I lay on my top bunk, unable to sleep. After an hour or so I jumped down and stood by the window.

‘What are you doing?’ Maud asked.

‘Surveying my kingdom.’

She got out of bed and stood next to me, wrapping her arms around herself. ‘Do you think there’ll be wild animals there? By our house, I mean.’

‘Of course there will be.’

‘I want to see an elephant. And a tiger.’

‘Tigers are in India, Spanish. Africa’s got lions, and hyenas. And leopards.’ I turned to face her, leaning back against the window. ‘You know they live in trees, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you have to look up when you’re in a forest. Otherwise they could drop down behind you and bite you here,’ I put my hand to my throat, ‘and drag you back up and we’d never find you.’

‘They don’t eat humans,’ Maud said.

‘They eat everything.’

‘Stop trying to frighten me.’

‘It’s no fun if you don’t actually get frightened anyway.’

‘Mother says we can have a dog here.’

‘She won’t really let us.’

Maud looked up at me, wide-eyed. ‘But she promised.’

‘When I’m older and I have my own house,’ I said, ‘you can live with me and we’ll get a dog.’

‘Are you going to move out soon?’

‘Why? Do you want me to go?’