‘Piet’s future? That’s all you two ever think about! Piet’s future! Piet goes to college in South Africa, Piet goes to Scotland to further his studies, Piet stays in Langani. Pa gives up everything to keep the farm safe for Piet! Don’t get me wrong, Ma, I love Piet and I’m glad he got all those chances. But what about me? Do you and Pa never think about my future? You’ve put a farm manager you hardly know on Langani while Piet’s away, and you’ve given up your home to come down to this – this shit hole!’

‘Hannah!’

‘No. Let me finish. You’ve paid for Piet to go to Scotland, and Pa is doing a crummy job down here that he hates. He’s being exploited, used as cheap labour, and sent out into the bush to fight for a lost cause, for a place that isn’t his. There’s no chance of things ever being any better for him, as long as he stays here. And there’s nothing left in the treasure chest for me. Is there? Is there, Ma? No money for me to go to a university in South Africa, to go anywhere or do anything! All I get is a stupid business course in a second-rate secretarial college in the back of nowhere. I’m living out here in the middle of tobacco fields with the rats and the cockroaches, and no future. No future, do you hear me? I never wanted to leave Kenya. You knew that, but you wouldn’t let me stay in Nairobi and do my course there. Then at least I could have gone home to Langani in my time off, once Piet went back. I could have helped out, worked there. Why couldn’t I have stayed?’

‘Hannah, Hannah, we’ve been over this already. We couldn’t leave you on your own in Kenya. You were too young, and there wasn’t enough—’

‘Exactly. There wasn’t enough money to provide for me, because it was all being ploughed into bloody Piet’s bloody future!’

‘Hannah! Watch your mouth! That’s enough now. Pa and I were trying to do what was best.’

‘Oh yes? And is this what’s best for me? To stay here and watch Pa drinking himself to death and making life hell for both of us? We have to put up with his temper and his self-pity because of something he did years ago, that has come back to haunt him. Is that it? Well, you shouldn’t let him do that – you shouldn’t let him treat you like he does. If he can’t pull himself together, you should leave, and so should I. We should both go now – today!’

Lottie had reached out a hand in sympathy to her daughter, and winced as Hannah pulled away.