Got to go. Will be in touch again soon. This is just to let you know I’m home. I have a lot of new ideas – I’ll describe some of them in my next letter. I can’t wait to get started!

Love to you all.

Piet

Hannah felt tears burning behind her eyes. He had plans. He couldn’t wait to get started. And this Lars was going to be asked to stay on. She couldn’t bear the idea that she would have no part in it. She would be trapped here in this awful place where she would rot, homesick and lonely in her desolate prison. For a moment, she hated Lars with an unreasonable intensity. Then she carried Piet’s letter into the kitchen. Jan was sitting at the table. He had come in from a patrol early in the morning and he was still wearing his dust-covered clothes. In front of him was an untouched plate of cold meat and cheese that Lottie had prepared before she went out. His eyes looked burned in their sockets and he had not shaved. He reached for a bottle of whisky and sloshed a measure into a glass. His hands were shaking a little as he poured.

‘There’s a letter from Piet. Do you want to see it?’ Hannah saw him look up, but he did not answer. ‘I said there’s a letter from Piet—’

‘Show it to your mother when she comes in.’ Jan’s voice sounded hoarse. ‘Where’s she gone anyway?’

‘To deliver the sewing to Mrs Kruger. She’s making chair covers for her, remember?’ Hannah’s answer was clipped and surly. ‘Not that you really care where any of us are,’ she added in an undertone.

‘What did you say?’ Jan’s head came up, and he winced at the sudden movement.

‘I said, “Not that you care”. That’s what I said.’ She spoke very clearly, glaring down at him.

Jan half rose from the chair, his face flushed. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean, heh?’ He sank down again, heavily, and reached for the bottle. Hannah leaned forward and jerked it from his hand.

‘It means that you don’t care about anything any more, except turning yourself into a sodden mess with this stuff! Look at yourself, Pa. Just look at yourself. Ma is working every hour of the day every day of the week to keep this family together. And all you do is come back from work and lie around drunk, and give her abuse. You’re destroying your life, and ours as well! You won’t even have this lousy job for long if you go on like you are now. And then what do we do?’ She took the bottle to the sink, and started to pour the contents away.

‘Give me that!’ Jan had surged to his feet in fury. ‘Give me that now!’