‘Who’s this Simon? Piet was going on about him last night.’ Camilla helped herself to another bowl of porridge. ‘I need this, by the way, to ward off the shock of getting up at this hour.’

‘You’ll need a size up in clothes, for your next shoot,’ Sarah said.

‘Who cares?’ Camilla waved her spoon in the air. ‘Bring on more cream and sugar, I say. And bacon and eggs and toast, and a cold beer before lunch. Oh, and afternoon tea, of course, with honey from your bees, Han. So, what about Simon?’

‘He’s a young Kikuyu I’ve taken on,’ Piet said. ‘He’ll be good in the lodge when it opens. He’ll look after the reception area. Under Hannah’s eagle eye, of course. But he’s coming on well.’

‘Just don’t get carried away over that boy, Piet,’ Hannah warned him. ‘You always see the best in people, but you need to look more carefully sometimes. You can’t give an inch to any of them. These days especially. Look at old Kamau. He’s been the cook at Langani for more than twenty-five years and he’s one of the family. But he’s still upset that you gave Simon the job he wanted for his son. Even though I’m training David to be a cook. Kamau can’t get that into his head, and he’s been sulking for weeks.’

‘Aren’t things different since Independence, though?’ Sarah asked. ‘I mean, Africans have a better chance to train for all kinds of jobs they never did before. They don’t have to settle for being houseboys and shamba boys and ayahs all their lives. Now they have a chance to run businesses, or work as managers in the tourist industry, or own farms like Langani.’ She looked around the table and was surprised to see Hannah fling down her napkin with obvious annoyance.

‘That’s the kind of thing you hear from two-year wonders who’ve just arrived here and haven’t a clue how Africans think,’ she said. ‘The locals don’t give a damn about farmland or protecting it. Look what happened to Piet earlier this year – he allowed some Maasai to bring a few of their cattle in to graze, during the drought. Next thing, they’ve got ten rafikis and thousands of their bony, diseased ngombes and sheep and goats all over our pasture. He had to fight like hell to get rid of them, and several of them threatened him. That’s what Piet got for his kindness. That’s what they know about farms and protecting the land.’

‘But what would have happened to their livestock if they hadn’t been allowed in here?’ Sarah said. ‘Wouldn’t they have starved to death, and created another set of problems?’