When he said goodbye it was as though there had never been anything between them. Lars stood beside her, morose and uncommunicative, as Viktor pecked her cheek and then drove away. Hannah turned and went up the steps of the verandah, trying unsuccessfully to conceal her sense of abandonment. He had not said when he might come back. He had not said anything. The morning was bright with sunlight and birdsong and the scent of flowers, but she did not notice any of them.

‘I’m glad you have no distractions today,’ Lars said. ‘There are several letters here that are urgent.’

‘They’re no more urgent than they were a couple of days ago,’ Hannah said. ‘Cheer up, Lars, for God’s sake. You look like thunder and you’re making me nervous.’

‘Maybe because I’m nervous on your behalf.’

‘Look, Lars,’ she said. ‘We have to work together, and for months now I’ve sat here wrestling with the problems of the bank, and the cows, and the furnishings for the lodge and the staff sulking. And now I’ve bought myself a present of a bronze leopard and had some fun. I think you should be glad to see me feeling better. But instead you’re angry, or maybe even jealous.’

He picked up on the word and went forward recklessly. ‘Yes. I’m very jealous, if you must know. If you would like to know about me at all. I’m very jealous because I Iove you, Hannah. I’m in love with you and I’ve been waiting for a good moment to tell you, when we were somewhere with just the two of us together. I’m afraid of what that man is doing to you, with his wine and perfume and all the fancy things he can bring you from Nairobi. So I want you to tell me that he can’t come here any more, at weekends, like it’s a hotel. He can’t take you away and—’

‘I’m not going to tell him anything of the kind,’ Hannah said, her temper rising. ‘He’s Piet’s architect and he’s Piet’s friend, and he can come to Langani any time he likes. And I can look after myself perfectly well.’

‘I love you, Hannah. Didn’t you even hear me? I’m in love with you.’ He was horribly aware that this was not the right time to tell her again.