Betty stopped walking and turned to face her daughter. ‘We’re not going back, Sarah. Dad and I have decided to stay in Ireland. It’s a shock, I know, but we’ll explain it on the way down to Sligo.’

It was impossible to take it in. Sarah sat in the back of the car, the true implications of the news preventing her from sharing her parents’ optimism. She thought of the house in Mombasa, of the palm trees, and the smell and the sound of the tropical sea, and she could not accept what they were trying to tell her.

‘I don’t get it,’ she said, when they stopped for lunch at a country hotel. ‘Why are you going to abandon everything in Kenya, where you’re really needed? It’s our home. The place you’ve always loved, we’ve all loved. And if you have to move upcountry, there’s so much you could do, Dad. But instead you’re going to fix up a crumbling pile in the back of beyond, in the rain and the cold, and take on the kind of work you haven’t done for years!’ The whole scheme seemed to her sudden and ill-conceived. She could not imagine her parents living in this miserable country from which she herself had only longed to escape.

‘I always had it in the back of my mind to retire here. It’s a bit earlier than I had planned, that’s all.’ Raphael stopped to tamp his pipe and there was a moment’s hesitation before he began to speak again. ‘Kenya’s a different place now, and I can’t live at the coast any more, because of the risk of malaria. Going back would mean starting all over again. Different surroundings, new hospital, new friends and colleagues, no sea or boat for the weekends. If I have to do that at my age, I’d be better off in Ireland.’

‘Oh come on, Dad, you’re talking like an old man! You’ve years to go, no matter what you decide to do, or where.’

‘Yes, I have a good few years in me yet, I hope. But there’s another aspect to this,’ he said. ‘Your brother has finished his time as a houseman, and he’s willing to join me in Sligo. We’re going to take over a practice from old Dr Macnamara who’s retiring. Tim and I will work together. It’s good timing, and it will be a help to me to have him as a partner.’

Sarah opened the back door of the car and slid into the seat, wrapping her jacket around her as though to ward off any further revelations. ‘I knew there must be something else behind this,’ she said. ‘What we’re talking about is setting Tim up. Isn’t that what it’s really all about?’