For the next two weeks, she went out with Allie and Dan each morning, until the land became familiar. Dan put her behind the wheel, and she learned to handle the Land Rover, causing hilarity and alarm at first as she negotiated obstacles in the bush, or tried to extricate herself from the mud, ploughing in and out of luggas that might have a trickle or a spate of rushing water flowing through them, depending on the force of the last downpour. She came to admire the eccentric and courageous couple who were her employers and to respect their staff. Soon she felt as though she had been there for ever. Each morning was a different challenge as she tried to absorb and memorise every snippet of information, and to understand its significance. It was not long before she was able to drive over to the game department headquarters, accompanied only by Julius or Erope, to collect the mail and make phone calls for the Briggses. When she had finished their calls, she got through to Langani and Hannah answered.

‘I am so, so happy,’ Sarah told her. ‘I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful this is, how lucky I am to be working here. You must come up soon. There’s so much I want to show you. How is everyone? Piet?’

Life at Langani seemed normal enough. Piet was out on the farm somewhere, Hannah said, working his backside off as usual. But he had been mighty pleased with the letter Sarah had sent.

‘It’s a dead giveaway.’ Hannah was laughing. ‘He’s just your average dimwit when it comes to admitting that he’s found his one and only. But it’s quite clear to me. He never stops talking about you, Sarah. And when someone starts dropping a name into every conversation, then you know for sure that they’re hooked.’

Sarah wanted to run outside and shout out her delight to the world, but she decided it might not go down too well. Instead she stood there, smiling into the phone.

‘And what about you and Viktor?’ she asked. ‘I told you I met him. He knows Dan and Allie well. You were right about his charm – he’s oozing with it. So what have you to tell?’

Hannah’s hesitation sounded a warning, but her words were determinedly optimistic.

‘He comes and goes. You know how it is. He has a lot of work on right now, so he can’t be around all that much. That’s hard for me. But it’s worth the waiting, and he makes up for it when he’s here.’

‘And Lars?’