‘I thought he was a fixture.’ Viktor was frowning and his voice was sharp. He got up and moved away from the bed.

‘He was jealous,’ Hannah said. ‘You know that. He made no secret of it. Of the fact that he loved me. It was shock initially, but now I see that it’s best this way. Because I don’t have to hide what I feel about you any more. What we feel for each other.’

But Viktor was not listening. He had turned on the shower in the bathroom, and was singing loudly. When he returned to the bed he put his arms around her and slept immediately. And in the morning he left early, his hand waving an extravagant salute as he raced away.

Hannah sat up straight and wiped her eyes. She had told Sarah the entire, horrible story now, humiliating though it was.

‘Don’t say anything kind,’ she warned. ‘I couldn’t cope with that.’

‘You were taken in by him, Hannah. It’s not much consolation, I know, but it happens all the time. It happened to me in a smaller way. With Mike in Dublin, remember?’

‘But you didn’t go running after him.’

‘I didn’t care enough about him,’ Sarah said. ‘Otherwise, God knows what I might have done.’

‘I didn’t hear from Viktor after he left that morning.’ Hannah’s voice was far away, in another time and place, remembering. ‘But I wanted to know that he loved me. I wanted to be sure. So I drove down to Nairobi. A couple of days after Piet got back from all his meetings, I said I needed to do some Christmas shopping. It was late when I arrived, but I know where Viktor lives so I just rolled up there, thinking I’d surprise him. And I did,’ she said bitterly. ‘He was very surprised. And so was the woman in his bed.’

‘Han, what a terrible thing. What an awful way to find out.’ Sarah finally put her arm around Hannah’s shoulders.

‘She was black,’ Hannah said, her voice still resonating surprise and shock. ‘She was a black woman and I stood there screaming at them, until he took me outside. Stood next to me in the driveway, with only a towel wrapped around him, and told me he didn’t want to see me any more. That’s what he said. I don’t remember driving home, but when I got here Piet was wonderful. He was the very best. He never asked me where I’d been, or why I’d come back in the middle of the night and he’s never brought it up since. No one knows this except you. Not even Ma.’

‘So what now?’ Sarah asked.