‘I feel like an old lion, sitting up here and surveying my territory,’ Piet said, leaning back against the boulder. Behind him the red gold of the rock and the tawny bushes that grew out of it were drenched in the evening sun, framing his head like a golden mane. Sarah lifted her camera to capture his beauty as he sat there above his domain. His stance illustrated the ease with which he possessed his space, and the pride that welled in him as he looked out over the place of his life’s dreams. He was lost in contemplation, and did not even notice the click and whirr of the shutter.

‘They say the Egyptian pharaohs started looking for the right place to build their tombs the minute they ascended the throne,’ he said. ‘This is the place I’d choose, if I was asked. No man-made structure could rival the beauty of this spot, heh? The way it looks out over the farm and the mountain and the plains. You can see every part of our world from here. Better than a pyramid any day!’

‘The Egyptians didn’t have the benefit of these natural contours for their memorials,’ Anthony said. ‘I suppose if you’re faced with a flat desert, you want to create something that will rise out of the sand and survive the storms. Dominate the land so people will remember your great works. Tremble with awe . . .’

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Piet intoned in a stentorian voice, and Sarah looked at him surprised.

‘I didn’t know you read Shelley,’ she said.

‘There’s a lot you don’t know.’ Piet gave her a long look. ‘I did learn to read as well as farm. And not only Shelley. There are books in my room that we’re going to read together. And some that we’ll read to our children. I’ve started a collection of great records too. I went to concerts in Edinburgh with friends, and I finally learned to understand that Beethoven and Mahler and Mozart might be as satisfying as Elvis.’ He drew her in to his side to caress her hair and she shivered with the pleasure of the gesture. At last, to break the silence, she finished the quote.

‘Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.’