‘I’m not sure he’ll ever grow up enough to be ready,’ Piet said. ‘He never thinks beyond his next trip to the bush where he can sit down with his watu, who don’t demand anything of him except his protection and their wages. And then there are his clients who are paying him to be there. And paying him to climb into his bed, some of them. It sounds ideal, I suppose, for a Boy Scout. Or Peter Pan.’

‘Until he ignores someone with real feelings for him. And then there are tears,’ Sarah said.

‘That’s why he should look at that photograph you took of him with Camilla, and maybe he would begin to understand what she was offering him. What he was too stupid to see before she left. They’d make a good couple, you know. She could charm his clients and help him make his camps a little more classy and comfortable. Add the feminine touch. He’s a good fellow, Anthony, but he’s hollow somewhere. He doesn’t see the importance of other people, especially women who place their trust in him.’

‘And would you have been different, Piet, in those circumstances? Would you have taken what she offered, grabbed it with both hands?’ She cursed herself for having asked the question. It was madness to risk spoiling their happiness, for the sake of laying Camilla’s ghost to rest.

He studied her seriously before he answered. ‘She never looked at me like that,’ he said. ‘The lines were never running in my direction. I had an adolescent crush on her for too long, and I never understood that there’s a void in the centre of her. Anthony is like her in that respect. So maybe they’re too similar to be good for each other. Maybe no one ever will find out what makes either of them truly happy, or whether they’re capable of being happy at all. But on the other hand, they could have given each other the missing part, and that would have been good, heh?’

‘Do you believe there’s a special person chosen for you, that you are meant to be with, meant to build your life with?’ she asked.

He nodded, smiling. ‘I surely do.’

‘So do I,’ she said. ‘And I think Anthony was Camilla’s soulmate. She saw it, but he didn’t. I wish he’d gone to search her out, instead of making a couple of phone calls and sending a postcard. They seemed so wrapped up in each other when we were in Samburu. I thought they were in love. And then he ran scared, I suppose.’