Lottie appeared at sunset, carrying a plant in a clay pot. ‘Look, Sarah – I took cuttings of these, and they’ve just begun to flower. I’m going to put them on the verandah just outside your room. Do you remember them?’

Sarah touched the three flowers, white and pale blue and violet, and nodded, smiling. ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Three different-coloured flowers on one bush. They’re the ones that always reminded you of Hannah and Camilla and me. That’s what you call them, isn’t it? They’re beautiful and the scent is heavenly.’ She felt a shadow of regret hover over her happiness. ‘I wish Camilla was with us, so that we could all be the same again and she could share what we have.’

‘She’s gone, my dear. For the moment, at any rate. I hope the poor girl will be happy some day, but it will be difficult for her.’

Sarah took the heavy pot and put it on the coffee table, which was bathed in the crimson light of the setting sun. The shrub seemed to be in the heart of a conflagration.

‘A burning bush,’ Sarah murmured. A cloud overtook the sinking disc on the horizon, leaving the room in near darkness. She shivered involuntarily and looked at her watch. ‘Lottie, would you mind if I tried to raise the lodge? Piet said he was going to call at five, but he hasn’t. Maybe he’s decided to come on back to the farm, in which case there’ll be one more for dinner tonight.’

‘Of course, my dear.’ Lottie was smiling, a knowing, affectionate light in her eyes. ‘Go ahead and talk to your lovely boy. I’m going to the kitchen to chat with Kamau about dinner, and you can let me know if he’s going to be back tonight after all.’

She left the room and Sarah lifted the telephone, drumming her fingers on the table as she waited for the lodge to respond. There was the sound of crackling, but no answer. Sarah was puzzled. He would surely be back there by now, to turn on the lights. Test them all. She put down the phone and went in search of Hannah, but it was Anthony she came across, reading a tome on birds of prey.

‘You know, Piet said he would ring, but he hasn’t. I tried the lodge a few minutes ago, but . . .’ Now that she was putting it into words, there was really nothing to say and she realised that she sounded foolish.

‘Can’t wait to hear the beloved voice?’ He was grinning at her indulgently. ‘He’s probably on his way back there now. He was going to check the fencing around the lodge and stores area where the elephant walked through last week. Try him again in about half an hour.’