She sat on the rock where she had leaned against Piet, and surveyed the world he had loved. All around her was a harmony of birdsong and grasshoppers. There was still a dark area where the pyre had been, and she felt that with each intake of breath she was absorbing him as he floated above the ridge, eternally present but lost to her for ever. Now that she was here with him, she did not know what to say or do. Perhaps there was no need to search for words, because he would know that she had come to say goodbye. Her sense of him would never change now. They would not see their children grow up on the land that should have been their home and their heritage, and they would never be old together, blind to one another’s wrinkles and forgetfulness and encroaching frailty.

After a while she lay down in the sun and closed her eyes. She did not anticipate any danger from the wildlife, although it was possible that she was being observed by a pair of dik-dik or a bushbuck, from within the camouflage of the surrounding bush. They would not harm her, and predators would be sleeping in this heat. Piet would protect her. She was sure of that. For a second she heard the sound of his voice in the wind, saw his face in the play of sunlight and cloud. Then there was nothing. When she opened her eyes again and looked at her watch she was surprised. She had been sleeping, and more than two hours had passed. There was a stiff breeze and the sky was grey and spattered with dark clouds that raced past her, making the trees look as if they would topple on to her as she lay on her rock. She rose to her feet and smoothed out her clothes. Then she went to the spot where they had burned him.

‘I’m going now,’ she said, her voice soft with love and sorrow. ‘I have to leave you for a while, although I’m not ready. But I think it’s the only thing I can do. It’s the right thing. Please look after Hannah and bring her peace. I know that you will be with me wherever I go, and that I don’t have to say goodbye. I will never say goodbye.’