‘I admire your bravery.’ George saw her face begin to crumple and moved on to a safer subject. ‘Look, my dear, I’m staying at Samburu Lodge tonight, and I wonder if we could have dinner together. You could stay the night over there and be back here first thing in the morning.’

Sarah did not respond immediately. She was not sure that she wanted to talk to him.

‘I’d like to discuss something important with you,’ he said, and there was something in his tone that made her accept his invitation.

He was waiting for her in the bar, but she was already regretting that she had come at all. There was nothing she wanted to say to him. It was too late now, for Piet and for Langani and everything they had hoped to build together. His face was tense, as if he was about to impart some vital secret.

‘I want to tell you about Camilla,’ he said, when they had ordered dinner.

‘I know she doesn’t want anything to do with me. Or with Kenya. I wrote to her after Piet’s . . . after he . . .’ Sarah blinked away the sting of tears and tried to continue in a steady voice. ‘I never heard from her, though. I suppose it’s because of what happened to her at Langani. It must have been a terrible ordeal, the cut on her face, worrying about how it would affect her.’

‘Sarah, I have to tell you that it’s my fault she hasn’t been in touch with you.’ He saw her surprise. ‘We had a rather bad falling-out, I’m afraid. Soon after she came back from Kenya. It was a problem largely of my making – no, it was all of my making, in fact. And then I didn’t see her or talk to her for almost three months. So she felt badly, because she never had an opportunity to discuss Langani with me, or to tell me about Piet’s problems. But it wasn’t her fault at all. It was because I was not available for her. And then Marina became ill.’

‘I didn’t know any of that.’ Sarah began to feel some regret. ‘I phoned Burford looking for Camilla, you know. I asked Marina to pass her a message. But perhaps she never did.’

‘Marina has leukaemia,’ he said. ‘She’s extraordinarily brave. Camilla has been spending a great deal of time with her. That’s why she didn’t fly out here when she heard about Piet’s death. It was a terrible choice for her to make, but Marina was very weak and we thought . . . well, she has rallied since then, but it won’t be for long.’

‘And Camilla’s face?’

‘There is a scar, but she’s going to have an operation to remove it. The timing depends on Marina’s illness.’