Camilla was bone-tired. She had survived a punishing week of shoots, a magazine interview, two television appearances and a charity dinner. Her one wish was to escape to a place where no one could possibly recognise her. The sky was dull and overcast. As darkness came in the early evening she longed for sunlight and the smell of hot African dust, for the scarlet blaze of a Maasai herdsman driving his cattle across a yellow plain. Above all, she wanted to be with Sarah and Hannah, so that she could share their grief. But she was trapped in London, unable to be away for more than a few days, shuttling between assignments and visits to her mother.

She spent many of her evenings in Edward’s flat, although it was often late at night before he came home. He had cut down on some of his commitments over the past two months, but there were still many days when he was consulting long after normal hours, or lecturing, or at the hospital where a complex emergency had been brought in. Camilla had mixed feelings about his all-consuming dedication to his work. There were times when she arrived at his flat drained after a long day’s shoot, or emotionally threadbare at the end of an afternoon with Marina. Then she longed for company, for a companionable dinner with light conversation and laughter, or a spontaneous outing to the cinema. But on some evenings she was glad Edward was occupied, so that she did not have to think of anything other than a long, hot bath and an hour or two beside the fire with a book and the distraction of television.

‘I love you, Camilla,’ he said to her frequently. ‘Come and live with me. We spend most of our time together. I can look after you better, see you more, if we live in the same house.’

But she refused, unable to explain either to him or to herself the reluctance she felt about giving up her flat and her independence. It was the only place where she could still relax, climbing the stairs and turning the key in the door to slough off the artifice of her public image. She did not want to live with Edward, any more than she wanted to fulfil her mother’s hopes of having her at home permanently, rather than dropping in on a daily basis. She had promised Marina they would have supper together this evening, but in the meantime she had a date for lunch with her father. He had been in Kenya for ten days and he was anxious to see her.