‘There’s been a development,’ his brother-in-law said. ‘Take a look. There’s more of them.’

In the storeroom, Leon opened his eyes and his bloodless face, contorted into an agonised rictus, managed the faintest hint of a smile.

‘Hattie,’ he whispered. ‘My love . . .’

Leon struggled to say more, but no sound emerged from his mouth.

‘Yes, my darling,’ Harriet said softly, leaning closer to him.

Leon took three gulps of air and then gasped, ‘The children . . .’

His eyes closed. Harriet could not hear him breathe. His chest did not move. When she took his wrist in her fingers, there was no pulse.

Harriet did not allow herself to compose the word for what had just happened to her husband. That would only bring her grief without limits and there was no time for that. Leon had told her his final wish and she would obey it.

She got to her feet, forced herself across the storeroom, and with a superhuman effort of will summoned a smile to her face and said, ‘Hello, children, how have you two been getting on?’

Benjamin had almost completed a full circuit of the Estate House. He had spotted Gerhard’s plane, buried in a hedge, and the three empty trucks. It had struck him that generals very often did not lead their men from the front, but stood behind the lines, observing what was happening and giving their orders accordingly.

If that were the case now, and Benjamin could find that leader, he might yet make a decisive contribution to the fight.

I only have one gun, he told himself, but that is enough to kill one man.

Then he saw the knot of men gathered by the flame tree copse. There – that was his target!

Benjamin knew every inch of the land around the Estate House. Not far away there was a spot, another rise in the land, covered only by shrubbery, which was closer to the copse than his current position, with a clearer line of sight. He ran to it now, telling himself that he would not be spotted, that any Mau Mau in the vicinity would surely be concentrating on the battle in the house.

He made it to his vantage point, crawled on his belly through the base of a large shrub, emerging just far enough out on the other side to be able to see the copse and aim his rifle. As his head emerged into the open, it suddenly struck Benjamin that the guns had fallen silent. Had he arrived too late? But then he realised something: If the Mau Mau had won, they would be celebrating so loudly that I would hear them from a mile away. No . . . this is just a pause in the fighting. There is still time . . .

First, though, he had to find his target.