He scrabbled across the floor to the storeroom door. This would be where he would make his stand. Gerhard put three more rounds in the Webley’s revolving chamber, leaving three in his pocket. He prayed that he would have the courage to do what was necessary for the children when the time came.

Beside Gerhard, Dorian was telling Sophie how much he loved her, and she was replying in kind, each wanting the other to know before it was too late. Sharpe was shouting incoherent abuse at the door, daring the Mau Mau to come and get him. Across the room, Mpishi, Mashraf and two of the housemaids were lined up behind the kitchen table. There were eight Mau Mau opposite them. Three of them were wounded, but able to swing a panga.

Gerhard signalled to the staff to join him. The Mau Mau let them go. They too had run out of ammunition. Why risk their necks when their comrades were about to finish the job for them?

The sound of the Sten went on and on, getting louder and louder, taunting the surviving defenders with its incessant chatter.

The Mau Mau broke through the kitchen door.

Gerhard shot the first two who clambered through the gap in the bullet-ridden woodwork. Mashraf got a third. But then the door was smashed completely open and, though Dorian, Sophie and Sharpe hit men at point-blank range, it made no difference as one terrorist after another charged in, cheered on by their comrades already in the kitchen.

Firing the last three rounds in the Webley’s chamber, Gerhard provided covering fire as the others retreated into the storeroom. Then he darted in, ducking beneath a panga blade and feeling a round fly past him into the door frame as the Mau Mau charged after him.

No sooner had the door closed and the key been turned than Mpishi, Mashraf and the two maids dashed towards it, carrying sacks of provisions which they piled behind the door. Several shots were fired through the wood, miraculously missing everyone inside. Dorian and Sharpe added to the makeshift barrier with crates of beer and then Dorian shouted, ‘Grab one of the shelves! We can wedge it against the door!’

More shots and hammering smashed against the door. Gerhard could hear whoops and shouts of encouragement coming from the kitchen. They sounded like football supporters cheering on a winning team. Dorian and Sharpe grabbed one end of a freestanding shelf, filled with provisions that stood against the far wall. Mashraf and Mpishi took the other. They tilted it forward and a mass of provisions crashed to the floor. But now the shelf could be lifted and the men ran with it, still at an angle, and jammed it against the door, while the bottom rested on the floor.

Dorian’s wife Sophie ran to Harriet and the children, who were clinging white-faced to their grandmother, to see how they were.