He had a gun in his hand. He looked at her and the anguish and relief in his eyes told her what she had just prevented.

They embraced, wordlessly. The two children hurtled towards her and she dropped to her knees with her arms open and embraced them both as they charged into her arms.

Gerhard pulled Saffron gently back to her feet.

‘I need to show Mummy something,’ he told the children.

‘Are you showing her Grandpa?’ Zander asked.

Saffron followed Zander’s eye to the huddled body in the far side of the storeroom, then she spun round and screamed, ‘Benjamin! Benjamin! Please – come here!’

Benjamin knelt beside Leon’s body and felt for the non-existent pulse, but it had taken a glance to tell him that he was looking at a corpse.

Saffron broke down in tears. Her body shook with grief and between her sobs she berated herself, saying, ‘I should have come sooner . . . should have gone faster . . . it was my fault.’

Gerhard took her in his arms. He stroked her head, trying to soothe her. Harriet, her cheeks wet with her own tears, said, ‘Here, let me . . .’

She held Saffron and waited until she had cried herself out, then said gently, but firmly, ‘Saffron, darling, look at me . . .’

Saffron raised her head from Harriet’s shoulder.

‘Now listen carefully,’ Harriet went on, looking Saffron in the eyes. ‘You have done nothing wrong. Nothing . . . You saved us. Everyone in this house owes their lives to you and the brave men who came with you. Your father is so proud of you . . . I believe he’s looking down at us now and his soul is at peace because he knows that all his work, all his life, was worthwhile because it produced you. He has left you a splendid legacy and he has complete faith in you to do it justice. So don’t reproach yourself. Don’t worry about the things you have done. Think to the future and do what is right. That is all Leon Courtney would have asked of his daughter.’

Twenty miles away on Lonsonyo Mountain, Naserian gasped as Manyoro opened his eyes. She leaned forward, but her husband did not see her. His vision was focused on something infinitely far away.

‘I see you, Mbogo, my brother,’ he whispered. ‘I am on my way . . .’

Manyoro’s eyes closed. His breath left his body in a long, gentle sigh. And he did not breathe again.

Lusima, June 1964

LUSIMA, JUNE 1964

‘I’m so proud of you, darling,’ Saffron said, holding Gerhard closer to her as they stood outside what had once been the front door to her family home, but was now the entrance to the Manyoro Hills Hotel.