‘Again,’ the man with the wise eyes said. ‘And as you know, those cases tend to be rather lengthy affairs.’ He helped his daughter into the carriage.

Spokes and his dilemma seemed to have been forgotten as the man with the wise eyes offered the salesman a more comfortable place for the night, which the salesman graciously declined.

‘This man came with me on the bus from the City of Kings,’ the lovely Loveness said, showing Spokes that he was anything but forgotten. ‘He was supposed to get off at Krum’s Place, but got off here instead.’

The man with the wise eyes looked at Spokes for the first time. It was rather evident from the arched eyebrow that slowly rose on the man’s face that he did not believe the story about Krum’s Place.

‘I have offered to take him first thing in the morning,’ the salesman said. ‘But I’ve also explained that I cannot put him up for the night.’

‘I have told him that he can come with us,’ the lovely Loveness said.

‘You have, have you?’ the man with the wise eyes said.

‘Yes, I have,’ she said, with a definite note of finality in her voice.

‘Splendid,’ said the salesman. ‘In that case, I will pick him up on my way to Krum’s Place.’

The man with wise eyes walked towards Spokes and offered him his hand, ‘I’m Msimanga. The village headman. But, as you can see, I am not the one with the power here.’

‘I am Spokes Moloi,’ he said, shaking Msimanga’s hand. Spokes could not very well tell a man who was a chief that he was a man who was simply waiting on a promise, and so he said, ‘I recently returned from the war.’

‘Fighting for the British?’ Msimanga said. ‘My father fought against the British.’

‘As did my grandfather,’ Spokes said.

‘Then we have that in common, which means you are no longer a stranger, and are therefore more than welcome in my homestead. Acquaintances have begun on much less, I’m sure.’

Without much warning, Spokes found himself sitting across from the lovely Loveness in the plush and swish surroundings of the carriage. For a long time, it seemed that their entire trip would be made in silence, but not even this could dampen Spokes’s very high spirits. He was getting comfortable in the silence when she unexpectedly said, as the carriage came to a stop, ‘However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.’

Spokes felt such a sheer, unadulterated happiness that he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

The sky was filled with so many stars it shone when Spokes and the lovely Loveness alighted at Msimanga’s homestead. There was an entire group of people all waiting to receive her and welcome her back home. Their enthusiasm was tempered only by their open curiosity to know who the stranger unexpectedly thrust upon them was.