In Borrowed Light by Barbara Keating

Author:Barbara Keating
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446485729
Publisher: Random House

Chapter 18

Kenya, October 1977

Sarah arrived in the Mara, tired and dusty, to find Hugo sitting in the shade of the mess tent with his notebook and typewriter.

‘Welcome back.’ He smiled and stood up, pushing a hand through his unruly hair. He was sunburnt after his days at the coast, with a scattering of new freckles on his face and arms.

‘My goodness,’ she said. ‘You are barely recognisable from the person who arrived here a few weeks ago, looking like a—’

‘A pasty academic, with milk-white skin and no hope of surviving in the bush.’

‘That’s about it,’ she said, lifted by the sound of her own laughter. ‘Anyhow, you certainly look good now. Oh! You’ve turned scarlet. I always thought I was the only person in the world to go that fierce shade of red.’

‘It’s another thing we have in common, then,’ he said, embarrassed by both the compliment and her observation. ‘Allie and Erope are out looking for Lara and the cubs. When we heard the news on the radio, we thought you were going to be in Nairobi for a few days. Looks like Rabindrah uncovered a major poaching operation. What a coup, or a scoop, as they call it. You must be proud of him. Where is he now?’

‘I saw him at Langani last night. On his way back to Nairobi.’

‘Sit down and I’ll get you a cold drink. Or tea, if you are really thirsty.’

‘I’ll go and stow my stuff first.’

Sarah escaped to her tent. She could not face the prospect of talking about her husband, and when she had put her belongings away she sat on her bed, staring out at the river. It was a relief to be back in camp, with only animals to think about. Everything else was too raw. She would take her pictures, lose herself in her work. She had done it before, up in Turkana. After the baby. Her mind skittered away from another painful subject. She gathered up her cameras and notebooks and returned to the mess tent.

‘Ahmed is rustling up tea,’ Hugo said. ‘You probably want to save Rabindrah’s heroic exploits for later, when you can tell us all at the same time.’

‘Good idea. So, tell me what has been going on while I was away.’

‘Allie and Erope have found a new female with two cubs, much younger than Lara’s,’ Hugo said. ‘Not far away, although the mother has been moving her young frequently. She’s not as good a hunter as Lara, so she has to leave them for longer when she goes out looking for food.’

‘I’d love to see her. Has she got a name yet?’ Sarah asked.

‘Isis,’ Hugo said with a grin. ‘Because of her smouldering black eyeliner.’ He tidied his papers into a neat pile, and picked up his notebooks. ‘Shall we go in your car? The other one is a real bone-rattler.’

Sarah breathed in the smell of dust and hot scrubland and listened to the insects and birds, and a kind of serenity enveloped her. Nobody needed to know how bad it had all become in her other world.

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