Kat Gordon - The Hunters

Ramsay took us through an arched opening on the left and into the dining room – same proportions and decor – and the small kitchen, where Ramsay’s wife had left us a cold meat pie and some bread and apples. Behind these rooms was the left-hand corridor, with three of the bedrooms and one of the bathrooms. My bedroom was cell-like, with white walls, a small chest of drawers and single cast-iron bed. Next door, Maud’s was exactly the same. At the end of the hall, our bathroom had a claw-footed tub, toilet, sink and a wall-hung medicine cabinet. Mosquito screens were fitted over all the windows.

Off the other corridor was another small bedroom, another bathroom, then the master bedroom, with two large walnut beds, and silks and drapes on the wall. At the end of that corridor was a small study for my father.

‘Excellent,’ he said.

‘I’ll bring the luggage in,’ Ramsay said. ‘When will your maid be arriving?’

‘Maid?’ my mother asked.

‘Most families bring one with them,’ Ramsay said. ‘That’s who the extra bedroom is for, on your corridor.’

‘Ah,’ my father said. ‘I thought you might have arranged that already, Jessie.’

I saw my mother’s jaw tighten.

‘Nae matter,’ Ramsay said, cheerfully. ‘I’m sure I can find one for you – one of the Nairobi families is bound to leave soon. And cooks and drivers and other staff you can hire from the natives. They’re able to do that much.’

‘Well,’ my father said, after a pause. ‘We can make do tonight, anyway. Thank you so much for all your help.’

‘I’ll get the bags,’ Ramsay said.

‘Theo, you go with him,’ my father said, and I followed Ramsay out onto the porch.

By the time I’d carried my suitcase into my bedroom, sweat gathering in the small of my back, he’d already moved all of the others.

‘I’ll be seeing you,’ he said. ‘Watch out for the hippos. Meanest creatures alive. And leopards – if they come prowling round at night, turn on the lights and make plenty of noise, scare ’em off. And never leave your windows open.’ He nodded at me and went back to his car, whistling.

The next few days were spent exploring the house, the lake and the garden, which was lush with jacaranda trees, lawn and flowerbeds. The gardener had planted scarlet canna, frangipani, bougainvillea, and, probably as a nod to potential homesickness, English roses. Our water came from a stone well sunk into the ground one hundred feet from the house. Further away still were the Africans’ buildings, round mud huts with thatched roofs where our staff would live.

In the end Ramsay couldn’t find us a maid, but he did find Abdullah, who served as ‘head boy’. My parents hired a cook, a driver and some low-level servants known as ‘totos’, who wore kanzus, long brown cotton robes that were the typical uniform for servants in Kenya. None of the totos had their bottom two front teeth. When I asked why, Ramsay said they all had them removed as a preventative measure, so if they developed tetanus – rife in Kenya – and therefore lockjaw, they would still be able to take food in through the gap. The boys walked hand-in-hand, or with arms wrapped around each other. There was something intimate about it that I didn’t like to watch, and I turned away whenever a pair came into sight.

My father bought a second-hand Buick that broke down at every opportunity. We broke down on the way to Gilgil, Nakuru and N’Joro, as the road wound in and out of sight of the railway line. We broke down in Gilgil itself, a dusty station that doubled up as a post office, with one Indian duka, as the small retail shops were known, and nothing else. We broke down next to the Kikuyu settlement where African children ran away screaming that the mzungu had come to eat them. But east of Gilgil were the Aberdares, the easternmost mountain range of the Great Rift Valley, and there the car ran as sweet as honey. Climbing up into the hills, we looked down on the valley, with its cliffs and boulders, burbling streams and gushing waterfalls, its silvery forests of figs and olives, and vast, dark green pastures that stretched between our escarpment and Mau escarpment, tens of miles to the west. The soil beneath the car was red, and volcanic, but good for farming, our father told us, which was why so many Europeans had settled there.

The air was cold on the Aberdares, and brilliantly fresh, but descending, we drove through a mist that filled the car with the smoky, pine-like smell of cypress trees.

‘It feels like Scotland,’ Maud said.

The whole time we were playing and exploring and settling in I was thinking of Freddie and Sylvie, wondering what they were up to, and whether they were expecting us to call on them, as my parents had promised to do. When we went out in my father’s car, I kept a sharp eye out for Hispano-Suizas, and one dark-haired passenger in particular.

After two weeks in the new house, Freddie’s car pulled up outside as I was reading at the veranda table. Freddie whistled, and I got up, moving forwards as he opened the door for his passenger. An elegant ankle appeared, then a perfectly formed leg. I felt my excitement rising until her mousy-brown hair; it wasn’t Sylvie.

The new woman was very small and slight, with a weak chin, small mouth, large nose and high forehead. She was wearing a fashionable drop-waisted silk dress and strings of pearls, and her bare feet were dainty. She was a carrying a pot of geraniums, and shifted them to the crook of her arm to wave at me in a friendly way. She looked a little older than Freddie, who seemed almost boyish next to her.

‘Theo,’ he said, ‘meet Edie, my wife. She insisted on calling on you.’

‘I’m the friendly one,’ Edie said, and flashed her teeth at me in a smile.

‘Theo?’ my mother called from inside the house. ‘Who is it?’

‘It’s Freddie,’ I called back.

My mother appeared in the doorway. ‘How nice to see you again,’ she said, shading her eyes from the sun.

‘You must be Jessie,’ Edie said. She held out the geraniums. ‘I’ve brought you these – you’re meant to plant them around your doorway.’

‘Thank you,’ my mother said, accepting them.

‘The smell repels the puff adders.’

‘Oh goodness.’ She looked down at the pot in her hands. ‘The agent never told us about that. Would you like a drink? I’m afraid William isn’t at home.’

‘Wonderful,’ Edie said. ‘We brought some champagne for the road, but I finished it a few miles ago.’

‘Please sit.’ My mother put the flowers down on the porch table and disappeared inside.

Edie grinned at me. ‘Freddie, I’m bloody exhausted,’ she said, lowering herself onto one of the chairs. ‘Can you bring me my cigarettes from the car? Would you like one, Theo?’

‘Does that repel puff adders too?’

She smiled again. ‘Good, you’re funny.’

Freddie brought her cigarettes over and she lit up. ‘They’ve all been talking about you non-stop, you know,’ she said. ‘Sylvie especially.’

My skin tingled the same way it had when she’d touched me at the races. ‘Is she still staying with you?’

‘They’ve just moved out,’ Freddie said.

‘Oh.’

‘They bought a spot nearby – fell in love with it. They’ll be building that for a good few months.’

I looked at the table, trying to hide my smile, but I felt it radiating from me anyway.

‘Here we are.’ My mother appeared again, with Abdullah behind her carrying four glasses of white wine on a silver tray, three full and one half-full. Behind him, Maud trailed, looking sleepy as she was introduced. The half glass was placed in front of me and I looked sideways at my mother, who nodded.

‘Cheers.’ We clinked glasses. The wine tasted heavy in comparison to champagne. I swallowed it quickly.