The Sun Sister (The Seven Sisters #6) - Lucinda Riley Page 0,88

let Bobby spend with the animals up in the hills or out on the plains during rainy season, Katherine. I was only away for a week last November, as I had business to attend to in Nairobi. I reckon I lost at least a hundred heads.’

‘Where to?’ Cecily asked, interested for the first time.

‘To the Maasai, of course.’

‘But I thought they cared for your cattle, worked for you . . .’

‘Some do, but there are many different clans of Maasai around these parts. The Maasai see all cows in Kenya as belonging to them. They are sacred to the tribe, you see, and even though they rarely kill the cattle themselves, they can trade them for maize and vegetables with other clans.’

‘But the cows belong to you?’

‘Technically, yes, but money exchanging hands with mzungus means little to them.’

‘Mzungu is the local term for a white person,’ Katherine explained.

‘Can’t you dismiss them and find other people to look after your cattle?’ Cecily asked.

Bill stared at her. ‘No, Miss Huntley-Morgan, I could not. I have an excellent relationship with them – many have become my friends. And if the price I must pay is a few dozen heads of cattle per year, then so be it. The Maasai were here first and despite various attempts by the authorities to move them on and enclose them, they continue with their traditional nomadic ways. They have a symbiotic relationship with the cows; they drain blood from them and drink it, believing it will give them strength and well-being.’

‘That sounds perfectly revolting,’ said Cecily.

‘Well, at least the cows don’t like the taste of human blood, unlike lions,’ retorted Bill.

‘I am yet to see a lion, or an elephant.’

Bill regarded her silently for a while, as though mulling something over. Eventually, he spoke. ‘I’m off to the Bush tomorrow, Miss Huntley-whatever-you’re-called. Are you free to come along? Or are you going to bottle out now that you’ve been asked?’

‘Oh Cecily, you have to go! We’ll come with you, of course,’ said Katherine quickly. ‘Bill took me out when I was eleven. Do you remember you told me then that it was the age when Maasai girls became women?’

‘At eleven?!’ said Cecily.

‘Many of them are married and pregnant by twelve or thirteen, Miss Huntley-thingummy,’ said Bill.

‘Oh, please! Call me Cecily,’ she sighed, now exasperated by the fact she knew he was doing his best to rile her.

‘Must I? I’m afraid I loathe that name. I had a great-aunt who lived in West Sussex. Even though she was an utter dragon, my parents always sent me and my older brother to stay with her in the summer holidays. Her name was Cecily.’

‘Then I apologise for bringing back such bad memories, but I can hardly be blamed for it, can I?’

‘Honestly, Bill,’ Katherine admonished him, ‘leave the poor girl alone.’

But Bill was still staring at her. And in that stare, and the mention of West Sussex, Cecily finally realised who he was.

‘And your name is Bill? Bill Forsythe?’

‘Yes, and a jolly good solid British name it is too.’

‘Your brother is a major, isn’t he? And he lives where you said your great-aunt did, in West Sussex?’

‘Well, yes. He is and does. How did you know?’

‘I met him recently in England.’ Cecily was pleased that this seemed to rattle Bill momentarily.

‘Did you indeed? Where and when?’

‘At Woodhead Hall in Sussex, about three weeks ago. I was invited there by Lady Woodhead, and he lives nearby.’

‘Well, I’ll be jiggered, as the major would say. My dear elder brother came to visit Kenya when I first moved out here and crawled up every skirt he could find at Muthaiga Club – even though he had a very sweet wife. Are you married?’

‘No.’

‘And like you, Bill, she isn’t interested in love,’ Katherine announced from the other side of the table, giving Cecily a reassuring glance.

‘Well, that’s quite a statement, if I may say so.’ Bill raised an eyebrow. ‘Certainly at your age. It’s taken me until the age of thirty-eight to realise that love is a myth. Anyway’ – Bill stood up and turned to Bobby – ‘as we’re up early tomorrow, you and I should leave.’

‘Of course,’ Bobby nodded, then stood up and Cecily got the distinct impression that he was in complete awe of his friend. ‘So, are you going to brave your first safari, Cecily?’

‘Oh, do say yes,’ Katherine said as they all walked along the drive together. ‘The staff can manage for a night here and it’s been ages