Roeloff grabbed the whip from the hook on the wall and snapped it over his head. ‘You want a fight?’

There wasn’t enough room in the barn, and the whip caught David on the cheek.

David felt at the blood on his face. ‘Bastard!’ He came straight for Roeloff, the momentum hurtling both of them to the ground.

‘Stop it!’ Willem roared. ‘It’s your knife with the stallion’s blood on it, Roeloff! What more proof do I need?’

‘It’s my knife, but I didn’t do it!’

‘I entrusted him to you. I asked you to look after him.’

The words were a death knell. Then it came to Roeloff, how to prove he hadn’t done it.

‘Why don’t you check our boots? That should tell you who was in here last night.’

‘Get their boots from the house, Hennerik. Hurry!’

‘Tell him, Hennerik,’ Sanna elbowed her husband in the ribs.

‘Tell me what?’

Hennerik looked at David. David glowered back. ‘Nothing, Grootbaas,’ Hennerik said, and ran up to the house.

Twa had heard the commotion and came up. He nodded sadly when he saw the stallion in a pool of blood. ‘There will be trouble now.’

‘Did you hear anything last night, Twa?’ Roeloff asked him. He knew it was pointless to ask. Twa, exhausted after the journey, had gone straight to his hut after eating the plate of food he had received from Sanna. Roeloff had also given him a mug of brandy.

‘I didn’t hear anything.’ Twa was almost embarrassed to admit it. Usually he was the one who sat at the fire all night and hardly slept.

Hennerik came back with the boots and placed them on the ground in front of Willem. Roeloff knew from the way Hennerik avoided his eyes, that something was wrong.

Willem picked up David’s boots and inspected them closely. Except for some dried dirt in the cracks, there was nothing suspicious. Then he picked up Roeloff’s boots. A look passed between them that Roeloff would never forget.

‘It’s better you take your things and get off Kloot’s Nek,’ Willem said.

Roeloff picked up the boots his father had dropped to the ground. There was blood on the soles.

‘I didn’t do this, Pa.’

His father turned and left the stable.

‘Pa!’

Willem walked, stone-faced, up to the house.

Roeloff felt hot and cold at the same time. He looked at his brother. The hate in David’s eyes told him all he needed to know: that that was for Soela, for what Roeloff had done to his leg. They would never be brothers again.

‘Kleinbaas,’ said someone behind him.

He turned. It was Kupido, Hennerik’s eldest son.

‘We all know you didn’t do it.’

Then Vinkie came running down from the house.

‘Roff, what happened? Pa says Boerhaan’s dead!’

‘Yes. He says I did it. That I killed my own horse. He chucked me out.’

‘But you didn’t, Pa’s wrong!’

‘He is wrong,’ Sanna said. ‘Tell him, Hennerik. Tell him what you told me.’

Hennerik opened his mouth to speak, then saw David walking towards them with a shovel in his hands. David barked some orders at the Koi-na, and Hennerik left.

Roeloff started for the barn, the women and children following him.

‘Hennerik saw something last night,’ Sanna said, walking alongside Roeloff. ‘Your brother was with Soela in the barn. She was crying. That’s why Hennerik looked through the hole and listened. David was pulling at her clothes, and when she wouldn’t let him, he hit her. He said, ‘You like it with him, you like it with me.’ Then he did it. Afterwards, Hennerik said, Soela went back to the house and your brother stayed behind in the barn.’

‘Hennerik saw this?’

‘Yes. You must go in and tell the grootbaas. We’ll all tell him what Hennerik said if Hennerik’s too scared to talk.’

The Koi-na nodded.

‘It’s no good, Sanna. He’s made up his mind. And Kloot Nek’s too small for David and me anyway.’

Vinkie started to cry.

‘You can’t go away, Roff. I’ll miss you. And Pa doesn’t mean what he says. Who will I have when you’re gone?’

‘You’ll have your mother and Sanna.’

‘I can’t do without you. And where will you go, anyway? To the neighbours?’

‘I don’t know. Vinkie, you mustn’t worry about me. I have too many things in my head right now. Pa threw me out, and I can’t think of anything else.’

‘Did you find the book and the newspaper I left in your room?’

‘Yes.’

Vinkie wanted to tell him about Oupa Krisjan and his grandson, but it was not the time to talk of such things, and anyway, all the excitement had gone out of it.

‘I am ready.’ Twa appeared at Roeloff’s side with his kaross and quiver of arrows.

‘Ready for what?’

‘For our journey.’