Free A Delicious Mistake by Roselyn Jewell

anyone outside of her family.
She hadn’t even said anything to her girlfriends back home. She hadn’t known
how to even begin to explain the enormity of the situation to them. She had
only told them she was taking a trip to Tanzania to visit her family’s
holdings, and she had to do her best to ignore their proclamations of envy.
    She
cleared her throat and managed a thank you that she was proud to realize
sounded clear and devoid of tears enough to fool any stranger into believing
she was actually handling this well.
    Tendai
took her bags and put them in the back seat. He even opened the passenger’s
door for her, and Sarah found herself offering him a genuine smile. “Thank
you,” she said and hoped she sounded a lot more sincere this time. “You’re a
gentleman, Mr. Conteh.”
    He
smiled shyly at her and went around the car to climb behind the wheel. He
lurched the vehicle away from the airstrip, taking off with such a sharp
movement that Sarah fell back and then almost slammed her nose against the
dashboard.
    “Apologies,”
Tendai said. He spoke well enough but his accent betrayed his broken English.
“The ground is tricky and I’m not used having a lady on board.”
    Sarah
laughed. It was probably the first one since she’d had since she’d heard the
news of her brother’s death. It felt good. “I’m no lady, Mr. Conteh. Not on
this trip.”
    Tendai
shot her a sideways glance. “What do you mean?”
    “I’m
not here on vacation, Mr. Conteh.”
    “No,
of course not—”
    “I
intend to find out what really happened to my brother.” She stared at him,
daring him to say something. He might as well know now. Everyone might
as well know.
    If
Tendai Conteh was surprised to find out that Luke Hutton’s little sister, who
hadn’t set foot outside of the comfortable Western world ever since she had hit
puberty, had come to the Serengeti on a mission by herself, he didn’t show it.
He nodded wordlessly, as if he understood. Sarah had the distinct feeling he
truly did, and for some reason that upset her.
    After
a few minutes, she said, “I don’t remember you from the last time I was here.”
 She had been trying to place his face, and couldn’t. It was probably a
good idea to get acquainted with anyone who worked at the lodge—anyone who
might know something.
    “I
have only been working for Mr. Hutton for four years,” the man admitted.
    Sarah
instantly realized that by Mr. Hutton he meant Luke and not her father. A hint
of melancholy in the man’s voice told her just how fond he had been of her
brother. She wondered if the rest of the staff and the rangers had held Luke in
such high regard. Somebody clearly hadn’t.
    No , Sarah berated herself. Don’t
go there. Don’t fire off accusations yet. Don’t jump to conclusions. You don’t know
that it was one of them. You don’t know that it was Benjamin. You don’t know
anything.
    “He
was a very good man, your brother,” Tendai said, startling her out of her bleak
reverie.
    Sarah
nodded. “Yes, he was,” she said quietly.
    The
rest of the drive was spent in blissful silence. She stared out of the Jeep at
the savannah speeding by. The small roads around the airport gave way to dirt
paths. Just as she had predicted, the endless plains of the Serengeti didn’t
bring her any relief. She didn’t feel free and she most definitely was not at peace. The beneficial effect Africa had had on her when she had first
arrived—and when she’d been a girl—was gone, possibly forever. As they drove on
and the distance to the Hutton Game Lodge shrank, Sarah’s heart grew heavier
and heavier. The knots plaguing her stomach grew tighter and tighter. The
weight of the pressure she had chosen to put herself under by taking on this
mission began to make itself painfully known.
    This
wasn’t a pleasure trip—it was the furthest from a pleasure trip as humanly
possible. She hadn’t been as fond of Africa as Luke was, but she had been
fond of it to some