Free A Delicious Mistake by Roselyn Jewell Page A

notable extent. Not anymore, she realized as Tendai Conteh
brought her closer to the place she had once called her home away from home.
This trip didn’t feel the same as it had when she had made the journey
alongside her family. Luke’s death had changed Tanzania for her, and Sarah
found no pleasure in the stark beauty of the sun setting over the Serengeti
plains.
    She
stole a sideways glance at her driver. He seemed like a good man, but who was
to say? Could you ever really know anyone? If she couldn’t even trust Benjamin
Ndlovo, who had been a brother to her own brother and almost a son to her
parents, whom could she trust? Was there anyone in the district where she was
headed she could truly turn to in case of necessity?
    Perhaps
she hadn’t thought this through. It was one thing to set out in search of the
truth. It was another thing not to know to whom she could present that truth. Well,
she could certainly always go to the police—assuming she didn’t get herself
killed.
    No, I won’t think along those lines.
    She
pushed a hand into her hair and pulled its heavy weight away from her face and
neck. She had pulled it back but the wind from the open Jeep whipped loose long
strands. In the setting sun, she thought her hair looked almost like it had
caught fire—perhaps it was that anger still burning in her leaking out. She
clung to that and pressed a hand on her stomach. She would find her truth, and
she would find a way to make sure that it was heard.
    When
her family’s lands and the lodge finally came into view, Sarah’s heart skipped
a beat. She recognized most of it. The compound which had been fenced in to
keep out most of the wild animals. A half dozen mud huts around the edge of the
compound. A few canvas tents, one of which would feed the staff and the other
for basic nursing care. And the main lodge—a two-storey building made of local
woods with a deep, wrap around veranda. It alone looked to be a building from
another era, for it had been built by her grandfather. She forced herself to
maintain her composure, which she felt was beginning to slip out of her grasp.
Tears stung her eyes. Luke wouldn’t be stepping from the veranda to greet her.
He wouldn’t be grinning at her, his blue eyes alive in his tan face. She bit
her lower lip. No one seemed to be here to greet her.
    Tendai
parked in front of the lodge, and Sarah sat there for a few moments listening
to the engine pop in the cool evening air. Tendai sat with her. She didn’t know
whether he would mark it down to exhaustion from her long journey that she
didn’t move, or if he could see into her. She didn’t care. She needed a minute
and she didn’t have to justify it to anyone.
    She
looked up when the passenger’s door opened for her. Tendai Conteh had gotten
out of the Jeep and walked around it to show her one more gallantry.
Apparently, he had decided her time for sitting and taking in her old home was
up. Sarah nodded absently to him and stepped out of the vehicle. She glanced
around, taking in her surroundings once again. There had been a time when she
had known the modest main house and the huts and the lands around it like the
back of her hand. Now, without Luke here to greet her, it all felt like
unexplored, potentially threatening territory.
    “Here
are your bags, Miss Hutton.” Tendai placed her duffel bag and suitcase by her
boot-clad feet. She had dressed for Africa and that had made her flights and
the airports even more exhausting.
    Sarah
turned to him and forced out a smile. “Thank you, Mr. Conteh.” She gave him a
nod, genuinely gratefully for his kindness, but dismissingly. She wanted to go
into the lodge on her own.
    He
hesitated and then asked, “May I be so bold as to offer you a piece of advice?”
    Sarah
frowned. “Of course,” she said warily.
    Tendai
took a few steps toward her so that they now stood very close. She had to fight
the instinct to back away at this unwelcomed invasion of her personal