Maua pressed herself closer to him and felt their skin stick together, sticky from the summer sun and sex. Her legs were wrapped around one of his and she could feel his thigh pressed against her cunt. Every so often she would rub herself along his thigh but otherwise they were still and quiet, listening to the English countryside throbbing around them.

She was surprised by how warm it was. She hadn't expected that. She had not visited England in years, had no desire to, and had thought she would not return in the future. But then she had met this creature beside her; so beautiful and strange. So English, she thought.

The trip had been necessary. She told herself it was because Miriam had needed her. After all, she hadn't made it to Miriam's wedding, hadn't even seen her since they were at university, but the truth was that she had wanted to get away from Dar after Paul had ended things. She was angry with him and she was worried about what she might do. She thought it was better to get away, have a change of scene, see her best friend. And then, just like that, she had met Brandon.

Their relationship – if you could call it that – lived in sunlight. Brandon had appeared out of nowhere. Maua had gone for a long walk and stopped on a hill a couple of miles away from Miriam's house. It was a beautiful day. She lay back on the grass and before long she began to drowse. She didn't know how long she had lain there, it felt like hours, but she was startled by the sound of someone clearing their throat. She had sat up and turned around and there he was, sitting a little higher up the hill, watching her.

'How long have you been there?' she asked him.

'Four hundred years,' he said and he smiled at her and that was it. Maua couldn't think clearly after that. She had no idea how she made it back to Miriam's but as evening fell she found she was there, entering the garden and walking up to the kitchen door.

'Where have you been?' Miriam asked her.

'I've no idea,' Maua said and she set to helping Miriam with the dinner.

They only met outside. Maua would look for secret spots in the woods and fields and Brandon would always, somehow, find her. Sometimes they would just talk. He would sing her folk songs from the area; he had a lilting voice that soothed her heart. Other times they would go for long walks and he would show her the life of that small wilderness: birds' nests and badger setts; fox dens and fairy rings. It was wildlife in miniature – something totally different to what she was used to. She would tell him about life in Dar and visits she made to Saadani or the Serengeti when she had time away from work. He would smile at her quizzically, as if he didn't quite understand what she was saying. He asked her about work and then laughed when she asked him what he did.

'What I like!' he said.

Maua guessed he came from a rich family. But he didn't have the airs and graces the other rich boys she had met seemed to have. She knew that upper class set fairly well. She and Miriam had been surrounded by them at university. Miriam had even married one, although Andrew was actually a sweetie.

And when they weren't talking they would fuck. It was hard, urgent sex; animal. Maua felt this desperate sensation as they clawed at each other, as though she couldn't get close enough to him, as though she couldn't feel enough. It felt transformative. When they had sex she felt she became more than what she was. She felt like she was finally real, present in her own life.

She found it hard to think about anything other than Brandon. Miriam would smile at her slyly as she wandered into a room, 'Penny for your thoughts!' she would say, and Maua would give her that guilty grin that gave away everything.

'Who is he?' Miriam asked her, a few days after she had met him. Maua shrugged.

'His name is Brandon. He lives around here, I think.'

Miriam frowned.

'I don't recognise the name. What's his surname?'

'I don't know. I'll ask him next time I see him.'

'Oh, so there's a next time is there?'

'Of course!'

'Go on,' said Miriam. 'Tell me all about him.'

And Maua did. She told Miriam all of his strange tales about the history of the place, and the people that had lived in these parts long ago. Some of his stories stretched back to before the Vikings; made up stories no doubt, but beautiful.

'But what does he look like?' Miriam asked her. Maua grinned and thought back to their last kiss, the feel of his teeth grazing her tongue, the way he had bent down and taken one of her nipples between his lips and pinched it playfully. Her skin warmed as she noticed Miriam staring at her, waiting expectantly for a description. She thought about how best to do him justice.

'He's very pale,' she began. 'I mean, his skin is very white.'

'I know what pale means Mau.'

Maua laughed.

'Sorry! It's just a bit weird to say that. He's not really my type. But he's so beautiful! Yes, that's the word. He's just... beautiful. And handsome.'

'Can someone be beautiful and handsome?' Miriam asked, an eyebrow raised, her tone sceptical. 'I think this guy has gone to your head. You should be careful, you're not staying long, Mau. It's not like this is a relationship that can last.'

'I know that!' Maua snapped. 'I'm just... enjoying myself.'

Miriam raised her hands.

'You're right. Sorry. Go on, tell me more. I want to hear all about Mr Pale Handsome Beauty.'

Maua looked at her suspiciously, but she couldn't stop herself from saying more.

'His hair is thick, black with a sheen of green, like a crow. And it shines. And his eyes are large and strange; they seem to change colour depending on the light. Sometimes they seem cloudy, like a storm. But other days they're as blue as cornflowers.' Maua didn't notice Miriam roll her eyes. 'And other times it's so strange; his eyes seem green, like moss by the stream. Or like lichen on a rock...' she drifted off. After a moment she looked at Miriam again.

'He's tall. Maybe six foot. And he's well built. He's strong.'

'Sounds divine,' Miriam said and Maua understood the disbelief. She grinned at her.

'Yes, Miriam. I've lost my head! The boy is divine.'

'Maybe you can entice him over for dinner one evening? Then I can see this paragon for myself.'

'I'll ask him,' Maua promised.

But she never asked him his surname or to come to dinner. She knew Miriam was curious to meet him, but she couldn't bring herself to share him. She enjoyed the secrecy of their meetings, the way it felt when they were together; as if they were the only two people alive. They lived in sunlight and Maua was happy with that. She pretended not to notice Miriam's inquiring looks and worried glances. She never quite heard her friend when she asked her what time she would be returning to the house. She drifted more and more outside and barely realised that she rarely saw Miriam at all; even in the evenings when she felt confined in the house.

'Won't you stay in today? Let's spend some time together, just you and me,' Miriam said one day. 'Andrew has to stay in the city tonight so it'll be just like old times. You and me and wine. What d'you think?'

Maua smiled in Miriam's direction but she was looking out of the window at the field beyond the living room.

'Oh you know I have so little time left, Miriam. I'd like to spend my last few days with Brandon. You don't mind do you? It's just I only get to see him during the day, he lives quite far away. But you and I will have dinner together! We always do!' Maua walked out the door and ran over the field and into the woods beyond. Miriam watched her disappear and felt annoyed. She had never known Maua to be so dismissive; to treat her friends as though they weren't important. She wanted to meet this Brandon. She didn't trust him.

Miriam was in half a mind to follow Maua and see if she could get a sense of the man her friend spent her days with. But then she had second thoughts. She was nervous about actually finding the pair of them; nervous about what Maua might say, and nervous about what she might see. Although she was curious she was shy to catch them thinking perhaps they would be intimately engaged. So Miriam spent her day the way she often did: keeping house and filling time.

Maua, full of her imminent departure, threw herself on Brandon as soon as he appeared. He laughed as she clung to him but pretty soon he was kissing her, pulling away her clothes, pushing her to the ground, too busy to laugh at all. And when they were finished they lay there, their skin sticky from the summer sun and sex. Maua wrapped her legs around one of Brandon's and she could feel his thigh pressed against her cunt. Every so often she would rub herself along his thigh but otherwise they were still and quiet, listening to the English countryside throbbing around them.

The shadows moved and Maua felt time passing. It frightened her. She shifted her head and looked up at Brandon's face. She traced a finger along his jaw.

'You're so beautiful,' she said.

Brandon smiled, but he didn't look at her and he didn't say anything.

'I don't usually go for white men; you're not my type,' Maua said.

'I'm everyone's type,' Brandon replied. 'And I go for all sorts: reptile, amphibian, mammal. I once had an affair with the Glaistig and she's half goat.'

He looked at her then and smiled. Maua laughed and kissed his neck.

'Should I be jealous?' she asked.

'No. She was a good fuck but not as strange as you.'

'Strange?'

'You're strange,' said Brandon and he ran his fingers down her shoulder and across her side. 'With your dark skin and your dark eyes,' he said, and he kissed her forehead and turned into her, pressing himself closer to her still, wrapping her in his arms. Maua sighed happily, her ear against his chest, and she listened to his heart beat. She found it easy to ignore the pricking of the sticks under her, the roughness of the grass and patches of thistle.

A bird sang in the distance.

'I wonder what bird that is,' said Maua.

'A thrush,' Brandon told her.

'What do you think it's saying?'

Brandon listened closely.

'He's calling to his mate. They're leaving late, but it's time to move on. "Let's fly" he's calling "Let's fly. Let's forget and fly".'

'What are they forgetting?'

'This place they're in now. They're starting a new life.'

Maua sighed again.

'Imagine if we could do that. Where would you take me?'

'I would take you to my country, of course. I would take you to the back of the North Wind and we could float in a bed of air and fly to the Fortunate Isles. I would show you Tir Nan Og and take you down to Tirfo Thuinn, the Land Under the Waves. We would dance in a different barrow every night and we would join the Rade of the Daoine Sidhe. When we were tired we would sleep in the warm earth.

'And you, my love? Where would you take me?'

Maua thought of all the places she knew. She thought about the busy hustle bustle of Dar and she couldn't see Brandon there, drinking coffee in her favourite cafe, or haggling for fish at the port. He didn't belong in that picture. She thought of the wild places she knew.

'I would take you to Ngorongoro. We could walk along the edge of the crater and watch the animals below, roaming the caldera. I could take you to the Serengeti for the migration. We could take a boat to Zanzibar and find a quiet lagoon where we could swim alone. And when we were tired of swimming...' Maua stroked him suggestively.

Brandon smiled.

'But you could never take me to those places, my love.'

'Why not?' Maua asked. Her heart beat faster because suddenly she knew that this was the end of their summer. He was going to let reality into their haven.

Brandon pushed her away so he could look at her properly and now he wasn't smiling. Maua pulled her arms around herself, hugging herself, wishing he would wrap himself around her again, seeing the inch between them was as big as a mile.

'If you want to keep me you have to promise me something,' Brandon said.

The relief that flooded through Maua was visible. She smiled at him.

'Anything. I would promise you anything, my love.'

'Would you promise to belong to me? To be mine only?'

Maua laughed at that. It couldn't be so easy! She wondered if he meant to follow her to Dar, or at least to work out some way for them to stay together.

'Of course I would.'

'Then do it,' Brandon said. Maua looked at him and he was so serious. His face was solemn and his changeable eyes were cave dark. He was afraid to lose her. She found that an intoxicating thought. She grinned and stretched her arms out to him.

'I promise to belong to you; to be yours only.'

Brandon smiled then.

'You can never take me to those places,' Brandon said again and he leant in and kissed Maua, a deep, wet kiss.

Miriam watched the night come in and waited for Maua. When she didn't appear Miriam was angry. Her friend had grown very inconsiderate lately. Miriam ate dinner alone and drank her bottle of wine.

In the morning, Miriam woke up. She spent her day the way she often did: keeping house and filling time. Andrew came home from the city that evening. He walked in and kissed Miriam on the head. She didn't move from where she sat but she wrapped her arms around his waist.

'I missed you,' she said and she smiled up at him.

'I missed you too,' he said. 'And this house must be very lonely when you're by yourself. You should get one of your friends to come and visit. We still have some summer left. Maybe one of your friends from Dar.'

'Maybe,' said Miriam. 'Though I don't have many close friends there anymore.'