‘I know I can trust you, John,’ she replied. ‘It’s just seeing all these bills and estimates has worried me a bit. The amount we’re spending didn’t seem so vast until I saw it all written down in black and white.’

John pulled her gently onto his lap. ‘You can’t have omelettes without breaking eggs, and although it all looks frightening now, think how marvellous it will be when the work’s finished.’

‘Do you think it will be done in time for Christmas?’

‘I’m not sure, but I’m hoping so. It would be perfect to spend our first Christmas together in our new and very smart house, don’t you think? Perhaps Anthony and his little family could visit. Suzy will have had the baby by then, and you’ll be able to enjoy your grandchildren.’

Doris snuggled up to him, happier than she’d ever been, her worries disappearing in the glow of being loved and cherished by this wonderful man.

Part Three

17

Karachi to Calcutta

They’d left Karachi earlier that morning despite the fact that dark clouds had been gathering and the heat had intensified. There was electricity in the air, and Sarah could taste the copper of the gathering tropical storm as the plane jolted and dipped alarmingly through the clouds.

‘This doesn’t look good,’ she managed. ‘I hope the pilot knows what he’s doing.’

The plane suddenly seemed to drop out of the sky, making her feel weightless, only tethered to her seat by the safety belt, her stomach suspended somewhere beneath her ribs. She clung to the armrests, her heart in her mouth as the lunch trays went flying and suitcases began to topple from the overhead lockers. She closed her eyes and held on as the plane began to rise again and level out, then carry on juddering and thudding towards Calcutta.

‘Sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen,’ said the Australian pilot rather tersely over the intercom. ‘I’m afraid we’re in for a bumpy ride until we get to Calcutta. Keep your seatbelts fastened, and your fingers crossed that this storm doesn’t break. I’m going to try and get beneath the turbulence, so don’t be alarmed.’

Sarah and Jane exchanged horrified looks. ‘Why did he take off if the weather’s about to break?’ asked Jane, who’d gone quite ashen. ‘I don’t like this, Sarah. Really I don’t.’

Sarah didn’t either and wasn’t too impressed by the pilot, who seemed to have taken a very gung-ho attitude to the approaching storm. Yet they had to keep faith in him, for he must have experienced these sorts of conditions before and would know how to get them safely to Calcutta.

The plane dipped and rose with heart-stopping regularity as the hostesses quickly cleared away the uneaten lunches and fastened the scattered luggage firmly back into the lockers. They handed out paper bags, checked the seatbelts were correctly locked, their smiles fixed and never quite reaching their eyes. As the thunder began to roll and grumble around them, they hurried to their seats at the back of the plane, clearly as unnerved as their ashen-faced passengers.