Sybil felt a pang of guilt mixed with her annoyance, for now all was explained, and she shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about those women. ‘Then what should I do? I’ve just come from Australia in search of my husband who was taken prisoner, and my daughters are expected to arrive tomorrow.’

‘Perhaps I may be of service?’

Sybil turned sharply and looked up at the man who’d quelled the rowdy argument. ‘I’m not sure how,’ she replied. ‘It seems every hotel in Singapore is filled to the rafters.’

He smiled down at her, his bright blue eyes quite startlingly attractive in his tanned face as he took in her elegant shantung silk suit and smart hat. ‘Would I be right in guessing that you’re Mrs Fuller?’

‘Yes,’ she replied, rather startled. ‘But how on earth did you know that?’

‘I overheard some of your conversation with the receptionist,’ he said without a hint of bashfulness. He held out his hand. ‘I’m Second Lieutenant Jim Reilly, and your daughters have been living with my wife in Cliffehaven.’

‘Good Lord,’ breathed Sybil as she found her slender hand being swamped in a dry, firm grip. ‘What a very small world it is. You’re the last person I expected to meet here.’

‘It’s the last place I really want to be,’ he admitted with a twinkle in his eyes. ‘But if you come with me, there’s someone you know who’ll be able to help you find accommodation.’

‘Jock?’ she gasped.

His smile disappeared and he looked mortified. ‘I’m so sorry to have given you false hope,’ he replied softly. ‘There’s no news of him or Philip yet, but we’re doing our very best to find them.’

‘Then who?’ she asked in bewilderment. ‘The girls aren’t due in until Sunday.’

‘Elsa Bristow,’ he replied. ‘But I must warn you, Mrs Fuller, the Brigadier didn’t survive his imprisonment.’

‘Oh no, poor Elsa,’ she gasped. ‘I must go to her. Where is she? What’s she doing here?’

‘Let me make sure your luggage is locked away first,’ he said, eyeing the expensive matching suitcases. ‘Things have a habit of disappearing round here.’

She looked at him, aghast. ‘At Raffles? Surely not?’

He shot her a grin. ‘The clientele has changed drastically since your last visit, and the women are like magpies after being deprived of everything over the years, and anything left lying about is fair game. It’s a habit they picked up in the camps where things could be bartered for extra food, a pillow, a comb, a cigarette – or anything to make their ordeal a little easier.’

‘I hadn’t realised there were women and children in the camps,’ she murmured. ‘How on earth did any of them survive?’

‘A great many of them didn’t,’ he said grimly. ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Fuller, but it’s best you know right from the start that the odds of finding your husband and Philip alive are remote.’

Sybil digested this advice and decided he had to be exaggerating the situation. If women and children had survived, then surely men like Jock and Philip – healthy, strong men in the prime of their lives – could too. Feeling more positive despite his warning, she watched him as he went to talk to one of the porters and helped stow her suitcases in a room behind the counter.