The tea had gone cold as Amah slept, so Sybil went back into the kitchen to prepare another pot and heat up the chicken noodle soup Elsa had made the day before. Warming some flatbreads to go with it, she carried it all into the sitting room to find Amah was stirring.

‘There’s tea and chicken noodle soup,’ she said, placing a bowl on the table in front of her. ‘I’m sorry there’s not much else. I got lost in the market yesterday and in a panic caught a rickshaw back here without doing any shopping.’

Amah seemed refreshed by her sleep. ‘May I use the bathroom now?’

‘Of course. It’s through there on the left.’

Amah returned a few minutes later with her hair combed, and her feet a good deal cleaner. She put her hands together and bowed to Sybil before sitting down. ‘Thank you, Mem. I feel very much better now.’

Sybil handed her the bowl of soup and placed the flatbreads on the table where she could reach them. So she wouldn’t feel awkward, Sybil picked up her own bowl and dipped the spoon in.

Once the bowls were empty and the tea was poured, Amah smiled at her. ‘That was very good soup, Mem. Did you make it?’

‘Sadly not. Elsa Bristow put it together last night. I’m hopeless in the kitchen as you know.’

Amah smiled and said nothing as she sipped the tea.

‘I don’t suppose you’d like to stay and help us out, would you?’ asked Sybil, dismissing the need to ask Elsa if it would be all right. ‘Only with the girls about to arrive and me being so hopeless at everything, it would be a huge help. I’d pay you, of course,’ she added hurriedly.

Tears brightened in the old woman’s eyes and her hand shook as she carefully placed the cup back into the saucer. ‘To be with you and my girls again would be enough. I do not ask for payment.’

‘Oh, but I insist,’ protested Sybil.

Amah looked down and it was a moment before she replied. ‘To serve you, to be fed and have somewhere to live is all that I wish, Mem.’ She looked up then and there was a world of pain in her eyes. ‘I will wait with you for the sahibs to come home.’

‘I wish I could promise you that they will,’ said Sybil. ‘But we’ve heard so little about what happened to Jock after he left Changi to work as slave labour on the plantation, that it’s doubtful he’ll ever come home.’

Amah nodded. ‘Death has been with us all since the Japanese came to the island,’ she said softly. ‘I have seen many terrible things, and although I am small and weak, Buddha has saved me. I often asked why he should do such a thing, but now I know. He wanted me to be with you again before I die.’

‘But you can’t die, not now we’ve found you again,’ gasped Sybil.