‘She’s definitely on the warpath,’ said Sarah on a sigh, helping Amah out of the car. ‘So much for our homecoming.’

‘Mem has many fears and worries,’ said Amah. ‘This is not a good place for her and the waiting is long to hear anything of the sahibs.’

‘I’m sure it’s all very worrying,’ said Jane. ‘But that’s no excuse for being so sharp about my engagement.’

Amah reached up and lightly touched Jane’s face with her fingers. ‘There has been great trouble for all of us, and perhaps it is better if you let Mem speak what is in her heart. You do not have to agree, but it would be better to keep your thoughts inside.’

‘Oh, Amah, I have missed you so,’ breathed Jane, giving her a gentle hug. ‘I will try, I promise. But I have to stand up to her. I’m not a child any more.’

‘And I too have missed you both. Now come. I have made special dinner to welcome you back to Singapore.’

Jim left them to it and drove to his billet, rather wishing he could be a fly on the wall during the conversation Sybil would no doubt have with her younger daughter. He smiled wryly as he parked the car outside the Palm Hotel. Jane had matured and come a long way since she’d arrived at Beach View, and he had the feeling that Sybil would not find it quite so easy to get her own way with her now.

20

The first night had proved a difficult one for Jane, but with Sarah’s help, she’d managed to hold her tongue long enough for her mother to run out of steam, and they’d all sat down with Elsa to enjoy Amah’s delicious and very hot curry.

Over the following week, Sybil appeared to have been mollified by what Peggy had written about Jeremy, and actually approved of his formal letter asking her for her daughter’s hand, and yet it was clear that she thought Jane was far too young to be tying herself down.

Jane decided the only way to convince her mother that she was no longer a child to be mollycoddled was to take charge of the chaotic filing system in Elsa Bristow’s office and bring some order to it. Three weeks later, she’d organised shelves to be built from floor to ceiling on three sides, and these were now stacked with box files, each with neatly printed labels, and placed in numerical order.

Having completed that task, Jane had then turned her attention to the bewildering and often misleading data coming in from the search teams in the jungle. She began to plot maps using the information Jim had gleaned from his interviews with the returning prisoners, and the local knowledge of the natives who’d fled Burma and Thailand.

It was work she loved, and it had proved extremely useful to those searching for the thousands of hidden camps throughout Asia, and as September faded into October, even Sybil had to admit that her daughter was far more skilled and intelligent than she’d ever given her credit for. Elsa, too, had revised her opinion and often turned to her for advice on a particularly knotty problem, marvelling at the girl’s ability to see things differently.