Jasmine went outside to join the others without protest.

Evie looked at Douglas, still struggling to believe what she had witnessed. ‘How could you? Knowing that I’m carrying our baby. How could you?’ Her voice trembled but she willed herself not to cry.

Douglas looked down, but said nothing. Apart from the instructions to the woman, he hadn’t spoken a word since they’d arrived.

‘Who is she?’

‘My housekeeper.’

‘Your housekeeper?’ She could hear the contempt in her own voice. ‘I have to get those girls home. But you need to know that you have crushed me. Broken me.’ She felt her emotions start to spin out of control. ‘I can’t talk about it now.’ She moved towards the door as he called out her name.

Standing on the threshold, she looked back at him. ‘How long has this been going on?’

‘Look, Evie–’

‘No. On second thoughts, I don’t want to know. You disgust me.’

She rushed down the steps and into the waiting car. ‘Drive! For goodness sake, drive please, Mary,’ she said, her voice barely a whisper.

19

The last half-hour to the ferry port at Butterworth passed in silence, apart from the rhythmic squeak of the windscreen wipers as they drove through a sudden tropical deluge. In the back of the car, the girls had fallen asleep, Penny’s head on Jasmine’s shoulder. Mary Helston drove with her eyes fixed on the road ahead. When Evie had got into the car her friend had squeezed her hand, but said nothing. Evie was grateful for the silence. The thought of speaking about what had just taken place filled her with horror. She preferred to wallow alone in her misery and anger.

Her thoughts were in turmoil. Douglas’s betrayal was devastating, especially after the Christmas holidays they had spent as a family, the close approximation to affection that he had been beginning to show her, and his pleasure at the child they were going to have together. Yet all that time he had been tucked up in his sordid love nest with his native whore. No wonder he spent most of his time at Batu Lembah. No wonder he had refused to bring Evie there. She had been taken for a fool.

Over and over again, her mind replayed the scene in the bungalow. The woman’s hands gently kneading his naked back. The tumbled sheets on the unmade bed. Had they just finished love-making? Had they merely stopped to have some food? Is this what happened every time he was away from George Town? Every night? How long had it been going on? With a chill that froze her to the marrow in spite of the sultry heat of the evening, she wondered who else had known about this. The Leightons? She found it hard to imagine that Veronica wouldn’t have found a way to let her know, to take pleasure in the telling. But Arthur? As Doug’s best friend he must surely have known. And she remembered the knowing looks the Hyde-Underwoods had exchanged when Douglas had brought her to Bellavista; their surprise that he had married.