‘Yet you loved her.’

‘I loathed her.’ He looked at Evie and she knew he was telling the truth.

‘Why do you keep a shrine to her upstairs?’ She jerked her head upwards to the ceiling. ‘In your bedroom.’

‘That’s not my bedroom. I never go near it. When I’m in this house and haven’t spent the night with you, I sleep in the small room next door.’

‘But all her clothes are still in the main bedroom. All her personal things. Jewellery. Everything.’

‘Are they? You can get rid of them. I told Aunty Mimi to do that after Felicity died. I don’t know why she didn’t.’

Evie was stunned. Things were turning out to be the opposite of what they had seemed.

‘When I bought Batu Lembah I hoped things might change. Felicity didn’t like Bella Vista. But from the moment we crossed the threshold of Batu Lembah she made it clear that she didn’t want to be there. It used to look better in those days. More furniture, pictures, home comforts. But she never liked it. She was angry all the time. One evening I came home to the bungalow to be greeted by screaming from Jasmine. My wife was beating her with the handle of her hairbrush. Jasmine was only three. That’s when I sent Jasmine to the convent. For her own protection. I took on the house in George Town and Felicity moved back there. I’d come into town just for meetings, tennis, functions at the club and so on, just to keep up the facade that our marriage was functioning.’

He stopped and ran his hands through his hair. His expression was grim. He was evidently finding telling her all this painful.

Breathing out loudly, he said, ‘Felicity couldn’t bear the physical side of marriage. After Jasmine was born she wouldn’t even entertain the idea of letting me near her at all.’ He put his head in his hands. Looking up at her, a picture of misery, he said, ‘I’m only human. A man has needs. I’m not proud of what I did, but that’s how it started with Nayla.’

‘Don’t say her name. I don’t want to know. And that might be how it started but it doesn’t explain why it went on. It doesn’t explain why you married me and kept on having relations with her. Kept on living with her as man and wife.’

He winced. ‘It was never as man and wife. I told you it was only sex. I feel nothing for her. I never have. She was obliging, undemanding, uncomplicated–’

’Stop. I don’t want to listen to her many virtues.’

Douglas sighed. ‘I’m trying to explain, Evie. After Felicity, who shuddered every time I came near her, Nayla… I mean the Malayan woman… was easy and relaxed. It meant as little to her as it did to me. Just physical pleasure.’ He looked away. ‘God, Evie, it’s bloody hard telling you all this.’

‘Swearing won’t make it any easier And if it’s hard telling it, I can promise you it’s much harder having to listen to it.’