Evie’s free hand shot to her mouth and clamped over it. Sensing her distress, the baby began to cry. Evie stroked his head and the child calmed at once.

‘I climbed back down into the attic and ran downstairs. When I got outside, the gardener was already there on the terrace. He yelled at me to go back into the house. He didn’t want me to see what had happened to Hubert.’ He looked up at Evie. ‘But I did see. And I’ve never been able to un-see what I saw that day. Or un-hear his scream as he fell to the ground.’

‘Oh, Doug.’ She reached her hand out to take his but he got up and moved away to stand by the window.

‘I never owned up to what happened. I didn’t tell them I was up on the roof too. That makes me a moral coward.’

‘No. You were a frightened little boy who was probably in shock.’

‘Bertie was my father’s favourite. After he was killed, Father couldn’t bear to look at me. It was as if he was always thinking the wrong son had died. When my mother got ill and died too there was no one left to object when he sent me away.’

He turned back to look at her. ‘So you know my terrible secret, Evie. Do you see why I have to call my son Hubert?’

She looked at the little bundle in her arms. ‘Hubert it is.’ She shivered. It was neither the name nor the legacy she wanted for her child. Bending over she kissed her son’s plump cheek.

He can be christened Hubert she told herself, but we’ll call him Hugh.

While the war raged on in Europe, and the Blitz began in England, life in Penang continued much as before – but with some token efforts by the expatriates to ‘do their bit’. Douglas was increasingly involved in exercises with the defence volunteers. He remained scathing about the value and relevance of what they were doing, claiming that no war on the peninsula would ever be fought that way, if indeed it were to be fought at all. Like many of the planters, he suggested that his local knowledge and familiarity with the language might prove useful in assisting the regular army with planning and liaison, but all such offers were rejected as impractical or unnecessary. Objections to the traditional warcraft they were drilling in were always brushed aside by the regular army, with the assertion that they may well be required at some point to return to help defend Britain or assist in a counter attack on the continent of Europe. No one appeared to take seriously the threat of an invasion of Malaya itself – including Douglas. Eventually he resigned himself to participating anyway, and acknowledged that the small-arms training was useful and brought back his days in the officer training corps at school.

Evie, like most of the women, was pressed into service in sewing parties, knitting balaclavas and socks for the troops and for Red Cross parcels destined for Prisoners of War.