She started to protest, but recognising that his pain was clearly intolerable, she bent over him and kissed him again. ‘I’ll be back when you’ve had some rest.’

He reached for her hand. ‘Please respect my wishes, Evie. If you care at all for me, let me go the way I want to go.’

The door opened and a nurse entered. ‘You’ll have to leave, Mrs Barrington. Your husband needs to sleep. You can come back tomorrow morning.’

Tears streaming down her face, Evie moved towards the door.

His voice was faint as she touched the handle. ‘And thank you, Evie. Thank you for putting up with me. For giving me my son. I know you’ll bring him up to be a better man than me.’

Her heart breaking, she pushed the door open and left him to the nurse and the comfort of a hypodermic needle.

Dr Van den Bergh was waiting in the corridor. He looked at her anxiously and she shook her head. ‘I’ll try again when he wakes up,’ she said.

The doctor frowned. He didn’t need to say anything. She could read in his eyes that he was thinking it may already be too late.

‘Isn’t there anything else you can do to stop infection?’

‘We’re doing all we can. We’re giving him sulpha drugs – the strongest anti-microbials we have. But his natural resistance is low because of the loss of blood and the stress of the pain. He was lying injured for several hours before he was brought to the surface. Time is the enemy here, Mrs Barrington. We’ll give him morphine to reduce his pain and help him sleep while we let the drugs try to do their work. You should go home and get some sleep yourself. You need to think of your baby. And Mr Barrington tells me you have a little girl. She needs you too. Come back tomorrow morning.’ He placed a hand on her arm. ‘Say your prayers that after a night’s sleep, he may change his mind.’

Evie allowed herself to be ushered out of the hospital to return to George Town with Frank and Reggie.

She wanted to be alone, to fold her baby in her arms and never let him go. What kind of a world had she brought him into? A world where God would allow a man like Doug, so strong, fit and healthy, to be cut down in his prime.

To her relief, the brothers left her on the doorstep and didn’t offer to come inside. It was already eight in the evening. Incredible to believe that only the previous evening she’d been sitting in the garden here with her guests, unaware of Doug’s plight. In that brief time her entire world had been changed irrevocably.

Aunty Mimi opened the door, eyes brimming with tears. ‘Solly for Tuan. I light many candles in temple today for him.’ She looked away. ‘For you too, Mem,’ she said, before disappearing into the kitchen.