She wove her bone-thin fingers between each other, and Evie saw that her fingernails were discoloured and ridged. Whatever Mary had been through during the Japanese occupation had left its mark, physically as well as emotionally. Evie lent forward and placed her hand over her friend’s.

Mary looked up at her. ‘I’ll never tell you what happened to me in that camp. I’ll never speak of it to anyone. But there’s one thing I do want to tell you. It will probably surprise you.’

Evie waited.

‘I owe my life to one person. She kept me alive when I was ready to give up. She forced me to go on. And in the end, she sacrificed her own life for me and for another woman – barely more than a girl really. We both lived because Veronica Leighton protected us and ultimately sacrificed her life for us.’

‘Veronica?’ Evie was shocked. ‘How? What did she do?’

Mary’s eyes were dull, void of expression. ‘In the camp Mum got dengue fever and was weak from starvation. Mum only lasted as long as she did because Veronica stole some medicine. The Japs kept all the medications from the Red Cross parcels. We had nothing. Veronica was clever. I don’t know how she did it, but she got medication for Mum. But in the end it wasn’t enough. Mum was too weak. When she died I had to dig her grave. Veronica and some of the other women helped me make a wooden crate as a coffin and helped me carry it across the camp to where the grave was.’

‘Oh, Mary that’s horrible. To have to dig your mother’s grave. I’m so sorry.’

‘That was the least of it. Everything that happened to us in that camp will go to the grave with me. But every day for the rest of my life I will be grateful to Veronica Leighton for what she did for me. She may have been a bitch for most of her life but when faced with what we faced, she chose to do the bravest thing I have ever known. When they caught her they executed her. We had to watch. That’s all I’m going to say. Please don’t ask me anything more.’

An icy chill spread through Evie’s veins. No matter how much she had loathed Veronica Leighton, that she had been murdered in cold blood by the Japanese was too brutal to contemplate.

After a few moments silence, Evie asked, ‘Do you have any idea what happened to Veronica’s husband? Arthur.’

Mary shrugged. ‘No idea. He’s probably dead too. He wasn’t in Singapore. I do know that.’

‘That night we left Penang, he told me he had trained to stay behind. To hide in the jungle and try to perform sabotage. Behind their lines.’

‘Well, he’s almost certainly dead.’

Unable to control her emotions, Evie began to sob.

Mary looked up in surprise. ‘My God! You have feelings for him, Evie? For Arthur Leighton. I’m terribly sorry. I was tactless. I wouldn’t have been so blunt if I’d realised.’