Then it hit her. He’d thought she was someone else. That afternoon of his wedding he’d danced with several of the young women present. Had he mixed her up with a different girl? Someone more beautiful? Someone more interesting?

Douglas continued to puff on his pipe and drink his scotch, now at a more respectable pace. He was behaving as if she were invisible. She wished she was – she’d have liked to float away and disappear for ever. The utter humiliation of it.

As though endowed with a sixth sense, Benny appeared and refilled his employer’s glass. Evie had barely touched hers.

Douglas looked up from his stengah and studied her. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d show up,’ he said at last. ‘Thought you might get cold feet at the last minute and not get on the ship.’ He closed his eyes momentarily. ‘I’ll say one thing for you, Evelyn Fraser, you’re a brave woman.’ He gave a dry laugh. ‘Or possibly a foolhardy one.’

She said nothing, conscious that he was watching her. But at least he was speaking.

‘It must have taken courage to agree to throw your lot in with a man you barely know. I take my hat off to you.’ He turned his attention back to the whisky in his hand, swirling it around so the ice chinked. ‘But now that you’re here, do you still intend to go ahead with the plan?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If you want to back out I’ll understand. No hard feelings. I can sort out a passage back to Blighty for you. Now that you’ve experienced something of the Straits and realise what you’d be letting yourself in for.’

A shiver ran over Evie’s skin, despite the heat of the early evening.

He was trying to back out. He didn’t want to go through with the marriage. Indignant, she decided she wasn’t going to let him off the hook so easily. Not after she’d travelled all this way, given up her home and a perfectly good job, built up her hopes and readied herself for a new future. The gall of the man was breathtaking. She’d come here to marry him and she was jolly well going to do it.

‘I’ve seen very little of Penang so far, but it is a beautiful place. Yes, the heat and humidity have been a shock but I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually. Even after a few days it’s already a bit easier.’

He looked at her. His eyes were an intense blue. When he frowned, as he was doing now, they narrowed and his face took on an aspect that bordered on cruel. Cold, hard, almost ruthless. It didn’t stop her being attracted to him though. She told herself she was as bad as the heroines in Mrs Shipley-Thomas’s romance novels, but couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be kissed passionately by such a man. To be desired by him. Would she ever find out?