Exhausted, and stressed from so many introductions to people whose names she would never remember, Evie ached to leave. Like a butterfly pinned to a specimen tray, she was being passed around for inspection and approval. If she had hoped to be welcomed warmly and enthusiastically into their inner circle, she was to be disappointed. The ladies appeared to operate as a clique, slow to accept outsiders or newcomers. Her nerves raw and her head throbbing from too much champagne and a vain effort to remember names, she escaped to the ladies’ powder room.

Once inside a cubicle, she told herself to calm down. These people would eventually accept her and possibly even become her friends. It was only natural that at the beginning they would be cautious about her and she would feel like an outsider. She remembered her first term at boarding school and how different it was from what followed. Girls who had cold-shouldered her had become firm friends and alliances inevitably changed as time went on. That was what she needed to do. Give it time.

As she sat in a stall, treasuring this quiet moment away from the intimidating throng, she heard the door to the Powder Room open and two or three people came in.

‘You’re not serious, Vronnie!’ The speaker had a drawling tone that made her sound bored.

‘I told you. I’m absolutely certain. He mistook her for another woman. It has to be that. He’s been propping up the bar ever since he got here, getting absolutely sozzled.’ Veronica’s voice was unmistakable. ‘Dougie would never have chosen to get hitched to someone like her. Remember they’d only ever met once and that was years ago. He obviously muddled her up with someone else.’

A third voice chipped in. ‘You can’t seriously be suggesting he went ahead and married her knowing she was the wrong woman?’

‘Once she’d trekked all the way to Malaya he could hardly send her back again, could he? Parcel her up to return to sender!’

Evie winced as she listened to the ripples of laughter but Veronica wasn’t done. ‘Besides, Dougie only cares about what will happen to his damned rubber estates. As long as she can give him a couple of brats why should he be bothered? What’s that expression? You don’t look at the mantelpiece when you’re poking the fire.’

More gales of laughter. ‘Really, Vronnie. You are the giddy limit!’

Evie was humiliated. She could hear the sound of handbags opening and closing and a tap running. The women seemed to be repairing their makeup. No one had gone near the cubicles.

The woman with the drawling voice spoke again. ‘The girl does seem gawky. Not fat exactly, but very big-boned. Not at all like Felicity who was such a delicate, pretty little thing.’

Veronica’s voice cut through the air again. ‘But Felicity didn’t cope well with being here, did she? Dougie’s not daft. He probably decided that it was better this time to pick someone made of sturdier stuff. Evie definitely has child-bearing hips and appears to have the constitution of an ox.’