Drawing air deep into her lungs she let it out slowly. ‘Mrs Leighton,’ she said at last. ‘As you will have gathered, I know next to nothing of Douglas Barrington and his current circumstances. After my father died, my mother went to live in America and I’m afraid I lost track of family matters.’

Mrs Leighton pushed her untouched salad away and motioned for the waiter to remove it. ‘So, what on earth possessed you to accept a marriage proposal from a man you hardly know?’

‘If you don’t mind me saying, Mrs Leighton, I’d prefer not to answer that. Your husband suggested that you might be willing to offer me some advice about living in Malaya. What kind of clothing I need to bring. That sort of thing. If you’re not prepared to do that, I will pay the bill and bid you goodbye. I have a lot to do before we sail.’

Leaning back in her chair, Mrs Leighton nodded. ‘So you can stand up for yourself. That’s good. You’ll need to with Dougie. I was worried you were going to be a doormat. Believe me, he’ll try to make you one.’ She glanced around the room and caught the eye of their waiter. ‘Why don’t I order us each a “Gin and It”? We can have a good chat and then look at clothes together. Cotton and linen. Just day dresses – you can buy silk over there and get your evening gowns made up. There’s a fabulous little Indian chappie who can run up a gown in an afternoon. I’ll introduce you. He can copy a design straight out of Vogue. For daywear keeping cool is the thing. It’s hot as blazes in Penang. All year round. You can probably get rid of most of your wardrobe as it’s far too steamy for things like that.’ She gestured dismissively at Evie’s wool suit.

Clapping her hands together she said, ‘How does that sound? Oh, and shall we dispense with the formalities? Call me Veronica.’ Her mouth formed a smile that her eyes didn’t echo.

At least the full-on attack had stopped, but Evie had already decided that Mrs Veronica Leighton was a first-class bitch.

Half an hour later, having written a list dictated by Mrs Leighton of essential items to bring with her to Penang, Evie had had enough advice and was determined it wasn’t going to extend to choosing her new wardrobe. Quite apart from being bossed around, the kind of clothes Mrs Leighton had in mind would be beyond her limited budget. Pleading a headache, she made her escape and took the much-maligned underground to High Street Kensington and bought herself a couple of cheap cotton frocks and some new underwear in Barkers. She could get more clothes made when she got to Malaya. Her existing wardrobe was unsuitable for a hot climate. At the suggestion of the landlady of her boarding house, she took her winter clothing to a nearby church, for distribution to the poor. Her limited funds were now almost exhausted. She’d need to stretch the pennies until the sailing date in a week’s time.