‘Private Blythe, you have a visitor.’ The nurse backed away to answer a faint call for help at the other end of the ward.

‘Joseph, you don’t know me, but I’m a friend of Annie’s.’

He gazed up at her with a blank expression on his pale features. ‘I don’t understand. Annie is in London.’

Kate could feel the eyes of the man in the next bed were on her and she felt a surge of pity for the patients who were so far from home. She moved a little close to Joseph, lowering her voice. ‘Annie is here in Bombay. We’ve come to take you home.’

‘Home?’

‘To England, Joseph. We only disembarked this morning and I left Annie at the house where we’re staying because she was exhausted. She’s been so worried about you.’

‘But I can’t leave,’ Joseph said dazedly. ‘I’m still under orders, even though I am a helpless cripple. I had to have my leg amputated when gangrene set in.’

‘I’m so sorry to hear that.’ Kate laid her hand on his as it rested on the starched white coverlet. She could feel the bones through his parchment-thin skin, and was reminded of a baby bird she had once tried to rescue after it had fallen from its nest. ‘I’m sure we can go through the proper channels and get you repatriated. We’re staying with a lawyer and I know he’ll help us.’

Joseph nodded dully. ‘If you say so, miss. I don’t even know your name.’

‘I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself – I’m Kate Martin. I came because of your letter and I wanted to see Harry Lyndon, but I’m told he’s been discharged.’

‘Harry was shot and badly wounded. The uprising might be over but there are still pockets of resistance, so I’m told. Harry nearly died but he’s tough and he survived the operation and the bout of malaria he suffered.’

Kate breathed a sigh of relief, dashing tears from her eyes. She was shocked by her own response to the news. ‘He must have been well enough to leave the hospital. Do you know where he went?’

Joseph curled his fingers around her hand. ‘He said he had some unfinished business. I don’t know any more than that.’

‘That’s odd,’ Kate said thoughtfully. ‘As far as I know he’d never been to India before.’

‘Look out,’ Joseph muttered, releasing her hand.

Kate glanced over her shoulder. She could see the nurse advancing on them and she realised that the five minutes had flown by. ‘I’m going to be thrown out, Joseph, but I’ll return tomorrow with Annie. That’s a promise.’