Next morning, without telling anyone where she was going, Kate hailed a tonga and told the tonga wallah to take her to the railway station. She had hoped that the man in the ticket office might remember seeing someone like Harry, but the conversation became confused and there were people queuing up behind her. Eventually she was forced to make way for them and found herself pushed aside by angry travellers. Apparently the train was due in at any moment and then it would make the return trip to a Thana, some twenty-one miles away. She could not think why Harry might have wanted to go there, but she was growing desperate. Joe had been in hospital for so many months that he seemed to have lost all sense of time and urgency, and he was prepared to wait calmly for Harry’s return.

Even though she had no interest in steam engines or railways, Kate could not resist the temptation to wait until the train came rumbling into the station. She had never travelled by rail and she was beginning to think it would be a fascinating experience, when there was a sudden rush for the gates and people waved their tickets at the guard as they hurried onto the platform. The train pulled in with a loud whistle and a gust of steam enveloped everything in its wake. Kate was about to leave, but she hesitated, hoping that by some miracle Harry would emerge from the damp cloud. But he was not amongst the passengers who pushed and jostled at the barrier where they had to hand in their tickets, and Kate struggled with a feeling of disappointment. She knew that it had been a vain hope, but she dragged her feet as she made her way out onto the dusty street, almost tripping over a small child who was clutching at her skirts and holding out his grimy hand. Kate opened her reticule and was immediately surrounded by a crowd of painfully thin urchins, begging for money.

‘No,’ Kate said, shaking her head. ‘Go away. I haven’t enough for all of you.’ She attempted to escape, but she was surrounded, the clamour grew louder and the small hands grabbed at her arms and tore her skirts.

‘Get away, all of you.’ A man’s voice thundered above the noise from the steam engine preparing to leave on its return journey, and the ugly shouts of the hungry children. ‘Jaldi!’ he added angrily when they refused to move. He raised his swagger stick and the children cowered and backed away.

Kate was trembling but she held her head high. ‘Thank you, sir.’

The army officer smiled and proffered his arm. ‘I take it that you are newly arrived in India.’

‘Why would you say that?’

‘Because you would not be here on your own, and you would not have given alms to beggars.’