Her thoughts inevitably turned to her mother, who’d gone into labour – a difficult and life-threatening labour which had kept her in Singapore as the Japanese advanced. And to her father – big, robust, capable Jock, who’d refused to leave her, but who’d been determined to see his daughters safely away on one of the evacuation ships. Unlike the night of Philip’s proposal, she could remember that last farewell all too clearly.

She and Jane had clung to one another on the deck, the enemy aircraft roaring overhead and strafing the dockside as Jock and Philip waved goodbye and ran for cover. And then had come the deadly game of hide and seek as the Japanese torpedoed some of the rescue ships, and their captain had taken the brave decision to hide between a group of small islands and then return for the women and children still stranded on the docks.

Sarah opened her eyes, surprised to find she was still in the manor house garden, for the sights and sounds of her escape from Singapore had been so vivid. There had been so much fear as she and Jane had clung to one another in the hold of that ship, not only for their lives, but for their parents and Philip, who they’d left behind.

It had been a miracle that Jock had managed to get their mother and baby brother on board the very last ship to leave Singapore, and although she was now living on the other side of the world, at least they knew she was safe. But there had been no word since of Jock or Philip, and the rumours coming out of that part of the world made it hard to believe that either of them could have survived.

Now all she had were fading photographs which had been taken in happier times and in a very different world – so remote from her present reality that it was difficult to comprehend.

Sarah’s stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t had her lunch. She checked her watch, noted she had another ten minutes before the canteen closed and drew her mother’s letter from her trouser pocket. It was quite a thick letter considering she’d received several over the past few days, but perhaps it contained more photographs.

She tore it open eagerly and began to read. But by the time she’d got halfway down the first page, she could barely make out the words through her tears.

21

Burma

Jim, Ernie and Big Bert had calculated that this was their forty-fifth day behind enemy lines, but at least they were on the move and not under siege like the men who were pinned down in India, trying to drive the Japs from the Kohima to Imphal Road which they’d blocked following their withdrawal from the Kohima Ridge – a siege that had lasted weeks.