27
Jasmine was at school and Evie was sitting in the garden, staring into space. Now that Douglas had been laid to rest, the shock of his death and its manner was receding, to be replaced by a numbness and a feeling of being cast adrift. Even though Douglas had rarely been present at the George Town house, the knowledge that he would never return made her feel as if she no longer had any right to be there.
Before the funeral, Arthur had assured her that there was plenty of money in the bank, and the income from the two rubber estates, and from an inheritance from Douglas’s late mother, meant that she and the children would be well-provided for. Money was the last thing she needed to worry about.
Hugh was sleeping in a bassinet beside her, in a shaded part of the garden. She gazed at his
