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Her pilgrimage to meet Bintang’s grandmother, and the acceptance and kindness of the elderly woman, had made Jasmine feel calmer. She still longed for Bintang to return and was riven with guilt at being the cause of his defection, but the near hysteria she’d suffered when she found out he had left was gone. What remained was a hollow ache, an abiding sadness and a desperate longing to be in his arms.
When she and Reggie returned from Bintang’s kampong, Mary greeted her with relief, and made no criticism of her visit there, accepting that she’d wished to pay her respects to Bintang’s grandmother.
‘When you didn’t appear for tiffin I went to look for you in the studio,’ Mary said. ‘I noticed the portrait of Bintang was missing and guessed where you might have gone.’
‘He agreed to me p
