‘A penny for your thoughts,’ she repeated. ‘You looked miles away.’
‘I was,’ he said. ‘About seven thousand to be precise.’
‘That sounds adventurous,’ she said. ‘Sorry to bring you back down to earth, but I’ve got your painkillers here, Mr. Ellis. It’s that time of day again.’
He took the tablets and the glass of water from her, and gulped them down obediently.
‘Are you writing something?’ she asked, her eyes lighting on the notebook.
‘Oh, it’s nothing really,’ he said quickly. He closed the book and put it on the shelf beside him. ‘Just a few meaningless scribbles, that’s all.’
She went to the end of the bed and picked up the clipboard that held his notes.
‘How’s the leg faring today?’
‘A bit better today, thank you. It will be fine.’
The nurse nodded, writing something on the notes. She began to move around the bed, tucking in the sheets, tidying the covers. She moved deftly and neatly, and as she came close and leaned over him to fold the sheet back over the blankets, he noticed that she wore a tiny silver cross around her neck. It stirred a memory buried deep inside him.
‘How did you injure it? I hope you don’t mind my asking. Is it a war injury?’ she asked as she straightened up.
‘Yes. I got it when I was a prisoner of war in the Far East. I was jumping off a sinking ship.’
Her face was suddenly serious. She looked at him with her blue eyes, now brimming over with sympathy and sorrow. She put her hand on his arm.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘You must have had a dreadful time. I’ve heard a bit about it from other patients, but it’s hard to imagine what you must have been through.’
He swallowed and was silent, but he was grateful for her frank acknowledgement of his experience. Many people did not know how to react when he’d told them that he’d been a prisoner of the Japanese. They would avoid his gaze, shuffle uncomfortably or change the subject.
She moved to the bedside table to refill the water jug. She stopped.
‘What beautiful roses!’ she exclaimed.
‘Yes, they’re lovely, aren’t they? My mother brought them this morning.’
‘White roses are my favourite,’ she said and she leaned forward impulsively and buried her face in the petals, drawing in a long deep breath.
‘What a lovely scent,’ she said. ‘Your mother has perfect taste.’
She looked at him with smiling eyes, and at that moment the sun emerged from behind a cloud and filled the ward with pale sunlight, lighting up the stray strands of her hair in shades of white and gold. Tom smiled back, and as he looked at her, his heart suddenly filled with hope.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for their help and encouragement:
Members of YouWriteOn, the peer review website, especially Siobhan Daiko, and my sisters Mary and Dot for their comments on my early drafts.
Special thanks go to Sujatha Sevellimedu for her inspirational, patient and tireless editing.
The following organisations helped enormously with my research:
The Thai-Burma Railway Centre at Kanchanaburi, especially Terry Mantann who drove me to the sites of some of the camps near Kanchanaburi in August 2010 and helped piece together the details of my father’s wartime experience; Michael Hurst MBE, Director of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, who first provided me with information about the sinking of the Hofuku Maru and Dad’s time in Shirikawa camp in Taiwan, and his wife Tina who kindly translated Dad’s record cards from Japanese; also members of the Far East Prisoner of War Association who first pointed me in the direction of the records of POWs in the National Archives at Kew.
The following books have been sources of inspiration and information:
Peter Thomson The Battle for Singapore
Brian P Farrell The Defence and Fall of Singapore 1940-1942
Colin Smith Singapore Burning
Brian MacArthur Surviving the Sword
Sir Clifford Kinvig River Kwai Railway
Rod Beattie The Death Railway: A Brief History
Geoffrey Pharoah Adams The Thailand to Burma Railway
Paul Gibbs Pancheri Volunteer!
Richard Kandler The Prisoner List
Alistair Urquhart The Forgotten Highlander
James Clavell King Rat
Charles McCormac You’ll Die in Singapore
Gregory Michno Death on the Hellships
More information can be found on my website: www.bambooheart.co.uk
About the Author
Ann Bennett was born in Pury End, a tiny village in Northamptonshire. She read Law at Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor. She started to write in earnest during a career break to have children. The idea for A Daughter’s Quest came from researching her father’s experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma railway during WW2. The research took her to South East Asia, a part of the world she loves and has returned to many times. She is married with three sons, lives in Surrey and works as a lawyer.
Ann is also the author The Foundling’s Daughter and has written three other books about WW2 in South East Asia including A Daughter’s Promise which will be released shortly.
Learn more about Ann Bennett and her books at www.bambooheart.co.uk.
Other Books by Ann Bennett
The Foundling’s Daughter
