‘I must admit when I first met her, in London, I was awed by her, but now, I’ve realised there’s nothing admirable about her. I’ve always made it a rule to look for the best in everyone and I tried to find it in Veronica but I’ve failed. And I think she despises me.’ Evie gave a rueful sigh. ‘But, you see, Arthur Leighton is a close friend of my husband, so avoiding Veronica is impossible. She turns up at the house without warning. She bosses me about. Makes me feel stupid and inadequate.’
‘No one can make you feel that way, Evie. Not unless you choose to let them. Don’t let her get under your skin.’
‘Easy to say.’ She looked up at the sky, a spread of blue, unbroken by clouds. ‘Veronica was best friends with Felicity and takes every opportunity to tell me how fabulous Felicity was and by implication how decidedly unfabulous I am.’
Mary made a little snorting sound. ‘Best friends? Hardly. Veronica Leighton collects people then discards them. Felicity Barrington included. Everyone’s terrified of Veronica so they all suck up to her. But I doubt anyone actually likes her. And that will have gone for Felicity too.’
Evie told her how she had overheard Veronica and her coterie talking about her in the ladies’ powder room at the Penang Club, but omitted the details of what had been said. ‘It was humiliating. So personal. Venomous.’
‘I told you. She’s poison. So what did you do?’
‘I came out of the cubicle and made my presence known.’
Mary laughed. ‘Good for you. I bet that shut them up and made them squirm.’
‘I was shaking like a leaf, but I was jolly well determined not to skulk inside a lavatory cubicle while they performed a character assassination on me. But I wasn’t going to stay there and be forced to socialise with any of them. So I went home.’ Evie wasn’t ready to confess that she’d left alone. It would be too humiliating and personal to admit, even to Mary, that her husband had abandoned her on their wedding day.
‘Poor you. At least that got her out of your hair?’
‘Not a bit of it. Veronica’s far too brazen for that. She turned up at the house the following morning, bold as brass.’
Mary touched her lightly on the arm. ‘I’m going to tell you something that I never speak of to anyone. It’s very painful, but I want you to know the story so you’ll understand just exactly what Veronica Leighton is capable of.’
‘You can trust me.’
‘I was engaged to be married. His name was Ralph Fletcher and he worked for one of the big rubber companies on an estate on the mainland near Ipoh. We met when he was playing in a cricket match here in Penang. I fell for him immediately – he was handsome, funny, athletic, popular. I was thrilled to bits when he made it clear he was attracted to me too.’ Her voice wavered. ‘We were going together for about six months when he asked me to marry him. I didn’t hesitate.’
Evie listened in silence, conscious of Mary’s evident pain.
‘For me, the idea of marrying a planter was a dream come true. Ralph worked for one of the biggest rubber companies in the Straits and he was doing well. His job meant he had to move from time to time to a different estate, sometimes to cover for a chap on long leave, sometimes because he was promoted. Ralph was a rising star. He was in shared accommodation – so we agreed to wait until he became assistant manager somewhere and he’d get his own bungalow on an estate. There’s always been an expectation by the rubber companies that their male European employees should be bachelors and stay that way for at least two or three years. There are relatively few single European women out here and so the men, when they get their long leave at home, tend to spend their time in Britain hunting for a prospective wife willing to come out here.’
Mary’s words put Douglas’s offer of marriage into context for Evie.
Mary continued, ‘I hated the thought of a long engagement, but we didn’t really have a choice. We both agreed he’d give the job priority while he learned everything about rubber and climbed up the ladder.’ She touched the third finger of her left hand, evidently conscious of the absence of the ring which must once have been there.
‘At the weekends, Ralph played cricket and rugby, so he was over here on the island for matches at least once a month or I’d go over to the mainland and watch him play if it was reasonably close and someone could give me a lift. And we both loved to swim.’
Evie began to wonder where all this was leading, but listened intently.
‘Ralph got a big promotion and was moved to a plantation near Kuala Lumpur. We decided we could set the date for the wedding.’ She closed her eyes and clenched her hands into tight fists.
‘If Veronica Leighton hadn’t stepped in and wrecked it all, I’d have been married. Perhaps we’d have started a family. Ralph always said he wanted children. Three or four of them. ’ Her voice broke. ‘Sorry, Evie. Talking about this is still so painful even though it was years ago.’
‘I can imagine.’ She took Mary’s hand and squeezed it gently.
‘When Veronica Leighton wants something she has to have it, regardless of whether it belongs to someone else. That goes for men too. She decided she wanted Ralph. He didn’t stand a chance. He must have known she had a terrible reputation. Affairs right, left and centre.’
‘Does Arthur know about the affairs?’
‘He must do. She doesn’t exactly keep them secret. But she always goes back to him. Every man she picks up she drops in the end.’
‘Is that what happened to Ralph?’
‘More or less. Once she’d seduced him and got him eating out of her hand. She was only interested in
