The Pearl of Penang by Clare Flynn (best books to read for students txt) 📗

Evie noticed the familiar look of irritation cross his face and she felt a hollowness in her stomach.

‘I have a rubber estate to run.’ His voice was cold. It was as if a switch had flipped inside him. Without a further glance towards her, he was gone.

13

Once Jasmine had left for school, Evie, determined not to dwell on what had happened between herself and Douglas, decided she needed to get away from the house. Remembering what Dorothy Rogers had said the previous evening about the pleasures of the Penang Swimming Club, she asked Benny to drive her there. An act of bravery, when inside all she wanted to do was climb back into bed and hide away from the world.

When they arrived at Tanjung Bungah, to the north of George Town on the coast, Evie was glad she’d come. Telling Benny to return for her in a few hours, she went into the rambling late-Victorian clubhouse to change into her swimsuit, delighted that the place was relatively quiet. Steering clear of a group of women occupying deckchairs on the lawn near the long blue pool, she went to the far end and slipped down the metal ladder into the salt water.

Evie had learned to swim on family holidays in Cornwall and the South of France. Her father, a strong swimmer, had taught her, and she had happy memories of those halcyon childhood days, before her mother embarked on her infidelities and her father had fallen prey to the pressures that led to him embezzling money and taking his own life.

Being in the water imbued Evie with energy. She powered up and down the pool, telling herself just one more length, but unable to stop. Eventually, exhausted but revitalised, she clambered out. Reluctant to face the heat, she sat at the pool-side in a shaded area, her feet dangling in the water. The pool ran parallel to the beach and the azure sea looked tempting. She could see the familiar outline of Kedah Peak from here.

The memory of the manner in which Douglas had left her that morning, his curtness after the tenderness of the night before, made her feel low again. But she was bigger than this. Bigger and stronger than those shallow people at the Penang Club, bigger and stronger than her volatile husband. Evie had a choice – either let Douglas wear her down and make her feel small and insignificant, or rise above his selfishness and find her own path. She wasn’t going to let him drag her down; she wasn’t going to let herself be a hapless victim.

Sitting here, legs dangling in the cool water, she made up her mind. It may not be the life she’d wanted, but it was so much better than her humdrum existence in Hampshire. Better even than being married to a man like Douglas back in Surrey, left at home while he commuted to the city. So what, if he was away from home for two weeks at a time? At least she wasn’t standing in a suburban kitchen instructing the cook, bored out of her mind, watching the rain through steamed-up windows.

She breathed in the sea air, felt the heat of the sun on her arms, splashed her legs about and gazed at the beautiful view. Penang was a paradise island, known as The Pearl of the Orient. How could she complain or feel sorry for herself when she had all this to look at and enjoy? She was beginning to acclimatise to the heat. Her role as Jasmine’s stepmother gave her purpose – the trust between her and the little girl was growing every day. She had a good friendship with Mary Helston, and in Dorothy Rogers and Susan Hyde-Underwood she’d met two other women whose company she enjoyed.

And Douglas? Yes, he had reverted to type this morning when she’d asked where he was going, but last night and first thing this morning he had been everything she’d hoped for. But didn’t that make it even harder? Having experienced another Douglas, it was so dispiriting to find the old one was still very much present.

Don’t dwell on the bad, she told herself. Focus only on the good and it will grow. He had shown desire for her – maybe it was to the idea of her as mother of his children – but nonetheless he had desired her. That was enough for now. She would do whatever she could to give him a son. She would never deny her bed to him again. And that meant she had to stop daydreaming about Arthur Leighton. He was a married man, out of bounds and she told herself not to confuse his kindness and interest in her with attraction.

Besides, it wouldn’t be only Douglas who would be pleased by her having a child – the thought of a baby of her own, flesh of her flesh, a little part of her, seemed the most desirable thing in the world to Evie, as she sat here in the sunshine.

Moving away from the pool-side, she walked across to the retaining wall separating the pool from the sea. The swimming club was raised above a rocky outcrop and Evie clambered down to sit on a smooth rock, cooled by the spray from the sea as it hit the rocks. Behind her was a terrace, vibrant with flowers – scarlet salvias and orange and pink zinnias and below, beyond the rocks, a long sandy beach. The air here was fresher than in the city, cooled by the sea breezes. Gazing towards Kedah Peak, she felt as if she was inside an Impressionist painting.

Lost in her reverie, she didn’t notice Arthur Leighton until he was scrambling over the rocks towards her. He was wearing swimming trunks and had evidently been in the sea. His hair was wet and his body tanned. Without his usual baggy clothing, Arthur Leighton had a lean sun-tanned body and long muscular legs. Evie had expected him to be scrawny,