The Sapphire Child (The Raj Hotel #2) - Janet MacLeod Trotter Page 0,146

than accept dud wood.’

But she soon grew to realise that under his gruff exterior he was a compassionate man who was missing his wife and family. He had a photograph on his desk of a smiling woman with her arms around a lanky serious-faced boy and a grinning younger girl with curly hair.

‘Margo went back home in the summer of ’39,’ he confided to Stella one evening when they’d been working extra late. He looked exhausted after a particularly stressful day attempting to persuade the North East Railways to prioritise the transporting of bamboo to Calcutta. ‘She went home to settle our son into school and when war broke out decided to stay – didn’t want to risk the children being torpedoed on the way back out.’

Stella was aghast. ‘You haven’t seen them for three and a half years, sir?’

He shook his head, his brown eyes glinting with tears.

‘That must be very hard for you both,’ said Stella, ‘and for the children.’

He took a moment to compose himself. ‘Some have it worse,’ said Maclagan. ‘At least they’re all still alive and relatively safe. They’re living near Inverness with Margo’s mother and loving the outdoor life.’

It made her think of the Lomaxes being separated from Andrew for far longer and how that had taken its toll on them all.

Stella sympathised. She was doing the same; driving herself hard at the office so that she lessened the time she had to dwell on what Belle might be doing. She knew that her boss appreciated her work ethic and sometimes apologised for keeping her so late at headquarters.

‘Do you have a young man waiting for you somewhere, Miss Dubois?’ he suddenly asked.

Stella blushed. ‘No, not now. I was engaged for a while but it ended . . .’

‘I’m sorry,’ said the major. ‘Was he killed in action?’

‘No, nothing like that. It turned out he was already married.’

He stopped for moment and stared at her, and Stella wondered why on earth she’d told him. Perhaps because he’d been so ready to confide in her. He wasn’t the buttoned-up military man that others took him for.

‘Well, you’re better off without such a scoundrel,’ he answered. ‘Somewhere, Miss Dubois, there will be a man worthy of you. Don’t you dare settle for less.’

He went swiftly to his desk and from the large bottom drawer pulled out a bottle of sweet sherry. He poured a little into two tea cups and handed her one, saying, ‘It’s medicinal. Drink it, lassie.’

Despite not liking sweet sherry, Stella was touched by his concern.

He raised his cup. ‘To reunions with loved ones!’

‘That I can drink to,’ said Stella with a grateful smile, and clinked his cup.

At times, Major Maclagan had to go away on business, visiting sawmills in Calcutta or inspecting armaments at the gun carriage factory in Jubbulpore. Stella would arrange his travel and accommodation as best she could, and deal with telephone calls, letters and telegrams in his absence.

‘You’ll have a bit of respite while I’m away,’ he said with a smile. ‘Make sure you play some tennis or socialise with your fellow clerks.’

But Stella found that time hung heavy on her hands while he was gone and looked for extra jobs to do, helping out at the WVS canteen rather than going back early to her digs. Yet she was thankful that Maclagan was away in early March on Belle’s first birthday. Stella found the day excruciatingly difficult. She couldn’t settle to typing or even the simplest of filing jobs. She made excuses to a deputy assistant about being unwell and retreated to the YWCA.

She spent the rest of the day stitching flowers onto a sunhat for Belle and crying over the one photograph she carried everywhere. It was of her daughter sitting propped on a pile of cushions in the hotel garden at Gulmarg, looking wide-eyed at the camera, her mouth a little blurred as she was on the point of smiling.

Stella had already sent a birthday card with some money for the Lomaxes to buy clothes or something practical for the girl. Then, as evening descended, she decided to write a letter to her daughter that she never intended to send, but wrote simply to ease the pain of separation.

My darling Belle,

Today is your first birthday and a year since you came into my life like a fierce flame – brightening my existence and at the same time burning a hole in my heart as I knew I wasn’t able to keep you. I wonder what