The Sapphire Child (The Raj Hotel #2) - Janet MacLeod Trotter Page 0,78

and we’ll all miss him greatly.

I’m sorry, Stella, that I’ve been tardy in writing to you. It’s a lame excuse, but I felt that as long as I didn’t write about it then it didn’t seem real – a selfish reason, I know.

Take care of yourself and please pass on my deepest sympathies to Mrs Dubois and Jimmy.

Fond regards,

Andrew

Stella let out a sob and passed the letter to Esmie. ‘Read it. It’s beautiful.’

As Esmie was about to take it, she said, ‘There’s a P.S. on the back of the sheet. I didn’t see you read it.’

Stella turned it over.

P.S. I hesitate to put this in the same letter but time is short and I thought you should know. Last week, I was in Edinburgh seeing a film with my girlfriend when I bumped into an old acquaintance of yours – Hugh Keating . . .

Stella gasped. Her hands shook.

He was there with his cousin Caroline. We had a brief chat and it turns out he’s still working in India (though not in the agricultural service). He’s with McSween and Watson Agricultural Agents in Calcutta.

He asked after you and said he was heartbroken that you’d never replied to his letter, so I took the liberty of telling him that you had very much wanted to but his letter had been lost. I also told him you were still at the Raj and (as far as I knew) fancy-free. I’ve since rather regretted doing so – in case it causes you embarrassment if he contacts you. My girlfriend seemed convinced his so-called cousin was actually some other man’s wife – based on nothing but instinct, so perhaps unfair on poor Mr Keating. Anyway, it’s done and you’re forewarned. If I know anything about you, Stella, it’s that you are perfectly capable of handling amorous Irishmen and the like, if needs be.

Stella’s heart pounded. What a shock to hear about Hugh after all this time. He’d asked after her. He was still in India! Had he enquired about her just to be polite or did he still have feelings for her? She could just imagine him claiming to be ‘heartbroken’ in his joking, self-deprecating way.

She passed the letter to Esmie who read it quickly.

‘What a very loving letter,’ said Esmie, her eyes shining with emotion. ‘Andy puts it so well – how much everyone loved Charlie.’

‘Yes, he does.’ Stella could feel her cheeks burning.

Esmie eyed her. ‘And this Hugh Keating?’

Stella knew she could say anything to Esmie in confidence and she longed to unburden herself about Hugh. ‘I met him on the ship to Britain,’ she said. ‘We started a romance but I think Andrew put him off – he was being overprotective, I suppose – even though I was meant to be the one looking after him.’ Stella gave a rueful look. ‘Hugh wrote to Ebbsmouth and asked me to be his girl. But I’m pretty sure Lydia destroyed the letter and I couldn’t remember the address in Dublin he gave me. I wrote to him in Baluchistan too – but it was sent back, as he’d left government service and there was no forwarding address.’

‘So, is this welcome news that you know where Mr Keating is?’ Esmie asked.

‘Yes,’ Stella admitted. ‘Very welcome. I’ve never felt such an instant attraction to any man before or since.’

Esmie gave her a smile of understanding. ‘Will you write to him in Calcutta?’

Stella hesitated. Andrew had bumped into Hugh over four months ago and yet Hugh hadn’t attempted to get in touch so far. Of course it was possible he was still in Scotland and hadn’t been able to get back out to India – even so, he could still have written. Tom had been full of an anxious story the other day about a ship full of evacuees from Britain being torpedoed in the Arabian Sea just a couple of days away from Bombay. Lives had been lost. Suddenly she was worried that Hugh might have been on it.

‘No, I’ll wait and see if he writes to me.’ Stella met Esmie’s look. ‘I know that I still feel strongly for Hugh but I don’t want him feeling sorry for me or that he has to reply out of a sense of duty. If he does contact me then I’ll know it’s because he really wants to see me again.’

Esmie covered her hand with hers and squeezed it. ‘That sounds very sensible.’ She smiled and gave back the letter.

Stella knew she would be racing to check