Chapter 45

"Keep your hair on, Steve. I'm going to talk to our chap in India now. Do you have an address for these people?"

Steve passed on all the information that Kim had given him.

"Oh, and Laurence?"

"Yeah?"

"Just send me the bill for the phone calls."

"Do me a favour. I work for the Foreign Office. I can make any amount of international phone calls." Chuckling to himself, Laurence rang off.

****

The wedding was three days away and Kim was in a cold sweat. The old man was hanging on to life by a fingernail, but he was hanging on. Determined, it seemed, to see his eldest son married before he went.

Kim sat in his room and stared at the photograph of his intended bride. A little plump for his taste. He had spent too long in England, where they had a different idea of beauty. She looked kind, though, and she had nice eyes.

What did it matter? He wasn't going to stay anyway. But he felt pity for the poor girl, who would be publicly humiliated by his rejection.