The Secret Journal of Mrs Daphne Jackman
3rd May 1935: Thank God! After an interminable journey -- I feel as though I've been at sea for ever -- we have at last reached Singapore. In just two days time I will finally see my new home in Malaya. My brother Roger was there in dress uniform to meet me and Jack off the boat, which was a relief.
10th May 1935: God, it is so stiflingly hot here! Even the stopover in Ceylon didn't prepare me for this. How does anybody stand it? The capital, KL -- that's short for Kuala Lumpur -- is like a dust-filled furnace, and even out here in the hills the humidity is unbearable. My manservant spends his entire day binging me glasses of lemonade, poor thing, and I perspire them away faster than I can drink them.
23rd August 1935: Roger has lost his mind! They say the heat can take one like that. Completely out of the blue he's gone and married a bloody coolie girl! He insists she call herself May, though her name's really Mei Ling. He says she's 22, which is quite young enough, but she looks younger to me. Ducky Duckworth said at the Regency Club, "Nobody minds one poking the native girls, old boy, but to marry one seems in rather poor taste." Vulgar as old Ducky might be, I am afraid one tends to agree.
11th September 1935: Mei Ling -- I refuse to use Roger's silly Anglicisation of her name -- is delightful! She's such a sweet, gay little thing, with a dazzling white smile. She seems quite nervous around me -- she can't get used to calling me Daphne -- but I know we shall become firm chums. Marjorie Thomason thinks me a young fool but Mei Ling is my brother's wife and, dangerously progressive thinking or not, I regard her as my equal. I have determined to train her to become a model Colonial wife.
28th November 1935: I am so angry at Roger! And at Jack! Some of the chaps were making the usual snide comments about Mei Ling at the Regency, and I thought that for once Roger was going to stand up for himself, and for her. He told Colonel Roberts "I married her, sir, because I love her, and I am proud of her." Roberts, the cad, made some stage-whispered comment about her no doubt also being a damned good fuck. Roger just turned red as a beetroot and stared into his Pimm's. Jack, damn him, guffawed along with the rest of the buffoons.
5th January 1936: Oops! A bit of a faux pas today. I went to visit Mei Ling and, well, I suppose I should have got her manservant to announce me, but the verandah door was open and I went looking for her. I heard a sound in the bathroom and there she was, standing under the shower Roger has had installed. She had her back to me, and I should have withdrawn of course; I was just so captivated by her natural beauty. I gazed at her long slim tan-coloured back, her jet black hair plastered by the water between her shoulder blades; her sweet, dimpled, pear-shaped bottom; and the sweep of her long slim legs. Then she turned and saw me. Any English lady would have been deeply embarrassed (as I was), but Mei Ling simply gave me that dazzling smile of hers as, I confess, I stared at her surprisingly large bust with its small, berry-like chocolate brown nipples, and the veritable jungle of black hair at the join of her legs. "Hello Daphne" she called in her melodious sing-song voice, "You wait on verandah, I be out in minute." What a very dear, sweet, naΓ―ve girl.
26th January 1936: On my God! Roger is beating Mei Ling. She was crying with pain when I called on her today and, although she tried to resist I made her show me. Horrible red weals across her back and posterior. I cannot believe my brother can be such an unspeakable brute towards this darling, blameless girl. I wanted to have it out with him, but Mei Ling begged me not to. "Please Missus -- Daphne -- you say nothing, else he be even angrier. I bad wife, I deserve it. Please, you say we equals -- I ask you as equal, you not say nothing." I agreed, with reluctance. Nevertheless, putting my nursing training to good use, I insisted she allow me to apply calamine lotion to her poor tortured back and botty. She has such soft, silky skin.
19th February 1936: I had the most furious row with Marjorie Thomason today. She was convening a meeting of the Military Wives Association, and I took Mei Ling along with me. Marjorie looked at her like dirt and said the meeting was only intended for British wives. I was incandescent with rage! I pointed out to Marjorie that Mei Ling is the wife of a British officer, just as she and I are. Then I told her that if there was no room in her fucking club -- I actually used the F word -- for my sister-in-law then there was no room for me either. No doubt I shall be ostracised for ever and a day, and Jack will be furious with me, but I don't care. I love Mei Ling as a sister, and I will not have her treated like some inferior being.
15th March 1936: I cried terribly today. I think I have scared Mei Ling away from me. She was weeping again from another beating by my beast of a brother. It broke my heart to see that sweet little fawn in such pain. I hugged her to me and she wept on my shoulder. As she did her breast, unsheathed beneath her silk dress, pressed against mine. I know I felt her nip stiffen, as did mine. I couldn't help myself, I only wanted to comfort the poor dear lamb. I kissed away her tears and, before I knew it, my hand had stroked her tittie, and gently squeezed it. Mei Ling sprung away from me, her almond eyes wide open in surprise, and she cried, "Missus, what you do? I not that girl no more." I tried to tell her I only wanted to make her feel better but she turned and fled in alarm. It was only innocent affection, I pray that I haven't ruined things between us.
16th March 1936: Joy of joys, Mei Ling and I are still friends! I spent a tearful night wondering how I could patch things up between us. But today she brought me the most beautiful jungle orchid, hugged me around the waist, and kissed me tenderly and lingeringly on the lips. Then, her dark eyes sparkling into mine, she told me: "Daphne, you very kind, very beautiful lady. I like you lots -- maybe too much I think. But I respectable married English lady now. Roger, he tell me before wedding, I no do things I used do on streets of KL no more. So we just be friends, yes?" I didn't understand all of that, but I am just so happy that my beautiful sister-in-law still likes me.