‘Help me, God, to be sure that I have done the right thing,’ she prayed, ‘and that Mama would have approved. It seems strange and somehow wrong to marry a man one has never seen, but I shall be able to do things for the girls. Please make Papa understand that they cannot manage without Mallika coming in every day and make Faith able to look after Grace and Prudence.’
She was so concentrated on what she was saying that she did not realise for a second that her father had come to the end of one of his lengthy exhortations and was waiting for her response.
“Amen,” she said quickly.
“The response should be, ‘Good Lord, deliver us from evil’,” her father said in an irritated tone.
“I am sorry, Papa, Good Lord, deliver us from evil.”
“Amen.”
The Vicar rose to his feet.
“We will pray a lit
