Chapter TwoDriving towards the Church in the hired carriage that should have been carrying Sophie, Lalitha wished that she did not feel so ill.
The brandy that her stepmother had given her after the beating had made her feel better for a short time, but now a strange but an unnatural lassitude was sweeping over her and her back was beginning to throb unbearably.
She knew that she should be grateful to Sophie for preventing her stepmother from beating her insensible, as she had done on other occasions.
Only the previous week Lady Studley had come to her bedroom with some complaint that had aroused her anger and found Lalitha in her nightgown.
She had beaten her then until she had fallen unconscious to the floor and lain there for hours.
Eventually it had taken all her resolution and wh
