She was quite certain that the gypsies would not do so, but she told herself there was no reason why she should behave any differently from how she would at home.
She put on her nightgown and slipped under the blankets to find the mattress surprisingly comfortable.
Always at home she knelt beside her bed to say her prayers, but here she felt it would seem strange to kneel when her bed was flat on the floor, so she said her prayers lying down.
They were very different from the conventional ones she usually used. Now she asked that she should be safe, unafraid and that she should not be discovered.
‘Help me, God,’ she prayed, ‘to prove to Beau-père that I am both sensible and competent to do what I wish to do. And help me to find a man who will love me and not want me just because I have
