CHAPTER SIXAlana was bathing Billy in the flat tin bath that she had placed in front of the fire in the nursery after carrying two heavy cans of hot water upstairs from the range in the kitchen.
She was late getting the children to bed because she had been on her own with them all day.
The Vicar and Mrs. Bredon had taken Lionel, their eldest son, and gone to stay for the night with the Vicar’s mother at the other end of the County.
“I hope you will be all right, Alana,” Mrs. Bredon said cheerfully before she left, “and I have asked Mrs. Hicks to sleep in.”
“I shall be all right without Mrs. Hicks,” Alana responded quickly.
“You could not stay alone here. That would be incorrect,” the Vicar’s wife replied reprovingly.
Alana thought that she would have much preferred to be alone rather
