‘Good morning,’ she heard Mrs Lester say. Molly stood by the door in her apron, not sure if she was supposed to be involved. ‘We like to begin our day by giving thanks to the Lord for all he has given us. If you’d turn to number ten?’

The hymn was ‘Lead us, heavenly father, lead us . . .’ Mr Lester then erupted into song, with Mrs Lester warbling behind him. It became very obvious, within seconds, that he was capable only of pronouncing vowels, but very little in the way of consonants, so that what came out was a loud, quite tuneful, but completely incomprehensible series of noises, while Mrs Lester sang along determinedly beside him in accompaniment. Molly, herself astonished, and embarrassed by his handicap, saw the face of the young bride in front of her turn from shock to incredulity and quickly to an overpowering urge to laugh. She turned her face to the wall, curtaining it with her long hair while her husband gamely joined in with the singing, obviously ill at ease, but too kindly to refuse. Within a few seconds Molly could see the young woman’s shoulders shaking with silent laughter. By midway through the second verse, Molly’s own rising hysteria was almost as bad as the other young woman’s. Mr Lester’s expression was so pompous, his efforts to deliver the singing so earnest, while the sounds he was making were so tortured, that all she could think was: Oh, my goodness, this is awful. Why doesn’t he just shut up and spare all of us?

As the third verse ground towards its merciful close, the young blonde woman glanced round desperately as if looking for a way out, and she and Molly caught each other’s eye. The girl had tears of mirth running down her face, and Molly could see she was on the point of exploding. And then the prayers began. Molly did the only thing she could think of and crept from the room, leaving the blonde woman to her fate while she tore along the hall to the stairs and burst into gusts of laughter. It seemed so bad laughing at someone else’s misfortune like that, but why – of all things, she asked herself, shaking with laughter – did he have to sing hymns?

She imagined telling Cath about it, and Em, and the thought of how it would have been if they’d been there made her giggle even more. Was this going to happen every day? How on earth would she manage?

By the time the religious part of the proceedings was over she managed to compose herself, wiping her eyes and going to serve the eggs and toast. She avoided looking at the young woman too directly. She didn’t want to get the sack on her first day.

As they were clearing up the breakfast, though, Mrs Lester took Molly aside.

‘Now, you’ve seen our morning routine, dear. It’s very important to Mr Lester that we preserve a Christian atmosphere in our establishment. You never know when a lost and searching soul might hear the message of the Lord Jesus. As I told you, I don’t do well in the mornings, so from now on I’d like you to take over. I shall rest until a little later – at least while things are quiet. But you will have to assist Mr Lester with our morning devotions.’