The engagement thus confirmed, Ricky truly was the happiest man on earth. Barely six months before, his daughter had eloped with a Pakistani, leaving him bereft and abandoned in his dark Dhaka house, with no one to love him and nothing to reflect upon except how his life had passed him by and how it was too late, much too late, to do anything about it. Now he had a job and a home in England, and a woman who both loved and needed him, who had agreed to marry him, and was about to bear his child. His real life had begun, and taken over the old life that he had doffed as quickly as he had doffed his old name. He was looking forward to his first English Christmas with Verity, and the only dark clouds on the horizon were the fortnightly trips back to Bangladesh, to keep up appearances with Henna.

Given the circumstances, Ricky did not think Verity would want a big wedding; it was his second marriage, there was an obvious reason to marry in haste and they were hardly of an age for meringue lace and orange blossom to be appropriate. He was thinking of a simple civil service at the Chelsea Registry Office, with confetti thrown on the steps outside, and then a champagne lunch for ten at the Ritz, just with Verity’s immediate family, their witnesses, bridesmaids and best man, whoever that might be. He would wear his best suit, or perhaps hire a morning suit, and Verity would look charming in a pillbox hat and Chanel suit, beautifully tailored to hide the signs of a telltale bulge.

However, on meeting some of Verity’s female friends, whom she had kept away from Ricky until the engagement in the sure knowledge that they would flirt with him and show him what he was missing by tying himself down to her, Ricky realized how much this wedding meant to Verity. Her friends, with their shiny lipsticked mouths, fashionably sprayed hair and talon nails, had all been married already, and said how pleased they were that it was finally little Veetie’s turn. She had been a bridesmaid several times, and they had all but given up hope of her becoming a bride. As Verity smiled and nodded to her friends’ questions, comments and suggestions for their wedding, Ricky saw that his quiet Verity had always dreamed of the day when she could walk up the aisle in a gleaming white dress and have her moment in the sun, for once the centre of attention. The day where she could prove to all her friends and family that she was quite as good as the rest of them, as she too had finally found someone to love her.