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 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.