She flung away from him, but Sam, too, had a temper when roused. He grabbed her by the shoulders, swung her round and kissed her long and passionately. When he pushed her away he was breathless, and she could see by the sparkle in his eyes that he was as annoyed as she.

‘I should put you across my knee and give you a good spanking,’ he said, his breath coming short. ‘Just think over my proposal, and the next time I ask you it had better be “yes please Mr Trewin” or I’ll never ask you again.’

Glenys scrubbed at her mouth with the back of her hand, a childish gesture, but one she felt fitted the occasion. ‘Don’t bother to ask me again, because the answer will still be the same,’ she blazed. ‘And don’t you dare follow me, Sam Trewin, because I need to be alone. Tell Nain and Taid that I’ll be in for supper,’ and on these words she turned away and ran up the rocky lane, only casting one look across her shoulder to make sure he was not following.

Glenys walked and walked, and when the lane petered out into a rocky outcrop she simply abandoned it and went across the moors. It took her a good half hour to calm down, and even then the memory of his hard hands gripping her shoulders and his hard mouth clamped on to hers kept reminding her of her grievances. If he had only said he loved her, just once, she could have forgiven all the rest. Well, he had not said it because it wasn’t true. All he wanted was a free mother for the kids, a free housekeeper, and a free nurse for when the grandparents were older. But what about the kiss? That had not felt like something he would have given to a proxy mother, housekeeper or nurse. It made her wonder whether he really did love her a little, but if so why in God’s name could he not have said so? And then there were her feelings for him. True, she had never contemplated marriage, but for several months now she had not been able to imagine being without him. She knew him to be strong-willed and quick-tempered, but he rarely showed either of these traits now that they had – or she had thought they had – a pleasant and friendly working relationship. Marriage had never entered her head, however, and she would have sworn it had not entered his head either. She thought about this as she strode across the moor, scarcely noticing where she was going. If only he had not more or less told her that he was offering marriage in order to save her from gossip and innuendo! Come to that, if only she had not lost her temper, screamed at him like a fishwife and marched away. If only, in fact, she had behaved with dignity and decorum. But she had not, and she supposed, shamefacedly, that she would have to eat humble pie, tell him that, though she had no intention of marrying him, she was honestly ashamed of her behaviour and hoped that he would forgive her so that they might resume their friendship, which meant a good deal to her.