Alice, meanwhile, was being led back along the quay by Will and Ted but she could barely put one foot in front of the other. She felt as if she was caught in the grip of a nightmare as she tried to imagine her life without her beloved husband and sons. They had never been rich in the material sense but she had always counted herself lucky that she and Eli had shared the sort of love that comes only once in a lifetime. And now he and her beautiful boys were gone forever and in that moment the pain was so severe that she could have happily flung herself into the sea to join them, for she didn’t want to live without them.

*

Things didn’t improve for Barnaby when he arrived home to find his wife in a full-blown temper. ‘Where have you been?’ Louisa screeched when he entered her room looking weary and upset.

‘Something dreadful has happened,’ he said quietly. ‘The Neptune has gone down at sea and only a handful of the crew have survived.’

‘So?’ she answered shrilly. ‘That was hardly an excuse to go running off like that leaving me here to entertain Mamma and Papa when they’ve come all this way to see us. It’s not your fault if the ship has sunk, is it?’

Barnaby stared at her for a moment as if he was seeing her for the very first time, and he didn’t like what he saw. ‘Didn’t you hear what I said? There are dozens of men dead! What about their families? How are they to live with the main breadwinner gone? And many of them have young children.’

She shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘That’s hardly your concern,’ she told him with a toss of her head. ‘And since when have you worried about your workers? They were well paid for what they did and they knew the chances they were taking.’

‘Now, Louisa sweetheart. Don’t go working yourself up into a tizzy,’ Mrs Ruffin, who had been watching the scene with a worried frown, urged.

‘Oh, shut up and leave me alone, the pair of you!’ Louisa turned her back on them and with a sigh Barnaby left the room.

As he descended the staircase, he saw his father-in-law standing in the hall, a glass of brandy in his hand, staring up towards him with his eyebrows raised. ‘Trouble?’ he asked.

Barnaby sighed to himself, realising he would now have to tell his father-in-law about the loss of the whaling ship. After all, although it was Barnaby who had built the businesses up to be thriving concerns, his father-in-law was still the major shareholder. Once or twice Barnaby had offered to buy him out but Robert had scoffed at the idea.