‘That’s it then,’ she said brokenly. ‘I think we both know what the outcome will be! I’ve been prayin’ that somethin’ would happen to show that me an’ Barnaby were tellin’ the truth. He’s told them that he’s innocent but they won’t believe him and now . . .’

As her voice trailed away and Mrs Jennings rushed forward to envelope her in her arms, the tears came so fast that she could hardly breathe and all the older woman could do was hold her tight. Seeing her mother cry, little Charlotte, who had entered the room and was pottering about the floor with Socks, began to cry too and the mood was gloomy.

Long after Mrs Jennings had left, Amber sat staring into space. She could only imagine how awful and frightened Barnaby must be feeling and the worst of it was she could do nothing to comfort him. Somehow, she managed to get through the day and after Charlotte was tucked up in bed, she went to stand on the cliff overlooking their little cove and sent up a silent prayer for mercy, although she had little hope of it being heard. Judge Alberton wasn’t known as ‘the hanging judge’ for nothing and with no witnesses to back their story all the odds were stacked against Barnaby being believed.

In the early hours of the morning, she finally went to bed but sleep eluded her and she lay listening to the distant sound of the waves breaking on the shore, her thoughts tortured. It seemed so unfair that just when she and Barnaby had come to realise how much they meant to each other that he should be snatched away and there was not a thing she could do about it.

She rose early and after making herself a pot of tea and forcing herself to drink a cup, she busied herself collecting the eggs and letting the chickens out of their coop to peck about the yard. There was a thick sea mist floating across the land and the silence was so eerie that she could almost have believed she was the only person left on earth. She certainly felt that way because now that Barnaby was about to be snatched away from her the future looked bleak.

Her thoughts were so far away that it was some time before she became aware of the sound of a horse climbing the hill towards the house and after glancing towards it, she was shocked to see that it was the doctor in his carriage. There was someone on the seat beside him, but because of the mist she couldn’t make out who it was until they drew closer and then the breath caught in her throat.