He had stared at her and said, ‘A remnant of pride is all I have left. I would rather be hanged, drawn and quartered than become a lead weight round Ruby’s neck.’ The words Verity had flung at him had cut deep. ‘It’s over between us, Clarissa. That is final. I mean it.’

‘I can see that you do.’ Clarissa had sighed and shaken her head. ‘I love you, Edward, I really do, but you are a fool.’

‘I love you too and you’re right, I am, which is another reason Ruby is better off without me.’

‘Oh, you!’ She had stamped her foot and left him with a flounce. The memory of that day brought a wry smile to his lips as he watched Clarissa and Godfrey make their way towards him from where they had been standing waving to the crowds on the dock, none of whom they knew. He loved his sister, and he appreciated the devotion that had brought her and Godfrey rushing across the Atlantic to be at his side, but he wished they had arrived just a day later. According to his doctor, all his troubles in this world would have been over by then.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Edward had been installed in one of the bedroom suites at Foreburn for a week when Ruby went to see him in the middle of December. He was up and about most of the time but still frail, retiring to his private quarters most days after lunch for a nap and joining Clarissa and Godfrey again in the late afternoon for cocktails before dinner. He was irritable and frustrated by what he perceived as the slowness of his recovery, but had found he had to give in to the exhaustion and weakness for the simple reason that it brought him to the point of collapsing if he attempted to fight it.

His parents had visited when he had been back in the country for three days and it hadn’t been a happy meeting. Mr and Mrs Forsythe had come in a spirit of ‘I told you so’ and had left within an hour after Clarissa had ordered them out of the house when Edward had become so incensed he’d been in danger of having a seizure. They had departed threatening never to return, and had been further put out when Clarissa had told them that this was a promise she would hold them to.