‘I want us to be a proper husband and wife, Jack,’ she whispered in the moonlit room, which showed her his face, ‘but there must be no secrets between us. Tell me, what has Luke done with the list of names of the Society members that Alex threatened to give to the authorities?’

This was the best evening of Cordelia’s entire life. How important she felt to be at Luke’s side on the top of Polgissey cliff where the towering bonfire was about to be lit.

Glancing at her, he took a burning rag from a youth, who had been swinging it in a circle over his head to emulate the sun’s passage through the skies. Luke threw the rag into the base of the bonfire, the twigs crackled then flames burst up through the timbers and dried furze.

Cordelia clapped her hands and cheered as loudly as the villagers. If Jack and Alicia were watching from a principal window they would see the flames in the near distance.

As the bonfire settled there was much leaping over it and when the fire was lower still, a token cow from Luke’s herd was driven, practically unscathed, through it, as acts of purification against crop blight infertility, diseases and witchcraft. Cordelia held her breath as, for their protection against disease and other ills, the children were swished over the embers. This was done so skilfully that only a singeing or two of clothing resulted. Alicia had donated the material she’d bought for the cushion to the children, and all were decked out in something from it.

Luke kept Cordelia close, threading her arm through his, making sure she had enough to eat and drink. She declined all calls for her to join in the dancing – it was rather unseemly – wanting only to rest her face against Luke’s arm and for the world to see that she belonged to him.

‘’Scuse me, sir,’ Hal Kinver was suddenly there, chewing on a mouthful of hot meat. ‘Can ’ee spare a minute? Little matter of…’ and he silently mouthed the rest of the sentence.

‘Oh, yes. Stay here, Cordelia, I’ll be gone but a minute. You’ll be safe close by the spit, and the Reverend Thake is just over there if you want someone to talk to.’

Cordelia most definitely did not want to pass the time with the obnoxious parson, now gorging himself at the spit as if he was eating his last meal. She turned from his direction lest he try to pursue her company. He had done so before in his ingratiating manner. How dare he see her as a possible bride!

Hoping to find someone she was well acquainted with in the village, she found herself face to face with Morgan Kinver.