‘Whatever it was, Jack was quite happy when he took the horses out,’ Alicia lied.

She was sorry she had offended Jack so much last night. It had been unfeeling of her to ask him about Alex’s letter while he was at the very point of consummating their marriage. She had meant to question him afterward, but at the last moment she could not go through with the thought of Jack making love to her before Alex’s baby was born. Jack had immediately pulled away from her and sat up, hunched over, on the edge of the bed.

‘So that’s the way of it,’ he had accused her, humiliation thick in his voice. ‘You want to know something about your lover and the only way you think you can find out is by seducing me. Why couldn’t you just ask me straight out? That was cheap of you, Alicia. Do you think me cheap too, that lust controls me? I’m not like the men you’re used to!’

Her thoughts then had not been with Jack’s distress. ‘My maid put Alex’s packet into the post to Luke. I’ve the right to be kept informed.’

‘So’ve I!’ Jack had dressed and left her. She had been forced to wait in the bedroom until Luke had come home.

Cordelia detected the impatience in her voice and changed to Alicia’s most favoured subject. ‘When will your confinement be?’

‘Late September.’ Alicia smiled a little, imagining how it would feel to hold Alex’s child. ‘So there will be new life in the house at Christmas. I confess I am a little nervous about the birth. There isn’t a doctor for miles.’

‘Don’t worry, Luke will ensure you’ll be properly looked after.’

They had left the grounds of the house and were strolling along the cliff path. The land was almost treeless, but heather grew in extensive bursts and intermingled with golden-flowered gorse. Long grasses swayed in the playful breeze. Alicia fell silent and Cordelia gazed out to the horizon, where the blue of the ocean met the blue of the sky.

‘Minnie Drew’s a sweet old soul. I like to hear her tales, she knows all about the shipwrecks on this coast. There’s a ghost ship, a Spanish galleon, with a figurehead that protrudes oddly, and if it’s seen a terrible misfortune falls upon the village. Little Min’s told me a lot about the big house too. She worked there from seven years of age. Did you know that Mr Cecil Doble was a wrecker? That is, he deliberately led ships on to the rocks so they’d come to disaster?’