Chapters (50)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- The Pengarron Sagas
- The Harvey Family Sagas
‘I’ve been thinking about very little else except Oliver and Clem and my feelings for them, Bea.’ Kerensa took her ancient gnarled hands and kissed them both. ‘I promise I’ll think about what you’ve said. Now, dearest, what about your party? Oliver’s gone to such trouble for you.’
‘I know that. I’m goin’ now, and I’m goin’ to ferget this sad business till the party’s over. Then we’ll talk again, eh?’
‘Yes, Bea, we’ll talk again.’ She hadn’t been thinking only of Clem just now.
Two nights ago she had found Oliver in the master bedchamber. Her assumption that he was there to ask if he might join her had not been the case. He was standing, slightly stooped, next to her dressing table, holding her hand mirror, staring sightlessly down at the carpet. He seemed mesmerized, and so sad. Gradually, the mirror was slipping from his grasp.
She had raced across the floor and had taken it out of his hand.
‘Oh,’ he’d said as if in a dream. ‘I just came in to ask you something about Beatrice.’ After explaining his idea for a momentous celebration for his old nursemaid’s ninetieth birthday, he had said goodnight quietly and left her.
Sitting up in bed she had stayed awake half the night, feeling all alone, her emotions thawing towards the man with whom she had shared so many, many loving nights here. Oliver had not left the manor grounds since they had journeyed silently home from Vellanoweth. He had stayed polite and kept his distance, keeping company with Kelynen, Samuel and Cordelia, and drinking and playing chess with Bartholomew when he was here.
Not for a second had she believed that his apology to Clem had been sincere. Kerensa’s heart had followed Clem down the farm track, and her opinion of Oliver, out of a need for self-preservation, was hard and suspicious. She believed he had a scheme to lull her, to make her drop her defences, then he’d do something brilliant and deadly to ensnare her, to bind her to him again with the unbreakable calls of loyalty, honour and obedience to him. She had even been a little afraid of him.
Yet the man who had stood only feet away from her, without the strength or forethought to keep hold of her mirror, was not the proud villain she had once so deservingly slated, had found so hard to forgive.