Jack didn’t have quite the heart for the occasion. Sir Oliver had employed a new head groom and it hurt Jack to think of someone else living in his cottage. Worse than that, he and Alicia had had another quarrel that morning, and it had been a very fierce one.

On his return from Marazion, he thought he would try his best to forget her ruthless treatment of him on Midsummer’s Eve and attempt to resume the full warmth of their easygoing relationship. Alicia was too big with child now to consider intimacy again anyway.

While she had been tying his neckcloth for him he had placed his hands on her swollen waist and kissed her cheek. ‘My love, before we leave on the morrow, and when Beatrice has got over her carousing, I’ll ask her to look you over.’

‘Why?’ Alicia had nearly spat out the word, her face aflame.

‘Well, you know she’s an authority on childbearing.’

‘So you say! How dare you assume I’d let that disgusting, filthy old witch touch my body, or my child!’

Rocked by her venom, he’d had a hard task to find his voice. ‘I – I’m sorry, Alicia. Don’t be upset. I made a stupid suggestion. I meant no harm.’

‘Harm! I’d never let anyone harm my baby.’

‘Nor would I. Surely I’m to have some say in how it’s reared. Beatrice has attended all the births on the estate, even her ladyship’s.’

‘It’s my baby. It’s not for you to say what happens to it in any way. Do you understand me?’

Jack had finished dressing in heavy-hearted silence. He had been spoken to as if he was his wife’s servant, no, less than that. He wasn’t sure any more how he felt about becoming stepfather to the offspring of the weak-spirited, undeserving Lord Alexander Longbourne.

Throughout the party, Alicia refused to go near Beatrice, even if she did smell of rose-water and not grime and perspiration.

Tamara began to fret and Cordelia carried her back up to the nursery and handed her over to her nursemaid.

Luke went with her. ‘We should talk, Corrie, and I mean properly. You still haven’t explained why you won’t come home to Polgissey with me. You’re not letting Bartholomew’s brat keep you away, I hope.’

‘Don’t you dare speak about Tamara like that.’ Cordelia rounded on him. ‘Who do you think you are? She’s a beautiful, sweet-tempered child and she’s my niece. I feel as close to her as I do to Samuel.’