‘There was too much in the way, of course, for me to marry Alex. My poor sweet love, he couldn’t see that we wouldn’t have been able to stay together forever, his family and the wife they had planned for him would have seen to that. But I want to tell you that I’ve been proud to be Mrs Jack.’

She reached for Jack and they exchanged an emotional embrace. Then Alicia exclaimed, ‘Jack, there’s something I must do.’

‘Let it wait, my dear, you’ve had a terrible fright and need to rest.’

‘No, I won’t be able to rest until it’s done. If I don’t act now, happiness for someone here may be denied.’

Thirty-Five

Oliver was in the great hall, stripped now of all the trappings of Beatrice’s party. It seemed ages ago that the place had been packed with revellers and resonated with merriment. He looked up the stairs. Not long ago Olivia, persuaded to stay the night for her health’s sake and for the sincere apology she wanted to make first thing in the morning to Cordelia, had climbed them with Timothy two dejected steps behind her.

Then Kane and Jessica had gone up, arms round each other, all smiles, whispering intimately as Kane’s clumsiness brought him into even closer contact with her.

Oliver sighed dismally, it seemed a long time since he and Kerensa had gone up those ancient oak treads together, eager for bed.

Bartholomew had come downstairs soon after making haste to Cordelia’s room. He had gained no admittance. She had stubbornly maintained that she needed to be alone, and he had reluctantly left her to her tears. A second and third excursion had been equally unfruitful, and he had taken himself off to pass the night with a fretful Tamara.

There had been no success either on Kerensa’s part to speak to Cordelia, and she was now checking on Samuel. Shelley was safely abed. Where was Luke? He had no idea.

Oliver was all alone. Prolonged union with the brandy bottle was highly alluring but he had an example to set, a family to soothe, a wife to win back. On heavy legs, he made the ascent and went straight to his room.

It was the room he had used before his marriage, an autocratic rebel then, sure of his life, his right to his opinion, his right to dominate, to reproach all others and indulge himself. His peers, who had once scorned or tolerated his unconventional manner, now thought him gone soft. He had stayed at home for the longest period of his life, had cancelled his last two smuggling runs, runs in which he always participated. He had lost the respect of the Beswethericks, the allies of the Pengarrons from time immemorial. Respect had been all-important to him once.

He cared not what people said or thought about him, only what Kerensa did.