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
‘What’s this?’ Jack asked, looking at the document Luke put before him. Many of the words were made up of more than six or seven letters and made no sense to him.
The two men were up in the tower room. Drops of rain were beating a scattered threat against the windows. A rapid change in the weather saw looming dark clouds forming out to sea. Candle flames were bending in a draught coming from an undetermined source. By midnight a storm would lash the coast.
‘It’s my signature to hand over to you the sum of five hundred pounds.’ Luke eyed him darkly across his desk. ‘It’s a gift to you and Alicia – who no longer needs my protection – to enable you both to do as you please from now on. I’m releasing you, Jack, from my service and from any obligation you feel you have towards me.’
‘Luke, I can’t take this! I don’t want it.’ Jack dropped the paper on the desk as if it was burning his fingers.
Leaning back in his chair, Luke smiled sarcastically. ‘Of course you don’t, pious, honourable Jack Rosevear. Mustn’t offend your principles, must I? Why are you not sitting with me like you always do?’ Luke smashed his fist down on the wood. ‘Why do you think I’m giving you this money? As some kind of petulant bid to buy you off? To ease my conscience in some way? I am not in a strop and neither am I feeling guilty, but I am absolutely furious with you and deeply hurt by your actions over Cordelia and Morgan Kinver. After Alicia chastized me about my lack of showing true friendship to you, I’ve sought to redress my behaviour. I took you as a guest into my father’s house. Yet you saw fit to whip Cordelia away in secret. How do you think that made me feel?’ Luke was shouting now. ‘You are a sanctimonious bastard, Jack! Every bit as shallow in treating people like dirt as I am, apparently.’
Jack stood reeling at the extent of his wrath. ‘Luke, I was going to explain. I had to act quickly, and I couldn’t tell you about it because you would’ve stopped at nothing to prevent Miss Cordelia going away.’
‘What gives you and Alicia the right to say who she should marry? Kinver might be ill-treating her this very minute.’
‘As your steward I’ve come to know the villagers well, and I like and admire Morgan Kinver,’ Jack spoke calmly, hoping to take the sting out of Luke’s temper. ‘And I saw how happy Miss Cordelia was when Alicia talked to her about him. I’m sorry it made me act disloyally to you. I just did what I thought was right.’