‘Thinking you’d have no use for them, that I’d not release you from the estate,’ Oliver finished for him. Rising, he stood directly in front of Luke. ‘Well, my son, I think you should give your ambition a try, live where you will until you come into your inheritance. Here’s my hand on it, or are you too grown up to give your father a hug?’

Luke didn’t ask his father if he really meant it, he never said a word he didn’t mean. He was up on his feet and in his father’s bear-hug embrace. He was crying a river of release, a flood of joy and gratitude, and regret. For being so full of his own desolate self for so long, he had not realized the depth of his father’s compassion.

‘I don’t know what to say.’ He wiped away his tears, shaking in excitement. ‘Except that I’ll never stop thanking you, Father.’

Oliver smiled. ‘Where will you move to? Not a hundred miles away, I hope.’

‘No, definitely not. I’ll give it some thought, but I shall stay in the county, near the sea. What better place to gain the inspiration I shall need? And Mama will not be distraught, she can come to stay whenever she wishes. All the family can.’

‘Find yourself a house then. I advise one that is established and needs little attention, perhaps with a retained staff. I’ll arrange for the money to be released whenever you wish. Only remember this word of caution, there’s just one person who can ruin your opportunity to make well of yourself, Luke, and that is you.’

‘I know that, Father. There’s no need for you to fund me, I have money. Twenty-five thousand I’ve brought back from London.’

Oliver pierced Luke with a steady gaze. ‘And how come you by that? From nothing legal, I’ll warrant.’

‘I won some at the gaming tables.’

‘The rest?’

Luke went quiet.

Oliver became grim. ‘Were you involved with a certain Lord Alexander Longbourne? And is Jack’s wife Longbourne’s presumed-dead mistress?’

‘I should have known you’d be acquainted with the facts of Longbourne’s death and the surrounding circumstances. But Alicia was more properly Alex’s common-law wife, they were very much in love and only her lower rank prevented their marriage. Alex had huge gambling debts and knew he’d not be spared, so he charged me and Jack with Alicia’s safekeeping.’

Luke recounted the true facts of how he and Jack had come by their burns and injuries, their flight to Cornwall, and how he had slipped back to his lodgings and obtained the twenty-five thousand from its hiding place.