‘Up until a few days ago, when by pure chance I discovered your hoard of keepsakes from Clem Trenchard—’ he stabbed his index finger in the direction of the lowest drawer of her dressing table – ‘I would hardly have been able to believe you’ve said all this, that you’d dare to threaten to leave me! To take my son to live at the same farm where that bastard dirt-farmer’s presently working! And, not only do you refuse to forgive me for our son and grandson’s accident, no matter how much I plead how sorry I am, you now see fit to tell me you’ve never forgiven me for taking you away from your pathetic sweetheart. That was over twenty-four years ago, for God’s sake! I’ve thought for many years there was absolutely nothing wedged between us, Kerensa, but again I find you’ve been keeping secrets from me, just as you did for the first eight years of our marriage when you kept it from me that Samuel Drannock was my half-brother, and by the time I found that out the man was dead!

‘And I see, as I’d feared, that the love you’ve professed for me has never been as strong or as exclusive as you’d have me believe. Your words tell me that you do indeed love Clem Trenchard. Well, I don’t want your flawed love, your half-love any more.

‘You’ve had your say, Kerensa, now heed this. It won’t take a foreign trip on my part to bring about a reconciliation between us this time. From now on you can have this room to yourself.’

Kerensa had listened carefully. In their early days together such a strong harangue from him would have unnerved or humiliated her. Even until recently she had hated to receive his disapproval. Now, she couldn’t care less.

‘As usual, nothing’s your fault, is it? Don’t you know that I would have been as upset over your wicked behaviour if it had been any other man standing on the steps with his child? As for Samuel Drannock, you choose to forget he swore me to secrecy, because he despised your wanton, pig-headed ways.

‘Listen to me one more time, husband, and try to take this in. It wasn’t so much that you wished to harm Clem, it was your boorish attitude towards him then and so it is now that angers me so much. So what if I’d kept his love tokens? If you’d have come to me on the day you’d seen them, I would’ve felt guilty about it. I always meant to do away with them, I just kept forgetting to. In fact, I did so the very next day. Now I wish I hadn’t!

‘If you honestly believe my love for you is so fragile, so lacking, then you’re every bit as bad as Samuel Drannock thought you.’