‘Are there any problems you’d like to discuss with me?’

‘Not at the manor. Michael and Conan are coping at the stables. Will you replace Jack?’

‘In time. I sensed that Jack’s not totally content at Polgissey. Luke doesn’t see this, but he’d never countenance releasing him.’ Harry started to fret and he got up with him. ‘You’d better take him home. Thank you for bringing him, it’s meant everything to me.’

‘Kane can bring him next time. I’ll try to make sure Samuel is here and they can begin learning to play together.’

Thinking of his own black-haired, black-eyed little boy made Oliver angry that he was being denied the daily pleasures of him, even if he had chosen to spend more and more time away from the manor. Kerensa’s loyalty to the dirt-farmer had a lot to answer for.

‘Yes,’ he said gruffly. ‘The children mustn’t miss out on family life.’

Kerensa read Oliver’s statements as arrogant assertions that he was blaming her for their problems, and she found this intolerable. Taking Harry from him she left without saying goodbye. On the drive back to Vellanoweth she worked out where she could meet Clem and safely leave him a note.

Going up to his room to change for an overnight stay at the parsonage, Oliver bawled down the stairs for Rosie Renfree to come up to him.

‘What’s the matter, sir?’ she asked cautiously. He was in quite a temper.

‘Someone has been in here. Who?’

‘The maid tidied the room and made your bed, that’s all, I swear. I checked it myself.’

Kerensa! How dare she snoop on him. Did she think he might be entertaining another woman here in her place? Had she lost all trust and respect in him? He did not deserve that.

‘I’m sorry, Rosie, don’t look so worried. I’m not accusing anyone of a crime. Forgive a prickly old man?’ He smiled to placate the young woman he had always had an affinity with, as he’d also once had with her late sister-in-law, Alice Trenchard. It was a strange fact that he had always been close to the women in Clem Trenchard’s life. He had got so close to Rosie, in her maiden years, just before his steward had wooed her during the first estrangement from Kerensa, that he had taken her into his woods and very nearly made love to her. She was still an exceedingly attractive woman in her mid-thirties. Three of her children were presently at the charity school, the youngest, presumably, taking a nap.

Without actually saying a word, Rosie had been sympathetic towards the reason for his presence here, even going as far as laying a hand of solace once or twice on his shoulder.

‘You’re not old.’ She smiled back at him.

‘I seem to remember you saying that to me once before.’