Jack looked at the place where he had last seen the two boys and hoped they would not arrive home too far in front of him. ‘I was a young’un, an orphan, when Sir Oliver took me on as stable boy. I’d been going round with travelling folk, stealing for a living. My parents had been dead for years and I’ve always been called only Jack. Sir Oliver says if I ever want a surname to see him about it, he’ll arrange something for me.’

Heather fell silent. When she spoke again Jack saw compassion in her lively face. ‘Must be awful, not knowin’ where you come from, not knowin’ who you really are. Don’t it bother you none, Jack?’

‘No, not really. Pengarron Manor is more than just a work place to me, it’s my home. Sir Oliver says for me to always feel it’s my home. I have my own little cottage in the grounds,’ Jack ended proudly. He looked at Meryn and knew he should mount and be on his way.

‘Aren’t you the lucky one, a cottage all ready t’take a wife to. You’ll need another name when you choose one,’ Heather said, eyeing Jack sideways but bouncing straight on to something else. ‘Sir Oliver’s a mixed up sort of man, isn’t ’e? One moment shoutin’ and bawlin’, the next sayin’ kind things like that. Bet ’e’s soft as puddin’ with ’is children and I know ’e adores that beautiful wife of ’is but I d’reckon ’e’s probably ’ell t’live with at times. I want a man like that fer meself, mind you, couldn’t be doin’ with no milksop.’

Jack started forward. ‘I have to be going, Heather. I’d better catch up with Masters Luke and Kane and I have work to be getting on with. I have Michael and Conan, the stable boys, to supervise,’ he added, to impress her. ‘Heather, will you meet me somewhere later tonight? Say you will, please.’

Heather screwed up her face, pretending to think over his request but really to tease him. ‘Reckon I can find an ’our to slip away after my shift. I’ll meet ’ee ’ere about ’alf ’our after that, that suit you?’

‘Aye!’ Jack almost shouted in excitement. ‘Tis fine by me, but can you find your way over the moors in the dark?’

‘Course I can,’ she said scornfully. ‘Do it with me eyes shut.’

Jack thought he should kiss Heather and bent his head to do so. But she bounded off with a shrill laugh.

Chapter 13

‘Oliver, Ted Trembath is here to see you,’ Kerensa said from the doorway of her husband’s study.

‘Show him in,’ Oliver returned dully, without raising his head from his paperwork. It was the longest sentence he’d allowed her in the last few days.

‘I would like a word with you first.’