Was he going to emulate his cruel, amoral father? Before his marriage he had lived by his own moral code, entertaining himself only with society women of a similar mind or the higher class professional. He had never violated a village girl, and now here he was in the throes of seducing a tenant’s young daughter, perhaps to leave her with a child to grow up as another Samuel Drannock…

Horrific pictures flashed through his mind. Rosie seduced and betrayed. Morley Trenchard, never to respect and trust him again. Alice, no longer his friend. A pregnant Rosie, offered marriage by Matthias Renfree, cuckolded before his wedding night and bringing up another man’s child. Rosie and Matthias leaving the estate, Adam Renfree too. And even more hate heaped on him by Clem; although he disliked and distrusted Clem, at that moment Oliver did not want him to suffer any more heartbreak on his account. Then came a vision of Kerensa’s beautiful, precious face. He could never reach the level of love and self-giving with anyone in the way he did with her, the woman he adored. There was a rift between them; was he going to risk making it deeper, perhaps unbridgeable, permanent? Could he give Kerensa more pain, that much pain?

Rosie lay quiet, horribly perplexed by his stillness and the mortified look on his face. The passion he had inflamed in her was gone, fear and shame taking its place. It was a relief when the hand that had grown heavy and was now hurting her was taken away. As quickly as her shaking hands allowed she relaced her stays and pulled the blankets protectively about her. Gently, he raised her to sit beside him but he held her in a loose, fatherly embrace to stop her shivering.

‘I’m sorry, Rosie… I had no right to bring you here… no right to try to make love to you. It’s a good thing that I love Kerensa so very much… or… You did not mean anything like this to happen, did you?’

‘No,’ she said miserably, her face buried in her hands. ‘I don’t really know what I wanted to happen. From the time I got to know you when I visited the manor as a child I’ve been fascinated by you. I just wanted to spend some time with you, that’s all…’

‘Dear God, Rosie!’ Oliver gasped and shuddered. ‘I very nearly ruined you today.’

‘It wasn’t your fault, sir,’ Rosie said, using his title to restore their previous standing. ‘I shouldn’t have wanted to come, I should have known better.’

‘It most certainly was all my fault,’ he stressed. ‘I have every reason not to behave in such an irresponsible manner. Marry Matthias Renfree, Rosie, be like Kerensa and Alice and let your husband be the only man in your life. You’ll never regret it, Matthias is a good man.’