Clem was left in the yard with Kerensa and her children. She looked as if she had turned to stone. It was the love he cherished so deeply for her that decided him to leave without further battle.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked her gently.

Luke glared at him. How dare this farmer speak intimately to his mother and without using her title? He turned to stare at Kerensa to see how she would answer. She merely nodded her head slightly and putting out a hand each to Kane and Olivia she walked away with them to the farmhouse. Luke and Clem were left to scowl at each other.

‘You are a very horrid man,’ Luke hissed.

‘And you are a troublemaker and a spoiled brat,’ Clem retorted.

Luke made to go but turned back. ‘Are you still in love with my mother?’

Clem reeled, shocked at the question. ‘Why do you say that?’

Luke looked at Clem with contempt. ‘I know all about it, how my mother left you to marry my father, and all over Trelynne Cove.’

At that moment Clem felt he could hate the son as much as the father. ‘Then you,’ he said coldly, ‘know too much.’

Rosie had run off from the stud, embarrassed and ashamed. She stopped well away from the buildings and put her burning cheeks in her hands. She felt emotionally wrung out. The hatred between the brother she loved and the man she had so very nearly had an affair with left her with a terrible debilitating weakness down to the depths of her soul. It was rapidly growing dark and she wanted to hide for ever in its consuming coldness.

‘Rosie?’

It was Matthias. She could not bring herself to turn round and face him.

‘There is no need for you to feel badly over what happened,’ he said softly.

‘How could they behave like that?’ she whispered bitterly.

‘The enmity between Clem and Sir Oliver goes back a long way.’

‘I can understand Clem hating Sir Oliver but why should Sir Oliver dislike Clem so much?’ Rosie said harshly. ‘He has Kerensa and everything he wants.’

‘Fear,’ Matthias said simply.

‘Fear? But why? Fear of what, for goodness sake?’

‘Fear at the back of his mind that Clem could even now take Kerensa back from him.’

Matthias moved in closer behind her and Rosie leaned back to rest her head against his shoulder.

Oliver was mounted on Conomor ready to leave the farm when he was confronted by Alice. Her face was serious and her arms folded in a no-nonsense manner.

‘Are you looking for me?’ he asked defensively.

‘No,’ she said tartly. ‘Jessica dropped her doll, I’m looking for it. But I’ll take the opportunity of having a few words now we’re alone and face to face.’

‘If you’re concerned about Luke I’ll make sure he’s punished.’