Since Matthias had appointed himself watchdog over them both, his first concern was what excuse to offer for his frequent presence at the Trenchard’s farm. Morley had inadvertently come to his aid. He had asked in that quiet disinterested way of his, ‘Come again to see Rosie, have ’ee, boy?’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Matthias had answered, latching on eagerly to the convenient excuse.

After that, however, whenever he dropped in, Rosie was called from her chores or the tiny cramped room she slept in. Matthias was seated next to her at the supper table and sometimes the family drew aside and left them alone together. But when Philip and David began grinning at him and muttering about another wedding feast and Alice’s face took on a certain knowing look, the look females reserve for manipulating an unmarried man into wedlock, Matthias grew alarmed.

He took a long ride over the moorland of Lancavel Downs to think it over. It dawned on him how unfair he was being to Rosie, lovely sweet Rosie. Matthias was shocked as another realisation surged through his brain.

Lovely sweet Rosie – not Clem’s little sister any more as he had always thought of her. She was a young woman now and must be all of twenty-one years old. Most girls were married at her age. Rosie was a comely young woman and must have had lots of offers, many men had beaten a path to her door despite Clem’s over-protectiveness.

‘No, she’s more than comely,’ Matthias told a bird skimming on the wing, ‘she’s quite beautiful and very sweet and the most pleasant company.’

He smiled manfully as he summed up Rosie’s attributes and recognised he liked her far more than as just a member of ‘his flock’, as he thought of the folk who attended the Bible classes.

But how does she see me? he wondered. As a man, her brother’s friend, a likely suitor, a possible husband, or only as ‘Preacher Renfree’? Morley, Clem, Alice, Kenver and the twins obviously saw him as Rosie’s suitor. But did she? He didn’t think so, and suddenly he wanted her to; he wanted to see her eyes light up when she saw him, see her blush and smile when he looked at her. How did a man attract a woman? He really had no idea.

He could not talk about Rosie to his father. Adam wasn’t a sensitive man, seeing women only as a vessel for his lust or a provider of meals. Matthias could hardly ask Clem or Morley, they would think him an idiot, and Kenver probably had little idea how to advise him.