Kerensa approached the summer house in the manor’s grounds carrying a tray set with two tall glasses. One glass contained fresh goat’s milk, the other a murky green liquid made up from one of Beatrice’s secret herbal recipes. Bob padded along at her side, sniffing the air above his head where the tray hovered and giving Kerensa meaningful looks.

‘You wouldn’t like the green mixture, Bob,’ she said, ‘no more than the one who has to drink it does.’

She smiled at the thought. Her situation had eased a little. After nearly three weeks of slow recovery at Trecath-en Farm Jack was back home. The men who had attacked them were safely in custody. Mr Harrt had come to inform her of their apprehension on the day she had brought Kelynen home. The robbers had gone to Penzance and, after getting drunk, they had tried to sell the ponies there the following day. A constable had been suspicious as to why they should have had such good horseflesh and after getting help arrested them. Kerensa had also got her wedding ring back, they’d hadn’t got round to selling it. Now they had been tried, convicted and would soon hang. Due to their injuries and confessions from the accused neither Jack nor Kerensa had been forced to attend the trials.

When she stepped inside the summer house with its high domed roof she shook the hand of a magnificent marble statue of a stern aristocratic-looking Roman senator. It was a superstition of Kerensa’s, done from her very first venture here. The summer house had been erected by Sir Henry Pengarron, Oliver’s great-grandfather, a man of elaborate tastes, and Kerensa had felt the statue forbade her entry; he was a noble man, she only a working-class girl. Its hand was stretched out as though it was about to begin a speech and she had shaken it in a gesture of friendship. Since then she had felt it tolerated her presence if she performed this simple ceremony. Sometimes she bid it the time of day, but not now. She put the tray on a table and crept up to the figure lying on a padded couch.

‘You’re going to drink it all up, young man,’ she whispered into the figure’s ear, ‘whether you like it or not.’

The figure did not move so she allowed Bob to lick its face. This did the trick and Jack sat up smiling and pushed the dog away.

‘How’d you know I was awake?’

‘When your eyes are open, Jack, they’re so bright you can see them a mile away.’

With her fingertips Kerensa pushed streaks of hair gently away from Jack’s eyes and viewed him critically. ‘I have never seen such unruly hair. No matter how many times it’s brushed and combed, within minutes it’s all over the place again. Jack, you’re as untidy as the other boys.’