The first funeral had been for brothers Solomon and Jonathan, who on the day following their deaths were washed up only yards apart on Perranbarvah’s beach, not far from the moored boats. The next had been for John, Solomon and Elizabeth’s youngest son, whose body was discovered days later trapped among rocks half a mile along the beach. Days later again, Grandfather King’s body was found washed ashore further along the coast in Trelynne Cove, his arm flung out with index finger pointing to the sea where many yards away lay Josh. It was said the Kings believed the old fisherman had found his grandson who had vanished unseen from the Young Maid.

And then Mark’s remains were found floating entangled in wreckage from the Lowenek far out at sea. At his funeral today Kerensa noticed there were no Drannocks present. Jenifer, Samuel’s distraught widow, the mother of a large family herself, had been ailing for some time and at the previous double funeral had been at the point of collapse. Bartholomew had taken her out of the churchyard and half carried her home.

Kerensa glanced round the graveside taking note of who had turned out to mourn. There was Rosina Blake, a young woman with whom Kerensa had been on friendly terms until Rosina had married Peter Blake, owner of the Young Maid. Rosina was well thought of, though her husband was not. She was another devout Methodist and a gentle, caring young woman. She stared down sadly at the grave and shook her head often.

Next to Rosina Blake were most of the Trenchard family, whose head, Morley, held a farm tenancy on the Pengarron estate. With him was his elder son, Clem, the man Kerensa had once been going to marry, and his wife, Alice, Kerensa’s closest friend. Kerensa would like to have talked to Alice afterwards but she could not with Clem there; knowing that Clem still loved her, Oliver was jealous and suspicious of him. Clem looked at her at the same moment her eyes reached his face. He smiled back weakly, as befitted the occasion, but his face was full of warmth and affection. Before she could reciprocate, as if an instinct had been stirred Oliver moved across her line of vision.

The final prayer was said and the mourners, mostly fisherfolk and a large turn-out of local Methodists, moved off to plod dejectedly back up or down the steep hill that ran outside the churchyard. Kerensa managed a brief smile at Clem before he left with Alice on his arm. Then she turned to speak to Matthias Renfree.

‘Ruth and Esther are going to spend another week with Elizabeth,’ she told him. ‘Will you go with them, Matthias, and see if there’s anything they need, please?’