‘It was Her Ladyship’s idea for me to sleep in the house and have a room overlooking the stable yard,’ Jack said. He didn’t feel at all comfortable to be convalescing in the big house, and even less so in his master’s presence. He missed his little cottage and its simplicity and spartan furniture. He had spoken of it to Kerensa and hoped she would allow him to return home, but he was still very unsteady on his feet and she just laughed and assured him he was in the plainest room in the house. It didn’t seem at all plain to Jack, with velvet curtains, drapes round the large high bed and a canopy above it, furniture here, there and everywhere, and tassels on everything.

It was one of the pictures he disliked the most, of an old woman dressed in black puritan clothes and tiny round spectacles on the end of a pointed nose. Her dark eyes looked at you no matter where in the room you were, and Jack fancied she was a witch and would put a spell on him. He wanted to hide away from her but she seemed to be everywhere.

‘I’m pleased that you are here while you are recovering, Jack. How are you today?’ Oliver asked. He sounded as fatherly as Kerensa was motherly, and Jack had a horror that his master would get up and plump up his cushions and rearrange the blanket over his lap.

‘I’m getting better all the time, sir. Never mind about me.’

‘Is there anything I can get for you? Anything you can think of that you would like to while away the time until you are active again?’

‘Not really, but…’ Jack stopped, embarrassed.

‘Yes, what is it?’ Oliver grinned kindly.

‘Well, it’s not so much that I want anything,’ Jack dared, ‘but, if you don’t mind, if it’s all right, could I possibly have that picture of that old woman taken down, she gives me the creeps.’

Jack’s face was as red as beetroot as Oliver got up laughing, lifted the picture off the wall and put it beside the door.

‘I’ll take it with me when I go,’ he said, coming back, ‘and I agree with you wholeheartedly, Jack. I have never liked that picture, she always gave me the feeling that when I turned my back she would come out of the picture and I’d find her standing right behind me. Well, you can rest a little easier now.’

‘Thank you, sir. ’Tis very good of you. I just can’t wait to get back to work. I miss the horses and goodness knows what Michael and Conan are doing with them and what mess they’re making of the stables.’