‘You look like a frightened rabbit, Blake,’ Oliver said maliciously, loud enough for as many as possible to hear above the sounds of building work. ‘You have my word I will not raise a finger to you, unless of course you give me reason to – as you did once before. I have something to say to you and I suggest we move aside if you don’t want these labourers and your son to hear it too. I can assure you, Blake, you wouldn’t want your son in particular to hear this.’

‘Very well,’ Blake hissed between clenched teeth, ‘but only a few feet away and from where we can clearly be seen.’

Oliver followed Blake closely until the smaller man stopped in front of a stack of timber, then he went straight into the attack. ‘I’ve just come from your rooms, Blake, where I enjoyed a most pleasant conversation with your charming wife.’

‘Rosina? You’ve been talking to Rosina? Why? What the hell are you up to, Pengarron!’ This time Blake advanced towards Oliver, the love and adoration he had for his gentle wife overcoming his fear.

‘I arrived on your doorstep to talk to you, but in your absence your wife invited me inside. Such a charming woman, it is beyond me why she married a swine like you.’

‘My wife is a true Christian with a forgiving nature,’ Blake said, becoming angrier by the moment. ‘Not a hypocrite like you, who only pays lip service to a God you purport to believe in when you attend church. I’ve regretted a hundred thousand times my actions concerning your wife, but you have made me pay for it a thousand times more!’

‘Oh, and why is that?’ Oliver asked in a tone of hopeful sarcasm.

‘Pain,’ Blake answered bitterly. ‘You broke my ribs and I am never without pain. I can lift nothing of substance and since he reached the age of two years not even my own son.’ His eyes went wistfully to Simon Peter still on the labourer’s shoulders.

‘Is that so? Well, I’m not as much of a hypocrite as you believe because I cannot in truth say that I’m in the least bit sorry, and I won’t bandy words on the Almighty with a confessed atheist. As far as I’m concerned, the likes of you have no right to an opinion on the faith, or lack of it, of others.’

‘At least my wife loved me from the start, she took me for what I was and I didn’t force her to marry me!’ Blake snarled.

That hit a soft spot in Oliver’s armour; his face reddened and his nostrils flared. ‘And I have never turned up on your doorstep and tried to rape your wife and kill the dog trying to protect her!’