Rosie felt a tug on her skirt and found Rosina Blake pointing to the space she had made beside her by lifting Simon Peter on to her lap. Thankfully Rosie squeezed herself down on the rough rug, one of many spread out on the pressed earth floor. Only the extremely elderly had the privilege of sitting on one of the few hard-backed chairs.

All the men present stood lining the four walls. Clem moved away from Matthias Renfree and joined them, putting his tall lean frame next to Jeb Bray. He glanced at his sister, then his closest friend, shook his blond head and closed his eyes. There was nothing more he could do right now. Clem concentrated on his breathing; a true outdoors man, he hated the weekly crush in the Brays’ cottage. Today he found the atmosphere even more stuffy and oppressive. He was uncomfortable and had to keep his head to the side to avoid knocking a picture off the wall.

The classes were meant to be much smaller, about a dozen people, each with its own teacher. But Matthias Renfree was the only local man in this Methodist Society who felt qualified to preside over the meetings and encourage the others to keep the Society’s rules of sober and honest living as laid down by churchman John Wesley.

Matthias had tried to persuade Morley Trenchard, Clem’s father, to hold a class at his farmhouse, but Morley, shy and simple in outlook, had refused. So had Clem, firmly saying he lacked the religious fervour and application to dedicate himself to a more solid faith. Matthias was unsuccessful, too, with the fishermen from Perranbarvah and the miners of the nearby Wheal Ember mine. So it meant anything upwards of sixty men, women and children jammed into Jeb Bray’s little cottage, Jeb being only too willing to make his home available. Matthias, however, was hopeful that the situation would change by the end of the year if the plans he had for a meeting house to be built on the edge of Lancavel Downs came to fruition. It would see the end of all the squeezing in the good people here had endured for several years and the site would be more central for them.

After a formal prayer, Matthias began to read from the Bible. ‘The Gospel according to St Luke, Chapter 10, Verse 2. Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.’