‘Like his father, without a doubt,’ Alice said firmly, pausing in her knitting to nestle more comfortably into her chair. She let herself relax; she enjoyed this time spent away from the eternal bustle of farm life and made the most of it. She trusted Rosie to look after Jessica for a short while and the twins would be working with Clem and their grandfather.

‘I expect you’re right about that, Alice,’ Kerensa sighed. ‘Oliver encourages both the boys to be rather on the wild side and while he sees Olivia as sweet and ladylike, he likes her to be independent too.’ She stood up and took a bunch of red roses out of the vase sitting on a small round table made of local serpentine. ‘These are for you to take home, Alice,’ she said, laying them down carefully.

Alice thanked her and, as all young mothers do, they chatted on about their families. Alice asked why Olivia was repeatedly smacking one of her dolls and wagging a disciplinary finger at it.

‘Oh, that’s supposed to be Luke,’ Kerensa explained. ‘He’s upset her by not letting her join him and Kane in his game of soldiers, British against the French, in the orchards. He has his games all planned with great care. Bob is not allowed to go anywhere near them because he gets too excited and once knocked over a really splendid fort the boys had built. Michael and Conan, the stable boys, are roped in if they’re not too busy and Jake joins in as a general sometimes, with the other gardeners as infantry men. In fact everyone if they’re not female has joined in with Luke’s games at one time or another. Nathan has, Oliver of course, who enjoys them as much as the boys, Matthias Renfree once or twice when he’s been here, and even the Reverend Ivey.’

‘Matthias Renfree?’ Alice raised her eyebrows. ‘I wouldn’t have thought he’d approve of war games.’

‘He’s very patriotic, Alice. He plays the part of a military surgeon.’

‘How about the Reverend Ivey? I suppose he plays the clergyman from the nearest church.’

‘No, actually the Reverend likes to be the old King, who’s said to have loved to take his armies into battle.’

‘Fancy that, the Reverend Ivey wanting to be a king. You never know about people, do you? Young Luke wants to be a soldier when he grows up, I take it?’

‘Oh yes, he talks of nothing else. He wants to join the same regiment as his father, the 32nd Regiment of Foot.’

‘Well,’ said Alice, sipping from a glass of elderberry and mint cordial, ‘sounds like Luke will make a good soldier and God help the French or anyone else who might be the enemy when the time comes. I suppose it’s him who usually wins and Kane who ends up killed or wounded.’