‘It’ll be my pleasure,’ Alice replied, smiling back with mock graciousness.

‘And there’s a parcel beside it thee can drop off to Ricketty Jim, went put ’ee out none, ye’ll ’ave to past un on yer way back. ’E’s usually to be found on Trecath-en’s boundary. ’Tis a nice bit of bacon fat fer ’im, ’e do like a nice bit of bacon fat.’

‘Don’t worry, Beatrice, I’ll give it to him and make sure I’ll tell him it’s from you. Ricketty Jim’s not starving, you know, I send up something to the rover every day by one of my menfolk.’

Beatrice sniffed heavily and swiped at a drip of phlegm hanging from her nose. Alice looked away in disgust. ‘Don’t ’ee ruddy ferget!’ Beatrice instructed her. ‘I’ll be off then, m’dear,’ she then told Kerensa, having always addressed her mistress in these terms, and the old crone shuffled off.

‘No guesses where she’s going,’ Alice said, looking warily round to make sure Beatrice was out of earshot.

‘I know,’ piped up Olivia, ‘off to the stables to hit the gin bottle.’

‘Olivia!’ Kerensa exclaimed. ‘I won’t have you saying things like that.’

‘Sorry,’ Olivia said, quite unconcerned, and went back to her dolls.

Alice pursed her lips and moved them to the side of her face as she watched the little red-haired girl at play. ‘If you ask me, they’re all getting more like their father.’

‘Not Kane so much,’ Kerensa said. ‘Although he has his moments, he’s usually happy to go along with whatever Luke gets up to, but he does insist that Olivia goes riding with them.’

‘I’ve often thought how good it is that the two boys get along so well and how much Kane dotes on the little maid there. I hope they’ll always get along with each other in later years. Kane could even be yours with that lovely auburn hair the same colour as yours and Olivia’s. How old is he now? Ten years, isn’t it?

‘Well, ten at the end of November. It’s the time of year I rescued him and brought him home and that’s when we count his birthday. Oliver says Kane was the best thing I ever brought home from the market,’ Kerensa said fondly. ‘Dear Kane, he hates the colour of his hair. Oliver used to say he looked like that field mouse he used to carry about, but I think he has a calm and gentle face.’

‘He’s got a gentle nature, too, despite the terrible start he’s had in life,’ Alice said wholeheartedly. ‘Does he still get those nightmares?’