‘Not this time. It’s a young lady. Miss Ameline Beswetherick from Tolwithrick, Sir Martin’s eldest granddaughter. She’s had a proposal of marriage and needs time away from home to make up her mind whether to accept it or not. She’s quite a pleasant girl, a year older than Rosie. Brought up a lady of course but, unlike her mother Lady Rachael, very prim and proper.’

‘Mmmm, she sounds fascinating. What’s the man concerned like?’

‘His name is James Mortreath and he’s a very distant relative of Oliver’s. He’s in his mid-thirties, a lawyer by profession. He’s been very successful in London and is very rich. He’s rather quiet and serious. He asked Ameline to marry him ages ago but she keeps the poor man on tenterhooks. He’s been up and back from London several times while waiting for her answer. I quite like him. I think he’d be good for Ameline but Oliver deliberately makes him feel uncomfortable, though I don’t know why. It makes me cross, I think it’s really childish of him.’

‘Well, you know what Beatrice says.’

‘Yes, how could I forget – men never grow up, they only get worse.’

‘And worse!’

The two young women laughed together. At that moment Luke Pengarron appeared dragging a loudly protesting Kane along by his torn shirt.

‘Mama, will you do something about him!’ Luke demanded. ‘Kane is supposed to be dead but he won’t lie down!’

Alice quickly summed up the situation. ‘Give young Master Luke a clip round the ear,’ she advised Kerensa, as one mother to another.

Chapter 8

Rosie Trenchard was seething mad. She had just wasted the best part of two hours taking a so-called important message from Clem to Ker-an-Mor Farm for Matthias Renfree. She had had to wait around to see him, only to be told, eventually, that he was up at the manor house going over the estate’s accounts with Sir Oliver. To make matters worse, when she left a message for Matthias, it seemed he already knew its content: that the widow Trewerggie, over Trevenner way, was anxious to learn about how the Methodist Society looked upon God and salvation with a view to joining it and wanted the young preacher to call on her. How Clem knew about it and why he was concerned about the spiritual affairs of a woman he professed not to have spoken to until market day was beyond Rosie.

She had lost all patience with Clem and was beginning to believe that the long periods he drew apart from the rest of the family had left him a little ‘touched’. She made up her mind to speak to their father about his behaviour.