The Reverend’s watery brown eyes could keep no secret from this man. Oliver Pengarron was too perceptive and he had a disconcerting habit of searching a conversant’s face.

‘Well, I do know something…’

‘I thought as much. Tell me all,’ Oliver commanded, leaning forward, ‘all that you know.’

‘Well, um… your father, Sir Daniel…’ the Reverend was obliged to clear his throat noisily, wishing feverishly that Oliver would drop his penetrating stare.

‘Yes, my father…?’

‘Your father, Sir Daniel… is… was… oh dear, this is very difficult. He is not the father of Bartholomew, rather he had an… association with Samuel’s mother. I… ah, know this to be true because I stumbled across them myself at one time. Sir Daniel was very angry, he made me swear never to tell anyone. Samuel’s mother married a Newlyn fisherman, Caleb Drannock, and six months later she gave birth to a son. It was in the same year that you were born. As he grew up the child resembled his mother, folk had no reason to believe he was none other than Caleb’s son. I believe that was the reason why there has not been the customary gossip, just the odd remark… While Samuel was still an infant Caleb Drannock was drowned at sea, his mother returned to live with her family, now all dead, at Perranbarvah. She never married again. The rest you know.’

Very slowly Oliver got up and walked behind his chair. He gripped the back tightly. His face had lost its usual dark colouring. Sparks seem to be darting from his eyes. With the evidence of Bartholomew’s looks and manner he had been certain that Pengarron blood flowed, if not in all the Drannock children, at least in Bartholomew. But the closeness of it had utterly shocked him.

‘Do you mean to tell me that Samuel Drannock was sired by my own father? Are you telling me that that fisherman was my half-brother? Born when I was born? Growing up not two miles away from me?’ His voice was husky, part in rage, part in hurt. ‘And all these years I knew nothing about it! Why have you not spoken of this before? Why have you kept silent for so long?’

‘I… I was not absolutely certain Sir Daniel was responsible for Samuel’s birth until Jenifer confided in me a few years ago. Apparently Margaret Drannock confessed it on her death bed. That was how she and Samuel himself came to know.’

‘And why did Jenifer suddenly feel the need to confide this astonishing confession to you?’

‘You do not expect me to tell you that, do you?’ returned the Reverend, rallying briefly to his own cause. ‘That is between Jenifer and me.’