‘You’ll be all right, John, I’ve got you now,’ Samuel tried to reassure him, but he was exhausted and fearful himself.

When he felt the pull returned on the rope, Samuel had to prise John’s frozen fingers from the wreckage. He made sure the boy’s face was raised above the waters as he swam off. He knew that no one on the lugger could hear him but he shouted, ‘Matthew! I’ve got John!’ And thought grimly to himself, ‘At least this one’s saved.’

A bare second later Samuel’s head was smashed by the side of another lugger seeking shelter out in the fog. He had not one moment for memories or regrets before he died. His arm was flung out from John King’s body and the boy’s screams went unheeded as the youngest King at sea that day sank to join the skipper of the Young Maid.

Chapter 2

Hours later, a few short miles across Mount’s Bay, Kerensa, Lady Pengarron, arrived on the arm of her husband Sir Oliver at Tolwithrick, the stately home of the wealthy mine-owning Beswetherick family. With at least one hundred other guests invited from all over the county of Cornwall, they were gathering for the celebration of Sir Martin Beswetherick’s seventieth birthday.

‘I shall enjoy the party tonight,’ Kerensa said brightly, peering through the crush of people. ‘I hope Martin does, he’s been so looking forward to it.’

‘Your presence alone will ensure that, my love,’ Sir Oliver said as he acknowledged and returned a greeting from Sir John St Aubyn of St Michael’s Mount.

Kerensa was greeted too by Sir John, but not all the gentry, the bankers, magistrates, landowners and the inevitable interlopers who appeared at such a high social occasion would afford her the same courtesy. She was not born of the same blood or money, nor had she any connection with them before her marriage. But while Oliver would have been angered on her account, Kerensa was not offended by any of the cold stares, quickly averted eyes or tosses of haughty heads she received as she looked around the banqueting hall. She cared only about the proud aristocratic man standing protectively at her side and those among the people here who, like the Beswethericks, were their friends.

‘After this though,’ Kerensa went on, ‘I shall be glad to get home. I can’t wait to see the children again and find out what they’ve been up to.’

‘You did enjoy the last two days and nights though?’ Oliver asked, his dark eyes gleaming brighter than the hundreds of candles lighting up the hall.

Kerensa knew that gleam intimately. ‘The last two days were wonderful, my dearest, the last two nights even more so…’