‘Samuel hated the Pengarrons, your father and you. He said nothing could make up for what Sir Daniel had done to his mother. He said he didn’t approve of taking charity, particularly from a Pengarron, even me. He was very bitter about it all. He thought you to be selfish and cruel… and immoral, criminal even. I begged Samuel to let me tell you the truth, but he only told me because he couldn’t bear the thought of me believing there might have been something between you and Jenifer. I told him that I thought the Pengarrons owed him a lot, that he and his family shouldn’t have to live in poverty, but that was the way he wanted things to remain. I believe he was as stubborn as you can be. He was a proud man. How could I tell you that Samuel despised you, Oliver?’

‘The Reverend Ivey told me as much, it is of no importance,’ Oliver said coldly. ‘I should have been given the opportunity to talk to Samuel. We should have had the opportunity to get to know each other. Who can say what might have happened. Blood is said to be thicker than water. I never had a family, only a kind but rather distant mother and an amoral father. Most of the Cornish gentry is intermarried yet my own children have no grandparents, no uncles or aunts – save Jenifer Drannock now. Hell to it, Kerensa! I had a brother and you have denied me the chance of ever knowing him. Granted, Samuel Drannock was a miserable, dour man, but he was honest and reliable. If we could have formed any kind of friendship at all he might have been good for me and maybe I might have been good for him! We should have been given that chance. Did that not ever occur to you, Kerensa? Not even once?’

‘I just tried not to think about it,’ she explained, eyes glittering with unshed tears, hands wrung together. ‘Back then I was more concerned with trying to make our marriage work and so many other things were happening. Then we rescued Kane, and because of him we realised how much we were in love. We were so happy, even more so when I became pregnant with Olivia and then Luke soon afterwards… Oh, I couldn’t see a good reason for bringing it all out in the open. Samuel and Jenifer both wanted it to stay secret and I didn’t want anything to threaten the happiness we had found. All I can do now is to say that I’m so sorry, I’m really, really sorry.’ She looked at Oliver with all her love plainly in her eyes but he could not see it.

‘You certainly will be sorry, Kerensa,’ he said slowly and bitterly. ‘I can promise you that.’