A peculiar emptiness took over Kerensa’s body. ‘What on earth do you mean?’ she exclaimed, bolting to her feet and clutching his arm. ‘Surely we can talk about this and get it settled, Oliver?’

‘Talk?’ he sneered. ‘You should have talked to me eight years ago.’ Stalking to the door he angrily threw it open and left the room.

Kerensa was paralysed by his words. Bob ran in, eager to see his mistress, but she did not notice him sitting expectantly with a paw prodding her skirt for attention.

She stood motionless in utter disbelief. Why did this have to happen now? With Samuel dead and Jenifer still refusing help, she thought the danger of the secret being revealed had passed. It was obvious that Jenifer wasn’t long for this world and if and when she died, Kerensa had intended to help the Drannock children somehow.

Many times she had been tempted to share Samuel’s secret with Oliver. But he was not always an easy man to live with, with his aristocratic ways and fierce male pride coming to the fore in outbreaks of bad temper and impatience. And although they were never directed at her or the children, she had soothed him and calmed the troubled waters. Sometimes, after their moments of exquisite intimacy, she had nearly bared her soul and told him this one burdensome secret that she held from him. But her promise to the dead fisherman and worry over the consequences once the truth was out had always made her keep quiet.

Now it was all out in the open, it was worse than she could have imagined. Oliver’s dreadful reaction had stung her in many ways but, worst of all, she could only now understand what she had irrevocably denied him.

‘Are ’ee all right, cheeil?’

The rasping voice brought Kerensa out of her trance. ‘What? Oh, it’s you, Beatrice. I didn’t hear you come in.’

The old woman shuffled her flabby body deeper into the room. She wiped her running nose and with her small eyes peered at Kerensa’s stricken pale face. ‘Sit yerself down, m’dear,’ she said. ‘I d’reckon you could do with an ear t’listen to ’ee.’

‘It’s all very simple really, Beatrice,’ Kerensa uttered miserably. ‘It’s all my own fault… A long time ago I made a promise I shouldn’t have kept.’

Chapter 11

The sea was a myriad of tiny choppy waves, coloured a dull hue by lifeless grey clouds overhead that had not moved all day. Two gulls out on the water were joined by a third and then another, all flying off moments later in the same direction as though they had decided they had business elsewhere and ought to be on their way.