Ameline Beswetherick sat side-saddle on Kernick, Kerensa’s pony, her body straight but relaxed, watching white-foamed water smack the perimeter of a solitary jagged stretch of rock several yards offshore. The water swirled in and out of its shapes and crevices, running up channels, making lacy spray, rapidly devouring more and more black granite before subsiding, leaving behind miniature twisting waterfalls to make their own way back into the sea.

Ten minutes passed and the rock was completely submerged, consumed by cold, hungry water. Ameline felt satisfied. She dismounted and with the greatest care led the pony down the winding figure-three of the cliff path that ended in the heart of Trelynne Cove. Kernick was used to the path but Ameline found it necessary to hold on tightly to his bridle and saddle to prevent herself from slipping and sliding onto her bottom. She made it halfway down the path with her dignity intact and jauntily lifted her head and put her gloved hands on her waist to survey her private domain for the afternoon.

Ameline wanted to be alone. She had ordered Conan, her stable boy escort, to stay up on the cliff and forbade him to look over into the cove. He had sullenly obeyed, grumbling that he would get into trouble for letting her out of his sight. Ameline insisted she would take full responsibility should any mishap befall her.

She had ridden to the cove once before, when she had first arrived at the manor, with Kerensa. They had sat side by side on a piece of rock so straight and flat on one edge it could have been sliced away by a giant’s axe. And there Kerensa had told Ameline of her life in the cove before her enforced marriage and its stormy first year. And how she and Oliver had fallen in love.

In Ameline’s youthful imagination the cove became a place steeped in romance and adventure, the echoes of the violent deaths perpetrated there holding no spectres for her. It was the perfect location for her to return to and dream of love and ponder over her marriage proposal.

She considered herself fortunate to be allowed this time at Pengarron Manor to consider James Mortreath’s offer although she knew her parents were becoming impatient with her. They and her grandfather approved of the serious, upright lawyer with his own substantial private means, and were pressing her to take him. They would expect a good reason if she decided to the contrary. But marriage was a lifelong commitment and Ameline could see no reason why she shouldn’t take her time making up her mind.