“Perhaps too I brought them here to infuriate my mother,” Lord Lynche was saying. “She has always despised me. She has always told me that I am spineless and a fool. Well, now I have proved her right.”

“I am sure she did not mean those unkind things,” Carina protested, thinking it was too bad that at this moment of tragedy he should feel that even his own flesh and blood were against him.

“No, she never cared for me,” he replied. “She loved my brother to the point of distraction. I was always unwanted. That is why I dreamed of being able to get away, to have a life of my own, unshadowed by The Castle and all it has meant to the Lynches.”

Carina could hear from the note of resignation in his voice that his dream had died, And because, despite herself, she was now really sorry for him, she rose to her feet, and crossing the room put her hand on his arm.

“Cannot you fight?” she asked. “Isn’t there anything you can do?”

He looked down at her, his eyes dark with pain.

“Don’t you suppose I have been asking myself that all night?” he said. “Oh, Percy played the part of the gentleman admirably. ‘You will have an opportunity of getting your revenge tomorrow,’ he said as he left the table. ‘You will remember I am not leaving until Thursday.’”

Lord Lynche’s face was suddenly contorted.

“Damn him!” he shouted and his voice echoed round the room. “Damn him! With the smile on his face and the condescension in his voice! He knew he had sucked me dry! He knows, if we play tonight, which undoubtedly he will suggest, that I have nothing to play with except a few sovereigns in my pocket.”

“I am so sorry,” Carina said again quietly.

“This – this is what I mind losing more than anything,” Lord Lynche said, looking round the room. “The furniture belonged to my grandmother. She collected most of it when she was in France. She left it to me in her will and it never belonged to my brother or my mother. It is mine!”

“Then perhaps – ” Carina began, a sudden hope in the expression on her face.

But Lord Lynche realised what she was about to say and shook his head.

“We have lost it all,” he said. “The land that we own for as far as you can see on either side of The Castle, the land for which my forbears fought and died, and which I have thrown away in a drunken moment.”

“Don’t torture yourself,” Carina said. “No good can come of it. What is done is done. You have to look forward to the future.”

“It’s so easy to say!” Lord Lynche cried angrily.

“No, it’s not easy – not even to say it,” Carina said. “I had to do the same thing. I know how hard it is.”

“You?”