Reading the letter again, she knew she was at a turning point in her life, as the pull of Harold and all that he promised was too much for her to resist. Just reading his words had caused a burning passion inside her. Her body yearned for him, and her soul ached for him.

Her decision wasn’t made without foreboding, for if she took the step to marry Harold, on her head be it – she had no delusions about him.

Sighing, she returned to the bureau and picked up Flors’s letter. Please let it contain good news.

Dearest Mags,

This is the first opportunity I have had to sit down and write to you. I want you to know that Cyrus and I are very happy. It has been difficult coming to terms with the knowledge of our sibling relationship to each other, but we cannot change that and have decided to be as we were before we knew – the same deeply-in-love couple.

I am enclosing my address, and the latest one that I have for Ella; only please, whatever you do, keep mine a secret. I say this assuming that you are now married, or going to be, to my brother Harold, who I believe would still seek to harm us. I was sorry that you chose to go into a relationship with him, but as you said: love is a powerful emotion.

I hope, with all my heart, that he makes you happy. You deserve nothing less.

I have worried about you. Please don’t carry any guilt about my mother’s death. I don’t know exactly what you meant by ‘knowing hers and Harold’s plan’, but I can guess from their action in attacking us that they had intended extreme harm to us both, and to Cyrus in particular. I would even guess so far as them wanting him to die, so that Father’s estate would revert to Harold. But if this was the case, they were foolish to think that would happen, because our son, Freddy, would have been the natural heir.

But this is about you. Mother’s death was an accident – purely that. A terrible one, as it left you so broken, but one precipitated by your need to protect Cyrus and me, and I am so very grateful to you.

I know that if you are married to Harold, you won’t be able to write back, but I wanted you to know that I am your friend, and I could have no better friend than you. I will be forever grateful for the way you tried to help save my little Alice. Oh, Mags, it is so painful to speak of her. But we owe you a great debt for the way you did all that you could for her. Our home is always yours, too, please remember that.

I also wanted you to know that we were delivered of our third child, a son, Randolph. He is now six weeks old and thriving, though I took a while to recover, as it was a difficult birth. I am now back on my feet and getting our new home into shape – a neglected chateau, which stands just outside the village of Laurens in Hérault in the Languedoc province. Cyrus is busy preparing his fields in readiness to plant the grapevines he has ordered, and he is loving our new life, as I am.