‘I think I made a sale for you,’ he said informally as he came in the door. Hester glanced up at his entrance and was relieved to see his familiar, reassuring smile. ‘A young man from Kent, enquiring about fruit trees. I spoke warmly about John’s plums and handed him over to your gardener. I left him writing down an order for a score of trees and being paid in gold.’

Frances laughed and clapped her hands. ‘Excellent, Uncle Norman! Now all we have to do is to teach you to weed and you shall come and work for us every day.’

‘Twenty trees is a very good sale,’ Hester agreed. ‘Especially in these times, when no-one can put their mind to gardening. You did say that he had to arrange his own transport?’

‘I did. I know you can’t undertake delivery.’

‘If we had anyone we could spare I still wouldn’t send them. I can’t risk losing my horse and cart.’ Hester turned to Frances. ‘Fetch Johnnie, and tell Cook that she can serve dinner.’

Frances nodded and went out of the room.

Alexander held out his hand. ‘Am I forgiven for my stupidity?’

Hester took his hand. ‘And you must forgive me. It’s a curiously uncomfortable mistake for a woman to make. If I’d had more experience I would have known how a man usually proposes to a woman.’

He smiled at her and did not release her hand for a moment. ‘And the matter of Frances’s future?’

Hester shook her head and withdrew her hand. ‘She’s too young yet,’ she said stubbornly. ‘Ask again in a year or two. I must warn you I would rather see her with a young husband in a little house of her own, starting her own life.’

He nodded. ‘I understand. But young men are not safe choices these days. Whether he’s a royalist or for Parliament he’s likely to be called to serve his master, and there are no little houses where young people can be sure that they will be left to live at peace in this kingdom any more.’

‘When the war ends …’

‘When the war ends we shall know whether she should look for a husband at Parliament or at court. But what if it trails on for years? I tell you, cousin, there are stores in the Tower promised to the Parliament army, and stores to match that in royalist hands enough to keep this war going for another twenty years. Parliament is not likely to surrender – that would be to sign their own death warrants for treason – and the king is not a man to come to terms with them.’

Hester nodded. For a moment she looked haggard with worry. ‘If she is in any danger I shall send her to you,’ she promised. ‘I know you would take care of her.’