Clem stared at him. Pengarron had never called him by his first name or offered him help before. Did he suppose all that had happened gave him the right to patronize him? He felt Kerensa’s fleeting touch, reminding him how she had been allowed to go to him. Then she went to her husband.
‘I thank you, Sir Oliver. Stay and take a meal, if you will, before you and Lady Pengarron and the others start the journey home.’
‘We welcome your hospitality,’ Oliver said.
Clem studied him and Kerensa together. The picture he had kept inside his head all those long, lonely years of her and himself like that, close and belonging together, was gone. Perhaps it was because of his grief, or that he had accepted at last that fate had never meant him and Kerensa to be joined.
He held out his hand to Catherine. ‘Shall we join Jessica and Timothy?’
Catherine crossed the floor to him. At the door, she swung her head round to observe Kerensa Pengarron staring after Clem, still keeping her hold on him. Only she wasn’t. She had her eyes closed and was leaning into Oliver, for comfort, for support, for love. Oliver motioned his encouragement to Catherine. She thanked him with a small smile.
In the passage, Clem halted as he heard Jessica sobbing wretchedly in the other room. ‘I’m sorry, Cathy,’ he croaked. ‘I need a moment.’
She reached up and touched his face, smoothing at his hurt expression. ‘Do you need me to hold you, Clem?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, I need that very much.’
* * *
The business with the constable settled, the two families were saying goodbye.
Oliver usually ensured he had the first word but left it to someone else.
Clem spoke to him, while sheltering Catherine and Jessica in his arms, ‘When next we meet, for the sake of our families, I hope it will be with this same lighter attitude.’
‘It is my hope too,’ Oliver replied. ‘We shall all make the new baby’s baptism next year a cause for wholehearted celebration. We shall stand as equals, you and I, Clem Trenchard, and the whole county will see it.’
These were words Clem had never expected to hear from the other man. If Pengarron could change enough to offer to see him as his equal, he would not allow himself to be ruled by bitterness. Leaving the women, he held his hand out to Oliver. Leaning down from his horse, Oliver gripped it.
‘We’ll stand as equals in the church, and Catherine and I look forward to that occasion, but I shall keep my proper place elsewhere. Wherever we may meet, not as grandparents of the same children, I’ll give Kerensa her title. Goodbye, Sir Oliver.’ He stood back. ‘Goodbye, Kerensa.’
‘Goodbye, Clem.’ She started off for the journey home with Oliver, the hour so late they would have to spend the night at an inn. She stopped after a few paces and looked back.
Clem had not moved. He waved to her, ‘Goodbye, Kerensa.’
‘Goodbye, Clem, for now.’
Clem turned round. With his arms outstretched, he walked back to Catherine and Jessica and gathered them in. ‘Come, we will eat and then sit with Philip. I’ll send someone over to bring John and Flora home. To get through this we need to be strong, and to be strong we all need each other.’ He rested his head against Catherine’s and whispered, ‘It’ll be all right, I promise.’
* * *
When the returning party had left the sadness of the moor behind, Luke and Jack rode on a little ahead, chatting about their new schemes for Polgissey and Porthcarne.
Kerensa gazed across at Oliver, bringing Kernick closer to him. They had exchanged many tender glances but now she kept her eyes fixed on him.
‘Are you cold, beloved?’ he said. ‘The wind’s getting stronger. The inn is not far now.’
‘I am a little cold and lonely too. Can I ride on Gereint with you?’
Smiling, he lifted her across to sit in front of him, holding her fast to his body.
‘We have a child to bring up now, Oliver, as if she were our own. Tamara has lost both parents. It will not be easy for her when she learns what her father did and how he died, but I believe she should be told. We know the cost of keeping secrets.’
‘We will do our best for her, beloved. At least it will be the truth when we tell her Bartholomew loved her.’
‘I love you so much, Oliver. Your change of heart, the way you were at Greystone’s today, showed me what a great man you are.’
‘And how much I love you too, I hope.’
‘That too.’ Winding her arms round him, she vowed, ‘I’ll never say goodbye to you, Oliver. Never, ever.’
The Pengarron Sagas
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The Harvey Family Sagas
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First published in the United Kingdom in 2002 by Severn House
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © Gloria Cook, 2002
The moral right of Gloria Cook to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788630733
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Pengarron Dynasty Page 29