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anything, then I might get a job on board ship for a year or two and go off on voyages, and mebbe …’ He took another forkful of pork and chewed it thoughtfully. Daniel did nothing without considering it carefully first. ‘And mebbe I’ll go and try to find Marco Orsini and tell him who I am, and ask him if he’d like to come back home wi’ me and see Rosie again.’ He grinned at the company seated around the table and then turned his attention back to Rosie. ‘What do you think about that?’

CHAPTER FOUR
    Below Elloughton Dale and nearer the estuary, in the vicinity of Broomfleet, sat Hart Holme Manor, the home of landowner Christopher Hart, his wife Melissa and their four children.
    Melissa was Christopher’s second wife, his first wife Jane having died many years before he met Melissa, who was twenty years his junior. Jane had given him a daughter, Amy, now married and living in London with children of her own.
    He and Melissa had been married for five years before she had the twins, Charles and Beatrice. Stephen was born two years later and George followed a year after, and that was quite enough sons for any man over fifty, Christopher thought, though with a wife only in her early thirties they might not be the last. But it was very tiring looking after a large estate, even with a bailiff to organize the general running of it, and an early evening in bed, to read or sleep, was very desirable. Charles would not be twelve until December, and even supposing he begins helping out on the estate as early as eighteen, when he finishes school, Christopher thought, sighing, I will be sixty, with little chance of retiring early.
    Charles had gone away to school when he was ten, much later than his father had wanted, but Melissa couldn’t bear to part with him and had said adamantly that eight was far too young for a boy to be sent away from his mother. Melissa liked to have her children at home and hadn’t entertained any thought of sending Beatrice away to school even though she was the one who was always climbing trees and had been the first to ride a pony; having taken her first tumble when she was five, she had run after and caught her pony and climbed back on again, whilst Charles after his first fall had gone hopping to Nanny Mary to have his knee bandaged.
    School, however had toughened Charles up, and although he didn’t get into fights with other boys he refused to be bullied and often went to the aid of those who were, and could fell his opponents with a glare or a few well-chosen words; when it was time for Stephen and George to join him, Melissa was quite sure they would be looked after by their older brother.
    Charles was like his father in looks, tall, fair-haired and slim, but whilst Beatrice was also fair she was beginning to develop curves like her mother and had her angelic features, which hid much mischief. Both children had a special friendship with Daniel even though they saw less of each other now that Charles was at school and Beatrice wasn’t allowed out of the grounds on her own; but unbeknown to either set of parents the twins and Daniel met frequently during the school holidays, and if Beatrice could have sneaked away from her governess to trek up the dale on her own and find Daniel at home she would have.
    Harriet was awake an hour earlier than usual and knew as soon as her feet touched the floor, as soon as she felt the nausea rising, that she was pregnant again. Well, she thought philosophically, at least there’ll be a reasonable gap between Elizabeth and the next one. Elizabeth will be nearly three by then and able to do more things for herself. She swallowed hard and hoped that she could manage to get outside before she was sick and so keep the news from Fletcher for a little longer. It would have to be today of all days to discover it, she thought; one of our busiest weeks of the year.
    She knew she could rely on Maria to help out, but she wanted her eldest daughter to enjoy her