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young man! He leaves in the summer and I’ve had my work cut out to keep him there until then, because he wants to leave, but his teachers say he could do something really worthwhile with his life if he tried. I think he should go to college.’
    Alice made no comment. She knew that Connor hated living with his sister, though she wasn’t sure why. It might be to do with the fact that Frances had gone ahead with her engagement and wedding too soon after her father’s death, and that Connor had decided that she hadn’t cared about his father dying – or him!
    â€˜Don’t be too angry with him,’ Alice pleaded, half-wishing she hadn’t told her sister-in-law anything. She liked her husband’s youngest brother and wouldn’t want him to get into trouble because of something she had said. ‘He’s had a rough time these past few years.’
    â€˜No more than a good many other lads.’
    â€˜Connor was terribly upset when he thought Daniel had been killed,’ Alice reminded her.
    â€˜Yes, I daresay, but he has known that his brother is all right for a while now. Besides, being worried doesn’t excuse his behaviour – especially if he has been getting into some mischief.’
    â€˜No, I suppose not,’ Alice said, but she couldn’t help thinking that the lad was still missing his father and that Frances might have been a little kinder to her young brother. ‘Well, Dan will be home soon. I daresay he will soon sort him out.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Frances agreed. ‘If Connor will listen to anyone it’s Daniel. He certainly takes no notice of anything I say to him.’
    Frances heard the peel of the doorbell with a sinking heart. Each week she hoped that her father-in-law would forget to come or be too busy, but he was as regular as clockwork in his visits. She went to open the door, putting on a smile that did not reach her eyes.
    â€˜Frances,’ Sam said, leaning forward to kiss her. She turned her head sharply so that his wet lips found her cheek and not her mouth. ‘You look lovely as always. How is my boy today?’
    â€˜He is in trouble for pulling the puppy’s tail,’ Frances said coldly. ‘I told you he was too young, Sam. The poor creature yelped with pain and I had to smack Charlie to teach him a lesson.’
    â€˜You’re too hard on the child,’ Sam said and frowned. ‘I don’t suppose he meant to hurt the dog – and I doubt any lasting harm was done. Dogs are resilient creatures.’
    â€˜That’s as maybe,’ Frances said feeling resentful because she had known he would take the boy’s side. He always made her feel as if she were the wicked witch instead of Charlie’s loving mother. ‘But if you had waited a couple of years, he would have been old enough to understand.’
    â€˜I’ll talk to him,’ Sam replied. ‘You make too much of things, Frances. Get that from your mother, I shouldn’t wonder. She was always the nervous type.’
    Frances bit back the angry retort that sprung to her lips. She would have liked to say a lot more, but she was living in her father-in-law’s house. He had supposedly bought it for her and Marcus as a wedding gift, but as yet it remained in his own name. They could always move, of course, but this house had been in her family until her brothers had been forced to sell to pay their stepmother out. There wasn’t another house in the village as nice, apart from Sam Danby’s own house of course.
    She turned and led the way into the drawing room. She always entertained Sam in the large formal room, because the sitting room she favoured was too intimate and she did not want the smell of him to linger there. He was a large man who sweated when it was warm, and his clothes had a tang of tobacco smoke and perspiration.
    â€˜Please sit down,’ she said in a cool tone. ‘I shall fetch Charlie