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Peninsula, together with numerous investments. The house and property of Tregolls near Truro was left jointly to Desmond and Mary. To Anna Maria he had left his London house and property in Devon. The house of Killiganoon was to go to Desmond and Mary, but Miss Betsy Slocombe was to have free occupancy of it for five years and a life income of £250. Slade was left an annuity of £50, and several of the other servants received small gifts. My mother was left £100, and so was Thomasine, and so was I. I was thrilled for it was the very first money I had ever possessed of my own.
    My mother was equally satisfied at the outcome – not for her small legacy but for the future dispositions of our lives. So the family party broke up. Samuel returned to his ship in Portsmouth. Anna Maria and her husband and two children left for London. The Admiral’s brother – granted a legacy of £500 – returned to his home near Truro; as did the two cousins – who had been entirely ignored (Uncle Davey never liked them). Always depending on the continuing goodwill of Samuel, Claudine might consider she had been left as undisputed mistress. She had unfailingly been tactful with her nephews and nieces, and she knew she could manage Desmond and Mary. Anna Maria, with whom she did not get on so well, was safely busy childbearing and usually in London. The rest were servants.
    Before he left she had had a detailed discussion with Samuel and had agreed which servants should leave. Fetch’s position was under threat but I had insisted to Mama that she should be one who must stay, even if I had to pay her wages out of my new-found legacy.
    Meanwhile Desmond’s courtship of Tamsin continued. One night I asked her about it.
    â€˜Oh.’ She shrugged. ‘He is passably nice. I sometimes think he is more interested in ornithology.’
    â€˜Oh, Tamsin, you cannot say that! He comes at every crook of your little finger.’
    She sighed. ‘Mama would like it, I believe. It would suit her in many ways. But I am only just twenty-two. There are plenty of other fish in the sea.’
    â€˜Such as Mr Abraham Fox?’
    â€˜Why do you say that?’
    â€˜Because I know you have such a taking for him.’
    â€˜Have? Had? Which is it? I am not sure if Mr Fox is not really a rattlesnake.’
    She was sitting on the end of the bed, her head up, regarding the fading daylight. The frills of her nightdress ringed her face like the cup of a daffodil, the skin of her neck and chin so pure, the profile so perfect.
    â€˜You never told me,’ I said, ‘what happened when we were in Bank House greeting the Queen of Portugal.’
    â€˜What happened? What could happen? I felt faint. That was what happened. You know I suffer severely when it is one of my monthlies.’
    I waited, but she said no more. ‘What has changed you, then? Are you pretending to yourself to dislike him just to please Mama?’
    â€˜Emma, you are always very disagreeable with your probing questions. What are my feelings for Bram Fox? What are yours? What are Mama’s?’
    â€˜Mama’s?’ I was startled. ‘She has made that clear.’
    â€˜And yours,’ she said, ‘you have made yours clear, have you not? You are besotted with him!’
    This was a profound shock to me, that I had allowed any such feelings to show.
    â€˜He – he has been kind to me,’ I stammered. ‘That’s all. It is rare for a man not to be put off by my disfigurement. Of course he means nothing, but I appreciate such courtesy.’
    â€˜Have a care that you do not appreciate it too much.’
V
    A FEW months before Uncle Davey’s death he had come back full of a concert he had been to in Plymouth, and of a musician who had made a great impression on him.
    â€˜Black man; would you believe it? Black as a spade. But the way he handles that violin! You know I’m not a great one for music –