You’ve only got to look back into the family history to see what a drain it’s been. Five of the last seven Jerninghams married quite respectable heiresses, and who’s any the better off for it? I haven’t a stiver. Dale would have been on the rocks without Lydia ’s money. That saved him, but Tanfield has swallowed it, and now it’s opening its mouth for anything he can get out of Lisle.”

“She hates the place,” said Alicia. “She’d like him to sell.”

“So would I,” said Rafe. “It’s the only sensible thing to do. The Manor has been in the family just as long. It’s a much more comfortable house, and to my mind a much more beautiful one. If Dale had a grain of sense, he’d close with Tatham’s offer – it won’t hold good for ever. The trouble is he hasn’t got a grain of sense where Tanfield is concerned. We’ve been here for five hundred years, and he expects us to go on being here for another five hundred – any sacrifice being only an obvious and natural tribute.”

Alicia looked startled. Rafe actually was serious. She could not remember having ever seen him so much in earnest before. It impressed her a little – against her will. She turned and looked in the direction of the house. The tower windows caught the sun and held it. They were all that could be seen. The long front with its eighteenth-century portico, the two wings running forward to enclose a paved courtyard where stone lions kept guard about a fountained lily pool – all these, though out of sight, were most familiar and present to her mind.

“You make it sound like a sort of Juggernaut.”

Rafe Jerningham broke into sudden mocking laughter.

“My sweet, the car of Juggernaut rolled over its devotees. Tanfield Court, I think, may be trusted to stay put.”

Chapter 5

THE two big drawing-rooms at Tanfield Court looked out upon a very low terrace from which wide, shallow steps descended to the famous Italian garden.