chapter one . southern Ireland August , 1940 . dusk was softening the coastline of County Kerry as Diana West turned reluctantly from her window to go downstairs . she hesitated on the landing , remembering that Gregory disliked cr&amp;egrave;pe-soled brogues and tweeds , and knowing that he would make some barbed remark about her wearing her Lady-Bountiful-uniform in the gracious drawing-room of Rosebrae . six months of being Mrs Gregory West had taught Diana that the only thing to do was to grow a protective shell and to let her husband &apos;s arrowed words glance off unnoticed . not that they hurt any the less for being ignored ; sometimes the ache and the bewilderment and the disillusion was so fierce that the future became a burden to be endured and never never a happiness to be anticipated . now , her young mouth set and a bleak expression in her dark brown eyes , she went down to where an elderly manservant was beckoning to her from the hall . you &apos;re late , he reproved . I was nearly coming to fetch you . come in here a minute , Miss Diana , there &apos;s a thing I have to show you before you go in there . he nodded towards the drawing-room and then steered her into the unlit butler &apos;s pantry next door . but , Fergus - wheesht ! stay here - I &apos;ll be right back . with a faint smile Diana leaned on the table in front of her and prepared to wait as Fergus had ordered . he had been her father &apos;s batman in the first world war and for twenty years after that he had bullied and served and adored the whole family , with the exception of his master &apos;s sister Miss Charlotte Cavendish . a poor fool woman , was the kindest thing he had ever said of her , and angry tears stood in his eyes when his master &apos;s will was read and he heard that his beloved and orphaned Diana was left in the care of Miss Charlotte . his dislike and distrust were returned in full measure by that lady and by Gregory West , but he was Diana &apos;s man and she would as soon do without an arm as do without her oldest friend , Fergus Burke . a moment after Fergus left the pantry Diana became aware of a bar of light in the dimness , and moving along a bit she saw that the serving hatch was slightly open at one side giving a narrow view of the drawing-room . without curiosity because it was such a familiar scene , Diana watched her aunt presiding behind the tea-tray . firelight gleamed on silver and fine china , and lamplight flattered the smooth skin and fading fair hair of Miss Charlotte . Diana &apos;s late again , she said , passing a plate of hot buttered scones to Gregory . really , we do n&apos;t see much of her at all these days . he shrugged . she &apos;s probably taking soup or whatever it is to her ghastly villagers . beats me how she can bear to enter their hovels ! do try not to be any more ignorant than you already are ! Miss Charlotte snapped . you seem to have taken all your ideas about what you call the landed gentry from Victorian novels . Diana has lots of responsibilities here and you ought to help her out with some of them instead of sitting around here like an ornament . and you need n&apos;t glare at me like that ! we know each other too well for either of us to put on an act when we &apos;re alone , and if I had n&apos;t had a soft spot for your father long ago I would have left you to go to the devil in your own way ! Diana drew back from the hatch , her mind a riot of emotions as she realised that she was deliberately eavesdropping and that her aunt and Gregory were n&apos;t strangers as they had led everyone to believe . Fergus gripped her arm and she jumped . this is no time for party manners ! he hissed . many a choice bit I &apos;ve heard here and I thought it was time you heard it too . they &apos;re in a girning mood today and that &apos;s why I wanted you down earlier , so keep your ears skint ! without a scuffle Diana could n&apos;t get away from the determined Fergus , and almost against her will she looked once more into the drawing-room . and another thing , Miss Charlotte was saying , we did n&apos;t finish what we were talking about when tea was brought in . Diana will soon be twenty-one and I have no intention of being done out of my share of our bargain just because you can n&apos;t hold her . Gregory laughed softly and smoothed his brown wavy hair . I can get any woman , and keep her . every woman needs to be shown who &apos;s master and in the end they love it , and Diana &apos;s no different . oh yes she is . you can n&apos;t class girls like Diana with the women you &apos;ve known . she was fresh home from finishing school - and heaven knows it might as well have been an enclosed convent for all she knew of life - you swept her off her feet , and she was all prepared to love you for ever . but what happens ? you seem to have frightened her to death , because she &apos;s just a shadow of the girl she was six months ago . I &apos;m warning you , Gregory , when a Cavendish digs her toes in neither you nor any man living will move her . you &apos;re just getting anxious about your twenty thousand quid , Gregory muttered , but some of the assurance had gone from his voice . oh all right , just to please you I &apos;ll start being the niminy-piminy lover she seems to expect , but honestly , Charlotte , she &apos;s such an innocent and she always looks so - so untouched that any man would lose patience and want to bring her down to earth . not any man , Miss Charlotte said coldly , and anger glinted in her pale eyes . your father may have been a bit of a rogue but he was also a gentleman , and that you will never be . he would have kept his sights fixed on the Cavendish wealth and he would have had Diana eating out of his hand until she would have begged him to take over the management of her money when she was twenty-one . I begin to regret that I groomed you for this part for which you have turned out to be so manifestly unsuited , but if you do n&apos;t hand over to me that twenty thousand pounds within a month or two after Diana &apos;s birthday be very sure that all the regrets will be yours . a wave of nausea hit Diana and she bent over to rest her clammy forehead on her hands . beside her , Fergus muttered black oaths and heaped imprecations on the two conspirators , his hand resting gently on her bowed head . then the bell tinkled above their heads and he smoothed his jacket before going into the drawing-room . I &apos;ll say you &apos;re not home yet , he whispered . you &apos;ll need time to think . but lassie , I had to do it , I just had to do it . left alone , Diana straightened and looked dully at the hatch . no one ever remembered that it was there as it was never used . on the other side it looked like part of the white panelling , as did the one on the opposite wall of the pantry which led to the dining-room and which was used every day . neither Miss Charlotte nor Gregory were welcome in Fergus &apos;s domain , and it was unlikely that either of them had ever been inside his pantry . knowing that she did n&apos;t want to talk to anyone , not even to Fergus , Diana ran quietly across the hall to the garden-room and taking the first coat she could find she left the house by the side door . clouds obscured what little light there was in the sky , but Diana knew every path in this part of Kerry and almost blindly she made her way to the hill above Whitewater Bay . the bay was a quiet anchorage on a rocky part of coast , but privacy was jealously guarded by Captain James Wallace who owned the biggest estate in the area , and no villager from Morne ever went near the little beach . Diana did n&apos;t know - and at the moment she did n&apos;t care - if Captain Wallace had ever seen her on the hillside or not , but she never did any harm just by sitting on the sheltered side of the big grey rock below the skyline . the slope in front of her was steep but it was n&apos;t very far down to the beach where the waves swished gently on the shingle . how long she sat there she never knew , thoughts chasing endlessly through her mind . sold , she whispered once . sold like a sheep at a Kerry fair . but it was n&apos;t my fault - I &apos;ve never come up against people like my aunt and Gregory - oh , of course it was my own fault , dreaming of a knight in shining armour and thinking I &apos;d found him in Gregory - how funny that is - Gregory ! a new-style Sir Lancelot ! - it &apos;s really terribly funny when you think about it - and suddenly the laughter which shook her turned to tears and she rested her cheek against the cold grey rock and cried as she had n&apos;t done since the death of her father ten years before . it was the memory of her father which calmed her at last , and she sat motionless as she recalled his unfailing light-heartedness even when the pain of an old war wound racked him ; his deep love for her , and his sorrow that she had never known the mother who had died when she was an infant ; his affection for his wife &apos;s beautiful home in Kerry and for the people of Morne whom he viewed with tolerant and amused English eyes . I &apos;m English really , Diana thought , and it &apos;s in England I should be now and not skulking over here in a neutral country when my own people are at war with Germany . or I could go over the border to Ulster and try to do something useful for a change instead of running an estate on more money than I &apos;ll ever know what to do with . money . her expression hardened as she thought of the two who were haggling so shabbily in the Rosebrae drawing-room . well , they were going to be disappointed this time . there would be no control of her inheritance by Gregory , and no twenty thousand pounds for Aunt Charlotte who no doubt felt she had earned it by introducing the son of an old love to her niece . Diana tensed suddenly as a low murmur of voices reached her and then she heard the crunch of heavy boots on the stones of the pathway just above her head . she kept very still as two men passed by , aware that Miss Diana of Rosebrae - few people had ever called her Mrs West - would look rather silly if she were found on the Captain &apos;s land with her eyes red and her face all streaked with tears . Gregory had n&apos;t gone down well with the locals but there was no need to proclaim her own misery in front of them even if they had proved to be better judges of a man than she had been . she looked cautiously round the edge of the rock beside her and saw that against the lightening sky the two men stood out fairly clearly and that they both carried rifles in the crooks of their arms as they patrolled the little headland . Diana frowned . the voices had had a clipped intonation unlike the soft speech of Kerry , but of course Captain Wallace was a law unto himself and there was no one to say him nay if he wished to employ non-local gamekeepers and to have them patrol his bounds after dark . but such doings were alien to a simple place like Morne , and without knowing why , Diana was glad that her coat was one she had bought and worn at school in Paris , a soft grey wool which blended with the rock against which she was leaning . 