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lesser-known Commandments. He hunted with gusto, was a fine shot and a keen fisherman. Often seen waddling among his flock at the races, he never missed the opportunity to preach, as if his
constant moralizing justified his presence there in that den of iniquity. Maud was a religious woman, when it suited her, and she abhorred the Rector for his flamboyance. The vicar in her home town
in England had been an austere, simple man of austere and simple pleasures, which was how she believed all religious men should be. But she held out her hand and greeted him, disguising her true
feelings behind a veneer of cool politeness. ‘Well if it isn’t the lovely Mrs Deverill,’ he said, taking her slender hand in his spongy one and giving it a hearty shake.
‘Did Victoria get the reading for tomorrow’s service?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes, she did,’ Maud replied. ‘I’ve practised with her but you know young people, they read much too quickly.’
    ‘I understand she will soon be leaving us for London.’
    ‘I don’t know how I shall make do without her,’ said Maud, who always managed to swing every conversation round to herself. ‘I shall be quite bereft with only Elspeth for
company.’
    ‘You will soon have Harry back for the holidays and of course you still have—’ He was about to mention Kitty but Maud cut him off briskly.
    ‘One pays a heavy price for a good education,’ she said solemnly. ‘But it is the way of the world and Harry is happy at Eton so I shouldn’t complain. I miss him terribly.
He is worth ten of my daughters. God didn’t see fit to give me more sons,’ she added reproachfully, as if the Rector were somehow responsible.
    ‘Your daughters will look after you in old age,’ said the Rector helpfully, draining his glass of sherry.
    ‘Harry will look after me in my old age. My daughters will be much too busy with their own children to think about me.’
    At that moment Adeline joined them, her sweet smile and twinkling eyes giving the Rector a warm feeling of relief. ‘We were just saying, Lady Deverill, how daughters are great comforts to
their mothers in old age.’
    ‘I wouldn’t know, my daughter having crossed the Atlantic without a backward glance,’ said Adeline, not unkindly. ‘But I’m sure you’re right. Maud is quite
spoiled with three daughters.’ Maud averted her eyes. Adeline had an unsettling way of looking right through her as if she recognized her shortcomings for what they were and was even slightly
amused by them.
    ‘There’s a good chance Victoria and Elspeth will marry Englishmen and leave Ireland altogether. My hope lies with Harry for, whomever he weds, he will live here.’
    Adeline looked steadily at Maud. ‘You’re forgetting Kitty, my dear.’
    The Rector grinned broadly, for he was very fond of the youngest Deverill. ‘Now
she
won’t be leaving Ireland, not Kitty. I’d put a lot of money on her marrying an
Irishman.’ Maud tried to smile but her crimson lips could only manage a grimace.
    Adeline shook her head, her special affection for Kitty undisguised. ‘She’s quite fearless. She’ll do something surprising, for certain. I’d put good money on
that.’
Maud felt she was expected to add something to the conversation, but she didn’t really know what her daughter was like. Only that she had the same flame-red hair as
Adeline and the same unsettling knowing in her eyes.
    At last O’Flynn appeared in the doorway to announce that dinner was now ready. Maud found her husband discussing the next hunt meeting with his father, who was already on his third glass
of sherry. Lord Deverill always managed to look moth-eaten. His grey hair was wild, as if he had just arrived at a gallop, and his dinner jacket looked as if it had been nibbled at the elbows by
mice. As hard as Skiddy tried to keep his master’s clothes clean and pressed, they still appeared to have been pulled out of the bottom of a drawer – and he refused, doggedly, to buy
new