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They both sat down and the young minister smiled ruefully. ‘I’m not married, so Mother usually deputises for me in cases like that. It’s not the first time, you know.’

Remembering something Mr Farr had said, Davina nodded. ‘So I’ve heard. Isn’t Peter’s father .. .' She hesitated.

‘Yes, the black sheep of my flock.’ Mr Matthews’ eyes were full of amusement. ‘However, he’s the best tenor in the choir—which brings me to one of the reasons for my visit. Would you be willing to take part in the Nativity play this year? We’re very short of angels.’

Davina gave an astonished laugh. ‘But Christmas is weeks away. You don’t mean they’re starting rehearsing already?’

‘Mother believes in leaving nothing to the last minute,’ came the reply, ‘and as soon as I knew I was coming out this way she insisted that it was a good moment to approach you. Can I tell her you’ll be along at the Rectory on Wednesday week? We’re meeting there at seven-thirty for a first reading.’

Davina could see the young rector’s mother was obviously a force to be reckoned with, perhaps the mainstay of the parish. She answered slowly, ‘May I let you know?’ and at Mr Matthews’ nod added, ‘and if Peter’s mother needs any help I hope you’ll call on me to give a hand.’

She ought perhaps to have apologised for not attending his church, she thought as she watched her visitor drive away in his ancient Mini. Once a regular churchgoer, since her father’s death she had been a bit of a backslider. A frown marred her smooth forehead as she got on with the morning’s work, for a part in the Nativity play committed her to staying on here and after Rex’s thinly veiled insults of this morning she was not sure of her future plans any more. He had always been unpredictable, and she was far too much in love with him to simply stay and be a conveniently available female when he felt in an affectionate mood. Sooner than lose every vestige of self-respect she’d go back to London, take a full-time job and try to do her writing in the evenings.

Which would be a most unsatisfactory arrangement, she was thinking when he came in for lunch. Bringing a smell of tobacco and sheep disinfectant into the room he washed before sitting down to cut himself a slice of bread as Davina ladled thick vegetable broth into two soup bowls.

‘I suppose I can make an educated guess as to why young Matthews came up to see us? He wants to know why we haven’t joined his congregation.’

‘No, he didn’t mention that at all,’ Davina replied. ‘He came to ask if I’d take part in his mother’s Nativity play. Apparently she produces it every year and they’re short of angels.’

In the act of picking up his soup spoon, Rex laughed. It was anything but a pleasant sound and Davina’s nerves tightened as she recognised the contempt in his response to her remark. ‘You I An angel 1 There would be a nice piece of miscasting if you like,’ he said in harsh tones. ‘Now if they’d wanted a king they’d have come to the right place, since King is my name.’

Scarlet stained Davina’s cheeks at the humiliating tones of his voice. Under his watchful eyes she gathered every scrap of pride and ignoring the first part of his reply asked, ‘King and Rex meaning the same, I suppose you mean that qualifies you for the role?’

‘No, I mean precisely what I said. I told you to call me Rex, but in fact my name is Kingbury—King for short. My mother suffered from a weakness for grand-sounding Christian names. My brother’s is nearly as bad.’

Davina felt as if the room was spinning round her as she repeated tonelessly, ‘Kingbury.’ She looked up, feeling sick with despair, to meet a tigerish gleam in the eyes watching her. ‘Then you’re ...’

‘Got it at last, haven’t you? Yes, I’m Barton’s brother. I’m sorry we didn’t met during that remarkably short engagement, but Mother only gets in touch with me when she wants something.’

As Davina’s lips parted Rex held up his hand and silenced the words about to pour out. ‘Spare me the excuses. No matter how convincing the lies you could undoubtedly think up, I wouldn’t believe them if you stood on a stack of bibles. Though Barr is a good deal younger than me and we’ve not been allowed to see one another as much as we’d have liked, it might surprise you to know I’m fond of him—sorry for him too, for between Mother and you, he very nearly died. When he discovered you had no intention of marrying him it was the final straw. He tried to kill himself.’

‘You can’t be serious!’ The four words were jerked out of Davina with something approaching horror in her voice.

‘It’s hardly the kind of thing I’d joke about. Mother was prevented by my father’s will from keeping me and living the kind of life she craved, and I think that made her determined nothing should take Barr out of her custody. My stepfather died when my half-brother was sixteen, and thereafter Mother forced Barr to dance to her piping. She insisted he study law and become a lawyer like his father, when all he wanted was to be a farmer. You can imagine Mother’s reaction to that ambition I’ Rex’s voice was hard and cynical. ‘She heard of a job in a law firm in San Francisco and was so sure Barr would get it that she’d even begun her arrangements to sell up and move to America with him. Barr knew how angry she’d be when he told her he’d not got the job.’

‘You make him sound like a jellyfish,’ Davina interrupted hotly.

Rex eyed her thoughtfully before he continued. ‘You’ve obviously no idea of constant pressure on a sensitive young man. I suppose you were so busy flaunting your undoubted attractions for his benefit on the boat that you never noticed how depressed he was?’

As Davina tried to interrupt and tell Rex that this was precisely why she had sought out Barton Patterson, Rex waved her words aside. ‘What for you was simply a shipboard romance to while away the journey no doubt must have seemed to Barr the answer to all his problems. He thought you were an heiress, you were patently interested in him, and to arrive back with such an advantageous marriage in the offing would more than pacify Mother, it would reconcile her to his failure to get the job in the States. Added to which of course he’d fallen for you hook, line and sinker. It didn’t need much persuasion from Mother that you’d be delighted to see the announcement of your engagement in the Sydney newspapers.’

‘She got Barr to insert it? I thought he was as surprised as me,’ Davina said, then shuddered as she recalled the interview with Mrs Patterson when she had told her it was all a mistake.

Rex saw the shudder, but he misinterpreted it. ‘I don’t suppose it ever crossed your mind that you’d have to pay for what you did. How do you feel? I hope you meant that very rash declaration the other evening, because it will teach you a lesson to have a little of your own medicine. As soon as Barr was on the road to recovery, I took him home with me. Once he’d learned to walk again I left him in Uncle Lionel’s care and set out to trace the girl responsible.’

Davina’s mouth had gone dry. ‘You said he tried to commit suicide.’

‘So you’ve enough heart to be curious at least,’ Rex remarked cruelly. ‘Barr simply went swimming when the shark nets were down and lost a foot before the beach guards could get him out of the water.’

‘He couldn’t possibly have done it on purpose,’ Davina was almost pleading. ‘He couldn’t have noticed the warning flags.’

‘Oh, don’t delude yourself. Barr knew all right. With sharks a constant danger we Australians are taught the risks as soon as we’re old enough to so much as paddle in the sea. What beats me is how he got past the guards.’

Davina closed her eyes as a too vivid imagination got to work. She felt sick, but this was no time to lose her head. She swallowed, lifted her chin and faced Rex bravely. ‘As soon as I’ve cleared away, I’ll pack. I suppose you won’t refuse to run me to the station?’

‘You’re staying right here. You surely don’t think I’ve come half across the world just to give you a reprimand? I laid my plans carefully, so don’t imagine I’ve any intention of simply letting you walk away.’

‘You don’t mean that all this,’ Davina gesticulated around her, ‘was only arranged with some mad kind of revenge in mind? It must have cost you a small fortune I’

‘You overrate your importance, but it’s worth every penny just to sit here and tell you at last precisely why I brought you up here. And now you know why the Land Rover wouldn’t start the other day. I’d no intention of letting you jazz all over the countryside without myself to keep an eye on you. You can go on the farm where you please, but off it, you ask me first. Understand?’

Davina got up so hastily she overturned her chair. ‘You must be crazy if you think I’d really do as you say! If you won’t take me to Carlisle or Newcastle I’ll get someone who will. Or crawl on all fours sooner than stay another minute,’ she ended with a faint hint of defiance, and made to walk round the table.

Rex stopped her progress by the simple expedient of putting out a hand and closing it over her upper arm. ‘Before you go, I think I should remind you of something you appear to have forgotten.* Stopped in her tracks, Davina stared down into remorseless eyes with a kind of panic in her own. She made no attempt to escape from his hold as he added softly, ‘Catrin and the Comstones.’

She let out a shuddering sigh and her shoulders drooped. Rex released her to start rolling a cigarette. ‘I think I told you when we went on that picnic that Lady Luck can sometimes come up trumps. I’d been wondering what kind of lever would keep you here, and the perfect weapon was handed to me on a plate. I was introduced to your sister’s prospective father-in-law yesterday. He’s all that’s said of him, and more —old-fashioned, bigoted, prejudiced. And I have it on good authority that his wife is as bad.’

‘And if I don’t do as you say, you’ll see to it that the Comstones find out who I am, with no doubt a highly coloured story about our relationship in an isolated farmhouse?’ Davina accused him bitterly.

‘It shouldn’t be too difficult to set tongues wagging,’ Rex replied mockingly. ‘But you won’t let it come to that, will you? Somehow I don’t believe even you would be prepared to jeopardise your sister’s future.’

Davina took a deep breath. ‘You’re utterly despicable I Do you know that? I believe I hate you.’

On the point of going outside, Rex looked over his shoulder. ‘I doubt that. I doubt it very much. But hate away if it makes you feel better, so long as you don’t imagine it bothers me one way or another,’ and the door closed behind him.

Tears welled into Davina’s eyes, but she dashed them away. They served no purpose except to reduce her to a state of exhaustion. As she began clearing away the lunch, it suddenly occurred to her that her soup, now cold, had not so much as been touched. She poured it away and putting on the kettle again, made a fresh pot of tea.

As she sipped a cup of the hot, refreshing liquid she went over the conversation with Rex and the truth which had emerged of his real identity and purpose. She tried to remember what Barr had told her about his elder brother, but apart from the fact of his unusual Christian name and that they had had different fathers, there was little she could recall. She faced the fact that if Rex did indeed intend to keep her virtually a prisoner it was going to take all her courage and resilience to stand up to the ordeal of daily contact with a man who hated her. Pointless too to try and get him to see her side of the story. Rex had already as good as called her a liar.

The next weeks were going to be a test of her endurance, but just how big a test, even Davina could hardly have guessed. Once he had revealed his true reason for coming to England, Rex gave up all pretence at friendliness, and the erstwhile easy companionship, those moments when he had excited her by his lovemaking, vanished overnight.

Davina discovered him to have a hitherto unsuspected talent for killing any attempt at conversation stone dead with one well-chosen monosyllable. Once or twice during the days that followed Davina, glancing at him, could hardly credit that the stern-faced man sitting at the table was capable of taking a girl into his arms and kissing her with tempestuous passion. That he felt no qualms of conscience at his treatment of the girl he blamed for his brother’s unhappiness and near tragedy was confirmed by his hearty appetite. While Davina, sick at heart, picked at her meals, Rex invariably had a second helping of the excellent food as if he had not a care in the world.

What a fool she’d been to walk so guilelessly into the net he’d spread for her unsuspecting feet, she thought one evening as he cleared his plate—but Kingbury Fitzpaine had been an artful spider. She had not for one moment suspected that an ulterior motive lay behind his intention of setting up this experimental sheep farm and like the fly in the nursery rhyme she had walked into the trap. She still didn’t know if he intended to let her take part in the Nativity play; come to that, she didn’t know what to call him, Rex or King. A month, even a week ago, she knew she would have laughed if anyone had told her she could so easily be cowed into unresisting submission, but this man had undermined her defences before he had struck.

The only time Rex let down his guard and threw her a friendly word was when Peter McKay or the old shepherd were about, and Davina found herself deliberately encouraging them to drop in for a chat or stay for a meal. If Rex noticed this manoeuvre he kept it to himself, though on one occasion when Peter had been in and out for most of the day he said with raised brows, ‘Isn’t it time you were on your way home, young man? Your mother will be wondering where you’ve got to.’

Mr Farr answered, ‘Don’t think so, seeing as she knows he’s safe up at Nineveh along of us, Gaffer. Her’s not properly over losing her baby—and then there’s that husband of hers,’ and behind Peter’s back the old man went through the motions of lifting a glass to his lips.

Davina saw Rex’s hard eyes soften as he glanced down at the boy, until as he saw she was watching him, the usual expressionless mask fell once more over his face as he said carelessly, ‘In that case, Davina can feed you both before you go. I shan’t be here, but I know I can rely on you to see the lad gets home.’

As she heard Mr Farr’s, ‘Right-ho,’ anger welled inside Davina, for Rex had given her no indication that he wouldn’t be eating with them as usual and she had made special efforts with the evening meal. By the time it was on the table, he had bathed and changed into a well cut lounge suit with a silk shirt and matching tie.