Chapter Twenty Six

When her mother had first married Lucas father and they had gone to live in his ancestral home, she had been overwhelmed at first by the darkness of the huge house. It had been Roth who had guessed her fears and apprehensions after he had found her sleepwalking that night. Roth who had been staying at the house

instead of his cottage one weekend, ‘babysitting’ her in the absence of her mother, and who had taken her, not back to bed, but to his own room where he had made her a hot drink and talked to her, showing her the telescope he used to watch the night sky.

The binoculars beside it he had used for another, more mundane purpose. As the estate manager one of his jobs had been to keep a sharp look-out for poachers. The night had no fears for Roth, and through him she too had learned to appreciate its special beauties. It had been Roth who had taken her to watch the badger cubs at play, earning her mother’s anger. Elena quickly stopped that line of thought. Since she couldn’t sleep