Rescue Operation. PENNY JORDAN

to clean it, using the specialised processes she had learned during her training. Old fabrics were notorious for their fragility and momentary clumsiness could ruin centuries-old articles.

      As always when she saw the house she was struck by the granite hardness of it, rising out of the earth; more of a fortress than a home, its back to the sea looking down the long valley which linked England and Scotland; a formidable guardian of the Borders, and one whose owners had owed loyalty to both the English and the Scottish Crowns at various times in history.

      It was hard to accept that once this green, fertile valley had run red with the blood of warring clansmen; Border reivers, a law unto themselves, too far from the civilising influences of both London and Edinburgh to heed the commands of their rulers.