She went outside again, this time locking the door behind her with the heavy brass key. Now there was a full moon and she could find her way on to the hill without difficulty. She retraced her steps, walking very slowly, giving all her attention to the search. Cars moved along the road towards Appleworth without her noticing. She moved along the dry-stone wall, inch by inch, moving the long tufts of juncus grass with her boot, shining the torch into the crevices between the stones. She was not wearing gloves and the hand holding the torch was very cold, but still she persisted, towards the keeper’s gibbet, just a silhouette now in the moonlight. She found what she was looking for when she had almost reached it. Set in a nest of grass, similar to that where she had found the dead cats, were four white hen’s eggs. On the open ground some yards away were pieces of broken shell. She lifted the eggs carefully and wrapped them in a large and dirty handkerchief, thinking as she did so that as she usually supplied Marie Liddle with eggs they might have come from her own hens. Ursula began to feel very cold and tired and she turned and made her way back to the house. There would be other poisoned eggs on the hill, but these were enough to serve her purpose. She was sure that when she got home and held them under a bright light she would see the tiny holes in the shell where they had been injected with poison.

She would arrange for them to be tested like the buzzard. That would give her all the proof she needed.

After the cold of the hill the kitchen seemed very hot. Condensation ran down the windows. Ursula stood by the Aga until her hands and feet tingled. She moved the kettle back on to the hot plate and padded into the drawing room in thick woollen socks to fetch a bottle of whisky. She missed Fred desperately. It seemed a daunting prospect that she would have to see the thing through by herself. She had taken all the decisions in their marriage but he had been there, behind her, giving her unquestioning support. She was not sure how she would face Marcus Grenville alone.

The sound of the telephone broke into her thoughts and she went unenthusiastically to answer it. She supposed it would be her daughter.