‘In the big house, are you?’ said Bert, and Heather had the strangest idea that he knew that was a lie. Nevertheless, she nodded. He rubbed his thumb over the handle of his tea cup, back and forth, back and forth. ‘I don’t rightly recall. It belonged to the same family for generations, but they dwindled, as big families sometimes do.’ His free hand clutched at his knee convulsively, and something about the movement made Heather shiver; it reminded her of a crab, sidewinding its way across a barren stretch of beach. ‘There was a lot of gossip about them, that family, most of it quite vicious.’ He grinned briefly, then it was gone. ‘Eventually the house was sold to the company that own it now, and I’m sure they were glad to be shot of it. It’s hard, maintaining a place like that, you know.’

‘What do you remember about the commune?’

He sniffed and nodded, leaning back in his chair. ‘A lot of noise, they made a lot of noise, and they got up to some strange things in the woods. Some of it would have turned my father’s hair white, but then we live in a different age now, don’t we? Quite different.’ He looked towards the window, sunlight shining off his scalp. ‘I don’t pretend I understood much of it, but I would help them where I could. Brought them groceries, sometimes, taught them which mushrooms were safe to eat.’ He smiled. ‘Although some of them were interested in the less-than-safe varieties, if you get what I mean.’

He put the tea cup down, and for the first time Heather noticed that there were dark reddish-brown rings under his fingernails, as if he’d been digging in the dirt. Without really knowing why, she looked back towards the dog, and wasn’t surprised to see that it was staring at her, brown eyes luminous in a shaft of sunlight.

‘Did you get to know them well?’ asked Heather. ‘The young people, I mean? My mum knows a lady called Pamela who said she stayed out here for a time – did you know her at all?’ Outside, the sun passed behind some clouds, and the sunny living room grew dimmer. Something about that made her feel uneasy. The lawn through the window looked suddenly dreary, and the woods at the bottom seemed to promise horrors.