‘It will be necessary, to put an end to all the speculation and wild gossip that doubtless is being circulated in the parish. I feel my servants, many of whom I regard as my friends, deserve a full explanation.’ Oliver fiddled with his pocket watch. He opened the casing and glanced at the gold hands inside without registering the time. ‘And now, Jack, I fear my other reason for being here will greatly upset you.’

‘I’ve done something wrong, sir?’ Jack frowned, letting his feet fly forward.

‘No, Jack, be easy on that score. When Luke fell across the boulder yesterday, he saw something, something that very much frightened him. Since then he’s had terrible nightmares, so I decided to search about at the scene of the accident myself. I quickly found what had upset him so much. Lying over that boulder, Luke saw a body. It must have been there for some time… Jack, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, it was the body of Heather Bawden.’

Jack groaned and raised his hands into fists. ‘Oh no. But how? How did she get there?’

‘In all probability it happened on the night she disappeared, the same night you met her on the moorland. From the position of her body it appears she stumbled over a smaller block of granite, hitting her head heavily on the boulder Luke was thrown onto. She was lying out of sight of the track, with her cloak and lantern close by.’ Oliver put his hand on Jack’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, Jack. I know you had a fondness for the girl.’

Jack was crying, rocking himself back and forth with his arms wrapped about himself. ‘She… she ran away from me… she wanted me to… to… but I didn’t know what to do. She got proper mazed. Shouting and screaming, swearing worse ’n any man I’ve heard. Then I heard her scream, just once, then silence. That’s when she must’ve… fallen over.’

‘It wasn’t your fault, Jack. I’ll see she gets a decent burial.’

‘It might have been my fault she died,’ Jack sobbed, then abruptly stopped crying. He wiped his eyes with his knuckles and dug his toes into the wooden floor. ‘She may not have died right away. She might have lain there all night, too hurt or dazed to cry out for help and I could have saved her, she might have died from the cold… in pain…’

‘I don’t believe that to be so,’ Oliver stressed, feeling sorry for Jack and wishing he could put things right for him. ‘The girl had a terrible head injury. I’m not a physician but I am sure no one could have survived such a fall. You must not torture yourself.’

Jack considered this, sniffing deeply because he had no handkerchief. ‘But why wasn’t she found before this?’