Then there was a moment where the roan stopped pulling at the reins and slowed a little, and suddenly it was magical and we were riding onwards, all of us in unison through the trees, the lilt of the horn calling us forward and the wind smacking my cheeks and blowing back my hair. I felt free and at one with nature and then … then I heard the arrows being loosed, and there was a guttural cry of pain so hideous and heartbreaking it took me straight back to the abattoir. And we were pulling to a halt and my horse was heaving and twitching because, there in front of us on the ground, flailing about, panting and wild-eyed, was the stag.

I can see that I seem childish now, but truly I had never thought about what would happen when we caught him. I just saw the hunt as a chance to ride out through the wilds. Now, I saw it for what it was – the ruthless running down and murdering of a magnificent beast.

I threw myself down from my horse’s back and began to try and work one of the arrows out that had pierced the deer.

“Rose!” My father was shocked. “Move away! You’ll get injured.”

“But we have to help him!” I begged Papa.

“It’s too late for that,” my father said. “Now move! You are ruining the shot.”

I looked up and saw my papa sitting on his horse, crossbow drawn. He had his sights set square at me. Which was to say, they were set on the deer and I was in the line of death.

Behind me, the stag was breathing in a laboured fashion. I looked at his glassy eyes, the blood on his coat where the arrows that had taken him down were embedded deep. I stepped aside and let my father take the final shot.

He was always going to die. I know that. Those first arrows had already done the damage before I’d stepped aside and let my papa end it all. If I’d refused to move, I would have just made his suffering last longer. I told myself all of this on the long ride home through the forest. We went slowly on the way back because we had the stag with us, slung over the front of one of the duc’s horses, while his huntsman walked alongside on foot leading the horse.