Jack took the Jeep and went into the village that morning to get in some food while Belle fed the horses then went down to the coop to let the hens out. They were flapping and indignant at this late start. She topped up their water and scattered feed for them, then started gathering up the eggs, prior to going back up to the stables to muck out and feed Lady and Goldie. Up in the yard at the front of the house, Trix started barking.

‘It’s probably that old dog fox roaming about again,’ she told the chickens. Trix often barked when she sensed the fox moving around the farm, looking for whatever he could find. ‘You want to watch out for him, you lot.’

Up near the house, Trix barked on and on.

131

Nipper was standing in the yard in front of the old farmhouse, eyeing up the dog. It was barking, hackles raised, staring up at him. A low growl rumbling in its throat. Couple of minutes it would be trying to bite. Not that it had a couple of minutes, the dumb fuck.

‘Here, doggie doggie,’ said Nipper with a smile.

He reached down and drew the knife from his expensive handmade boot. He’d left Ludo spying out the land further down the drive, working his way up sideways, covering all the bases so that they didn’t get any nasty surprises. Now he wished he’d taken Ludo’s position instead of this one. Dog bites you, that’s unfortunate to say the least. You got to get a rabies shot straight away. You don’t want to die slathering and snarling like a dog yourself, and that’s what rabies did to a person.

Sure enough, the dog leapt forward.

But Nipper was ready.

Down by the chicken coop, Belle heard Trix give one last coughing bark. Then the dog was silent. Belle stopped moving. Somehow, she hadn’t liked that sound. She put the egg basket down on the ground and turned, listening hard. No more barking. Nothing. Her heart had picked up speed and the sun on her back suddenly forced sweat out of her pores.

‘Trix?’ she said out loud.

Over the clucking of the hens she could hear the wind, sighing through the beeches. No birdsong. The sun dipped behind a fast-moving cloud and as fast as she’d got hot, she shivered.

Something wrong.

She snatched up the egg basket, turned to go back to the house. She took all of two strides and then she was struck from behind, a hard blow that shoved at her shoulders and sent her reeling forward. She landed heavily on her knees in the dirt, dropping the basket, shattering the eggs inside. Yellow goo seeped out of them, pooling on the earth. Belle whirled around, started to get up, but a male voice said: ‘No.’