The blade of the athame sang a single note as it slipped from the old man’s fingers and hit the stony dirt.

“Harper?” he said.

“Oh, let the poor creature go, Jervis, you stupid old goat.” She came humping round the bonfire on her stick. Lowered a demanding hand. “Now.”

The old man made a deep frown, mopey, his fun spoiled. But he handed the puppy over to her. Harper held it against the shoulder of her cape. It licked her jowls happily, skewing her specs and Borsalino.

“And snap on a pair of shorts, there’s a good fellow,” she said. “My virgin heart is all aflutter.”

She retreated back behind the fire. She averted her eyes from his nakedness, communing muzzle to muzzle with the little dog.

Jervis, grumbling, towed his wobbly buttocks out of the stone circle, back into the grass to find his clothes.

“Ha-ha!” Harper barked, pleased with the puppy’s enthusiasm. It was climbing right up her shoulder to lave the side of her head. “What is it?” she called. “Part retriever?”

Jervis reentered the circle, carrying a bundle of clothes. He held on to the Y-fronts, tossed the rest to the ground. Grumpily, he pulled the shorts on, cracked the elastic band into their groove beneath his overhanging flesh. “How should I know?” In a gruff croak. He unfolded a woolly jumper next. “It was some child’s, some girl’s.” He yanked the jumper over him, popped his head out. “The little idiot left it to wait for her when she went into the news agent. So I borrowed it.”

“Oh, Jervis, Jervis,” Harper intoned, “you make insult superfluous.” But she could only harpoon the old sinner with one eye: her other lens was foaming with puppy spittle. She was busy holding her hat on with her stick hand too. But she went on. “And what’s this? Alone on so high a holiday? Where’s Granny and Uncle Bob and all the kids? Shouldn’t they be gathered round the Black Sabbath tree, singing Black Sabbath carols? Or something.”

The fire snapped between them, sinking down. Jervis hawked and shot a gob of phlegm into it. Arched a shrewd eyebrow at her. “Bastards deserted me. All of ’em. I couldn’t figure why till now.” He plucked his trousers from the foot of a stone. Holding them, he laid a finger against the side of his nose. “You scared them off, didn’t you? You warned them you were coming.”

“I thought we should have a chat alone. And you can be difficult to find.”

He made an animal growl, deep in his throat. Even the puppy paused and glanced at him. “Arrogant, aren’t you? Sure of yourself. Aren’t you?” He smiled nastily. “Well, what I hear, your days are numbered. You’ve crossed the line, Harper. Got above yourself. You only walk the earth on his sufferance.”