“Marilynne can tell you all about her artwork when you go upstairs,” Gabriel said. “She does lots of signboards for businesses hereabouts. As for the pub name, it comes from the Order of the Knights Hospitaller. They are the knights that the village is named after.”

“I had no idea,” Lucy said. “I’ve been coming here for years but no one mentioned the Knights Hospitaller before. Who were they?”

“Well, they weren’t the Knights Templar for a start,” Gabriel said, slightly aggressively, as though Lucy had mistaken the two. “People always want to know about the Templars but the Hospitallers were just as interesting.”

“I’m sure they were,” Lucy said.

“The Hospitallers had a grange here at Knightstone,” Gabriel said. “A monastic settlement.” His eyes gleamed with the passion of talking about what was clearly his favorite subject. “In this case it was a farm. There was a granary, a hall and a brewhouse in the village, all on the site of what is now the pub. We’ve found evidence of some of the buildings, but most of it lies beneath the current building.”

“Hence the ‘Knights of Old’ name for the pub.” Lucy nodded. “I see.”

“After the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the monastic grange became an inn for travelers,” Gabriel said. “The Order of the Knights Hospitaller was formally dissolved in 1540, although Henry’s daughter Queen Mary did revive it for a brief while less than twenty years later.”

“Mary tried to restore Roman Catholicism in England, didn’t she?” Lucy said.

“That’s right.” Gabriel beamed his approval. “The Hospitallers’ land and property was restored to them although here in Knightstone it was too late. The inn had been sold into private hands and as far as we know, the Knights never came back here.” He sounded personally disappointed. “And of course when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne it was all over for them anyway. Unlike her father, Elizabeth didn’t suppress the Order but she once again confiscated all their property and they became dormant in England at least.”

“Fascinating,” Lucy said. She thought that Gabriel looked set for a long history lesson, but fortunately an elderly couple came in and he moved away to greet them, leaving Lucy feeling both relieved and rather trapped. There wasn’t much that attracted her interest in the glass display cases and she couldn’t see the original of the tapestry map that Persis had mentioned. She wondered if she could edge out of the door whilst Gabriel was distracted.

She was about to make a break for it when she spotted a painting high up on the wall in a dark corner. It seemed oddly hidden away, tucked into the shadows. Drawing closer she stood on tiptoe and squinted up at it, resisting the urge to pick up a nearby lamp and use it for illumination. Instead she got out her phone and pressed the torch icon.

The picture was dark and dirty, looking as though it was composed of nothing other than shades of green and brown, covered in an uneven varnish. It showed a little manor house built around three sides of a courtyard, with a parterre garden showing neat box hedges. Leaning closer, Lucy peered at the curly golden writing in the left-hand corner and saw that it read: Knightstone Manor, the property of Henry Lancing Esq. A date of 1723 was painted below. The picture appeared to be unsigned.