Franck looked again at the dog, which was still staring at him. Maybe that was what it was waiting for: meat. Franck rolled some bread into a solid ball and tossed it over. The dog stood alert, but when the ball landed near it, it glanced over and didn’t even sniff it. Maybe it was only interested in hunting real prey like last night, or wanted at least to honour its master, since dogs pride themselves on obeying orders, in which case this dog probably wasn’t as wild as all that. If it belonged to the Dauclercqs down the hill, perhaps they didn’t really look after it, or maybe they relied on the animal to stand guard. Yes, that must be it, the dog was an informer and it was there to keep an eye on them. The Dauclercqs were so odd that they would be perfectly capable of sending their dog to spy on them and to make sure everything was as it should be. But it would be unbearable to be monitored by a dog. On the other hand, had it belonged to them, it would have had a collar, if only to attach to the chain that was always trailing outside the kennel.

Lise started laying the table outside. The dog watched her, unmoving. Perhaps it was just delighted that there was so much going on; maybe it was quite simply bored.

‘Lise, do you think it’s lost?’

‘No, because it would be scared.’

‘A stray dog then?’

‘No, if it was a stray, it would run away.’

Franck looked at her, amazed at how she had an answer for everything and was so calm and self-assured. As he prepared more salad he tried to come up with other explanations. It could be a hunting dog that had escaped from a battue a long time ago, or the dog of a distant neighbour who didn’t mind their animal roaming far and wide. Or it could even be a real wolf dog, a hybrid born of the union between a she-wolf and a dog. Especially as the people in this area had deserted their land, the farmers had given up on their farms, the station had gone, the railway tracks were no more than cuttings overgrown with brambles and acacias, and the little villages had been abandoned one by one and the once inhabited areas reclaimed by the wilderness. The parts that were already wild were becoming wilder still. That was what was happening in various places; nature was becoming wild again, because with animals reigning supreme and doing whatever they pleased, pigs and wild boar, dogs and wolves all cross-breeding, it was inevitable …

‘My God, Franck, what are you doing, we’ll never eat all that!’

Absorbed in his game of winding up the dog by playing with the knife, Franck had cut up six big tomatoes and two packets of mozzarella, and then sliced three courgettes before seasoning everything.