The Prayer of the Night Shepherd

supporters’ club to raise more money, so it would always be buoyant. But Mrs Hattie lived for it, oh my Lord, yes. If there was bad snow or disease or some reason the hunt had to be called off, then she was in a very black mood indeed.’

‘This is in your day, Leonard?’

‘Oh yes. I came there in thirty-four, which was the year after the old fellow died. I was soon Mrs Hattie’s right-hand man — that was what she used to say. Or “my squire”. She talked about herself like a knight on horseback. “My squire”, yes. I was her squire.’

‘Black moods?’

‘Eh?’

‘You said she’d be in a black mood when the hunting was off. What was that like?’

‘Black moods… black hound.’ Leonard bit down on his lower lip and stared into the distance. He had pale blue eyes, watery.

‘What’s that mean?’ Ben said.

‘Used to say she ran with the black hound. One of her sayings. She’d come back, and the groom would take her horse, all covered with sweat, and I’d be there, and she’d say, “Bring me a bloody drink, Leonard, the black hound was in the pack today.” ’

‘What did she mean by that?’

‘Well, it was one of her sayings.’

‘But did she mean there was an actual—?’

‘It meant, as far as I could fathom, that she’d been riding hard and fierce that day, Mr Foley. And if there’d been no kill, she wouldn’t be in the best of moods.’

A silence, then, that went on for a long time. The television and video were in the corner of the bedroom, near the window. Jane was sitting on a bedding box at the foot of the bed, and old Leonard seemed to be looking over her shoulder. She glanced behind, uncomfortable, as if Hattie might be there with her onion eyes. The bed was unmade, as though Ben had just rolled out of it. Or as if someone had pulled all the—

‘And Mr Robert would soon know about it,’ Leonard said.

Jane turned back to the TV in time to catch another silence.

Ben said eventually, ‘What did she do to Mr Robert, Leonard?’

‘He…’ Leonard licked his lips. ‘Next day, Mr Robert might have a black eye, or a big lip. Or scratch marks down his cheek. Or all of them. That was the wounds you could see.’

‘She might have done damage you couldn’t see?’

Leonard nodded very slightly. ‘Sometimes he’d be limping.’

‘And this happened after she ran with the black hound,’ Ben said, with a lot of emphasis.

Leonard said nothing.

‘Where did they go, Leonard? Did they hunt on the Ridge?’

‘Oh, everywhere. For the local farmers, it didn’t do not to let the hunt cross your land.’

‘The…’ Ben broke off, struggling to form a question. ‘Leonard, when she said “black hound”, did you have any reason to believe she might have been making some connection with the legend of the Hound of Hergest?’

Leonard smiled.

‘You do know of the legend?’

‘’Course I do.’ He looked stern again. ‘And all that damn silliness.’

Ben let the silence hang for twenty, thirty seconds.

‘Silliness,’ Leonard said again.

‘What do you mean exactly?’

‘There was a bit of silliness when she… when they died.’

‘In what way?’

‘Oh…’ Leonard looked cross. ‘One of the maids said she’d seen a shadow of a big black dog go across the lawn.’

‘When Hattie died?’ Ben keeping the excitement out of his voice. ‘Robert?’

‘Oh, before. Before any of it. The night before, around dusk, before it was dark. And the night before that, too. Or so she said. Just silliness, Mr Foley. Things get repeated and exaggerated, specially in country places. You don’t want that on your programme, do you?’

‘And Hattie — she knew about the legends.’

‘Aaah.’ Leonard’s face twisted in exasperation. ‘She’d no time for legends. History, now, she was interested in history. She always said this was her place, and her roots were here — even though they weren’t, of course, because Stanner was still a new house then, even if it looked old. But she’d never known anywhere else, she was born at Stanner, so I suppose that was true in a way. And she used to go to the church and look at the graves.’

‘Why?’

‘I was never with her, Mr Foley, I was only the butler. Never been much of a churchgoer, anyway. Lost my two older brothers in the First War, and never saw much point to it after that. Got themselves killed before they were twenty-one, and here’s me, ninety-three. It’s all a lottery, Mr Foley, no God in this, I’m afraid. Or if there is, you can’t rely on him.’

‘What about Mrs Chancery? Did she go to church?’

‘Well… she went to the church. Not to the services much, unless it was something to do with the hunt — a funeral, a wedding. When a member of the hunt got married, they’d all form an arch outside the church, whichever church it was, with their riding crops and they’d—’

‘Leonard, why did she go to the church, if not to services?’

‘To look at the graves, like I say. The big ones inside the church. I never go there, but aren’t there some big ones inside?’

Silence.

Ben said, ‘You mean… the tombs?’

‘Ah. Sorry. Yes, the tombs.’

‘Thomas Vaughan.’

‘Him, yes. Black Vaughan. And the woman.’

‘Ellen Gethin. The Terrible.’

‘The Terrible, yes. Mrs Hattie, she used to say, that’s my ancestor, there in the church.’

Jane said, ‘Shit.’

‘You’re saying she described Ellen Gethin as her ancestor? This… take your time, Leonard, this is interesting. She said that this Ellen Gethin — the Terrible — was her ancestor?’

‘I think she meant they were alike,’ Leonard said. ‘Or she liked to think they were. Did this Ellen hunt? I suppose she would’ve done.’

‘What else?’

‘Eh?’

‘Did they have anything else in common?’

‘Well, I don’t know.’

‘Leonard, if I remind you that Ellen Gethin killed a man in cold blood…’

‘Did she?’

‘You don’t know about that?’

Leonard didn’t look particularly interested. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I expect I must’ve heard about it once, a long time ago perhaps, but I’ve never bothered much with history.’

‘You mean medieval history. Old history.’

‘Knights and things.’

‘But more recent history… Walter Chancery’s time.’

Leonard smiled. ‘That’s not history to me.’

‘Good,’ Ben said. ‘But first, can we… talk in some detail about the night when Hattie killed Robert?’

‘I’d really rather not, if you don’t mind, Mr Foley,’ Leonard said. ‘That wasn’t what Frank said you wanted to