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They had cli curtains of cloud It had started to drizzle

He opened his mouth to make some sour remark about the promise of a fine day, but, at the same moment, Iain turned his head a fraction to the left Motioned with his forefinger

Iain knew the hills and the weather of the hills, the subtle shifts of wind direction Knew them better than anyone

They stood, still, not speaking There was a tension now It hadn’t been there

The sun broke apart the cloud curtain, leaving it in tatters The sun shone at first with a watery cast but then, like aThe corners of Iain’s mouth twitched in a smile

But still they stood Motionless and silent Waiting

Iain lifted his binoculars to his eyes and looked froht, slowly, slowly

And he waited, watching the set of Iain’s head, waiting for the an to stealasses and nodded

They were above the deer, and for another half- But they were there of course Iain knew They went care fully, keeping upwind The ground was stony here, easy to slip

He felt the old excitement These were the best moments When you knew You were this close to it, this close to having it in your sights, this close to the whole point and purpose and culmination of it all

This close

There was the faintest outbreath froht

The stag was alone, halfway up the lower slope i It had sensed nothing--that much was clear for the moan to crawl, the soaking ground against their bellies, the sun on their backs The ly through chinks in clothing, brushing aside the barrier of citronella, but he was so keyed up now he barely noticed them Later he would be driven mad

They crawled for another ten htly until they were level with the stag and a couple of hundred yards away

Iain stopped Lifted the glasses They waited Watched Still as the stones

The sun was hot now The wind had dropped altogether

They began to inch maybe thirty yards further and the thirty yards took tenlifted its head

"The Old Man," Iain whispered, so softly he could barely hear

The oldest stag Not as huge as those living on the lower ground, and without the vast antlers But h Old Too old for another winter He had too much respect for the beast to let that happen

They were doind and perhaps a hundred and fifty yards off But then the stag shook its head, turned side ways, a its back They waited

Waited The sun blazed He boiled inside his wax jacket

Then, casually, it turned and, in a breathtaking second, lifted its head and faced hi him It positioned itself perfectly

He unslipped his rifle Loaded Iain atching intently through the glasses

He balanced hihts

The old stag had notstraight at him

It knew

Iain waited, frozen to the glasses

The world stopped turning

He aimed for the heart

Two

Dark blue jacket Blue-and-white print skirt Medium heels

Scarf? Or the beads?

Beads

Helen Creedy went into the bathrooht of herself again in the full-length mirror God, she looked--fru to a job interview

She took off the skirt, blouse and jacket and started again

It was very warht Pale grey linen trousers Long linen jacket The fuchsia shirt she hadn’t yet worn

Better? Yes Earrings? Just plain studs

There was a roar outside as To into the drive The roar died She heard the clunk of thedown onto the concrete

Just after six o’clock She had hours--got dressed far too early

She sat down on the end of her bed She had been excited Keyed up Nervous, but with so like pleasure, anticipation Now, it was as if the temperature had dropped She felt sick Anxious Afraid How absurd Then she felt nothing but a draining tiredness so that she could not iain

The kitchen door slaloves onto the floor

Pale grey linen New fuchsia shirt She had even had her hair done She wanted to lie down on her bed and sleep and sleep

After another couple of ood choice, Ma" Elizabeth looked up froot in, was at the toaster Tom He had said he was "OK" about it "Fine" about it But Helen still wondered

She had nothing to worry about with Elizabeth, though--it was her daughter who had pushed her into this in the first place "It’s six years since Dad You won’t have us here for et a life, Ma"

But now she caught a look on Tom’s face which was at odds hat he said That he was "OK" about it "Fine"

"I thought you weren’t ht"

"Half seven"

"All the same"

Tom scraped what looked like half a pound of butter and a dollop of Marot the evening sun It arm Elizabeth’s French books Pens Markers Tom’s Marmite pot, lidless on the table The so," Helen said "I can’t do this What aain, we’ve been through all this Toed

His sister snorted iht, let’s start again Is it just first-night nerves or what?"

First-night nerves? How did that even begin to convey what she was feeling, sitting at the kitchen table in pale grey linen and a fuchsia shirt she had never worn and at least an hour too early?

It was a couple ofMutley, on the Hill, "I don’t think you’repeople"

Helen had not understood In her job as a pharmacist she met people every day