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Chapter One

WHAT EXACTLY IT was that drew hie study and into the unseasonably warm April air was never clear to Adaical texts, lining the The next, he eating and giddy, inhabited by the e springtime

‘What’s this? So fever?’ He spoke to hi rhetorical questions for his serave him properly satisfactory answers besides ‘Well, a bit of fresh air, what’s the harm?’

But if sorabbed the old-fashioned hat and walking cane he liked to affect, despite his being only 31, perhaps he would have stayed indoors What was the harh

Saxonhurst certainly didn’t look like the outpost of godlessness he’d been led to expect The circle of honey-coloured cottages nestled around the church had all the correct bucolic fixtures and fittings – flowery trellises up the walls, diamond-paned s, thatched roofs He breathed in the aroing hi odd or sinister about this place It was sie that had fallen prey to the common 21st century syndrome of entitled ood people who looked after their homes, capable of redemption

Froht the twitch of a lace curtain A black cat ran across his path by the National Trust pub The strong feeling that he should be walking out toward the arable fare overwhelround and the infants’ school, along a narrower lane

The cottages soon gave way to acres of polytunnels housing toettes On his left looend had it that a ed hi well, hidden by weeds, as his curious eye outlined instead the brutal skeleton of thePerhaps he should perforrace of the redeemer to that burnt-out wreck Or perhaps he should just write to the council and suggest its de it there, a ree spirits

When he tried to tear away his gaze and ht yellow rape and the hills beyond, he found that he couldn’t The blackened ti to him This way It’s this way

He hacked a path through bra slowly towards the barn And then he heard voices, a h-pitched fe

There were people behind the barn Parishioners, he supposed, on a picnic, orschoolchildren Whatever they were up to, it sounded rowdy, bacchanalian even Adan that the devil was present and close He moved forward into the shadow of the barn

He stopped

Sixfelloho shone with physical health and strength, chased a woreen wheat It was clear that she was enjoying herself, whooping and laughing as she dodged their great lunging hands It could be a si sunshine Except that the reen and she was completely naked