proudly the former home of a bona fide witch who'd had to leave the area when her fame exceeded her willingness to have her privacy invaded - to Burley Fudge Shop and everything in between. The Queen's Head presided over all of this, the largest structure in the village and the off-season gathering place for those who lived in the area and who wisely avoided both it and Burley itself during the summer.
Meredith had phoned Robbie's home first, although she knew how unlikely it was that he'd be there in the middle of the day. As an agister, he was responsible for the well-being of all the free-roaming animals in his assigned area - the area that she'd told Gina Dickens was referred to as the Hastings - and he'd be out on the Forest either in his vehicle or on horseback making sure that the donkeys, ponies, cows, and the occasional sheep were being left in peace.
For this was the biggest challenge that faced anyone who worked on the Forest, especially during the summer months. It was appealing to see animals so unrestricted by fences, walls, and hedges.
It was even more appealing to feed them. People meant well, but they were, alas, congenitally stupid. They did not understand that to feed a sweet little pony in summer conditioned the animal to think that someone was likely to be standing in the car park of the Queen's Head ready to feed him in the dead of winter as well.
Robbie Hastings was apparently explaining this to a throng of camera-wielding pensioners in Bermuda shorts and lace-up shoes. Robbie had them gathered by his Land Rover, to which a horse trailer was attached. It seemed to Meredith that he'd come for one of the New Forest ponies, which would be unusual at this time of year. She could see the animal, restless, in the trailer. Robbie gestured to it as he spoke.
She gave a glance at her chocolate cake as she climbed out of her car. Its frosting had melted into it on the top and begun to pool viscously at its base. Several flies had managed to find it, but it was like one of those insect-eating plants: Whatever landed upon it was becoming mired in sugar and cocoa. Death by delight. The cake was done for.
It no longer mattered. Things were wildly out of joint, and Robbie Hastings had to be informed. For he'd been his sister's sole parent from her tenth year onward, a car crash catapulting him into this position when he was twenty-five. That same car crash had also catapulted him into the career he had thought never to attain: one of only five agisters in the New Forest, replacing his own father.
"...for what we mustn't have is the ponies hanging about one spot." Robbie seemed to be completing his remarks to an audience looking rather guilty for what they apparently had stowed on themselves: apples, carrots, sugar, and whatever else might appeal to a pony otherwise meant to forage. When Robbie was finished with his remarks - made patiently while visitors continually snapped his picture although he wasn't wearing his formal attire but rather jeans, T-shirt, and a baseball cap - he gave a sharp nod and opened the Land Rover's door, preparatory to driving off. The tourists drifted towards the village proper and the pub, and Meredith worked her way through them, calling Robbie's name.
He turned. Meredith felt the way she'd always felt when she saw him: warmly fond but nonetheless terribly sorry for what he looked like with those huge front teeth of his. They made his mouth the only thing one noticed about him, which was a shame, really. He was very well built, tough and masculine, and his eyes were unique - one brown and one green, just like Jemima's.
His face brightened. He said, "Merry Contrary. It's been donkey's years, girl. What're you up to in this part of the world?" He was wearing gloves, but he removed them and spontaneously held out his arms to her, as he'd always done.
She embraced him. They were both hot and sweaty, and he was acrid with the mixed odours of horse and man. "What a day, eh?" He took off his baseball cap, revealing hair that would have been thick and wavy had he not kept it shorn close to his skull. It was brown flecked with grey, and this served as a reminder of Meredith's estrangement from Jemima. For it seemed to Meredith