she said. ‘Wear the wellies you used last time. It’s a bit muddy out there from the rain during the week.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Lunch won’t be ready for at least another hour or so. I’ve done a casserole for a change.’ Because it won’t spoil if this takes a while, she told herself.
‘Jolly good,’ he said, pulling on his padded jacket and cap. ‘All this country air gives a chap a keen appetite.’
They set out through the gardens, Evelyn pointing out the scattering of snowdrops beneath the bare oaks and the white hellebores flowering beneath the scented mahonia. ‘Those are known as Christmas roses,’ she said. ‘Such a sign of hope, and there are some rare species among the snowdrops over there. I’m quite a galanthophile these days.’
He barely acknowledged any of the flowers, but returned to his favourite topic. ‘Perhaps we should discuss the potential of the land again soon. The sheep have all gone now, I see.’
‘Yes, Neil has moved them over to Churt.’ Because I asked him to leave, because it was time to remove all witnesses. ‘He said this last damp winter has been terribly bad for their feet and some of them have had a touch of liver fluke as well. I don’t think he’ll be coming back here again. Shame really, as I’ve always enjoyed having the sheep and their lambs.’
‘Well, you didn’t stand to gain anything from it, if you ask me. And if the land stays vacant, then you’re all set to negotiate when the time is right. The last thing you’d need would be a sitting tenant.’
Evelyn didn’t respond. She’d spotted a cock pheasant pecking at some snowdrops near the rhododendrons and took aim. He toppled with hardly a feather out of place.
Stephen jumped at the sound, then recovered himself. ‘I say, good shot! I was wondering whether you’d still got your eye in. And you certainly have.’
‘Oh, I don’t do much shooting nowadays, just the odd magpie pestering the chicks, and the pheasants now and then, of course. But my father always said I was a natural shot.’
Stephen stepped towards the bird, but Evelyn said, ‘No, you can leave it there. We’ll pick it up on our way back to the house and I’ll let it hang for a few days. Or do you want to take it home with you later?’
‘Might look a bit odd on the train, don’t you think? Chap with a brace of pheasants under his arm. No, thanks, I’ll stick to the Sunday Times if it’s all the same to you.’
‘Up to you.’ She laughed. ‘Would be funny though if you hopped on the train with tail feathers hanging out of your pockets. But better to keep them here and hang them for a bit. I can’t see you doing that, up in your London flat.’
‘No, maybe not. Bit too countrified for Dolphin Court.’
They walked slowly round the grounds, then through a five-bar gate into one of the fields that faced the river. Stephen waved towards the furthest point. ‘You know, the proximity of the river has got to add enormous value to your land. I mean, the fishing rights alone are worth something, especially if we can clean the river up enough to encourage the trout. I wonder if it wouldn’t be better for us to reconsider the whole estate as a package. Why don’t I look at those figures again when we’re back indoors?’
‘That would be lovely. You can amuse yourself with some intricate calculations while I’m boiling the potatoes. You’re such a great help to me.’ Us, we; his use of those collective words indicated just how much he was beginning to feel entitled to share in her estate. The other week he had grasped her hand and said, ‘You and I could make a good team.’ It wasn’t quite a proposal of marriage, though she felt that might yet come from his thin, dry lips, but it demonstrated how secure, how unsuspecting, he now felt with her. Evelyn loathed him. She looked at him, gazing across the fields as if he already owned every single blade of grass, every tree and every acre of her land. He was so unbearably smug, so sure of himself. Today was the perfect day to do it.
‘I think if I’m going to make it a brace we need to head back towards some cover. We’re not going to find many pheasants out in the open here.’ She steered him towards the copse