Reginald Hill
The Stranger House
Copyright © 2005 by Reginald Hill
For
Allan, Brian, John and Peter
To his friends a man should be firm in friendship
Sharing gifts and sharing laughter.
“The Sayings of the High One” Poetic Edda
Be helpful to strangers who stop at your house, don’t mock or demean them.
It’s hard to be certain simply by looking what kin they may claim.
“The Sayings of the High One” Poetic Edda
By dead-man’s shore in shadow-land a hall was raised roofed with serpents
whose venom drips on those who dwell there killers and defilers. All doors face north.
“The Sibyl’s Prophecy” Poetic Edda
PART ONE. BLOOD & WINE
Here’s some advice a youngster should listen to, helpful if taken to heart.
Be loud against evil wherever you see it; never give your enemy an even break.
“The Sayings of the High One” Poetic Edda
1. My people
On July 8th, 1992, a small girl woke up in her bed in her family house in the Australian state of Victoria and knew exactly who she was.
Samantha Flood, known to her friends as Sam and her family as Sammy, only child of Sam and Louisa Flood, granddaughter of Vince and Ada Flood, who between them had turned a patch of scrubby farmland on the fringe of the Goulburn Valley into the Vinada Winery which by the end of the eighties was winning golden opinions and medals to match at wine shows up to and including the Royal National Capital.
That morning Sam also knew two new things.
Today she was eleven years old and she was bleeding.