“A bow and a bag filled with gray-fledged arrows,” his lordship said. “You’re lucky the horse didn’t die. I’d have hung you for that.”

“Caesar was barely scratched, my lord,” Hook said dismissively, “nothing but a tear in his hide.”

“And how would you know if you weren’t there?”

“I hear things in the village, my lord,” Hook said.

“I hear things too, Hook,” Lord Slayton said, “and you’re to leave the Perrills alone! You hear me? Leave them alone!”

Hook did not believe in much, but he had somehow persuaded himself that the curse that lay on his life would be lifted if only he could kill the Perrills. He was not quite sure what the curse was, unless it was the uncomfortable suspicion that life must hold more than the manor offered. Yet when he thought of escaping Lord Slayton’s service he was assailed by a gloomy foreboding that some unseen and incomprehensible disaster awaited him. That was the tenuous shape of the curse and he did not know how to lift it other than by murder, but nevertheless he nodded obediently. “I hear you, my lord.”

“You hear and you obey,” his lordship said. He tossed the arrow onto the fire where it lay for a moment, then burst into bright flame. A waste of a good broadhead, Hook thought. “Sir Martin doesn’t like you, Hook,” Lord Slayton said in a lower voice. He rolled his eyes upward and Hook understood that his lordship was asking whether his wife was still in the gallery. Hook gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. “You know why he hates you?” his lordship asked.

“Not sure he likes many people, lord,” Hook answered evasively.

Lord Slayton stared at Hook broodingly. “And you’re right about Will Snoball,” he finally said, “he’s weakening. We all get old, Hook, and I’ll be needing a new centenar. You understand me?”

A centenar was the man who commanded a company of archers and William Snoball had held the job for as long as Hook remembered. Snoball was also the manor’s steward, and the two offices had made him the richest of all Lord Slayton’s men. Hook nodded. “I understand, lord,” he muttered.