The essence of the idea flew into his head fully formed – simple and quite brilliant. The thrill ebbed a little and, his elation still running very high so that the plans seemed to form themselves with effortless ease, he began to think about the details. He would have to fell a fair few trees, but then nobody came here so who would know to protest? It would be necessary to make a decent track, first because in his experience people were more inclined to react to innovations if you made it easy for them, second because a broad, inviting, well-made path would be his advertisement to the outside world, the beckoning finger that would show the curious – oh, and they’d all be curious, he was quite sure about that! – where the miracle was to be found.

He’d have to put up a building or two... he’d serve food and drink (and make a tidy sum out of that too) and maybe he would provide overnight accommodation for those who came from too far away to get there and back again in a day. He grinned suddenly as another happy thought struck him: it was only March and all summer lay ahead, week after week of long daylight hours and the sort of fine, dry weather that was an open invitation to folk to take a little journey in the sunshine and see the new wonder with their own eyes. Oh, but he was going to make so much money!

 

He had come out by himself today into this lonely stretch of forest because he was at the end of his strength; he had thought to hang himself, only when the moment had come he could not find the resolve. Instead he had fallen to the soft, mossy grass and lain on his back bawling like a thwarted infant, kicking his heels into the earth until he had made two deep hollows. Then it had happened.

And now, with this marvellous idea filling his mind, despair was behind him. It was going to be all right! He had found his answer, clever man that he was, and in a few weeks he’d have more money than he knew what to do with. He smiled at the thought that his wife would have no such difficulty; she’d probably say immediately that they would now have the solar she’d been demanding for the last God knew how long, and a few lengths of the most costly silk for her summer gowns, and he might as well put in an offer for that pretty bay palfrey she had her eye on before someone else bought the animal...

Never mind. He would buy her all those things and more. As he hurried home it occurred to him just once to wonder whether what he was about to do was right, but the brief upsurge of conscience was quickly swamped by lascivious thoughts of what he would do to his wife – and what she would do to him, for she had tricks that he had never come across before and that drove him wild with lust – once he had earned her favour once more.

It was, after all, only a pile of old bones and the dead could not protest. Or could they...?

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