‘They’ll expect you to haggle.’
‘D’you think so? Yes, I dare say they will. I dare say it’s usual.’ For the first time Leo saw Simeon Hurst uncertain of himself, and he guessed it was because the farmer was not familiar with the buying and selling of anything, and particularly not land.
He said, a bit timidly, that he remembered people at home always haggling a bit; it was part of almost any purchase you made.
‘I told you that, Simeon. They’ll expect you to haggle, I said.’
With slightly more confidence, Leo said that what you had to do was to start at a much lower price than you were prepared to pay. Then you increased the figure a little at a time.
‘Is that how it’s done? I tell you what, Simeon, you take Leo with you. It’ll be good for him to know about the land and the running of the farm.’
‘That’s a good suggestion. Leo, you’ll come along with me, and while we’re there, you’ll mind your manners and not speak unless you’re spoken to, remember. Get your coat, and we’ll be off to see if we can buy back our field.’
Leo, interested in this unexpected departure from routine, sped up to his room to get his coat.
‘We’ll take the old carriage path,’ said Simeon Hurst, lacing up his boots. ‘You’ve never been along there, have you, and it’s a nice walk of a fine morning. You’ll see how the two fields march alongside Willow Bank land, and you’ll understand why it’d be good for this farm to have the fields back. We’ll be back for dinner.’
Miss Hurst said there would be rabbit pie, which Simeon and Leo thought would do very nicely after their long walk.
But if Leo had realized the land adjoined Deadlight Hall, he would have found a reason to remain at the farm. He had never managed to completely push down the memory of the night when Sophie and Susannah vanished. Even though he had clamped a lid over it, the lid sometimes became dislodged, so that the seething memories escaped in little scalding dribbles, like Miss Hurst’s stews sometimes hissed and spilled out on the stove.
As they walked along the carriage path, Simeon pointing out wildlife and flora as they went and explaining about the different crops and how crop rotation worked, a slow horror was stealing over Leo. They were going towards Deadlight Hall. Deadlight Hall, with its iron-bound room and the furnace that roared greedily away. The place where his beloved twins had burned someone to death and then disappeared. But I promised I’d never tell anyone what they did, thought Leo. I promised, and I’ve kept the promise.
As the Hall came into view, a man walked along the path to meet them, hailing Farmer Hurst cordially. This was the present owner of the land, who might be prepared to sell it back to the Hurst family. Leo was secretly pleased when Mr Hurst introduced him as if he had been a grown-up. He shook hands politely as he had been taught, and stood quietly while the two men talked. Most of it was incomprehensible – there was a good deal about boundaries and rights of way, and Leo tried not to be bored. Then the man said, ‘Perhaps your boy would like to look around, would he?’ And, to Leo, ‘There’s a badgers’ sett nearby. And someone saw a heron near the canal last month.’
Leo understood that the man would prefer not to talk about the land in front of him, so he said thank you, yes, he would do that, and went off. No, he would not get lost, and yes, he would come back here.