Leander let the question sink in for a moment. Truth be told, hardly anything ever happened in this sleepy English countryside. The most they could hope for was an occasional social scandal if an heiress from the neighbouring estate slept with a peasant or when something else indecent occurred. He was about to respond with a no, but then recalled an incident that could be considered strange.

"A few weeks ago Papa went into the woods with some gentlemen, business partners of his, I assume. It was supposed to be a deer hunt like any other. When Papa returned, he was somehow alone and when I asked him about it, he simply ignored me. The next morning we received ill news: Mr Johnson, one of the deceased, was found lifeless in the forest. We were all in shock, although Father was the least broken up about it. They probably weren't the best of friends, Mr Johnson and him. Anyway, I caught a glimpse of the corpse being dragged out into the open and I could have sworn the front of it was perfectly slit in two like the hems of a jacket. It was so appalling it was almost fascinating. And the man who found it claimed to have seen a gleam of white light from its insides, which is rubbish, of course. Does this count as strange?"