Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m so sorry to interrupt your weekend enjoyment. Hopefully we will be able to continue our sport when this horrible mess has been cleared up. The pheasants will still be there in the morning !! I am afraid that I have some dreadful news for you. when I arrived this morning I discovered that your host, Laird Gordon McFault, had been found…….. dead (Susan McFault cries) I am sorry Susan, but I think it only fair that they should know. To be blunt, ladies and gentlemen, the Laird has been found hanging from one of the trophies in the Great Hall.

You’re right, Claude, we must pull ourselves together and discover exactly what happened. I’m only glad that you, our nearest neighbour and dearest friend, are here to help us through this dreadful time. I know that although you and the Laird were great rivals our Estates bordering on each other as they do, that not even you would have wished this upon him.

Mother, you are so brave ! You’re an example to us all. Both Hector and myself will support you in whatever way we can. Daddy was a fine man. (breaking down)

Yes, Mother, I will do my best to fill Father’s shoes.

(to Megan) Personally, I can’t wait to get back to the weekend shoot !

I could do with a Gin darling, I’m parched. I thought this was supposed to be a fun weekend.

It’s pointless you having fun – you never remember it the next day

Tell me Hector…. I mean, my Lord ….. will all this be yours ?

(interjecting) I don’t think that now is the time to go into such things, do you ? I just can’t believe what’s happened. Gordon asked me to a number of shoots before but I hadn’t been able to make them. This time it would have been an insult to refuse. I’m only sorry that I didn’t stay for the evening meal. By the way – has anyone called the police ?

They were called over an hour ago. There’s a mist over the glen and we’ll be lucky if we see them before morning.

Tell me Jock, have you dismissed all the beaters ?

Aye, I have that, your Lordship, but I’ve kept a few men on to secure the house.

You’re a fine man, Jock. You’ve been a faithful gillie and gamekeeper on this Estate for 25 years. You know this Estate and the people on it better than anyone. I know this whole thing must be quite a shock.

Aye ! It took 3 of us lift him down off the horns of that beast.

A fine animal. I only wish I’d been the one that bagged it. It reminds me of the when I went shooting in Kenya. Stalked this gazelle for 4 days…..

Oh, do be quiet, Anthony, nobody’s interested in your boring stories !

Oh, Mrs Hunt, I would beg to differ with you. I take it you’ve never experienced the thrill of the chase. I remember when I was hunting Elk in Montana ……..

Oh no, not you as well ! Where is that gin ? I need a drink. Now !

I’m sure that the consumption of alcohol is hardly going to help the situation.

Now, now ladies. I think we should all calm down. (Rebecca cries again) Rebecca my dear, I’m sure your Father wouldn’t want you to go on like this.

But I’d set my heart on him giving me away and seeing us married

If you’ll excuse us ladies and gentlemen, we’ll retire to the library and leave you to consider the situation in private.

The first time I’ve been here in months and this has to happen. It’s awful. First Daddy objects to our engagement and then this happens. What a terrible day ! The whole idea of a weekend shoot, it’s quite barbaric. I didn’t even see Daddy at dinner on Friday evening. I can’t bear all this talk of killing and blood. I just had to leave the house and find more civilised company, so Frank and I had dinner with friends. I can’t believe what happened while we were away !

Look Beccas, I feel exactly the same about hunting. It’s much more civilised living in Edinburgh. In fact, I’ve never enjoyed being on this Estate. Once this is all wrapped up, I’m leaving it for Mummy to run or get a Manager in. all I want is for the Estate to make me a healthy profit so I can live the life I want.

As the new Laird, you’ll have a lot of responsibilities, you can’t just walk away from them

It’s alright for you, travelling around the Far East studying ‘Feng Shui’. Perhaps you can run the place far better than Father, or at least you could keep it in harmony ! (sneers)

I’ll have you know that there’s far more to Feng Shui than a tidy and harmonious mind ! It makes me a good living. I give talks all round the country, in fact it brought Beccas and I together – we met at one of my London classes.

Somebody said there was more tonic in here.

I’m afraid not.

Well, in that case I’ll top it up with some more gin.

It was some night last night. With the amount you drank, Tony, I was amazed that you were the last man standing.

I don’t remember you coming to bed, Tony. Did you ? Or did you just lie where you eventually fell ?

You were in a much worse state than me

Why do you do this top yourself, Megan ?

Tell me, Tony, do you drink to make hunting and cruelty easy to stomach ?

No, you’re wrong. No amount of booze could make my enjoyment and thrill of the hunt any better.

to Susan Ah, Susan, how are you doing ? You left the meal so early last night we never got the chance to talk and now all this. Mind you, darling, I’m the one to talk – I can’t remember a thing about last night. It must have been fun !

No, some of us had business to attend to. I needed to check with Chef about today’s arrangements before he left. When I came back you were all enjoying yourselves with various bottles and so I chatted to Iris, who seemed to be the only one capable of holding a conversation.

Thank you, Susan. There are some advantages to a sober life.

What is this with you and no drink ? Anyone would think you were afraid of it.

Then again, you and your wife seem very keen on imbibing, even when it’s obvious that you can’t handle it.

I’m afraid alcohol doesn’t affect me that much. I just think that it’s great fun watching everyone else get quiffy ! It’s outrageous fun what Megan gets up to.

Look, my dears. I know this has all been a terrible shock and I know things were not quite as they should have been between you and Gordon, but I’m sure he would have come round to accepting Frank and Rebecca’s engagement, eventually. He just needed more time.

Yes, Mother. We must all be very brave, as Father would have wanted us to.

Has anyone seen Jock ? I wanted to ask him where he keeps the wet weather gear. I fancy a walk and it’s raining out there.

He keeps it in the flower room by the door to the yard

I’m keen to learn as much as I can about life in the Highlands and deer stalking. I’ve been commissioned to write an article. (sighs) In fact if I don’t get this one right I’m for the high jump. How can they treat an award winning journalist this way ?

You journalists are all alike – always hunting for a good story.

Actually, journalism isn’t my first love – to relax I practice conjuring !

Did you say conjuring ?

Yeah, sleight of hand and all that. It’s not surprising ! Lots of people do it, you know.

Your Lordship, the police have just rung. They confirm that they can’t get through to us until tomorrow.

Yeah, it appears that the mist is heavier than usual, very unfortunate. (shakes head) I was very lucky to get back home on Friday night, and only just managed to get here on Saturday before the mist got too thick.

We missed you on Friday night – it was a bonny meal

Jock would have liked to see a familiar face – he finds these formal meals entertaining strangers very daunting.

Aye, you could say that. However, I did have my duties to attend to. That’s why I left the meal early, I had to make sure the main door was on the latch since Miss Rebecca had not returned at that point and I didn’t want her to be locked out.

That’s sweet of you, Jock. I arrived back at the castle just after the drinking session had started and I went straight to bed. I couldn’t face seeing them all get drunk.

Didn’t you hear anything in the night, Jock ? (Henry starts to write notes)

No, I sleep very soundly, your Lordship. I only knew there was something wrong when I went round to check the house at dawn and I discovered the Laird hanging there in the hall. But before I found him I knew there was something wrong, because the door to the servants’ stairs was ajar and the door to the Laird’s study was open. I know for a fact that they were both shut when I went to my bed. I thought someone might have been in the kitchen during the night as things had been moved and you know how particular Chef is. The other strange thing was that the front door wasn’t quite shut. (Jock looks at Henry, who is busy scribbling notes) Do you mind ?

Sorry, Mr McSquire. Old habits die hard.

Well, I don’t know about you lot, but I’m in need of a drink. Let’s go through to the library