Free Dark Ritual by Patricia Scott Page B

young and beautiful of either sex, were the chosen ones. Chosen to be sacrificed to bring in a good fruitful crop for the following year. The spilling of their blood into the earth was supposed to encourage the fertility of their crops.”
    “Surely no one would carry this out here. Not now. Can you honestly believe that anyone round here would kill Sandra Peterson to achieve this? I’ve heard of organic farming but this...” He shook his head. “This is stretching belief.”
    “There is always reason for doubt. The old pagan religions are still believed by some. Like the old belief in witches and warlocks, turn over a loose stone around here and you don’t know what you might disturb buried under it.”
    His reaction to this was a puzzled frown and a shake of his head followed by loud laughter which startled the cat off its comfortable perch on the window sill. “You can’t believe that this is for real?”
    She cut him short quickly. “Not till this morning. If I had thought at all about the human sacrifice being practiced before this I’d have dismissed it just as folklore, you know.”
    “So — what do you think now?”
    She looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. Tourists buy the Corn Dollies sold in the local shops. They’re good sellers to those that come especially to see the crop circles. Daisy Doughty makes them. Look there’s one over there by my hearth. An old one from my great-aunt’s time. I’ve never wanted to go into their history before.” She chewed at her lip thoughtfully. “Perhaps I should have done.”
    “Perhaps you should. So Corn Dollies! Explain more please.”
    “Corn Dollies, they’re made up from Corn or Rye stems that are twisted and woven into intricate shapes. You’d see some on show in most of the houses around here There’s quite a skill in making them, you know.” She laughed.
    He whistled. “Just what are we uncovering here? Something nasty in the woodshed?”
    “Heaven alone knows. You say that Sandra was knocked out, stabbed to death and nearly burnt to a crisp. This seems to carry out what has been practiced here long before our time.” She shrugged. “Or maybe was it someone simply using it to get rid of her? Someone who knew about the ancient pagan history.”
    “What do you think we would discover if we delved into those other crimes? What have we accidentally stumbled on here? Like you mentioned just now, witches perhaps?”
    She shook her head. “Not Wicca or witchcraft but something very similar I think,” she said cautiously. “I looked up the old deaths. The victims were a young man and a young woman of a similar age. The girl was sixteen, the lad nineteen. And a knife was used as it was on Sandra. And the fire followed the ritual deaths to further cleanse the soil. But they died in different years. And they weren’t related.”
    “And no one was punished for it?”
    “If they were, no one ever spoke about it afterwards. And I doubt if you’d get much from their names even now from anyone. The present generation of their families would not wish to be involved.”
    Fowler put down his empty mug carefully and groaned as he thought this over. It didn’t improve on hearing it again from Viviane. Then fixing his eyes on her said: “What are your own views on this?”
    The cautious look in her eyes gave him her answer. She cupped her hands round her knees thought for a moment and said softly, “It disturbs me... But what can I say? Facing the facts that something similar happened here before. And — perhaps maybe long before that. These country places can keep their secrets well. So how did you find out about it?”
    He cleared his throat. “An American tourist. I haven’t actually spoken to him yet. Apparently he’s interested in the crop circles. He has, I think, visited here before. He must have researched in depth about Lower Milton before coming here. The Americans generally know more about places than us natives, don’t they? We’ve got