The bride screamed. Not a scream of delight, but of utter terror.

Her big day had been going so well. The wedding ceremony at Arthuret Hall, five miles from Longtown, near the border with Scotland, was everything she’d ever dreamed it would be. Yes, the building may be little more than external walls now, but she’d always been fascinated by her grandad’s tales of the days when the country house had been a casino, an officer’s mess and a hotel after starting life as a country manor house. The surrounding area was rich and fertile farmland with gentle rolling hills and the occasional wood.

Now it was hauntingly sinister; there was a brooding romance in the remains of its former grandeur highlighted by the elaborate dormer windows that still stood jagged against the sky.

She felt her groom tug at her arm with a tenderness that showed his wonderful heart. Jason Welton was a good man. Not the best-looking man she’d ever dated, but certainly the kindest. At forty-nine, he was fifteen years her senior, yet age was just a number so far as Emily was concerned. What mattered more to her was that he loved and understood her, that he was a provider and would take care of her.

Emily let Jason and her maid of honour pull her away from the window, their concern at her distress showing on their faces. As neither was as tall as Emily in her wedding heels, they couldn’t look in through the window let alone see down to the ground, to where she could see the corpse in the remnants of the house’s cellar below.

Heavy footsteps accompanied the guests who’d come running to see what the commotion was about. She turned away from everybody and looked down at the stream, whose melodic tinkling now seemed disrespectful to the dead man, and gathered her emotions into a single focus. Today was the culmination of her dreams; a fairy-tale wedding to a rich man with a kind heart. She wasn’t going to let it be spoiled by an uninvited guest, even if he was dead.

Her cousin was a copper. He’d be the one to keep people away and make sure the police were summoned.

Concerned faces gathered round her, but she painted her smile back into place and dismissed her scream as the result of a practical joke made in poor taste.

It was a lie though; she knew the body was real. Knew that she’d seen a decomposing corpse on her wedding day.

Emily sought out her cousin’s face in the crowd and called him forward. He’d know what to do. She leaned into her cousin and told him what she had seen. He gave a terse nod and pulled his mobile from his pocket, as he moved over to the window. After a quick look he marched off. Whether he was going to try and get to the man to check for signs of life or not, Emily had no idea. There would be a protocol for such things, but she didn’t know what it was.

No matter how she tried to remove the image from her thoughts, the corpse was etched onto her mind’s eye. It was lifeless, still, with discoloured limbs that had been feasted on by the local wildlife. The head bald and immobile. The face looking down.

More than anything else, the body’s limp, hanging position was the most disturbing feature. It was secured to a post and the arms were supported outwards by a cross member which ended at the elbows leaving the forearms to point at the ground. There was no doubt in Emily’s mind that she’d found a murder victim. The man hadn’t died by his own hand or misadventure, he’d been killed.

She pulled her mouth back into a smile though and walked after the photographer. Her cousin could deal with the body. This was her big day, and it wasn’t as if getting upset could bring back the dead man. And besides, while she was the centre of attention, she wanted everyone’s eyes on her. Though once the photographer had done his bit, she knew she’d need to have a much-needed cigarette before heading to the reception venue.