If you discovered that you had murdered someone but couldnt remember the details, what would you do?Plead insanity?Claim diminished capacity?Does lycanthropy even qualify as a defence?

This was my dilemma in Octoberof 1748, when it became clear that I had been responsible for Bronwyns death.The people around me assumed that a wild animal was on the loose in the district and took steps to trap the beast.I, on the other hand, simply concluded that I was going insane.

There was some nonsense about witchcraft and mad wolves in the ancient family history I had found in Fathers library, but being a child of the eighteenth century I put no stock in such superstitious nonsense. My homicidal episode had to be the result of some illness.Apart from a sudden allergy to silver and a complete lack of appetite, however, I experienced no further physical symptoms, and had only a vague, dreamlike recollection of the events surrounding the murder.In the absence of any rational explanation, it only remained for me to hope that the incident would not repeat itself.

Hope, as they say, dies last.

Read Chapter 6 of Night Music at www.AndronicaLlewellyn.com