The location around which the narrative revolves is the former inn, turned private residence, the Pale Horse. Giving the novel its title, the name is taken from the sixth chapter of the biblical Book of Revelation: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beast of the earth.” The Pale Horse in the Bible represents the power of death, the perfect symbol for the inn that harbors such wicked and malevolent persons.

As distinct from the other four horses in the same biblical chapter—the white horse (a symbol of military victory), the red horse (a symbol of war), and the black horse (a symbol of judgment)—the pale horse represents pestilence, death, and suffering, even being associated with hell. The women who live at the Pale Horse are associated with witchcraft and evil, a very stark contrast to the ideals of a biblical perspective that condemns witchcraft. There is even a nod to ancient historical literature in naming the inn after a horse, calling to mind the ancient Trojan horse that wasn’t what it seemed from the outside—much like the Pale Horse created a diversion from the real activity of the criminal mastermind.

When Mark and Hermia meet David and Poppy at the restaurant, they have just come from seeing a performance of Macbeth, and their discussion moves to the topic of witchcraft. This is the first specific question that David asks Hermia, “Ah, but what about the witches?” (42). Hermia thought them dreadful, an opinion with which David agrees—stating that there always seems to be something campy about the way stage productions treat them—leading Mark to ask David how he would have them performed instead. “I’d make them very ordinary,” David replies, “Just sly quiet old women. Like the witches in a country village” (43) His remark foreshadows the witches upon whom Mark will stumble later in the story.

Incredulous at such a supposition, Hermia expresses her doubt about the existence of witches, to which David responds by stating his belief that there was a witch “in every village in rural England” (43). The witches who will appear in the novel are the inhabitants of the Pale Horse, who do appear at first to be unremarkable country women (especially Thyrza). What is more, three witches appear in Macbeth—the Wayward sisters—just as three women live at the Pale Horse and engage in the ritualistic cursing of the victims slated for death.