“Perfect.”
An animated group of people blocked the front door. As Sister picked up her fleece-lined Barbour coat from the low coatroom, she turned around, bumping into Dr. Dalton Hill, who was searching for his coat.
“Splendid day, Master.”
“I’m happy you could join us. That Cleveland bay you were riding is a handsome fellow.”
“Yes. One of Mr. Wessler’s breedings. A friend over in Green Springs, Louisa, lent me the horse. I think I’ll rent him for the season.”
“You’ll be here then?”
“Yes.” He wasn’t a warm man, but he was proper. “I’m teaching at the university for a semester. My partner is keeping up the practice in Toronto. We take turns when opportunities like this arise.”
“How do you like the university?” Locals always referred to the University of Virginia as “the university.”
“Quite, quite beautiful.”
“Dr. Hill, do you hunt with any of the hunts in Ontario?”
He drew himself up to his full height, five foot eleven inches, good shape.“Toronto and North York, founded in 1843. Oldest hunt in Canada. And it’s my good fortune to go out with Ottawa Valley, founded 1873, and London Hunt, founded in 1885. Did you know there are eight hunts just in Ontario Province?”
She did know, but elected to murmur,“It’s in the blood.”
“Ah … yes.” Took him a moment.
“While it is not to say we are the same … just that we share many of the same disciplines and pleasures. If I didn’t live in Virginia, I would certainly consider myself lucky to be in Canada.” She wasn’t indulging in flattery.
“Thank you.”
“As I recall, your specialty is endocrinology. You must treat unusual cases.”
“Yes, and the medicines and technology are changing at warp speed.” He didn’t use medical terms, which was thoughtful. “If I can get a patient in time, in childhood, often a humiliating condition like dwarfism can be cured or tempered. Mrs. Arnold, in the next ten years, you and I willsee breakthroughs that are miraculous.”
“I see you love your work.”
“I do. I always liked science, but science in the service of healing, of improving the human condition.”
She paused before returning to the subject of hunting.“You can reach so many hunt clubs within an hour and a half or so of Charlottesville. You’re in a perfect spot.”
“I can see that. I’ve rather struck up a friendship with Walter. I’d like to continue with Jefferson, if that can be arranged, and cap with the others. And I assume there will be joint meets.”
“Of course. Are you a member of a recognized hunt?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we have a buddy program—that’s my term. If you’re a full hunting member, say of London Hunt, you can join us for half price. Many hunts in central Virginia have instituted this type of program. The bells and whistles might be slightly different, but the point is to pull together. Who can afford full memberships at all these hunts, and one can only cap three times in a season. It’s working quite well.”
“Virginia has more foxhunting clubs than anywhere in the world, I believe.”
“For a single province—” She used the Canadian term. “—we do. To live here as a foxhunter is to be in nirvana.” She smiled broadly.
“I would like to avail myself of your program. To whom do I write the check?” Dr. Hill didn’t waste time as he slipped his checkbook out of his Filson tin cloth packer coat.
Surprised, Sister replied,“I’ll give it to Ron Haslip, our treasurer.”
“Very light rider.”
Sister realized Dr. Hill knew a little something about riding.“Yes, he is, was, light on a horse since childhood. I notice you have a Filson tin coat. Ever notice how foxhunters usually wear Barbour coats or the Australian coats? Every now and then, I’ll see one of these.”
“Indestructible. I wear the tin cloth pants, too, during pheasant season. I bought this coat twenty-five years ago when I visited Seattle the first time. I had just finished my residency, and the trip was my present to myself.”
“You have an eye for quality.”
He smiled slightly.“Well, I hate squandering money. Buy the best, then you weep only once.”
She laughed appreciatively.“I’m looking forward to seeing you in the hunt field.”
“I’ll arrange my schedule to come out as much as possible.”
As she left Mill Ruins, she wondered if Dalton Hill had a wife. He hadn’t said anything. The ladies of Jefferson Hunt would ferret out this information in no time.
She also reflected on the persistence of hunting in the English-speaking world. Piedmont Hunt, outside of Upperville, Virginia, was founded in 1840, the oldest organized hunt in the United States. But colonists had hunted from 1607 on. And they did so in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, and in India under the raj. She thought the English language and hounds were intertwined, from Beowulf and beyond to today. Curious yet somehow comforting, satisfying.
Later, as she checked the hounds, the horses already snug, thanks to Jennifer and Sari, she watched Darby, Doughboy, and Dreamboat, firstyear entry.
Shaker came out of the feed room.“What do you think?” “Well done, thou good and faithful servant! I haven’t had a second to catch up with you. I hope you ate something at the breakfast. What a show Walter put on.”
“Stuck my head in. That turkey with the herbed dressing was something.”
“Sybil did a good job today.”
“She did. I asked her how she rated the hounds. She said she first called out Dragon’s name since he was in the lead. He ignored her. She then used her whip. He ignored her, so she hauled out the ratshot. Gave the other mutineers something to think about.”
“They weren’t a hundred percent wrong.”
“No, they weren’t, but when I blow them back, they’d better come.” He spoke with conviction.
“Let’s take Dreamboat and Darby on Tuesday. Oh, Doughboy, too. They ought to be all right. We can take Dana, Delight, and Diddy on Thursday.” She mentioned the girls from the same litter.
“Those girls are high, boss. Let’s just take two.”
“All right. Thursday put in Diddy and Dana, and then we’ll see if Delight can handle a Saturday. She’ll have steady eddies all around her.”
“You sure did the right thing back there at Chapel Cross.”
“Thanks.”
He nodded, she thought, then said,“Shaker, how bad was I after Big Ray died?”
Surprised, he answered,“You held up.”
“Mmm, well, I said to Edward that I feel fabulous, that I feel young again, and then he said that I’ve returned to myself.”
Shaker kept watching the gyps.“He’s right.”
“The funny thing is, I don’t know why. But I think you’re kind of coming back, too.”
“Me?”
“It’s good.”
“Yep.” He did feel different.
Neither one mentioned why they thought they were happier. Perhaps they didn’t yet know why.
CHAPTER 16
“Atrocious. Can you believe it? Fifty million Americans can’t read or understand anything above the eighth-grade level.” Marty Howard, chair of the Committee to Promote Literacy, warmed to her subject as Sister and Jim examined his photographs.
Crawford had flown to New York on business, which meant Marty had center stage, an unusual and pleasant experience for her.
Jim, although living in Wales, was an Englishman to the bone. He said,“How can someone get through school without learning to read and write?”
Marty, admiring his photos with Sister, replied,“That’s just it, twenty-nine percent of American students drop out of high school. Drop out. Do you know what the drop-out rate is in Japan?” When he indicated that he did not, she jumped right in. “Five percent. And in Russia, poor torn-up Russia, the drop-out rate is two percent. Something is dreadfully wrong with our schools.”