“Delighted.” He nodded in assent.
The field now consisted of Tedi and Gray.
Sister moved out; she could hear hounds way in the distance. Rickyroo had speed to burn. Unless footing got trappy, she could get up with them in five or ten minutes. She trusted her two whippers-in and knew they’d be on either side.
Luck was with her. She had no heavy covert to negotiate, just open meadows, thin dividers of woods and trees on either side. She caught sight of her tail hounds climbing up a rolling meadow. Rickyroo opened his stride even more, and within minutes she was right behind Delia, Nellie, Asa, and Ardent, who were fifteen yards behind the rest of the pack.
She put the horn to her lips. A strangled sound slid out of the short horn.
“Oh, God,” she said.
“Just talk to us,”Asa advised.
She stuck the horn between her first and second coat buttons.“Whoop, whoop, whoop.”
Cora heard this, slightly turned her head.“Sister’s hunting us.”
“No joke.”Dasher smiled.“Guess we’d better be right.”
Diana, moving fast, literally leapt, turning in midair.“Tothe right!”As anchor, and in her second season at this demanding position, she had to keep everyone on the line, correct line at that. The fox executed a 90-degree cut, smack in the middle of the pastures.
Sister watched this. The other hounds came to Diana. Cora put her nose down, confirming the shift.
When hounds are doing their job, Sister thought to keep quiet. If she’d been in heavy covert, she would have tooted as best she could, so Betty and Sybil would know where she was. Not a good thing for the whippers-in to get thrown out.
Her questioning of why the fox would head straight north into another pasture was quickly answered when she galloped well into the pasture, having taken the coop, and saw the herd of Angus on the far side. He’d made a beeline for them.
Sure enough, hounds checked. How many times had she watched this? But now it was in her hands.
“Good foxhounds,” she called out to them, her voice encouraging. “Get ’em up.”
Hounds circled the cattle; Dasher moved right through them. Young Tinsel found the line on the other side, and off they ran. This side of Orchard Hill was divided into ten-to twenty-acre pastures that the owner used to rotate stock. Every fence contained jumps, which made it great fun, except that Sister was so intent on staying with hounds she never saw the jumps. She cleared them, eyes always on her hounds. Rickyroo was in his glory. He lived to run and jump.
Finally, they blasted into fifty acres of apple orchard on the right side of the farm road. On the south side, where there was more protection from sharp north winds, were fifty acres of peaches.
Orchards draw deer, raccoons, possums, and all manner of birds. Even rabbit feed on the edges. The place reeked of competing scents, which the temperature kept down.
But Cora, Diana, Asa, Ardent, Delia, and Nellie untangled the scents. The younger ones, while momentarily overwhelmed, quickly imitated their leaders. They kept on the fox.
He had put distance between them when he used the cattle. Try as they might, they couldn’t close it, but scent held.
Sister caught sight of Betty down on the farm road. She figured Sybil to be outside the orchard.
Edward, Tedi, and Gray were getting one hell of a hunt. They glided through the apple orchard, flattening grass soft underfoot, a welcome change from some of the footing they’d recently been over.
Sister, well up with her hounds, kept a sharp eye in case she might see her quarry. She’d see him before the hounds would.
On the other side of the orchard, a stout coop divided it from the hayfield. Rickyroo took it with ease, and Sister glimpsed the smallish gray.
“Yip, yip, yoo!”
Hounds knew what this meant from their master. Their adrenaline, already high, shot higher. They pressed.
Young though he was, the gray had some tricks in his bag. He looped around the hayfield, dipped into the narrow creek, came out, turned toward the peach orchard, which had a fire stand at the edge: a tower with a roof and ladder.
He climbed up the ladder and flopped on the lookout stand.
Hounds skidded to a halt underneath.
“He’s up there!”Trinity screamed in frustration.“Nofair.”
Rickyroo halted. Sister, not entirely sure that the gray had climbed, dismounted.“Ricky, hold the fort.”
Hounds milled under his legs, their excitement bubbling over. Trudy tried to climb the ladder, made it up three foot holds, only to fall flat on her back.
“Nitwit,”Cora said.
The hounds sang and sang. Edward, Tedi, and Gray arrived in time to see Sister’s small butt, covered by her buckskin breeches, moving up the ladder.
She peeped her head up and almost fell back as the small gray walked right up to her, putting his nose close to hers. Cowering wasn’t his style.
“If you throw me down, I’ll bite.”
“Well done, little fellow, well done.” She smiled at him and backed down. Then she plucked the horn from her first and second buttons and tried blowing “Gone to Ground.”
Blowing the horn proved easier if she wasn’t moving, but she needed work. Laughing, she took the mouthpiece from her lips, “Okay, so it doesn’t sound like ‘Gone to Ground.’ How about ‘Up in the Air’?”
Everyone had a good laugh, including the fox.
“Sister, that was thrilling,” Tedi enthused.
“You’re being very, very kind.”
Betty and Sybil came in just as Sister was blowing her mightiest.
“This is one for the books.” Betty smiled broadly.
“I don’t know about that.” Sister swung back up on Rickyroo, who was having the best day. “But I think it’s time to go in. We’ve sure had some big days, haven’t we?”
“And the reds have just started breeding,” Betty mentioned, knowing the grays had been at it for two or three weeks.
“I always said the best hunting is late January through February.” Sister, high from the chase, and having managed a few warbles, laughed.
“Grays cheat,”Trinity complained.
“No, that’s the way they do,”Asa reminded her.
“Not as bad as the time three years ago when a grayjumped in the backseat of Tedi’s car. He’d foiled his scent. She drove him home!”Cora giggled.
Since Jennifer and X had taken her truck, Sister, Betty, and Sybil loaded up hounds. Sari and Ronnie heard the whole story. They stayed back, waiting for Jennifer and Xavier to return.
Sister, using Betty’s cell phone, reached Jennifer on the truck phone as she pulled out from the hospital.
Shaker grabbed the phone.“Three cracked ribs, two separated, a mild concussion. I’m fine.”
Xavier took the phone from Shaker.“And he’s bald. Walter had his chest shaved before they taped him so it wouldn’t hurt when he took the bandages off. Such a manly chest.”
Sister heard Shaker laughing, then wince. She said,“We could sell tickets. Raise a little money for the club. You know, help your huntsman change his bandages, see his naked chest.”
“Wouldn’t get a dime,” X replied.
Once off the phone, Sister told the others,“He’s okay. Cracked ribs, two separated.”
Tedi and Edward both said,“Good news.” Tedi added, “And you did great!”
“All I had to do was keep up, that was enough. Let’s be honest, it was a pretty good day for scent.”
“Janie, you did great.” Tedi patted her arm. “Take the compliment.”
Sister smiled.“You’re right.”
Gray walked over.“Are we still on for tomorrow night at the club?”
“You know, dinner there is like taking an ad on local TV.”
“Exactly right.” Gray reached for her hand. “I’m serving notice on all other men.”
“Flatterer.” She laughed.
Betty, Sybil, Jennifer, and Sari, once back at Roughneck Farm, all helped get the hounds fed, cleaned, checked over. Then the girls took care of the horses.