Serena

“I don’t need a head start, young man, no matter what saddle I am sitting!” she countered.

He came up alongside her and said, “Shall we make it interesting then?”

“Ah, a wager?” she answered, giving him an arched look.

“Your dark eyes bewitch me,” he answered.

“The wager, Freddy?” she returned warningly. “Right, what shall it be, my handsome puppy?”

“Yes. I,” he said, sitting tall in his saddle, “am not a puppy, but a man, as you shall soon learn.”

She couldn’t help the hearty laugh that burst out of her. He looked so put out. “Yes, my Lord Radburn. How remiss of me to not take notice. Now, what is the wager?”

“If you lose, you marry me,” he teased.

“No, puppy lord,” she responded, giving him an eye and a tease. “If you lose, you return to school.”

“No and never. That would leave Warren free to bother you, and I don’t mean to do that.”

“Freddy …” Serena sighed. “I am well able to fend off any and all … including your attentions, my dear, dear boy.” She hoped she sounded sisterly.

His color heightened. He reached over and touched her forearm. “I swear … three years between us is nothing. I have all the education I need. I won’t leave you to the wolves, and those are not the words of a puppy, but of a man.”

She couldn’t hurt him outright, but she had to do something. She sighed and said, “Never mind all this now. The well is just ahead, and since we cannot agree on a wager, there shall be no racing, but I daresay we should hurry along as Sir Newton waits for no one when it is time to take the hounds for their run.”

They found this to be quite the case, as they arrived to find Sir Newton already leading his hounds away from the kennel.

They waved and hurried their horses along to join the elderly man. They watched with great interest as he trained his hounds to the sound of his horn.

He called his pack in to him, but one, Warrior, stood at the edge of the woods, quite torn because he had obviously picked up on the scent of a fox. He raised his head and sang out his song, encouraging his master and fellow hounds to follow in his wake as he took off.

Two hounds immediately joined him, making music of their own, and then all havoc broke loose.

This was training only—a time for exercise, not hunting. The hounds had been relaxing all summer, though, and were eager to give chase. The morning was crisp and the hunt something they enjoyed, so when Warrior gave the call, they heard nothing else.

“And he’s supposed to be the lead hound, ha.” Sir Newton muttered. “Warrior! Damn it, you know better.”

Frantically he called to the two gentlemen serving as ‘whips’, and they attempted to recall their hounds with voice commands and the use of their horns.

The hounds, however, were on a hot scent. At that moment it was all they knew, and they were off doing what they had been bred and trained to do—track fresh scent.

Freddy exchanged a look with Serena, and they both burst out laughing. “Well then, ’tis tally ho and we’re off!”

“Dreadful Freddy, no one was prepared for this, and everyone looks quite silly, running about trying to call in the hounds,” she said, shaking her head.

Freddy smiled and said, “Come on, I know you want to follow, so let’s see if you can keep up!” He grinned widely as she followed him into the thick of the woods.

Serena knew it would be slow going, as this particular part of the forest was thick with low branches and undergrowth, but she knew it well. She laughed. “Keep up? Ha, watch me pass you,” she answered. “Keep up indeed! I have been riding to hounds before you could twaddle!”

It was some ten minutes later, after the pack ran full cry and they had spanned field after field, jumped creeks, avoided bogs, and jumped line fences, that Sir Newton and the whips were finally able to bring their hounds in.

Freddy slowed his horse to a trot. He had lost his top hat, and his windswept dark blond waves framed his pleasant face, making him look more youthful than ever, Serena thought. She too had lost her hat and looked about with a grimace. “Oh drat, where can it have gone to?”

Her long blonde hair had been pulled into cascading curls, but it was no longer tied with its ribbon, which with her hat was gone. Her hair hung loosely and was also quite windswept as it fell around her face and shoulders. Freddy looked at her and opened his m

outh to speak.

When nothing came out of his mouth Serena looked at him worriedly. “Freddy … what is it?”