Outfoxed
Page 34
The horses blew out of their large nostrils. Everyone was glad to be turning back toward the trailers and toward an impromptu tailgate.
Bunny, riding with Mrs. Norton, her boss and dear friend, pulled off to the side then fell in with Crawford, Marty, and the three girls, whom she called “The Three Amuses.”
“Where were you?” She stared accusingly at Tootie, wet from the knees down. Her eyes passed to a very silent Valentina and Felicity.
Crawford quickly answered. “I fell behind and the girls stayed with me and then I had the bad luck to slip in Broad Creek. If it weren’t for Tootie, Czpaka would have run off. You’ve trained your girls well, Bunny, I’m certainly grateful.”
She beamed at the praise. Bunny’s ego rested close to the surface. “I’m so glad they could be of service to you, Crawford.”
“Yes, thank you, girls.” Marty smiled broadly at the three kids, each pretty in her own way, although Tootie’s green eyes just jumped out at one.
As Bunny turned to ride up to Charlotte Norton, Crawford winked.
“Mr. Howard, she would have torn us a new one,” Valentina sighed. “Thank you.”
“Yes, I owe you one, sir. It’s our fault Czpaka spooked.” Tootie truly was contrite.
“This is foxhunting,” he said and winked. “All for one and one for all.”
Each Custis Hall student made note that she’d heard that earlier. They would find out soon enough how critical and testing that philosophy was: simple, true, and to the bone.
Praise for Rita Mae Brown
OUTFOXED
“Compelling . . . engaging . . . [a] sly whodunit . . . a surprise finish . . . [Brown] succeeds in conjuring a world in which prey are meant to survive the chase and foxes are knowing collaborators (with hunters and hounds) in the rarefied rituals that define the sport.”—People
“A rich, atmospheric murder mystery steeped in the world of Virginia foxhunting . . . rife with love, scandal, anger, transgression, redemption, greed and nobility, all of which make good reading.”—San Jose Mercury News
“A snappy mystery . . . [Brown] does a masterly job of putting you in the saddle.”—Baltimore Sun
“Original, funny, poignant, irresistible: Brown’s best work in years. . . . Not since Anthony Trollope has foxhunting been so vividly novelized.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
HOTSPUR
“Brown is a keen plotter who advances her story with well-placed clues and showy suspects.”
—New York Times Book Review
“A dashing and vibrant novel . . . The author portrays the hunt family with such warmth and luxury of detail, one feels a friendship with each and every character, animals included. The reader will romp through the book like a hunter on a thoroughbred, never stopping for a meal or a night’s sleep.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Brown combines her strengths—exploring southern families, manners, and rituals as well as the human-animal bond—to bring in a winner.”—Booklist
“Beautifully written . . . a terrific book, rich in loving detail, with scandal, redemption, greed, nobility, love, horses, dogs (hounds, of course) and foxes making it an original, funny, wonderful escape for all readers.”
—Sullivan County Democrat
FULL CRY
“A solidly crafted mystery with interesting characters and a nice sense of place. The rolling hills of the Virginia hunt country are beautiful, and all the gentility makes it a perfect place to plop a dead body.”—Toronto Globe and Mail
“As usual, Brown offers a quality tale that is over all too soon.”—Charleston Post and Courier
“A great ride with heroine ‘Sister’ Jane Arnold.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
RITA MAE BROWN is the bestselling author of (among others) Ruby fruit Jungle, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Outfoxed, and a memoir, Rita Will. She also collaborates with her tiger cat, Sneaky Pie, on the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Murphy mystery series. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and poet, she lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is master and huntsman of the Oak Ridge Foxhunt Club.
Books by Rita Mae Brown with Sneaky Pie Brown
WISH YOU WERE HERE
REST IN PIECES
MURDER AT MONTICELLO
PAY DIRT
MURDER, SHE MEOWED
MURDER ON THE PROWL
CAT ON THE SCENT
SNEAKY PIE’S COOKBOOK FOR MYSTERY LOVERS
PAWING THROUGH THE PAST
CLAWS AND EFFECTS
CATCH AS CAT CAN
WHISKER OF EVIL
CAT’S EYEWITNESS
Books by Rita Mae Brown
THE HAND THAT CRADLES THE ROCK
SONGS TO A HANDSOME WOMAN
THE PLAIN BROWN RAPPER
RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE
IN HER DAY
SIX OF ONE
SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT
SUDDEN DEATH
HIGH HEARTS
STARTING FROM SCRATCH: A DIFFERENT KIND OF WRITERS’ MANUAL
BINGO
VENUS ENVY
DOLLEY: A NOVEL OF DOLLEY MADISON IN LOVE AND WAR
RIDING SHOTGUN
RITA WILL: MEMOIR OF A LITERARY RABBLE-ROUSER
LOOSE LIPS
OUTFOXED
ALMA MATER
HOTSPUR
FULL CRY
THE HUNT BALL
Outfoxed is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
2005 Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 1999 by American Artists, Inc.
Excerpt from The Hunt Ball copyright © 2005 by American Artists, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1999.
This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming edition of The Hunt Ball by Rita Mae Brown. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Brown, Rita Mae.
Outfoxed / Rita Mae Brown.
p. cm.
I. Title.
PS3552.R698097 2000
813’.54—dc21 99-44243
CIP
www.ballantinebooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-345-48596-0
v3.0