“Elliott, they’re coming back your way,” William said. “If you can keep Griffen from watching you, I’d appreciate a report.”
“She’s lost her radio again,” Griffen said with way too much enjoyment, “but I’m of course keeping an eye on her. You may or may not get a full report on the pack.”
How embarrassing. Endless abuse for couples in the hunt field. And it was now all too obvious that we were exactly that.
“Give me that radio!” I snapped. But Griffen used my lunge for his radio as an excuse to grab my hand and pull me over to him for a kiss, nearly unseating me from Viva.
“Now who’s being the problem?” he grinned. “You’re shamelessly attacking me in the hunt field in broad daylight. Where are your manners?”
I smacked him playfully with my hunting whip and turned Viva toward the woods where the hounds were working. “We had better watch that covert, or we’ll catch more abuse,” I said, referring to the woods where the hounds were hunting.
“Bring it on,” he said. “They’re just jealous.”
“You’re going to get me fired,” I said even though we were all volunteers.
“Not likely.”
Sounder’s and Spice’s cries joined Rufus’s baritone voice. They were getting closer, and Griffen and I crept to the edge of the covert to hide behind some trees. From this point, we could see anything that either ran out into the field or along the edges.
Viva’s heart pounded beneath my knees and mine, too, raced. Hounds were together as a pack or “all on” and coming very hard right at us. Their lovely chorus filled the woods and echoed through my soul. Seconds passed seeming like minutes, and we stared with our peripheral vision watching for movement. So many times, game is harder to see when looking intently at a specific spot. Over the years I had learned to take in the whole landscape watching more for movement than forms.
A flash of something…there it was – no, there they were – first a gray-brown streak, then a jet black spot – black standing out like an exclamation point in the gray landscape. Two heartbeats later, Rufus was behind them, then Sounder and Spice. By that time, we were galloping parallel to the pack, keeping up with the coyotes and encouraging them to remain on their current, safe, course.
Griffen and Jet galloped alongside us, Griffen reporting the two coyotes and the pack’s order after them. We were moving blindingly fast and relished the exhilaration, speed, freedom, and elation from these moments. Coyotes were running together – glorious!
Suddenly, things changed, and the black coyote stopped, turned toward the pack, and darted straight for us. Griffen was on it first and tried to send it back to the other one. With a yell and crack of his whip, Griffen startled the coyote into returning to its original course, for now. At this speed, another split pack would be difficult to remedy, so we had to do all we could to keep them together.
The coyotes turned east, but we had to go north to jump out of the pasture. We spurred our horses to gallop as fast as they could to the coop, slowed ever so slightly for balance, and shot over, Griffen ahead acting as my pilot. I love it when he does things like that. Even better than opening doors for me. Such the gentleman.
We flew across the pasture, and the coyotes had remained true to their path…or so it seemed. The gray-brown one appeared, and we waited…one second…two…hounds singing, still moving east – not as far north as we had traveled – nothing behind him. We galloped over to his line, or the place where he came out of the woods, and waited, no hounds on him – all must be on the black. Griffen reported to William, and we dashed north of the pack, still going east.
One more coop, and we were out on a gravel road – flying floating – some shacks appeared – people on the porch – I smiled and waved to them as we sped by – they gaped at us and cheered us on – little yappy dogs barking in indignation as we blew past – hooves clattering on the gravel. I stayed well behind and to one side of Griffen, avoiding the many rocks that fired like bullets from Jet’s hooves. Occasionally one would spark – I never tired of noticing things like that at a gallop. Wonder if a galloping horse ever set a pasture on fire?
We heard the hounds but paused to listen and get a bearing on their course. Too much radio chatter…Lydia was snapping at Stephen, typical Lydia, and Susan said they were approaching her. Griffen and I were way north of the action, so we remained in place. We were in a good position should the hounds turn but were of no use at this point until they did.
His interpretation of the situation was like mine, so of course, he rode over to Viva and me to take advantage of some rare alone time. Steam rose from Jet’s heaving sides, and his black coat shimmered with sweat. Jet impatiently turned his head toward the hounds’ distant cries, but Griffen gently urged him toward us.
“I love doing that with you, Elliott,” he said as they moved in place beside us, “almost as much as I love doing this…” He doffed his cap and leaned in to kiss me ever so softly on the lips.
I was always glad to be sitting when he did that. My body went limp – I never knew if he was going to grab me and yank me over to him with a jolt or surprise me with a soft one. Either way was fine, but I could never tell. He kept me off balance…all the time.
Viva pranced, and he leaned in for another gentle kiss and sat back on Jet, assessing the damage. His green eyes glowed with mischief as he smugly watched my expression clear.
“Like that?” he asked, his voice a low growl.
“A little,” I said, my voice catching. I cleared it to recover some composure. “I hear Rufus again.”
“Oh, that’s great. Perfect timing.”
Jet had already started trotting toward the approaching pack, and we stopped at the next pasture. This time, we were very near the north line of this section of the property and would need to turn the coyote back into the hunt country or stop the pack if they came this far. We watched and listened as they approached. The voices were loud but indistinguishable in the wind. As if on cue, the black coyote sprinted out – not even looking tired – and headed straight north.
I can never get enough of seeing these magnificent, arrogant, aloof creatures, and my heart skipped a beat. Griffen, too, was transfixed by his appearance but only for a moment.
At that instant, we bolted toward where the coyote was running – we would have only seconds to get to him in time to turn him – if he would allow it. Jet flew past the black missile with his head lowered and ears back as if he would tear the coyote to pieces if he dared to pass. The coyote did not hesitate as he fled north. Griffen and Jet were on him – Viva and I two lengths behind.
The coyote paused just long enough for Jet to overrun and realize his mistake. Viva stretched to cover the gap, but we were too late, and the black coyote passed between us. Rufus and the pack were not far behind, so our full attention was now on them.
“Hold up!” Griffen yelled and cracked his whip. His whip sounded like a gun, and the hounds lifted their heads.
“Hounds hold up!” I said with him and cracked mine too, but with not nearly as much panache. Mine sounded like a pitiful hiss compared to his.
Miraculously, we were able to stop the pack. To ensure they would not continue after the coyote, Griffen had dismounted and snapped couples, or leather leash-like ties, on Rufus and the other lead hounds to make it difficult for them to charge off. Now the main hounds were connected to other hounds in pairs, so they could not leave on their own.
William rode up, delighted to see us with the pack.
“Well done, you two,” he beamed. “I’m very impressed, Griffen, that you stayed focused.”
“That’s quite enough, William!” I said, feeling the blush rise, and trying to sound more piqued than I was. This was all so embarrassing and not at all helping the situation with Lydia. I didn’t care what Lydia thought, but I disliked tension between anyone with whom I shared this pastime. She had never liked me, even before Griffen came along. In spite of my efforts at making peace, our already tense relati
onship was teetering tentatively toward disaster. Lydia, the lanky, gorgeous blonde, had never failed in her efforts to snare whatever guy she wanted…until she met Griffen. Griffen had made a point to ignore her for years, and his recent attention toward a plain brunette like me that she never liked in the first place was more than she could handle.
With William present, the hounds were not likely to stray, so Griffen unsnapped the couples, and we roaded, or took them back to the hunt house for the hunt breakfast. My friends, Ashley and Leslie, had come today and had already laid out the food. Although Ashley rarely hunted, and Leslie never rode, they loved to be around for the Saturday parties…and to check out any new guys.
Ashley was on the prowl again, and I was certain she would find a target this afternoon with so many riders present. I had not noticed anything except Griffen, so she’ll be on her own with that. Leslie was just along for the ride. She had no serious boyfriend but was not at all as concerned with that as Ashley. She just went with the flow. Ashley always had a plan.
“Elliott, take Jet, please,” Griffen said, snapping me out of my musings. “I’ll take care of the hound chores if you’ll fix me a plate.”
The hunt members always brought an impressive spread of potluck items for the breakfast. A few loyal souls often took it upon themselves to prepare quite a repast. Most of the time, however, staff like Griffen and me got shorted on the best dishes, for we had to spend extra time caring not only for our horses, but also the hounds.
I took Jet’s reins from Griffen and led him over to the trailer. When Viva and I reached our spot, I dismounted and slipped Viva’s halter over her bridle and flipped Jet’s reins back over his neck. While I got Viva organized, Jet walked to his place and waited for me to bring him his apple. Jet was ridiculously smart and usually told me what he wanted.
Before securing Jet to the trailer, I let Panzer, Griffen’s grizzly-sized Chesapeake Bay Retriever, out of the trailer’s tack room, grabbed the apples, and put the horses’ hay nets within their reach. Panzer was glad to be free but way too dignified to bound around in glee. He yawned and stretched and gently “held” my hand in his mouth in appreciation.
“You smell so fine,” Griffen said into my neck, and I almost kicked him in surprise.
“How do you do that?!” I snapped but leaned back into his arms after restarting my heart. Why bother? He’s just going to stop it again.
He chuckled and spun me around to face him. “All the hounds were in and the others had everything else under control. Let’s make this quick, shall we?” he said and pulled me toward the clubhouse where everyone was gathered. My heart did a little flutter at his double meaning – exactly what did he want to make quick? Unfortunately, his intentions were grabbing a quick lunch and not, well, some alone time. “I have plans for us this afternoon that don’t involve thirty people.”
“Well, and what if I have plans?” I said to stall him, not ready to go to the clubhouse to chatter with the masses and stood my ground. We were, after all, hidden behind his trailer for the moment in a little cove of privacy. I wanted a kiss right here – now, not later. Who knows how long I’d have to wait once he started eating, and I’m sure everyone would want to talk about the day, and…
“Cancel them,” he said in his distinctive growl, turned back to me, and leaned in closer, eyes sparkling.
Ha! That stopped him. Oh my goodness, those eyes.
“And if I don’t want to?” I pouted and looked up at him under my eyelashes and blinked. Surely that will do it.
“You will,” he said and kissed my neck.
Even better. My whole body shuddered. “You’re right,” I said and smiled to myself. Worked him like a charm…for once…
“I want to take you shooting this afternoon,” he said as he loaded Panzer back into his box. “We can leave the horses here in the paddock. The sporting clays range is twenty minutes away. What do you say?”
“Sure,” I said, not having any idea what else to say.
“It won’t take long,” he said, reading my indecision. “And I think you’ll like it. I brought you a gun if you want to shoot.”
“Me? Shoot?” I asked, stunned. “I really don’t think I’m ready to kill anything, Griffen. Even if we eat it.”
“We’re not killing anything, just clay targets – it’s fun. You’ll see,” he said.
“I don’t have a change of clothes.”
“You look fine,” he said. “I promise it will not matter. You brought your Barbour, and you can wear that instead of your red coat.”
I never got used to being given wardrobe advice, but he’d not steered me wrong yet. We passed through the clubhouse gathering food we could transport and saying our polite “goodbyes.” Addy had returned my radio to William, and she tried to corral me into a double date with her and Ben that evening. I agreed to lunch after church the next day, but begged off on evening accompaniment. These couples that were together all the time had it made. Griffen and I lived nearly four hours apart, so we treasured our solitude.
As I was leaving, I caught Lydia’s eye, and she glared. Somehow, I thought that was funny and laughed as I hugged Leslie goodbye. Over Leslie’s shoulder I saw Ashley being cornered by a distinguished-looking guy, or maybe even a man. I’ll get the details on that adventure later. I waved at her, and she winked.
Griffen had already unhooked the trailer, untacked both horses, and turned them out into the paddock. They rolled with pleasure, feet flying up and bodies flailing around on the ground. Each stood and shook with delight, and they pranced around to inspect their spot. They nibbled the hay Griffen put out for them and grazed nose-to-nose as content in each other’s company as we were.
“You ready for this?” he asked, smiling down at me as he helped me into his truck.
“As long as I’m with you,” I said and beamed at him, truly happy to be escaping the crowd.
“You are too good to be true,” he said and touched my cheek lightly with his finger.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Also by Allison Crews
Impasse – Antithesis Series Book Two
Nemesis – Antithesis Series Book Three
www.AllisonCrewsBooks.com
About the Author
Allison Crews lives with her husband, two boys, and an endless supply of horses, retrievers, cats, and numerous other animals on a farm in central Mississippi. She graduated from the University of Mississippi with a master’s degree in business administration and an undergraduate degree in English.
Also by Allison Crews
Impasse – Antithesis Series Book Two
Nemesis – Antithesis Series Book Three
www.AllisonCrewsBooks.com
Antithesis Page 29