Thrill of the hunt, p.1
Thrill of the Hunt, page 1
Thrill of the Hunt 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.
Copyright © 2022 by American Artists, Inc.
Illustrations copyright © 2022 by Lee Gildea, Jr.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Ballantine and the House colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brown, Rita Mae, author. | Gildea, Lee, Jr., illustrator.
Title: Thrill of the hunt: a novel / Rita Mae Brown; illustrated by Lee Gildea.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000440 (print) | LCCN 2022000441 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593357606 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593357613 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
Classification: LCC PS3552.R698 T48 2022 (print) | LCC PS3552.R698 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000440
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000441
Ebook ISBN 9780593357613
randomhousebooks.com
Cover design: Victoria Allen
Cover illustration: Peter Malone
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Cast of Characters
Useful Terms
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Other Titles
About the Author
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE HUMANS
Jane Arnold, MFH, “Sister,” runs the Jefferson Hunt. MFH stands for “Master of Foxhounds,” the individual who runs the hunt, deals with every crisis both on and off the field. She is strong, bold, loves her horses and her hounds. Decades ago, her fourteen-year-old son was killed in a tractor accident. That loss deepened her, taught her to cherish every minute. She’s had lots of minutes, as she’s in her early seventies, but she has no concept of age.
Shaker Crown, the huntsman, suffered a bad accident last season. He is hoping to recover, has seen specialists, but while he can ride he can’t risk another fall.
Gray Lorillard isn’t cautious in the hunt field, but he is cautious off it, as he was a partner in one of the most prestigious accounting firms in D.C. He knows how the world really works and, although retired, is often asked to solve problems at his former firm. He is smart, handsome, in his mid-sixties, and is African American.
Crawford Howard is best described by Aunt Daniella, who commented, “There’s a great deal to be said about new money and Crawford means to say it all.” He started an outlaw pack of hounds when Sister did not ask him to be her joint master. Slowly, he is realizing you can’t push people around in this part of the world. Fundamentally, he is a decent and generous man.
Sam Lorillard is Gray’s younger brother. He works at Crawford’s stables. Crawford hired Sam when no one else would, so Sam is loyal. He blew a full scholarship to Harvard thanks to the bottle. He’s good with horses. His brother saved him and he’s clean, but so many people feel bad about what might have been. He focuses on the future.
Daniella Laprade is Gray and Sam’s aunt. She is an extremely healthy nonagenarian who isn’t above shaving a year or two off her age. She may even be older than her stated ninety-four. Her past is dotted with three husbands and numerous affairs, all carried out with discretion.
Wesley Blackford, “Weevil”—he’s just tipped over thirty, is divinely handsome, loves hounds. He fills in for the injured Shaker Crown, whom he respects. Weevil has brilliance and the foundation of ballast.
Anne Harris, “Tootie,” left Princeton in her freshman year, as she missed foxhunting in Virginia so very much. Her father had a cow, cut her out of his will. She takes classes at the University of Virginia and is now twenty-four and shockingly beautiful. She is African American.
Yvonne Harris, Tootie’s mother, is a former model who has fled Chicago and her marriage. She divorced Victor Harris, a hard-driving businessman who built an African American media empire. She built it with him. She is trying to understand Tootie, feels she was not so much a bad mother as an absent one. Her experience has been different from her daughter’s, and Tootie’s freedoms were won by Yvonne’s generation and those prior. Yvonne doesn’t understand that Tootie doesn’t get this.
Margaret DuCharme, M.D., is Alfred DuCharme’s daughter and she’s acted as a go-between for her father and her uncle, Binky DuCharme, since childhood. Her cousin, Binky’s son Arthur, also acts as a go-between and both the cousins are just fed up with it. They are in their early forties, Margaret being more successful than Arthur, but he’s happy enough.
Walter Lungren, M.D., JT-MFH, is a cardiologist who has hunted with Sister since his boyhood. He is the late Raymond Arnold’s son, which Sister knows. No one talks about it and Walter’s father always acted as though he were Walter’s father. It’s the way things are done around here. Let sleeping dogs lie.
Betty Franklin is an honorary whipper-in, which means she doesn’t get paid. Whippers-in emit a glamorous sheen to other foxhunters and it is a daring task. One must know a great deal and be able to ride hard, jump high, think in a split second. She is Sister’s best friend and in her mid-fifties. Everyone loves Betty.
Bobby Franklin especially loves Betty, as he is her husband. He leads Second Flight, those riders who may take modest jumps but not the big ones. He and Betty own a small printing press and nearly lost their shirts when computers started printing out stuff. But people have returned to true printing, fine papers, etc. They’re doing okay.
Kasmir Barbhaiya made his money in India in pharmaceuticals. Educated in an English public school, thence on to Oxford, he is highly intelligent and tremendously wealthy. Widowed, he moved to Virginia to be close to an old Oxford classmate and his wife. He owns marvelous horses and rides them well. He thought he would forever be alone but the Fates thought otherwise. Love had found him in the form of Alida Dalzell.
Edward and Tedi Bancroft, in their eighties, are stalwarts of the Jefferson Hunt and dear friends of Sister’s. Evangelista, Edward’s deceased sister, had an affair with Weevil’s grandfather; although hushed up, it caused uproar in the Bancroft family.
Ben Sidell is the county sheriff, who is learning to hunt and loves it. Nonni, his horse, takes good care of him. He learns far more about the county by hunting than if he just stayed in his squad car. He dates Margaret DuCharme, M.D., an unlikely pairing that works.
Cynthia Skiff Kane hunts Crawford’s outlaw pack. Crawford has gone through three other huntsmen but Cynthia can handle him. Sam Lorillard helps, too.
Cindy Chandler owns Foxglove Farm, one of the Jefferson fixtures. She’s a good friend and a good foxhunter.
Freddie Thomas has run her small accounting business for years and is a CPA in her early fifties. She is a good friend of Alida Dalzell. As the IRS grows insanely complex as well as being deeply unfair she has grown to hate her work, but she cares for her clients so she hangs in there. She rarely talks about her profession. She is a good rider, a very sensible person.
Greg Wilson is in his mid-fifties. He owns a large lumberyard. He is a newer foxhunter, catching up fast. He is generous.
Risë Wilson has been a good wife and a loving mother. She thought her life was perfect.
Arnold Synder owns and runs a successful semi-truck sales company. Covid has slowed business, but he is hanging in there.
Ransom Patrick, a resourceful slave who worked with Sophie Marquette, helped to raid British pay wagons during the War of 1812. He lived an eventful life from 1790 to 1853.
William Odegaard is not conspicuously successful. He is in his early thirties, semi-literate, and accused of theft and blackmail.
Gardner Thompkins is slightly more successful than William. He
Ryan Stokes has ambition. He is a videographer, has a video blog, which has a growing viewership. He wants to have a studio in Richmond and a much larger audience. He shoots ads for businesses to pump up income. He is good at it.
Ayanda Freedman assists Ryan. She excels at editing but helps shoot footage. She is quiet.
Sally Taliaferro, pronounced Tolliver, is the new Episcopal priest at Emmanuel Episcopal in Greenwood, Virginia. She, too, rides.
Kathleen Sixt Dunbar inherited the 1780 House, a high-end antiques store, last year. She’s becoming part of the community. Her Welsh terrier, Abdul, helps at the store.
THE AMERICAN FOXHOUNDS
Lighter than the English foxhound, with a somewhat slimmer head, they have formidable powers of endurance and remarkable noses.
Cora is the head female. What she says goes.
Asa is the oldest hunting male hound, and he is wise.
Diana is steady, in the prime of her life, and brilliant. There’s no other word for her but brilliant.
Dasher, Diana’s littermate, is often overshadowed by his sister, but he sticks to business and is coming into his own.
Dragon is also a littermate of the above “D” hounds. He is arrogant, can lose his concentration, and tries to lord his intelligence over other hounds.
Dreamboat is of the same breeding as Diana, Dasher, and Dragon, but a few years younger.
Hounds take the first initial of their mother’s name. Following are hounds ordered from older to younger. No unentered hounds are included in this list. An unentered hound is not yet on the Master of Foxhounds stud books and not yet hunting with the pack. They are in essence kindergartners. Trinity, Tinsel, Trident, Ardent, Thimble, Twist, Tootsie, Trooper, Taz, Tattoo, Parker, Pickens, Zane, Zorro, Zandy, Giorgio, Pookah, Pansy, Audrey, Aero, Angle, Aces are young but entered. The “B” line and the “J” line have been just entered, are just learning the ropes.
THE HORSES
Keepsake, TB/QH, Bay; Lafayette, TB, gray; Rickyroo, TB, Bay; Aztec, TB, Chestnut; Matador, TB, Flea-bitten gray. All are Sister’s geldings.
Showboat, Hojo, Gunpowder, and Kilowatt, all TBs, are Shaker’s horses.
Outlaw, QH, Buckskin, and Magellan, TB, Dark Bay (which is really black), are Betty’s horses.
Wolsey, TB, Flaming Chestnut, is Gray’s horse. His red coat gave him his name, for Cardinal Wolsey.
Iota, TB, Bay, is Tootie’s horse.
Matchplay and Midshipman are young Thoroughbreds of Sister’s that are being brought along. It takes good time to make a solid foxhunter. Sister never hurries a horse or a hound in its schooling.
Trocadero is young, smart, being trained by Sam Lorillard.
Old Buster has become a babysitter. Like Trocadero, he is owned by Crawford Howard. Sam uses him for Yvonne Harris.
THE FOXES
Reds
Aunt Netty, older, lives at Pattypan Forge. She is overly tidy and likes to give orders.
Uncle Yancy is Aunt Netty’s husband but he can’t stand her anymore. He lives at the Lorillard farm, has all manner of dens and cubbyholes, as well as a place in the mudroom.
Charlene lives at After All Farm. She comes and goes.
Target (a gray) is Charlene’s mate but he stays at After All. The food supply is steady and he likes the other animals.
Earl has the restored stone stables at Old Paradise all to himself. He has a den in a stall but also makes use of the tack room. He likes the smell of the leather.
Sarge is young. He found a den in big boulders at Old Paradise thanks to help from a doe. It’s cozy with straw, old clothing bits, and even a few toys.
James lives behind the mill at Mill Ruins. He is not very social but from time to time will give the hounds a good run.
Ewald is a youngster who was directed to a den in an outbuilding during a hunt. Poor fellow didn’t know where he was. The outbuilding at Mill Ruins will be a wonderful home as long as he steers clear of James.
Mr. Nash, young, lives at Close Shave, a farm about six miles from Chapel Cross. Given the housing possibilities and the good food, he is drawn to Old Paradise, which is being restored by Crawford Howard.
Grays
Comet knows everybody and everything. He lives in the old stone foundation part of the rebuilt log-and-frame cottage at Roughneck Farm.
Inky is so dark she’s black and she lives in the apple orchard across from the above cottage. She knows the hunt schedule and rarely gives hounds a run. They can just chase someone else.
Georgia moved to the old schoolhouse at Foxglove Farm.
Grenville lives at Mill Ruins, in the back in a big storage shed. This part of the estate is called Shootrough.
Gris lives at Tollbooth Farm in the Chapel Cross area. He’s very clever and can slip hounds in the batting of an eye.
Hortensia also lives at Mill Ruins. She’s in another outbuilding. All are well constructed and all but the big hay sheds have doors that close, which is wonderful in bad weather.
Vi, young, is the mate of Gris, also young. They live at Tollbooth Farm in pleasant circumstances.
THE BIRDS
Athena, the great horned owl, is two and a half feet tall with a four-foot wingspan. She has many places where she will hole up but her true nest is in Pattypan Forge. It really beats being in a tree hollow. She’s gotten spoiled.
Bitsy is eight and a half inches tall with a twenty-inch wingspan. Her considerable lungs make up for her tiny size as she is a screech owl, aptly named. Like Athena, she’ll never live in a tree again, because she’s living in the rafters of Sister’s stable. Mice come in to eat the fallen grain. Bitsy feels like she’s living in a supermarket.
St. Just, a foot and a half in height with a surprising wingspan of three feet, is a jet-black crow. He hates foxes but is usually sociable with other birds.
SISTER’S HOUSE PETS
Raleigh, a sleek, highly intelligent Doberman, likes to be with Sister. He gets along with the hounds, walks out with them. He tries to get along with the cat, but she’s such a snob.
Rooster is a Harrier bequeathed to Sister by a dear friend. He likes riding in the car, walking out with hounds, watching everybody and everything. The cat drives him crazy.
Golliwog, or “Golly,” is a long-haired calico. All other creatures are lower life-forms. She knows Sister does her best, but still. Golly is Queen of All She Surveys.
USEFUL TERMS
Away. A fox has gone away when he has left the covert. Hounds are away when they have left the covert on the line of the fox.
Brush. The fox’s tail.
Burning scent. Scent so strong or hot that hounds pursue the line without hesitation.
Bye day. A day not regularly on the fixture card.
Cap. The fee nonmembers pay to hunt for that day’s sport.
Carry a good head. When hounds run well together to a good scent, a scent spread wide enough for the whole pack to feel it.
Carry a line. When hounds follow the scent. This is also called working a line.
Cast. Hounds spread out in search of scent. They may cast themselves or be cast by the huntsman.
Charlie. A term for a fox. A fox may also be called Reynard.
Check. When hounds lose the scent and stop. The field must wait quietly while the hounds search for the scent.
Colors. A distinguishing color, usually worn on the collar but sometimes on the facings of a coat, that identifies a hunt. Colors can be awarded only by the Master and can be worn only in the field.
