hounds, who scattered like beads of mercury as I galloped through them, ensuring that in five short minutes, I’d broken every single rule in the book.
When I finally turned an enormous circle way out in the next field – the next county, probably – and headed back, Thumper galloping joyously to rejoin his new friends, Angie’s face was white and horrified. ‘What are you doing!’ she shrieked, appalled.
‘Couldn’t stop,’ I gasped, skidding up beside her and jolting to an ungainly halt, hat over my eyes. ‘Bolted.’
I wanted to die, actually. Knew I probably would soon, too. I felt green with fear, sick as a dog and way out of my depth.
‘But you’re making a complete tit of yourself!’ she hissed as, fortuitously, the whole field pulled up, pausing as they drew a copse.
‘I know!’ I wailed. ‘What shall I do, Angie? Shall I go home?’ I couldn’t look at Sam. I mean, the master.
‘No, don’t give up yet. Just keep at the back with the no-hopers. Come on, I’ll come with you.’ She turned her horse’s head.
‘No, Angie,’ I said quickly, knowing this was indeed the true hand of friendship. ‘You stay at the front, I’ll go.’
‘Well, look, see those stragglers?’ She pointed behind us with her whip. ‘The alkies and the point-to-pointers, the children – you go with them. And for Christ’s sake, don’t come up the front again.’
‘Righto,’ I said meekly, hauling on the reins, trying to make Thumper see reason; at least for long enough to let me join the hoi polloi.
As I rode towards them scarlet-faced, I realized they were laughing at me. But not altogether unkindly, and when they’d all introduced themselves, it became abundantly clear that they were not only hugely friendly, but much more accepting than the smart crowd. They didn’t mind a bit that it was my first time out and I’d broken every rule under the sun; in fact, once they’d dried their eyes and stopped holding their sides, they told me they’d all done it once, and that Angie was a complete pain in the tubes out hunting. She thought she ran the show and was only trying to get into the new master’s breeches. I laughed along rather disloyally, vowing never to be that obvious.
Off we set again, this time, happily, at a more sedate pace. Thumper, his initial gallop under his belt, seemed to settle; perhaps, like me, recognizing he’d lost the Darwinian struggle and acknowledging his true place with the novices at the back. And I had a rather jolly time of it with my new friends, one of whom was the ravishing redhead who’d stripped off at the meet, a nurse called Polly. Then there was an electrician called Sparks, on an equally sparky ex-racehorse; an old rogue called Gerald with come-to-bed cataracts; Ted the local butcher, his face like one of his cheaper cuts of beef; and my very own painter and decorator, Grant, on a huge coloured cob.
‘Grant! I didn’t recognize you in your hat! Didn’t know you did this sort of thing?’
‘Yeah, every week. I’d rather spend my money on this than send it down the red lane in the boozer. A farmer lends me his horse. Likes it exercised.’
I felt rather shamed as we cantered on. I’d always assumed hunting was the province of the hideously wealthy, but these people were not remotely privileged. It was clearly a sport like any other, and although you obviously needed the four legs beneath you to do it, they weren’t all pampered, expensive steeds like Angie’s, but shaggy, workmanlike beasts pulled in from the field, begged and borrowed.
‘My brother hunts in Ireland,’ Polly told me breathlessly when we finally drew up on the outskirts of a wood. ‘And over there the kids follow on bikes, donkeys, whatever. You don’t have to have a horse. It isn’t quite like that here, but we’re certainly not the Beaufort. You don’t have to join a queue to get in and you won’t get ticked off for not looking the part. Although I might just lend you a hairnet next time.’ She grinned.
‘Thanks!’ I grinned back thinking that this was more like it, and next time I really would look the part: no safety pins, no mud, but perhaps on Agnes, who’d be less scary. Yes, I could do this; but I’d take the slow route, not be in such a rush. The field was moving on again and I gathered my reins to go with them, but at