A crack brought hound and human heads up.
“What was that?”
“No one’s sighting a rifle today,” Shaker said, hands fallen to his sides. He looked toward the north.
“Sound plays tricks in this weather. Could have been a backfire on Soldier Road,” Sister said halfheartedly.
“Small caliber,”Asa told them.
“Handgun,”Diana added, her ears lifted, her nose in the air. Although there was nothing to smell inside the draw pen, she still trusted her nose above all other senses.
“All right, boys.” Shaker led the boys to their door.
“Come on, girls.” Sister did the same for the gyps.
Once the hounds were in their proper kennels, both humans, without speaking to each other, walked out the front door of the main kennel to listen.
Far away they heard hoofbeats, trotting. As the sound came closer, they walked through the intensifying rain to the stable.
The girls inside had finished cleaning the tack.
“Can’t see a bloody thing.” Shaker felt uneasy.
“We came in in the nick of time.” As Sister reached for a towel hanging on a tack hook, Sybil materialized out of the fog, leading Trooper.
“Sybil?”
“Sister, I found him wandering through the orchard. Guess he jumped the fence by himself.”
A shaking Trooper stared wild-eyed at the people. The other horses, munching hay in their stalls, stopped.
“Girls, gently, gently, put him in the end stall, take his tack off, and wipe him down.”
As Trooper passed the others, he rolled his eyes.“Isaw the ghost. Ralph wouldn’t listen,”he kept babbling.
Keepsake, hoping to calm him, said,“There are a couple up there.”
Sybil dismounted as Jennifer took her reins.“Somehow Ralph became separated from the group, so I went out to look for him. Can’t find anything in this.”
Sister, worried, said,“He could be walking back here or to your farm. No telling.”
“Or he could be hurt.” Shaker said what she was thinking.
“Girls, take care of Sybil’s horse, too, please.”
“Yes, ma’am. Then can we help you look?” Sari asked.
She waited a moment, her mind racing.“Yes. Take care of Trooper and Marquise first.” Then, voice lower, as if speaking to herself, she murmured, “Trooper is a sensible horse.”
Shaker, his shirt soggy against his skin, touched Sybil’s elbow. “When did you last see Ralph?”
“At the gate between the cornfield and our line. The hand gate. Of course, couldn’t see anything, but that’s where I heard him last. Ken, Xavier, Ron, Ralph, and I decided to go through the gate to get back home. You couldn’t even see the coop anymore until you were right up on it. No sense getting hurt. But we got strung out.”
“The first thing to do is call your mother. It could be that everyone is back safe and sound.”
Sister hurried into the tack room, knowing in her bones that all was most emphatically not safe and sound.
CHAPTER 28
“And why weren’t you out hunting today?” Tedi, steaming cup of hot chocolate in hand, asked Cindy Chandler, the owner of Foxglove Farm.
The pretty blonde smiled.“I was going to go.”
“Sure, Weenie,” Betty Franklin, nursing roped coffee, teased. She’d roaded hounds back to the kennel and left her horse there. As a whipper-in, her concern was the hounds. And Sister never minded Betty putting her horse up in Sister’s barn. She’d driven Jennifer’s car to After All since Sister asked her to go on ahead and be her standin while she and Shaker removed collars.
“I really was. Cat Dancing and I are ready,” she mentioned her beloved mare, “but Clytemnestra and her calf, Orestes, broke down the back side of the fencing and escaped. Still haven’t found them.”
“Cindy, can’t you call that damned cow Bessie? Does it have to be Clytemnestra?” Betty checked her watch. “God, it’s terrible to have to work for a living. I’d better roll on.”
Tedi scanned her living room.“Sybil’s still not back.”
Betty frowned a moment.“Maybe she’s at the barn.”
Members had carried cakes, biscuits, and sandwiches they’d packed for a small tailgate into Tedi’s dining room. As with most spontaneous gatherings, it proved much more fun than the arduously planned variety.
Edward had shepherded the field back to his barns. Not often acting as field master, he had neglected to make a head count.
“Have any idea where the cow headed? Tracks?” Betty returned to the case of the missing cow and calf.
“I tracked her across Soldier Road but lost her trail in the wildflower meadows. This fog is unbelievable. Don’t know how you all were out there without getting lost.”
“Well, that’s another story.” Betty laughed.
“We were never lost. No, not the trusty Jefferson Hunt Club.” Ken sipped his coffee, a shot of Irish Mist adding immeasurably to his pleasure since he was wet and chilled.
“Rain dropped buckets on me, like the heavens had unzipped, so I went back home, took a hot shower, and then came over to ask Tedi and Edward to keep an eye out for Cly and Orestes. I’d better alert Sister, too,” Cindy thought out loud.
“Once this fog lifts, we’ll find her. She’s hard to miss,” Tedi said.
Clytemnestra, the black and white Holstein cow, was quite flashy. Her pastures, rich in redbud clover and alfalfa, should give the cow no reason for complaint, but Cly liked the excitement of escape. Also, she was nosy and wanted to see what was happening on other farms. She was teaching her offspring her tricks. Although still a little fellow, he eagerly absorbed his mother’s lessons. Their jailbreak over the summer when Sister, Walter, Shaker, and Doug built the new in and out jumps only inflamed them to further adventures.
People slowly began to head home. They checked on their horses in their trailers, then drove away.
“Hey,” Betty said, poking her head back inside the living room. She had left, gone to Jennifer’s car, then returned. “Ralph Assumptio’s trailer is down at the barn, but he wasn’t at the breakfast.”
“Edward,” Tedi called, and her husband came in from the library.
“What, dear?”
“Did you see Ralph at breakfast?”
“No, don’t think so.”
“Ken?” Tedi asked her son-in-law, who wanted to change clothes and head for the office.
He shook his head.“No.”
“Good God, he must still be out there.” Tedi blanched.
“Bobby brought up the rear,” Betty said. “We might reach him in the truck.” She walked into the kitchen to use the phone. Tedi followed. “Oh, Bobby, glad I got you. I’m still at the Bancrofts’. We can’t find Ralph.”
“What?”
“His trailer is here but he’s not, and no one remembers seeing him at breakfast.” Betty’s eyes met Tedi’s.
“The last time I saw Ralph was at the coop between the cornfields and the woods. A couple of guys were back there,” Bobby recalled.
“Let me talk to him.” Ken took the phone from Betty. “Hey, Bobby. Ronnie, Xavier, Ralph, and I had a drink while everyone was negotiating the coop. Sybil was back there with us, too. That’s the last time I saw him. You’re sure he didn’t come in and go home with someone else? Maybe put his horse on their trailer?”
“No.” Bobby felt terrible. His job was to bring up the rear.
Edward felt responsible, too.
“Ralph wouldn’t leave his trailer here without asking,” Tedi said, truly worried now.
As Ken talked to Bobby, the other line rang. Ken put Bobby on hold and heard Sister’s voice.
“Is Ralph there?” she inquired.
“No. We just noticed. I’m on the other line with Bobby.”
“We need to look for him. I’m sending Sybil to where Snake Creek feeds into Broad. She’ll follow the creek back to your covered bridge. Ralph’s smart enough to use the creek. Put Betty on.”
“Let me say good-bye to Bobby.”
“Tell him to stay at work. We have enough people to find Ralph. Okay?”
Ken relayed her message to Bobby, pressed the flashing button, and handed the phone to Betty.