Revelations an adaption of Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 156

Elizabeth had been very excited all morning, for after breakfast she would accompany Fitzwilliam and Frederick on a real fox hunt. Of course the hunt master would be there with the pack, but of the others only Nick had dared accept the invitation to join them, and only at Frederick's insistence that he would not be in their way. Frederick had asked Fitzwilliam whether it was acceptable to take Nick along, and her beloved had merely replied dryly, 'If you think Anne won't come to harm without her guard, it's fine by me. I'm not going to risk Elizabeth's neck too much in her first real hunt, so I suppose Nick can handle the speed and the jumps.'

Anne, Simon and Prince George would not be joining them, Prince George professed he preferred to listen to Eric as often as possible while he still could, but Elizabeth also guessed he probably couldn't handle going cross country and jumping, he was not in good shape and his horse would be sorely pressed to keep up with a bunch of hunters. Anne and Simon were still too inexperienced to partake safely, though Anne could probably have managed she'd said, 'I'm not going to run the risk of being a burden to you because my horse is not fast enough, and I wouldn't dare ride a borrowed hunter for the first time in a serious hunt. I'll stay at home and entertain our guest. Please take care of Nick, I worry he may be too self-assured and hurt himself and your hunter, Frederick.'

By then, the prince had already left the breakfast parlour with Georgiana and Eric, of all those assembled here they were most at ease with their guest, probably because they shared a love of music, giving them something relatively innocuous to talk about without fail. If they had time for talk, because music was a demanding mistress to Georgiana and Eric.

So now they were once again gathered by the stables, horses saddled and ready, Nick visibly eager to try Frederick's calmest hunter. Well, he was used to Liquor, this tall bay couldn't be much more difficult to handle than Nick's own black. Elizabeth doubted that the bay would perform better than Liquor, what he might lack in stamina and speed he made up for in determination, but of course a fox hunt wasn't just about performance, there was a certain atmosphere to it as well. The hounds were out and baying nervously, and even Barley was fidgeting, he wasn't used to being surrounded by deep-voiced predators, even if their attention was not on him but on Mr Oliver, the Pemberley hunt master.

'We will be riding three miles east towards the Lower Burton area, then let the hounds seek the trail of this fox we're supposed to do away with. It's a canny old creature and the villagers have begged me to do something about it, it's killing hens at the rate of one coop every other night, for more than two weeks now. The good people of Burton will soon have to do without eggs if this pillaging continues.

Mrs Darcy, Fowler, welcome in our midst, please remember, let the hounds do their job, and if they bring the fox to bay please do not get in the way of the gentlemen's guns. This creature really needs to die or we'll have a bunch of unhappy villagers on our hands.'

Nick and Elizabeth were not allowed a gun this first hunt, they were supposed to concentrate on staying in the saddle and keeping up. Carrying a loaded rifle was considered too dangerous on a man's first half dozen hunts, and with the noise and Barley's rising skittishness Elizabeth understood very well.

Nick nodded and said, 'I understand,' after which Elizabeth realised the hunt master wanted a spoken confirmation from her, too. Apparently he was like a captain on a ship, the ultimate authority whilst guiding them through a safe hunt. He knew every ditch and bush on his master's territory, and possibly all the foxes' lairs and badgers' dens in the area as well.

'I will keep a respectable distance, Mr Oliver,' Elizabeth promised.

Then they all mounted and with a signal to the hounds they were off. Fitzwilliam had a pack of seven hounds, which Elizabeth supposed was a small one, but still they took a lot of the hunt master and stable staff's time to take care of. They needed a lot of exercise, and they made a real mess of their kennels which someone had to clean up every day. Elizabeth wondered whether Fitzwilliam kept them for his pleasure or to do his duty to his tenants, she supposed they were the only effective means to keep the population of foxes and other pests under regulation.