Thrill of the Hunt by Rita Mae Brown

Author:Rita Mae Brown [Brown, Rita Mae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

October 1, 2020, Thursday

“Things pile up.” Sister folded a repaired winter horse blanket, which was heavy.

Betty also folded a blanket, lighter weight, letting it hang over her arm. “Where do you want to put these things?”

“Those that are specific to a horse, marked on top of the blanket, put in the tack box by their stall. Everyone has two tack boxes, so there should be room.”

“Okay. What about the spares?”

Sister stopped, stared at the growing pile of professionally cleaned spares. “There isn’t room for one more tack trunk in the tack room. We need them here. I don’t want to walk to the kennel or some other building to fetch them.”

“Me neither, because it will be cold and maybe snowing. Why not wrap them all in plastic and put them up in the hayloft?”

“Don’t we need something heavier?”

“Yes, but until that time just wrap them up, and that way we can easily carry them. Then we can throw a heavy tarp over them. Until something better occurs to us.”

“Betty, you are so smart.”

That task took another forty-five minutes. Neither woman wanted to climb the ladder affixed to the wall to the hayloft, lean down, and try to grab a wrapped blanket handed up from below. So Betty tied rope around each blanket, tossed the end up to the Master, who then hauled it up hand over hand. Once the blanket was in the hay loft, Sister untied the rope, dropped it back down, and put the blankets in a corner that had been cleaned out.

Done, Sister climbed down the ladder. Both women repaired to the tack room, dropping in chairs.

“Glad that’s done.” Sister sighed. “Want tea?”

“I’ll make it.” Betty rose, walked to the small hotplate in the spacious tack room. “Won’t take but a minute. Feels raw, like rain’s coming. I need something warm even with the heat turned on.”

“This time of year you never know. It can be seventy one day and forty the next, but you’re right that rain is raw.” Sister glanced at the large thermometer on the wall, advertising horse feed. “Says fifty-four. Feels like forties.”

“Does.” Betty poured the hot water on the tea bags.

A rumble from the motor of a big Ram truck alerted them just as rain began to fall. The motor cut off, a light rap on the door revealed Ryan Stokes.

“Come on in.” Sister motioned for him to open the door.

“Starting to really come down out there.” Ryan brushed off his jacket.

“Tea?” Betty inquired.

“No thanks. Thought I’d drop off more footage. See what you like.” He pulled a DVD out of his pocket, handing it to Sister.

“Sit down, Ryan, and thank you.”

He sat in a director’s chair, stretched his feet out, the soles of his boots wet.

“You surprised me at Mud Fence Farm.” Sister smiled.

“I should have called you. It was a last-minute decision. I looked at the weather, saw rain in the forecast with a question mark, and thought, ‘Well, I’ll shoot Mud Fence.’ The history of the place, the big earthen fences are cool.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.