Рита Браун - The Hunt Ball

Tail hounds—Those hounds running at the rear of the pack. This is not necessarily because they aren’t keen; they may be older hounds.

Tally ho—The cheer when the fox is viewed. Derived from the Norman ty a hillaut, thus coming into the English language in 1066.

Tongue—To vocally pursue the fox.

View halloo (Halloa)—The cry given by a staff member who views a fox. Staff may also say tally ho or tally back should the fox turn back. One reason a different cry may be used by staff, especially in territory where the huntsman can’t see the staff, is that the field in their enthusiasm may cheer something other than a fox.

Vixen—The female fox.

Walk—Puppies are “walked out” in the summer and fall of their first year. It’s part of their education and a delight for puppies and staff.

Whippers-in—Also called whips, these are the staff members who assist the huntsman, who make sure the hounds “do right.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RITA MAE BROWN is the bestselling author of (among others) Rubyfruit Jungle, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Outfoxed, and a memoir Rita Will . She also collaborates with her tiger cat, Sneaky Pie, on the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Murphy mystery series. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and poet, she lives in Afton, Virginia. She is master and huntsman of the Oak Ridge Foxhunt Club, and is one of the directors of Virginia Hunt Week. She is also Visiting Faculty at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

BOOKS BY RITA MAE BROWN

WITH SNEAKY PIE BROWN

Wish You Were Here

Rest in Pieces

Murder at Monticello

Pay Dirt

Murder, She Meowed

Murder on the Prowl

Cat on the Scent

Sneaky Pie’s Cookbook for Mystery Lovers

Pawing Through the Past

Claws and Effect

Catch as Cat Can

Whisker of Evil

Cat’s Eyewitness

BOOKS BY RITA MAE BROWN

The Hand That Cradles the Rock

Songs to a Handsome Woman

The Plain Brown Rapper

Rubyfruit Jungle

In Her Day

Six of One

Southern Discomfort

Sudden Death

High Hearts

Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual

Bingo

Venus Envy

Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War

Riding Shotgun

Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser

Loose Lips

Outfoxed

Alma Mater

Hotspur

Full Cry

The Hunt Ball

The Hunt Ball 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 © 2005 by American Artists, Inc.

Title page illustrations copyright © 2005 by Lee Gildea Jr.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Rita Mae.

The hunt ball / Rita Mae Brown.

p. cm.

1. Arnold, Jane (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. School administrators—Crimes against—Fiction. 3. Women detectives—Virginia—Fiction. 4. Women hunters—Fiction. 5. Older women—Fiction. 6. Virginia—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3552.R698H86 2005

813'.54—dc22 2005045315

www.ballantinebooks.com

eISBN: 978-0-345-48594-6

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