Female hunt club member gets excited witnessing kills at the annual Hunt Club Field Day.
Disclaimer: The following is purely a work of fiction, and bears no connection to actual persons, living or dead. Although written for entertainment purposes, the author acknowledges that the content would be considered obscene, offensive, and indeed perverted by almost any community standards. The story contains scenes of torture, murder and cannibalism. If you don't like those themes, don't read this story. The author neither endorses nor approves any of these practices and indeed actively opposes any real-life enactment of the themes described in this fiction. While some may find the stories erotic (that 's why they were written), the author strongly believes that the proper place for the acts described is strictly limited to the imagination.
Taryn walked over to have a look at the prey that the hunters had collected for the field day hunt. The sun was warm, but the breeze on her shoulders was still refreshingly cool at this time of the morning. Taryn wore a simple black bandeau top, five inches of fitted leather circling her chest, leaving the upper curves of her firm breasts bare to catch the rays of the morning sun. Black leather pants hugged her hip bones and round ass, the strap of a G-string peeking unintentionally above the low waist (Taryn was not a fan of the 'exposed underwear' fashion). Nearly covered by the long pant legs, black stingray leather boots scattered drops of dew from the thick grass as she walked towards the paddock.
The group of five women was a mixed bag - and collectively promised an all-round good day. Two, although by no means fat, were a trifle on the wrong side of fit. From experience Taryn judged that their meat would be the most succulent once they had been caught and bar-b-qued. One lean, muscular woman, diligently stretching and warming her muscles as Taryn watched, looked like she might give the hunters a good chase. A good chase always made Field Day more exciting, although none of the prey had ever succeeded in escaping, and Taryn didn't think for a minute that this year would be any different. (In any case, even if by some miracle one of the prey did manage to reach the edge of the estate, the innocent looking fence that ringed the property was rigged to be electrified with high-voltage on hunt days. A girl might rob the hunters of the kill, but she could never rob the Club of its prey.) The other two fell somewhere in between these extremes.
Taryn turned away when one of the prey, a beautiful young girl with full breasts and a flat stomach, saw her watching and tried to plead with her for help. Taryn enjoyed the hunt, and the resulting banquets, as much as any of the hunters, and she was not about to listen to the blatherings of prey. Taryn was a thrill junkie and there was no greater thrill than watching a woman hunted and killed, unless it was savoring her meat afterwards. She had had problems with drug use in the past, but since joining the Hunt Club she hadn't felt any need for such stimulants. She enjoyed dangerous sex and fast cars, but without the Club, she worried that she could easily lapse back into her old dependency on chemicals, which she was sure would end up killing her. No, Taryn was maybe the last person the girls in the prey paddock could expect help from.
Making her way from the paddock area, Taryn walked to the buffet table, where the chefs had laid out a tempting breakfast of eggs, toast, ham, sausage and fruit. Taryn filled a plate and joined the other club members at the tables set under the tents. It would be a long day and the hunt hadn't even begun yet.
*** *** ***
Taryn hurriedly finished the last of her toast and coffee and got up to join the other club members at her table as they made their way towards the starting line. The Huntmaster had just called the club to attention, and the field day hunt was about to begin. She kept her eye on the prey in the paddock while the Huntmaster gave his remarks, watching their reactions. Most of them showed a mixture of fear and denial. One tall girl - the one she had seen earlier stretching - seemed unusually calm and collected, mentally and emotionally prepared for the hunt. When the gun went off Taryn wasn't surprised to see her launch into a sprint for the tree-line, quickly opening a gap between her and the other prey.
More surprising, although not entirely out of character, was the approach taken by one of the shorter, softer looking prey. This girl, with long wavy brunette hair and manicured nails, looking like she had led an easy, pampered life before the hunters had picked her up, outrightly refused to participate. Loudly proclaiming the 'absurdity' of the whole affair, she promptly sat down in the grass of the paddock when the Huntmaster's gun went off. Clearly, she believed her own protests that the hunters would not actually dare to hunt human beings as prey. Taryn smiled to think of her surprise in being proven wrong in fifteen minutes when the lead time for the prey expired.
Taryn divided her attention then between the hunters preparing themselves for the pursuit, and the prey making their way across the field towards the woods as the minutes slowly ticked by. Shortly before the fifteen minutes expired she noticed the hunters conferring between themselves. After a minute she could see Jesse smiling as he accepted the good natured congratulations of the other hunters. Briefly she wondered what had merited the back-slaps, but as the hunters made ready for their pursuit, the answer came to her. Unlike the other hunters, Jesse was taking his time leaving the hunter's pavilion, and was heading towards the prey paddock instead of the hunter's start line. Taryn realized that Jesse had somehow won the right to bag the 'non-participating' prey. She watched as he leisurely cocked his composite crossbow and fitted a lethal looking hunting bolt to the string.
When the final seconds of the allotted fifteen minutes had ticked away, the Huntmaster struck a small gong to signal the hunters to begin the chase. The fifteen hunters immediately set off through the field after the retreating prey, two of which could still be seen heading for the trees. Jesse calmly strode over to the fifth girl still sitting in the paddock, arms crossed over her lush breasts in defiance. Stopping about three strides from the girl he matter-of-factly lifted his crossbow and pulled the trigger. Driven by the powerful action of the bow the razor-tipped bolt cut a neat red X in the girl's belly before burying itself in the ground behind her, having passed completely through her body. The girl screamed in shock, pain, and disbelief. Her hand pressed her belly, trying to stop the blood now spilling out to soak the curly hair of her brunette bush, she staggered to her feet in a belated attempt to escape. Now screaming for help she stumbled away across the field as Jesse worked the lever to re-cock the crossbow. With a new bolt loaded, Jesse took time to carefully aim at the fleeing prey, now twenty yards away. His second shot caught her just below the right shoulder blade, spinning her around to fall face up in the long grass of the field. Taryn ran with the rest of the crowd to where the girl lay awkwardly on her side, the head of the bolt protruding through her size D breast. The girl looked dumbly down at the razor tip sticking from her torn right breast, her hand pawing feebly at the reddened shaft. Blood poured from her lips as a wracking cough interrupted something she was attempting to say. Drowning in her own blood, the girl's struggles diminished as she continued to cough out her life in thick, red streams over her chin and neck. She was nevertheless still moving when the cook staff loaded her on their steel stretcher to take her to the preparation area.
Taryn wanted to follow them, to witness the final moments of the deluded prey's life, but shouts from other club members drew her attention to the hunters jogging across the field. Pierce had run strongly from the gong, rapidly closing the distance with the slowest of the fleeing prey. Now he had stopped, and Taryn could guess that he was concentrating to steady his breathing as he pulled back his bow, aiming in a high arc at extreme range towards the laboring girl who was finally about to reach the shelter of the distant trees. Taryn watched in fascination as the arrow, released from Pierce's steel-sprung bow, arced across the sky, dwindling to a barely-visible speck in the distance as it descended back to earth. She cheered with the rest of the club members as the prey stumbled to the ground, the arrow having found its mark in her round buttocks.
Taryn headed back to the tents, where the big screen TVs displayed the feeds from the webcams mounted on the hunters' caps. It was too far to get a good view of the wounded prey by the naked eye, and she wanted to be sure to see the kill.
It took several minutes for Pierce to cover the remaining distance to where the prey had fallen. Once there, Pierce's cap-mounted camera showed the blood-stained grass where the prey had initially fallen, and the trail where she had evidently crawled into the nearby woods. Taryn watched as the monitor showed Pierce forcing his way into the thick brush following the trail of blood. After a few steps the underbrush opened out and the image of the wounded girl showed clearly on the screen. Taryn recognized the plumpest of the five prey for the day's hunt, a nevertheless shapely girl with luscious double-D breasts that had probably had men eating out of her hands at the beach. Near scandalous tan-lines and shaved pubes hinted at her preferred beach-wear. Red hair fell in loose curls around her shoulders, trembling now from a mixture of pain and terror.
The girl had somehow managed to pull herself upright and was standing on one foot, supporting herself against a tree. Blood streaked down her right leg, bent as she tried to ease the pain from the arrow lodged in her buttocks. She had been alerted by the noise of Pierce's approach and her fear was evident on the big screen image. The video feed had no sound, but Taryn could almost hear her hysterical pleading as the screen showed Pierce raise his bow, arrow nocked to the string. The girl raised her hand in a frantic defense as Pierce pulled back on the bowstring. Taryn relished the futility of her gesture, watching the released arrow bury itself in the girl's chest below the pit of her raised arm, bringing the girl crashing to the forest floor. Her image grew on the screen as Pierce approached, her staring, lifeless eyes giving mute testimony that the arrow had found her heart. Taryn joined the cheers in the tent that greeted the clean kill.
The tents were abuzz with excitement; never before in the history of the club's field day had there been such a quick kill, let alone two. Even the slowest of the prey had always managed to reach the woods ahead of the hunters, even if they had not made it when the gong sounded. Once in the woods it usually took some time to track them down, even if they had not gotten far. Pierce's extreme range strike had prevented his prey from getting more than a few paces into the woods, and the blood trail had made tracking simple. Of course, Jesse's kill had been quite a fluke, and would likely never be beaten as the quickest kill ever in the hunt. Although she shared the excitement over the quick kills, Taryn hoped that the remaining three prey would give a better account of themselves, so as to prolong the excitement and make the full day interesting.
Some of the club members had started a betting pool on when the last of the prey would be caught. Before the gong most of the bets had focused on the early afternoon, which was when the hunters had brought down the last of the prey in previous hunts. Now, with only three prey left so soon after the gong, several members were placing bets around noon. As Taryn listened to the chatter around the betting pool she remembered the girl stretching in the paddock, and how she had reached the woods well before the gong had released the hunters. On inspiration, she called out to the book-maker "I'll take 4:30!" Quite a few of the members shook their heads at her; even the hunter acting as book-maker asked her "Are you sure you want to bet that late Taryn? You know the bets are a thousand dollars a box." "I'm sure;" Taryn said confidently; "Put me down for 4:30."
The book-maker duly marked Taryn's name in the 4:30pm box of the betting pool, and handed her a chit for the bet. As she was slipping the chit into her purse, Taryn noticed three horses approaching from across the field. It was the collection team with the carcass of the day's second kill. Because of the rough terrain covered by the hunt, the club used horses to bring in the bodies of the slain prey, with two mounted retrievers and a third horse for the body. Taryn watched the team ride up to stop a short way from the cleaning table and dismount - for sanitary reasons the horses were kept some distance from the food preparation areas. Once on the ground the two retrievers were joined by two of the chef's staff, who helped them to unload the body and carry it to the cleaning table. Taryn always enjoyed watching the butchering and she was pleased that she could be present to witness the full process from the start. Making her way to the preparation area she arrived just after the porters delivered the carcass of the dead girl.
The butchers began by thoroughly rinsing down the body, cleaning away the dirt and leaves from the forest floor where it had fallen. (With the debris washed away Taryn could see that while the girl had appeared on the cap-cam to be clean shaven, her pubes were in fact covered by a layer of fine blonde hair; her red mane was clearly a bottle job.) Then they used pliers to extract the arrows embedded in the girl's flesh, bringing fresh blood oozing from the wounds when the shafts were withdrawn. The cleaning crew then sliced open the abdomen, adding lateral cuts to the long vertical cut to allow the flesh to be pulled open for easy access to the internal organs. These were then quickly cut out and transferred to the waiting buckets, as the first girl's had been shortly before. Taryn watched as the heart was cut out and the staff prepared to start dismembering the body, when one of the staff motioned her over.
"Since you seem to have such an interest in the butchering process, would you like to help us get this kill ready for the grills?"
"I'd love to!" Taryn exclaimed, "What do I do?"
"We'll have you start by removing the head..."
Taryn took the chef's knifed offered to her and stepped up to the cleaning table as she listened to the instructions. The chef's preferred not to 'chop' the head off the body, since doing so often left bone chips that had to be picked out. Instead, they instructed Taryn to cut through the soft tissue of the throat until she had reached the neck bones. The sharp chef's knife made the task easy, readily slicing through even the tougher tendon fibers in the neck. By the time she had reached the bone, Taryn's hands were covered in blood, the still-warm fluid released when she severed the major arteries in the dead girl's neck. Taryn gripped the slippery flesh and pulled open the cut. She worked the blade of the knife along the neck until she found a joint between the vertebrae and then used both hands to force the blade through the collection of tough tendons, disk fiber and spinal cord. She found that she had to stand close to the body and straight-arm the knife before she could get enough force on the blade to cut through the girl's neck-bone. Once through, however, it was an easy task to slice the remaining skin at the back of the neck and the head was free.
Placing the head aside, Taryn continued to help with the butchering of the body. Under the instruction of the cooking staff she cut one leg free at the hip joint, and later helped cut back ribs from the swiftly disintegrating carcass. Before long the butchering was completed, the once beautiful body of the girl reduced to slabs of bar-b-que coated meat sizzling on the grills. Only the girl's severed head, feet, and hands were clearly identifiable with what she had once been. The feet would be boiled and the meat removed for later use in sausages; one of the club members had a special fondness for hand meat and these would be prepared for him; the head would probably be tanned and mounted for the club-house trophy room.
Taryn looked down at the curly red hair and staring eyes of the still-attractive face, all now smeared in thickening blood; knowing that she had severed the head with her own hands. Placing her palms on either side of severed head, she lifted it in front of her face, surprised by its weight. She stared back into the dead eyes of the girl, then slowly brought the dripping orb to her lips and gave the slack mouth a sloppy French kiss. Taryn's tongue explored the cold mouth of the dead girl, licking the sticky blood from the teeth and limp tongue. She felt a sense of excitement mixed with revulsion that was indescribably intoxicating, unlike any experience she had had before.
Taryn had worked up quite an appetite butchering the girl, and her mouth watered for taste of her bar-b-qued meat. Before she could enjoy lunch, however, she needed to clean up - blood from the butchering was smeared all over her arms and body. She could also use a chance to release the sexual energy she had built up as she took the dead girl apart.
The picnic camp had no showers, and only a line of porta-johns for restrooms, enclosed by a screen for aesthetic purposes. Taryn didn't want to wash in the midst of the porta-johns, but the screen provided an adequate barrier and she had some of the staff prepare a wash basin with soap and sponge, as well as a bucket of water to rinse with on the far side of the 'facilities.'
Alone behind the screen, Taryn began by using the soapy sponge to wipe the drying blood from the slick leather of her bandeau and pants. The outer surfaces cleaned fairly easily, but during the butchering blood had seeped under the edges and into the cleavage of the bandeau, and into the waistband of her pants. Stripping out of the clothes, Taryn had to scrub vigorously to remove most traces of blood from the leather, although some stains would probably never come out. Setting the wet leather in the sun to dry, Taryn turned her attention to the red smeared liberally on her arms and torso. Soap bubbles sparkled in the sun, mingling with red streaks as the water ran down her nearly naked body, soaking her lace G-string.
Taryn luxuriated in the soapy water as she caressed herself with the soft sponge. Her hands glided easily over her soap-slick skin, massaging her firm breasts and finding the place between her legs already slick with fluids from another source. Her fingers pulled aside the lace of her wet G-string and plunged into her dripping snatch. Knees trembling as her fingers brushed her swollen clitoris, she paused to lay down in the cool grass before turning her full attention to releasing the pent-up hunger in her loins, traces of blood still smearing her chin arms and chest forgotten in her mounting ecstasy. Unconsciously Taryn's legs closed around her hands, her back arching as the waves of her orgasm swept over her. After long seconds of exquisite pleasure her muscles relaxed, and she sank back into the grass, her eyes closed in the dreamy afterglow of orgasm, legs sagging open, once more revealing her gaping vagina.
"Now that's what I call a beautiful sight!"
Taryn opened her eyes to see Josh standing by the corner of the screen, gazing appreciatively at her wet boobs and open pussy. She playfully opened and closed her legs, flashing her slit at the young man.
"Come on in; the water's fine!" Taryn spread her legs again and reached out as Josh lost no time dropping his pants and moving between her welcoming knees.
Taryn liked Josh. At 26 he was the youngest member of the Hunt Club, but he had already distinguished himself as a brilliant architect. She liked his artistic flair and his young viewpoint that contrasted with most of the more mature hunters in the club. Sexually his inexperienced energy was something that Taryn always enjoyed between her legs. Now she wrapped her arms around his neck as his stiff penis slid easily into her slick vagina. The feel of his shaft brushing her still swollen and extra sensitive clit as it entered her made her gasp. She bit her lip and locked her legs around his back as Josh's thrusts piled ever more stimulation on the raw nerves in her sex. Soon she was once again thrashing in the grip of a renewed orgasm. Through the waves of sensation surging through her body Taryn was aware of a pause in the rhythm of Josh's thrusts. An instant later the reason became clear when she felt his hand reach between their bodies and finger her clit. Taryn screamed for him to stop and tried to pull his hand away from her over-sensitive knob, but he was too strong. The stimulation sent her orgasm into hyperdrive, overwhelming her senses with the sensations radiating from where Josh impaled her groin. She never noticed when Josh resumed thrusting into her, increasing speed until his own orgasm squirted warm cum into her spasming vagina.
When the waves of her cascading orgasms finally calmed down, Taryn opened her eyes to find semen dripping from between her limp legs and no Josh to be seen. Despite the lingering glow of fantastic sex, she was more than a little annoyed that he had left her without a word. When she heard cheers from the direction of the tents, however, she realized that Josh must have heard hints that a hunter was closing in on his prey and hurried off to witness the kill. Rousing herself, muscles sore from her erotic exercise, Taryn recovered the forgotten sponge and resumed cleaning the last traces of now-dried blood from her skin - along with the fluids still oozing from her vagina. When she was clean and rinsed, she readjusted her G-string and stood with her face to the sun, enjoying its warmth on her skin as a gentle breeze helped dry the drops of water glistening on her body. When she was nearly dry, she struggled into her pants and top, hoping that the snug and still-damp leather would not chafe, since she didn't have anything available to change into. She decided to get a bite of lunch (it seemed about time), take a seat in the tent and try not to move too much until she was fully dried out.
***
When Taryn got back to the buffet tables, she saw that the cooks were indeed already serving steaks, chops and ribs - from the girl that she had helped to butcher. Picking up a plate, she quickly got in line. After the server passed her a beautiful thigh-steak she piled her plate with a baked potato, corn, cole-slaw and a roll before finding an open spot at a table. Cutting off a bite of the steak Taryn savored the rich flavor of the grilled meat. Normally thigh-steak wasn't the best cut (those cuts were generally reserved for the hunters, anyway), but the plump girl this had come from had clearly led a soft life, and her meat was uncommonly tender. Taryn remarked how tasty the steak was and chatted with the others at her table about the wonderful weather and the remarkable kills that been made so far. She learned that, as she suspected, a third girl had been brought down by two hunters (Jeff and Nathan) while she was cleaning up. That left two girls still in the field, with twelve hunters in the woods tracking them. The odds were good that the hunt would end successfully early in the afternoon. Even so, there was always plenty of things to do during Field Day, so the party would surely last late into the night.
After finishing lunch Taryn went over to the projectionist's table (groaning over how stuffed the meal made her feel) and asked the operator to replay the video feed of the last kill for her on his lap-top. Even in replay, Taryn was impressed with the skill of the hunters and thrilled to witness the kill of the game, but ultimately doomed young woman. She was also relieved to see that although the prey had been fit, she was not the seriously athletic girl she had seen in the paddock. Even with only two prey at large, Taryn felt somewhat more confident that her thousand-dollar wager was not hopelessly mistaken. Satisfied, she made her way to where several club members were lounging under the tent and found a free chair to flop into so she could give her meal a chance to digest.
*** *** ***
Taryn glanced at her watch as the dead, glassy eyes of Sean's kill showed on the screen. It was only one-fifteen and the fourth of the five prey had just been bagged. As with the others already that day, Taryn had loved watching the kill. Catching the girl in mid-piss had been a stroke of extraordinary luck; she had cheered along with the rest of the club. The kill meant that only one girl was still at large, however, and it was a long way to 4:30; Taryn wondered if she had foolishly thrown away a thousand dollars. Most of the betters had clustered in the early afternoon, but one member had put a second bet down on 4:00pm, cutting her off from any late afternoon kill, unless the prey made it past 4:15. She was still the latest better, and the betting pool was now closed. Taryn reminded herself of the athletic look of the last girl, and resolved not to worry yet.
*** *** ***
Shouts of "He's got her!" drew Taryn's attention from the snooker game she was watching. She could see from the image of the running girl on the screen the cry was somewhat premature. Still, the fact that the hunter (Frank, from the ID signature on the camera image) had her in clear view was a victory. This girl had managed to elude all of the hunters longer than any other prey in the history of the Field Day. Now that she had been found, it was almost a given that she would be bagged. Indeed, even as she watched, the first of Frank's bolos went sailing across the field to bring down the fleeing prey. When the girl managed to untangle herself and get up again, Taryn found herself rooting for her to make it to the nearby fence visible in the background. Although she had never questioned her membership in the Hunt Club - indeed, the butchering she had done earlier had stimulated her more than anything before in her life - part of her was thrilled by the thought that one of her sex might actually overcome the odds, beat the hunters in their stacked-deck game and get away free. So when the girl was brought down for good it was with curiously mixed feelings that Taryn watched Frank's brutal rape. She even turned to re-rack the snooker table long before the hunter started the long walk back to camp. Then she noticed the time: 4:38pm. Realizing that she had won the whole betting pool, a $28,000 total, her mood improved considerably.
*** *** ***
Taking a break from the drinking games she had been playing with a rowdy group of hunters, Taryn surveyed the buffet table. The tables nearly sagged beneath the weight of the baked beans, potato salad and other picnic fare. The greatest share of space, however, was taken up with the meat from the day's kills. With four prizes already for the cooks to work with there was more than enough meat for an all-you-can-eat feast - even considering the picnic would continue the next day. The servers had sliced generous slabs of meat from the body of the girl who had been slowly spit roasting since falling as the day's first prize seconds after the gong. The coals of the roasting pit had turned her skin a golden brown, and the thin layer of fat on the pampered girl had produced a marvelous crackling after the day of roasting. The other prizes had contributed steaks, chops and ribs to the busy grills. Even with most of the members of the Hunt Club loading their plates and massively overeating, there had been plenty of food to go around, with lots left for tomorrow's luncheon. That was with one of the prey still to be brought in. Thinking of the lean, well muscled girl who was still at large, Taryn guessed that the cooks would probably use most of her meat for hamburger, or the sausages that they prepared from the scraps.
Looking over the feast, with the smell of bar-b-que filling her nostrils, Taryn realized that, despite her huge lunch, she was hungry again. Since Hunt Club was in the end all about eating, she didn't hesitate to pick up a plate and start filling it with a ***********ion of ribs and steaks.
It was just as she was licking the last of the bar-b-que sauce from her fingers, having enjoyed a half-rack of back-ribs, that Frank finally walked into camp leading the last of the day's prey by nose-lead.
Taryn could see fear, but also stoicism and resolve in the girl's face as she was strung up by the wrists. She wondered what the girl must be thinking - she must not realize that she only had minutes left to live. Watching her respond to Leilani's attentions during her cleaning did nothing to answer the question - although Taryn had seen prey experience ecstasy before even as death overtook them. The sight of the girl's naked body, strung up by the wrists, responding to Leilani's ministrations with the sponge gave Taryn a new wave arousal. She could see that she was not the only one; many of the hunters were visibly turned on watching the two gorgeous women covered in soapy water. Kevin was already banging Claire against one of the tent poles and Tom was heading out back with Josie, his hand sliding beneath the waistband of her lacy shorts to grip her round ass. Noticing George standing next to her massaging his crotch, Taryn decided to get in on the act. Kneeling in front of him she deftly zipped open his fly and drew out his swelling cock. Wasting no time, she closed her lips around his member and began sucking him off, alternately taking him deep and teasing him with her tongue. It wasn't long before the combination of visual and tactile stimulation had him spurting into her willing mouth. The feel and taste of the salty-slippery-sticky semen was one of Taryn's favorites, and made a perfect desert for the meal she had just finished. Putting himself away, George leaned over and gave her a quick kiss in thanks as she stood up.
Turning around again, Taryn saw that Frank was just about ready to gut his prize. Chills of excitement went through her body as she watched the look of steely anticipation on the girl's face change to horror when Frank's knife slit her belly and she realized what was happening to her. Her screams of stark terror while Frank worked to empty her belly were music to Taryn's ears. All thoughts of sympathy and regret for the prey were forgotten while Taryn watched the gutting, wishing she could be participating herself. As attractive as the girl was whole, Taryn found her new appearance, hung from the wrists with her belly gapping open and empty of organs, disturbingly beautiful - especially with her bosom still heaving with sobs of despair. The coup de grace was another thing of beauty, bright red blood gushing from the girl's slit throat over her stilling breast adding the final touch to Frank's masterpiece.
With the girl now reduced to a hanging slab of meat, Taryn joined the rest of the club in riotous cheers of appreciation, in the certain knowledge that she had been present at a hunt that would be talked about for years to come, and at hunt clubs far and wide.