Hotspur Read Online Free PDF

Americans formed their concept of foxhunting from the English traditions. This was a misunderstanding American foxhunters fretted over continually.
    â€œWonder why we don’t have a party like that anymore?”
    â€œBad organization.” Crawford rarely let slip the opportunity to criticize, implicitly suggesting he could do better.
    Foxhunting clubs, like all volunteer organizations, rolled with the ebb and flow of individual enthusiasm. One member might host an annual breakfast or party for years, then grow weary of it. The master might suggest that someone else pick up the slack, but she or he couldn’t exactly give orders. Orders usually attend paychecks.
    â€œWell, darling, perhaps we should host one. Bring back a lovely tradition.”
    He braked sharply as a deer shot across the road. “Big rats, that’s what they are.” Then he returned his attentions to his recently remarried wife. “Wouldn’t hurt. And let’s do it properly. None of this platter of ham biscuits and a pile of doughnuts. Mumm de Cramant.” He mentioned a champagne of which he was particularly fond.
    â€œCristal.” She loved Louis Roederer.
    â€œI’m not serving $270 bottles of champagne. As it is, the de Cramant is running about $70, although if I order a few cases from Sherry-Lehmann I can get the price down. Don’t worry, sweetie, they’ll be damned impressed when they taste it.”
    â€œI’m sure you’re right.” She noticed the sign to the entrance of the Franklins’ small farm swinging wildly in the increasing wind. “Turning into a filthy night. Almost as if Nola’s ghost has stirred up the winds.”
    â€œNow, Marty.” He laughed.
    â€œI believe in spirits. What about the ghosts at Hangman’s Ridge? People have seen them, and people who aren’t”—she weighed her next word—“flighty.”
    â€œPure bunk. Anyway, this will all blow over, forgive the pun. If there’s any evidence left on the body at all, I guarantee you it will lead back to Guy Ramy. It just figures. So the real work is finally tracking him down. You know someone around here knows where he is or helped him get out of town. Boy’s father was the sheriff. Man might have been the sheriff, but I’ll bet you he protected his own.”
    â€œBut honey, everyone who knew them said Guy loved her.”
    â€œMen kill the women they say they love every day.”
    â€œMakes me wonder why the compliment isn’t reciprocated.”
    â€œWomen are more moral.”
    â€œDo you really believe that?”
    â€œI do. I know you’re my moral superior. And I wished when we were younger I’d asked you about things, deals, people. But I didn’t.” He shifted in his seat. “Although I still think you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Not that I’m condoning smashing people to bits, but competition is the lifeblood of trade, it’s the lifeblood of this country. Someone has to win and someone has to lose.”
    â€œI guess Nola lost.”
    â€œDon’t worry over it, Marty. This will get settled now that the body has surfaced. Really. And there’s nothing we can do about it except do whatever the Bancrofts need done.” He slowed for the entrance to their farm, Beasley Hall. It was named long before they bought it. It was named for Tobias Beasley, the original holder of the land grant from Charles II. “Wonder if Edward Bancroft has more money than I do? If I’d inherited what he inherited I’d have turned it into four or five billion dollars by now. You know, these people who inherit fortunes let gentlemen investors manage their money. The investments return maybe three percent or four percent a year. I can’t understand anyone being that passive about their money.”
    â€œI don’t know if Edward has as much as you do, honey, but he’s not passive. He ran the