Serena Read Online Free PDF Page A

burst out laughing. “Well then, ’tis tally ho and we’re off!”
    “Dreadful Freddy, no one was prepared for this, and everyone looks quite silly, running about trying to call in the hounds,” she said, shaking her head.
    Freddy smiled and said, “Come on, I know you want to follow, so let’s see if you can keep up!” He grinned widely as she followed him into the thick of the woods.
    Serena knew it would be slow going, as this particular part of the forest was thick with low branches and undergrowth, but she knew it well. She laughed. “Keep up? Ha, watch me pass you,” she answered. “Keep up indeed! I have been riding to hounds before you could twaddle!”
    It was some ten minutes later, after the pack ran full cry and they had spanned field after field, jumped creeks, avoided bogs, and jumped line fences, that Sir Newton and the whips were finally able to bring their hounds in.
    Freddy slowed his horse to a trot. He had lost his top hat, and his windswept dark blond waves framed his pleasant face, making him look more youthful than ever, Serena thought. She too had lost her hat and looked about with a grimace. “Oh drat, where can it have gone to?”
    Her long blonde hair had been pulled into cascading curls, but it was no longer tied with its ribbon, which with her hat was gone. Her hair hung loosely and was also quite windswept as it fell around her face and shoulders. Freddy looked at her and opened his mouth to speak.
    When nothing came out of his mouth Serena looked at him worriedly. “Freddy … what is it?”
    “You are … a … goddess!”
    This set her off, and she roared with laughter. “Would that I were! I could flip my finger, and my lost hat would magically appear.”
    Sir Newton called to them to tell them a hound was missing. “Spread out … must find the dear fellow.”
    Serena moved away from Freddy as they went off calling for the hound. Soon the good boy came panting happily up to her horse, who touched noses with the speckled hound.
    A few moments later, Sir Newton invited them to return to the kennels with them. Once there, and after she’d walked her horse, Serena took to fussing over the new puppy. Patting its belly as it rolled over, she giggled and then proceeded to give a great deal of affection to all the hounds.
    Sir Newton laughed and said, “Your uncle is a lucky man, Serena. I tell him that all the time. You are a treasure. Come up to the house … and we’ll take tea.”
    She, however, declined, exclaiming over her lost hat and chores she still had to attend to. After a few more minutes, she and Freddy were once again riding out.
    Serena had fished in her saddle bag for another ribbon and was managing to tie her hair back once more when Freddy said, “Serena, may I escort you to town … if that is where you are going?”
    “Freddy, don’t you have anything you would rather do than dance attendance on me?”
    “There is nothing ever I would rather do than be with you,” he answered softly.
    “Well then, let’s get it over with as I must get home. Hmm … I know a shortcut from here,” she said, thinking perhaps his infatuation would wear off if she allowed him to interact with her while she conducted mundane daily activities.
    Surely his ardor would begin to pall after he had had a surfeit of her company, for she was certain his was but a fancy, a passing fancy without substance.
    They hadn’t gone far and had nearly reached the main pike when Serena’s horse surprised her by spooking to the left.
    She stopped and patted her mare’s lovely neck, saying, “There, there, Brandy, what is it, girl?”
    She watched her horse’s ears flick nervously, but she could not see what it was that had disturbed Brandy. She turned to Freddy and put up a finger, for suddenly she felt a shiver of concern.
    She could hear nothing untoward and finally shrugged, though she continued to eye the neighboring woods. Her mare paced nervously in place, her ears twitching and