Read Online In Distant Fields by Charlotte Bingham - Free Book Online

looked where Partita was pointing, to see a number of beaters running alongside a pony and trap that was being driven as fast as it was possible in the frozen conditions, all of them quite obviously making their way back to the house.
    â€˜I wonder if there’s been an accident?’
    â€˜With a bit of luck, don’t you mean, Lady Partita?’ Harry muttered as he and Kitty skated after her, causing Kitty to turn and look at him in surprise. ‘Oh, there’s nothing Lady Partita likes more than a fire, or an accident.’
    â€˜Gracious …’
    â€˜Oh, yes, when it comes to a fight, Lady Partita is the one you want on your side.’
    Partita tore off her skates and was soon running as fast as she could, skirts held up, across the frosty lawns. She caught up with the pony and trap and the party of beaters just as the party reached the circling yard outside Nanny’s door, joined only minutes later by Kitty and Harry.
    â€˜One of the beaters has been shot!’ Partita exclaimed, turning back to the other two, thrilled.‘It’s always happening nowadays, with so many foreigners coming over for the shoot!’
    â€˜Is he hurt badly?’ Kitty wondered as she watched the casualty being lifted out of the back of the trap and placed on a stretcher by his fellow beaters, surrounded now by a handful of housemaids bearing jugs of hot water and bandages, all in the charge of the Duchess, dressed in a huge and magnificent fur.
    â€˜He’s hardly hurt at all,’ Partita continued, hurrying round the other side of the pony and trap to get a closer look. ‘He’s apparently just got it in the beam end!’
    â€˜Sorry about this, Your Grace,’ the stricken beater groaned from his stretcher as they prepared to carry him in. “Tis only a bit of buckshot’
    â€˜I trust you were not wounded by anyone in the house party?’ the Duchess said, taking his wrist and feeling his pulse. ‘That would be too much to bear, Huggett, really it would.’
    â€˜I’m afeard it was not a foreigner this time, Your Grace,’ another beater informed her. ‘Someone in Lord Bultash’s party – Mr Balfour was it?’
    â€˜That would make perfect sense,’ the Duchess replied, letting go of the wounded man’s wrist. ‘Mr Balfour can be the most wayward shot. Now come along with you all,’ she exhorted the stretcher party. ‘We have to get the shot out of this poor man’s rump.’
    â€˜Should someone go fetch the doctor, Your Grace?’ one of the bearers enquired.
    â€˜No, absolutely no need for Dr Jones,’ theDuchess replied. ‘Besides, I doubt that he’ll be quite himself, seeing the time of year. No, no, this is something that can easily be dealt with here.’
    â€˜Poor man,’ Harry muttered to Kitty as the invalid was decanted into the house. ‘I dare say he’d much prefer to hang on to the buckshot than endure what he’s about to endure.’
    â€˜I don’t quite understand.’
    â€˜Her Grace likes to keep her hand in practising minor surgery,’ Harry replied. ‘She has a small place prepared that she keeps for operating on the ground floor here. Do you feel like spectating?’
    â€˜There was really quite a lot of blood,’ Partita ran back to tell them, with some satisfaction. ‘Much more than you might imagine, given the spread of a shotgun cartridge. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go and help Mamma.’
    â€˜The Duchess isn’t really going to perform surgery on that poor man?’ Kitty wondered as Partita disappeared once more inside the house. ‘I mean, surely not?’
    â€˜Don’t worry – she has a supply of chloroform. Not that she’ll spare it for such minor surgery, I shouldn’t have thought,’ Harry returned with a straight face. ‘Probably get the poor lad to bite on an old chair