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Chapter 17
Amelia-Rose felt sick but waved back to them, afraid to believe what she had just seen.
Ralph spoke with satisfaction.
"I thought they'd be blooded," he said. "It's a big moment for them, like a rite of passage. It means they're at one with the way things are in the countryside. It'll give them a strength that'll last them all their lives."
Amelia-Rose stared at the two children and then the other riders. Land Rovers were scattered around this lonely hill and there were many who had followed on foot. In the center of all these people was a little fox that had given up its blood to be worn by these children as a triumphant trophy. Not for the first time that day, Amelia-Rose felt that she really didn't understand the world she lived in.
Suddenly, another voice broke into her thoughts.
"Ralph, there you are. I've been looking everywhere for you."
It was Kate. She strode up looking red in the face as if she had been walking fast.
"I had to talk to someone about the village fete next week. When I came back, you were gone ..."
She looked suspiciously at them and frowned at the way they had linked arms. She turned to Ralph.
"There was a job I was hoping you would do for me," she said to him proprietarily.
Ralph separated himself from Amelia-Rose, smiled easily and linked arms with Kate. As they turned to go, he winked at Amelia-Rose who wasn't sure what the wink meant and smiled uncertainly.
Amelia-Rose watched them go back in the direction of the inn car park and then she turned to follow the way back down to her cottage.
As she walked, the last rays of the sun cast their light into the narrow valley. High above, the kestrel hawk was watching and flying. Its sharp eyes were searching for prey to feed its young. She was wary of the other predators that dwelt below but currently there was no trace of the man who wore the clothes that blended into the undergrowth or the creeping darkness that so often slunk through the valley that she feared most.
Spotting a tiny movement near the riverbank, the hawk drew its wings to its side and plummeted down to the kill. As she carried away the still warm prey her shrill cry rang out to the sky and across the moors.
On a rocky outcrop, a small fox heard the hawks cry and added his own mournful howl into the wind before returning to his lair alone.
Amelia-Rose was tired and disappointed. She felt drained with all the excitement of the day. Perhaps it was just as well that Ralph had not come back with her. Much had changed already in her life and she needed time to reflect.
It was a beautiful evening, the river was flowing smoothly alongside her as she trod the narrow path towards the cottage and she realized she was beginning to feel very much at home in this new community.
She opened the gate to her cottage and paused to admire the poppies. Their red heads beckoned her down the path to her front door with its hanging wisteria welcoming her back to her own private domain.
For the first time, it was beginning to feel like a sanctuary where she could be safe and secure.
But it was more. It was also a place to use as a launch pad to discover an exciting new world. And it was a world that she had never dreamt of - a world full of promise.
Amelia-Rose had just finished eating her dinner of a cheese sandwich and some tomato soup, when the knocker on her door banged.
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