Running... Into
Song 2:17
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
“Nara, I wish to run.”
It was just after dawn, and Lady Ambrose stood looking out her window. She had awoken early and crawled out of her husband’s bed, he being still asleep and looking like nothing on Earth, and crept back into her room, closing the door behind her. There, she had found Nara engaged in some ironing.
“What, my Lady?” Nara asked, her iron raised.
“Put the iron away; I’m sure I need a chaperone or somesuch. Pick out a very light, loose, sturdy dress for me. I am going … we are going running.
“Running, My Lady?!” Nara asked, her mouth open, and then quickly moving into the wardrobe.
Lady Ambrose went to the door of the wardrobe and watched her. “No, no stays or anything of that sort. We are going running, not paying social calls. Yes, running.”
“I don’t understand,” Nara said, coming out with the dress, which was soon on.
“When at home,” Lady Ambrose said, turning to the bedroom door and opening it decisively, “I was used to running. I enjoy a sedate walk as much as anyone, but there are times when my legs just wish to run.”
“But, what will Our Lord think?” Nara said, trotting to keep up with her as she strode down the corridor, down the stairs, and out to the front door, which they struggled to unbolt.
“Oh, he knows. He made several references to it in Rome and once…” she giggled… “offered to race me around a fountain. Oh, it was so amusing. I couldn’t really run, certainly, not really run, as I had on a dress that was not at all suitable, and all of my stays. I was even carrying a parasol!”
“But we did two laps of the fountain. I won, but I could tell he let me win. Although he was almost equally encumbered by his boots. I, at least, had my shoes off. I had taken to only wearing these sandals that they sell there when we went on our walks, and I had taken those off to dangle my feet in the fountain… which was very much the thing to do, I quite assure you. All the young ladies there, and even many gentlemen, did so, and the lower class went much further.”
“There,” she said when they had reached the edge of the woods. “Now, you shall have to keep up.”
She took off. Not nearly as fast as she might have done at her house, racing some local youth… which they always won unless they were extraordinarily fat, but fast enough that Nara, behind her, gave a gasp and took a while to catch up.
Minute after minute, they ran, with Nara keeping up better than Lady Ambrose had expected, which had been silly of her. The life of a maid no doubt kept her running up and down stairs all day.
She came around a very sharp bend and ran smack into a local youth… sending them both to the ground.
Nara gave a small squeak and helped her up, after which the youth was able to get to his feet. A lad of about twelve summers, he and his three friends looked quite appalled by the encounter.
“Nice running into you,” Lady Ambrose said, with a grin at her witticism. “Whatever are you doing…” she suddenly noticed the string of hares and the like one of the boys had. “Oh, you’re hunting!”
Then, seeing their looks, she lowered her voice, “Oh, you are poaching! How naughty of you. But aren’t you afraid of getting caught?”
The boys looked frozen, but Nara answered. “No, my Lady, not at this time of day. The gamekeeper has a habit of staying out late at night searching for poachers, but everyone knows he does not rise early in the morning. A little too much to drink when he gets home.
“Oh, how lucky for you,” she said. “Let me see what you have caught.”
The lad reluctantly held up the string. Three rabbits and a wild bird. She wasn’t very familiar with them in their dead but unplucked state.
“Well, is that a good haul?”
The lad she had run into nodded. “Yes, Miss. And we haven’t even checked our lines yet.”
Nara started to speak, but Lady Ambrose waved her down. “Well, let us check them. I only have a few minutes before I have to get back to the castle where my husband, the Duke, is still sleeping.”
The reaction was most amusing. The boy she had run into shot his eyes open, and his eyebrows rose higher than she thought humanly possible. The other boys opened their mouths quite indecently, and they all stared at her.
She giggled. “Oh, don’t be afraid, boys. I will tell my husband that I have given you permission to hunt and fish our land. Just the four of you… Although you can bring your sisters with you, that would be nice for me, and just between the hours of, shall we say, three and eight in the morning.
“Really, My Lady?”
“Really. If the gamekeeper should ever manage to wake in the morning and see you, you just insist on your right to be taken to me, and I will inform him that you are my own special guests. I will expect an occasional present. A fish or two, from time to time, dropped off with the cook for my breakfast should do nicely. Are we agreed?”
The boys all nodded their heads, and she spent the next half an hour wading through streams with them, where they, indeed, had caught several fish on their night lines. They tried to give her a fish, but she refused. “I love eating them but can’t stand touching them. I am a girl, you know. Just go and drop one or two off at the cook for my breakfast from time to time. Go by the back kitchen door.”
She waved goodbye to them and started back to the house. “But, My Lady, what will Our Lord say?”
“We will see. I think he is still rather pleased with me, so perhaps I shall get away without too strong a lecture.”
As soon as they got back to her room, they noticed the communication door open. He must have come in trying to find her, and she had been out! She pulled off the dress she had used for running and hurried into her husband’s room. He was in bed, sitting up, reading a newspaper. “Did you enjoy your run?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and bouncing a bit with excitement. “You saw us go?”
“I did indeed. I woke when you got up and listened to your instructions to your maid. Then I rose and watched you take off into the woods. I think the preacher who married us must have seen you run at some time. You were indeed like the young roe.”
She grinned, “I’m so glad you aren’t all stuffy about it.”
He gave a slow smile. “I will endeavour, even as I age, to avoid being stuffy. But as your husband, I find it indescribably enjoyable to watch you run. One day soon I hope to watch you swim. I hadn’t planned on getting a wife who enjoyed such things, but I certainly am not opposed. I shall recommend it to all of my friends.”
“Well,” she said, reddening slightly, “I hope you won’t be stuffy about something that happened on the run.”
“Oh?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.
“Yes, you see, I ran into some local youth, and I gave them permission to hunt and fish in our grounds.” She saw his look and hurried to explain, “I told them that it had to be between the hours of three and eight, and it could only be them, and they had to pay for it by giving me a fish… to the cook, certainly, I can’t stand fish, I mean I love eating them, but I hate holding them. Oh, and they should bring their sisters.”
“You never cease to amaze me. Very well, I will inform the gamekeeper.”
“Oh, you needn’t do that. They tell me he is never, ever awake at that hour and if he should happen to catch them to appeal to me. I think that will make them careful.”
She thought about it. “And, I think, when they bring the first fish, the cook will hear their story and tell the gamekeeper herself. Or is she a he?”
“She is indeed a she. She is Jeremy’s wife and the mother of his several children. A solid rather than inspired cook, but the stability of a married couple with children is something that appeals to me. And keeps both of them happy, apparently.”
“There, then. She will tell Jeremy, and he will tell the gamekeeper. That should work.”
“That should work indeed,” he said and put down his newspaper.
Thank you for coming round Arthur’s Substack. I hope and pray it will be a blessing to you.
Arthur publishes with Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid: A Christian historical fiction chapter book about four orphans who go to live with their aunt on a dairy farm.
The Bobtails and the Cousins: The sequel to Preacher’s Kid. The aunt has married, and the cousins come to visit. Meaning town kids dealing with chores and manure and…
The Bobtails go to France: The sequel to cousins. The Bobtails, and Preacher’s Kid, get to take a trip to New York, London, Paris, and a small town in France. To get some cheese.
and
No Ordinary School: A brilliant but socially clueless boy gets recruited for a special school. Where he makes a lot of money, gets a girl, and solves a mystery.
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations. The book is a series of essays on how modern politics has gotten the wrong prescription for the wrong diagnosis.
Quite a few chapters of the Bobtails and No Ordinary School are here on this substack as audio.
I also write as Von, and I encourage you to check out that substack. There is a lot of theology and politics there, as well as quotes, poems, other articles, and links to other Science Fiction. But ‘Von’ also is publishing some serial books and stories. Much more adult and serious books than here, for the most part. Some of them.