was caught by bright scraps of metal among the tufts of grass. As she walked over to examine them more closely, she realised that someone had cut through the boundary fence, and recently, too, and that it was here, where there was no protective wall to support it, that the goat had broken through. Sure enough, there were tufts of her white hair clinging to the wire.
Gingerly Kate pushed her own way through, wincing as the sharp barbs caught at her clothes, carefully pushing them to one side so that they didn’t catch on her skin.
Even so, she couldn’t avoid one barb escaping her hold and leaving a long and very painful scratch down her arm. Blood welled freely from it and she cursed her own carelessness. Her skin stung, but there was nothing she could do about it. Her primary concern now was to retrieve her mother’s goat.
She had purposefully brought with her a pocket full of the pig nuts that the animal apparently adored, and as she walked carefully down towards it she fished in her pocket and removed some of them, hoping that once Annabel caught the scent of them she would follow her docilely back on to their own land.
Annabel caught the scent of them, and dutifully came trotting up to her, but Kate had forgotten the breed’s wiliness, and wasn’t prepared for the goat butting her. She lost her balance and fell over, the nuts scattering.
By the time she had regained her balance, Annabel had eaten the lot and was standing skittishly several yards away from her.
Unwisely, Kate lost her patience and gave chase.
Ten minutes later, hot and out of breath, she acknowledged defeat. She was going to have to go home and get one of her father’s men to help her.
Her body ached where she had fallen, and her arm stung, dried blood clinging to her skin. She had a blister on one heel, and all in all she felt extremely irritated and uncomfortable. Limping painfully, she headed back to the gap in the fence.
The sound of something crashing heavily through the undergrowth behind her suddenly made her check. She looked round, saw nothing, and then her eyes widened as she focused disbelievingly on the body of the huge Alsatian launching itself at her.
Brought up on a farm she reacted instinctively, standing her ground and calling out sharply to the animal, ‘Down!’
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