"Well there's my wife always ready to spend it and, even though the kids are at College, they still need help from time to time."

"So really its just that you've seen an opportunity and want to see if you can make it work", said Sarah.

"I suppose that's true. I could give up work now if I wanted to. I've more than enough money saved on the Stock Market to give me sufficient income to satisfy most of my money needs.

The words made Sarah feel sick with envy - everything in this life seemed so unreasonable, so unfair. A pair of swans and their cygnets floated into view. The cygnets brown down made them look like vulnerable bubbles floating in the eddying water.

Peter tossed a pebble near them and watched them scatter. The adults opened their wings and hissed.

"That woke them up didn't it", he said.

The party had quietened down when they finally arrived back. Different groups had formed with different interests. An unaccompanied singing session was at one end of the room and an impromptu fiddling frenzy came from a room above. Then came heavy tramping of many feet and the sound of an endlessly repeated tune. The Hobbyhorse was in action.

Into the main room it burst with its helpers dancing all round, spotted Sarah and gave an ear splitting yell that was taken up by the others.

"The booty, the booty - we spy the booty." Sarah shrank back under Peter's arm seeking protection from whatever they had in mind but when two of the helpers darted forward and caught her one under her arms and the other holding her feet, to her dismay he again relinquished her up with no protest.

The chant was now being taken up by all present and more were coming into the room to view the events. Sarah struggled fiercely, protested loudly and achieved nothing except raucous amusement for the onlookers.

The sound of the whistles and the drums pounded through the room. It was a violent pagan rhythm. Spiders seemed to crawl across her soul. Shivers ran up and down her spine. They carried her swiftly to the centre of the room where the Hobbyhorse was waiting expectantly with its boat shaped prow erect at 45 degrees to the sky.

Then, as she was held under the front of the Hobbyhorse and as it came down over her, a huge roar came from the onlookers:

"Aaaah One..." The front of the horse momentarily lay across Sarah's front as she was held between her two captors. It's bow was then slowly raised toward the sky again for a few brief seconds before being brought down to rest on her again.

"Aaaaah Twoooo .....", roared the onlookers cheerfully. "Aaaaah Threeee ..... Aaaah Four..... Aaaaah Five .... Aaah Six ..."

Each count followed a gentle tap on her tummy from the front of the Hobbyhorse. "Aaaah Sssseven ..... Aaaaah Eight .......Aaaah nine.... Aaaah Ten" And as soon as it had started, it was over and Sarah, trembling, was placed on a chair at the side of the room to recover her composure. The young girl that had been talking to Peter earlier joined her and, seeing her state, smiled sympathetically.

"I suppose that could be bit frightening if you didn't know what was going to happen", she said.

Sarah's heart was pounding fit to burst. She managed to force a rueful smile of agreement.

"I'm Becky. They did me last year", explained her new companion. There's nothing to it if you go with the flow. Someone appeared with a full glass of elder flower wine and Sarah quickly adjusted her dress to regain a degree of modesty and gratefully took a huge gulp. The fine wine flavour slipped inside her and warmed her back into speech.