Once a Mistress Read online

Books always belong to people. They bear the marks of the people who own them as well as the people who create and inspire them. This book bears the mark of my father, David Hagan.

  Thank you, Daddy, for the generations of foxes and hounds. For the doves and the quail. For the pointers, setters, and spaniels and the life lessons learned in the woods.

  From the little girl who followed you everywhere and spent countless hours in the front seat of a pickup truck listening to the stories of a generation of Southern gentlemen who have come and gone and whose kind will never come again.

  With love.