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Hattie broke out in laughter and Amelia and Giulia quickly joined in. Sitting back against the ratty sofa cushion, Mabel stretched her leg to cease its throbbing and did her best to appear unaffected. Glancing to the top of the ladder peeking out over the edge of the loft, she swallowed hard. She needed to make her excuses and leave now, or she was afraid she would be sleeping in the loft that evening.
The pain pulsed so continually in her leg that she allowed her eyelids to drift closed, gripping her hands into tight fists hidden in the folds of her gown.
“Mae, what is it?” Hattie asked beside her. “Are you quite exhausted? Perhaps we should be getting home.”
Mabel offered her friend a smile, hoping to deflect her friend’s concern. “The house party cannot end soon enough, but that is all I will say on the matter.”
“You must be so glad to have your father around.”
“I am,” Mabel said. “His leave will end far too soon, of that I am certain. So I am enjoying having him home while I can.”
“Let’s go home,” Giulia said, standing. “We shall see you all tomorrow.”
Mabel waited for her friends to rise and move toward the ladder before she attempted doing the same. Pushing herself to her feet, Mabel clutched the armrest of the sofa, breathing through her nose.
Her eyes drifted closed, the chatter melting into a far-away din. Pain shot up her leg in waves. She needed to get down now and onto her horse or she was not going to be going anywhere. Pushing off from the armrest, she stepped forward, aches erupting with each step.
Hattie was the last to go down and Mabel made it to the head of the ladder, slipping down the rungs one at a time, gripping the smooth wood and praying her leg wouldn’t give out from under her.
Her friends’ conversation moved toward the horses and Mabel paused, gripping the ladder and catching her breath. Her leg had only bothered her this badly once before, and it was after she’d overused it for many days in a row, the pressure and strain culminating until she could not step without shooting pain slicing up her leg and into her hip.
She exhaled. Only two more rungs to go and she would be safely on the ground once more.
She tried to remember how long it had taken to feel whole again the last time she had experienced this level of pain when a voice called her name just behind her.
“Mabel?”
She startled, turning to see what Giulia needed, and her knee buckled beneath her. A loud pop rent the air. Releasing the ladder rung, she watched the packed dirt floor rise until her face collided with it, and everything went dark.
