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Odd. It wasn’t even daylight which was rather early for a visitor. Especially anyone from town who knew that they had gotten married the day before and surely wouldn’t expect them to be up before dawn.
It would have to be someone who didn’t know that they had gotten married, someone with an emergency, or someone who didn’t belong.
It was that last thought that made him throw back the covers and jump out of bed.
It only took a minute or two for him to put his pants and shirt on, then he grabbed socks and padded out the door.
He didn’t want to wake Mabel, particularly if the person was up to no good. He didn’t want to scare her.
So, he crept slowly down the stairs. Later, he wished he would have gone faster, because by the time he got to the bottom and looked out the window, all he could see were taillights and what looked like a dark SUV disappearing down the drive.
Feeling like if someone had taken a wrong turn, they wouldn’t have come the whole way to the house to turn around, he headed to the back door and looked out the window.
The sun was just poking over the horizon, and the world was bathed in orange glow.
At first, he didn’t see anything, but as his eyes swept back over the yard and went toward the driveway, he saw a lump.
It looked brown, but that could have been because it was in shadow. As he stared, the lump moved, and that’s when he realized it was alive.
That jolted him into action, and he ran to the mudroom to put his boots on and head outside, his mind spinning. What could it be?
The girls were supposed to arrive that day, but while his rational brain said that a brown lump would not be three girls, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe whoever was bringing them would just dump them off.
The idea made him angry, and he fumbled with his boots.
Finally, he jammed his feet in them, and he yanked at the door handle, ripping the door open and striding outside.
After two fast steps, he reminded himself to go slow. He didn’t think there was any danger, but something had definitely happened, and he didn’t want to step into some kind of problem. More because he didn’t want Mabel to get up on the day after their wedding and find him in some kind of predicament, or worse.
His eyes swept all around, trying to see if there was anything else unusual, as he made his way toward the spot where he’d seen the lump.
Nothing popped out at him, and by the time he’d gotten to the spot, a head emerged from the dark shadows, and he was pretty sure that it was a small horse. A foal. One that was very young.
“Hey there,” he said softly as he approached it. Mabel was the one with all the experience with animals; he wasn’t sure what to do to not scare it. Luckily, he must have done the right thing, since it didn’t move when he reached it, first running his hand up its broad forehead and then rubbing between its ears.
He didn’t know much, but he was almost certain that it was a newborn. Maybe up to a week old? He wasn’t sure.
After looking around once more and taking a few steps around the yard, just to be sure, he decided that there was no danger, and he could run up and get Mabel.
This probably had nothing to do with the girls, nothing to do with her marriage, and everything to do with the fact that Mabel was a vet. Whatever was up with the foal, it didn’t seem to be able to stand up, and Mabel was going to need to do something about that. He could cook eggs, but he couldn’t diagnose a foal.
On that thought, he hurried into the house, taking the steps two at a time and striding down the hall to Mabel’s room.
He could have just called her, but he hadn’t thought of that until he was at her room with his hand raised to knock.
She was probably used to getting woken up at odd hours by her phone, perhaps a knock would upset her, but he didn’t stop to wonder about it but rapped on her door.
She answered immediately, sounding groggy. “Yes?”
“It’s James. Someone just dropped off a foal. It’s in a heap outside.”
“I’ll be right there,” she said immediately, sounding much more awake than she had with her first word.
He wanted to wait for her but wasn’t sure whether that would be entirely appropriate, and he couldn’t get himself to stand still anyway. His heart was racing, and he felt like he was close to panic, and he wanted to talk to Mabel. Pretty sure she could talk him off the ledge. She would look at the foal, she would know what to do, and then she would start to plan. All he had to do was wait for her.
Deciding that his time would be put to best use by going out and checking once more to make sure that nothing else had been dropped off, he hurried back outside and made a sweep of the yard. Just in the few minutes that he’d been inside, it had gotten noticeably brighter, and he could tell that there was nothing else around.
It was less than five minutes when Mabel stepped outside.
