“Won’t they be upset you didn’t call them?”
“Maybe, but they’ll just fret uselessly if I tell them before we know what’s going on. Gabe’s close by. He can tell the rest of the family later.”
Ella didn’t see why he wanted to wait but then she was an only child. Maybe people in big families were different. Her parents lived in Wyoming and while they weren’t close, she’d have made sure someone called them in such a situation.
Although it seemed like hours, Ella heard the sirens not too long after hanging up with Marshall. She showed the ambulance the way down to the pasture from the barn. Her first sight of Damaris scared the hell out of her. She was paler than Ella had ever seen her and obviously in a lot of pain. The EMTs put her in a neck brace and strapped her head and body to a backboard before loading her on a gurney and putting her in the back of the ambulance.
“Are you sure I can’t call Chase for you?” she asked Marshall as he got ready to leave with the ambulance.
“No. I’ll call him when we get to the hospital.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there after I talk to Gabe and let Jim know what’s going on.” Jim was one of the hands who had been with the Walkers for a long time. He lived on the property with his wife, but in a cottage that was some distance away.
Forty minutes or so later she found Marshall in the hospital waiting area. “How is she? Do you know anything yet?”
Marshall was pacing and looked worried, which in turn worried Ella. Marshall was always so calm and laidback she knew it took something big to make him nervous. Although, she’d heard he’d been a mess when Snowdrop, his prize mare, foaled.
“No. She was awake and talking but not making a lot of sense. She doesn’t remember what happened. She has no idea why or how she got caught between the gate and the fence. I’m guessing something spooked Cinnamon.”
“Seems like a reasonable assumption. And it obviously caught Damaris by surprise.” She took out her phone to look at the time. “Gabe should be here soon. He said he’d pick up Chantel on the way over.”
Still pacing, Marshall said, “Good.”
“Have you talked to Chase?”
“No, I haven’t been able to reach him yet. I left a voicemail. He’ll get back to me.” He paused and added, “Cole is out of town and Jedidiah is in Dallas. I’ll text them and the folks when I know something.”
“Won’t Chase want to come home? You’ll need the help, depending on what her injuries are.”
Marshall looked at her like she was nuts. “He’s in the middle of a rodeo. The only way we’d ask him to come home would be if someone in the family was dying. And Damaris’s injuries aren’t that bad. Thank God.”
Then why are you pacing and why do you look so worried?she wanted to ask. Fortunately, before she could stick her foot down her throat, Gabe and Chantel came in and she had a chance to realize that wouldn’t have been the best thing to say.
By the time the doctor came into the waiting area to talk to the family, Ella was almost as jumpy as the rest of them. She hung back while the doctor talked to them but the relief on their faces was palpable. Chantel told her the diagnosis afterward, when Gabe and Marshall got on their phones to tell the rest of the family.
“Concussion and broken ribs,” Chantel said. “They’re keeping her overnight for observation but they don’t expect any problems. She should recover fully, although the broken ribs are going to be painful for a while.”
“Especially since Damaris is unlikely to stay away from the horses, which means she’ll try to work.”
Chantel laughed. “That’s the truth. But the doctor was adamant that she has to take it easy because of the concussion, never mind the ribs. And Gabe and Marshall will make sure she does.”
“I asked Marshall if Chase was going to come home and he looked at me like I was a crazy person.”
“I’m sure he’d come if they asked him to, but they all know how important the rodeo is to him. Especially after he missed so much of the season.”
More important than family?she wondered. She was afraid she knew the answer to that.
