When the weather had turned Cathy had started letting Duke in the house--his old bones seemed to ache as much from the cold as her own. He was grieving Jezebel, who had simply dropped, dead as a door knob, on that coonhunt after the still was emptied in late summer.Aunt Cathy missed her, but knew whe had died doing what she loved to do, running along the ridge in pursuit of a coon.
    Preoccupied with her thoughts ogf last night's visit with Cassie, Aunt Cathy didn't notice that Duke had come in and laid down on the kitchen floor behind her. She tripped over him as she backed away from the counter where she had been rolling out the pie dough. Unable to catch herself, she fell, hard, landing on her right side. A searing pain ran through her pelvis, down her right hip and radiated down into her leg.