Continuing my plot development principle of ‘what could possibly go wrong’, I’ve just dropped a heroine through a hole in the attic floor. Take a moment and share in the comments — any passage where a character in your work in progress is in danger, and any type of danger (physical, mental, social, or spiritual).

A slight sound behind him or perhaps just a change in air set him spinning; instincts honed during years with the rebels in the Lattari Mountains south east of Naples propelled him across the open space towards the intruder, his right hand itching for the knife he no longer wore hidden up his sleeve.

He managed to pull himself up short before he took Miss Duncastle by the throat, but not before he shocked her into panicked flight. She took two quick steps backwards, then scurried sideways through a narrow gap into a part of the attic he had not yet explored.

“Don’t be frightened!” he called out. “Miss Duncastle, it is quite safe. I was startled. I would not hurt you.” His calls of reassurance were drowned by crashing sounds in the direction of Miss Duncastle’s footsteps.

A woman’s scream — her scream — had him squeezing through the gap in pursuit. “Miss Duncastle!” he shouted again.

“Be careful! The floor!” Her voice was strained, and as he emerged into a cleared area under a dormer he could see why. The floor had given way, taking Miss Duncastle with it. She clung to a beam that still remained, her knuckles white with the strain. Below — some 16 feet below — he could see a room, empty but for items that must have fallen through the hole. The beam was frail. He could see at a glance that it was slowly giving under the weight of the lady. It would certainly not take his.

Even with most of his attention on Miss Duncastle and her peril, he deduced what must’ve happened. A towering stack of furniture and wooden boxes had slammed down on floorboards softened by damp rot. Some of them had scattered across the open space. Most had crashed through the hole to create a dangerous landing place for the lady hovering above.

“Hold on,” he told her.

Her eyes wide in her white face, she nodded. “I’ll try.”