Letters and Love

Chapter Twelve: Noah

"No!"

My barn was being destroyed and I had no way to stop it.

"Nonono!"

It was then that I realized that there was no other sound beyond the crackling flames. I had two horses in the barn. They should be screaming from fear, trying to get away from the blaze. Were they already dead? Had the fire reached them before they could react?

And where were... I turned towards the corral. The herd of cattle I expected to see was gone. The corral was just empty. The gate was still in place. I could see that much in the light of the burning barn. My herd, the venture I had put my savings in for the future, were nowhere in sight.

Shock hit me then and I collapsed on my knees. Years of work—saving and building—were gone. Tools and feed that I kept safely in the barn were now lost. How was I going to recover from this?

Who hated me so much to take such drastic, destructive action?

Because this had to be the work of someone malicious. The night was clear, so there had been no lightning strike to light the blaze. I hadn't had a lantern with me when I finished my chores for the evening since the sun had still been above the horizon. Nothing about this could be accidental.

Prt of the roof collapsed, sending sparks and cinders flying. I forced myself to my feet. There was still something I could do to minimize the damage, such as it was. With a quilt, perhaps I could keep the fire from spreading.

At least, it was something to do.

~*~

The barn was still smoldering a couple of hours after dawn. I had been on my feet the whole time, beating out any stray sarks that attempted to spread. The smoke was rising into the air, creating a haziness and making my cough if I breathed in too deeply.

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I leaned against the empty corral. Every muscle ached. Though I was reasonably sure the fire was dying down, I couldn't bring myself to turn my back. It would be just my luck for some random ember to suddenly blaze up and catch the grass on fire.

A shout caught my attention. Steeling myself for the worst, I turned to see a wagon coming my way. My hand moved toward the fence out of habit before I remembered that I'd left my rifle in the cabin like a fool.

"Noah!" the owner of the wagon shouted.

A sigh of relief left me and I sagged against the fence. It was Earnest, and not anothe threat. How had he... Before I could even finished thinking the question, I saw that there were two horses tied to the back of the wagon. My horses. They hadn't been killed. They'd gone to a place they knew as safe.

Earnest brought his wagon to a stop. "Noah, what happened?" he demanded. "Are you alright?"

For a moment I coudln't think of the words to explain. I gestured vaguely at the smoking remains of my barn. "I'm standing," was all I said. I wasn't even sure how long I would keep that up.

My friend and neighbor awkwardly climbed down from the wagon. Right. He wasn't fully healed yet. He leaned heavily against his cane as he came toward me. "How did it happen?"

Would he think me paranoid if I told him what I suspected?
Beating out embers and sparks had taken focus to make sure I didn't miss any, but in the last hour I'd had more than enough time to think. There was only one person in the territory who hated me at the moment. Though it was difficult to believe he was capable of this.

"Noah?"

"I don't know for sure," I said honestly. "I woke up to the barn on fire. My cattle were gone. My well was tampered with, or the bucket worked it's way off the rope on it's own overnight. I couldn't draw water to fight the blaze."