Chapter 9 - When the Barn Burned
Wade survived.
A beam injured his shoulder.
Smoke damaged his lungs.
He had gone back into the barn because a ranch hand named Peter Cole was trapped.
Rosalie sat beside Wade's bed.
“You could have died.”
“Yes.”
“Stop saying it calmly.”
He looked at her.
“I wasn't trying to leave you.”
“I know.”
That was what made fear unbearable.
Sometimes no one was guilty.
Rosalie postponed the wedding.
Wade protested.
“You cannot lift your arm.”
“I only need one hand.”
“To do what?”
“Put on a ring.”
She almost laughed.
“You are becoming romantic.”
“Pain medicine.”
Wade recovered slowly.
The town rebuilt the barn.
Rosalie spent evenings reviewing ranch accounts while he healed.
That was how she discovered the debt.
“You hid this.”
“I was handling it.”
“Alone.”
“Yes.”
Rosalie put down the ledger.
“We've discussed this.”
“I didn't want you marrying into debt.”
“And I don't want to marry a man who decides which truths I'm strong enough to hear.”
Wade went silent.
The fire had nearly destroyed the ranch financially.
But Rosalie found an unpaid cattle contract buried among donation records.
The buyer owed Wade thousands.
An inspection certificate proved the cattle had arrived healthy.
The recovered payment saved the northern pasture.
Wade stared at the document.
“You found this?”
“Yes.”
“I spent three months looking.”
“I teach children to organize paper.”
He smiled.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
That evening Vivien burst through the door.
She was crying.
Rosalie jumped up.
“What happened?”
Vivien held out her hand.
A ring.
“Samuel proposed.”
Rosalie hugged her.
Then Vivien said:
“I didn't answer.”
Rosalie pulled back.
“Why?”
“I want to know whether I want marriage or whether I only want someone to want me.”
Rosalie stared.
Vivien smiled through tears.
“I learned something from my sister.”
Three weeks later, Vivien gave Samuel her answer.
Yes.
But first, another woman arrived in Willow Creek.
An elderly woman named Margaret Hollis.
Wade's aunt.
She entered Rosalie's house, saw the silver wild rose brooch and said:
“That belongs to me.”
May you like
And suddenly the object that had begun everything was at the center of another family war.
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