Chapter 5 - Fire in the North Barn
Evelyn remembered the sound before she remembered the flames.
Timber cracking.
Animals screaming.
Margaret shouting for buckets.
Frank swearing.
Then the heavy collapse of part of the barn roof.
"Jacob!"
Evelyn ran forward.
Two men caught her.
"Doctor!"
"Let me go!"
Another section of burning wood fell across the doorway.
Heat drove everyone backward.
For several horrifying seconds there was no sign of Jacob.
Then a horse burst through the side opening.
A second followed.
Jacob appeared behind them.
His shirt sleeve was burning.
Evelyn reached him first.
She threw her coat over his arm and forced him to the ground.
"Roll."
He obeyed.
Frank helped smother the remaining flames.
Jacob coughed violently.
Evelyn pulled the burned fabric away as carefully as she could.
The injury along his upper arm and shoulder was serious.
Not catastrophic.
But serious enough.
"We're going to the hospital."
"I'm fine."
She stared at him.
"If you say that again, I may let Margaret treat you."
Margaret, standing behind her, said, "I have whiskey and scissors."
Jacob looked at Evelyn.
"Hospital."
Despite the fear tearing through her, she almost smiled.
The fire consumed most of the north barn.
The volunteer fire crew prevented it from spreading to the house and feed storage.
Two horses suffered minor injuries.
None died.
Jacob was treated in Worland and kept overnight for observation because of smoke inhalation.
Evelyn stayed.
At three in the morning, he woke and found her in a chair beside the bed.
"You look terrible."
She opened her eyes.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"You nearly died."
"So did your chances of getting any sleep."
Evelyn stood.
"Do not joke."
Jacob studied her.
Then the humor left his face.
"Come here."
She hesitated.
He held out his uninjured hand.
Evelyn took it.
"I thought you were dead."
"I know."
"I saw that roof fall."
"I know."
"I couldn't..."
Her voice broke.
Jacob squeezed her hand.
"I'm here."
She bowed her head.
"That is not enough of an apology."
"For what?"
"For frightening me."
He smiled faintly.
"I'm sorry I frightened you."
"Better."
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
She looked at him.
"If you ever run into a burning barn again, I will personally injure whatever part of you survives."
Jacob laughed.
Then winced.
"Doctor's orders?"
"Absolutely."
By morning, however, the fire created a different problem.
Someone had to determine how it started.
At first everyone assumed an oil lantern or electrical fault.
Then Frank found a gasoline can near the rear wall.
It did not belong there.
Sheriff Dale Morgan came to inspect.
His conclusion was careful.
"Could still be accidental."
Margaret crossed her arms.
"Gasoline cans don't walk."
The sheriff agreed.
Red Willow had been involved in a property dispute for months, though Evelyn had barely understood the details.
A livestock company from Billings had been purchasing land across the region.
Their representative, Curtis Shaw, had approached Margaret twice about buying Red Willow.
She refused.
Recently, the company had begun negotiating for adjacent grazing rights that would become much more valuable if Red Willow sold.
Evelyn stared at Margaret.
"You never mentioned this."
"Because it wasn't your problem."
"A barn burned down."
"It wasn't your problem then."
"It is now."
Margaret's expression softened.
The sheriff warned them not to accuse anyone without proof.
But concern spread through the ranch.
Jacob returned home the next day with his arm bandaged.
Against medical advice, he attempted to work almost immediately.
Evelyn intercepted him near the corral.
"No."
"I need to check the south fence."
"Frank can."
"Frank's sixty-seven."
"So?"
"His knees sound like gunfire."
"Then Walter can."
"Walter's at his own place."
Evelyn planted herself in front of him.
"Jacob."
He sighed.
"Evelyn."
"You have second-degree burns."
"I know. You mention them frequently."
"Because apparently repetition is required."
"People have work."
"So do you. Your work is healing."
Jacob looked toward the damaged barn.
"Hard to sit around while everyone else fixes what burned."
The sentence revealed more than stubbornness.
Evelyn understood.
Jacob measured his worth by usefulness.
Rest felt like failure.
She softened.
"Then help me."
"With what?"
"The clinic proposal."
His expression became suspicious.
"You want a ranch hand's opinion on a medical clinic?"
"I want someone who understands what people here can realistically reach in winter."
He hesitated.
"That isn't real work."
Evelyn smiled.
"You just insulted my entire profession."
Jacob ended up sitting at the kitchen table for three hours.
He knew which roads became impassable.
Which ranches had reliable telephones.
Which communities were isolated during heavy snow.
He knew families Evelyn had never met.
By afternoon, the clinic proposal looked less theoretical.
Margaret watched from the stove.
At one point Evelyn looked up and found her aunt smiling.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"That isn't true."
Margaret stirred soup.
"I was thinking your uncle would have liked this."
Evelyn had been young when Margaret's husband died.
"What would he like?"
"The table being covered in plans again."
That evening another letter arrived from Casper.
This one was not from Dr. Bennett.
The handwriting made Evelyn's stomach tighten.
Thomas.
She carried it to her room.
For nearly an hour it remained unopened.
Finally she tore the envelope.
Evelyn,
I have rewritten this letter five times because nothing I say can make what I did less shameful.
I heard you may not return to Casper.
I hope you will not let my mistake take your career away from you.
I know I have no right to ask for anything, but I need to tell you that the relationship with Laura is over.
It ended shortly after you left.
I thought what I felt for her was certainty.
It was selfishness.
The person I miss is you.
If there is any possibility that we can speak when you return, I will wait.
Thomas.
Evelyn read the letter twice.
Then folded it.
She expected anger.
Instead she felt almost nothing.
That frightened her more.
Thomas had once been central enough to determine the shape of her future.
Now he felt like a person standing in an old photograph.
Jacob did not ask about the letter.
But he saw her holding it.
"Casper?"
"Thomas."
Jacob's face closed.
Evelyn noticed.
"He wants to talk."
"You going to?"
"I don't know."
Jacob nodded.
She became irritated.
"That's all?"
"What do you want me to say?"
"Anything."
"He hurt you."
"Yes."
"I don't like him."
"That seems reasonable."
"If you're expecting me to say you're forbidden to see him, you've mistaken me for someone else."
Evelyn exhaled.
"You make jealousy extremely unsatisfying."
That made him laugh.
Then the laugh faded.
"Do you still love him?"
The question landed differently.
Evelyn considered it honestly.
"I loved who I thought he was."
Jacob waited.
"I don't know whether that's the same thing."
He nodded.
"Fair."
"And Clara?"
Jacob looked at her.
"What about her?"
"Do you still love her?"
He thought longer than Evelyn expected.
Finally he said, "I care what happens to her."
"That wasn't the question."
"No."
His eyes remained on hers.
"I don't want the life I wanted with her anymore."
Evelyn understood the difference.
Sometimes a person did not stop mattering.
The future simply stopped belonging to them.
Two days later Sheriff Morgan returned.
The gasoline can carried no useful fingerprints.
But a ranch hand from another property had seen an unfamiliar pickup near Red Willow the night of the fire.
The description matched a vehicle used by Curtis Shaw's company.
It proved nothing.
Margaret nevertheless became furious.
"We're not selling."
"No one's asking you to," Jacob said.
"They're trying to scare me."
"Then don't scare."
Evelyn looked toward the blackened barn.
She had thought her choice concerned only a job.
Now she understood staying at Red Willow meant joining a community with problems she could not control.
The romantic version of rural life disappeared.
There were fires.
Isolation.
Poor roads.
Money shortages.
No guarantee a clinic would succeed.
Casper suddenly looked simple.
The hospital had equipment.
Security.
A salary.
Here, she would be building something from uncertainty.
Dr. Bennett's deadline arrived.
Evelyn telephoned him.
"I can't accept the permanent position."
There was silence.
"Are you certain?"
"No."
Bennett laughed softly.
"Most honest answer you've given me."
"I want to explore building a clinic near Ten Sleep."
"I wondered."
"How?"
"You've sounded alive every time you complain about rural medicine."
Evelyn smiled.
"I may still return to hospital work."
"The door isn't made of stone."
"Thank you."
Then Bennett surprised her.
"There is a state rural health initiative being discussed. Small grants."
Evelyn straightened.
"Where?"
"I'll mail the information."
Hope moved through her.
It was the first concrete possibility.
When she told Margaret, her aunt hugged her.
Frank offered to donate lumber.
Jacob said nothing at first.
That evening Evelyn found him near the burned barn.
"I turned down the job."
He looked at her.
"Because of the clinic?"
"Because I wanted to find out whether this could become something real."
Jacob stepped closer.
"And if it doesn't?"
"I'll decide again."
He nodded.
Evelyn smiled.
"That's all?"
"I'm trying not to frighten you."
"Jacob Hayes, you ran into a burning barn. Your judgment regarding fear is questionable."
He laughed.
Then kissed her.
This kiss was different from the first.
Certain.
Warm.
Without hesitation.
When they separated, Evelyn rested her forehead against his.
"I haven't promised forever."
"I know."
"But I'm here."
"For now."
"For now."
Jacob smiled.
"I can work with now."
The clinic proposal moved forward.
Then, in early November, the state rejected the initial funding request.
The letter said the area's population was too small.
Evelyn read it twice.
Everything she had imagined collapsed in three paragraphs.
Jacob found her sitting alone.
"We'll try again."
"With what money?"
"I don't know."
"I turned down a hospital position for something that may never exist."
"You turned it down because you didn't want it."
"Don't make this sound simple."
"I'm not."
She stood.
"Maybe Paige was right."
"About what?"
"This was an escape."
Jacob's face changed.
Evelyn regretted the words immediately.
But before she could correct them, a car turned into the yard.
Not Paige's Buick.
A dark sedan.
Evelyn recognized the driver before he stepped out.
Thomas Reed.
He had driven all the way from Casper.
He looked toward Evelyn.
Then toward Jacob.
May you like
Then he said the words Evelyn had once prayed to hear.
"I came to ask you to come home."
