Chapter Six

It was Saturday, but Shiloh was up with first light, moving the mares she wanted to breed with Max to the back corral behind the house.  She had already moved Max to the barn, wanting to take him out for a ride one more time before she left him to his business with the mares.  Hank and Johnny’s horses were still in the barn as well as some of the four and five year olds she was about to start training.   She also brought up some of her trained horses to groom and trim in preparation for Jim Fischer’s visit to the ranch.

She made one last trip to the bottom corral to bring up the last mare when she stopped and watched as Adam road between the fences toward her.  As she looked, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth when Adam dismounted in one smooth motion, then walked toward her.  His walk was sure…fluid. He wore his gun and swung his hands with confidence and authority.  His broad chest and shoulders and his muscled arms…his dark eyes…and that satisfied smile he was wearing caused her to catch her breath.   He couldn’t help but see the appreciative look in her eyes, and he instinctively sucked in a breath, held his head a little higher, and walked just a little taller.

When she turned to tie off the reins she was holding, his eyes roamed over her.  She was wearing soft buckskin britches that hid nothing of her curves.  He was tempted to lean forward and give her backside a firm pat, but rather he chuckled to himself at the inappropriate thought.  Instead, he gave her a proper greeting.  “Good morning.  You’re up early for a Saturday.”

She turned and smiled.  “What’s your excuse?”

“I haven’t been sleeping very well.”  His look turned serious.  “I’m worried about Sam.”

She snorted as she walked toward the corral gate.  “You and me both.   Did you see the expression on his face at Roy’s office?  He was…pleased…that he had gotten my attention.”

When she turned back to him, Adam noticed her face change.  Her mouth dropped open and her eyes were focused on something behind him.  He turned to look, seeing an orange glow in the half-light of the early morning.

Shiloh pushed the gate shut, leaving the mare where she was and ran to Spirit.  Adam had already mounted.  Both kicked their horses into a gallop toward the orange glow that hung over the area of the Flying W ranch house.

Since it was Saturday, most of the Flying W hands were still in the bunkhouse, sleeping in. A few of the hands were watching the herd.  It didn’t take long for those in the bunkhouse to smell smoke, and by the time Adam and Shiloh got there, they had already starting moving horses and tack out of the barn.  Their progress was stopped by a sudden explosion of flames when the fire reached the hayloft that had been recently filled in preparation for the winter.

Shiloh dropped to the ground in a run, and Adam wasn’t far behind her.  A beam fell across the middle of the barn and set the hay on the floor ablaze.  Adam knew there was no way anyone was going to get anything else out of the inferno, but Shiloh saw Max at the back of the barn, kicking at the walls and screaming, the whites of his eyes flashing in fear out of the haze of heat.  She continued toward the barn and was only a few feet away when Adam caught up to her, wrapping her up in his arms and pulling her away.

“You can’t go in there!”

“Let me go!” she shouted as she struggled against his hold.  She worked an arm loose and tried to push away, but Adam held her.

He shouted to one of the men running past with more buckets for water, “Send Billy to the Ponderosa to get more help.  And check the back of the barn.  Maybe you can get Max out from the back.”

“Mr. Cartwright, whoever set this fire poured kerosene all around the outside.  The back went up first.”

Shiloh gritted her teeth as she fought him.  “Adam Cartwright, I am not losing Max,” she growled.  She somehow turned in his arms and began to climb him, trying to maneuver over his head.   He was off balance just enough to fall backwards with Shiloh coming down on top of him, scrambling to get away.   She almost made it, but he reached above him, grabbing her foot and pulling her back on her stomach.  “Max!” she shrieked as she clawed at the ground, listening to the scream of the horse.

Hank appeared next to them with his rifle and looked down at Adam who was now on top of Shiloh, holding her down.  When he nodded to Hank, Hank raised the rifle and fired three shots.

Jumping at the sound of the rifle shot, she looked up into the fire and screamed, “No!  No…no,” she repeated, her voice fading from a scream to a desperate plea.  She lay on the ground underneath Adam, sobbing.”

Adam rose from the ground, picking Shiloh up with him.  He didn’t have time to console her.  “You have to stay here.  Do you understand me?”  She glared at him, her face wet and streaked with dirty tears.”  He pulled her arms out and placed his hat and gun belt in her hands and left her there, grabbing a piece of water-soaked burlap, and smothering flames spreading away from the barn.  He was surprised when she appeared close by with her own handful of wet burlap.

The Cartwright hands along with Joe and Hoss came with more burlap, buckets, and shovels, and in only another hour the fire was smoldering.  With streaks of black soot on her face, arms, hands and clothes, Shiloh walked wearily to the front of the burn pile and dropped her head into her hand, sniffling with tears rolling down her cheeks at the sight of the burned bodies of three horses lying in the rubble, the far carcass belonging to Max.

She didn’t hear Adam come up behind her, and when he turned her around, she gave him a hollow, defeated look.  He took her arms to pull her into him, and she sneered and pushed back, but he held her tightly, guiding her head to his chest where she finally broke down into a heart-wrenching sob.  He thought back to the storm last winter when a tree fell on her house, destroying her mother’s piano.  It was then he found out why she had detested him, and it was then their association began to change to something…easier.  The piano had been the only thing she had left of her mother.  He knew Max had meant as much to her as the piano, and when Max died, the last piece of her father died with him.