***
Luke could feel Caleb’s hand on his shoulder, but not much else. His feet were numb, his hands were useless, and his heart was so heavy he thought he’d fall to his knees any second now.
Watching his house burn, hearing the howl of the flames, the crashing and splintering of breaking wood, brought it all back again as if the last five years hadn’t happened. Everything came flooding back, and the dark shadows of his past threatened to overwhelm him once more. All his energy drained out of him, and he could barely stand.
Caleb spoke next to him, but he didn’t hear a word he said. His head seemed to be covered in cotton wool, and apart from the roaring flames, there was nothing else.
“Luke!” Caleb yelled then, as he grabbed both of his shoulders and shook them. “Luke!”
When he looked up at Caleb, something snapped. “Where are they?” he asked as he tried to turn around.
“Evelyn took the children and Madelaine to Timothy’s ranch. They’re safe there,” Caleb said imploringly, albeit somewhat out of breath. His face was black with soot, and there was a little blood on his cheek. It looked like a small cut.
“Timothy’s ranch…” Luke repeated, not really sure how he felt about that, although it made sense. “Which is where?”
“Just to the south of Stevensville,” Caleb explained. Luke was surprised to learn that the man had stayed this close after he supposedly self-exiled. None of that mattered now.
Suddenly, there were several men stepping around the house toward them. Luke recognized some of their faces. These men were townsfolk.
“The horses are all gone,” announced one.
“And they stole a handful of saddles, tack, and other stuff,” another one said.
“They tried to burn the barn, too,” a third supplied.
“By the time we got here, they’d already taken off,” a deep voice said from the back. “They got smarter, because this time they dispersed into three groups, riding off in different directions so the few of us couldn’t follow,” the deep voice continued. When Luke looked up, he saw a familiar face as the man stepped through the group of men toward the front.
He stopped right in front of him, and Luke held his breath.
“How are you, son?” Timothy asked gently. When Luke didn’t immediately react, the older man pulled him into a tight embrace. He just held him there, and Luke didn’t fight it. In this moment, he couldn’t. When Timothy released him from his strong hold, Luke took a step back.
The man hadn’t changed much in all those years—still tall and well-built, still wore his silver hair short, his gray beard trimmed, and his green eyes were still as clear as they’d always been. He was still very much Isabelle’s father, because she had the same eyes.
In this moment, with his ranch destroyed, his ranch hand missing, and all his horses stolen, Luke didn’t have the strength to push back and fight him. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to fall back into that black hole again. Right now, he needed all the help he could get. But more than anything, he craved peace.
Without a word, he stepped toward Timothy and embraced him again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Luke!” Madelaine jumped up from her chair at the dinner table when she saw the three men enter the house. All of them were dirty, covered in soot, and there were even traces of blood, but none of that mattered when she saw her husband. She rushed around the table and flung her arms around him.
“I am so very sorry, Luke!” she said through tears. “I shouldn’t have left you like this! I am so sorry! And the ranch! I’m so sorry!”
Luke seemed a little surprised at her outburst, but when he looked into her eyes, his face softened a little. Despite the obvious pain in his eyes, he pulled her into his arms, and she embraced him as fiercely as she could. Madelaine didn’t even care about the other people in the room.
Luke held her for a long time. Madelaine just soaked it up, and when he finally released her, she felt somewhat out of breath.
“I want to introduce someone to you,” Luke said then, his voice harsh from all the smoke. He stepped back a little—but his arm stayed around her waist—as he pointed toward a very tall, very handsome older gentleman with silver hair and bright green eyes.
Madelaine choked a sob when she saw him, but her face broke instantly into a smile.
He didn’t need an introduction. She recognized him instantly because she had seen this man most of her younger years around the farm when he had trained horses with her father.
“Timothy!” she exclaimed, peeling herself out of Luke’s arms.
“Madelaine?” Timothy asked, a little surprised. “Oh, my, have you grown, young lady!” he remarked, and when he opened his arms with a bright smile, she ran to him and hugged him, too. “It’s so good to see you!”
“I have so much to tell you,” Madelaine said, excited to see him.
