His Quiet Bride Never Mentioned She Could Cook—Now His Ranch Hands Won’t Miss Supper
Chapter 6
The attack came three nights later.
It began with barking dogs.
Then a gunshot.
Samuel woke instantly.
He grabbed his pistol and ran outside.
“Everyone up!”
The ranch hands rushed from their quarters.
Three riders were moving toward the barn.
Another group was near the pasture.
Someone had set fire to a hay wagon.
Flames climbed into the night.
“Water!”
Men ran for buckets.
Samuel fired a warning shot.
The riders turned.
One shouted,
“Burn the kitchen!”
Samuel’s blood ran cold.
The kitchen.
He ran toward the house.
Clara stood in the doorway holding a lantern.
“Clara!”
She looked behind her.
Smoke was already rising from the rear of the house.
She had been awake.
She had smelled the smoke.
Samuel grabbed her arm.
“Outside!”
“No.”
“What?”
“There are children in the kitchen.”
Two young kitchen girls had been sleeping in the room beside it.
Clara ran inside.
Samuel followed.
Smoke filled the hallway.
They reached the girls.
Clara wrapped one in a blanket.
Samuel carried the other.
They escaped through the front door.
Outside, the ranch hands had formed a line.
Muskets cracked.
The attackers retreated.
One rider fell.
The others fled toward the trees.
Samuel watched them disappear.
Then he turned to Clara.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He grabbed her shoulders.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He pulled her into his arms.
For a moment, neither moved.
Clara could feel his heart pounding.
Then Samuel stepped back.
The kitchen was burning.
They spent the next hour fighting the flames.
By dawn, the fire was out.
Half the kitchen had been destroyed.
Clara stood in the ruins.
Her recipe boxes were gone.
She looked devastated.
Samuel approached.
“We’ll rebuild.”
“My mother’s recipes…”
“We’ll rebuild those too.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I do.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Those recipes are all I have left of her.”
Samuel took her hand.
“Then we’ll find a way.”
Elijah approached.
“Mrs. Carter?”
She turned.
He held something.
A small wooden box.
“The men found this behind the stove.”
Clara took it.
Her eyes widened.
The box was blackened but intact.
Inside were several recipe pages.
Not all.
But enough.
She pressed them against her chest.
Tears filled her eyes.
Samuel watched silently.
Then Elijah spoke.
“Kitchen can be rebuilt.”
Another ranch hand nodded.
“Barn too.”
The blacksmith from Red Creek arrived that morning.
Then the miller.
Then the neighboring farmers.
By noon, people were carrying timber toward the ranch.
Clara stared.
“Why are they helping?”
Samuel smiled.
“Because you fed them.”
She shook her head.
“They don’t owe me.”
“No.”
He looked around.
“They’re not paying a debt.”
“They’re protecting one of their own.”
Clara looked at him.
“One of their own?”
Samuel nodded.
“You are.”
She smiled.
For the first time since the fire began, she felt safe.
But Samuel wasn’t satisfied.
The attackers had been organized.
They knew exactly where to strike.
And someone had told them where Clara kept her recipes.
That meant someone close to the ranch had betrayed them.
Samuel gathered the men.
“There is a traitor among us.”
Everyone went silent.
The search began.
And by sunset, they found something hidden beneath the floorboards of one ranch hand’s cabin.
A packet of letters.
All addressed to Silas Crowe.
