Chapter 49: Sarah

"Sarah!" Panic laced my husband's tone, and I dreaded hearing what he'd come in to tell me.

Mason Belle was in a state of emergency as wildfires tore through the fields, pastures, and ranches all around us. We'd hoped like crazy that they'd blow in another direction, but that wasn't the path they took. For days the flames had inched toward our county and then one by one taken over.

Last night, they'd hit Cross Acres and Twin Creeks, and every available hand had been called up to do everything they could to help, which primarily meant driving the cattle to safety. That was difficult to do at Cross Acres because there were so many more head than on any other ranch around. That many cows required space to even stand much less feed. When Charlie had gotten the call from his dad last night, I'd been woken as well. What hadn't happened was an update since.

Even if my condition didn't prevent me from hopping on a horse to try to heard cattle, my three children did. A