Cassie screamed and ran into the kitchen. She grabbed a pitcher and threw water over the burning fat. The fire traveled with the rivulets, down the sides of the range and across the floor until flames contacted the wall. They roared upward, jumping from board to board while she watched, horrified.
Jacob grabbed her shoulder. “Get out! Now! I’ve sent Timothy to ring the fire bell.” He pushed her toward the door. “Go. Help will be here soon.”
“Come with me.”
“I need to save the ledgers and cash box.” He ducked away from the burning wall and limped toward his office, his cane pounding the floor.
“Jacob! No!”
The fire bell next to the courthouse pealed a steady clang, clang, clang. Within minutes the steeple bell joined in, sending a request for help across the community.
The flames reached the ceiling and found the opening Wash had cut for the flue. In another moment they burned around the flue and spread overhead. Dazed, she stared at the growing conflagration.
A hand clasped her upper arm and yanked her out the door. A fresh breeze whipped around the building, tugging at her skirt as Timothy pulled her out to the street. “Get back, Miss Haddon. You’re in danger.”
Men in the fire brigade ran toward them, water sloshing from the buckets they carried. Someone yelled, “It’s on the roof. We’ll never stop it now. This wind ain’t helping, neither.”
Tears poured down Cassie’s cheeks. Jacob’s beloved business, burning, and she’d caused the fire.
Jacob. She clutched Timothy’s shirt. “Jacob’s in there. He went to get his papers.”
He glanced down the alley toward the grocery. Black smoke curled from the roof of the storeroom. A window shattered somewhere behind them.
Timothy shook his head. “He probably went out the front door,” he said, without conviction. His face mirrored her fears.
She whirled away and ran around to the front of the building. Fragments of ash swirled overhead like malignant snowflakes. Cinders fell on her dress. Through smoke-blurred windows she saw fire raging in the dining room. Pounding past, she stopped at the grocery entrance and reached for the door handle.
Someone pushed her out of the way and then threw a bucket of water against the clapboard siding. Sweat ran down the stranger’s face. “Git out of here, miss. You could be hurt.”
“Jacob—Mr. West is inside. Please, help.”
He stared at her, then back at flames eating their way around a window frame. “No one’s going in there.”
She lunged for the door, but he shoved her aside. “Git along. We got a fire to fight.”
Sobbing uncontrollably, she crossed the street, skirting around men running back and forth with buckets. Every time water hit the fire, the snakelike flames hissed and ducked, then rose somewhere else. She scanned every sooty face, looking in vain for Jacob.
A cry went up. “The roof’s going. Back off.” Firefighters scattered as the center of the building collapsed in a shower of embers. Flames shot toward the sky.
Cassie bowed her head and stumbled toward her cabin.