Christoph Alders cantered along the road from Kalispell, pulling up as he arrived at the Redmond homestead. Or what was left of it. Christoph let out a low whistle at the sight of the crumbled, charred remains of the barn.

It was a travesty, that this had happened. Doubly unfortunate with Marshal Guyer still out of the picture. Christoph pushed his bowler hat back on his forehead. He and the rest of the council needed to talk seriously about Kalispell's security. It would be a touchy subject, seeing as Mayor Wentworth's younger brother was filling in during Guyer and Pike's absence.

But there would be enough time to think about that later. For now, Christoph had a different mission in mind. He nudged his mount into a walk again and approached the door of the house. Aurelian would probably be making the most of the daylight to do some work in the fields, but there was the off chance that he might be inside.

Christoph dismounted, flinging the reins over his horse's head to ground tie it, and knocked on the door.

@ [Wayfarer