Mending Hearts

by Janice Kay Johnson - His Best Friend's Baby

  “Eli—” Then David yelled, “Don’t run!”

  There was a strange grunt, and he was backing up toward her, his hands held above his shoulders.

  In disbelief, she realized those two greedy, ruthless men were holding up the quilt shop. And Daad—what had happened to Daad?

  * * *

  * * *

  They could see Miriam now, if she hadn’t run out the front door. Miriam, who had the money the two men wanted.

  Both men wore masks of some kind that covered their faces. One had turned to face the still-open back door, a rifle in his hands. Not a hunting rifle; it was the kind there was so much debate about out in the world, some people saying it was only good for killing people.

  The other one had a handgun held out in front of him, in a two-fisted grip. His eyes glittered through the holes in the mask. He gestured with that gun.

  “Get out of the way.”

  Terrified beyond anything he’d experienced because she was in danger, David retreated slowly, blocking the hall with his body. No matter what, he wouldn’t step aside. Instead, he said calmly, “Miriam, give me the money bag.” Very, very slowly, he lowered his right hand.

  “Get me the money and no one will be hurt,” the gunman growled.

  “Ja, we do not fight,” David said peaceably, although that was as far from how he felt as could be.

  He heard scuffling behind him, and Miriam shoved the shiny blue money bag with the zipper into his hand. Careful not to make a hasty movement that would alarm the gunman, David held it out in front of him.

  The man took one hand from the gun and snatched the bag. “Is this all of it?”

  “Ja, we were about to leave. Go to the bank.” What was Miriam doing? Hovering just behind him, or had she retreated into the store? He didn’t know which to wish for.

  “Got it.” Suddenly the gunman was backing away from him, throwing words that sounded like hammer blows at his partner. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Both moved toward the door. The first reached the doorstep and suddenly snapped, “I see someone down the alley!”

  Luke and Julia?

  “They’re Amish,” David said loudly. “No threat to you. Please don’t hurt them. They don’t even carry a phone.”

  There was a muttered conversation, of which he caught only a few words. Then they dashed out, yanking the heavy door closed behind them before he could see what had happened to Eli.

  David couldn’t hear anything through the door. He reached for the knob, but hesitated. If he opened the door, they might shoot.

  “I’m calling the police,” Miriam cried. He still stood facing the back door when he heard her voice.

  “I’m at A Stitch in Time quilt and fabric store.” Her voice wobbled, but stayed strong. “We were just held up. The men are probably still in the alley behind the store. I think”—her voice broke—“they may have hurt my daad.”

  The blast of a siren came from so close by, David jumped.

  * * *

  * * *

  “I have a headache! That’s all!” Eli snapped at his wife. “No need to fuss.

  Looking hurt, Deborah withdrew her hand. “You should be lying down.”

  “Once I eat.”

  They’d sat down for the meal almost three hours later than usual. They had all had to stay in town to answer questions. Then, after some discussion, David had followed the ambulance that took Eli to the hospital despite his protests while Luke drove the two women home. David’s buggy wasn’t large enough for more than two passengers to travel at all comfortably.

  Because Eli had been knocked unconscious, the doctor would have liked to keep him overnight but reluctantly allowed him to leave after a CT scan.

  Now, determined to pretend he was fine, that nobody was applying a mallet to his head, Eli picked at his food. Tonight none of them were doing justice to Deborah’s cooking, much to her dismay. Agitated, she had yet even to sit down at her place. Miriam and Julia hadn’t done much but stir food around on their plates, and Abby clung like a monkey to her daad, refusing a forkful of meat loaf with vehement shakes of her head. She wouldn’t understand what had happened today, but she knew that everyone was upset. David didn’t know what her life had been like before she came to Luke, but Miriam had said enough to make him assume it was bad.

  Even his appetite was lacking, his harrowing knowledge of what could have happened keeping his stomach clenched in a knot.

  They all heard the arrival of a buggy, not unexpected in a community where caring neighbors were certain to gather. It was the younger Bowman son who rushed in the back door a moment later, though.

  “Daad! I heard you were hurt. And, Miriam . . . I can’t believe you weren’t hurt!” He looked at David. “No, I can believe that, because David was with you.”

  His jaw tightened. “God was with us all. I didn’t do anything that you wouldn’t have done.”

  “But Elam is right,” Luke said quietly. “You were there.”

  “I don’t think they even saw me,” Miriam interjected. Her throat moved as she swallowed, despite not having taken a bite. “David moved to block me even though that man was waving a gun at him. He made sure their attention stayed on him.”

  Deborah circled the table to him, bending to hug him. “We are so grateful.”

  It stuck in his craw. He was no hero. He’d behaved as any man of their faith would: come to help close the store because he’d told Miriam he would, then insisted he would not resist while also drawing their attention from the woman behind him.

  “Eli is the one who got hurt,” he reminded them.

  “I didn’t even see them come up behind me,” Miriam’s daad grumbled. “I was no use at all.”

  Miriam reached a hand across the table to him. “Daadi, you have been here when I needed you my entire life.”

  “When any of us needed you,” Luke agreed.

  “Ja,” Elam said without hesitation, although even David knew there’d been a time when Eli and his youngest son had a tense relationship.

  David turned his head. Now a car was coming up the driveway. With the kitchen at the back of the house, none of them could see who this new arrival was until a knock came at the back door.

  “Come in,” Eli called.

  The door opened to admit the police chief, whose visit wasn’t a surprise. He had been understandably distressed to learn that his sister and Luke had gone out to the alley behind their store at the worst possible moment. Like David, he must have a single thought circling in his head.

  They could have shot her. It could have happened so easily. They could have shot her. It could have happened—

  “Sit! Sit!” Deborah exclaimed, shifting her own place setting over to make room for a guest.

  Nick hesitated, but acceded. David suspected Miriam’s mamm was happy to have a reason to bustle about, and Nick was already eyeing the serving dishes on the table.

  He looked around the table before reaching for any food, though. “You all know we arrested the two robbers?”

  Even Elam nodded.

  “Ja, and that a police officer was shot,” Luke said. “How is he?”

  “He underwent surgery to remove the bullet, but it didn’t do significant damage.” Nick shook his head. “I try to prepare my officers, but never really expected anything like this in Tompkin’s Mill.”

  “You recovered Ruth’s money,” Julia said with approval.

  “We did, and some of the rest, too. When we searched the house they were renting, we found several money bags, piles of cash, and more weapons.” Expression grave, he said, “We’ll be coordinating with other police departments, too. We think those men got their start a few months ago, when one of the two was released from a prison term for domestic assault.”

  “That poor woman,” Miriam murmured.

  David wanted
to lay his hand over hers, curled on the table between their plates, but held back. He wasn’t even sure he could call himself a friend right now.

  She leaned forward, her eyes fixed on the police chief. “I called as soon as they were gone, but we heard a siren so fast. It couldn’t have been because of my call.”

  “It wasn’t, although you’re the reason a second unit—officer—was dispatched immediately, and I was right on his heels. The first call came from Samuel Ropp, the man who owns the hat shop on the next block.” He glanced around. “I assume you know him?”

  “Ja, certain sure,” Eli agreed.

  “He said he didn’t like making such a call, but he’d seen two men carrying guns leap out of a car in the alley and attack a man. He thought an Amishman. Because he knew about the trouble they’ve caused, he felt he had to tell us what he’d seen.”

  Nick obviously didn’t fully understand the Amish reluctance to report crimes, and maybe never would. But David’s gaze met Luke’s, and he knew he wouldn’t be alone in making that phone call, if necessary, without any hesitation. Both of them still straddled the divide between the Leit and the Englisch world. Nobody out there would apologize because they had called 911 to report masked men carrying lethal weapons rushing the back door of a business and slamming one of those guns against the head of the gentle Amishman in their way.

  “I’m surprised the doctor didn’t keep you,” Nick said to Eli.

  David spoke up. “He wanted to, but Eli refused. He’s to watch for dizziness or nausea.”

  Double vision, the doctor had also said, but Eli was already glaring down the table at David, seeing him just fine.

  “Eat!” Deborah told them, while finally taking her place at the table.

  Nick dished up and began eating with relish, while David complied more to keep from drawing any attention than because he had any appetite. Elam ate mechanically, undoubtedly hungry after working a hard day in the fields. The others, he saw with a surreptitious survey, were trying, but without enthusiasm. Only Nick and Elam took second servings. Most of them turned down the schnitz und knepp—dried-apple dumplings—that Deborah offered.

  Seeing her dumbfounded expression, Luke smiled at her. “If you’ll send some home with us, I’m sure we’ll be glad later. Right now, we’re all still shaken.”

  Of course, that set her to packing baskets with enough food to last all of them for several days, but nobody protested. As a good Amish woman, a mamm who’d raised four kinder, Deborah knew instinctively that feeding people could make almost anything better. Usually she was right, David reflected. He only wished that would be the case for him, but knew better.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  When Nick kissed Mamm on the cheek and thanked her for dinner, David rose from the table, too. Already scraping uneaten food into a pail and piling dirty dishes in the sink, Miriam turned. She hadn’t yet had the chance to thank him. His departure would give her the best opportunity, although with his horse and buggy right outside, there’d be no stroll to the fence line.

  “I’ll walk with you,” she said.

  “Ja—” Eli started to push back from the table.

  Luke applied gentle pressure to their father’s shoulders. “Mamm is right,” he said. “You need to sit or lie down. No work this week, either.”

  “What?”

  Miriam made sure her daad didn’t see her smile as she slipped out after David and Nick.

  Both waited for her, and they walked the short distance together.

  “Stubborn old man,” she declared.

  Nick laughed. “Probably, but your father is a good man. I feel lucky that Julia married into your family. All of you have been so welcoming to her.”

  “We love her,” Miriam said simply. “I was so glad when she decided to join us and marry Luke.”

  There had been a time when she detected a wince on his face, and knew he wasn’t all that glad. She didn’t see anything like that now. Maybe he had become truly reconciled.

  They’d reached the hitching post where Dexter waited. Nick held out a hand to David. “Thank you.”

  “I did nothing special,” he began automatically.

  Nick shook his head and said, “Thank you, anyway. Now, I should go first so I’m not revving my engine behind you.”

  David laid a hand on his horse’s neck. “That wouldn’t bother Dexter.”

  “Now, Copper . . . ,” Miriam couldn’t stop herself from murmuring.

  His amusement still reminded her of the tension between them. His strange reaction after that kiss. Her behavior. She needed to keep a dignified distance, not tease him—but first she had to express her heartfelt thanks. Today had been frightening enough. She couldn’t imagine how she would have felt if she had been alone. Whether David denied it or not, she believed that, with his calm steadiness, he’d saved Luke and Julia from being hurt, or worse.

  They all said goodbye, and the police chief strode to his big vehicle, jumped in, and started the engine. Dexter rotated one ear before pricking both at his master.

  “David,” she began, “I must thank you. If you hadn’t been there—”

  The back door slammed, followed by voices. She closed her eyes in defeat.

  “If I hadn’t been there—” Voice rough and even desperate, David broke off in turn.

  Luke and Elam walked across the grass toward them.

  A storm seemed to brew in David’s gray eyes as he looked at her. “I need to talk to you. To explain—”

  The other two men arrived, seemingly unaware that she and their neighbor might be doing anything but saying a pleasant goodbye. Glad for their presence, she both wanted and didn’t want to hear what David had to say. Miriam backed away.

  David’s gaze caught hers just before she turned and rushed back to the house. He was upset, for sure. Feeling guilty because he’d hurt her feelings, maybe?

  What difference did it make? she asked herself drearily.

  * * *

  * * *

  David tossed a rubber ball into the small pond at the back of his land. Both puppies, already soaking wet, flung themselves in after it, splashing water that reached David’s pant legs. Dandy beat his littermate to the ball. She tried to snatch it from his jaws, but failed. Both were good swimmers, having webbing between their toes that showed their retriever heritage. Susie was going to have to learn to be exceptionally sneaky if she was ever to outdo her brother at anything, though.

  David considered stripping and diving in himself. He hadn’t done that for many years, not since he and Levi—

  He groaned.

  Not tonight. One of these evenings, he might bring a fishing pole and try for catfish or sun perch. As a boy, he’d caught fish from this pond with his onkel’s help.

  He tried to grab the ball from Dandy, who dodged to evade him. The puppy grasped only part of the concept of playing fetch. Just then a rabbit made a dash for the woods, and both puppies tore after it. Somewhere along the way, the ball dropped to the ground. Of course, the rabbit vanished long before two clumsy puppies could catch it.

  Despite wanting to enjoy their pleasure in the outing, the needed companionship they gave him, the peace of the evening, David instead brooded.

  How was he ever to talk to Miriam?

  If he had a chance, it was only because she thought of him as a hero, an idea he rejected. She ought to know better. He was still reliving those terrifying moments two days later, especially at night when he should be sleeping.

  Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he knew he wouldn’t have accepted her death any better than he had Levi’s. Which meant he still fought against the Gelassenheit that defined the Leit. Miriam was right that he didn’t accept God’s will as he should.

  He prayed that he would learn. That he could, twisted inside as he’d known he was all those years ago.

  He could keep hi
s mouth shut, follow his original inclination, and stay away from Miriam. Never tell her, never call her a friend, never kiss her again. After the way she’d run from him, he knew she’d accept that, even if there’d then be talk about them. Neighborly, that’s all they’d be. He might have managed if they’d had little to do with each other from the beginning. If Onkel Hiram hadn’t left him the farm right next door to the Bowmans.

  If Onkel Hiram hadn’t left him the land . . . would he have come home?

  He shook off that thought, remembering how much he had missed his family, his friends, the Leit. Working with horses had reminded him constantly of the life he’d left behind, made him feel he wasn’t so far away. Ja, sooner or later, he’d have humbled himself. Maybe if he’d waited, come home with nothing, that humility would have gone deeper. Repentant enough, he’d have never thought he could keep a secret.

  Now . . . he had to confess, even though he knew the result. Miriam deserved to know the truth.

  Would she walk with him if he knocked on the Bowmans’ door some evening after dinner? Probably—but he didn’t like knowing what Eli and Deborah would think.

  Yapping, bumping against each other, occasionally tripping and tumbling over to roll like pill bugs, the puppies raced back to him.

  David smiled ruefully. As his onkel had done, he intended to keep this part of the land native. He’d seen wild turkeys strutting up here, quail, skunks, groundhogs, and, of course, white-tailed deer. Hummingbirds and bees drew nectar from the wildflowers that thrived amid the long grasses.

  He’d grown up hunting, but never enjoyed it and didn’t see the necessity now. Although—his diet would suffer if Deborah Bowman quit sending home baskets of her food.

  With a grimace, he reverted to his problem. He could go to the quilt shop during the day and ask to speak to Miriam—but that would be conspicuous enough to cause talk he didn’t think she’d like any more than he would.