Gagging, she continued down the steps.
Jacob charged up the steps and grabbed her, hoisting her in his arms. His breathing was harsh and rasping in her ear. His arms shook as he carried her outside. The moment they hit the fresh summer air, she dragged in a deep lungful of oxygen. Jacob wobbled, then dropped to his knees, letting Lilah roll out of his arms and onto the dew-moistened grass. The sun was barely rising over the horizon. When he collapsed next to her, Hannah, his wife, ran over and begged him to get up. Despite her advanced pregnancy, she grabbed at her husband’s arms and tugged.
Jacob opened his eyes and put a hand to Hannah’s cheek, catching her tears. “I love you.”
When she sobbed, he turned to Lilah. The glassy look in his eyes terrified her. She reached out and clutched his hand. Vaguely, she was aware of the neighbors hovering around them. Someone yelled that an ambulance was on the way. The men were working on halting the spread of the fire.
It didn’t surprise her. Most of the people living in the eastern part of Holmes County, Ohio, were Amish. She’d lived in Sutter Springs, a borough tucked up against the thriving town of Berlin, Ohio, all her life. These people had known her and Jacob since they were born. They tended to help each other whenever the need arose.
Lilah kept all her focus on Jacob. He was all she had left since they’d lost their parents in a buggy accident six years earlier. Jacob had become father and brother to her. She couldn’t lose him.
“Lilah,” he rasped, his face ashen. “Not an accident. Buried. Go to office. It’s there—”
He stopped, choking.
“What’s in there? What am I looking for?”
Why was he thinking about his work now, when he needed to save his breath?
The ambulance arrived. Lilah watched them load Jacob into the vehicle. As the door closed, she held Hannah in her arms as her sister-in-law sobbed. She didn’t realize it would be the last time she ever saw her brother.
Three days later, Lilah held her tears at bay as she sat stoically in the buggy, riding behind the simple pine casket holding the body of her older brother, the man who’d died saving her. How would she survive without him? He was all she had. Jacob had been the only constant in her life since their parents had died.
And now he was gone, too.
She sniffed, blinking to clear her blurred vision. No one knew how the fire had started. All the evidence had burned up with the large farmhouse. The place she’d lived her entire life was nothing more than rubble and ash. She and Hannah had left Sutter Springs and moved in with Hannah’s mamm and daed. She appreciated the quiet of the small district but still missed her home. Twenty-nine years ago, her daed had built the haus for his new bride on the outskirts of Berlin, Ohio, a place known for its growing tourism. Growing up, her family had been far enough away to enjoy their privacy, but still had the option of hopping into their buggy and heading into Berlin and enjoying a day of visiting and shopping.
She sighed as she considered her new life. While Ben and Waneta Hostetler had been warm and considerate, Lilah had noted a new coldness in the way her sister-in-law treated her.
Maybe it was fear for the boppli. Although they didn’t talk about such things, it was obvious to her that Hannah would soon give birth. It would have been Jacob’s first boppli. New tears threatened at the thought.
Her eyes slid to where Hannah sat beside her, holding the reins. Lilah had offered to drive, to allow Hannah a brief rest. The look she got in return could have frozen her where she sat. They hadn’t spoken since.
Lilah didn’t even have the distraction of school. For the past two years, she had taught at the Amish Elementary School in her district, but school had let out for the summer. Never had she missed the chaos and business of teaching as she did now.
The procession of mourners entered the cemetery. It was a fairly large cemetery as far as Amish cemeteries went. The back part of it was reserved for their Mennonite neighbors. All the graves looked the same. Plain wooden grave markers, with no distinction between them. Not even names. The plain markers were deliberately made so they would fade and become weathered.
It was the Amish way of showing that life on earth was passing.
It hurt her heart to think about it.
Hannah pulled on the reins, halting the buggy. Lilah wiped her eyes and scrambled off the seat. When she turned to assist her sister-in-law, Hannah ignored her outstretched hand and climbed down by herself.
Silently, the two women moved to the gravesite. They stood together. Yet Lilah had never felt more alone.
Lilah swallowed the large lump blocking her airway when the casket was lowered into the ground. Within minutes, it was over.
Hannah turned without a word and stumbled back to the buggy. Lilah followed. This time, she didn’t offer her help, knowing it would be refused. She got back into the buggy and rode to Hannah’s parents’ haus with her.
At the haus, the neighbors kindly greeted Hannah and Lilah, offering their sympathy and telling stories about Jacob’s life. The Amish tended to be practical regarding death. It happened to them all. Soft laughter rippled from across the room. Lilah stiffened.
She knew the women weren’t being unkind. It was normal for mourners to visit and socialize at these times. Her bruised emotions were overly sensitive. Pivoting so they couldn’t see her emotions, she noticed a man standing alone in the corner. That was odd. He held himself still, legs braced slightly, hands clasped in front of him. It was similar to the stance of the Englisch soldiers she’d seen on posters in town. She blinked. His one hand looked slightly different. It took her a moment to realize it was a prosthetic arm.
His head turned and his brown eyes snagged hers for a moment before he looked away. She flushed. What was wrong with her? It was rude to stare, and he had caught her.
She needed some air. She grabbed her black bonnet from its peg on the wall and pulled it over her kapp. Walking briskly outside, she moved off the porch to breathe in the warm summer air to soothe herself and calm her racing heart.
“Lilah.”
Lilah spun, her hand at her heart. She hadn’t heard Hannah approach.
“Hannah, geht es dir gut?” Her sister-in-law appeared pale and wan. Not surprising, given the circumstances.
Hannah waved away her inquiry about how she was feeling with impatience. “I’m gut. Nothing wrong with me except that my ehemann is dead.” Lilah cringed at Hannah’s harsh words. “I wanted to talk with you.”
She didn’t like the tone in Hannah’s voice. Ice dripped from each word.
“Jah, can I help you?” Lilah clenched her hands into fists, hiding them in the folds of her black mourning dress to mask her distress.
“I’m sorry. I can’t have you here anymore. I need you to find somewhere else to live.”
“Your parents—”
“My parents have nothing to do with this. I’m the one asking you to leave.”
Lilah stared at her. “Where would I go? You and Jacob were my only family.”
Hannah shrugged, her eyes red from tears but steady. “I don’t care. You can leave with one of the guests here. Anyone. I don’t care who. I know what happened wasn’t your fault, but my husband is dead because of you. If he hadn’t gone back for you, Jacob would still be alive. I don’t know if I can forgive you for that.”
Shock burrowed into her. Lilah and Hannah had never been close, but they’d gotten along. The excitement of the coming boppli had seemed to draw them closer. Lilah had hoped they’d become sisters of the heart.
Now that hope was ashes at her feet. She couldn’t blame Hannah. In fact, she agreed with her. If she had heard Jacob when he had first called out for her, she could have escaped without his help. He’d still be alive today.
Her heart was heavy in her chest. She heard her brother’s voice. Heard him telling her something was in his office. And that it wasn�
��t an accident. What had he meant? Hannah started to turn away from her.
“Wait.” She reached out to touch Hannah’s arm. The other girl shrugged off her hand but stopped. Lilah dropped her hand, clenching her fists as she struggled to control the anguish swirling around inside her. She forced herself to continue speaking. “I need to grab something from the barn at my family’s farm.”
Hannah shrugged. “Take the buggy. It’s early. You have time.”
With a soft swish of her dress, Hannah turned and went back inside, leaving Lilah hollow and more alone than she’d ever felt. More alone than after Mamm and Daed had died.
Her feet took her to where the buggies were all parked, her mind hazy with shock. Where could she stay?
“I’m sorry about your brother.” A deep voice behind her made her jump.
It was the man she’d noticed inside. The one she’d been staring at. His hair was blonder in the sun than it had appeared inside. The sympathy in his deep brown eyes nearly undid her composure.
She swallowed around the lump swelling inside her throat. “Danke.”
“Do you need help?”
She shook her head. “Nee. Danke.” She had to pause to steady herself. “I have to go find something.”
A sudden flurry of activity near the barn caught their attention. When they looked, nothing was there. Probably animals, she decided. She turned back and found he was still watching her.
“I won’t keep you, then. I wanted to tell you Jacob was a gut man.”
“Jah. He was.” Her eyes followed him. “How did you know him?”
He stopped and turned back to her. “I was one of his clients. More than that. He was a friend.”
A lump swelled in her throat. “He’d wanted me to find something. At our haus. That’s where I’m going,” she said.
Why was she telling a stranger this? Lilah had always been a very private person. Something about this man, though, made her feel she could trust him with this burden. Ridiculous! She tightened her lips around the words hovering on her tongue. She couldn’t confide in someone she didn’t know, regardless of who he was to her brother.
He frowned, his gaze searching her face. He must have decided she wasn’t going to say more. Nodding briefly, he turned and strode away. She should have asked for his name.
Rehitching the buggy, Lilah climbed up and grabbed the reins, directing the mare out onto the road. As she looked back, the haus vanished from sight. Unable to contain them any longer, she released the tears that had been dammed inside.
The journey from the Hostetler haus to where Lilah had lived with her brother and his wife took just under an hour. If Hannah had given her more notice, she could have hired a driver and made the trip in half that time. Pulling into the yard where her haus had stood less than a week ago, Lilah sucked in a deep breath to fortify herself. It didn’t help. Weakness still sank in, making her legs wobble as she stepped down from the buggy.
Forcing herself to look away from the ruins of her haus, she strode into the small brown wooden shed connected to the barn, where Jacob had run his farrier business. Two steps inside the barn, she halted, her jaw dropping in shock.
Jacob had always been neat to the point of being obsessed. When she’d been in this office the day he’d died, he’d been in the middle of repairing the old cupboard on the back wall. She remembered there being a chain lock on it.
A chill slid up her spine, seeing it thrown to the ground, hacked open and splintered by some sort of tool. Looking around, she saw the maul leaning against the wall. That definitely didn’t belong in here.
What was that noise?
Lilah held her breath as she heard footsteps out in the barn. Someone else was here. No one had reason to be here.
Her eyes flew to the shattered cupboard on the ground. Whoever was here had wanted something. Maybe even enough to kill for it.
She couldn’t stay.
Carefully, she inched her way out of the office. The footsteps were close. Ducking into a stall, she waited. The steps entered the office.
This may be her only hope.
Running, she made it outside and climbed into the buggy. Flicking the reins, she ordered the startled mare to run.
A gunshot ripped into the back of the buggy.
She couldn’t take the buggy back to her sister-in-law’s family. She’d already brought enough grief to Hannah. Another shot rang out.
Followed by the revving of a motor.
She knew she couldn’t make it to safety in a buggy. Not on this paved road. Rounding a corner onto a narrow dirt path, she jumped down, then raced into the woods. The path was close enough to where she’d lived, hopefully someone would find the buggy and recognize it. Most of their friends and acquaintances knew where Hannah’s family lived.
Lilah took off into the woods, running as fast as she could. Branches smacked into her face. She couldn’t afford to slow down. Her right side burned. She wasn’t used to this kind of exertion. Holding her hand to her side as if she could force the needle-sharp pangs away, she ran.
She didn’t know how long she’d run before she came to a clearing. A haus she’d never seen loomed before her. She had a clear view of the back door and the side of the porch. Maybe she could knock on the door and ask for help.
She stepped into the clearing and hurried toward the structure. The revving of an engine broke into the silence. Just past the haus, through the tangle of tree branches, she saw a maroon truck. Was it whoever had shot at her?
Changing course, she bolted inside the nearest structure, a large barn. The odors of hay, manure and various animals assaulted her nostrils. Hunkering down, she leaned against the wall, her heart pounding like a jackhammer as she waited for whoever was following her to give up.
Who could it be? And why would anyone shoot at her?
Her mind flashed back to the night Jacob had died. He’d said the fire hadn’t been an accident. She’d shied away from what he’d meant, that someone had set their haus afire. Someone had tried to kill them all.
And now he was coming after her.
* * *
Levi Burkholder should have offered to go with Jacob’s sister. She had been holding on to her composure by a thread. He’d seen the agony in her stormy blue eyes, the way her throat worked as she struggled to converse calmly. When she had told him that she was visiting her destroyed haus to look for something of her brother’s, he should have offered.
Except, she didn’t seem to want his company. Her expression had closed the minute she’d said she was looking for something Jacob had told her about.
Still. He should have offered.
What a depressing morning. He’d attended far too many funerals, seen so many deaths, and he was heartsick. When the preacher ended the two-hour-long funeral ceremony today by stating Jacob’s name, date of birth and date of death, it had struck Levi again how fleeting life is. Jacob had been a young man, younger than Levi. Only twenty-four, with a wife and a boppli on the way. And a young sister, who’d been devastated by his loss.
What would they do now?
Levi pushed the thoughts of her out of his mind. Amish communities were known for coming together and lending a hand when necessary. They’d be fine.
He clicked his tongue and touched the reins, maneuvering the buggy back into his barn, swiveling it back and forth to fit it into its narrow space. When it was settled into its proper place, he removed his gloves and set them on the shelf near the workbench. His left hand stung. A bee had climbed inside his glove and stung him. With his right hand, he used a flat blade to remove the stinger.
He was so used to the prosthetic arm that had replaced his right arm that he didn’t have to think about how to make the fabricated fingers close around the blade.
He didn’t mind his arm. It was a reminder that he was a survivor. In the most literal sense, having fou
ght in Afghanistan. It was also a physical reminder to him of why he was thankful to be back in the Amish community he’d left when he was seventeen. Some days, though, he struggled just to fit back into the mold he’d thrown aside when he’d left. He’d been more than angry when he’d rejected the Amish life. He’d been betrayed. One of the elders had accused him of stealing. He hadn’t. Never in his life had he taken anything that wasn’t his. His mamm had listened. His daed, however, had believed the elder and had demanded Levi return the money and repent. They had often disagreed as Levi had grown up. This was the breaking point. The tenuous relationship unraveled, and Levi had left that night after a shouting match that burned a hole through his spirit.
A lot had happened to him since that time. He’d been a soldier, trained as a sniper, and had done and seen things that had left him broken and scarred. So broken, he knew he would never be whole again, regardless of whether he still had his arm. In his darkest moments, he’d realized he needed to come home.
That was several years ago.
Mamm had started trying to talk him into courting the neighbor woman. Miriam Zook was a fine woman, a widow with two sweet kinder. Levi had nothing against her. They had talked before. She was an intelligent, pleasant woman.
A woman who deserved more than he could give her. Levi had nothing to offer any woman. Afghanistan had left him with nightmares and flashbacks that he didn’t know if he’d ever get past. Even though he had enjoyed talking with the widow, his heart had remained cold inside his chest.
A pair of dark blue eyes under a black bonnet swam before his eyes. He squeezed his eyes closed. Why was he thinking of someone he’d only just met? It was probably that he could identify with the sorrow in her eyes.
More than just his body had been broken by the war.
Sighing, Levi turned to enter his office.
A shuffling noise in the front of the barn caught his attention. It wasn’t one of the cows his family owned. They were all out in the field and wouldn’t come in until time to milk later that afternoon. Nor was it the goats. They were in the other barn. His mare was pastured in the back quarter of the fields.
Peril on the Ranch Page 19
