Amish Outsider

by Marta Perry

  Obediently, they gathered up Allie, Ruthie and the boys. Little Sally was already asleep on her mother’s lap.

  When the door had closed behind them, Jamison gave a satisfied nod. “It’s not suitable for youngsters to hear, especially not little Allie.” He glanced at Michael. “I’m just sorry we didn’t figure it out before she had such a scary experience.”

  “She’s safe, thanks to Cathy.” A cold hand gripped his heart at the thought of what might have happened. “How he thought he could get away with it in the middle of a crowd...”

  “That’s just it—he was past thinking, at least by the time we got him down to the station. According to Cathy, he acted like he was in a daze from the minute she saw him.”

  “You’ve talked to her, then.” He longed to ask how she was, but he feared giving himself away when his emotions and his thoughts were in such a tangled mess.

  “Just briefly, to get her account of what happened. She’ll come in and make a formal statement on Monday, but that’s enough to go on with.”

  So it wasn’t over for Cathy yet. He tried not to let his mind dwell on her.

  “Anyway, the case is wrapping up pretty well. I think Randy was so demoralized by the realization of what he’d almost done that it was a relief to him to spill it all. His lawyer kept trying to hush him up, but nobody could stop him from talking.”

  “You mean he confessed about Diana?” He’d been picturing Diana’s killer as some sort of monster, not the broken remains of a human being he’d seen led away to the police car.

  Jamison nodded. “It seems she called him sometime ago, asking him to come and see her. I’d guess the truth is, he’d never gotten over his crush on her, so he went. Turns out she wanted him to be an intermediary with her grandmother, thinking he could sway the old woman’s feelings. All she wanted, she said, was to have the life she’d left.”

  Michael tried to rub away the tension that always built behind his forehead when he thought of Diana. “She seemed to be thinking of that a lot that last year or so—the life she’d have had if we’d never run away together.”

  As he had, he supposed, except that he wouldn’t exchange anything for his daughter.

  “I suppose Randy would do whatever she asked. He was always crazy about her, not that she’d ever paid any attention to him.” Randy had just been another of her court of admirers, from what he remembered.

  “Seems to be the case. The old lady is having memory problems, but he’d spent a lot of time with her, talking about Diana. Apparently he was convinced he’d gotten her to the point of welcoming Diana back with open arms.”

  “I don’t guess Bernard Wilcox would be happy about that,” Lige commented.

  “If he knew.” Jamison shrugged. “He won’t admit it, I’m sure. Anyway, when Randy told Diana, he says she was delighted. Then he made the mistake of assuming they had a future together.” He hesitated, looking around as if weighing whether to say something or not. “He hedges about her response, but I’d guess she laughed at him. Something that infuriated him anyway.”

  Michael could imagine. Diana had been good at hitting a man’s vulnerable points.

  “He says it was an accident—that he pushed her, not meaning to knock her down the stairs. And ran away.”

  “Do you believe that? That he didn’t mean to hurt her?”

  “Doesn’t matter what I believe,” Jamison said. “That’s what his lawyer will argue.”

  “When I came back to River Haven, he must have panicked. The vandalism, the feelings against me...he stirred that up, didn’t he?”

  “He didn’t want to be reminded of what he’d done by your presence. He wouldn’t admit to stalking Allie, but I’m more or less certain he was afraid she’d seen him. If you’d settled anywhere else, she wouldn’t have had a chance to recognize him. I’d guess he was trying to see which child she was, but he didn’t know for sure until the day he followed her and Cathy home from school.”

  “If he’d gotten to Allie today...” His hands knotted into fists.

  “He didn’t,” Daad reminded him. “God protected her, and it’s over now.”

  Over. Somehow he couldn’t quite believe that the cloud that had darkened his life was gone for good.

  “Yah,” he said at last. “It’s over. We can get on with our lives.”

  Even as he said it, he wondered. What lives? Should he even think of picking up the pieces of that life out in the world? At one time, that had been all he’d wanted, but the past month had made that life seem remote. Now...

  Now, he realized, a lot depended on Cathy. He had to see her before he could know what his future held.

  * * *

  AS FAR AS Cathy could tell, what had happened had disrupted the Mud Sale pretty thoroughly. Still, people had rallied and they’d eventually gotten back on track. Joanna, stopping by after it was over, claimed she’d sold more than she ever had, primarily because people wanted to get close to the scene of the action.

  Cathy was feeling overwhelmed by the solicitude of family and friends by the end of the day. When two of her sisters were still hanging around after supper, she’d slipped away, letting them think she was going to rest. Actually, she’d evaded them, gotten out of the house and sought refuge in the barn.

  Silence, other than the soft whicker of a horse and the occasional thud of a heavy hoof on the wooden floor—that was what she craved. She needed peace to get her thoughts together and process everything that had happened.

  Blackie, the oldest of the buggy horses, put his head over the stall bar and rested it heavily on her shoulder. “All right, all right. I love you, too. Give over.” She shifted him with an effort, and he switched to nuzzling her hand.

  Giving in, she got a carrot from the bin and brought it to him, generating a lot of interest from Belle, Cathy’s own buggy mare.

  Cathy rested her head against the upright between the stalls. From what Chief Jamison had said when he’d questioned her, it seemed fairly certain that Michael was finally in the clear. The newspapers would trumpet the arrest of Randy Hunter, and everyone would know that Michael was innocent. He’d be able to go back to his Englisch life, if that was what he wanted.

  For sure he would, wouldn’t he? She rubbed Blackie’s forelock and let him nuzzle against her shoulder. Standing there, relaxing at last, she felt the tears come to her eyes. She had been telling herself this would get easier, but not yet, obviously. When? How long would it take before she stopped yearning for Michael?

  She heard a step behind her, and a shadow moved across the late-day sunshine streaming through the open doorway.

  “I thought I might find you here. Cathy?” He took a step toward her. “Are you crying?”

  “No, of course not.” She wiped away the trace of tears. What had happened to her control? Today’s events seemed to have shattered it.

  “There’s no need to cry now. It’s all over.” He sounded tentative, as if unsure what to say to her.

  “I know. I’m just trying to get away from my family,” she managed.

  “Same here.” He came to lean on the stall next to her. Not touching, but comforting all the same. “Jamison finally left. He’s satisfied they have all the answers now.”

  “So it was Randy who came to the school that day, scaring us all.” He was so close that it seemed she could feel the warmth radiating from him, warming her as well.

  He nodded. “He didn’t think that through very well, did he? He seems to have felt compelled to see Allie, even though he knew there was little chance she’d recognize him. He should have realized you’d react as soon as you spotted a stranger on school grounds.”

  A shiver went through her. “It was every teacher’s worst nightmare. I’m wonderful thankful we’d been prepared. Even a few years ago, we’d have thought an Amish school the safest place in the world.”

  Grief slid
through her for the innocent children whose deaths had ensured that the Amish no longer assumed their kinder were safe.

  “And he was the one who chased you and Allie that day. If I’d been a little faster, I might have spotted him and saved us all this day.”

  He would blame himself, as any parent would. “And if I had been a little braver, I might have gotten a look at him.”

  “And paid with your life for slowing down.” His hand closed hard over hers. “I’m very glad you didn’t.”

  She had to say something, something to move them away from disturbing emotions. If she were stronger, she would draw her hand away, but if these fleeting moments were all she’d have, she wouldn’t give them up.

  “The police in Harrisburg—will they know by now?”

  He nodded, the faintest of smiles tugging at his lips. “I think Jamison took pleasure in calling that detective to tell him he’d arrested Diana’s killer. Small-town cop bests the big-city detective, I guess.”

  “Chief Jamison had a head start on the truth. He knew you.”

  His fingers tightened a little on hers. “That’s the thing that I’m just finally getting used to. The fact that so many people here believed in me even when reason told them not to.”

  “That’s the very definition of faith, isn’t it? To believe that way? People who know you had faith in you.”

  “Yah. Even Daad. He never thought I was guilty of anything but running away from the life he’d given me.”

  “But you’re all right now with your family.” She took a breath to have strength to say what she must. “Even when you go back to your Englisch life...”

  “What makes you think I’m going back?” He shifted, and his face was so near her that she could see every tiny line around his eyes, almost count the lashes. So near she couldn’t seem to breathe.

  “You—you can now, can’t you? I thought that was what you wanted.”

  “I could, I guess. Maybe I did want that once. But now...what would I be going to? Everything that’s important in life is right here—work to do, a place to bring up my daughter, family, good friends, church...and love, if I’m more fortunate than I deserve.”

  She didn’t dare think about what those final words might mean, not until she was sure. “You told me once you’d lost everything that was important to you out there. You could have it back now.”

  “Ach, Cathy, I didn’t value the right things outside. Now I know what kind of life I want—one that balances all the important things, not just success and money.” He lifted his hand slowly toward her face, so slowly that it was clear he was giving her a chance to pull away.

  But she didn’t. He touched her face, moving his fingertips gently over her features as if memorizing how they felt.

  “Everything I want is here.” He almost breathed the words, and they seemed to touch her skin. “I love you, Teacher Cathy. I won’t rush you. Not as long as I know the end means the two of us together, forever.”

  “Allie...” she began.

  “Allie will be delirious, don’t you know that? She loves you already.”

  “And I love her.” Her heart winced at the thought of how close they’d come to losing her today. “But I think we should give her some time.”

  “You’ll decide,” he said promptly. “I’ll wait until you say it’s time. Good things are always worth waiting for. Well, Cathy? Will you marry me?”

  She was sure now. Happiness didn’t come with guarantees, but he was offering her a love that would last, that would only grow. She raised her lips to his in answer.

  A long, satisfying time later she drew back just far enough to see his face. “There’s a little matter to be put right first, you know.”

  He chuckled, deep in his chest. “The penitent has to return. What do you suppose Bishop Eli will say to that?”

  “He’ll be delighted,” she said promptly. “It won’t take long. And then...”

  “And then?” His dark eyes were lit by love.

  “I think I’ll have to give Mary Alice a crash course on becoming a teacher,” she murmured as his lips closed on hers again.

  * * *

  Ready for more love and mystery in River Haven? Don’t miss the next book in the River Haven series by Marta Perry,

  Amish Protector

  Available April 2020 from HQN Books.

  ISBN-13: 9781488038624

  Amish Outsider

  Copyright © 2019 by Martha P. Johnson

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