Amish Sanctuary

by Katy Lee

  Did he know?

  Naomi prepared to admit the truth right then and there, but her throat grew dry and the words echoed around her mind instead of forming on her tongue. A battle ensued within her.

  “I just don’t want to put more people at risk.” The excuse sounded lame to her own ears.

  “Why? Is your friend dead because of you?”

  His question hit her straight on.

  “I—I don’t think so, but...” Her eyes closed on a brief sigh. It was a possibility. She helped a lot of women and knew many of their attackers by name. She couldn’t tell Sawyer what she did for a living. To do so would mean opening up on a topic that wasn’t a possible discussion. Behind her eyelids, she pictured the look on his face if he found out she had once been one of those women.

  She opened her eyes wide in a flash, shaking her head profusely. No way.

  “Fine, have it your way,” he said and stepped back to let her climb down on her own. The message was clear that his lack of assistance would exceed past helping her from a buggy.

  It was for the best, Naomi thought. There was no need to depend on him. As soon as the police found Debby’s killer, she would go back to her life in Louisville. Until then, she felt safe here hiding out on the farm. Knowing how private the Amish were, she figured she could stay here forever and never be found.

  She grimaced at the thought. Forever wasn’t an option.

  Sawyer went to the front of the buggy and removed a black rectangular case. It dawned on her what it held.

  “You brought your laptop with you?”

  “I had to if I’m going to be working from my workshop here. My website tech will be in periodically and will need it. Don’t worry, it will stay in the barn. No technology or electricity in the house. I know the rules.” He walked over to a door and opened it.

  Following, Naomi saw a long room filled with machinery. At a desk in the far corner, Sawyer put the laptop down and came back out. Chloe had settled back into a deep sleep on his shoulder. He carried her so comfortably it made her wonder how he had come to know how to handle babies.

  Suddenly, Naomi wondered if he and Liza had children. He hadn’t mentioned it, but he also hadn’t said they hadn’t. Was she about to meet a little Sawyer or Liza running around? Naomi’s breathing tightened in preparation. The idea bothered her to the point that she prepared to force a smile. She would show kindness even in the midst of the betrayal she felt from them. She felt betrayed by her best friend for marrying the man she had been engaged to. It was a good-size community and many other Amish communities lived around them. Liza could have married someone else. Why had she married Sawyer?

  “Komm,” Sawyer said, leading her out of his office. “I’ll show you the spare room you can use.”

  Naomi’s throat dried in an instant. The idea of staying under the same roof as Sawyer just became a reality. She looked up as he closed the door behind them. At the far end of the barn was a ladder that led to a loft.

  She licked her lips as her mind raced. “I could just stay out here in the loft. I don’t want to disrupt your sister’s home.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I’ve stayed in many lofts growing up.”

  “Well, you’ve grown up, and you have a baby. So those days are over.” Sawyer disregarded her plight and turned toward the barn doors. At the opening he stopped and looked over Chloe’s head, nestled against his neck so perfectly. He frowned when he saw Naomi hadn’t moved one step. “I can’t protect you if you’re out here, Naomi. Think of Chloe if something happens to you.”

  Her gut clenched. The child would have no one.

  On a sigh, Naomi nodded and followed her ex-fiancé out of the barn and to his home. “I’m not Amish anymore,” she said when they walked in slow steps. The large house loomed ahead of them with the unknown behind the screen door. “Will I be shunned?”

  Sawyer walked a few steps without an answer. Then he said, “You were never baptized in the church. Shunning isn’t a possibility.”

  “But rejection is.” She looked pointedly at the side of his face, wishing he would look at her.

  “The Amish are forgiving people. You know this. You will be welcomed here.”

  Naomi squeezed her fists tight on the shopping bag. They were nearly at the foot of the porch steps. “You’re not being realistic, Sawyer. You just keep walking toward that door as though we do this every day. Are you even considering how frightening this is for me? I know people around here have not thought kindly of me for the past eight years. Including yourself.”

  He stopped.

  Naomi halted, her sneakers sliding in the dirt. She waited for him to say something, but he just looked to the house. With his gaze fixed dead ahead, Naomi followed to see what he looked at.

  Anna stood behind the screen door, her hand paused on the handle. Brother and sister squared off while Naomi’s heart rate sped up and pounded through her head.

  Anna’s heated stare told Naomi all she needed to know. “The loft is still an option,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “Hullo, Anna,” Sawyer said calmly. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the shooting in town. We’re going to have a couple houseguests until the man is caught. I’m sure you understand, ya?”

  Anna pressed her lips firmly. After a long moment, she slowly nodded and pushed the screen wide. She stepped out to hold the door open for them with her back. Her arms went to the front of her white apron and crossed above the waist. At her single nod, the straps of her white kapp dangled, and Sawyer led the way up the wooden steps. Anna turned a smug look on her brother and said, “It seems we have three guests tonight, brudder. I hope you don’t mind I invited Fannie Beiler for dinner tonight. She’s such a nice girl.” Anna waved Naomi into her home first. As Naomi crossed the threshold, Anna said, “She’s dependable. Fannie would never turn her back on her loved ones. That would be so cruel, isn’t that right, Naomi?”

  At the meaning behind Anna’s words, Naomi stumbled and froze right inside the entry of what should have been a hospitable Amish home.

  But Naomi felt no warm welcome from the homeowner, and even questioned the safety of being there.

  * * *

  Sawyer cringed at Anna’s sharp tongue. He had been expecting her to be upset, but not vindictive. Once Naomi walked into the home, he held back and said under his breath, “We will talk later, but for now, you are to show charity. Lives are at stake. Can I trust you to do this?”

  Anna looked to the baby in his arms, then back at him. She gave a single nod with pursed lips. She wasn’t happy about complying, but Sawyer was satisfied to see his sister had some sense. There was more to the story than what she saw. There was even more to the story than what Naomi had shared with him and the police.

  That Sawyer was certain sure of. And when the time was right, he would find out the truth.

  All of it.

  “She’ll need a room and a cradle,” he said to Anna.

  “I’ll have Esau get it from the basement.”

  “Denki.”

  Anna lifted her chin at him. “Don’t forget your Amish ways, brudder. There is no need to thank me. Aid to each other is expected.”

  “Well, for now I need you to consider her one of us and offer her the same aid.” At Anna’s sigh of agreement, he held the door for his sister, and let her go before him.

  A long, plain white hallway void of any adornments extended from the door with a staircase off to the right. The great room with the kitchen opened up at the end of the hall, and Naomi had stopped at the entry to wait for them. The look of concern on her face showed her trepidation about going in. The family, and apparently, a certain dinner guest were on the other side. Sawyer wondered at the additional hurdle he would have to deal with tonight with Fannie seated beside him. It figured his sister would choose today to play matchmaker, and he was ce
rtain sure Anna had arranged the seating to her liking.

  Anna stopped in front of Naomi, and the two women shared a tepid moment of silence.

  Naomi spoke first. “Please let me know how I can help you in return for your hospitality.”

  “You’ll have your hands full with your baby, but if the need arises, I will let you know. For now, run upstairs. In the first room on the right is a dress on the bed. I just laundered it. Put it on.” Anna moved past her swiftly and announced to the room they had another guest. Sawyer relaxed a bit hearing Anna put on a cheerful demeanor to her family. They would follow her lead and welcome Naomi’s presence without fear.

  Naomi walked back down the hall to the staircase. She paused in front of Sawyer and took Chloe from him. The two would go in together. “I hope neither of us regrets this,” she said.

  “The other option is putting your life and Chloe’s in jeopardy, and I know we would regret that more.”

  “Ya,” she said, the dialect slipping back into her vocabulary seamlessly as though she had never left.

  But she had.

  Sawyer would do well to remember that fact. He cleared his throat and waved for her to ascend the stairs ahead of him. He followed her up and retrieved an infant’s gown from his youngest niece’s room. It would be large on the infant, but Chloe would pass as an Amish child regardless.

  Sawyer went back downstairs to wait for them to dress. Standing at the bottom of the steps, he fiddled with the round wooden top of the staircase’s newel post. It moved in his grip, and he made a mental note to repair the railing system. Being at home more, he would be able to help his sister with repairs. As he made a mental list of items that he would need from his workshop to complete the repair, the wood floor above him creaked.

  Sawyer lifted his face and stopped breathing.

  For a few moments, the past eight years drifted away with each step Naomi took toward him. She cradled Chloe in one arm, while her other glided down the railing as she descended the stairs. The picture before him had once been an image from his dreams. His Naomi and their child coming to him.

  Besides the Amish dress, Naomi had parted her curly blond hair in the traditional Amish style of the community and covered her head as best she could with one of Anna’s kapps. Her curls still came loose and fell on the sides of her face. Tucking them behind her ears, she then held herself demurely with each step down. When she reached him, she said, “I left our clothes in the bag I brought in Anna’s room. I hope that’s okay.”

  Sawyer’s mouth had gone dry, and all he could do was nod. It didn’t matter that her words were nothing important. They still affected him as if they were a profession of love from her perfect lips. Lips that he yearned to kiss again.

  “Is everything all right?” she asked with a quizzical look at him. “You don’t look well.”

  No. Nothing is all right. Nothing is right at all. The defiant thoughts bounced around his head, but Sawyer grasped hold of the Amish way of self-control and reined in his emotions. There was no time or point to resurface nonsensical dreams that would lead nowhere. To spend one moment in them put lives at risk. His thoughts from here on could only be about protecting Naomi and Chloe...so they could safely return to their life elsewhere.

  “The whole community has heard about the shooting at the store,” he said. “I’m hoping that will keep people from asking about our houseguests for a little while. For now, we’ll say you and Chloe are distant cousins visiting. We’ll say you are a recent widow in need of a home. That should keep people from gossiping.”

  “Oh, okay. If you think that’s best. What if someone asks about who I was married to? And why my community didn’t help me? This could backfire if someone looks into the community I supposedly came from.”

  “Give just enough to appease them, but you can say it still hurts too much to share. People will give you time to mourn. Time for you and your baby to heal after a great loss.”

  Naomi took a deep breath and looked at the happy baby in her arms. She smiled sadly down at the infant with a genuine look of pain on her face. Sawyer wondered if his concocted story wasn’t too far from the truth. There had to be a man in Naomi’s life, even if they weren’t married, as Naomi had told the sheriff.

  Had the man died?

  Part of Sawyer hoped that was the case, because the idea of Naomi aligning herself with a man who would leave a mother to raise his child alone caused an uncontrollable anger to roil within him. Sawyer would never have done that to her. He would never have put her in such a situation to begin with.

  His fists ached, and he realized he had them clenched so tight his nails cut into his palms. Releasing them, he said, “I will do everything in my power to keep you both safe. Do you believe me?”

  She lifted an astonished gaze to him. With a slow nod, an appreciative smile swept over her face and her eyes glistened. “Thank you, Sawyer. You have no idea how your words have comforted me. Yes, I believe you.”

  She took his breath away again with such adoration on her face.

  It’s for the baby. He chided himself to remember Naomi had left him for the fancy English world. He hadn’t been enough to keep her, and that hadn’t changed. But he would still protect her, with his life, if need be. He cleared his throat and said, “Shall we go in? They’re waiting for us to begin.”

  “I’m ready to get this show on the road.” With no timidity, she stepped in front of him to lead the way. He wondered when she had become so strong. She had faced a gunman today, and now walked boldly into another possible lion’s den. Whatever she’d faced in the eight years since he’d seen her had toughened her.

  Gut. She would need every ounce of strength to survive the danger ahead.

  FIVE

  Naomi dried the last dish, stacking it on the open shelf with the rest of the dinnerware. After placing the towel on the wooden peg to dry, she untied her borrowed apron and hung that beside it. The sight of her dark purple Amish dress beneath it brought on a wave of nostalgia. She felt like she was playing dress up, but this was real life to the Amish. There was nothing pretend about them and their lifestyle. To think otherwise would be ignorant of her.

  She felt a tug on the back of her dress. Turning around, she found the youngest child of Anna and Esau. Little Ben smiled up at her, and she saw he resembled his uncle Sawyer.

  Naomi knelt down to meet him at his level. “What can I do for you?” She poked him in the nose.

  The child placed his hand beside his mouth in a conspiratorial way and leaned in to whisper, “Are there any cupcakes left?”

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Naomi chided the boy. “You won’t get me to sneak you a treat.”

  “It’s not for me. It’s for Onkle Sawyer. He told me to come ask you for one.”

  Naomi looked over the boy’s head and found Sawyer standing across the long room by the woodstove. He stood with his arms crossed, listening to whatever Fannie was telling him. He nodded periodically, seemingly interested in the young girl’s exuberant tale.

  Then he glanced Naomi’s way and raised his eyebrows at her.

  Naomi smirked at him. He was looking for her to bail him out of the conversation. “Ben, tell your onkle I think there are two left for him and his friend. But they should take them outside and eat them on the picnic table. The kitchen is all cleaned up.”

  She stood and opened a cloth napkin and placed the remaining two chocolate cupcakes Anna had made on it. She pulled up the cloth’s edges and turned to find the boy back over by Sawyer relaying the message.

  Scanning the room, she found Anna and her husband and two daughters playing with Chloe. The baby was cradled in Anna’s arms and laughing at the girls’ silly antics.

  Naomi smiled at the sight. The baby was handling the loss of her mother with a bit more ease here in this peaceful and joy-filled place.

  Ben came running up and pulled on he
r dress again. He whispered, “He said to bring them outside and don’t tell anyone.”

  “All right, it’s our secret.”

  Naomi looked at Sawyer as she made her way to the back door. She held up the napkin to show him and stepped out onto the porch. The picnic table was down the steps and in the yard. A large oak gave it some shade. As she made her way there, she scanned the horizon and landscape. Nothing but pasture and cornfields were before her. The place brought her such peace that she was certain sure the killer would never find her here. Not that she could stay forever. But for now, she had space to relax and regroup.

  She placed the cupcakes on the table and turned to return to the house. But the sight of Sawyer stepping down the stairs stopped her.

  He was alone.

  Naomi looked back at the house. When he stood in front of her, she asked, “Where’s your friend?”

  “I asked her to tell Anna the story she told me. It’s really intriguing.”

  Naomi pursed her lips. “That is not nice, Sawyer. I think she really likes you.”

  “Well, now she knows not to.” He walked by her and sat down at the table. “Join me. I can’t eat both of these.”

  “Then why did you ask for both?”

  “In case you wanted one while we chatted. Now, sit. We have lots to discuss. And while the family has company, we’ll be left alone and have some privacy.”

  Naomi glanced back out at the fields. “I was just thinking how peaceful it is here. I feel safe, even though I know someone out there wants me dead. In this moment and in this place, I can almost forget.”

  “Well, don’t.” Sawyer broke off a piece of the cupcake and tossed it in his mouth. He chewed and spoke around the confection. “That could leave you unprepared for the worst.” He swallowed before continuing, “We need to discuss the possibility that you will be found. We need to form a plan. Sit.” He waved at the empty bench across from him.