Lancaster County Reckoning

by Kit Wilkinson

  “You can ask him yourself,” Thomas said.

  “What?” She turned to him, eyes wide.

  “Jesse woke up. He’s going to be okay,” Thomas said. “Blake said he’s very weak but that he expects over time Jesse will make a full recovery.”

  Darcy squealed with delight. She threw her arms around Thomas. How wonderful! All her prayers were coming true.

  And Thomas was beside her and that felt good. She knew God had saved her once again. From this day forward she would never live her life the same.

  She smiled up at Thomas. “Thank you for coming today. For all you’ve done, Thomas. You’ve changed my life.”

  “Me?” he said.

  “Well, yes, you,” she said. “Your faith is so strong. And seeing it in you made me want it for myself.”

  “Then I guess we can thank Jesse for inviting us both over at the same time so that we could meet that day,” he said. His grin was beautiful. Everything about him was beautiful. Even his beard, she’d learn to like.

  She looked down again at the lock again. “Do you think the combination was in the letter?”

  “We can try it.” Thomas said. He called out all the three-number combinations that he remembered. Darcy tried each combination accordingly, but the lock remained firmly closed.

  “You know, Jesse had my name on the account here,” she told him. “That’s the only reason Danvers needed me. She found a second key in the wooden box from the well, and her spies in the FBI broke the code from the letter for her, but only an account holder with photo ID would be allowed in the vault.”

  “I wondered how she was able to open it. We hoped she still needed the key, and would be willing to trade it for you. If she hadn’t needed you to get into the vault... I’m glad you’re still in one piece.”

  “Not as glad as I am. But how did she find Jesse?”

  “She didn’t. Wissenberg did. Remember how Ross said that someone from the US Marshals visited him in prison?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, Ross’s team finally got a name with the face in the video surveillance. It was an older man. Maybe someone that knew Wissenberg before he went to jail. Anyway, he was paid a large sum of money after the third visit to Wissenberg and then he disappeared.”

  “Do they think he was killed?”

  Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m guessing Danvers got that jacket she was wearing from someone.”

  Darcy shivered. She pulled the blanket around herself and closed her fingers around it. Her hand brushed the locket. She thought of Jesse. She couldn’t wait to see him. She couldn’t wait to go back to Willow Trace. She couldn’t wait to...

  “The locket,” she said. “The combination. Of course, it’s the date on the locket. Try ten-four. One-zero-four.”

  He reached down and rolled the combination lock to one-zero-four. It clicked and fell open. Inside was a thick file and about twenty rolled-up scrolls. No wonder it was so heavy.

  Thomas pulled out the file and one of the paintings. “What’s this?”

  They spread the folder and its contents between them. It was a file on Wissenberg. There were pictures of him with different people. And an article about the car crash that her mother had died in. “I think this may connect Wissenberg to my mother’s car crash.”

  “We’ll give it to Agent Ross. He’ll know what to do with it.” Thomas put it aside and unfurled the painting. It was one of the ones in the photos they found in the box.

  “It’s beautiful,” Thomas said.

  She looked over at him and they both laughed. “I thought the Amish don’t really like art?”

  “Well, it’s not a necessity so we don’t own any. But it sure is beautiful.”

  “I see you already opened the box.” Ross hopped into the vehicle. He lifted the paintings and the files out of the box and secured them in the back of the SUV. Elijah climbed into the front passenger seat. “I know a little Amish wife I just can’t wait to get back home to,” he said.

  “And those paintings will finally go where they belong,” Ross said. “To their owners.”

  “The names on the back of the photos?” Darcy asked.

  “Yep, every single one of them,” Ross said. “One of our agents just had a quick chat with your father in the hospital. Mostly just to inform him of the seizure of his stolen property.”

  Darcy was suddenly horrified. “Will he go to jail?”

  Elijah smiled. “No. The statute of limitations has well passed, even on this small fortune. Anyway, he has a great defense.”

  “Really?” Thomas asked. “And what is that?”

  “He did it to protect you,” Ross said to Darcy.

  “What? How would that protect me?”

  “Wissenberg knew he kept them. Some of these were paintings he had wanted very badly. And your father told him that he’d give them to him as soon as he got out of jail as long as he didn’t harm you,” Ross said. “But with two life sentences, I don’t think he was ever counting on Wissenberg getting out of jail.”

  “So why the photos and keeping track of the actual owners?”

  “He planned to give the paintings back to them, once Wissenberg passed.”

  “Or have me do it if Wissenberg outlived him,” Darcy said. Thomas had been right all along. Jesse had had reasons. Good reasons. And now they were headed back to see him. She couldn’t wait. She could go home now.

  But Darcy frowned. Somehow going back to her town house and a life working at Winnefords didn’t seem appealing to her in the least.

  * * *

  Thomas sat back in his seat, his eyes falling to the file of pictures and documents they found.

  “There was this in the cylinder, too.” He passed the folder forward to Elijah. A letter slipped from inside.

  Elijah picked it up and handed it to Darcy. “This is to you.”

  Darcy slowly opened the letter from her father. Thomas watched as her eyes filled with tears.

  “Good grief.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m like a fountain.”

  “You had a rough week.” Thomas reached over and held her hand. It would be his last chance, but he couldn’t mourn that right now. He was too grateful to have the chance at all. He’d been so afraid they would be too late. He was so thankful they weren’t.

  She squeezed his hand. “It’s so sweet. It’s just a letter saying that he loves me. And that if I have this letter, then he is gone and he misses me. He tells me that my name was Daria. Daria Rachel Finlay.”

  “It’s a beautiful name. Do you want to be called Daria?”

  “No. I’m Darcy now. Can’t change that. But maybe one day if I have a daughter...”

  Thomas looked away. He didn’t want to think about her getting married and having a daughter with someone else. He couldn’t have her and he didn’t want anyone else to, either. He hated himself for the selfish, possessive feelings he had. He should want her to be happy, even if it meant leaving him behind. And he knew she’d be leaving. She wasn’t Amish. He’d simply have to get over his feelings. Just like he had with Mary.

  “He wrote more,” she said. “Do you want to hear?”

  “Ja, if you want to share.”

  “He wrote that he loved me more than anything except God Himself. And that every day he would pray for me to know the love and peace that he’d found in Willow Trace.”

  Thomas felt his teeth clench. “It must have been a hard way to live, knowing that you were out there and he couldn’t see you. Couldn’t see you grow up. Couldn’t hold you. Couldn’t give you his love and protection.”

  “But no one except for my father knew his burden,” Elijah said. “He hid it well. To protect you.”

  “What will happen to Jesse? Where will he go? His house burned down,” Darcy asked. “He’ll
need someone to take care of him.”

  “We will rebuild his cottage,” Thomas said. “There’s already been some talk of starting on it as soon as we get the materials in. And he’ll live with me in the interim.” Thomas smiled. This way he’d get to see Darcy at least a few times. He knew she would visit her father while he was recuperating.

  “But what if I want him to live with me?” Darcy said. “What if I want to take care of him? I’m his daughter.”

  “You’re not Amish,” Thomas said. “He took vows. He’s not going to go back to the Englisch.”

  “Then I guess I will have to look into becoming Amish.”

  EPILOGUE

  The following September

  Darcy had done it. Just like her father before her. She’d left her education, her high-powered job and her town house behind. She’d taken care of Jesse and they’d moved together back into the cottage, rebuilt by the Willow Trace community.

  It had all come slowly. At first, she’d just attended Sunday meetings. Then she’d started to learn the songs. She loved the songs. Then she’d learned the Bible, and prayer had become part of her daily life. And Jesse had guided her along. Encouraged her. Loved her. How could she have given up on that?

  Darcy had started a sewing business, which she ran from the cottage, performing alterations for both Englischers and Amish. Her reputation for perfection and speed had her with an overflow within a few months. So, she expanded to have a turn-around desk at a store in Lancaster, where folks could drop off and pick up items.

  In addition, word had gotten out—thanks to Nana Ruth—that Darcy could sew wedding dresses. So now, instead of just making them for Winnefords like she used to do, she made them for brides all over Lancaster County. Of course, she didn’t make dresses for the Amish—Amish women made their own wedding dresses. But since the Englischers didn’t, she loved making them for many women in and around the Lancaster area who wanted a simple, elegant gown but couldn’t afford the haute couture prices of the department stores.

  There were some in the Ordnung who disapproved of her business, just as they had of her father’s furniture, but times were different now. Most of the Amish were turning from farming to alternate livelihoods in order to survive in today’s economy. And really there was no difference in her making a fancy wedding dress than it was for an Amish carpenter to make fancy custom cabinets for an Englisch client.

  In any case, Darcy shared any extra profit with the community, as Thomas did. And she also had started a mission, where she invited any women who wanted to come to the cottage on Saturday nights and sew with the extra materials that she had left over from the dresses. Working together, they made clothes for the poor. Darcy was pretty sure a few of the older single ladies came to see her father as well as help the poor. But she didn’t blame them. He was charming and sweet and everything she’d ever wanted in a father. She could never regret the decision to settle in Willow Trace and become part of his life—especially when it had brought her so many ongoing rewards in her faith and in fellowship with her community.

  And all of this had led her to today. Today was a very special day for Darcy. Today was the day she would be baptized in the Amish faith and she would take her vows, just like her father. Everyone would be there—Jesse, Nana, Thomas, Abigail, Blake, Hannah and Elijah. She was shaking both from nerves and from the overflow of joy in her heart. She had baked three apple pies, as there would be a large supper after the service.

  Jesse was out hitching his mare to the buggy. She just needed to load up the pies. She saw Jesse through the kitchen window out in the field calling in the horse. Every horse reminded her of that star-filled night with Thomas on the back of the gray plow horse. She’d thought then that Thomas had romantic feelings for her. But since she’d moved to Willow Trace, Thomas had been nothing but a good neighbor.

  He was around at Sunday church, barn raisings and the rebuilding of Jesse’s cottage. But she probably spent more time with Nana than Thomas. Nana invited Jesse and her regularly to lunch at Nolt cottage and occasionally brought them jars of jam as an excuse to come over and chat. But not Thomas.

  Thomas had been different since her decision to stay in Willow Trace. Kind as always. Helpful. But he’d never tried to kiss her again. He’d never asked her to dinner or to go on a buggy ride. She’d once asked Hannah and Abigail if he had another girlfriend. They’d laughed at her and called her silly. But she wondered sometimes, now that she loved Thomas so dearly, did he love her back? Did he ever love her as more than a friend? She had thought so once, but now she was no longer sure.

  She dreamed of the one kiss they’d shared. It seemed so long ago. She longed to be in his arms again, but after today, she had vowed to herself, she would move on and stop thinking of him in that way. It wasn’t healthy. Anyway, starting today, she would truly become Amish. She could court and she could marry. And if Thomas wasn’t the one for her, then God might have someone else, and if not, she was okay with just being Darcy, the Amish seamstress, and living out her life with her father.

  Darcy scooped the three pies onto a tray and carried them out to the buggy. Quite a change from her zippy old red sports car. Cars and department stores seemed like a distant memory to her. Sometimes when her friends from work would visit, she would feel a bit nostalgic for her past. But deep down, she knew to have the peace she felt now, she would make this decision a million times over. God had called her to where she was and she was glad to be there. It wasn’t for Thomas and it wasn’t for Jesse. She did this for God.

  Today was about a love that she’d never known before—a love her father had brought to her by getting her to Willow Trace. It was all part of God’s design.

  Darcy looked across into the north paddock, as she headed toward the buggy. She saw Thomas’s horse, King, there in the paddock. Why? Thomas only used King for his own riding when he wasn’t using a buggy. And Thomas should have been hitching up his own buggy right that minute to come to her baptism. Did this mean he was not coming? She pushed back a sad feeling of disappointment and hurried on to her buggy.

  “A big day for you.” Thomas’s voice sounded behind her and her heart nearly leaped from her chest.

  She stopped and turned around, almost dropping the tray of pies. “Oh, Thomas. You scared me half to death. What are you doing here?”

  “Let me help you with those.” He reached down and swept the tray from her hands. Their fingers brushed against one another and she hated herself for noticing and liking the way it felt.

  “Thanks. I was just taking them to the buggy.”

  “You should bring a change of clothes, too. Miller’s pond is pretty cold. That’s where the all the baptisms take place. I was baptized there myself.” He took the pies to the buggy and said hello to Jesse, who excused himself into the house. Darcy didn’t know which one of them to follow. She chose Thomas.

  “You came all the way here to tell me that? Are you not going?”

  He walked back to her. His smile was erased from his face, which gave Darcy the strangest, most awful feeling in her gut. And that’s when she noticed.

  “You shaved. I thought you weren’t supposed to shave after you got married. What in the world? That’s downright scandalous!”

  “You’re right. No one shaves after being married.” He stopped right in front of her, looking more serious than she liked. He reached up and ran a hand over his smooth chin. It made him look five years younger. But as strange as the beard had seemed to her at first, he now looked silly without it. She could not possibly imagine what would cause him to do something so drastic.

  Then a thought came into her head, making her nauseous. He was leaving. Thomas was leaving the Ordnung. Why else would he do such a thing?

  “Thomas, what have you done?” She was almost in tears.

  Looking confused by her reaction, he tilted his head to the s
ide. “I shaved my beard. I thought you hated my beard?”

  “Well, I—I guess I got used to it. Has Nana seen you? What are you trying to do? Put her in her grave?”

  Thomas smiled again. “Darcy, slow down. Listen to me. I’m trying to tell you why.”

  She couldn’t breathe. This was it. He was leaving. Why? What had made him decide to do such a thing? She couldn’t look at him.

  “So, I think you’ve noticed that I haven’t come around much since...well, in months.”

  She covered her face with her hands to her forehead. Why was he doing this today of all days?

  “Well, maybe you did not notice.” He shrugged. “But I stayed away because I was waiting to say something to you.”

  No. No. She didn’t want him to tell her that he was leaving. Not today. Not any day. He couldn’t leave. She loved him. And she just realized at that moment how very much. She turned away, head down, her hands twisting nervously in front of her.

  “Darcy, I can’t do this if you turn away. Will you look at me, please?” He reach down and stilled her hands. She turned toward him and lifted her eyes. He smiled down at her and held on tighter to her hands.

  “There. That’s better.”

  “I still can’t believe you shaved your beard.”

  “Well...I did it for you. For us. For next month. Did you see how much celery Nana has planted?”

  “Celery?” She was about to have a nervous breakdown over his announcement and he was talking about how much celery Nana had planted?

  He leaned down and touched his lips to hers. So soft. So sweet. He tasted like apples, just like he had after the fire. He lifted their hands, and then untangled them so that he could touch her face and draw her closer.

  “Yes, celery,” he whispered, drawing her body into his. “Everyone plants celery when someone in the family is getting married.” He kissed her again. “Well, usually it’s the bride’s family, but Nana was just stepping in for you and Jesse.”

  “Thomas, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”