Amish Protector

by Marta Perry

“Yah, sure. But what is the price?” With a show of determination, she reached for her bag.

  “I’ll have to look up what I paid for it. You can pay me when the job is done.”

  Before she could continue the argument, Caleb came in, looking uncommonly pleased with himself, and he was saved from more discussion of something he was determined to do.

  * * *

  BY CLOSING TIME, Joanna was ready for a long nap, and a glance at her aunt showed her someone who needed it even more. Jessie’s face was drawn and her usually brisk movements slowed almost to a stop. Joanna’s heart clenched. Most of that was caused, she knew, not by too much work and too little sleep, but by the sheer emotional stress of the past two days.

  “I can finish up here,” she said impulsively. “Why don’t you lie down for a bit?”

  “I’m not dead yet.” Jessie glared, but then she seemed to try to relax her face. “At least we had plenty of sales today, even if some folks were just nosy.”

  “I think most of them were trying to help. Once folks know you’ve had trouble, they rally around.”

  She couldn’t help but think that the hardware store had been empty of customers when she’d been there. And she hadn’t seen anyone go in for the rest of the day. He’d been broken into, as well. She’d think his customers would be curious.

  Maybe it had to do with the fact that most of her customers were female. Amish women were the primary source of information gathering for the Amish grapevine, after all.

  A thump from the rear of the building had them both looking up. “Sounds like Noah is here to do the locks,” her aunt said. “You’d best go through and see if he needs anything. I’ll take care of finishing the receipts.”

  The mildness of her tone when she spoke of Noah was a change. Maybe, in view of everything else that had happened, Joanna’s friendship with Noah Troyer didn’t seem such a problem, after all.

  It’s not as if there’s anything between us, Joanna reminded herself. A man and a woman can be friends, can’t they?

  “Denke, Aunt Jessie. I guess we’d best make sure the doors are secure.” She escaped before Jessie could decide to object.

  By the time Joanna got to the back door, Noah had already removed the boards that secured the door and was looking at the doorknob.

  “This doesn’t seem damaged,” he said, moving over to make room for her beside him. “I think you’ll still be able to use the lock in the knob if you want. We’ll add the dead bolt, and you can lock it that way at night.”

  Her shoulder pushed his arm as she leaned closer to see. “You’re not thinking of putting a chain on?”

  “The dead bolt is more secure.” He glanced at her. “You’re not changing your mind, are you?”

  She shook her head, trying to tell herself that she wasn’t affected in the least by being so close to him. “I trust your judgment on it. Caleb not here to help you?”

  “I set him to work mopping the floor. He had enough of an outing today already.”

  “He was looking awfully pleased with himself when he came back. Whatever you sent him to do, it must have been pleasant.”

  He chuckled, and she liked the sound. He’d been too solemn lately, between the break-in and his troubles with the business.

  “Caleb’s lucky he wasn’t supposed to be doing any work for me. If he had been, he couldn’t have been chatting with a girl down at the soda machine.”

  “So that’s the attraction. I wondered why he was so devoted to helping lately.”

  Noah gestured for her to hold the door steady. “It’s not just being in town. I don’t think so anyway. The boy really does have a mind to be in business, but Aaron thinks he should be helping on the farm.”

  She could see that it worried him. He’d taken on responsibility for the whole family, she knew, and it must be difficult with the three younger ones and his mother to support. Wishing she had some wisdom to offer, she found some words drifting into her mind.

  “My daad always says it’s no good setting a boy’s hand to the wrong plow. If Caleb isn’t a born farmer, Aaron’s bound to be disappointed.”

  Noah stopped what he was doing for a moment to look at her, smiling just a little. “The bishop has it right, as always, I guess.”

  “Are you being sarcastic?” she asked, remembering the feelings he’d revealed to her only last night.

  He shook his head, his eyes crinkling. “No, I’m really not. I hope maybe I’ve outgrown some of the resentment I used to carry.”

  “I’m glad,” she said simply, letting her hand rest on his arm for a brief touch before drawing it back.

  Noah moved away slightly. “It’s not going to be much use for Caleb to learn the business if the hardware store fails.”

  “It can’t. Really. I’m sure your customers will come back after the novelty wears off. And anyway, you still have your Amish customers, don’t you?”

  Now he lifted his eyebrows. “Do I? I haven’t seen much of them in the past week, either.”

  For a moment Joanna was too shocked to speak. “Seriously? I just don’t understand that. My Amish customers might go off to a bigger fabric store for dress material. I do myself, since I mostly carry quilting fabrics, but they still come to me otherwise.” Her temper was rising as she spoke. “The Leit should support each other.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t go around telling them so,” he suggested, his lips quirking. “They might not like it.”

  “I don’t care about that a bit. I’m ashamed of them.”

  His face seemed to close up. “There’s a difference between supporting the bishop’s daughter and the son of the community’s drunkard. Face it, Joanna. You had the answer about Floyd, but you can’t do anything about this.”

  “We have to,” she said, moved by his pain. “Please, Noah. Let me help.” She put her hand on his, and this time she didn’t immediately pull it away. And he didn’t move.

  They were so close she could hear his breath, so close she could see the tiny networks of lines around his eyes. Something seemed to tremble in the air between them. His eyes darkened, and the slightest movement would have made their lips touch.

  Then Aunt Jessie called to her from upstairs, and the spell was broken. Noah began putting his tools in the toolbox.

  “I’d best get on to doing the front door.” He turned away, carefully not meeting her eyes.

  It didn’t matter whether he looked at her or not. The attraction was there...real and very intense. And this time they both knew it.

  CHAPTER NINE

  JOANNA FOUND SHE was tensing as she turned the buggy onto the farm lane late that afternoon. She’d rather hoped that Aunt Jessie would join them for supper, thinking she might be a cushion between Joanna and her mother’s tearful reactions to the true story being out. But her aunt had insisted that it was best for Joanna to go alone and try to get the situation back to normal.

  That was odd, no matter how she looked at it. If things were normal, her mother would be the first person she’d talk to about any problem that came up. All her life, Mamm had been the one she could turn to, and now she was afraid to speak to her.

  Maybe it would be better today. After all, Mamm had had time to get used to her knowing the truth of how she’d come into the family. Surely, if she was careful not to let any hint of blame into her voice, she might at least mention it.

  Clinging to that hope, Joanna pulled up at the back door, as always. Zeb waved to her from the kitchen garden, where he seemed to be picking the last of the fall crop of lettuce. Tossing a handful into the strainer he carried, he leaped over a row of winter squash and hurried in her direction, thrusting the lettuce into her hands.

  “Why didn’t you come a little earlier?” His grin emphasized the dimple that, at twelve, he’d give anything to be rid of. He wouldn’t believe her when Joanna insisted that one day he’d use it to
appeal to the girls. “You could have done this instead of me. It’s woman’s work.”

  “Get used to it, little bruder.” Her heart warmed at the usual teasing. “You’ve got a few more years to go before you have a wife to pick the lettuce for you.”

  “Yuck.” He grabbed the lines from her. “I’ll take care of Princess. You can help with supper.”

  “Okay. Just to please you,” she said. Reminding herself that she was going to act normal, she went on into the kitchen.

  “Mamm, here’s the lettuce.” She’d barely gotten the words out when her mother turned from the sink, tears brimming over at the sight of her.

  “Ach, Mamm, don’t.” She dropped the strainer into the sink and hurried to embrace her mother, feeling a mixture of guilt, pity and sheer frustration at not being able to make everything better. “It’s going to be all right.” Those were the words her mother had used each time Joanna’s young world crumbled. She could only hope they’d work the other way around.

  Mamm clung to her for another moment, and then drew back slowly, wiping away tears. “Ferhoodled, that’s what I am.” The scolding tone was reassuring. “I was just thinking of you, and then I turned around and here you are.”

  “Yah, I’m here, just in time to help with supper. Zeb traded me—he’d rather take care of the horse.” She picked up the strainer of lettuce and held it under the tap. “I was surprised you still have some lettuce from the fall planting.”

  “Not much more.” Mamm was obviously trying to sound normal. “It’s only because the weather has held. So we’ll enjoy it while it lasts.”

  “What can I do to help?” She glanced around, looking for something that needed doing.

  “Everything’s almost ready,” Mamm said. “So set another place at the table while I get the biscuits from the oven.”

  Relieved to hear her sounding like Mamm again, Joanna threw herself into the last-minute flurry of getting the chicken cut and the potatoes dished up so that everything arrived on the table still hot. Daad and the boys trooped in, and another in the endless line of family meals got underway.

  Joanna felt her inward tension easing as she sat in the chair she’d had since she left the high chair. The usual talk bounced around the table—what everyone had done today, what was planned for next week, who needed to make a trip to the lumberyard or the hardware store.

  At the mention of the hardware store, she focused on Jonas, the oldest of the boys. “I hope you’re going to Noah’s hardware store and not that new place out on the highway.”

  Startled, Jonas glanced at Daad. “Yah, I guess.”

  “Why would you say that?” Daad leveled a frowning gaze at Joanna. “We always take our trade to him.”

  She felt almost as if she’d insulted him, but at least it gave her a chance to say what she needed to say. “Noah’s business has been off ever since that new chain store opened, and it isn’t just the Englisch customers. The Leit has been going there, too.”

  Joanna sensed that Daad’s deepening frown was no longer aimed at her.

  “That is not right. Our people support one another.”

  “Noah has certainly supported me and Aunt Jessie. Today he came over and put new dead bolts on those doors that were broken.”

  There was a momentary silence—long enough for her to realize that she’d said something wrong.

  “What doors?” Mamm looked up, alert. “Why were they broken?”

  Joanna glanced at Daad, but he seemed to be leaving explanations to her. It hadn’t occurred to her that he’d succeeded in keeping the break-in from Mamm.

  “Somebody broke the back doors at our shop and at Noah’s.” She kept her tone light. “But everything was all right.” Seeing the fear in her mother’s eyes, she hurried on. “You should have heard Aunt Jessie when she saw it. If she could have gotten hold of whoever it was, they’d have been sorry for the rest of their days. Kids, I guess, looking for mischief.”

  Jonas, picking up his cue, jumped in. “I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Aunt Jessie, that’s for sure. But I’d have come and fixed it for you.”

  “No need,” she said easily. “Noah was right there, and he had to fix his door, too, so it wasn’t any trouble. He says the new locks would keep anything out.”

  “That’s wonderful kind of Noah,” Mamm said, and everyone breathed a little easier. “Be sure you thank him for us.”

  “I will, Mamm.”

  “And pass the biscuits to your bruders,” Mamm added. “They are always hungry.”

  “That’s right,” Zeb chimed in. “I’m still a growing boy, remember?”

  Isaac nudged him. “You’d best do it in a hurry, or you’ll never catch up with me.”

  Zeb elbowed him in return.

  Back to normal, thank the gut Lord. Joanna handed the basket to Zeb, who was closest.

  Obviously, Daad had decided to keep quiet about the break-in as far as her mother was concerned, but wasn’t it better that she knew at least a version of it? She could have heard something from a neighbor that alarmed her.

  She glanced at Daad, but she couldn’t talk to him about it now.

  As always, she helped her mother with the supper cleanup, but it wasn’t really the same. Did Mamm realize that? She was talking about the worship services leading up to Fall Communion, saying how busy Daad would be. But was her voice a little too high, her words a bit rushed? She’d like to try to bring Mamm’s worries, whatever they were, to the surface, but for the first time in her life she wasn’t sure where she was with her own mother.

  Was Mamm afraid that their relationship was forever changed? She’d think that the calming influence of the normal family meal would reassure her, as it had Joanna. But Mamm had been worrying about this for a long time, so it must be harder for her.

  That was the point, wasn’t it? Mamm’s worries and fears, whatever they were, went back to that snowy night so long ago. Her knowledge of it had created a chasm between them, whether she wanted it or not.

  It wasn’t until she was loading a loaf of homemade bread and half an apple pie into the buggy, over Zeb’s objections in regard to the pie, that the subject of the woman in the hospital came up. And it came from Mamm, oddly enough.

  “That woman who had the accident,” she said, “how is she doing? Is she better now?”

  “Yah, much better.” She glanced at Daad, who nodded. Apparently, this was safe to talk about. “The chief called the store to say that they’d contacted some relatives, and I’m sure someone from her family will be with her soon.”

  “That is gut news,” Mamm said, patting her arm as if she’d been the one injured. “It’s a shame not to have family nearby. She’ll be going home soon, then, won’t she?”

  “Most likely,” Daad said. “Her people will want to take her back where she belongs, even if she needs to be in a hospital there.”

  And then we can all forget her. He didn’t actually say the words, but Joanna sensed what he was thinking. What they were all thinking, she suspected. This unknown woman had come into their lives and forced change on them. Now she would go away, and everything would go back to normal.

  But Joanna wasn’t so sure. Would that heal the rift she still felt in her family? Or would it just cover it up with a thin patch that would break at the slightest strain?

  One thing she knew, she realized as she climbed into the buggy. She wanted to see Meredith once more before she vanished back into her normal life. It wasn’t all that late. She could stop at the hospital on her way home for one last chance to find out what had brought the woman to River Haven and to her door.

  * * *

  NOAH LINGERED AT the hardware store long after he’d closed, finishing an inventory he’d started earlier and then balancing the books. That sad task proved to be a reminder of just how bad the past month had been. How long could he keep going if hi
s customers didn’t come back?

  Frustrated, he headed out back, making sure the dead bolt was fastened and hoping Jessie and Joanna had done the same. There was no sense in putting in proper locks if you didn’t use them.

  But when he reached the stable, Noah found that Joanna’s mare and her buggy were missing, even though the lights were on upstairs. Had she gone to her parents’ place? Relations there were most likely still very touchy, he’d guess. From what Joanna said about her mother, she was taking this hard. Remembering his mother’s words about her grief after losing a baby, his heart winced. Maybe they’d been wrong in keeping Joanna without telling anyone, but he could understand how it happened.

  He hadn’t missed Joanna’s reaction when he’d suggested that with the injured woman’s family found, she’d soon be leaving. Everyone else involved would breathe a sigh of relief, but not Joanna. Her stubborn need to know the truth was going to be thwarted, it seemed.

  Soon on his way, Noah realized it was a little later than he’d thought. All the stores on Main Street were closed, and the empty sidewalks looked lonely. Time he was home, and no doubt he was due for a scolding from Mamm, who would have kept some supper warm for him.

  His way led past the hospital, and he glanced at its bland red brick, wondering if the woman’s family had arrived yet. He’d think...

  He lost that train of thought as he started past the section of the parking area devoted to buggies, empty now except for one very familiar one. It had to be past visiting hours, but it seemed Joanna was still there. Still in search of answers, he supposed. Without even thinking about it, he turned into the parking area.

  Given that it was past visiting hours, someone might kick him out, but he walked down the hall to the elevator without a problem. The woman at the reception desk was turned away from the door, talking on the phone. She was still talking when he entered the elevator and the doors slid closed behind him.

  If Joanna’s buggy was here, she was here, and the only place she could be was in Meredith’s room. He forced himself to stop calling her “the woman.” Now that they knew her name, it was disrespectful.