by Marta Perry
“She’ll be around friends when she goes home. There must be people who’ll look after her.” Noah found himself hoping that might calm her fears, even knowing as he spoke that it wouldn’t. It didn’t even convince him.
She shivered. “I think... No, I feel...as if it’s getting more dangerous every minute. The more Meredith remembers, the more someone wants to silence her.”
“And you,” he pointed out. “That car sideswiping your buggy was no coincidence.”
“I’m really not afraid for myself, not now. As long as I stay here, I’m safe. Nobody would try to take on both me and Aunt Jessie.”
She’d obviously intended him to smile, and he did, but he wished he had her confidence. “Yah, your aunt Jessie can be scary, but just in case, I’m still sleeping upstairs at night.” He jerked his head toward the second floor above his store.
“Ach, Noah, don’t you mean you’re staying awake upstairs? You shouldn’t, really. You have too many responsibilities already without taking on me.”
He could see the complicated emotions written all over her face. And he knew his must be just as confused. If only he did have the right to take care of her...
They were silent, inches apart, and the longing built up in him. If he leaned forward just a little—
The back door slammed open, revealing Jessie staring out at them. “If you two want to talk, you’d best come inside to do it.”
That was sufficiently intimidating to make him back up. “I have to get back to the store.”
He strode to his storeroom entrance, covering the ground in a few long strides. But he didn’t go in, not until he saw the door close and heard it lock behind Joanna.
* * *
JOANNA HURRIED UPSTAIRS while her aunt went on into the shop. She’d have to tidy herself, but more important, she had to make sure she wasn’t blushing. Halfway up she came to a halt, clutching her ribs. She’d been too preoccupied to heed it before, but all those bruises she’d acquired last night were making themselves known.
If she told Aunt Jessie, her aunt would insist upon some awful-smelling salve that she declared would heal anything. Maybe, but it could also be smelled a half block away. Deciding she’d take an aspirin and keep quiet, she walked into the kitchen and found her middle brother, Isaac, taking up residence. He was sitting at the table with what looked like half of a shoofly pie and a glass of milk.
She pulled herself together. “What happened to you? Did they run out of food at home?”
Isaac grinned, the dimple in his cheek flashing. “I’m a growing boy. You don’t begrudge me a little snack, do you?”
“You call that little?” At his startled reaction, she smiled. “I don’t mind as long as you leave some for me,” she said. “Just be sure to tell Aunt Jessie how gut it is.”
“I know that,” he said. “I always say something nice to the cook. That way they’ll make it again for me.”
“Smart aleck,” she said. “You’ll be too sure of yourself one of these days. It isn’t that I’m not glad to see you, but what are you doing here?”
“Besides eating, you mean? Bringing your buggy back. Aaron stopped by while we were still milking this morning, so when we finished, we went and got it. Daad and I fixed it ourselves once we saw the frame wasn’t bent. But you should have heard Daad about your driving.”
“I’m just as glad I didn’t,” she said, knowing that was Isaac’s idea of humor. “Did you really help?”
“Sure I did. I held things and carried things and I even got to jack up the buggy.”
He looked a little offended that she’d doubted him, and she ruffled his hair affectionately. When he wasn’t squabbling with his little brother, he was a good boy.
“That’s the way to learn, ain’t so? Denke, Isaac. Am I supposed to take you home?”
He shook his head, then swallowed an enormous mouthful. “I brought Mammi in, and Daad’s coming back to pick us up later. He said to tell you not to drive at night anymore.”
For an instant she felt cold as the memory of her buggy accident swept over her. “No need to worry about that. I won’t. I don’t want to end up in the ditch again.”
“So what happened?” His blue eyes were sharp with curiosity. “You used to be a pretty good driver.”
“I still am.” She gave a mock slap at his head and he ducked. “It was the driver of the car who wasn’t. Road hog.”
“So say this saltshaker is the buggy, and this is the ditch.” He put his knife alongside it, sprinkling crumbs and molasses over the table. “Where did the car come from?”
“Behind me.” Playing along with him, she took the pepper shaker and ran it up behind the salt, giving it a tap. She must have hit it harder than she’d intended, because it skittered across the table, adding salt to the crumbs. “He just clipped me enough to push me into the ditch.”
“You get the license plate number?”
Tiring of Isaac playing detective and her head beginning to pound, she put a snap in her voice. “I did not. When you’re upside down in a ditch, you don’t notice too much.”
“I would have,” he said smugly.
“Tell me that after it happens to you.” She gave him another smack, a bit harder this time, but of course he only grinned.
Making a detour to the kitchen cabinet, she swallowed a couple of aspirin with a glass of water. “I’m going down to the shop,” she told him. “Try not to eat us out of house and home while you’re here.”
Then she headed on downstairs, hearing his laughter behind her. One thing she could say about her pesky little brother. He’d made her completely forget she’d been upset.
She reached the bottom and saw her mother, getting an armload of quilt squares from a drawer. On her face, Joanna read such a mixture of emotions—apprehension, uncertainty, fear—that she didn’t know what to say.
She wanted to slap herself for causing her mother so much grief. Instead of doing something so useless, Joanna hurried to embrace her mother.
“I’m wonderful happy to see you, Mammi. I didn’t know you were coming today. To help with the quilting class, yah?”
Her mother nodded, releasing her reluctantly. “Your aunt thought I could be of help with the beginner class. Is it all right?”
“All right? It’s perfect.” She forced a lightness into her voice. “You have much more patience than Aunt Jessie does. She scares some of them half to death.”
“They should listen better.” Aunt Jessie sniffed. “Nobody pays attention these days. They’re too used to televisions and computers and all that stuff.”
Joanna exchanged glances with her mother, glad to see that Mamm was amused. She’d always relied on her older sister, but she certain sure knew what Jessie was like.
“I’ll help you set up.” Joanna grabbed a couple of folding chairs, only to be stopped by her mother.
“You shouldn’t be carrying things. Not after having a buggy accident. I’ll take them.”
Joanna held them firmly out of reach. “I’m fine, Mammi. Honest. All I did was slide off the seat into the nice, soft, wet grass. Is Daad very mad at me?”
Her mother was distracted from the chairs. “Ach, Joanna, you know better than that. He’s just upset that he didn’t insist you get on the road while it was still light.”
“As bad as some of the drivers are, I don’t know if it would have made a difference.” Joanna carried the chairs over to the folding table they used for class, setting them up a little more slowly than usual.
When Joanna started to go back for more, Mamm put her hand on Joanna’s arm to stop her.
“Honestly, Mammi, I’m all right.”
“You don’t look all right the way you’re moving.”
“Just a few bruises. Don’t tell Aunt Jessie, or you know what she’ll want to put on it.”
Her mother patted her cheek. “I brought
some of my own liniment. I’ll put it upstairs before I go. You use it before you go to bed so you won’t get stiff.”
“I will,” she promised. At least Mamm’s stuff didn’t stink.
Her mother paused, her hand resting on Joanna’s shoulder as if to keep her there. “I wanted to say...wanted to ask, I mean...about her. The woman in the hospital. We heard she was awake.”
Joanna had a brief struggle with herself. Daadi wouldn’t like her saying anything that would upset Mamm, but she couldn’t refuse to answer the question.
“Yah, she’s awake. Getting her strength back, I think. She’s talking a lot more.”
“And remembering?” The anxiety in her mother’s voice couldn’t be mistaken.
“Some things, not everything. I don’t think she knows what brought her to River Haven.” She waited, wondering what Mamm hoped to hear. Or what she feared to hear.
“I’m glad she’s better,” Mamm said. “I’m praying for her.” She hesitated, and Joanna felt that other words were hovering on her lips.
“Tell me, Mammi,” she said softly. “What is it?”
Mamm met her gaze. “Daad keeps trying to protect me, but I have to know. Is she a relative of yours? I know why Daad is trying to keep things back, but I really do need to know. Wouldn’t you?”
It was exactly what she’d been thinking. “Yah, Mammi, I feel the same. The test they did said that we were pretty close relatives, like, maybe cousins. But that’s all I know, and she may not know even that much.”
“I saw her, you know.” She looked past Joanna as if focused on something else.
“Saw who?” Her mind was blank. Was she talking about Meredith?
“The girl. The one we think was your mother—your birth mother.”
“Saw her?” Joanna absorbed the shock. “But you never said. Daad didn’t, either.”
“Daad didn’t, but I did. And I never told him. I think it was her anyway.”
“When? How?” New information kept coming to light, and each time she had to adjust again. She wouldn’t have believed that Mamm would keep anything from Daad.
“Earlier that night. I had pulled the curtain over a little bit to look out at the snow, and I saw someone on the walk. She was young, and she looked...I don’t know...kind of worried and upset.”
She wasn’t sure that added up to the person being her mother. “What did she look like?”
“Young, maybe twenty. She had on one of those big jackets...parkas, I think they call them, so I couldn’t see her very well between that and the snow and the dark. But...”
“But what?” She had an urge to shake the words out.
“She looked up for a minute, and the light caught her face. Pale, thin. She looked so worried, like she was at the end of her rope. It made me want to help her. But then she was gone, and after a minute I heard the door close in the room next to us.”
“You didn’t ever tell Daad?”
Mamm shook her head. “I didn’t know it was important, you see, and by the morning, she was gone.” She clasped Joanna’s hand. “I wish I could have helped her, whether she was the woman who gave birth to you or not.”
Joanna’s voice seemed to be caught in her throat. She patted her mother’s hand.
“You did, Mammi. You did. If she was the one, she asked you to take care of her baby. And you did that better than anyone else could possibly have done.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JOANNA WOKE THE next morning to the sound of pans clattering and the aroma of something baking. Had she overslept? A quick look out the window reassured her. The sun was barely over the ridge. It couldn’t be later than six, so what was Aunt Jessie doing in the kitchen?
Yawning, she stumbled out to the kitchen in a nightgown and bare feet to find Aunt Jessie hauling a large pan of gingersnaps out of the oven to join the ones already on the cooling racks.
“Aunt Jessie? What’s going on?” She headed for the coffeepot as she spoke. She definitely needed something to get her going this morning.
Jessie dropped the hot pan onto a cutting board and closed the oven door, turning to her with a spatula in her hand. She surveyed Joanna with a wry expression.
“I see you forgot what day it is. Welcome to River Haven Day, according to our ambitious Main Street association. Remember?”
Joanna took a sip of scalding coffee, blinking, and groaned. “You’re right. I did forget. I wish I could go on forgetting.”
Welcome Day was the brainstorm of this year’s chairperson of the merchants’ society. The second week of every month was now given over to promoting Main Street businesses. Each business had a special sale, and they all took turns hosting refreshments. Today was their turn for snacks.
“Ach, I’m sorry.” She was letting her business and her aunt down. “I’ll hurry and get dressed and come help you.”
Aunt Jessie’s expression softened. “I’m just teasing you. Go rest a little longer. I have it under control, and you look like you didn’t sleep well.”
If she looked like she felt, that would be pretty sad. “I’ll go dress,” she repeated.
To say she’d slept well wouldn’t be true, but she didn’t want her aunt worrying about her. Taking the coffee with her, she hurried into the bathroom.
A splash of water on the face gave her the courage to look in the mirror. Goodness, no wonder her aunt had noticed it. Apparently, a night filled with bad dreams had left its mark.
She scrubbed her face with vigor and found that helped, making her eyes brighter and bringing pink to her cheeks. Too bad she couldn’t erase the memory of her dreams as easily. It was strange, in a way. She’d been thinking about Noah before she went to sleep, remembering that moment when he’d come close to kissing her. She might have dreamed about that. Instead, she’d had just one dream, over and over. Meredith, trapped in a dark place, afraid.
Joanna tried to shake it off. Merry, she reminded herself of the nickname Owen had used. Did that reflect her normal attitude? The nickname projected an image of a laughing young girl, ready for life, with no lines on her face from concern or worry.
Meredith’s face was still unlined, younger than she’d thought in her first glimpse of the girl on the stairs. But in the dream, Meredith had been frightened, her pretty face distorted by fear—the fear of something coming toward her in the dark. She’d been calling out to Joanna, trusting her to help. Joanna felt again the desperate need she’d experienced in the night. The need to reach her—to save her.
Joanna slapped her face with cold water again. It had been just a dream, and besides, she would do everything she could to help her...what, cousin? Relative anyway.
She hurried about her dressing and putting her hair up in its usual knot, over which she adjusted a fresh, snowy kapp. There, she looked better, didn’t she?
Apparently not, to judge by the look Aunt Jessie gave her when she returned to the kitchen. She slapped a plate down on the table. “Eat first. Then you can get busy. And remember—the best cure for worry is to keep busy and trust the good Lord.”
Abashed, she nodded. “I’ll try.”
Once she’d finished eating, Joanna hurried outside to feed her mare. The fall sunshine was back again, but she didn’t like the look of those clouds on the western horizon. Well, a little rain wouldn’t discourage the regular shoppers. They came out as much for the refreshments and the chatter, she suspected, as for the sales.
Feeding and watering Princess took little time. She’d come back later and put the mare in the paddock. She hurried out of the stable and nearly ran into Noah, who was going in.
Keeping her expression peaceful took a little effort, but she managed it. Fortunately, because, as he greeted her, Noah gave every impression that those moments between them yesterday had never been. He moved back as she came forward, clearly keeping space between them.
“I hope
you got a little more sleep last night.” She thought again of her realization that he’d been spending nights on the second floor of the hardware store, listening for anything that might go wrong.
He shrugged, not meeting her gaze. “Not bad. Isaac stayed over and took turns with me. I don’t know what he thought, but at least he didn’t ask questions. Just as well he did, because it looks like it will be a busy day again today.”
“I’d forgotten it was Welcome Day until Aunt Jessie reminded me.” She gave him a teasing smile. “So your business is picking up, is it?”
He was expressionless for a moment before his face relaxed. “You want me to admit I was wrong to be so pessimistic, don’t you?”
“Well, weren’t you?”
He nodded. “Guess I haven’t done as gut a job as I thought getting over thinking people were waiting for me to make a mistake. I’m trying.”
“As my aunt would say, try harder.”
She kept her voice light. If he wanted to pretend there was nothing between them, that the moment of recognition yesterday had never happened, she could do that, as well.
He gave a nod and started on into the stable. She thought he wasn’t going to reply, but as he passed her, he muttered one word. “Bossy.”
Irrationally pleased by that, she headed back to get on with what promised to be a busy day.
The cookie baking and sales display signs took much of the time until they opened. Since most people were waiting for the afternoon sale to come in, it was quiet enough to allow them to set up the area for refreshments. Aunt Jessie also insisted on setting containers of wet wipes in several places, along with signs reminding customers to use them before touching fabrics.
“Don’t you think people might be offended by the sign?” Joanna knew it was no use, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Then they can go elsewhere,” Aunt Jessie retorted. “I’m not having folks touching bolts of new fabric with sticky fingers.”
“More likely they’ll appreciate the reminder.”
Joanna spun around at the voice and hugged her friend Rachel. “Rachel, I’m wonderful glad you’re here. It seems like ages since I’ve seen you.”
