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Annie’s bottom lip trembled a little. “I know. It’s just that he hasn’t kept in contact with his family, only with me.” She recalled what she’d overheard at the market. “I think Lena is sicker than anyone is letting on. They are proceeding with her surgery so quickly. My friend at the bakery said it took almost two months before they scheduled her mother’s stomach surgery. And Lena didn’t look good the last time I saw her, which was at Sisters’ Day. She’ll be okay, Daniel, ya?”

  He nodded. “Ya, she will be okay. And Mamm will wake up soon, too, and be able to hold our new sister.”

  “Speaking of sisters . . . have you heard any more about Andrea and Bella?”

  “I think they’re going to be staying with Charlotte for a few days.”

  Annie widened her eyes. “Charlotte doesn’t really know her sister, and you said the woman didn’t have much to say at the funeral.”

  “Ya, but there is a baby involved, so I reckon we would have taken them in also. Ach, and before I forget, Daed asked if you would bring some pickled oysters tomorrow when you and Aenti Faye visit Mamm.”

  “Goodness me. Why?” Annie crinkled her nose.

  “He didn’t say, but I suspect he’s hoping the smell will cause Mamm to wake up.”

  She sighed. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

  “Charlotte’s going to pick us up. I told her we’d be outside waiting.”

  Annie wanted to see their sister one more time, but Daniel said they didn’t have time. “But we’re all she has right now. Daed won’t leave Mamm’s side, and someone needs to hold the boppli so she knows she hasn’t been forgotten.” She rolled her bottom lip into a pout. “Just a quick peek?”

  Daniel started walking, and Annie got into step with him. “Ya, okay. But we need to make it fast. My phone is dead again, so Charlotte can’t call, and I don’t want her sitting out there waiting on us. She will probably want to come in and see the boppli anyway.”

  They were quiet as they walked the hallways. A few babies cried from nearby, and a siren was blaring from one of the rooms with a blue light flashing. Daniel was pretty sure that meant trouble for the patient in that room. As they rounded the corner, they came to the nursery, stopped to wash their hands, then punched in the access code they’d been given to enter. A few moments later, they were standing by Baby Byler’s crib.

  “Let’s give her a name, at least for now, Daniel. Mamm and Daed can change it when Mamm wakes up.” Annie gazed upon their new sister sleeping soundly, still cocooned in a pink blanket and wearing a fitted little hat the same color.

  “Ya, okay. What should we temporarily name her?” Daniel leaned closer. “She’s cute.”

  “Isn’t she?” Annie scooped her into her arms. For a long time she’d dreamed about Jacob and her getting married and having a family of their own. But those dreams had become scattered and detached when Jacob fled their community. Jacob was now on the run and nervous about coming home, and Annie was equally as anxious about seeing him face-to-face, wondering if they would resume their courtship. She didn’t see how. Too much had happened, and months had passed since they’d seen each other. But her heart still beat faster when she thought of Jacob.

  “What about Grace?” Annie breathed in the scent of the new life in her arms, then looked at her brother. “What do you think?”

  Daniel nodded as he reached over and touched Grace’s cheek. “That sounds nice.”

  Charlotte leaned her head back against the seat of her truck while she waited for Daniel and Annie, thankful the rain had stopped. Her head felt like it might explode, right along with her heart. She’d been battling the start of a migraine since earlier in the day, and as worry threatened to consume her, the headache reached full force. Daniel and Annie walked out the hospital’s front doors just as dusk was settling in.

  “The baby nursery just closed for today,” Daniel said as he slipped into Charlotte’s truck beside her, then Annie climbed in next. It was a tight squeeze for three people, especially with Charlotte switching gears, but they’d done it before.

  “Okay. I’ll see the baby sometime this week. I’m sure she’s precious.” Daniel and Annie were quiet, but Annie nodded. “How’s your mom?” Charlotte had been praying that Eve would wake up, but Daniel would have gotten word to her if that had been the case.

  “The same,” he said, his gaze on the road.

  Charlotte pulled the knob for the headlights, and no one said much on the way to the Byler house. After Annie thanked Charlotte for the ride, she got out of the truck. Daniel inched away from Charlotte a little, but he didn’t leave.

  “Are you okay?” She took a deep breath. “It seems like a lot is going on . . .”

  Daniel cupped both her cheeks in his hands and pulled her to him, kissing her in a way that would pose great temptation for them if she didn’t slow things down. She returned the passion, but only for a few moments before she eased away. She’d barely taken a breath when Daniel kissed her again, with an urgency Charlotte hadn’t felt from him before.

  “Hey.” She put her hands on his and lowered them to her lap. “Slow down there, big fellow.” She grinned, squeezing his hand three times.

  Daniel wasn’t smiling, but he kissed her gently on the lips, then eased away. “I want to be with you, Charlotte. Forever. And I want to know what you think about that.”

  She closed her eyes, searching for words, her head really starting to pound. “I don’t think we should talk about this now. Not with all that’s going on.” She held her breath while she waited for him to blast back, but he just slid to the edge of the seat and stepped out of the truck.

  “Danki for the ride.” He closed the truck door. More like slammed it. She was tempted to get out and follow him, tug on his shirt, and tell him he needed to have a little patience, but she didn’t move. Daniel had a lot on his plate. God, what should I do?

  She thought she heard a small voice say, Let him go. Or did she just imagine that? Did she need God’s permission to break Daniel’s heart—and hers? How could she marry him when she hadn’t been able to commit to the way of life required to have a future with him?

  Against her better judgment she opened the truck door, and the loud squeaky hinge called out to Daniel before he hit the porch steps. He waited for Charlotte as she marched across the yard.

  “I know you want to know if we have a future together, Daniel.” Charlotte touched his arm, but he stiffened. “I know the bishop is pressuring you about me, but we don’t have to decide everything tonight.”

  Daniel narrowed his eyebrows. “If we have a future? I guess I assumed we did have a future, but that you weren’t ready to act on it anytime soon. But maybe I’m wrong. So, I’m asking you, Charlotte, do you plan to be baptized into our faith? Yes or no?”

  “I—I . . .” She pressed a finger to her temple. “My head is splitting. Can we please do this another time?”

  “It’s a yes-or-no question, Charlotte.”

  Daniel held his breath, wishing right away that he hadn’t forced the issue. Charlotte was right. A lot was going on. But his heart was at risk, and it had been since the day he let himself fall in love with an Englisch woman. It seemed to Daniel that leaning on each other would help them both to get through these difficult times, but as Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears, he wanted to take back the question. He wanted to hold her, to pray with her—that his mother would wake up, that Lena would be okay after her surgery, that Annie wouldn’t cry about Jacob so much. Daniel was sure there was more, but as a tear spilled down Charlotte’s cheek, at the moment her answer was the most important thing in his world.

  “I can’t believe you are pushing me on this right now. It’s not as easy as a simple yes or no.”

  This was it. She was going to tell him she didn’t love him enough to go through the changes necessary to be with him. But he’d never told her that he’d go anywhere with her. Maybe now was the time to do so.

  “Charlotte . . .” He pushed back a long strand of her brown hair as t
he moon dimly lit the front yard behind her. “I’m not asking you to become Amish. I’m asking you if you want to be with me for the rest of our lives.”

  Another tear rolled down her cheek. “You’d leave all of this for me?” She lowered her gaze, dabbed at her eyes, then looked back up at him, her lip trembling. “You’d be shunned, Daniel. You wouldn’t be able to share a meal with your family. You couldn’t go to worship service. You would be ousted by the people you love.” She stared at him, seemingly holding her breath now.

  Was she waiting for him to repeat himself? Hearing her list the realities of his words caused his heart to fall to the pit of his stomach.

  “Ya, I would,” he finally said. “I don’t want to be without you.”

  Charlotte wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. She clung to him like a fearful child, clutching his shirt as she cried.

  She can’t tell me. But he knew. She wasn’t going to ask him to be in her world, away from his family. And she wasn’t going to convert.

  “Where does this leave us?” He stroked her hair as she kept her head against his chest. Could she hear the fear in his heartbeat?

  “I don’t know,” she said in a soft whisper.

  Daniel felt the ground shift beneath his feet.

  Andrea sat on Charlotte’s couch with only the light from a propane lamp in the yard illuminating the area around her. Bella was asleep on the couch beside her. She’d tried to light one of the lanterns on Charlotte’s mantel, but her lighter was out of juice, and she hadn’t been able to find any matches. Bella had thrown up twice earlier from too much orange juice, Andrea suspected. They’d run out of milk, and that was all Andrea could find, except water. And the well water coming out of the faucet was almost the color of milk as she’d poured some in a glass. It eventually cleared, but Andrea wasn’t sure whether it was okay to give to Bella.

  She glanced around the living room, shadowed and mostly dark. Was this a mistake? And how could her brother, whom she didn’t remember, and her sister both live in this little house? It was isolated, there wasn’t any electricity, and there wasn’t any heat or air-conditioning. And there wasn’t much food in the pantry or refrigerator.

  She hoped Charlotte would be home soon and that they’d be heading to someone’s house—anyone’s house—to eat. Andrea jumped when headlights hit the window behind her. A minute later Charlotte walked in.

  “Thank God.” Andrea spoke in a whisper so as not to wake Bella. She eased off the couch.

  “Why’s it so dark in here?” Charlotte put her purse on the coffee table.

  “Because you don’t have electricity.” Duh. Andrea fought the urge to roll her eyes.

  “You could have laid Bella on my bed and lit the lanterns.” Charlotte pulled a black sweater off and set it by her purse, then she walked to the mantel above the fireplace and picked up a lantern. “Here’s where the matches are.” She pointed to a little metal thing hanging on the wall.

  Andrea walked closer and shone her phone on the yellow box with an opening at the bottom, and sure enough, there were matches.

  “This was here when I moved in, the match holder.” Charlotte struck one against the stone on the fireplace and lit two lanterns.

  Bella moaned a little. “Can I put her on your bed for now?” Andrea was hoping Charlotte would let Bella sleep with her again so Andrea would have more room on the couch.

  “Yeah.” Charlotte fell into one of the rocking chairs. Her eyes were swollen and red.

  After Andrea lay Bella on Charlotte’s bed with pillows propped around her, she gently closed the door behind her, then sat back on the couch. “What’s wrong?” She was hungry but didn’t want to seem insensitive.

  “Just a lot going on. Daniel’s mom is in a coma. Another friend’s cancer has returned. There’s more . . .” She sighed as she leaned her head against the back of the rocking chair.

  Charlotte had already told Andrea about the problems with her Amish friends, but this felt like something else. “Did you have a fight with your boyfriend?”

  “No.”

  Andrea waited for her to elaborate, but Charlotte just closed her eyes and kicked the chair into motion.

  “Will we be going somewhere to eat? I fed Bella some ham you had in the refrigerator, but I think she drank too much orange juice and threw up. Anyway, I couldn’t find anything else ready to eat.”

  “I’ll make us something.” Charlotte didn’t open her eyes or move.

  Thank goodness.

  Rain pelted against the tin roof on the house, lightly at first, then harder.

  “I’ve got some tomato soup I can heat up, and I can make us some grilled cheese sandwiches.”

  Andrea had been dreaming of a hot meal somewhere. “What about your Amish friends?”

  Charlotte opened her eyes and glared at Andrea. “They are having a lot of problems right now, so that’s not an option. Plus, it’s raining now . . . and dark.” She stood, retrieved a lantern from the mantel, and started toward the kitchen. Andrea followed.

  “I’ll get some groceries after work tomorrow.” Charlotte pulled a pot out of the cabinet, then took out bread and a can of tomato soup from the pantry. Andrea got cheese and butter from the refrigerator and put it on the counter next to the other things.

  “That lady was outside tonight, right before dark, trying to dig up your yard again.”

  Frowning, Charlotte faced Andrea. “What? She was here again?”

  “Yep. But same as before. When I opened the door, she took off running back to her buggy down the road.”

  Charlotte shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. No one I know would be digging in my yard.”

  Andrea put a hand on her hip, the rain getting louder. “I didn’t make it up.”

  “I didn’t say you made it up. It’s just odd.” Charlotte dumped the soup in the pot and turned on the burner. Then she pulled out a skillet and put it on the back burner before she started buttering bread. “Would you recognize her if you saw her?”

  Andrea chuckled. “They all look the same, wouldn’t you say?”

  Charlotte grimaced. “No, I wouldn’t say that.”

  “Well, they wear those things on their heads, so not much hair shows.” She tapped a finger to her chin. “But now that I think about it, she had dark hair. And she was tall. Not much else to see beneath all those clothes they wear, but she looked around my age, maybe a little older.”

  Charlotte lit the burner under the two sandwiches, then leaned against the counter and folded her arms in front of her. “Did Blake have a job? Is that how you ate and survived before?”

  “Well, yeah, until he lost his job.”

  Charlotte was quiet as she stirred the soup. Why couldn’t Andrea have had a rich sister who was so thrilled to meet her and Bella that she’d pamper them in luxury? Not feed her sandwiches and canned soup in the dark. But she didn’t have anywhere else to go. “I guess I can look for a job.”

  “That would be good,” Charlotte said without turning around. “I’ll ask around for you, but you can also check the newspaper and online.”

  “Okay. But my phone is dead, so no Internet for me.”

  “I have some portable batteries I charged at work. I’ll give you one so you can charge your phone, then search online for a job.”

  Andrea nodded even though she wasn’t sure how many minutes she had left. Would a potential employer run a background check? She’d avoided searching too hard for a job, fearing her past would resurface. And those in power usually weren’t thrilled about hiring someone with a record, even if it was self-defense.

  Eight

  Annie sat with Lena on the porch steps of the King homestead. Lena’s surgery was scheduled for the following day in Lancaster, after being postponed the week before. The woman who might have been her mother-in-law was weak, her face ashen, and she’d lost weight over the past few weeks.

  “Are you scared about the surgery?” Annie shivered, then pulled her swe
ater snug as she turned to face Lena. November had snuck up on them, and as the holidays approached, the weather was hinting at a mild winter to come. Temperatures had barely dipped into the fifties at night.

  “Nee.” Lena smiled a little, but her eyelids were heavy and her cheeks drawn in. “The fearless are one with God, and it’s in His name that our souls are comforted.”

  Annie had heard some version of that statement her entire life, but she couldn’t help but question if her faith could hold up against health issues such as Lena was facing.

  “How’s your mudder?” Lena laid a comforting hand on Annie’s back. “And the boppli?”

  Annie took a long, deep breath and focused on keeping her words upbeat. “Mamm is the same, but Grace will be going home later this week.” The hospital had been keeping her new sister in the nursery in hopes that Annie’s mother would wake up. Their decision to send Grace home seemed like a sign that the doctors had lost hope in that happening. Or maybe they just needed the bed now for another baby.

  Lena rubbed Annie’s back before easing her hand away. “A boppli is such a blessing.”

  They were quiet for a few moments. “What if Mamm doesn’t wake up?” Annie couldn’t even look at Lena, fearful she’d see the answer in the woman’s tired eyes.

  “She will.” Lena coughed. Then she coughed several times before she caught her breath. “Is your aenti Faye still at your house?”

  “Ya.” Annie sighed. “We are all learning to like pickled oysters.”

  Lena laughed, which was nice to hear. “That is gut. But”—she pointed over her shoulder—“Hannah has been bringing food for us, but mei dochder has brought way too much. I’m going to send some home with you.”

  “Danki, Lena.” Annie grinned. “Want me to return the favor and bring you some pickled oysters?”

  Lena chuckled again. “Ach, nee. I wouldn’t dare deprive you of such a delicacy.”

  Annie’s nerves calmed for a few seconds, but then a car pulled into the driveway. Neither woman moved at first, but then Lena stood and brushed the wrinkles from her black apron.