Love’s Journey Home (30 page)

“Then run and tell your brother—the older one, not the blacksmith.” The crowd parted
for Gwendolyn, who stalked behind Annie to the table. “Right now. Please.”

She’d clearly added the please as an afterthought.

“You mean Luke? He’s out of town.” Annie dropped the napkin in a wastebasket and began
restocking the napkin holder. “But he’ll be back any day now.”

“Ah, so he
is
out looking for a new place to live.” The mayor sounded triumphant. She poked one
long finger in the air to punctuate her sentence. “A new place where tourists will
go and buy your cakes and pies and your quilts and your jams and jellies and your
cute little faceless dolls. Instead of coming to this beautiful town. Bliss Creek
has been good to you, all of you…”

The door swung open again. This time Charisma Chiasson stormed in. Her face red and
her full lips turned down in a pout, she shouldered her way through the cluster of
women. They parted like tree boughs whipped back in a strong wind. She planted her
feet, ripped off her HomeTown Restaurant apron, and crumpled it into a ball. “You’re
leaving! You’re leaving and you didn’t even tell me. I thought we were friends. I
thought we were more than friends.” Her voice broke. “You’re not even going to be
here for the wedding. You won’t be here to help me with Logan…”

“Charisma. Charisma!” Annie tried to stem the flow. Charisma talked like a roaring
river when she got started. Stopping her took a dam of major proportion. “I’m not
leaving,” she shouted. “I’m not going anywhere!”

All the talking ceased.

“Those of us who have businesses will be given a choice.” Annie rolled her shaking
hands into her own apron to hide them. She breathed and got her voice under control.
“Luke says we’ll be given a choice. It’s the families who depend on farming who might
go. We don’t know anything for sure. Nobody knows yet.”

“What’s going on here?” Chief Parker loomed in the doorway, his towering body nearly
reaching the top of the wooded frame. His knowing gaze lingered on Mayor Haag. “Do
I need to do crowd control?”

Annie let go of her apron. Chief Parker’s calm expression and take-charge tone caused
the band around her chest to loosen. Pretty soon the entire population of Bliss Creek
would be squeezed into Plank’s Pastry and Pie Shop. Too bad not one of them had given
any indication they planned to buy anything.

“We’re fine, Chief Parker.” Annie made her tone brisk. She crooked her arm through
Charisma’s. “Except for this girl, everyone else was leaving.”

“But I want…”

“You heard the lady,” Chief Parker interrupted the mayor as he held the door open.
“Either buy a cake or move along.”

“You can’t tell me what to do. I’m your boss,” Mayor Haag huffed. “I’ll take this
up with the City Council.”

“You might want to think about your approach,” Chief Parker held the door wider. “You
want these folks to stay, try showing your appreciation instead of bulldozing them.”

“Nobody is bulldozing anyone.”

Chief Parker made a shooing motion with a mammoth hand. “Out. Out.”

“But…”

“Out. Don’t make me arrest you for trespassing.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me.” Chief Parker’s hand rested on the butt of the big, black, ugly gun he wore
on a belt around his hips. “It’s been a long time coming, Gwendolyn.”

“Mayor to you.” Her angular face crimson with fury, the mayor took her sweet time
strolling past the chief of police. She glanced back at Annie. “We’re not done. You
tell Micah Kelp I’ll be out to see him.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Annie tightened her grip on Charisma’s arm. Charisma patted her hand.
“I’ll pass that message on.”

She would. To Josiah. He would talk to Micah. She had no business bothering the bishop
with anything—even this. It wasn’t her place. Josiah would know what to do.

The women flounced through, chattering to each other like a bunch of chickens clucking
in the barnyard. Chief Parker doffed his police hat to them, revealing tousled blond
curls that made him look like a child who rolled out of bed late to school and forgot
to comb his hair.

“Well?” Charisma tugged lose from Annie’s grip and turned to face her. She didn’t
look much friendlier than the mayor had. “Seriously? When were you going to tell me?
I heard your sister talking to the mayor over meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Your sister
says y’all have decided to move, lock, stock, and barrel.”

“Catherine had no right…”

“No right? No right! What about your friends? You do have non-Plain friends in this
town, you know!”

“Whoa, whoa!” Chief Parker grabbed Charisma from behind and wrapped his long arms
around her at the waist. “Slow down there, firecracker. Give Annie a chance to talk.”

“Thank you, Chief.” Annie took a breath. “I appreciate someone giving me a chance.”

“That’s Dylan to you, as you well know.” He kissed the top of Charisma’s head and
let her go. “I’m sorry Mayor Haag ambushed you like that. If I’d known, I would’ve
tried to head her off at the pass.”

“Thank you…Dylan.” Annie gestured to the table. “Sit down and I’ll bring you some
lemonade and cookies. I’ll tell you everything.”

After Charisma had heard the whole story, she seemed lost in thought. She broke the
oatmeal-raisin-pecan cookie—her favorite—into little pieces, then shoved them around
on her napkin with a fingernail painted the color of bubblegum.

“Well?” Annie couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “You see my problem, don’t you?”

“I do.” Charisma sat back in her chair. “I know what it’s like to be away from family.
Not that I have much of a family. Not like you. Your family is great. Emma is great.
And Luke. And y’all did so much for me. I can see why you don’t want to get left behind.”

Her voice quavered.

“
Ach
, don’t cry.” Annie handed her a fresh napkin. She heard a catch in her own voice
and swallowed against it. “I meant it when I said I wasn’t going. I have a good business
here.”

“And good friends. Friends who are like family,” Charisma raised her gaze to Annie.
“I know you have plenty of sisters already. But you’re like a sister to me. You’re
the only one I have.”

“I know.” Annie blotted at her own cheeks with a napkin. She thought of Catherine’s
blabbering mouth telling Mayor Haag about the district’s plans. “And some of the sisters
I do have need a talking to.”

She had work to do now, but later she would straighten Catherine out.

“I’ve seen that look before.” Dylan settled his coffee mug on the table and leaned
forward. “Easy, Annie, your sister has her own problems.”

“What do you know about Catherine’s problems?”

“I know she’s been without family for three years.” He cocked his head. “You surely
must have thought about what that’s like for her.”

“But now she’s back and she’s causing rifts.”

“She’s back and she’s trying to find something she lost.”

“By talking out of turn and causing upheaval.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s not important right now. What’s important is you staying and being
here for my wedding.” Charisma sounded like a small, cranky child. “Let’s stay focused
here.”

Annie laughed despite herself. “I’ve never been to an Englisch wedding.”

“Will they let you come? Will Luke let you come?”

“I think so.” Annie contemplated. She was a grown woman, a widow with a child, but
still, she would ask. In the interest of doing the right thing. In the interest of
not bringing more problems on her poor brother’s head. Catherine and even Josiah had
done enough of that. “If I can’t, we’ll have our own celebration.”

“I want you to be there. There’s nothing about it that’s wrong or bad. I bet it’s
nothing different than what y’all do.”

“Except for the flowers and the music and the rings and the rice and the honeymoon
trip,” Dylan pointed out. “And the fancy dress and the toasts. Maybe you could come
to the reception, if coming to the church is a problem.”

“Rice and toast?” Annie asked, perplexed. An interesting menu. She preferred to bake
a cake herself. “That’s all you eat at the reception? I could make something nice
for you.”

They both laughed. “You’ll be a guest, not the caterer,” Dylan said. “You’ll have
to come and see.”

Annie wasn’t sure what Luke would say about that, but she was willing to find out.

If he ever returned home. She had a lot to tell him.

G
abriel strode into the house, intent on gathering up the ledger and the other office
supplies he’d set aside in a box to take to the repair shop. Opening day. Finally.
The house was livable. The barn was in good shape. A small, late garden had been planted.
Seth had mowed the yard, and Abigail had planted flowers in the beds along the front
porch. The first steps toward making a house a home. Now Gabriel could concentrate
on making a living and supporting his family. Maybe then he would feel as if he’d
made the right choice in coming here.

He sniffed. An unpleasant odor wafted through the air. Not the smell of clean laundry
he usually enjoyed on Tuesdays. It smelled…like a dirty diaper. But they didn’t have
any more children in diapers. Abigail had worked hard to potty train little Rachel.
She’d been almost as difficult as Isabelle, if not more.

“Abigail? Abigail!” Where had that girl gone? A wail poured from the upstairs. One
of the girls was crying. “Abigail!”

He stormed up the stairs two at time. He didn’t have time for this. Isaac had gone
ahead to be at the hardware store when it opened so he could buy a few more tools
they would need. Gabriel’s job was to open the store. Abigail had a job to do just
as Mary Beth did at the bakery, or Daniel and Samuel working at the Glick farm and
the Yoder farm.

The crying intensified at the top of the stairs. He rushed into the girls’ bedroom,
nearly tripping over a box of clothes sitting by the door. Abigail knelt next to the
bed where Isabelle and Rachel cuddled side-by-side, still dressed in their nightgowns.
All three were crying. The little girls appeared to have dirtied their undergarments
and Rachel had vomited.

Abigail looked up at Gabriel, then leaned over and vomited all over his boots.

“I don’t feel good,” Isabelle announced. Then she rolled over and did the same.

Gabriel stifled a groan.
God, please
. He needed Laura. He needed her more today than he’d ever needed her.

You need a fraa. You need a woman. You need a companion
.

The voice sounded loud in his head. His ears rang with it.

Laura is gone. Gone forever
.

Yes, she is. You need a fraa. You need a woman. You need a companion
.

“Abigail, I’ll get towels and water.” He backed away. The stench in his nostrils made
his stomach roil. “I’ll be back. We’ll clean this up, and then y’all can rest while
I go into town.”

Abigail nodded and wiped at her mouth, but her blue eyes were stained red and her
cheeks went white with bright red spots in the middle.

Holding his breath, Gabriel backed away from the mess. He pounded down the stairs
and stalked into the kitchen, where he managed to unearth towels and a bucket. Water.
He pumped water with the long handle and managed to carry everything upstairs without
spilling it.

Back aching, jaw clenched, he started with Abigail, then directed her to help with
the two smaller ones.

It took a good twenty minutes, but finally they were clean and the dirty towels and
nightclothes had been deposited in the second bucket he’d brought for that purpose.

“Now, I need to go into the shop for a few hours.” He adjusted a sheet over the two
younger girls, then touched his oldest daughter’s cheek with one hand. “Can you handle
it for that long? They should sleep now.”

Abigail nodded. Then a look of dread mixed with misery slid across her face. “Daed,
I…” She flung herself from the bed and scurried toward the door. She didn’t make it.

Gabriel sighed and remembered just in time not to inhale through his nose. Time to
ask for help. Much as he hated the thought, he couldn’t be both daed and mudder to
these girls. He had to earn a living. That was his job. If he didn’t find a way to
do both, they were all lost.