Taken for English (35 page)

Rufus decided to drive Annalise out to see the land. She deserved that much.

Annie put on a warm jacket and took her bike out of the garage. It was late in the afternoon, but she believed she had enough light for a long bike ride. This time she would not even mind the hills, instead anticipating a good workout to burn off the week’s stress.

Leah had finally agreed to a proper hot bacon and eggs breakfast that morning, but as soon as she finished eating, she picked up the kitten and went out the back door. Annie was left with a stack of dirty dishes and a sense of dread that Leah would not return.

Garden chores called. Annie pulled in the last of the squash and stacked it in the kitchen. She cleaned the house from top to bottom, except for Ruth’s room. With a broom, she thrashed at the leaves piling up on the front walkway, then found a rake in the garage and attacked the leaves on the browning grass. During and in between her efforts to find something she could control, she remembered to pray and pray again for a quiet, humble, discerning heart.

Still, she feared she would not sleep if she did not first exhaust herself. She would ride, take a hot bath, pray some more, and go to bed early before a fresh wind of discontent blew through her. Ruth had plans for the evening, though she had not said what they were, and Leah would do what Leah decided to do.

What did it mean to seek God’s will? What did it mean to accept God’s will? And what did it mean to do God’s will? Questions tumbled without answers.

Whenever Annie went for a bike ride without a predetermined destination, her feet seemed to automatically pedal toward the Beiler home. She would be welcome, she knew, if she stopped in. But if Annie stayed too long and darkness fell, someone would have to drive her home in a buggy, and she did not want to presume on any of them. She made up her mind to ride as far as the rise in the road that would allow her to see the farm and then turn back.

She came to the rise and stopped at the highest point, prepared to look with heartfelt yearning on the scene before her.

Instead she saw smoke.

She pedaled hard down the sloping highway.

Ruth was not at all sure she had done the right thing in accepting a date with Bryan. But standing in the grocery store yesterday, she had agreed to a meal rather than a movie. Bryan said he knew a place in Walsenburg he would love to take her.

“Nothing fancy,” she had insisted. “I wouldn’t have anything to wear.”

“You’ll look great whatever you wear,” he had said.

“And home early,” she said.

“Right,” he said. “The next day’s the Sabbath.”

So here she was, in the passenger seat of his Mitsubishi while he challenged the speed limit just enough to display his anticipation of the evening. In another hundred yards, they would pass her family’s home.

“I don’t like the way the sky looks up ahead,” Bryan said.

Ruth leaned forward as they went over the rise in the road.

Flames.

“Is that on your land?” Bryan accelerated.

Ruth gasped. “I think so. It looks like Joel’s field.”

“Is there anything in the field that could catch fire?”

“His whole crop!”

“I mean a building, an electrical wire, a can of gasoline too close to a match.”

“There’s an old shed. It was there when we bought the land. Joel might keep a few tools in it but nothing of value.”

“We’re only five miles from town. It won’t take long to have an engine here.”

Bryan had his phone out now and spoke calmly into it reporting the details of the fire.

Rufus was relieved to be almost home. He enjoyed talking with Tom, who had come to understand the Amish ways well during his years of taxiing for them and doing business with them through his hardware store. But Rufus was anxious to surprise his family. He probably had not even missed supper yet.

A siren wailed behind them, and Tom pulled to the shoulder of the highway. A water truck and a ladder truck whizzed past. Tom’s pickup shuddered in their wake.

Rufus put a hand on the dashboard and leaned forward. “What could be burning out here?”

“Maybe nothing,” Tom said calmly. “It might just be a medical call.”

The trucks were out of sight now. Tom drove past one acre of trees after another. Rufus scanned the horizon from left to right and back again.

Finally he sank back in his seat and muttered, “Joel’s field.”

He could hardly breathe.

A
nnie held Rufus’s hand, not caring who might be watching, and the two of them huddled with Ruth.

“Bryan is trying to find a way to help.” Ruth folded her arms across her chest, gripping her elbows. “But he’s not suited up. They won’t let him do much.”

Annie put a hand on Ruth’s back. “He knows how to be safe.”

The trio stood well back from the fire, which had demolished the shed and unfurled to low-growing crop around the field. Firefighters aimed hoses and pumped water. A layer of foam quickly covered the ground, stifling the efforts of windblown embers to find fuel and burst.

“It’s just about out,” Rufus said.

“This is going to ruin Joel’s crop, isn’t it?” Annie looked a few yards to her right, where she saw Joel sitting on the ground with his knees raised and his hands hanging between them. Behind him Eli knelt with a hand on his son’s shoulder. Lydia and Sophie on either side.

“The chemicals they’re spraying will change the soil,” Rufus said quietly. “I’m not sure what it will mean.”

“It’s not good.” Ruth spoke sharply. “This was supposed to be Joel’s first crop. Now look. What isn’t burned or ruined with chemicals has been trampled or rutted by the trucks.”

“He’s been working so hard.” Annie’s throat thickened.

“He persuaded
Daed
he could get one more crop before they let the field go fallow.” Rufus scratched his cheek. “It was going to be the start of a financial stake for him.”

“At least it didn’t spread to the other fields,” Annie said. “They’ll be all right, won’t they?”

“This was not an accident.” Ruth took a few steps forward. “Somebody started the fire that burned your cabinets, Rufus, and somebody started the fire in that county building along the highway. Now this.”

“But why would anyone come after your family?” Annie asked.

“I haven’t worked that out yet. Bryan says there’s always a pattern, and when this scene cools down, they’ll figure out what it has in common with the others.”

“The fire on the highway and this one both started in sheds,” Annie mused, “but the first one was a half-built house.”

“But it was empty,” Ruth countered, “and the fire started in the back. At least that’s what Bryan thinks. The highway shed burned from the back, too.”

Annie could not keep herself from scanning the horizon, this time for a flash of purple. Leah had left the house that morning wearing the dress that had once been Ruth’s and then became Annie’s first Amish dress.

“Let’s not get ahead of things,” Rufus said. “Since this fire happened on Beiler land, surely
Daed
will receive some information about it.”

“I hope they will investigate.” Ruth swung her arms down to her sides, her hands still fists. “Tell
Daed
to insist.”

“But what started the fire?” Jacob wanted to know. He kicked one heel softly against the leg of his chair.

Rufus was glad his mother had kept his little brother away from the fire scene, but conversation and speculation swirled around the Beiler home as Franey put a delayed supper on the table. It would be impossible for an inquisitive little boy like Jacob to understand the event that had cast a pall on the evening.

Annalise and Ruth stayed to eat, with the promise that someone would drive them home. Ruth had seemed relieved that Bryan Nichols declined Franey’s invitation to stay as well. Bryan said he wanted to go to the fire station and see for himself what evidence might have been collected from the scene. Ruth, Rufus thought, was simply not ready to mix her family with an
English
young man. And perhaps to his credit, Bryan understood that now.

“We don’t know how the fire started,” Rufus said in answer to his brother’s question. “Sometimes an event happens and we never know why.”

“Gottes wille?”
Jacob asked.

“I suppose so.”

“There was nothing in that shed but a rake and a hoe,” Joel insisted. “Maybe a couple of muddy rags. There was no lightning, there was no anything. Do you believe it was God’s will for someone to set a fire?”

“But if it happens, then it’s God’s will, right?” Jacob said.

“Not this time,” Joel muttered.

“Joel.” Eli’s calm demeanor nevertheless intoned severe caution.

Joel slumped back and pressed his lips together.

Not until the dishes had been cleared and Jacob tucked in bed did the family gather in one room again, this time in the comfort of the living room. Annalise sat on the floor between Lydia and Sophie with her knees neatly tucked to one side. She looked tired to Rufus, but he supposed all of them appeared beleaguered under the circumstances.

“I’m so glad to be home,” Rufus said.

“If only you could stay more than a day this time.” Seated on the couch, Franey put her tired feet on a cushion on the floor.

“As God would have it, I can,” Rufus said. “We have an unexpected break in the schedule.”

“That’s good news.” Franey reached over to an end table and picked up an envelope. “You got a letter from David’s shop in Colorado Springs. Perhaps he has some orders for you.”

Rufus slit the envelope and glanced through the letter. “Several customers have been in asking about my pieces. He may have some special orders after all.”

“That’s great news,” Annalise said from across the room.

“I don’t know if the time is right,” Rufus said.

Joel cleared his throat. “You took the job with the
English
because you were concerned your business was dropping off. Why would you not jump at the opportunity to go back to your craft?”

Rufus glanced at Annalise, seeing the same question in her eyes.

“I’ve made a commitment to Jeff. He is expecting me to be available all winter.”