A Sister's Secret (3 page)

“Can’t you think of anything to talk about except those
hund?
” she snapped. “There are more important things in this world than how many
hundlin
Heidi will have and how much money you might make when it’s time to sell them.”

Martha turned from the cupboard where she’d put the clean plates and blinked. “It may not be important to you, but it is to me. Just because you don’t care for dogs so much doesn’t mean you have to make my business venture seem like it’s of no great concern.”

“Sorry for snapping.” Grace took another sip of tea. “I’m not feeling like myself this morning.”

Martha wrinkled her nose. “You seemed all right last night when Cleon was here. What happened between now and then to make you so edgy?”

“Nothing. I just don’t feel so well.”

Mom’s blue eyes squinted as she reached over and patted Grace’s shoulder. “Maybe you should stay home from work today and rest.”

“I agree with Mom; you should go back to bed,” Ruth put in from her place at the sink.

Grace shook her head. “I don’t want to leave the restaurant shorthanded.” She popped two aspirins into her mouth and washed them down with some tea. “I’m sure I’ll be fine once these take effect.”

***

As Ruth and Grace headed toward Berlin in their buggy, Ruth’s concern for her sister escalated. Grace hadn’t said a word since they’d left home, and when she leaned her head against the back of the seat and closed her eyes, her breathing came out in short little rasps.

“Does your head still hurt?” Ruth asked, reaching over to touch her sister’s arm.

“A little.”

“Want me to turn the buggy around and take you home?”

“No. I’m sure I’ll be fine by the time we reach Berlin.”

“Is something bothering you besides the headache?”

“Just feeling tired and a little jittery is all.”

“You know what I think you need?”

The buggy jostled as they descended a small hill, and Grace opened her eyes. “What’s that?”

“Some fun in the sun before our beautiful fall weather turns cold.”

“What kind of fun did you have in mind?”

Ruth smiled. At least she had her sister’s full attention. “This Saturday coming, Sadie and I are planning to meet Luke and Toby at the pond for some fishing and a picnic supper. Why don’t you and Cleon join us?”

“That sounds like fun, but I have to work this Saturday.” Grace yawned and covered her mouth with the palm of her hand. “How are things with you and Luke? Do you think he might be the man you’ll marry some day?”

Ruth shrugged as she flicked the reins to get the horse moving up the hill. “We’ve only been courting a few months, so it’s too early to tell.”

“But you like him, right?”

“Jah.”

“He must like you, too, or he wouldn’t ask you to go places with him.”

“Maybe he’s just being nice because he works for our daed and wants to keep on his good side.”

“From what Dad said last night, it doesn’t sound like Luke’s doing so well keeping on Dad’s good side.”

Ruth bristled. “I think maybe it’s more Dad’s fault than Luke’s.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You know how picky our daed can be. If it’s not done his way, then it couldn’t possibly be right.”

“I guess either Luke will have to learn to keep his opinions to himself or Dad will have to let some of what Luke says roll off his shoulders.”

Ruth nodded. “I hope things work out. It’s nice to have Luke working nearby, where I can see him more.”

Grace lifted her gaze toward the top of the buggy. “Have you forgotten that you’re starting your new job this morning? Most days you’ll probably be headed for work before Luke arrives at Dad’s shop.”

Ruth’s dark brows drew together. “I hadn’t thought of that. I hope he doesn’t take an interest in Martha since she’s at home all day and he’ll see more of her than he does me.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Martha doesn’t have anything on her mind these days except raising hund.”

***

After donning his overalls, gloves, and veil, Cleon lit some wood chips in the steel smudge pots with leather bellows. He puffed air through the bottom of the smoldering fuel, and it gave off a cool white smoke that quieted the bees so he could take their honey.

As Cleon worked, he thought about supper the night before with Grace and her family. How grateful he was that he’d not only be getting a wonderful wife when he married Grace, but a great family, as well. He seemed to get along well with all of them, especially Roman.

Cleon had just pulled another honeycomb from one of the bee boxes when his younger brother Delbert showed up, announcing that their father was ready to begin harvesting the cornfields and needed Cleon’s help.

“Pop’s got the help of half the men in our community this morning. He surely doesn’t need me,” Cleon protested.

Delbert’s gray-blue eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “Pop needs all the help he can get, and he pays you to work for him, so you’d better get out to the fields
schnell.
”

“Jah. I’ll be there as fast as possible. I need to finish up here first.”

“Sure don’t see why anyone would want to mess around with a bunch of buzzin’ bees.” Delbert sauntered off before Cleon could respond.

After Cleon took the honeycombs inside to Mom so she could cut them into small pieces, mash them, and heat them on the stove to extract the honey, he headed out to the cornfields. They should finish by suppertime, and then he hoped to pay Grace a call.

***

Grace glanced at the clock on the wall above the restaurant’s front counter. It was almost three—quitting time for her today. They’d been busier than usual at the restaurant during the breakfast and lunch hours, and she was glad her shift was almost over. Her feet ached something awful. Fortunately, Ruth’s hours at the bakeshop today were the same as hers, so she figured her sister would be here soon, ready to head for home.

“Can you take that customer who just came in?” asked Grace’s coworker Esther. “I’ve got an order to put in and one that needs to be picked up.”

“Sure.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Esther nodded in the direction of the booth where a red-haired man sat with his head down as though studying something, and then she hurried off toward the kitchen.

Grace grabbed a menu, an order pad, and a pencil before moving over to the booth. When she arrived, she saw what the man was looking at, and her heartbeat picked up. Several pictures of Amish buggies and Plain People lay on the table, and even before he looked up, she knew the man was Gary. Drawing in a quick breath to help steady her nerves, she placed the menu on the table on top of his pictures.

“Hey, watch it! I don’t need any of these prints getting ruined.” Gary frowned as he looked up, but his frown quickly faded. “Well, well. I didn’t expect to see you again—at least not so soon. Have you worked here long, Gracie?”

Ignoring his question, she pointed to the menu. “Today’s special is pork chops and sauerkraut.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Not one of my favorite dishes, but that’s okay because it’s too early to be thinking about supper. I just came in to take a load off my feet and go over these prints before I send them off to a publisher.”

“So you don’t want to order anything?”

“I didn’t say that.” He picked up the menu, thumbed through it quickly, and handed it back to her. “I’ll have a cup of coffee and a hunk of pie.”

“What kind of pie?”

“Why don’t you surprise me?”

Grace clutched the edge of her apron and gritted her teeth. The man was impossible! “I’m not allowed to choose for the customer. You need to pick something yourself.”

He drummed his fingers along the edge of the table in an irritating
tat-a-tat-tat.
“How about a slice of apple? Have you got any of that?”

“I believe so.” She turned to go, but he reached out and snagged her wrist, holding it firmly with his cold fingers. “Don’t run off. I’d like to talk to you a minute—get caught up on each other’s lives, maybe reminisce about our dating days.”

She tried to pull away, but he held firm as his thumb brushed her arm in a slow, deliberate movement. “Those were fun days we had together. Don’t you miss ’em, Gracie?”

Grace’s pulse pounded in her temples. She thought she’d resolved her guilty feelings for leaving the Amish faith for a time and keeping her past a secret from her family, but now, with Gary looking at her with such intensity, guilt rushed back like raging floodwaters. If only she’d felt free to tell her parents the truth about where she’d been living and what had transpired during her rumschpringe years.

But she was certain they wouldn’t have understood, especially Dad, who had mentioned several times how angry he was about his only sister leaving the Amish faith and marrying an English man, then never contacting her family again. Just the mention of anyone leaving the faith, whether they’d joined the church or not, caused her father to become irritable for days. If he had known the details of Grace’s rumschpringe, he would have been angry with her, even though she hadn’t been a church member when she’d left home.

“Gracie, did you hear what I said?” Gary asked, releasing his grip on her arm.

She took a step back and nodded. “I’ll turn in your order, and one of the other waitresses will bring it to you in a few minutes.”

His forehead creased. “I thought you were my waitress.”

“My shift is almost over. I’m just covering for someone who’s too busy to wait on you right now.”

“If you’ll be off duty soon, why don’t you have a seat, and we can have a cup of coffee together.” He nodded at the bench across from him, apparently not the least bit put off by her cold reception. Of course, he never had known when to take no for an answer.

“I can’t. My sister will be here to pick me up soon. Besides, I’m betrothed, and it wouldn’t look right for me to be seen having coffee with another man—especially one who isn’t part of the Amish faith.” Grace winced. She couldn’t believe she’d blurted out that she was engaged to be married.

He shook his head. “Gracie, Gracie, Gracie, you sound like such a puritan. Whatever happened to the fun-loving, spunky little gal I used to date?”

“I’m not going through rumschpringe anymore,” she said through tight lips. “I’ve been baptized, have joined the Amish church, and—”

“Yeah, I figured that much. You wouldn’t be dressed in those plain clothes if you hadn’t gone Amish again.” He stared at Grace so hard it made her skin crawl. “The last time I heard from Wade, he said the two of you were happily married. What happened? Did he get bored with his Plain little wife and leave you for some other woman?”

Grace’s ears burned, and the heat spread quickly to her face. “Wade is dead.”

His face blanched. “Really?”

She nodded.

“How’d it happen?”

“One foggy night, an oncoming truck came into Wade’s lane when he was on his way home from work.” She paused to swallow around the lump lodged in her throat. “I figured you would’ve heard about it.”

“I moved to Indianapolis soon after you and Wade got married.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry for your loss, Grace.”

She studied his face, wondering if Gary felt any compassion for her. When she’d been dating him, he’d never said he was sorry for anything.

“So after Wade died, you moved back here and joined the Amish church?”

She nodded.
Does Gary know anything else about my life? Does he know—

She leaned closer to the table. “Promise you won’t say anything to anyone about me being married to Wade?”

He held up his hand. “As I told you the other day, I’m working freelance, and I came to Holmes County to take some pictures and get a few good stories about the Amish here, not tell tales about an old flame.”

Grace wanted to believe him, and she hoped he was telling the truth. But Gary had never been trustworthy, and she wasn’t sure she could believe anything he said. She didn’t even know if he was telling the truth about being a reporter. She was about to question him when she caught sight of Ruth entering the restaurant. “My ride’s here. I have to go.”

She pivoted away from the table and rushed over to Esther, handing her the order pad. “That customer you asked me to wait on wants some apple pie and a cup of coffee. My sister’s here, so I’ve got to go.”

“No problem. I’ll take care of it right away.” Esther’s forehead wrinkled. “Are you okay, Grace? Your face is flushed, and you’re sweating like it’s a hot summer day.”

“I’m fine—just tired and hot from working all day. See you tomorrow, Esther.” Grace hurried off before her coworker could comment. She needed to get away from Gary and his probing blue eyes. She needed to go home where she felt safe.

Chapter 4

“What’s that you’re working on?”

Martha looked up from her embroidery work and smiled at her mother, who leaned over the kitchen table with a curious expression. “I’m making a sampler to give Grace as a wedding present. I’ll include her and Cleon’s names and leave enough room so Grace can add the names of the children they’ll have someday.”