Leah's Choice (12 page)

But then he laughed and waved at the driver. What was he thinking? Just because he had Leah Yoder on his brain didn’t mean that she could materialize out of thin air just when he needed a ride.

The woman waved back, and as she came closer, excitement rose in Daniel’s chest. It couldn’t be…but the driver was young and pretty, and she was…

“Daniel? Did your aunt’s van break down?”

Daniel stared. “Leah?”

She laughed. “
Ne,
it’s Bishop Atlee.” She reined up the horse. “Of course it’s me.” She paused. “Well, are you getting in, or are you going to keep walking?”

“You’re here.” He still couldn’t believe it. It was Leah.
His
Leah. “What are you doing here—on this road?”

The horse tossed its head and pawed at the road with one iron-shod hoof. “Hurry up,” Leah urged. “Get in before he starts acting up.”

“In the buggy?”

She laughed again. “Did you fall and hit your head, Daniel Brown? Of course, in the buggy. Are you on your way home? I’m afraid I don’t have any tools in the back for fixing car engines.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “And if I did, I wouldn’t know the first thing about repairing one.”

“Yes, all right.” He moved cautiously up to the buggy. “How do I…”

She chuckled. “Just climb in.”

The horse shifted from side to side and switched his tail as Daniel scrambled up onto the seat beside Leah. He’d no sooner gotten his balance than she clicked to the animal and the buggy started forward with a jolt. Daniel grabbed for the front panel. “I’ve never ridden in one of these before,” he admitted.

“I can see that.” She flicked the long leather lines and the black horse began to trot. A truck came down the road toward them, and Leah tightened her grip on the reins but didn’t slow the horse.

“I ran out of gas,” Daniel explained. “I was walking to a gas station.”

“Does it happen a lot?”

“Does what happen?” He tried not to stare at her, but she was so pretty with her red hair and the modest dark green dress.

“Running out of gas,” she said. “Do you do it a lot?”

“More than I should.” He laughed with her. “You’ve probably guessed. I’m a little absentminded. I get so engrossed in what I’m doing or what I’m thinking about that I forget to do stuff. I lay down my keys and can’t remember where I put them. I misplace my textbooks or—”

“Forget it’s time to go to work?” she suggested.

“No.” He grinned at her. “My work is the only place I don’t forget things. I’m on time, and I know what I’m doing.” His voice grew earnest. “I’m a good nurse, Leah. I might not pay attention to what time I’m supposed to leave at the end of the day and work a double shift, but—”

“Then you have nothing to be ashamed of,” Leah put in. “I probably wouldn’t think to put gas in an automobile, either.”

“No, you wouldn’t forget.” He grimaced. “You don’t forget to feed this horse, and you wouldn’t forget what a van needs to run. I don’t see you as a distracted person. You have purpose.”

“You think so? I wonder.” She made a soft clicking noise to the horse and guided it off the road as a large brown delivery truck passed them. “Mam says that everyone is born with strengths and weaknesses. We have to do our best with what God gave us. It seems to me that you do just fine.” She chuckled. “For an Englisher.”

“I’m not an Englisher,” he protested. “I’m Mennonite.”

She shrugged. “Same as. You aren’t
Plain
. You’ve lived in foreign cities and flown in airplanes.”

“Guilty.” He smiled at her, thinking that talking to Leah was the most natural thing he’d ever done. “If you could take me to a gas station, that would be great,” he said. “I can probably get a ride back to the van from—”

“I’ll just take you back to the van,” she interrupted. “Unless you’re afraid people will laugh at you, riding in an Amish buggy.”

“No, that doesn’t bother me. I like being with you.”

She nodded. “Me, too, Daniel.”

“I like the way you say my name.”

She chuckled. “So it’s settled. I’ll bring you back to your van. Do you think it will start?”

“Oh, sure. It’s a reliable vehicle. It wasn’t completely empty. It started sputtering, and I knew instantly what I’d done wrong. I turned the key off and steered it onto the grass.”

“Smart.”

Daniel laughed. “Trying to fix what I’d already messed up. I would have had my truck, but my uncle borrowed it this morning to bring home some lumber. We’re going to repair the back porch.” He shrugged. “He’s the carpenter. I’m the run-and-fetch guy.”

“Someone has to run and fetch, with any job.”

He glanced down at her slender hands, so small and yet strong enough to control the big horse. “I’ve never driven a horse and carriage,” he said.

“Would you like to learn?”

“You mean now?”

Her eyes twinkled with amusement. “Well, there is a horse available right now.”

He hesitated, feeling totally out of his element, but wanting to try. “I warn you, I’m not familiar with horses.”

She smiled at him, and he felt as though the oxygen had suddenly disappeared from the air.
She’s the one,
he thought.
Bonnet or no bonnet. If I mess this up, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.
“You look so pretty today,” he managed. “So confident, holding those reins.”

“I don’t look so good, I think.” She smoothed down her skirt. “It’s my day to help out my sister, Anna. We were doing the wash. I think I got more water on me than on the clothes.” She passed the reins to him and a thrill ran up his arms as her hands brushed against him. “Hold them like this,” she instructed. “Firm, but not too tight. A horse’s mouth is sensitive.”

“His mouth?”

“The lines lead to the bridle, and the bridle has a bit that fits into his mouth. Without the bridle, it would be hard to control such a large animal.”

“He’s big, all right.” Daniel tried not to show how nervous he was.

“Big, but not as smart as a pig or a dog. Horses frighten easily. You have to let them know that you’re the boss.”

“Even when I don’t
feel
like I’m the boss?”

“Exactly.” She nodded in approval. “Good. You have good hands, Daniel, gentle hands. Not clumsy.”

The horse continued to move along the blacktop, almost as if it didn’t know he was holding the reins instead of Leah. Daniel’s mouth was dry, but he was having a good time. He tried to think of something sensible to say, so that Leah wouldn’t think he was a total dork. “Anna’s married to Samuel, isn’t she?” was the best he could come up with.

Leah nodded. “They’re newlyweds. Samuel was a widower with five children. Anna is a good housekeeper, and she’ll make a good mother, but it takes a while to get into a routine. I go over a few days every week to do what I can.”

“That’s good of you. You get along well with your sister, then?” Another vehicle came up behind them and honked the horn. The horse raised its head and made a little jump to the left. Daniel tensed up and tightened his hands on the reins.

“Easy, boy,” Leah said to the horse. She laid a hand over his and he felt the same jolt of excitement. “Don’t wrap the line around your fist,” she said. “That could be dangerous. You’re doing fine. Keep the lines gripped so.”

He did as she instructed. “Like this?”

“Yes, very good. A few more lessons and you’ll be fit to go.” She settled back onto the bench seat as the driver raced around the buggy and continued on down the road. “Everyone gets along with Anna,” she said, answering his question. “…Even my
Grossmama
.” Leah wrinkled her nose. “My grandmother. You met her. She is a strong…” She searched for a word.

“Personality?”

They laughed together. “
Grossmama
doesn’t like my mother so much, but she likes Anna. They get along fine. Anna and Samuel have asked her to come and live with them, so it will make life easier for Mam, too. But that won’t happen ’til later, Anna and Samuel being newlyweds and all. They need their time alone together.” She felt her cheeks grow warm, with the embarrassment of such talk, but Daniel didn’t seem to notice.

“Where were you going now? Am I taking you out of your way?” he asked. “I’m sorry if—”

“No.” Leah shook her head. “Just on my way home. My sister, Johanna…” She hesitated and then went on in a softer voice. “Her husband is not well, not sick but…troubled. I worry about Johanna and her children.”

“You were on your way to her house?” Daniel straightened his spine. Driving the horse was easier than he’d thought, at least with Leah beside him. She was a good teacher.

“On my way back home from Johanna’s.” She turned her face away, seemingly staring at the horse’s rump. For a long moment, she didn’t speak, and then she sighed. “I shouldn’t say anything, especially to an outsider, but I feel like you’re not the kind of man to judge.” She hesitated. “Wilmer, that’s Johanna’s husband, he does things to her.”

Daniel took his gaze off the road ahead and glanced at Leah. “What kind of things?”

“He gets angry and shouts at her. A lot. And he hit her. She had a bruise on her cheek.” Leah touched her cheekbone. “Here. An ugly bruise.”

“No man should ever hit a woman. Ever.”

“I agree. I wanted Johanna to bring the children home and stay with us. But it’s not easy. We…the Amish don’t believe in breaking up families. A marriage is for life.”

“With us, too,” Daniel agreed. “But not if there’s abuse. That’s against the law.”

Leah reached over his hands, gripped the reins and pulled back. The horse stopped short. “I shouldn’t have said anything to you. My sister…my family would be angry with me. It’s private, what happens in our homes.”

“But hitting a woman—hitting anyone is wrong.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Your mother must…” He broke off, not sure what her mother thought about such behavior. “I mean, surely, she…”

“My mother is worried, but she says that Johanna must make her own decision, that we can’t make it for her. And Johanna is still trying to mend things between her and Wilmer.”

“And you’re afraid your sister is in danger.”

“Exactly.”

“And you say there are children?”

“A four-year-old boy and a baby girl. Johanna says he won’t harm the children. I think Wilmer is too hard on Jonah. He favors their daughter. He has since she was born. Wilmer says he’s sorry for what he did to Johanna, and I know we should forgive, but—”

“If it were my sister, I don’t know if I could forgive a man for striking her.”

Moisture glistened on Leah’s lashes. “You understand how I feel.”

He nodded. “Maybe you should report this to the police.”

“No, I can’t. Not yet. My sister would never forgive me. We try to fix things inside our church…in our community. But Johanna will be safe now, at least for a while. Wilmer’s sister is coming to stay with them. He wouldn’t lose his temper in front of her.” Leah released the leather lines and clicked to the animal. “Walk on, Blackie.” She rested her hand on his forearm. “Promise me that you won’t tell anyone.”

The horse obeyed her command and the buggy moved forward. “Not if you don’t want me to,” Daniel said.

“Please,” she pleaded. “It was wrong of me to talk about my sister’s marriage, but I had to talk to someone…someone outside the family.”

“I won’t break your confidence.”

“Oh, no!” Leah pulled her hand from his.

Daniel glanced up to see another horse and buggy, a larger, covered, black carriage coming toward them. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Leah grimaced. “That’s my Aunt Martha.”

“Is that a problem?”

“I’m afraid so, Daniel. My Aunt Martha is always a problem.”

Chapter Ten

L
eah’s heart sank as she smiled and waved. Of all the people she knew, it would have to be Martha and Dorcas who saw her with Daniel. “I wonder where they’re going,” she said, trying to keep her voice light.

Dorcas stared but waved back, while Aunt Martha only gave a grudging nod as the buggies passed each other.

“Will you be in trouble because of me?” Daniel asked.

Leah hesitated.
How could she make him understand Aunt Martha without being uncharitable?
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve done nothing wrong. What would be wrong would be for me to leave a friend walking, instead of picking him up.”

“So…are we friends?”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Yes, Daniel, I think we are. Since the woods and the dark…” She glanced at him and smiled. “And the rain.” She nodded. “Yes, I’m sure of it—friends.”

“It was a miserable night for a walk in the woods—but we found Joey.”

“Yes, we did. We found him together.” Daniel grinned at her, and Leah found herself drawn into the depths of his warm green eyes.

“You found Joey. I just tagged along.”

“Is that what you think?” She shook her head. “No,
we
did it. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been so brave. I don’t like the dark. My sisters always tease me about being afraid to go out to the barn at night. It’s why I always have a flashlight.” She reached under the seat and showed him the one she kept in this buggy. “And I wouldn’t have been able to save that baby goat.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re too hard on yourself, Daniel.”

“Maybe, sometimes.” He swallowed and his gaze became serious. “You’re different than most girls, Leah. Easy to talk to. I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

She smiled. “Me too, with you, I mean.”

“Okay, one friend to another—why is my being in this buggy with you a problem?”

“It’s my aunt. She’s…” There was nothing to do but be honest with Daniel. “My aunt is something of a
retschbeddi
.”

He chuckled. “A tattletale?”

She covered her face with her hands. “You know more
Deutsch
than you let on.”

“A little, but my accent is awful.”

“It’s what I think about my English. In the home we speak German a lot…and with other Amish. My mother wanted us to use good English out in the world.”

“I like your mother,” he murmured.

“I’ve been blessed to have her…and my father. Both good people.”