“Dr. Baxter takes off about five weekdays a year, and the Fourth isn’t one of them.”
“Wonderful.” Her playful frustration rang clear. “Are all doctors whose practice is limited to Amish and Mennonite communities that steadfast?”
“I don’t know, but I’d appreciate if you’d stop trying to change the subject as well as my mind.” He paused. “Please.”
She sighed. “Husbands.”
She whispered the word in mock disgust whenever he annoyed her. But her response let him know he’d won. This time.
Usually winning brought him a sense of amusement or playful victory, but the fact she’d given in as easily as she did only added to his concern.
With the old Bible in her lap, Sadie prayed. But the more she did, the more she felt an overwhelming desire to ride Bay. How could she crave going against her father’s wishes while praying for wisdom? That made no sense at all.
She closed the Bible. Was she so rebellious that she couldn’t do as her Daed wanted for one evening?
She ran her fingertips across the worn leather of the Bible. God, what is wrong with me?
The desire to saddle Bay tugged at her even stronger. Apparently she was too rebellious to do as her Daed wanted. She sighed and took the lantern into her bedroom. She lifted her overnight bag onto the bed and pulled out her riding clothes. Once dressed, she removed her prayer Kapp and untwined her hair. After running her fingers through the waves, she created a long but loosely woven french braid. If she was going to ride Bay over unfamiliar terrain, especially at night, she had to wear pants. And she couldn’t wear a prayer Kapp or have her hair pinned up. Her head would look Amish while the rest of her looked Englisch. If anyone saw someone riding who looked Amish, it could be traced back to her, and the news would bring shame to her father and trouble to herself. But if people spotted a girl riding who they thought was Englisch, no one would think anything about it.
She carried the lantern with her and left the house. A muggy breeze stirred the lush trees, and fireworks popped in the distance. The clear sky above carried a few white, shining jewels despite the summer haze.
Sadie opened the barn door, and the old mare raised her head. Bay wasn’t particularly fast, but Sadie believed the horse loved their rare long nights of riding as much as she did.
When Sadie had Bay ready to leave her stall, she blew out the lantern and mounted the mare. The clip-clop of hoofs against the ground made Sadie’s heart pick up its pace. She went slowly at first, giving Bay time to warm up. Once they were on the path that led to a stranger’s pasture, Sadie loosened the reins, allowing Bay to pick up speed. The mare gave it her all, and Sadie intertwined her fingers through the mane to hold on over the rough landscape.
The sights and smells of summer in Apple Ridge revived her weary soul. Living in Stone Creek, a town of considerable size, had a very different feel to it. An occasional firework went off around her, but the loudest of them had ended before she began her ride.
The moon sparkled off the water in the brook as Bay trotted across the shallow creek bed. Sadie patted the mare’s neck. “Good girl. We rode with the wind, ya?”
Bay continued onward, but an odd sound arose from the ground. Sadie tensed. She clicked her tongue, ready to nudge her heels into Bay’s side and move back toward home, but then … Which direction was home? She tugged on the reins, slowing Bay while she searched their surroundings for a familiar landmark. How far was she from Mammi Lee’s? Ten miles? Maybe fifteen?
Another groan made her skin crawl, and she studied the ground. Bay’s hoofs shifted and trod the thick grass, leaving clear imprints.
The moon’s glow revealed other horse tracks, and Sadie feared it was time to bolt from the area. But she directed Bay to follow the beaten path. The tracks continued for a short distance, then made a circle and went back in the same direction.
On the horizon she saw a shadowy figure. Was that an animal? Yes, it might even be a bridled horse standing at the edge of the field near a patch of woods. Although her curiosity was piqued, she wasn’t about to go near that area to check it out. With fear rising, she nudged Bay into a gallop toward the creek.
Once there, Sadie risked a glance behind her. She didn’t consider herself a coward. How many women went out by themselves at night for the sheer joy of it? Yet here she was, running home simply because she’d heard a groan in the darkness and seen something that looked like a bridled horse in silhouette.
Unable to shake free of her fear and yet chiding herself for being so skittish, she clicked her tongue and tugged on the right rein until Bay headed back toward the sound.
“Hello?” She peered into the woods, watching for any sign of life. Other than the animal she’d seen earlier—whether cow, deer, or horse—she saw no movement.
As she neared the creature, it whinnied and backed up. Definitely a horse. Reins dangled from the bit to the ground, but it wasn’t tethered to anything.
She dismounted. “Begreiflich.” Easy.
She made several attempts to get closer, but the horse kept backing away. “Gut Gaul. Kumm.” The horse calmed a bit, ears perked to listen to Sadie’s low voice. When Sadie drew close, she took hold of a dangling rein to keep the animal from running off.
“Begreiflich,” she repeated softly as she ran her hand down the horse’s leg. She didn’t feel any broken bones. “Where’s your rider?”
Peering into the woods, she looked for any sign of another person, a moving shadow or something. When she saw nothing out of the ordinary, she looked across the field. The grass stood at least a foot tall, high and thick enough to conceal a body. She didn’t like the idea of hunting for someone, but even so, she tethered the stray horse to a low-hanging branch, mounted Bay, and followed the tracks in the grass.
She moved slowly, searching the area. Just beyond where the tracks ended, she saw a shadowy lump in the grass. She nudged the horse forward, one step at a time. The desire to flee overwhelmed her, but she paused a few feet from the mass, studying it through the darkness.
A man.
She got off her horse and crouched, realizing the man wore Amish clothing.
“Hello?” She patted his face, but he remained motionless. “Hello? Can you hear me?” She spoke in clear English, hoping not to reveal her Amish accent. If word of how she was dressed leaked back to Mammi Lee’s community, her Daed’s patience with her would go from thin to nonexistent.
How can you think about yourself right now?
She had to get help. Where had she seen the last house—two, maybe three miles back? Looking across the land, she realized afresh how turned around she was.
“Can you hear me?” When he didn’t budge, she pressed two fingers against his neck. His pulse met her fingertips, and relief exploded in her, feeling much like fireworks themselves. “Please wake up.”
Regardless of his being Amish, she patted his pants pockets, hoping he had a phone. He didn’t, and she again checked his pulse.
His face turned toward her, and he lowered his jaw as if responding to her touch. He moaned, startling her.
Excitement suddenly soared in her, and she was tempted to double her fists and jab them into the air. Instead, she placed a hand on his cheek and rubbed her thumb across it.
“Stay calm and try not to move. I need to get help.”
She studied her surroundings. A silhouette of massive trees was in the distance, a dirt road lay a few hundred feet away, and a fence line stood to the west. But where was the closest house?
He raised a hand toward her. “Please …”
He said something more, but she couldn’t hear him. She lowered her ear to his mouth.
“If you can help me get up …”
She started to put her hand in his, but something about it didn’t feel right, and she lowered her hand. “Not yet.”
“Please.”
“Stay still.” She took his hand in hers, and he clutched it firmly as she lowered it to his side, allowing him to hold it. “We�
��re doing this my way.”
His eyes opened, staring at her with disbelief. Then his eyes closed, and his hand released its grip on hers.
She patted his face. “Hello?” Nothing. Now what? While trying to think what to do, she saw his fingers moving. “Hello?” She slapped his face a little harder.
“My …” The whispered word trailed off.
“Do you know where we are?” She lowered her ear to his mouth again.
“Phone.”
“You have a phone?”
He didn’t respond to her, and she got on her hands and knees, patting the ground around him.
Nothing.
A lot of unmarried Amish men and women carried cell phones. They weren’t forbidden from doing so until they joined the church, but even then more and more of the younger generation kept them close.
She fumbled through the tall grass. “God, my most trusted friend, please, You know where his phone is. Help me, please.” With the darkness of the night and the height and thickness of the grass, she could be within a hair of putting her hand on it and never see it.
Then a buzzing sound came from nowhere, and she focused all her senses on it. She followed the noise, going one direction and then another. She panicked. What if it stopped before she could find it? She listened intently. Please, God …
There! That’s where the sound was coming from! She hurried, thrilled as the buzz grew louder. She spotted a blue glow in the grass and ran toward it. After snatching the phone from the thick growth, she dialed 911 and then ran back to the man.
After a few rings a female voice said something she couldn’t make out.
“There’s a man down in a field.” Sadie knelt and nudged the man, hoping for another response, but he didn’t budge. “I think he was thrown from a horse.”
“Is he conscious?”
“He was for a few moments but not now.”
“Is he breathing?”
She knelt beside him and pressed her fingers on his neck again. “He has a pulse.”
“Is he bleeding?”
Sadie checked the ground around him. “I don’t think so.”
“What’s your location?”
“I … I don’t know. I’m somewhere in Apple Ridge, Pennsylvania.”
“Is there a street sign near you?”
“I’m in the middle of a field. There’s a road a few hundred feet away, but there’s no intersection with a street sign for miles. I’d have to ride my horse to find out.” She started to get up, but the man moaned.
Sadie’s heart pounded. “When he woke, he asked me to help him get up. If he would wake up again, I could get him on a horse and get him to his family, a place with a known add—”
“Ma’am, do not move him! Don’t move any part of him. If he begins to stir, you need to keep him still. Do you understand?”
“I understand.” But what if he awoke and wanted to get up? How was Sadie supposed to make this man obey her?
“If he wakes, try to keep him conscious, and do what you can to keep him warm. But he must remain lying exactly where he is. Can you check his pockets for identification without moving him?”
What difference does it make who he is? Cupping the phone between her chin and her shoulder, she did as the woman asked, but there was no sign of a wallet. She hovered over his face. “Hello?”
His breathing altered, and the fingers on one hand moved.
“Do you know where we are?”
He seemed to reach for something. She put her hand in his, and he tightened his fingers as if needing reassurance that someone was here. She used her free hand to touch his face, hoping to coax him to respond. “It’s okay. I’ve got help on the line. Do you know where we are?”
He stirred, even opened his mouth, but she could hear no words.
She moved her ear closer to his face again.
“Zook … Road. Three miles … north of … Cherry Hill … intersection.”
Tears welled in Sadie’s eyes. “Excellent!” She caressed his face as she reported this to the operator. The woman on the other end of the line repeated it back to her.
“Yes. That’s right.”
The woman didn’t respond.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
“Hello?”
Sadie looked at the phone. No lights were on. She punched several buttons but heard no sound of any kind.
The man raised a hand.
She clutched it and lowered it to his side. “Stay still, please.”
He shivered, and she frowned. It was hot and muggy, but he breathed and trembled as if he were freezing. Sadie went to her horse, removed Bay’s saddle, and plunked it to the ground. She grabbed the blanket and unfolded it while walking back to him. After covering him with it and tucking it around him as best she could, she sat beside him.
“Help’s on the way.” Since his arms were under the blanket and he responded well to touch, she stroked his cheek. Thank heaven, his shaking had eased.
Under the glow of the moon, she saw him close his eyes. His body went limp. She jabbed her fingers into his neck, feeling a faint rhythm. “Hey! Wake up!” She screamed in his face. “Can you hear me?”
But he didn’t budge, and his pulse seemed to fade.
A female voice commanded Levi to wake up. He pried his eyes open.
The outline of a woman hovered over him. She held a cell phone in one hand. Did angels wear jeans and boots and carry a phone?
She seemed perturbed with the phone as she kept pressing numbers. He tried to speak but only managed a moan.
She crouched beside him. “Stay still. Completely still. Okay?”
He wanted to get his hand free of the blanket, but when he tried, she lowered the cover and firmly intertwined her fingers with his. “It’s okay. Help is on the way.”
“You’re no angel.”
She laughed. “I’m afraid my father would agree with you completely, especially if he arrives at my grandmother’s place to discover I’m not there.”
“He’ll be worried.”
“No. He’ll know I’ve gone riding. He’ll just be angry.” She released his hand and eased his arm to his side. “What’s your name?”
His head pounded. He had to concentrate to answer her. “Levi.”
“I’m Sadie.” She sat down next to him.
“Amigo … my horse … Is he hurt?”
“He’s spooked but appears fine. I think he needs a name change, however, because that horse is no friend of yours.”
Her sense of playfulness brought him some much-needed relief. He mustered his strength to talk. “I can’t. I have no idea what the Spanish word is for ‘enemy.’ ”
“Believe it or not, it’s enemigo.”
“You’re making that up.”
“One might think that, but I promise it’s true.” She shifted. “Do you live around here?”
“On Hertzler Drive.”
“Is that near Hertzlers’ Dry Goods?”
His head throbbed, and he closed his eyes.
“Levi, look at me.”
He tried but couldn’t find the strength. Her hands cradled his face.
“Levi,” she sang his name. “Open your eyes.” She paused. “Levi, now!”
A sensation of being pulled from the bottom of a pond tugged him awake. “It’s not nice to yell at people you just met.”
“If you don’t open those eyes, I’m going to slap someone I just met.”
It wasn’t easy, but he made himself look at her.
“Good.” She smiled. “I was asking where you live.”
“A mile or so from the dry goods store.”
“I’ve been to that store with Mammi.”
His head spun. He’d never been so befuddled, but did she use the word Mammi? “You have Amish family?”
She hesitated. “Sort of.” She stood. “I need to get something. Stay very still.”
“You’re leaving me?”
“I may hurt you if you close your eyes, but I�
�m not leaving.” Then she disappeared.
She sort of had Amish family? Did that mean some of her family was once Amish but no longer?
She returned with a saddle, which she put near his shoulder. When she sat, she propped her elbow on it and leaned her head on her hand. “I’m just getting comfortable. I imagine, with the holiday, ambulance services are very busy. One might not show up for a while.”
Pain shot through him, and he moaned despite his resolve. His breath came in short, catching spurts. “Sorry. My left leg hurts.”
“Try not to think about it.”
He glanced up at her, studying her features. “Great plan.”
She chuckled. “Got a better one?”
“No.”
“Since we’re strangers, how about if we play twenty questions?”
He took short breaths. “I already asked one. You didn’t answer.”
She propped her knuckles over her mouth, watching him. “The question game is a good one—short, back and forth, only discussing things each of us is interested in. But before I began my ride tonight, I was careful so no one could connect me to my relatives in Apple Ridge, and if I answer you, I would place in your hands the power to change my life. I won’t give that to anyone.”
That was a telling statement. Did she mean it? “Not anyone? Ever? Not even the man you love?”
“Especially not him.”
Despite his pain, an eerie sensation swept over him. “I’m not really awake, am I?”
She leaned close, peering into his eyes. “Levi?”
The warmth of her hand against his cheek seemed real, but he had to be dreaming. Catching a glimpse of her heart was like seeing into his own—filled with distrust and determination to steer life onto the safest path possible. Maybe this was God’s way of talking to him. He was convinced the world was too big for this kind of coincidence. For him to be thrown from his horse, land on his back in the middle of nowhere, then be found by a woman whose thinking was so close to his own?
This was no coincidence.
Well, real or dream, he needed her to tell him more. “After what you’re doing for me, do you think I’d betray your confidence?”
Christmas in Apple Ridge Page 30