by Jo Ann Brown
“Their coats are gone,” he told her, his face pale.
“So are they! Where could they have gone in this storm?”
Chapter Sixteen
Hannah struggled to breathe. Had her great-grandmother wandered away, lost again in the past? She’d called Daniel by her late husband’s name. Had she gone to find Earney? But why had her great-grandmother taken Shelby with her? That had never happened before.
“Oh, no!” groaned Daniel.
She whirled to look at him. “What?”
“I told Grossmammi Ella to watch the rising water and the bridge. Do you think she thought I meant she should watch the creek from the bridge?”
Horror sank through her. She scanned the room again as if she could find her great-grandmother on a second look. “I don’t know what she’ll do anymore.”
“Hannah.” His voice was so heavy she looked at him and discovered his face had turned gray. “I never would have said that if I’d guessed—”
“I know you didn’t. But we don’t have time to discuss this. We need to find them!”
“C’mon!” He grabbed his hat and took her hand.
She raced with him from the house to where his horse stood in the unrelenting storm. The creek roared like a wounded beast was clawing its way onto the banks. The water level rose as she watched, pools gathering and combining on the road and along the creek. The new boards beneath the bridge were less than three inches above the rushing water.
When he turned toward the bridge, she grasped his sleeve. He didn’t slow and almost jerked her off her feet.
“No!” she shouted over the din from the rushing water.
When he spoke, she had to guess what he was saying because his words were swallowed by the cacophony from the creek. He was asking why she was slowing him down. Or that’s what she thought he’d said.
She tugged him toward the buggy. He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. Standing on tiptoe, she knocked aside his hat so she could say into his ear, “We need to get the buggy.”
He pointed at the covered bridge.
Hannah shook her head. Pulling on his arm again, she sent up a prayer of gratitude when he came with her. She threw open the buggy door and climbed in. Daniel did the same on the other side. The two doors shut at the same time, rocking the buggy, but the sound was lost beneath the rain striking the roof.
When he turned to her, she grimaced as rain sprayed off his hat’s brim. She shook it off her face as she said, “Grossmammi Ella wouldn’t have gone to the bridge. She hasn’t gone to the bridge since the day you showed me where the bees are. She hates bees.”
“Then where do you think they’ve gone?” Abrupt understanding burst into his eyes, followed an instant later by fear. “You think she took Shelby out to the old mill, ain’t so?” He grasped the reins and slapped them on his horse to send the buggy along the flooded road.
Hannah clenched her hands. If she was wrong, they could be marooned out near the mill, and nobody else knew her great-grandmother and the toddler were missing.
Lord, guide us to them in time. The prayer resonated through her mind over and over in tempo with the horse’s hooves.
Watching the road, Hannah leaned forward as if she could make the buggy move faster. Daniel guided Taffy around the biggest puddles, not wanting to mire the wheels, but each detour, no matter how small, seemed to lengthen the journey by miles instead of inches.
A hand settled over hers on the seat, and she tore her gaze from the road. Looking down, she saw Daniel’s broad, workworn fingers atop hers. He squeezed her hand. The motion said more than words could have about how he shared her trepidation.
Tears welled in her eyes. If someone had told her yesterday that Daniel Stoltzfus would gauge her feelings accurately and care so much, she would have laughed with derision. What he’d said yesterday was true. The young, callous man he’d been, a man focused only on his dreams and ambitions...that man was gone. He’d been replaced by the Daniel sitting beside her, a warmhearted man who had told her that he’d changed.
And, though she’d tried to deny the truth, he had changed.
A lot.
As she had, because she wasn’t the uncertain, desperate girl she’d been, wondering if anyone would love her after her daed abandoned her. She’d wondered if her great-grandmother saw her as anything other than an unwanted obligation dropped on her in her later years. How wrong she’d been! Discounting Grossmammi Ella’s love as nothing but a duty had been her first mistake. Believing she was unlovable was her second. Her daed had loved her, Shelby loved her, and...
Raising her eyes, she traced Daniel’s profile. Was it possible he loved her, too? She loved him. She knew that as surely as she knew rain was falling.
Hannah rocked forward when the buggy came to a sudden stop. The road ahead was beneath water.
“We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.” Daniel threw open his door.
She jumped out and winced when the rain battered her. The wind tried to rock her off her feet as lightning flashed and thunder exploded around them. She was grateful when Daniel seized her hand and led her onto the side of the road so they could keep going.
As the old mill came into sight, it looked nothing as it had the last time she’d come out there. The crumbling walls were surrounded by water. The dam on the mill pond must be holding, though she wondered how long it could stand against the raging current.
She glanced toward it and pressed her hand to her mouth to silence her cry of alarm.
Her great-grandmother and Shelby stood hand-in-hand on top of the rickety dam. Waves splashed over it, and the whole structure trembled with the onslaught against it. Seeing Daniel looking in the other direction, she groaned. Farther up the creek, a tree slanted toward the water that had carved the earth away from its roots. If it toppled in, it would race like an arrow at the unstable dam.
Hannah ran as close as she could to the dam. She stood in ankle-high water, bracing herself to keep from being pulled in. Cupping her hands over her mouth, she shouted, “Shelby, come and see. Daniel’s here.”
The little girl’s mouth moved, but the crash of the water stole the sound. She clutched her stuffed honeybee to her chest. Hannah wasn’t sure if tears or the rain coursed down her round face.
“Grossmammi Ella, send Shelby to us. Please!”
For a moment, her great-grandmother’s eyes focused on her and Daniel. Her gnarled fingers loosened on the toddler’s hand.
Shelby teetered on the dam. When the little girl tumbled off her feet, Hannah’s heart jumped into her throat. Somehow, the kind landed in the center of the top of the dam and held on to Buzz-buzz.
Hannah felt Daniel tense, but he kept her from moving forward as Shelby began crawling toward them.
“Don’t spook your great-grandmother,” he said close to her ear.
The moment Shelby reached the edge of the dam, Hannah held out her hands to the toddler. The little girl threw herself into Hannah’s arms.
“Han-han!” she cried.
Hannah pressed her face against the kind’s soaked hair. Lifting her into her arms, she wept as the little girl wrapped her arms around her neck and clung to her. She moved backward, Daniel’s hand gripping her arm to keep her feet from sliding out from under her on the slick slope.
“Get Shelby to the buggy,” he said. “I’ll get your great-grandmother.”
“I need to—”
“You need to let me do this.”
She shook her head, but didn’t answer as a crack came from farther up the creek. The tree slipped closer to the water.
He took her by the shoulders. “Don’t argue, Hannah. You’ve let others depend on you, but you’ve never been willing to depend on others. Why? Do you think it makes you powerless if you allow someone else to help you?”
> “No, it’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
She didn’t have an answer for him, because having him come into her life again had led her to question how she lived her life as well as her expectations of herself and others.
“Hannah.” He framed her face with his hands, tilting it so she could look into his eyes without having rain splash along her face. “You, of all people, should know how important it is for everyone to depend on each other. Your bees rely on each other to build their hive. If one fails, they all fail. That kind of dependence isn’t weakness—it’s strength.”
He was right, but could she trust Grossmammi Ella’s life to him? The answer came quickly. Ja! Even when he’d broken her heart, he’d been trying to do what was best for her. He’d helped her move the hives even though he hated being near bees. He’d won her heart...twice. How could she not trust him?
More important, she knew she could depend on him. He wasn’t running away, torn between his conflicting dreams for his future. Her heart, no longer willing to be silent, called out she must give him another chance.
This chance.
She must depend on him to do what she couldn’t: save her great-grandmother’s life.
Shifting Shelby in her arms, she stepped toward the buggy. “Do what you can, Daniel, to save my great-grandmother.”
* * *
Daniel was staggered by the strength of Hannah’s belief in him. It shone from her eyes and flowed from her fingers as she clasped his arm. Dear God, be with me so I don’t disappoint Hannah again. Help me find the right words and do the right things to reach Grossmammi Ella.
A sense of peace draped over him like an umbrella. Only this umbrella quieted a storm that had raged within him so long he’d learned to ignore it. In its wake seeped the warmth of knowing he wasn’t alone. What had he told Hannah in the barn? With God’s love, everything was possible. It was time for him to take his own words to heart.
He pulled his gaze from her great-grandmother. “Take Shelby and get in the buggy. Be ready to flee if the dam goes.”
“Be careful.” Her voice sounded like a whisper, but he guessed she was shouting as he was.
He nodded as Hannah hurried to the buggy. He didn’t wait to see if she got in. No time for anything but getting her great-grandmother to safety.
His heart stopped in midbeat when he saw the tree topple into the creek, caught in an eddy. Once it escaped, it was going to hit the dam.
“Grossmammi Ella!” he called.
She ignored him.
He had to think of a way to reach her. He could run out and force her off, but he wasn’t sure the dam could hold two adults. And there wasn’t time to argue as she did except when she thought he was her late husband.
That was the answer!
“Ella!” he shouted. “Ella, liebling!”
The old woman’s head snapped around like a marionette’s. She stared at him and said something. Her words were lost in the noise, but he saw her lips form her husband’s name.
“Ja!” He yelled louder. “Ella, liebling, come here to me. I know how much you miss your Earney.” He chose his words carefully. He didn’t want to lie to her.
“I’ve been waiting for you right here.” She moved toward him. Slowly. Too slowly. “Right here where we used to watch the stars when we were courting.”
He understood at last why she’d kept coming here. He’d share that with Hannah...later. For now, he had to chance going out to the old woman. As he put his foot on the dam, it seemed to sway beneath him. Lord, I put our lives in Your hands.
Running, he reached Grossmammi Ella. The dam was shaking with the current. He glanced to his right. The tree was on a collision course with the dam.
“Earney! I knew you’d come. I knew it!” The desperate cry came from deep within the old woman’s heart as she collapsed in his arms.
He scooped her up and pulled his open coat around her to protect her from the storm. She couldn’t weigh a hundred pounds. Shifting her so he didn’t put pressure on her ancient bones, he turned to get off the dam.
He gasped when the windblown rain blinded him. He blinked, trying to see. When a hand grasped his elbow, pulling him to his left, he followed Hannah onto solid ground. He kept blinking hard, and his eyes cleared in time to see the buggy right in front of him.
He put Grossmammi Ella in next to Shelby who was watching with her thumb in her mouth, a sure sign the little girl was afraid. Motioning to Hannah to get in, he ran around to the other side. He jumped in and grabbed the reins, slapping them on the horse as soon as Hannah was inside.
Later, there would be time to thank her for guiding him to the buggy. Later, after they were safe. He shouted to the horse to go at its top speed.
Taffy must have understood the danger because the horse ran along the road, splashing water into the buggy through the open doors. He yanked his door closed and, from the corner of his eye, saw Hannah do the same on the other side.
“We’ve got to get up the hill,” said Grossmammi Ella in a matter-of-fact tone.
He knew that, but a fence edged the road. They could climb over, but he didn’t want to leave Taffy behind.
“Over there!” Hannah pointed to an open gate barely visible in the rain.
“Take the reins! I’ll help Taffy.” He was out of the buggy before she could answer. As he slammed the door shut, he saw her grope for the reins.
Fighting his way through the fast-moving water, he grasped the horse’s bridle. “Let’s go, Taffy.”
The water rose higher and higher as he led the horse toward the open gate. He watched, appalled, when the buggy slid sideways. He gritted his teeth and tried to move faster.
As soon as they reached the gate, Daniel slapped Taffy’s rear to send the horse racing up the hill. He ran alongside and jumped in when Hannah threw the door open. He took the reins from her, fighting to keep the buggy upright as they bounced over the uneven ground.
At the top, he drew in the horse. Silence filled the buggy for the length of a single heartbeat.
He didn’t hear the crash when the tree struck, but the dam collapsing was as loud as the thunder overhead. Shrieks came from the toddler and Grossmammi Ella. Hannah hushed them before she scrambled out of the buggy.
Daniel jumped out and came around to where she stood. He grasped her shoulders and spun her so her back was to the scene of destruction below them.
“Look at Taffy.” He clasped her face between his hands to keep her from seeing the maddened creek. “Or better yet, look at me, Hannah. Look at me, and don’t look away.”
“I don’t want to look anywhere else.”
“Gut! Look at me, and I’ll look at you. Nowhere else.”
Crashes came from below, and she shuddered. “Don’t you want to see what’s happening to the bridge?”
He shook his head. “We fixed it once. We can fix it again.”
“Danki for saving us.” She rested her head against his chest, and he knew she must be able to hear his heart thud with the joy of holding her close.
“Danki for trusting me.” He leaned his cheek against the top of her ruined bonnet.
“I always will.” She raised her gaze to his. “Always.”
“And I’ll never give you a reason to believe you can’t depend on me again.”
She tightened her hold around him as he claimed her lips. As crashes heralded damage along the creek, he held her close as he found everything he wanted in her kiss.
Chapter Seventeen
“Excellent work, Daniel.” Liam O’Neill’s booming voice echoed in the covered bridge like the metal buggy wheels of an Amish buggy on the deck. “I didn’t know if this old bridge would still be standing, but it seems you saved it.”
“The gut Lord did,” Daniel replied, gi
ving credit where it was due.
“By giving you and your crew the skills to strengthen it in time for the flood.” The Irishman glanced at the tools and scrap wood piled on the deck. The debris had been swept out yesterday. “When will you be done here?”
“It’s going to take us another few weeks. The flood did enough damage that we have to check each bridge support and replace the missing ones as well as those that were weakened.” He glanced along the bridge and tried to quell the pulse of pride that nearly all the repairs had survived the flood.
The repairs hadn’t been just his work. They’d been his and his crew’s work. It’d taken him long enough to see one man couldn’t do the work alone. A leader’s job was to find the best men for the job and let them do it.
More than a week had passed before the waters retreated enough for him to assess the full damage. The waterline inside the bridge was almost two feet above the deck, but the reinforced bridge had stood. The days had been fair and warm, a gift from God in the wake of the month of rain and floods. During that time, Liam had offered him the project he wanted Stoltzfus Brothers Construction to oversee.
Stoltzfus Brothers Construction. The name seemed perfect, because he intended to use his brothers’ skills whenever a job required them. Primarily his twin, since he’d asked Micah if he’d like to become his partner in the business. Micah told him he needed time to consider the offer, surprising Daniel. That sounded like their cautious brother Jeremiah instead of his twin who usually looked while he was leaping.
“After you’ve checked out the bridge, you plan to start on my project?” asked Liam.
“Ja.”
“Excellent.” He glanced past Daniel. “You’ve got some people waiting to talk to you.”
Looking over his shoulder, Daniel smiled when he saw Hannah standing on the other side of the concrete barrier. Shelby clung to her as the kind had since they fled the flood. He hoped the toddler would soon forget the experience, though he knew he never would. Every night since that harrowing escape, he’d had nightmares about the waters overtaking them after he’d asked Hannah to depend on him—truly depend on him for the first time.