“I thought you might want to know what other people are thinking,” Mim admitted in a quiet voice.
Her mother drew in a deep breath. “Such neighbors wouldn’t tell tales and gossip. Love thinks well of others, and the people here have poured out that very kind of godly love and friendship. You worry what they’d think? Down deep in my heart, I know they consider us blessed.”
Mim couldn’t look her mother in the eye as she stammered, “Those are only some of the neighbors.”
“For once your mother is right,” Mammi Vera said as she came into the kitchen. “We are blessed by this child.”
Mim was shocked. The world was turning upside down. She was astounded that her grandmother wasn’t more upset. One of her grandmother’s favorite sayings was: Aaegebrenndi Supp riecht welt. You can smell scorched soup from afar. Scandals spread like wildfire, she would warn, wagging a finger at them. “I guess I mean, you’re supposed to get married and then have babies, right?”
“That’s the best way.” Mammi Vera peered at the baby, sleeping in a borrowed Moses basket, tucked in a corner by the window where the morning sun streamed through and kept her warm. She tucked a blanket around Sarah’s little pink toes. “But things don’t always happen in the best way, and once some things have happened, we can’t go back and change them to the best way.” She looked at Mim. “But it’s my belief that every child the Lord sends is a gift, and even when things aren’t as they should be, God can make a way out of no way.”
“Is that in the Bible?”
“Many times in many stories. Remember how the angel Gabriel told Mary, ‘With God nothing shall be impossible’?” Mammi Vera straightened and peered out the window. “Soon, Tobe will be home. You’ll see. All will turn out well when Tobe finally comes home.”
The farrier drove Galen and Bethany out to look at the horse later in the week. In the corner of a dirty pasture was a muddy, broken-down horse. His head hung low, eyes lifeless, and his ribs stuck out. The saddest discovery of all was that his back feet were buckled together in leather hobbles. “He’s in even worse condition than he was a few days ago.”
The Equine Rescue truck pulled up at the same time. Two men climbed out and walked to the pasture with grim looks on their face as they saw the condition the horse was in. “There’s an electric fence,” the farrier pointed out. “I’ll turn it off and then we can go in.”
Bethany watched him click off a small handle. He tapped the fence with his gloved finger and declared it safe. “The juice is cut off. Go on in.”
As they walked in the pasture, through the mud and muck toward the horse, Bethany wasn’t at all sure it was Jimmy’s Lodestar. This horse was covered in ticks, its eyes had a beaten down look, its ears were flattened back, its mane wasn’t flaxen but brown, dirty, and matted. She looked at Galen to see what he was thinking. He was walking around the horse, running a hand down its girth, over the joints in its legs. There was no way this horse could be Lodestar. No chance at all.
Galen looked up at her. “It’s him.”
“What?! Are you sure? He doesn’t look the same.”
“It’s him.” He sounded certain.
The farrier and the men from the Equine Rescue were discussing how to proceed as Bethany tipped over the dirt-filled pan of rainwater and went to go look for fresh water for the horse. Galen had brought a hay bale in the back of the farrier’s truck and took it out to Lodestar, who lunged for it. Galen pulled a hoof pick out of one pocket, a bottle of apple cider vinegar and a brush out of the other. With a practiced hand, he unbuckled the hobbles. While Lodestar ate, Galen lifted each foot and cleaned the hoof, then painted vinegar over the frog. An old remedy for hoof rot.
“What happens now?” Bethany asked the men.
“We’ll post a warning on the door to the house. If we don’t hear from the owner in a few days, we’ll return and post another.”
She turned to the farrier. “What do you know about the owner?”
“I only met him one time, when he asked me to come shoe the horse every eight weeks. There was something odd about him.”
Galen’s head snapped up. “What was it that struck you as odd?”
“He only carried a one-hundred-dollar bill. Wanted me to break the change for him, and when I couldn’t, he said he would have to pay me next time. I’ve been on the wrong end of that before, so I told him I only work if I’m paid in advance. It made him mad, but he ended up paying me for two shoeings.”
“Do you remember what he looked like?” Bethany said.
“Thirty or so. Nice looking. Clean shaven. Seemed to care about the horse.” His lips hardened as he glanced around the paddock. “Nothing like this.”
“Was the man pleasant? Charming?” She wanted to know.
“Very. The kind of guy who could charm the spots off a leopard.”
It had to be Jake Hertzler. It had to be! But Bethany could see the run-down house was empty, deserted. Jake must have left awhile ago, abandoning Lodestar. “What happens if you don’t hear back from the owner in a few days? If he never does come back?”
“Then we’ll return with law enforcement and confiscate the horse.”
Galen’s gaze was fixed on Lodestar. “What’ll happen to the horse?”
“He’ll be taken to a rescue center and rehabilitated. Then he’ll be put up for adoption.”
“How long could that take?” Bethany said.
“Six months. Maybe a year.”
Bethany couldn’t bear the thought of this pathetic beast left in this filthy pasture without food and water for another week. And hobbled! One of the men from the Equine Rescue apologized to Galen but told him he would have to put the hobbles back on so they could photograph the condition the horse was in, while the other one wrote up a warning and posted it on the door. Galen looked sadly at the hobbles in his hand and gently replaced them on Lodestar’s back legs. The horse turned his head from the hay to stare at Galen, as if betrayed.
As they left the pasture, they reminded the farrier to turn the electric fence back on. “By law, we have to leave everything just the way we found it.”
Bethany sidled up to Galen to whisper to him. “We can’t leave him hobbled. At the very least . . . not hobbled.”
He gave her a slight nod. “Distract them as they walk to their cars,” he whispered.
Bethany put herself in front of the men, walking backward, asking them every question she could think of about their work. Behind them, she saw Galen quickly unbuckle the horse’s hobbles and hurry across the pasture to join them before they reached the gate and the farrier flipped on the switch to the electric fence.
As they climbed back in the farrier’s truck, Bethany said, “Wait! I dropped something by the pasture.” She jumped out of the truck and hurried over to the gate. She dropped her handkerchief and leaned over with one hand to pick it up, waving to the farrier and Galen to show them she found it. With the other hand, she flipped the electric fence power switch off. The horse looked at her with sorrowful but mildly curious eyes, munching on the hay. “Okay, Lodestar. I’m giving you a chance. Don’t disappoint me.”
No one said much on the ride home. They were almost back to Eagle Hill before the farrier broke the silence. “I don’t know if that horse will ever be the same.”
Bethany looked to Galen for that answer.
“He’s young,” Galen said reassuringly. “It’s amazing how quickly an animal can heal once he’s got good food, good shelter, and a little loving care.”
With all the excitement of the baby’s birth, no one had remembered to check phone messages or pick up the mail. While Naomi was feeding the baby her bottle, Rose walked to the mailbox and pulled out three days’ worth of mail. Three days! She shook her head. Then she stopped by the phone shanty and listened to messages.
She hunted for a pen to write down names and numbers as she listened to three different messages from guests who wanted to book reservations in April and May. Her pen fell on the floor, and as
she bent to get it, she almost missed the last message. “Rose, this is Tobe. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you but there’s a reason—I’m getting released this week. I’ll be home on Friday. I’ll explain about, well, about everything, when I get home.”
The first thought that ran through her mind was: Tobe was coming home! Alleluia! And then: Friday? Friday! That’s tomorrow! And of course, so like Tobe, he didn’t say how he would be returning, or what time. But the important thing—Tobe was finally coming home.
14
Bethany hurried over to Naomi’s. They were planning to go to the Sisters’ Bee at Edith Fisher’s and she was running late, as usual. As she slipped through the privet, something caught her eye. Outside the far fence, near the road, she noticed a loose horse, unbridled, grazing on shoots of new spring grass. She looked in the barn for Galen but couldn’t find him, so she grabbed a handful of hay, tucked a rope under her arm, and walked slowly, slowly toward the horse.
The horse shied but was too weary, too thin, to bolt. “Don’t tell me . . . can it really be . . . is it you?” She held the hay out to the horse and gently slipped a rope around his neck. She reached out and rested her hand on the horse’s nose. The horse bumped her with his nose, a sign of recognition. “I know someone who is going to be pretty excited to see you.”
Bethany rubbed the horse’s long neck, looking him over for injuries. The horse seemed completely calm. Ears in the upright position.
She ran her hand down each leg, the way she’d seen Galen do, looking for swelling or bruising or cuts. Then she led the horse into Galen’s barn and into a large box stall, customized with extra latches especially for a certain horse who liked to escape, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t be a problem any longer.
Jimmy Fisher’s Lodestar had come home.
As soon as Bethany arrived at the Fishers’ farm for the Sisters’ Bee, she made a beeline to find Jimmy in the pullet barn. It was ten times as large as the henhouse at Eagle Hill. She had never been in it before and cringed at the loud sound of the hens, cackling and clucking in their nesting boxes. The air was pungent, fusty and sour, nearly overwhelming her, though it was a well-kept barn with plenty of ventilation. One or two of the hens flapped their wings and pecked at her as she walked down the narrow aisle.
No wonder Jimmy couldn’t stand being a chicken boss! These birds were downright ornery.
She found him cutting up apples at a workbench in the center of the barn, tossing the apple slices in a bucket to feed to the hens. When he saw her, he startled. “Bethany, what are you doing here?”
“Jimmy, I found him! Well, Galen helped too.”
“Who?”
She paused, unable to hold back a grin. “Lodestar.”
He cocked his head and looked at her as if she might be sun touched. “Bethany, are you feeling all right?”
She laughed. “It’s really him. Lodestar!”
Jimmy didn’t move for a moment, didn’t breathe. Then he threw the apple knife down on the workbench so hard it stuck upright, point in the wood. “Where?” His voice made a funny, choking sound. “Where is he?”
“He’s not in great shape. He’s been mistreated pretty badly. He’s lost a lot of muscle mass. But Galen thinks that with good food, good care, love, and kindness, he’ll be as good as new.” She bit her bottom lip. “Hopefully.”
He took a step closer to her, impatience on his face. “Bethany, where is he?”
“In Galen’s barn, of course.”
Jimmy tossed his worn leather gloves on the ground and blew past her, leaving her alone in the stinky chicken barn.
Micky was getting too old for all the silly games he played like a puppy, but he didn’t know it, which was why Rose ignored him when he woke her in the middle of the night with his cold nose on her hand. He hunkered down on the ground and made a whimpering sound, then he ran around and around in a tight circle, jumped up on the bed, jumped off, only to do it all over again. Something was up, so Rose got out of bed. She heard a sound outside and went to the window, just in time to see Paisley’s car start up, cough, and sputter down the driveway.
Rose flew into action and bolted down the stairs. “Stop her, stop her! She’s leaving! Paisley’s leaving!”
Bethany burst out of her bedroom, down the stairs, and ran past Rose to go outside, waving, trying to catch up with the car. At the end of the driveway she gave up and walked back to Rose, furious. “I can’t believe she actually left before Tobe got home. I can’t believe it!”
All kinds of feelings ping-ponged in Rose’s head. Relief that Paisley was gone, that the family would no longer need to walk on a knife-edge of anxiety, that Tobe wasn’t home yet to be caught in a quandary about whether to go with her or not.
Then, panic! The baby. The baby was gone! How dare Paisley take that baby away! Rose felt devastated. She was already falling in love with little Sarah.
Suddenly a familiar wail floated down the steps.
Bethany looked at Rose, puzzled. “Paisley didn’t take the baby with her?”
The baby’s wail grew louder.
“Apparently . . . not,” Rose said in a thin, unsteady voice.
In the morning, Rose told Vera that Paisley had vanished. Vera’s face suddenly grew gray and wrinkled, as if she had turned a hundred years old.
“The less said about that Parsley woman, the better. The English are very unreliable.” Vera’s face was in that sharp straight line again. There would be no more said.
When Naomi received Tobe’s call that he was coming home, asking her to meet him at the bus stop at three o’clock and to come alone so they could have time to talk, she found herself deliberating over which dress to wear to make her look most appealing—the rose or the teal green—then she pulled herself up sharply and was ashamed to realize how vain she sounded, even to herself. But she wore the teal green one that gave her more color and didn’t make her look wishy-washy. She could barely wait to see Tobe. No day had ever seemed longer.
It was nearly time. The bus would be in at three p.m., he said. Only four hours to go. Three. Two. It was time.
Today, fortune was in her favor. Mr. Kurtz was due to arrive at the house at two o’clock during the exact time when Galen happened to have gone to town to buy supplies. No lies were told and none were needed. By three o’clock, Naomi was waiting at the crowded and noisy bus station in Lancaster—so crowded she felt like a hen being crated off to market, so noisy she couldn’t hear herself think. She tried to push her way to the front of the crowd as she watched Tobe’s bus pull in and stop. She felt a nervous quiver in her belly and unconsciously smoothed her apron again and again.
At the top of the bus steps, his hand clutching the door handle, Tobe paused and his eyes roamed the crowd. The sight of him filled Naomi’s eyes with tears. He was so . . . beautiful. Tall, broad, handsome, and he was hers.
She could tell, from the frown on his face, he couldn’t find her in the crowd. He stepped down from the bus and started to make his way through the cluster of people. She hurried to catch him and pulled at his sleeve.
“Tobe?” she said, almost hesitatingly.
Tobe spun around.
Their eyes met immediately, but neither of them moved. It was as if words and greetings and reactions had been blown out of them like air after a kick in the stomach. Then words tumbled out.
“I was afraid you weren’t coming—”
“How could I not—”
“For hundreds of reasons,” he said. Then he gave a quick scan around the bus station to see if he recognized anyone, and satisfied there was no one, he reached out to engulf her in a hug. They left the station with arms linked together and went across the street to a coffee shop to talk. The discreet Mr. Kurtz said he had an errand to run and would return in an hour.
Over coffee, Naomi told Tobe about the baby’s arrival, and then about Paisley’s midnight disappearance.
He was speechless at the turn of events. Delighted, even. “It proves it, t
hen, doesn’t it? I’m not the father. She couldn’t face me.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. She didn’t seem the same after the baby was born. I’m not exactly sure why. Bethany thinks it’s because the baby is a special child. Rose thinks Paisley was under the impression that you came from a well-off family and was not happy to find out that wasn’t exactly so—”
“No kidding.” He made a scoffing sound. “So why do you think she left?”
“I truly don’t know. I hardly traded more than a few words with her while she was at Eagle Hill. After the baby was born, she stayed in bed. She just seemed unhappy and disappointed.”
They stopped talking while the waitress brought two mugs, one of coffee, one of tea, and set them on the table.
Tobe poured cream into his coffee and stirred it. “Naomi, I hope you can forgive me.” His eyes probed hers as though looking for answers to unasked questions. “Do you?”
She was careful to answer as honestly as possible. “I don’t believe that all things that happen are good, but I do believe the Lord can make good come from even the worst things.”
He kept his eyes on the brim of his coffee cup. “Even Paisley? Even leaving a baby without a mother? Is there any good in that?”
“A new baby is always a blessing. God wants us to celebrate that.”
“I don’t know what Paisley told you.” She saw his muscles tense as he said the woman’s name. “It doesn’t matter. No one knows the truth about Paisley. Not even me, but I’ll tell you what I do know. Then you’ll have to decide who to believe.”
She met his gaze. “That decision has already been made.”
“Some decisions have to be made over and over.” He pulled his eyes away from hers and stared at a bee buzzing against the window of the coffee shop.
Revealing, The (The Inn at Eagle Hill Book #3): A Novel Page 15