“I’m glad, for that is the purpose of our program.”
“Remind your students to come to the Christmas parade. We want the kids to enjoy it, too.”
“I will.”
“Why, I remember the Christmas little Anna Imhoff stood so straight and tall and recited her poem with such a big grin on her face at your school. That was the year they found John Doe beaten half to death on the Imhoff farm. Course, he was really Jonathan Dresher, but he didn’t know his own name for weeks. Ain’t it strange the ways the Lord finds to test us?” He stopped with her last item in his hand and stared into space.
“It is, indeed.” She really needed to be going. She had a long walk home before dark.
“Anna sure took a shine to Jonathan. Happy thing, him marrying her sister, Karen. Yup, that was a mighty special Christmas.”
“Ja, it was.” Joann winked at Leah. Mr. McGregor loved to recount his stories regardless of the number of times his customers had heard them.
The outside door opened, and Leah saw an Englisch fellow come in. There was something vaguely familiar about him. He glanced her way.
Her breath caught in her throat. It couldn’t be Caleb Mast, could it?
He turned down the collar of his coat and headed to the back of the store without any hint that he recognized her.
“Leah, is something wrong?” Joann gave her a funny look.
“Did you see the man who just walked in?”
“Nee.” Joann looked toward the back of the store.
“I think it was Caleb Mast.” Leah was almost sure of it.
“Really? I wonder what he’s doing in Hope Springs after all this time. How long has it been?”
Leah knew exactly how long he had been gone. Nine years ago this month she was to have married his brother, Wayne. Then Caleb ruined everything.
Mr. McGregor rang up the rest of Leah’s order. “How did that poem go again? ‘On a night so bitter and dark, in a land far, far away, a tiny child was born and laid in a manger of hay.’ Is that how it went?”
Her gaze followed Caleb. He was searching for something in the cookie aisle. Why was he back? Had he come to regret his break with his family and his faith?
He glanced her way. She realized she was staring and quickly looked down. What would she do if he spoke to her?
Nothing. Ignore him. There wasn’t anything to say. The past couldn’t be changed. Maybe he hadn’t recognized her.
“How did it go again?” Mr. McGregor asked.
She forced her attention back to the grocer. “What?”
“The Christmas poem Anna recited. How did it go?”
“I’m afraid I don’t remember offhand. I have a copy at school. I’ll send it to you.” She handed over her money, suddenly eager to leave the store. She grabbed her bag of groceries and rushed out the door.
Joann followed her. “Are you all right?”
In the cold air outside, Leah paused to draw a deep breath and recover from her shock. Seeing Caleb made her realize she’d been lying to herself for years.
She hadn’t forgiven him. It was against everything her faith stood for.
When her racing heart slowed, she adjusted her dark bonnet over her ears. “I’m fine. Are you coming to help us bake cookies next Wednesday? Sarah and Rebecca have already said they’ll be there.”
“Of course. What could be more fun than a baking frolic with my friends?”
“Eating our fill, then taking the rest to the cookie exchange on Friday afternoon and getting wonderful new varieties to try in return.”
Joann grinned. “My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I’ll see you then.” She waved as she crossed the street. The printing office was only a few blocks away.
Leah pulled on her mittens. She had a long walk ahead of her. God had allowed winter to take hold of the land. He’d sent a dusting of snow that morning, the first of the season.
She glanced at the grocery store door. Did Caleb’s family know he was coming? No one had mentioned it to her. She shivered in the cold.
She shouldn’t be standing around thinking about Caleb and the harm he’d caused. She had better things to do. There was a Christmas pageant to finish planning and papers to grade, as well as chores to be done. Whatever had brought Caleb to Hope Springs, it had nothing to do with her.
At least his return would give his mother comfort. Maggie Mast would know her son was alive and well. The only contact Caleb had maintained with his family was an annual Christmas card with a brief note. A card mailed without a return address, although for the past few years the postmark had come from Houston, Texas. Leah knew Maggie cherished every one and kept them in a shoe box beside her bed.
“Mama! Daddy!” The shrill cries of a child startled Leah.
A girl in a pink sweater and stocking feet ran past along the sidewalk. She paused for a moment, turned in frantic circles, crying and calling, and then started running again. At first glance, Leah thought she might have Down syndrome. Clearly, she was distraught.
Looking around, Leah realized there was no one else about. The child paused at the corner, then ran out of sight up the block. Had she found who she was looking for? A second later, Leah heard her calling again. Apparently not.
She couldn’t leave a child alone and in distress. She put her bag of groceries on a nearby bench and went after the frightened girl. She caught up with her and took hold of her arm. “There, there, little one, what’s the matter?”
“Mama’s gone, and Nana’s gone, and Daddy is gone, too.”
Leah knelt and used her gloves to wipe the tears from her face. She did have Down syndrome. Leah was familiar with such special children. In her years as a teacher, she’d dealt with two kinder with the same syndrome. She knew the first thing she needed was to get the child calm enough to answer a few questions. “I’ll help you find them. There’s no need to cry.”
The child threw her arms around Leah’s neck and hung on for dear life. Leah rose with the girl in her arms. She looked up and down the street. Where were the parents? She rocked the child gently from side to side to soothe her. “Calm down, sweetheart. It will be okay. We’ll find your folks in a minute. My name is Leah Belier. What’s your name?”
“Joy Lynn Perry.” A muffled sniff followed the tiny voice.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, Joy Perry. Do you live around here?” Leah started walking in the direction the child had been running.
“I live at one...two...one...seven Hudson Place.”
There was no such address in the small village of Hope Springs. “That’s very good, Joy. I’m going to guess that you came to town in a car, right?”
“No.”
“Then you must have come on the bus. Did you ride the bus to Hope Springs?”
“No.”
“Don’t tell me you came in a buggy.”
“Okay, I won’t.” Joy lifted her face from Leah’s neck. “Can you find my daddy?”
Leah turned around slowly searching the quiet street. “I’d love to find him. Are you staying with someone in town? Are you staying at the inn?”
“No. How come you wear such a funny hat?”
“Is my bonnet funny?” Leah asked with a grin.
Joy nodded solemnly.
If she wasn’t familiar with Amish dress, she wasn’t staying with any of the Amish families in the area. That narrowed the number of possibilities. “If you didn’t come to Hope Springs in a buggy, or a car, or a bus, how did you get here?”
“In daddy’s truck.”
“Ah, a truck. How silly of me. Can you show me where the truck is parked?”
Joy looked around. “No. It’s lost.”
Suddenly, Leah heard a man franticly shouting for Joy. “That must be your daddy. Let’s go see him.”
She began walking back the way she had come. She rounded the corner of the building just as Joy’s daddy came running toward her. Leah said, “I have her. She’s okay.”
In the next instant, she was struc
k speechless as Caleb Mast pulled the child from her arms and held her close, his ragged gasps rising as white puffs in the cold air.
Looking straight at her, he said, “Thank you, Leah.”
He had recognized her, after all. Now what did she do?
Chapter Two
Leah stood rooted to the spot. Caleb had a child. That meant he had a wife, too. He had found happiness and love in the outside world after turning her life upside down. It was so unfair. She couldn’t stop the bitterness that welled up inside.
Caleb’s mother never mentioned he had married or that he had children. Maybe he hadn’t told her. Some outsiders were ashamed of a child who wasn’t normal. Had he become one of those?
Leah quickly pulled herself together. Caleb’s Englisch life was no concern of hers. “She’s fine, only a little frightened.”
Caleb set his daughter on the ground and took her by the shoulders. “What were you doing? Why did you run off?” he demanded.
“I got scared. I wanna go home.” She pushed away from him and covered her ears with her hands.
“Don’t do that! I’m not going to hit you.”
“I’m not bad. I’m not bad.” She flew back to Leah and wrapped her arms around her legs.
He pressed his fingers to his temples and exhaled sharply. “I give up. I don’t know what to do with you.”
Leah laid a protective hand on Joy’s head. “Patience and kindness are the keys to raising a special child. All children are gifts from God, but we believe a child such as Joy is one of His most cherished gifts.”
Caleb’s hands dropped to his sides. He looked...defeated. “I know what the Amish believe. That’s why I’m here. The only reason I’m here.”
She didn’t understand. He tipped his head slightly. A mocking smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “The prodigal son has returned. You don’t look happy to see me.”
She wasn’t. She didn’t care if he knew it. He had changed a great deal in the past nine years. The wild, handsome Amish boy she had known had matured into a tall, rugged-looking man with a muscular frame and deeply tanned skin. He wore his dark hair cut short in the Englisch way, not in the bowl-cut style the men of her community wore. She didn’t remember the small scar that cut through his right eyebrow. How had that happened? It was a faded white line now, not like the jagged red scar that still marred her sister Rhonda’s face.
An accident, caused by Caleb’s recklessness during their teenage years, had cruelly marked her beautiful sister, but it was his later actions that had truly scarred her.
Leah realized he was studying her, too. Watching her with hard, piercing gray eyes that gave away little of what he was thinking. A shiver of awareness raced through her and brought a rush of heat to her face.
His mocking smile widened. “It’s good to see you, Leah. Did you marry my brother, or did you come to your senses in time?”
She stiffened. The hurt was old, but it had never healed. “Your brother married Rhonda.”
“Wayne married your sister? Wow, I didn’t see that coming. Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?”
“Funny? It is far from funny.” She kept the rest of her angry reply bottled inside only because of the child. How dare he mock that terrible time? He’d left her sister unwed and pregnant when he ran off to start a new life among the Englisch.
“Bad choice of words. I’m sorry.”
“Your brother is a man of honor,” she said tartly.
He tensed. “And I’m not, is that what you’re saying? Oh, if only you knew the truth about my brother and his honor.”
“Your deeds speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
“An Amish proverb for every occasion. I see your quick wit hasn’t changed. I do remember that about you.”
“And I have not forgotten the way you denied your own child. The way you called my sister a liar to her face. You shamed us all.”
* * *
Caleb had held only a faint hope that Rhonda Belier would have admitted the truth sometime during the past nine years. Clearly she hadn’t. He wasn’t the father of her child. They had dated, but they had never been intimate. He had no idea who the father might be.
That Wayne had fallen on the sword of family honor and married her came as a shock. Had his guilt driven him to it? Had Wayne owned up to his past sins, or was he still using Caleb as a handy scapegoat? From Leah’s reaction, Caleb figured he himself still bore all the blame. He struggled to suppress those unpleasant memories. Nothing hurt as much as knowing his family and friends had turned their collective backs on him. No one had believed his side of the story. Not his parents, not even his brother, and that hurt most of all.
Caleb had always been the wild one, the one in trouble, the one eager to rebel against the constraints of their closed community. He had badgered and baited his brother into going to a party where he knew there would be drinking that night. He’d thought Wayne deserved one night of fun before he settled down to marry. Caleb had owned a forbidden car. He’d goaded his brother into driving it. Hours later, when Caleb had learned that Wayne had crashed into Rhonda’s buggy, he had been sick with remorse.
Wayne had managed to make his way home, terrified, almost incoherent with fear and shame. He thought he had killed Rhonda. When Caleb realized that no one knew about the accident, he had quickly gone to the crash site. He’d discovered Rhonda was alive but injured and had summoned help for her. He’d allowed everyone to think he had been the one driving. He had stoically endured the shame heaped on him by his family and the community. He knew he deserved it even if he hadn’t been behind the wheel. He had done it to shield his big brother, the one who could do no wrong in their father’s eyes.
Months later, when Caleb begged Wayne to believe he hadn’t fathered Rhonda’s child, Wayne refused to accept Caleb’s word. It had been the final blow in their relationship.
Caleb shrugged off his resentment. He’d made a choice to come back. Now he had to face the consequences of that decision. Hopefully he wasn’t going to be here long. Leah’s brown eyes fairly snapped with anger. He could see she wanted to say a lot more. He figured the only reason she wasn’t reading him the riot act was because Joy was listening.
He remembered Leah as a skinny girl with wide brown eyes and a tendency to speak her mind. She’d been someone who found the world and everyone in it of interest. She’d seemed an odd pick for his self-righteous brother back then. He’d found it hard to imagine her in love with Wayne.
She certainly wasn’t a skinny kid anymore. Even under her long coat, he could tell she had filled out in all the right places. A black bonnet covered all but the front of her honey-blond hair. Like all Amish women, she wore it parted in the center and coiled into a bun at the back of her head. Amish women never cut their hair.
Her plump cheeks were pink with cold or perhaps her anger. He wasn’t sure which. Had she married? The Amish didn’t believe in jewelry of any kind, not even wedding bands, so he had no way of knowing. What did it matter anyway?
“I don’t know why your sister lied about me. I’m sure she thought she had a good reason.” A lie told for any reason only led to more lies and heartache. He had learned that bitter lesson well.
He turned his attention to his daughter. “Come on, Joy, we should get going. You didn’t put your coat or your shoes on. You’re going to freeze out here.” He reached to pick her up.
She jerked away and hid behind Leah’s skirt. “I don’t wanna go with you. I wanna go to Nana’s house. I don’t like you anymore.”
Leah’s eyes narrowed. A frown creased her brow. He shook his head. Trust Joy to make him look like a bad parent. Leah would have no trouble believing her.
Well, he was a poor excuse for a parent. If he’d learned anything in the weeks since Valerie’s vanishing act, it was that he had no idea how to be a father.
“We’ve had this talk, honey. You can’t go back to Dallas. Nana isn’t there anymore. She’s gone to heaven.” He tried to
reason with Joy although he knew it wouldn’t do any good when she got in one of her moods.
“Go away. I want Mama to come get me.”
He threw up his hands. “So do I, but it looks like that’s not going to happen.”
He pressed his lips shut. It wasn’t Joy’s fault Valerie had dumped her like an unwanted dog. He understood how difficult all the changes must be for her, but what choice did they have? “It’s not far to your new grandma’s house. You want to meet her, don’t you?” he asked calmly. He tried again to catch hold of her.
“No!” She pulled away from him and looked up at Leah. “I wanna go home with you.”
He shoved his hands in his coat pockets. “Fine! Guess I get to eat the animal crackers that are in the truck. I’m going to bite the heads off all the elephants.”
Joy glared at him but didn’t rise to his bait. The mulish expression on her face did not bode well. He sighed. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make a connection with her. She hated him.
“Please, Joy. We need to get going. Say thank-you to Leah and come on.”
“No, no, no!” She dropped down on the sidewalk, screaming and kicking her legs.
Now his face flushed with embarrassment as people coming out of the store stopped to stare. He glanced at Leah. What was she thinking? Perhaps it was best that he didn’t know. He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Her gaze softened slightly. “I’ve seen a temper tantrum or two in my time.”
“Any suggestions on how to deal with them?” He was willing to take any help he could get. He kept a close eye on Joy so she didn’t hurt herself.
“I’m sure as her father you know what’s best for her.”
He ran a hand over his hair. “I’ve been her father for a total of six weeks and three days. Believe me, I have no idea what’s best for her. Pick her up. Don’t pick her up. Let her cry it out, put her in time-out. Ignore her. Distract her. Reason with her. I’ve had all kinds of advice from the two nannies who both quit within a week, from the principal of an expensive private school that wouldn’t take her after the first day, and from her step-grandfather, who said to throw water in her face, it worked for him.”
Amish Christmas Joy (Mills & Boon Love Inspired) (Brides of Amish Country - Book 10) Page 2