Return to Grace. Karen Harper

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СКАЧАТЬ in her other ear to cut the restaurant buzz and tried to not look at Jack when he glanced at her. Darn it, let him think it was some other man calling her.

      “Ray-Lynn, it’s Sarah Kauffman, calling from Wooster. I’d love to see Hannah, but I know better than to try. How’s she doing?”

      “Good, as far as I hear—mending physically, at least. Not sure about the rest of her.”

      “I can imagine it’s hard for her to face what happened and to be home. I thought we’d have time to stop to see you, but we’re here looking for a house to buy or rent.”

      “You’re moving to Wooster?”

      “Nate and I are going to be married a week from Saturday, on the thirteenth at 2:00 p.m. It will be a small wedding in a chapel we just booked here in Wooster with a restaurant reception after. The northeast supervisor for the State Marshal’s Arson Investigation team has lung cancer, and Nate’s going to take his place earlier than we thought. We don’t want to be separated and—thanks to you—I can move my painting studio anywhere.”

      “I’m looking at your latest and my favorite, the one of the kids playing eck ball back of the little schoolhouse. Got it hung right on the wall where folks come in, and I can tell your people stop and admire it, painted faces and all.”

      “Good to hear. Maybe someday …” she said, but she choked up and her voice broke before she cleared her throat. “Listen, Ray-Lynn, I’m hoping you can take a message to Hannah from me, since no way I can get to see her now, and I’m hoping, once we move, you could come and bring her—maybe even for the wedding. I know Ella and my family won’t come.”

      “Of course, I could bring whoever wants to attend! I’m so happy for both of you. Do you—do you want your family to know? I mean, word will get around …”

      “Since I was Hannah’s link to her family when she was living away, I’m praying she’ll do the same for me. So here are the directions to the chapel for you, and what I want my family to know. I hope Hannah can tell them.”

      Ray-Lynn reached for a pad and pen to take notes. As she did, she saw that Jack was ignoring Agent Armstrong and frowning at her. Maybe, she thought, that was because she’d been smiling at the good news over the phone, when he didn’t expect happiness from her right now. She forced a broad smile and nodded as if she’d been asked something delightful, then hunkered down to pay attention to Sarah.

      “So,” John Arrowroot said as he opened his front door before Seth could knock, “the graveyard hero. To what do I owe this honor?”

      “Not a hero in my mind, but I was glad I happened by, maybe scared the shooter off. I’m surprised you know who I am, since I’ve kept my face out of the news coverage.”

      “I know who a lot of you are in the so-called Home Valley. My ancestors once called this land Eri’e Rique, ‘at the place of the panther.’ And you just happened by my remote location today, because …?”

      “I recalled your roof could use reshingling, and I’m between big projects. Jobs are scarcer than usual for timber framers right now.”

      “Ah, yes, the barn builder, the leader of the barn raisings.” The man’s taut mouth lifted in a little smirk. This close up, Seth saw his black hair, scraped back on his skull in a tight ponytail, was threaded with silver that matched his silver ring and a sort of eagle charm on a leather thong around his neck. He would guess the man’s age at sixty or sixty-five. He wore a white dress shirt with jeans, a wide, studded leather belt and Western leather-tooled boots. “Now, that would be different,” Arrowroot went on, “to have just one Amish man hanging over my head instead of all of you. I do get leaks in bad storms.”

      “If you have a ladder, I can go up, measure and give you an estimate,” Seth said, trying to keep calm at the man’s subtle digs and goading tone. “I left my ladder where I’ve been working. You ever climb a ladder yourself to look at the roof’s condition?”

      “Actually, I don’t like heights. You sure,” he said as he finally stepped outside, “you’re not here to spy on me?”

      The man was clever, but Seth had known that. But clever enough to kill someone and escape without leaving a clue, at least at the scene of the crime?

      “I intend to fix the roof, not drill holes in it and look through,” Seth said.

      Arrowroot almost smiled. “I have no secrets, anyway. I’ve made it clear what my goals are.” He led Seth to the detached, single-car garage and lifted the door himself, though many moderns had a button that did that. “So, how did a man as young as you—what, mid-twenties?—get to be a master builder around here?”

      “From the age of fourteen I worked with my mother’s father, Gideon Raber, who taught me about timber framing. He was also in charge of barn raisings, so I had a nine-year apprenticeship with him before he died. It ended up I knew more than anyone else who’d trained with him. But getting back to your obvious goals, why not just file a lawsuit, since you’re a lawyer?”

      “The state government’s declined to meet with me so that I can pursue my land claims and the feds don’t recognize Indian tribes or lands in Ohio, so my lawyer’s brain says to go about this another way.”

      Seth couldn’t resist saying, even as he hefted the ladder from the garage—only a tall stepladder, not an extension one, “You mean like do something dramatic to draw attention to your cause?”

      “In a way. You think you can reach the roof with that?”

      “Over on the slant of hill, yes. What do you mean, ‘in a way’?”

      “You’ve heard of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ haven’t you? Let’s just stick to roofing. I appreciate your having the guts to come up here, but if you have the nerve to run into a graveyard where people have been shot, guess this is a piece of cake. You know, most of your people are polite but they treat me like a pariah, or at least a ghost they don’t even see.”

      “My people love and need their land,” Seth said, noting numerous photos of what might be aerial shots of this area tacked to the back wall of the garage near a cluttered workbench. He wondered if there was a shot of the graveyard there, or the woodlot above it. If he could get a job here, he’d have time to check. So maybe the Lord had inspired him to come here for more than one reason.

      Seth positioned the ladder, then began to climb. He didn’t know what a pariah was and he didn’t believe in ghosts. But he was starting to think John Arrowroot had a powerful motive, at any cost to himself or others, to shake things up by bringing in a lot of media coverage here. Linc had asked if maybe the Troyers, who lived on land abutting the hill above the graveyard, would take potshots at weird strangers to bring curious tourists in for their grain mill tours. Seth thought that was a crazy theory, but he didn’t trust John Arrowroot as far as he could throw his entire roof.

      After the noon meal, Hannah went out in the new barn to familiarize herself with it. She’d been horrified that the barn of her childhood had burned, and she’d watched from a distance as the men raised this one, with Seth astride the very peak of it.

      She stopped to pat her onetime horse Nettie’s muzzle and fuss over her. When she’d left, Naomi had inherited this horse and buggy. Now she realized she’d missed the sorrel mare with three white feet, missed the slower pace of riding in a buggy, when one had time to enjoy the passing scenery which didn’t blur by just СКАЧАТЬ