The Amish Bachelor's Baby. Jo Ann Brown

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      Then she remembered what he’d said after calling the girl by name.

      What are you doing here?

      He wasn’t shocked to see Becky Sue. He was shocked she was in his bakery.

      What was going on?

      As if she’d asked that aloud, Caleb said in a taut tone, “Annie, this is my cousin, Becky Sue Hartz. She and her family have a farm a couple of districts away from where Miriam and I grew up.” He closed his mouth, and his jaw worked with strong emotions.

      The girl shared Caleb’s coloring and his height. Annie wondered how alike they were in other ways.

      Stepping forward with a smile, she tried to ignore the thick tension in the air. “I’m Annie Wagler. I should have guessed you were related to Caleb. You look alike.”

      “Hi, Annie.” Becky Sue’s eyes kept cutting toward Caleb. Her expression announced she expected to be berated at any second.

      Why? For being in the bakery? It wasn’t as if she’d broken in. The door had been unlocked. However, even if Becky Sue had jimmied a window and climbed in, her cousin would have forgiven her.

      “And who is this cutie?” Annie tapped the nose of the little boy in the girl’s arms, and he chuckled in a surprisingly deep tone.

      For a moment, Becky Sue lost her hunted look and gave Annie a tentative smile. “This is Joey. He’s my son.”

      Her son? The girl didn’t look like much more than a kind herself. If Annie had to speculate, she would have guessed Becky Sue was sixteen or seventeen. At the most. The little boy, who had her flaxen hair, appeared to be almost a year old.

      Shutting her mouth when she realized it had gaped open as Caleb’s was, Annie struggled to keep her smile from falling away. Though it wasn’t common, some plain girls got pregnant before marriage as Englisch ones did. Or had Becky Sue been a very young bride?

      As if she’d cued Caleb, he asked, “Is your husband with you?”

      Becky Sue raised her chin in a pose of defiance. A weak one, because her lips trembled, and Annie guessed she was trying to keep from crying.

      “No,” the girl replied, “because I don’t have a husband. Just a son.” When Caleb opened his mouth again, she hurried to add, “I’m not a widow, though that would be convenient for everyone, ain’t so?”

      “Everyone?” He frowned. “Do your parents know where you are?”

      “Ja.” When he continued to give her a stern look, she relented enough to say, “They know I left home.”

      “But not where you’re going?”

      She didn’t answer.

      “Where are you going?” Caleb persisted.

      Again the girl was silent, her chin jutting out to show she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. Though the girl was terrified. Her shoulders shook, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

      Knowing she should keep quiet because the matter was between Caleb and the girl, Annie couldn’t halt herself from saying, “I’m sure you and Joey would like something warm to eat. It’s cold here, ain’t so? Though I was here last winter, I can’t get used to it. Caleb, we need to get these two something warm to eat.”

      Caleb aimed his frown in her direction. She pretended she hadn’t seen it. Didn’t he understand they wouldn’t get any information if the conversation dissolved into the two of them firing recriminations at each other? Once the girl and her boppli weren’t cold and hungry—and exhausted, because Joey was knuckling his eyes with tiny fists and dark crescents shadowed his mamm’s eyes—Becky Sue might be willing to come clean about why she and her son were so far away from home.

      But Annie’s comments were ignored as Becky Sue said, “I told you, Caleb. I left home, and I’m—we’re not going back.”

      “And you decided to come to Harmony Creek Hollow?” Annie asked, earning another scowl from Caleb.

      “I heard about the new settlement.” Though she answered Annie’s question, she glared at her cousin. “I didn’t know this was the one you were involved with, Caleb. If I had—”

      “Well, isn’t it a wunderbaar coincidence, Becky Sue?” Annie hurried to ask. “And your timing is perfect.”

      “It is?” Becky Sue seemed overwhelmed by Annie.

      Gut! That was what Annie wanted. If the girl stopped thinking about defying Caleb, she might relax enough to reveal a smidgen of the truth; then Annie and Caleb could figure out what was going on.

      No! Not Annie and Caleb. She shouldn’t use their names together in her thoughts. She had to keep her focus on helping Caleb see what a wunderbaar wife Leanna would make him.

      Wishing she could think of a way to bring her twin into the conversation, Annie said, “Your timing is great because Caleb was giving me a tour of his bakery.”

      “Bakery?” Hope sprang into the girl’s voice. “I didn’t see any food around here. Do you have some?”

      “I’ve got soup in a thermos in the buggy.” Caleb’s face eased from its frown. “I meant to eat it for lunch, but I got busy and forgot.”

      “Wasn’t that a blessing?” Annie hoped her laugh didn’t sound as forced to them as it did to her.

      “It probably won’t be hot,” Caleb said.

      Annie frowned. Didn’t he realize his cousin might be so hungry she wouldn’t care what temperature the soup was? “We can heat it up.”

      He shook his head. “The stove isn’t connected. Nothing is yet. The gas company is supposed to have someone come later this week.”

      Annie made a quick motion with her fingers toward the door. Did he understand that she hoped, when he was gone, Becky Sue would open up to her? Sometimes it was easier to speak to a stranger.

      The boppli wiggled in Becky Sue’s arms and began crying. While the girl’s attention was diverted, Annie gestured again to Caleb. He gave her a curt nod, but his frown returned as he headed for the door. If he disliked her idea, why was he going along with it?

      Focus, she told herself.

      Pasting on a smile, Annie held out her arms to Becky Sue. “Do you want me to hold him while you have something to eat?”

      “No, I can do it myself.” Her sharp voice suggested she’d made the argument a lot already.

      With Becky Sue’s parents? Other members of her family? Joey’s daed? The girl had said she wasn’t a widow, but where was the boppli’s daed?

      Wanting to draw Becky Sue out without making the conversation feel like an interrogation, Annie began to talk about the weather again. Her attempts to convince the girl to join in were futile. Becky Sue refused to be lured into talking. СКАЧАТЬ