Chapter Twelve
“She can’t have gotten far. I’ll run out and look for her,” Micah said as he dashed down the stairs.
Daed followed him. “I’ll hitch up the buggy.”
“That would be good.” Micah yanked open the front door. “I’ll head south, but Chloe might not know which way to go. Why don’t you head in the opposite direction?”
“I’ll be praying,” Mamm called down.
“Is Chloe in trouble?” Jabin asked before Micah slammed the door shut.
No, Micah wanted to tell him as he jogged down the gravel drive. She’s not in trouble. All we want is to find her safe and sound. If anything happened to her—
He refused to give those thoughts a voice. Instead, he prayed and swiveled his head from side to side, searching the darkness for any signs of movement.
Behind him, the buggy clattered down the drive and turned north. A light swept the sides of the road. Daed had grabbed a flashlight. Micah wished he’d thought of that.
When he reached the crossroads, he stopped, uncertain which way Chloe might have turned. It was late, and he hated to disturb neighbors who needed to rise early tomorrow to milk and farm, but he couldn’t explore all the backroads himself. The nearest house had four older teenage sons. Maybe they’d be willing to help.
Swallowing his pride, Micah knocked on their door. Soon the father and sons were hitching horses to wagons and vehicles. Two went east. The others headed down the side roads. They’d handed Micah an extra battery-powered light, and he continued south on the road they’d driven on coming from Pennsylvania.
He’d walked almost a mile when his light picked out a small bundle at the edge of the trees. Was it a pile of old clothes or a sleeping child?
Holding his light high, Micah headed toward it. The bundle shifted, seemed to curl and shrink. He pounded toward it. A small figure leaped up and raced for the woods, leaving a suitcase behind.
“Chloe!” he screamed. “Stop! It’s Micah.”
But the small girl darted into the trees. She could get hurt in there. Maybe he’d scared her by thundering toward her. Micah slowed and held the light beside his face.
“Chloe, look. It’s me.” He tried to keep his tone gentle. “You’re not in trouble. We love you and just want to keep you safe.”
He stayed still and silent until the frantic scrambling stopped. “Please come out of the woods. It’s not safe in there.”
No reply.
Micah tried again. “Chloe, Mammi is worried about you. She wants you to come back home.”
“It’s not home,” Chloe spat out.
At least she was answering. If he kept her talking, he could locate her exact position. But he hoped he could coax her out. “I meant Mammi wants you to come to her house. I realize it’s not your home.”
Chloe had been especially close to Mamm, so he hoped his niece would respond to that plea.
“I want to go home!” Her words ended in a wail.
“I know you do. Will you come out so we can talk?”
“You’ll only say no.”
“I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” He wasn’t promising to change his mind, but he’d listen with an open mind and heart.
Branches crackled underfoot, and then Chloe stepped out of the woods. Relief flooded through every cell in Micah’s body, but he didn’t move. He wanted her to come to him.
She scrubbed at her eyes with her fists. “It’s a long walk.”
“Yes, it is. It would take weeks to walk there.” At a seven-year-old’s pace. If she could even find her way.
“Weeks?”
Micah nodded. “That’s why we hired a car. Do you remember how long it took us to drive here?”
“Jah.” Her answer was hesitant.
“I bet you’re tired from walking all this way.” Micah squatted and opened his arms.
Chloe stared at him as if unsure she could trust him.
“Please, Chloe. I love you.”
She approached one tentative step at a time. “Take me home, Micah.” Then, with the last few steps, she flew toward him, almost knocking him off his feet.
Micah held her tight to his chest with one arm. With the other, he flashed his light over the trees, hoping one of the searchers would catch his signal. Then he went over and picked up her suitcase.
They hadn’t walked far when a horse pulling a farm wagon galloped toward them. The teen boy driving it pulled it to a halt.
“You found her.” He beamed at Chloe. “We were worried about you.”
Chloe hid her face against Micah’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare her.” The boy gestured to the seat beside him. “Hop on and I’ll take you home.”
Chloe lifted her head and stared at him with rapture. “You will?”
“He means to Mammi’s house,” Micah informed her.
“Oh.” There was no mistaking her disappointment.
“We’ll sleep there tonight,” Micah said, “because it’s so late. And we’ll talk in the morning.”
She thrust out her lower lip. “I want to go now. I miss Hope.”
So do I, Chloe. So do I.
* * *
After the twins had fallen asleep, Daed called Micah into the bedroom, where Mamm sat propped up with pillows, her face wan, her breathing rattily.
“Sohn,” Daed said, “we’re concerned about the twins. They seem unhappy about staying here.”
Micah settled into a chair by Mamm’s bedside. “I’m sure they’ll adjust, given some time. It’s only their first day here, and they’ve been through so much.”
“That’s what’s troubling me,” Mamm said between coughs.
Daed paced over to the window and stared out at the darkness beyond. “This has been hard on all of us. I’m not sure your mamm is up to taking care of two little ones, especially if they might take off without warning.”
“You don’t have to baby me.” Mamm followed a fond glance at Daed with a slight frown.
“The doctor is worried about you overdoing it,” he said.
Micah had hoped Mamm would have improved more in the five days he’d been gone. Instead, she seemed weaker.
Daed faced Micah. “As much as we’d like to keep the children here with us, we’ve been wondering if they’d heal better in a familiar place.”
“But Mamm can’t travel all that way.” She looked even more drained than she had been earlier. At the moment, she barely looked well enough to totter down to the kitchen to make another cup of tea.
“Exactly.” Daed sent Micah a look indicating he’d been missing the point. “I need to keep the business running. Zeke filled in for you while you were gone, and I think he’d be willing to stay on as long as I need him.”
Their neighbor’s son, Zeke, had been underfoot as a lad, and now, as a sixteen-year-old, he made no secret of the fact that he was fascinated by harness making. Since graduating from eighth grade, he’d been angling to get hired. And Zeke had one qualification Micah didn’t: he wasn’t petrified of horses.
“So, what are you saying?” Micah was pretty sure he’d gotten Daed’s point, but he wanted to double-check.
“Your mamm and I both think you should take Chloe and Jabin back to Pennsylvania with you tomorrow and stay there.”
“Stay there?”
“At least until the children have had time to adjust and Mamm is healthier. You could run Ben’s business.”
“I don’t think . . .”
“Sohn, I know you’re worried about having to deal with the horses, but Ben”—Daed’s voice cracked—“relied on his assistant, Eli, who can handle that part of the business. And both of the twins helped their parents, so it might be good for them to get back to a familiar routine.”
“You don’t think it would make them miss their parents more?”
“It might.” Mamm’s voice wavered. “When my mamm died just before we married, I found chores brought both pain and relief. Doing something routine with your hands helps keep you busy and focused. But it often brings up memories of doing the jobs with someone you loved.”
“Besides,” Daed said, “both Ben and Anna would have chosen you for the twins’ parent. Remember last Thanksgiving?” Daed pivoted and strode to the window. His shoulders shook.
Mamm picked up the story. “The twins followed you around all day, copying whatever you were doing. You were the only one who could get them to listen when they got too wild, and they both begged you to read them bedtime stories. Ben joked that you should have been their father instead of him.”
Daed turned from the window. “I think he was a little jealous of you.”
“Especially when Anna agreed that the twins behaved better for you than they did for her and Ben.”
Ben, jealous of him? What were his parents thinking? Sure, the twins enjoyed having him around when he only visited several times a year, but now that he’d had to take care of them full-time even for a few days, that shiny new excitement had already worn off.
As of today, Jabin refused to speak to Micah most of the time, and Chloe had run away. Not a very good track record for a substitute parent. Ben and Anna had done a much better job.
“What will I do with them while I’m working?”
“Like your father said, they can work at the harness shop. I’m sure they have jobs they usually do.”
“That’s a lot of time for them to spend inside, and I don’t know if I could keep an eye on both of them.”
What if Chloe decided to run away again? Adrenaline still coursed through him from the terror of finding her missing. It would take a while for his pulse and nerves to return to normal.
Mamm looked thoughtful. “Wouldn’t some of the ladies from church be willing to help?”
“I suppose.” Sylvia and Susie popped into his mind. They’d jump at the chance to help out. A chance he had no intention of giving them.
Then Mamm brought up an important point. “Both Chloe and Jabin should be starting school next week, shouldn’t they?”
“The first week of school is always half days, and we still have the rest of this week to get through.” Micah dreaded the thought of Sylvia volunteering her daughter.
“I’m sure you could work out something with Eli,” Daed said. “After all, he’s been running the place, hasn’t he?”
“Jah, and he offered to keep managing everything, but he’s been handling both his job and Ben’s.”
Daed waved a hand like it was no big deal. “Ben wouldn’t have hired Eli if he wasn’t competent. I’m sure he could do it for another week or two.”
“He probably would. He even suggested he might be willing to buy the business.”
“It pains me to think of the business my dawdi started going to a stranger, but if Ben trusted him . . .” Daed stared off into the distance as his voice trailed off.
As much as Micah wished he could sell the business, he couldn’t hurt Daed that way. “I don’t have to sell the business if you don’t want me to.”
Daed shook his head. “God warns us against getting attached to worldly things.” Almost under his breath, he muttered, “‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.’”
Pinning Micah with a look that pierced his soul, Daed said, “I gave that business to Ben and told him to do what he wanted. Now I’m turning it over to you. If you decide to sell, I’ll trust your judgment.”
With his fear of horses, Micah had never enjoyed being in the harness business, but he was Daed’s only son now. He had an obligation to be sure the business stayed running.
Mamm’s eyes grew damp. “I was so looking forward to having the children here, especially after . . .”
“We could stay a few days if I can convince Chloe not to run away again,” Micah suggested.
His mother shook her head. “That would be selfish of me. I think they need their home. They should be sleeping in their own beds, going to their own church, doing their usual chores, and having a regular schedule.”
Daed went over, sat beside her, and took her hand. “We can visit when you’re well.”
“I’d like that,” she said. “They’ll have school to attend next week. That will keep them busy during the day. And having their friends around them should help.”
Speaking of school, Hope had mentioned going to work with children this week, and he’d wondered if she were a teacher. Before his sister Elizabeth married, she’d taught school, and she always spent the week before school started fixing up her classroom. Had Hope taken off Monday to care for Chloe? He hoped he hadn’t messed up her schedule. She’d be too kind to tell him if she had a conflict.
If she could be the twins’ teacher, that would be special. Both of them liked her. For that matter, so did he. One advantage of taking the children back would be to see Hope.
Suddenly, he was eager to return to Pennsylvania.
* * *
Hope went to bed with Micah on her mind, dreamed of him all night long, and woke at dawn missing him.
At least she had three lessons to look forward to today, along with one on Tuesday and Liam on Wednesday. She’d need to fill the hours in between to avoid thoughts of Micah.
Hope’s chores kept her hands busy, but her mind kept running and rerunning moments with him. From her first glimpse of Micah, with his tired eyes and stubbled chin, she’d been attracted by his outer appearance, but without his heart and compassion, he would have been an empty package. She liked his sunny smile, his deep laughter, his intense gaze. Even more appealing were his kindness, his gentleness, his caring.
Her heart still did little flips as she recalled his warm hand in hers.
“Hope?” a man’s voice said.
She jumped, and the bucket of grooming tools in her hands clattered onto the cement aisle. Logan had come up behind her, but she’d been so lost in memories of Micah, she hadn’t heard him.
“Are you all right?” He studied her with concern in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s all right. I wasn’t paying attention.”
She knelt to gather the spilled tools, and Logan squatted in front of her. His hand brushed hers as he slid the hoof pick into the basket. She jerked back her hand, and he sighed.
What a difference a touch from Micah made. She hadn’t moved away because Logan’s touch sent sparks through her. Just the opposite, in fact. It left her cold inside.
To make up for hurting his feelings, Hope told Logan about last night’s phone call.
“Why don’t we meet in the office after our first lesson to discuss a plan?”
“Sounds good,” she said. One more thing to take her mind off Micah.
The nine o’clock lesson went well, but once the girl’s father heard the price, he said, “We’ll think about it.”
“Here’s more information if you need it.” Hope handed him the benefit list they’d prepared yesterday. Logan had set the copies on her desk this morning.
Once the father left, Logan came into the office. “We won’t be able to work up a benefit sheet for Laurel’s mother. As I’ve said a million times, a copier would come in handy.”
Hope ignored his complaint and pulled out her notebook. If she’d hoped to stop thinking about Micah, it wasn’t working. Even in the short spaces of time, like waiting for Logan to get out his laptop and turn it on, Micah was on her mind. And each time she glanced at Logan, her mind automatically compared him to Micah.
Hope supposed Englisch women might consider Logan handsome, but Micah had so much more than good looks. He had all the qualities she’d look for—if she were interested in courting. Which she most definitely was not. But why was she yearning for a connection and a relationship that could never be?