Jennie couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so cold. The water from the creek had soaked into the hem of her dress and sopped down into her boots. Her black cloak, the same kind she’d seen the Amish women near her home wear when they were out and about in winter, was so wet that it weighed her down like she was carrying a sack full of rocks.
For all of her discomfort, though, she was too happy to be free and in a wide open space to complain. If they stayed along the creek, they’d move away from the road. There weren’t as many trees, but it would be hard for someone to follow them in a vehicle. She sighed, grateful to be on the other side of the culvert.
LJ didn’t feel the same. He began to whine and whimper. Her heart broke for her little boy. He was cold, hungry and tired. She had no idea where they were. Pulling out her phone, she wanted to dance when she saw three bars. Quickly tapping her apps icon, she searched for their location with the maps application.
What she saw didn’t make her feel any better.
“Luke, we’re still half an hour from New Wilmington if we were in a car. There’s no way we can walk that distance, not as we are. LJ will get sick.”
Luke frowned at them, his concern evident. “Can we start walking? Now that you have service, you can call the police as we walk, and they can send someone for us.”
She didn’t see any other choice.
The wind had picked up, blowing icy air on them as they walked. The bitter chill was causing her to tremble and shake. She took LJ’s hand in hers. It was a block of ice. Tucking her phone under her arm, she took his hand in both of hers and rubbed them together to warm it. Luke copied her action on the boy’s other side. After a few moments she took her right hand away and pulled out her phone again.
Jennie tried to speed-dial Trooper Carter one-handed. It took her three tries before she was able to correctly enter her pass code to unlock the phone. Tears came to her eyes when he finally picked up his phone and answered.
“Jennie? What’s wrong? Are you in New Wilmington yet?” he demanded.
It took her a moment to control her voice enough to answer him. She was suddenly so weary. “Not yet. We ran into some trouble.”
Luke snorted beside her. When she shot him a glance, he rolled his eyes at her.
Okay, so that was an understatement.
Trooper Carter’s voice sharpened. “Trouble? Explain.”
Jennie started from the beginning, telling him about the man who had chased them, the car crashing into the ditch and their flight on foot. When she finished with their present predicament, he barked out a few questions about their exact location.
“I’m putting you on speaker,” he said. “Hold on.” She could hear him set the phone down on his desk and then his fingers were tapping on his keyboard. “Okay, Jennie. I have you. Listen, I’m sending a car to pick you up. Keep walking south. A car should be there in about five to ten minutes. They’ll have emergency blankets to help you warm up. I’m also sending a tow truck to see if we can get your car back here. We’ll check it for any type of tracking device.”
“Thank you.” She’d welcome a ride in a police car right now. Anything to get LJ out of the cold.
“Stay on the line with me. This man, the one from your apartment. I need a physical description. What did he look like?”
She gathered her thoughts. “He wasn’t that tall. Five-six, maybe. A couple of inches taller than me. Blondish brown hair. Maybe about to his ears. He sort of had a beard. Not a full one. But a little more than just scruff, you know?”
“What about body build?”
“Average. Not someone you’d pay much attention to on the street.”
Trooper Carter shot off a few more questions. Which apartment did he live in; when had he moved in; anything odd she’d noticed about him? Jennie answered his questions as much as possible, but wasn’t sure she’d given him anything that helpful.
“Good job, Jennie. You keep walking. When you get to Luke’s parents’ house, I want you to send me a text. I have the address. Keep this phone on you. I will be sending a text or calling.”
“Umm, that might be a problem.” She saw Luke turning his head to look at her. “Luke’s family is Amish, as you know. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to charge my phone. I charged it as much as I could before we had to leave my car, but it’s only about half charged now.”
Luke shook his head at her. “There will be no electricity at their haus. Not even in my daed’s workshop.”
With a sinking feeling, she relayed that information to Trooper Carter.
He was silent a moment while he processed this information. “Okay. I want you to turn off your phone as soon as you arrive safely. The troopers who pick you up can let me know you’ve arrived. Turn your phone on twice a day to check for texts or send me one telling me you’re okay. This might buy us a few days. Once your phone is completely dead, we’ll have to think of something else.”
She relayed the information to Luke.
“There’s a phone in our barn for business purposes. We also have a community phone booth near the haus. We’ll be able to call if we need to.”
“I heard that,” Trooper Carter said. “The police should be nearly to you.”
Jennie could see them now. “Hey, Carter. I see a cruiser coming toward us. It’s pulling over to the side.”
“Good. I’m going to hang up now. Let them take care of you. You stay safe and be vigilant. Constantly on your guard. I mean it, Jennie. We still don’t know how many people are involved in this mess.”
She didn’t need to be reminded to be careful. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to fully trust anyone ever again after the chaos of the past few days. People she’d thought were just ordinary folks had turned into cold-blooded killers. Her faith in her ability to judge character was sadly diminished.
The trooper in the car identified herself as Trooper Lisa Jones. Jennie liked her immediately. She was efficient and calm as she helped them remove their wet coats and handed out blankets. She had also grabbed some sandwiches from the deli at a nearby gas station and some bottled water.
“I wasn’t sure what you’d like, and they didn’t have much of a variety. I hope this works.”
“Mmm.” Jennie nodded as she bit into her tuna fish sandwich. “This is perfect, thank you.”
She was more thankful than ever that LJ was not a picky eater. He’d eat almost anything when he was hungry. Within minutes, they were on their way. Trooper Jones turned the heat up to full blast. “There’s heated seats, too. So get as comfortable as you can.”
No longer hungry or cold, LJ’s natural curiosity rose to the surface. He peppered the trooper with a constant barrage of questions as she headed toward their final destination.
Jennie met Luke’s gaze over his head. His blue eyes warmed her as they caressed her face. “Okay now?”
She nodded in response to his soft murmur.
“It will be fine now,” he promised. “My parents will help us. It will please Mamm to be able to spoil LJ for a few days.”
A few days. Would that be all? Or would they be in hiding much longer than that? It was hard not knowing when, or indeed if, her world would ever right itself again. Could she go back to her old job, her old life as if nothing had changed?
Jennie kept her questions and her doubts sealed up behind her closed lips as she smiled at the man sitting so near. She no longer had any answers. This man had stormed into her life to rescue her. He had, but he’d also stolen her heart in the process.
She didn’t know how she’d go back to her life when this was over. How was she supposed to pretend to be happy when the man she loved was living his life, hours away?
They were safe. For the moment.
Luke stared at the woman sitting just a foot away from him. Her face had turned to watch the passing scenery. The serenity in her expression drew him in. It was hard to believe only an hour ago they’d been crawling through that culvert.
Ditching her car was the right decision. He knew it was. The man who’d chased them through the Christmas tree farm was probably still looking for them, even as they were safe and secure inside a police vehicle speeding to his parents’ home. To do it over again, maybe they should have asked Trooper Carter to find them an escort to New Wilmington. They couldn’t have expected what had happened.
Jennie was filthy. Her hair was stringy from the cold and wet weather, her cheeks were streaked with dirt, and she still had some sap on the side of her face. Not to mention the scratches and scrapes she’d obtained during their flight.
He’d never seen anyone more beautiful. Her strength staggered him. Her willingness to follow him into the culvert, sacrificing her own comfort and putting herself through what must have been an agony in light of her phobia, humbled him. He never could have expected that much trust from her.
His gaze dropped to the top of LJ’s head. LJ had been fantastic through this. While Luke knew it had started as an adventure for the four-year-old, they’d asked him to cope with a lot. Not that there had been a choice. But he’d come through with so little fussing.
Luke had an amazing family.
For now.
His heart ached with love for these two people. Two people that had been strangers only days before. Now they were the most important people in his world. What would he do when they returned home?
He didn’t like the idea of them going back to that apartment. Not after all that had happened.
It wouldn’t be his call to make. The thought was devastating. He tore his mind away from it. He had to get them through the next few days, or however long it took until the police could do their job and catch those who were after his Jennie.
In his mind, he could see Steve Curtis. The man was handsome, charismatic even. But Luke had seen him for the monster he truly was. If Luke hadn’t been there that day ten years ago, Steve would have killed Jennie. He knew it.
How did such a man continue to move around and gather supporters?
But clearly, he had.
Suddenly, Luke became aware of his surroundings.
“We’re close,” he told Jennie and LJ. “See that buggy?” He pointed out the window to a buggy that was black on the bottom and a medium tan color, almost a burnt orange, on top.
“Why does it look so much different than the one your uncle has?” Jennie combed her hair back behind her ears. The kapp she’d been wearing was no longer the crisp white starched kapp she’d started out with that morning.
“That’s what our buggies look like in our communities here. I don’t know why. I do know that they are different from every other Amish community in North America.”
He tried to imagine how she saw his people. The men in their dark trousers and suspenders, and the women with their blue and purple dresses and dark cloaks. To him, these were good, hardworking people who tried to live as the gut Lord wished. They valued family, hard work and simple things.
But to her, how did they did they seem?
It shouldn’t be important how she viewed his family and community.
But it was.
When they pulled into the drive at his parents’ farm, Luke sat up. Had Raymond managed to explain to Mamm and Daed what had happened? How much had his brother said?
Probably very little, he realized. This was his situation. Raymond wouldn’t have wanted to tell them too much. Just enough to let them know that Luke felt he was doing the correct thing.
When he stepped from the car, he knew he’d been right.
His mamm and daed came out onto the wide wraparound porch, their eyes curious and cautious. At first, they glanced over Jennie and LJ without any recognition that the boy they were seeing was their grandson.
Luke and Jennie thanked Trooper Jones for her help. As she backed out of the driveway, they headed toward the small group waiting for them on the porch.
But then Luke’s mother gasped. Her gaze flew back to LJ and devoured him, as if she were trying to make sense of what her eyes were seeing.
“Luke.” Her calm voice demanded he tell her the truth. “Luke, the kind. He looks like you did when you were small.”
He should have known her sharp mind and perceptive eyes would have caught the resemblance.
“Jah. LJ, cumme.” He motioned the four-year-old to his side. LJ ran to his father. “LJ, I want to introduce your grossmammi and your grossdawdi. These are your grandparents.”