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Illinois
“ROBBED?” KATIE LOOKED the teller. His little hat was flat on top with a wide brim, which cast a long shadow over the curve of his familiar face. The face she didn’t know she’d missed. Until now. The din growing behind them from other thwarted passengers made Katie square her shoulders. The silver dollar, pressed into her hand by Minerva only minutes before, was heavy in her dress pocket.
“Yup,” the spindly man replied. He no doubt had related the same message to countless people before her, and it showed in his choppy voice. “A group of fellers who called themselves the Wild Bunch came whoopin’ in early this mornin’. Thanks to them, train’s not comin’ back through till they’re brought to justice, or until further notice.”
Katie glanced into the ensuing bedlam that surrounded them. “The Wild Bunch? Now that’s a memorable name for a group of outlaws.”
The teller smirked in disgust. “Memorable? Ha! Nothin’ memorable about them bunch of hoodlums, if you ask me. Just like that Butch feller that leads ‘em. He’s got a hefty bounty on his head.”
“Bounty?” Katie’s interest was piqued.
Peter leaned to whisper in her ear. “Hush up, I’ll explain later.”
Wide-eyed, the teller stared at Katie. “Girl, they didn’t just rob me of the depot money. They robbed you of a ticket.” He adjusted his wire-rimmed eyeglasses and peered at the line that had grown behind them. “I’m sorry, no refunds. Next!”
“Excuse me, sir,” Peter interjected. “Can you tell me the easiest route to get to Texas?”
The attendant huffed. “You plain folk drive buggies, don’t you?”
Peter nodded.
“Then I suggest you take the stagecoach road.” He removed a pencil from over his ear and pointed out the window. Framed in the precious glass was an empty railroad line which led south. “Since the bandits done been through, you two should be safe. At least for a while.” He huffed again. “Next!”
Peter ushered Katie out of the line to the tune of grumbling passengers left stranded without a train to board. “You wanted an adventure, Katie Knepp. It looks like you’ve got one. We’re taking the stagecoach road by Amish buggy.”
***
“DO YOU THINK WE’LL see a real stagecoach, Peter?” Katie craned her neck out the open buggy window. They had only pulled out of Elizabethtown a few moments before, but already a foreign emotion fluttered in her chest like a caged bird.
Peter flipped the reins. “I reckon so, at some point. Bandits are holding up trains, not stages.” He glanced over at Katie. “Are you alright? You look like you’re about to jump right out of here.”
Katie turned to face him, her hands knotted in her lap. “I can’t rightly explain it, Peter. I’m so excited that I’m doing this—little Katie Knepp on the adventure of a lifetime.” Her cheeks ached from grinning. “But I’m so scared at the same time I don’t know whether to look this way or that, fear this or fear that. The unknown is so—fearfully exciting!” Heart pounding in her chest, she turned her attention from Peter back to the buggy window. “Maybe we’ll even see a bandit.”
Peter chuckled. “You’re quite an elemental woman, Katie. It takes the real things in life to keep you happy. Adventure, emotion. The mundane everyday will never suit you, will it?”
“Mmm, elemental. Yes, that’s it.” She flashed a grin at Peter. “Are you elemental, also?”
A dry wind swirled up from the south, spinning and spitting dust inside the buggy. Peter squinted and coughed. “I reckon so. I certainly wouldn’t give up this lifestyle for anything. After all, through you and your family, I found God.” He flicked the reins again and continued as easily as though he were talking about what kind of pie to have for dessert. “You can’t get much more elemental than the Amish. Learned so much from you and your folks. Found where I’m supposed to be, where God meant for me to be. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the very things you’re coming to love on the trail. The adventure.”
Katie stuck one of the strings of her covering into the side of her mouth and pondered this a moment. “Peter, if you loved the lifestyle so much, why didn’t you stay there?” Realizing the harshness of her words, she sputtered over a quick apology. “Well, what I mean is, how could you leave Simon and Sarah Wagler? After they adopted you into the village, good and proper?”
Peter studied the road ahead of them as it rose and fell with the gentle hills. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Katie fiddled with the damp covering string and sucked in her bottom lip. “I suppose I have been a bit preoccupied Peter. I’m sorry.” God, on a trip I hoped would bring me closer to You, I am already failing. Please help me be the person You want me to be.
Peter smiled. “I don’t want your apology, Katie Knepp.”
What do you want? Katie bit her tongue before the question flew off with the same brand of reckless abandon that was becoming more and more commonplace whenever she opened her mouth. “Then why did you leave it all behind to come with me?”
Peter gave her a sideways glance, careful not to turn his attention too far from the road ahead. “I never got to finish telling you, did I?” His voice was thoughtful. “In addition to talking to Ma and Pa, I had to tie up some loose ends at Gasthof or I’d have been by your side the moment you stepped off my porch.”
Katie’s cheeks burned.
Pretending not to notice, Peter continued through his own shy smile. “My ma and pa will be joining us down in Texas, Katie. Pa and I talked about a furniture store when they took me in. Neither of us wanted to intrude on Samuel Stoll’s woodworking business in Gasthof, though.” He straightened his back and looked hard at an out-of-place noise in the brush.
Katie was silent as she watched him study their surroundings. When she could stand it no longer, she let her words slither over her teeth with a quiet hiss. “Is it a bandit?”
Peter didn’t answer, but didn’t turn his attention from the brush, either. After a moment, he continued in a whisper. “Some of the elders, as it turned out, weren’t very keen that I made it through my year-long probation. Everyone seemed fine with me joining the community when the whole mess of the Wagler’s adopting me was brought up. As it turned out, some wished I would just disappear and not taint their secluded world with anything remotely English.”
“Really?” Katie ticked the Gasthof Village families off on her fingers. Who could have said such a thing?
“I don’t blame them,” Peter went on. “The Amish way is beautiful and maybe they were right.” He pulled back on the reins, stopping Sookie, the buggy horse. “Maybe I’m not completely able to cut ties from the English world. I certainly followed you at a moment’s notice, didn’t I? My thirst for adventure is still as ripe as the day I walked onto the Stoll spread in Gasthof.”
Insides quaking, Katie offered a shy smile to the man who’d come to save her.
“Katie do you still...” Peter started. He swiped at the perspiration that gleamed around his mouth with one hand. “What I mean is, I know you wanted—at some point—to, well, what I mean is, do you still want to...”
Standing up in the buggy, Katie pointed down the road. “Peter look! Here comes the stagecoach.”
Sure enough, the stage had just topped the hill in front of them. “Lucky for them the bandits have already come and gone, just like the station teller said,” Katie mused. “Not much protection out here in the wilds.”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than a shot echoed off the hills. From both sides of the road, bandits descended upon the poor helpless stage. The fellow riding shotgun for the stage flew off the seat and tumbled in the dirt.
“Was that a bullet?” Katie asked, unable to quell the excited note in her voice. “I have never seen one before!”
“Katie, sit down,” Peter commanded. “If we’re lucky, they were focused on the stage and not on us.” Carefully, Peter eased the buggy off the road into the brush.
“Why don’t we go on and turn back, Peter,” Katie asked, her words coming hard and fast. “But that man, shouldn’t someone go check on him?”
Peter looked at Katie as though she were speaking a foreign language. “Of all the fool things Katie,” he began. Instead of finishing, he dropped his voice to a whisper and started afresh. “Not everyone in this world is good. We’ll do the best we can by the man hurt, if we’re lucky enough not to have been spotted.” Peter shifted his gaze to the fracas just in time to see the driver throw down his weapons and the cash box. The bandits were already relieving the passengers of their items when Peter continued. “If we’re going to make it to Texas, Katie, you’re going to have to start using your head. We can’t turn back, we can’t go forward. We have to sit here and wait—and pray we weren’t spotted.”
Katie recoiled as though Peter had slapped her with his words. Never before had he spoken so harshly to her. Mentally licking her wounds, Katie focused on the scene playing out before them. She watched as the men, bandanas obscuring their faces, hopped on their horses and readied themselves to be on their way. Forgetting to be hurt, Katie spoke more loudly than she intended. “Peter, look! The bandits are leaving.”
Peter’s eyes widened. “Katie, shush!”
Grinning, Katie pointed toward the stagecoach road. “There, I think we’re safe.” The surge of adrenaline brought an almost audible thump to her chest.
The click of a weapon at her ear though, brought a cold knot to her throat. “Come on out here,” hissed a voice from behind them. “Both of you step on out of that buggy.”
Katie obeyed, eyeing the bandit warily. Chunks of greasy black hair curled out from under his dirty hat. A bandana, which probably had been blue at one time, hung limp over the bottom half of his face. Turning his attention from Katie, he pointed the weapon at Peter. “I said move it, dude.”
Peter stared hard at the stranger as he folded his tall body out of the buggy, his face tensed into a mishmash of planes which made him almost unrecognizable to Katie. As scarlet crept up Peter’s neck and into his face, she could almost see the prayers flying from the top of his head. Probably praying for patience, she figured.
From the corner of her eye, Katie caught sight of a trembling woman outside the stagecoach. A shift in the breeze brought the grandmother’s lament to her ears. “My late husband gave me the wedding ring they took. That was all I had left of my sweet Clyde McDougal.”
The man who’d been riding shotgun on the stagecoach seat pulled himself off the ground, one hand holding his injured shoulder. Moving at a snail’s pace, he dragged himself to the elderly woman’s side. He no doubt spoke words of comfort to her, but his words were lost on the breeze and still the old woman was inconsolable. Hunched in stature, she gave over to a crying jag. Her thin shoulders shuddered as the waves of emotion swept over her again and again.
To steal an elder’s memories of the love that filled her life. Katie bit her cheek as an emotion she hadn’t known that she possessed rose up from the depths of her very being. Rage heated her face and brought a tremble to her fingers. Those folks were as innocent as the day is long. I should be scared, God, I know I should. The bad Englishmen have found us. She glanced at the bandit. But I’m not scared. Her chest began to heave. I’m mad.
“Both you plain folk turn around and hit your knees,” the bandit demanded through his dirty bandana. His weapon still pointed precariously at the pair of them as he turned his face to the understory. “Jim, I got some more over here!”
A charged prayer wracked Katie’s brain as she stared at the cowardly bandit. Dear God, thank you for this adventure. I am sorry it has to end this way. Please comfort my parents. Since I’ll be meeting You shortly, please forgive me for bringing Peter into what may send him to meet You, too. Also, please forgive me in advance for what I am about to do.
Peter did as he was told and melted to his knees. Katie glanced at him, red tinging her vision. From the look on his face, it was obvious that Peter knew what was coming as much as she did.
Standing her ground, Katie stared hard into the icy eyes of her would-be killer. “No, I will not hit my knees. And I will not turn around.”
Peter craned his head to look at her. “Katie, do as he says. Now.”
Ignoring him, Katie kept on. “You take what isn’t yours. You hurt, you leave sadness and hopelessness and fear wherever you go.” She shook her head incredulously as though the bandit had asked her to turn water into wine. “No, I will not kneel for you. I will kneel for God, the one who made both you and me. I will not kneel for you, not now. Not ever.” Tilting her chin up, Katie steeled her jaw. “You are God’s child too, you know. And He loves you.”
The bandit stared at her as though she’d lost her mind. It was the same look Peter had worn earlier when he’d looked at her. Slowly, the masked man lowered his weapon. “I thought you plain folks weren’t supposed to talk?”
Katie softened her gaze, ignoring his off-handed comment. “Hasn’t anyone told you before that God loves you? Ask Him to walk with you and He will. But right now, with the terror you’re inflicting to these poor people who had done nothing to you, you are breaking God’s heart.”
The bandit’s voice came out in a soft, husky whisper. “No one ever told me no tale of God before.”
“Not even you parents?” Peter asked, rising to Katie’s side.
He shook his head. “Nah, they died. These fellows are my family now.”
“Never too late to get in touch with God,” Peter said. “Only knowed him a year myself.” He glanced at Katie. “And it has been by far the best year of my life.”
The bushes shuddered a moment before another masked man stepped forward. “What’s all this?”
“Oh Jim—I was just, uh—” The bandit trained his weapon on Katie and Peter again. “I was—”
Jim’s voice was even more gravely and sinister than the first man’s had been. “I told you to scour these hills and dispatch any witnesses.”
“Don’t feel right to shoot two Amish folk, Jim. They didn’t hurt no one.”
In one whoosh, Jim drew his own pistol and whacked the first bandit across the face. “Well if you ain’t man enough to do it, I am.” Leveling his weapon at Peter, Jim pulled back the hammer.
The scream ripped from Katie’s throat so quickly, it felt as though it left a trail of blood. “No!”
The sudden boom of a discharged weapon silenced them all.
