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The door flew open as if under its own power. The corner of the door caught Lance on the back of his head. He grunted as stars exploded behind his eyes, and he staggered.
Joseph, seeing Lance holding his youngest daughter, let out an inarticulate growl and grabbed her from Lance’s arms. Holding her protectively, he kept his eyes on Lance, who was still dazed from the knock to his head. Joseph backed up, bumping into Sarah. “Take her,” he said to Sarah, who nodded and pulled Miriam in tightly.
Miriam grabbed the fabric of Sarah’s dress convulsively in between her fingers with a sob.
“Mamm, I didn’t know he was out there! He . . . grabbed me while I was cutting quilting pieces out!”
“Shhh, shhh, daughter. Come, sit down,” Sarah murmured, glaring at Lance.
Joseph grabbed Lance’s upper arms clapping his hands hard on the younger man’s arms.
“Sarah, nee, go to the barn and call the Lancaster County sheriff’s office and tell them what just happened,” he ordered.
“Miriam, let’s go. I am not letting you out of my sight,” Sarah said.
Miriam nodded, not wanting to be alone.
Joseph began forcing Lance out of the house. On the front porch, his mouth dropped open as he saw Samuel and John Fisher pulling into their front yard.
Samuel and John both leaped out of their buggy and ran to the porch, grabbing Lance by his neck and forearms. As they forced Lance to the towering oak tree in the front yard, they were all surprised to see Bishop Stoltzfus driving quickly into the yard.
Joseph, Samuel and John struggled to keep control of Lance, who was struggling to get loose.
Bishop Stoltzfus strode quickly to the four men.
“Mr. Newman, if you ever return to our community, you will find yourself thrown out again and again. We don’t hold with depending upon law enforcement, but if we have to, we will . . .” as he spoke, he sent a questioning glance to Joseph.
“Ya, Sarah is calling the sheriff now. She has Miriam with her,” he confirmed.
“Good. Mr. Newman, it will be up to the sheriff what he wants to do. As far as we are concerned here in Ephrata, I very strongly suggest that you leave . . . and never come back. Miss Beiler does not want your attentions at all. She has told me that she has tried to get you to stop bothering her – and you are bothering her. Ah, good, the sheriff is here,” the bishop said, almost conversationally.
“Agh! I can’t go to jail! I’ll lose my job!” Lance growled.
“You should have thought of that when you decided to ignore my daughter’s wishes,” Joseph said, his voice a low growl. He tightened his grip on Lance’s neck and upper arm as Lance redoubled his struggles to break free.
“Mr. Beiler? We understand you had an intruder. Mr. Newman, we meet again. It seems you decided to ignore our warning when we visited you in Philadelphia. You do know what this means, don’t you?” the tall, bulky deputy asked.
“I’m not saying anything!” Lance shouted as he continued to struggle.
“Mr. Beiler, where is your daughter?” asked one deputy.
“She’s probably either in the barn with her mamm or coming out,” Joseph said.
“Thank you. I’ll go take her statement.”
Ten minutes later, he returned, tucking his notebook into the breast pocket of his uniform shirt.
“It looks like Miss Beiler was alone in the house, working, when you broke in and grabbed her. She says you covered her mouth with one hand and lifted her from her chair, attempting to force her out of the house. Under Pennsylvania law, that is breaking and entering, assault and attempted kidnapping. If we present this to the district attorney, you could be facing quite a few years behind bars, Mr. Newman, but I’m going to defer to the wishes of these good men here. Sir?” asked the deputy, looking at Joseph and swinging his glance to the bishop.
Bishop Stoltzfus glanced at Joseph, who was struggling to hold onto Lance and thinking of what would be best for Miriam and the community.
“Mr. Beiler, I’ll hold onto this joker,” the huge deputy offered, grabbing onto Lance.
Joseph let go and heaved out a deep sigh.
“Officer, normally, we don’t rely on law enforcement, but this Englischer has refused to get our message that my daughter does not want his attentions. He tried to kidnap her. I don’t know what’s wrong in his head or not. My worry is for the other young women of Ephrata, should he turn his sick attentions to them. Our warnings to him fell onto deaf ears. With our bishop’s permission, I am going to allow you to take him – my understanding is that we would have to file a criminal complaint, correct?”
“That’s correct. We’ll be happy to write everything up for you. We will also need to dust your home for his fingerprints and we’ll be taking his car into . . .”
“ARGHH, NO!!! That isn’t my car!” Lance screamed. “Don’t arrest me! I get the stupid message and I’ll stay away from that stupid woman and this insane community! Just don’t . . . arrest me!”
“Ahhh, yes, I remember something about you owning a black truck. Is that Saturn what you came here in?” asked one deputy.
Lance clamped his lips shut, refusing to say any more.
Joseph spoke.
“We’ve seen you here often enough in Ephrata so that we recognize you. You don’t have to be in your truck for us to know you’re here. Bishop Stoltzfus offered help and I accepted it. Miriam’s fiance and his father also offered their help. I accepted it. Now, go. Get out of here and don’t you ever try to come back again. You will not be welcomed.”
Four men, three bearded and all wearing straw hats, glared at Lance, who allowed his angry gaze to drove from one hard, rawboned face to another. A sneer gathered on his face and he spat into the dirt at their feet.
“Okay, we’re cuffing him and taking him off your hands. We have another unit coming by to take evidence in a minute or two, then we’ll be out of your hair,” one deputy said.
Lance, now securely handcuffed, was marched to the back of the squad car and forced to sit in the back. The deputies got in and drove away.
Miriam, knowing that Lance was gone, finally came out of the barn, shaking. She allowed John to hold her as he wrapped both arms around her and pulled her head against his chest.
“OK, it’s OK, Miriam. He’s gone and he probably won’t be back. Those are some serious charges he’s facing. It’s clear that he had no good intentions in coming into our community, other than to force himself on you,” John murmured.
At his words, Miriam, dissolved into shaky tears.
“I’m just glad he’s gone,” she said through hiccups and sobs. “What if he had tried this to someone else?”
Sarah spoke up with a frown on her face.
“I don’t know all the specifics, but Miriam still isn’t eighteen. He’s over twenty-one. I think, if we call them again, the sheriff’s office and that attorney man could talk to us about whether that Lance character could be charged with harming a minor.”
“I think you’re talking about someone called a sex offender, Mrs. Beiler. Talk to them, but unless he actually did something – sexual – to her, I don’t think that will happen,” said the bishop.
“Denki, Bishop. I will,” Sarah said. “I know we don’t know Englischer law, but what he tried to do to our Miriam – he’s sick!”
The Lancaster evidence van pulled into the front yard and Joseph broke from the group of men to introduce them to Miriam. The two of them went with the law enforcement officers to show them where Lance had entered the house. As they showed them around, Miriam shivered from her fear. While the officers dusted for fingerprints and walked slowly through the house, Joseph calmed Miriam down.
“You did the right thing. You made sure the doors were locked. I should have remembered the window was open for air – that’s how he got in. It’s my job to protect you, daughter. That’s what I’m doing now and why I had your mamm call the sheriff. I didn’t want to involve them, but sometimes, we have to. That man wasn’t going to listen to anything we said, so he needed to get the message from someone whose language he understands. Now, I’m praying that they will charge him with crimes so he won’t be back here for a good, long time, if ever. You are safe, now, Miriam. Give thanks to the Lord that I had a bad feeling and had asked both the Fishers and Bishop Stoltzfus to come by here today,” Joseph said.
As they walked outside, Joseph saw that the law enforcement vehicle parked outside had drawn an audience. Miriam spotted Anna King’s worried look.
“Daed, there’s Anna, and she looks very worried. I ned to go and calm her down,” Miriam said, feeling somewhat calmer.
“Ya, you go ahead and tell her what you need to say. You probably shouldn’t say anything about what that man tried to do. Just tell her that he tried to get to you and we had him arrested,” said Joseph.
“Okay, denki, daed.” Miriam scurried over to Anna, who gave her a big hug.
“Are you all right? I was driving by, on my way home from the market, when I saw this car. What happened?” Anna asked, her eyes huge.
“I can’t say very much yet. Lance Newman tried to get to me again – and that’s all I can say,” Miriam said with a shaky sigh.
“Well, it had to be bad if the police are here,” Anna said. “Do you see what I meant when I told you that he was no good for you??
“Ya, Anna, I do. I’ve been trying to get him to leave me alone for a long time, now. My parents, John, his parents, Bishop Stoltzfus, and now, the sheriff are helping me. They arrested Lance just a little while ago and took him off to jail – thank the Lord.”
As Miriam finished speaking, a law enforcement investigator came trotting up to her.
“Miss Beiler, we need to talk to you, if you could come into your house.”
“Yes.” She led the investigator in to show her where she had been when Lance grabbed her.
The investigator walked slowly from the quilting room and down the hallway. As she did, she looked over every inch for any physical evidence she could take in building a case against Miriam’s attacker. When she spotted anything out of the ordinary, she took the evidence, explaining her actions to Miriam as she did so.
“If you could get one of your parents in here, I need to look over you – your clothing to see if there’s any proof of his grabbing you,” the investigator said.
“Okay. Mamm! We need you here,” Miriam said, motioning Sarah over to her.
“Ma’am, we need to have you watch while we look over your daughter for any evidence that Mr. Newman might have left on her clothing or body. Can we go into a room for this?” the investigator asked.
“Ya, come with me,” Sarah said, bustling to the quilting room and shutting the door.
The investigator began by having Miriam standing up with her arms spread out at her sides. As with the house, any time she found anything, she plucked it off with tweezers and slipped the item into a sealing plastic bag. When she had finished looking at Miriam’s clothing, she moved to her body, looking for cuts and bruises.
Miriam flinched slightly as the investigator prodded around her mouth, chin and under her nose.
“I’m sorry. Does that hurt?”
“Ya,” Miriam said.
The investigator sighed. “I know how the Amish feel about photographs, but I assure you, this is only for evidentiary purposes, not to glorify you. I need to take a picture of the bruise that’s starting to show up around your mouth. He gripped you pretty hard, Miss Beiler.”
“Bruise? Mamm?” Miriam’s eyes widened in shock at the thought that Lance had actually hurt her.
“Yes, miss, take the photos. We understand. Miriam, yes, I can see a bruise beginning to form. I think the bishop will give permission since this is to prove that Mr. Newman tried to hurt you. Miss, before you take the photograph, I need to get the bishop in here,” Sarah said, holding her hand up.
“Go right ahead, ma’am. We just want to make sure we get all the evidence on the first go-round,” the investigator said, unzipping the pouch of a digital camera.
Sarah came hurrying back in with the bishop close behind her.
“Miss, go ahead and take the photo. We understand the purpose. One question, however. Would you please photograph only the lower part of Miss Beiler’s face, the part with the bruise? This way, her full face will not be shown and she will not be in violation of any of our rules,” asked the bishop.
“Normally, we’d need to have a picture that shows her full face, but I’ll include an explanation that she’s Amish,” the investigator said after some thought.
Miriam, feeling odd about the picture, stood stiffly with her eyes shut. She flinched as she saw the bright flash from behind her closed eyelids.
“Mamm? This feels . . . strange,” she said.
“It is all right, Miss Beiler. I understand why the investigator needs this photo. That bruise must show up as evidence against that man, if he is to face justice in an Englischer court. You have done no wrong. Instead, the wrongs were committed against you. Just remember to follow the Ordnung in all other matters,” said Bishop Stoltzfus.
Finally, the sheriff’s investigators had collected all the evidence they needed. Before leaving, they reminded Miriam and her parents not to say anything about Miriam’s attempted kidnapping.
“Mamm, I really have to get started on that quilt. I’ll be in the quilting room, if you need me,” Miriam said.
“OK. If you need me, I’ll be making supper.”
“Let me know when you need my help and I’ll come in,” Miriam said, walking into the quilting room.
“Nee. Your work is more important. Besides, most of the supper preparations are done already, so all I have to do is assemble the stew and cook it. The bread is risen and only needs baking.”
“Denki, mamm!” Settling into her chair, Miriam resumed cutting the pieces of fabric for the green-on-green quilt she had just begun. When she had finished, she looked up. “Hmmm. I think I have time to start stitching pieces together,” she whispered to herself. After another hour and a half, she had pieced together about one-quarter of the top of the quilt.
Shutting the machine off, she placed the unstitched pieces to the side on a table. Before leaving the room, a wave of apprehension hit her and she doubled back into the room. Going straight to the window, she shut and locked it. Letting out a shaky sigh, she thought to herself.
Until I know he’s not getting out, I won’t feel completely safe.