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“Ja. I suggested it to him after the bishop left our house.”
Feeling very much like a sacrificial lamb, Amos stood and walked over to Katie’s bench. Lowering himself next to her, he felt a soft smile spread across his face. It was stimulated by the memory of her soft, flowery scent. “Katie, you look sad.”
Katie had felt the bench move slightly as someone sat near her. She had chosen to ignore their approach. Hearing Amos’s voice, sounding much softer than it had during their breakup, she whirled around. “Amos! What are you doing here? You should be ignoring and avoiding me, just like everyone else.” She moved to stand and leave the bench, but Amos was faster.
Grabbing her arm, he said, “Please, wait. Listen to me, please. I was stupid that last time we saw each other. I was motivated by fear. But we haven’t heard anything from that English person...”
“‘English person?’ Amos, you doubted that anyone was making those threats! You as much as accused me of faking everything!”
“Ja, and I am very sorry for that. I would appreciate your forgiveness, Katie.” Amos’s face was completely serious.
Katie looked into his eyes and saw only warmth and tenderness, not the anger that had been so evident that horrible night. Maybe it had worked. Maybe he did want her back. Or maybe...
Maybe he was just doing this for show. What if he suspected her and was only pretending?
It was like a story, acidic and cruel. And maybe even true. She sighed. “Let me think about it. After all, nobody else, except Annie Yoder, wanted to be seen near me.” Her voice bore a strong note of bitterness.
“Ja, I saw. And I am so sorry. You don’t deserve to be treated this way. I’ll let you think. If you say yes, would you go to tonight’s singing with me?”
Katie shook her head vehemently. “Nee, not that. I forgive you. Does this mean we would get back together?”
Amos nodded, a smile on his face.
Katie sighed. “I don’t want to go to the singing. Maybe something else.”
“I’ll go to your house later this afternoon and see what you’ve decided.” Rising, he returned to his own bench.
Looking around, Katie saw curiosity on many faces. She gauged the amount of time they would still be at lunch. Seeing some of the women heading back into the Yoder’s kitchen, she rose, knowing she could make a dignified escape soon. She gathered paper plates and silverware. Soon, the cleanup was done, and she was able to get into her parents’ buggy.
“What was that with Amos?” Dat turned around, looking at Katie.
“He asked me to forgive him. He said he was stupid the day he broke up with me, so he wants me to consider getting back together with him.”
“And?”
“I forgave him, but...it’s all so sudden. I want to be with him. I just want to be sure it’s real.He wants to take me out tonight.”
“To the singing?”
“Nee! I told him I don’t want to be around them! They think I’m responsible for what’s been happening.” Katie swallowed the sob that wanted to escape from her throat.
“Daughter, you know we can’t let you go into town! Not now!”
“Mam, I was thinking he could take me to a quiet spot here, so we could just talk. I don’t want to be anywhere near the English right now. Just in case the person is there, you know?” Katie slipped this in on purpose, looking at her parents through lowered, thick eyelashes.
“Mmmm, that’s probably the smartest thing I’ve heard you say in months.” Mary was unaware of the verbal slap she’d just given to Katie.
***
BACK AT THE YODER HOME, Annie, Caleb, Elisabeth, Mildred, Bishop Lapp and Lovina, sat in the warm kitchen, discussing how the morning’s announcement had gone.
“She looked absolutely stunned,” Elisabeth said. “I was sitting one bench over and just kept my eyes on her.”
“Ja, but was her response out of proportion to what we were saying? And to what the mayor said?”
“Ja, I think it was. I chanced a few looks around, and I saw more relief than shock on other faces.”
“What about Libby King?”
“Oh, ja, she looked relieved, as though this would be over soon.”
Mildred spoke up. “I was watching her when the mayor was talking to her. She was highly uncomfortable—Katie, that is.”
“Ja, Mildred, I agree. She just wanted to escape. And when nobody sat on her bench or joined her for lunch, she was angry and hurt.”
“Who saw Amos Smits join her on her bench at lunch?” As Bishop Lapp looked around, everyone nodded. “Gut. It looks like they are going to reunite if they were dating before.”
“And, how do you feel about that?”
“Well, he is Eli’s brother. Eli and Annie have been spending time together, and Annie has been shadowing Katie. Eli and Caleb suggested that he make overtures to her today, with my approval. When I come back from Indiana, I will resume watching the two of them. Annie, just be careful when you follow her around. Try to allow others to do so a little more often, so she doesn’t catch onto what you are doing. It’s about time for us to leave and get to the train station because a driver should be at our house soon. I hope to have much more news about why the Miller family left their community in Goshen. When I get back, I’ll set up a meeting with all of us here.” Rising, he and Lovina hurried to their buggy and went home.
***
ROCKING GENTLY WITH the rhythm of the train, John and Lovina Lapp talked quietly about their hopes for their trip. “I hope we find out that it is Katie who’s responsible. At the same time, I feel horrible, because that means she put a wunderbaar family through a terrible time.”
“I feel the same way. From what Mrs. Hoffstetter said, her brother-in-law is an upstanding man who truly loves Gott and his family.”
“Why, John? Why would she do this once, let alone twice?”
“I wish I knew.”
***
BACK IN BIG VALLEY, Eli was surprised when Sam, the English employee of the mayor, stopped at the house.
“Eli, I’m sorry to disturb you on a Sunday. But the mayor wanted to find out what everyone thought of your bishop’s announcement and her visit.”
“Come in. I’ll introduce you to my parents.” Caleb made the introductions.
Sam smiled widely. “I'm pleased to meet you, sir. I know your community’s been working hard to get to the bottom of this mess. I’d like to find out what people here thought about today’s events at your service and after.”
“Come in! Iced tea or lemonade?” As Sam requested tea, he looked at Emma. Come into the kitchen. Enjoy a dessert as well.”
Sam eagerly tucked into the peach pie that was placed in front of him. He occasionally nodded as Eli and John talked.
“We were looking at everyone. Almost the whole community looked relieved that there might be an end to this mess. Only one person looked as though she was completely surprised by this: Katie Miller.”
“Isn’t she the one the mayor spoke of? The one who may have started a baseless and harmful rumor?”
“Ja, that would be her. Oh, our bishop and his wife are on their way to Indiana right now. It turns out that we have a connection in our community to the Millers’ old community in Goshen.” John slowed down as Sam jotted down notes. “We have a Mennonite fabric store owner whose store is located at the north end of our community. She met Katie when Katie went there for more quilting supplies. All along, she remembered Katie’s name as significant to something, or someone. It wasn’t until days after Katie left that Mrs. Hoffstetter realized that a Katie Miller had falsely accused her brother-in-law of sexual assault.”
“My God! That’s libelous! Oh, but you don’t believe in filing lawsuits. Please, forgive me.” Sam indicated that John should continue.
“She and her husband called the brother-in-law. She told him what Katie looks like and Michael Hoffstetter said that it sounded like the same girl who had accused him. That’s when she came to the bishop, and their trip was arranged. He wants to find out exactly what happened and how Big Mike got the community to understand that he couldn’t have assaulted her.”
Sam was busy writing. “I’ll pass all of this on to Mayor Winters tomorrow morning, if not tonight. Please, go on.”
“If it turns out that the Katie Miller there is our Katie Miller, we will have much more proof that she started a vicious rumor. I should also tell you that my other son, Amos, is Katie’s former boyfriend, and he may have reunited with her today. He is supposed to get together with her this evening and encourage her to begin seeing him again.”
“I thought romantic relationships were kept undercover, so to speak.”
“Ja, they are, but it soon becomes obvious to anyone with eyes and a heart.”
“I get the feeling that Amos has an ulterior motive in reuniting with her.”
“Ja. The bishop, ministers, some of the younger adults and I felt that it would be a big help to us in figuring out everything.”
“Wow. Well, I’ll be reporting all of this to Mayor Winters. I think I’ll stop by her house this evening. I’d better go. Thank you for the pie; it was delicious. And, if you have any concerns, feel free to stop by.”
“Ja, denki. We will.” Eli saw Sam out the front door. “Wait. That’s Amos with Katie. We don’t want her figuring out that you’re here.” Only when Amos’s buggy had gone farther down the road did he open the door for Sam. “Please, let us know if you learn of anything else.”
“We will.”
***
BACK ON THE TRAIN, John and Lovina Lapp were in quiet conversation with a psychologist who had overheard John’s question.
“Bishop, to answer your question, we won’t know until we find out what has happened to her to make her tell these lies. Some do it for attention. Others have a truth that they need to tell but for some reason can’t. And there are some that can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is not.”
“She’s trying to hide her involvement, so I don’t think it is the latter. As for the former, how would she be getting attention for this? If anything, she’s done all she could to disguise herself as the originator of the story.”
“The attention is indirect but affirming. Every time the rumor grows, she gets an endorphin burst. For some, just that small kick is enough. For others, they can act out in more extreme ways, harming themselves and others physically.”
“How?” Lovina was frightened.
“Self-harm is most likely. Cutting, drug abuse, suicidal ideation. Some lash out at their family members or their own children.”
“Mei Gott!” Lovina exclaimed.
“But we won’t know until she has a chance to be assessed. Sometimes the cause can be an early trauma. Is she the only one in her family with these tendencies? Is there a history of depression, schizophrenia or other similar issues in her family history? Even an underlying medical condition like diabetes can lead to irrational behavior. We won’t know until we’ve had a chance to assess her. The important thing to know is that if she is responsible, she needs help from a professional so that she does not further harm herself or others.”
John and Lovina looked at each other. Now their trip was even more urgent than before.
The next morning, they stepped off the train. A tall, muscular Amishman approached them. “Bishop and Mrs. Lapp? I’m Michael Hoffstetter. Or Big Mike, as everyone calls me.”
“Gut morning! We are so grateful you agreed to speak with us.” John explained the new urgency of their visit.
“Mei Gott! Let’s go, and we’ll put you up in our home. You’ll be able to ask us everything you need, and we’ll answer it. Even if it makes us look less than gut.”
“That’s all we ask. We just need to get to the bottom of what she is doing.”
At the house, he took their two bags to a waiting bedroom. “My wife, Betsy, has prepared breakfast for you. We know you must be hungry. Then, we can get started.”
Over the next four days, John and Lovina listened, wrote down notes and asked questions of Michael and his family. They met the Goshen bishop and deacon, learning more about what had happened.
Big Mike said, “She was much too young for baptismal instruction, so all we could do was require her and her parents to sell their home and leave here. We had a sense that she was capable of doing this again. And now, it appears she has. What did this doctor on the train tell you?”
“The doctor said it could be a cry for attention. Or maybe Katie has some past trauma that’s causing her to act out. It’s also possible she can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is not, though I doubt that’s the case because she’s trying to hide her involvement.”
“Nee, she knew,” Betsy, Mike’s wife said. “And her lies nearly destroyed me and my family. I told Mike not to have Katie around here in the first place. Remember that lie she told about finding a body in Levi’s cornfield?”
“Levi?”
“She was nine, Betsy. And her mam said it was a nightmare.”
“Katie was lying, even then.”
“Who’s Levi?”
“David’s older brother,” Betsy explained. “The elders told him you would be coming to talk about Katie, but he had an important commission in Elkhart he couldn’t reschedule. Or wouldn’t reschedule. I think the whole thing shames him. Levi loves his family, and he did everything he could for that family, especially those two girls.”
“The older one ran off on the rumspringa, right?”
“Esther, ja. She was quiet and always a bit sad. Not as pretty as Katie, so I don’t think people much noticed, even though the Ordnung says we’re not supposed to value people for their looks.”
John was glad he had come to Goshen. With each revelation, Katie’s history of telling harmful lies became more and more clear.
Thus began one of the most surreal weeks of John and Lovina’s lives. When they finished, they had a notebook full of notes, which they would be sharing with their community and the mayor of Big Valley.
The End.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I loved writing it! If so, you can grab the next book in the series here.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the prologue:
As Big Mike spoke, something shifted inside Lovina. When the psychologist had spoken of getting Katie help, Lovina had asked herself if it would be of any use. Lying was not an illness, it was a failure of character. But Gott had given them the commandments to live in His image. To turn the other cheek.
Stopping Katie from causing further harm was of the utmost importance, but if they cast her out, it would simply be passing the problem on to another community. Katie wouldn’t get the help she needed, and Lovina, along with her entire community, would be turning their back on Gott’s example.
Lovina said, “It is Gott who determines the content of our soul. We have but to follow his commandments. Be kind to each other. Turn the other cheek.”
“Hmmm...” Big Mike’s cheeks flushed. “Ya, of course. As is Gott’s will. What did this doctor tell you?”
“She said there could be multiple reasons. At its worst, it could be simply attention seeking, or there could be something from her past that is making her act this way.”
“I had wondered at first if she was carrying some kind of burden from her past,” Big Mike said, his gaze unfocused as he spoke. “She would tense up or sometimes flinch if I got too close or startled her. It wasn’t my place to ask but...” He sighed. “Then she accused me of...hurting her, and I—I just figured it was all a part of her act.”
“It could be attention seeking, but I have to wonder, of the lies she could have told, what would make her invent a sexual assault? Her accusation had details, didn’t it?”
“Ja. Mei Gott, I feel sick,” Big Mike exclaimed. “But she just lied and lied. And I couldn’t see past that she was accusing me. If someone did—she would have been a child!”
“We have no evidence anything at all has happened to Katie,” John cut in. “My wife is inclined to see the best in all people. It is a virtue, but the psychologist also said we had a responsibility to our community to keep Katie from causing further harm.”
Lovina nodded, understandingly. “To herself and others,” she added. But she understood It was difficult to turn the other cheek, especially when the harm was to one’s reputation and not the flesh. “Your sister-in-law explained everything that happened. I am so sorry about what happened to you. Have you been able to rebuild your business?”
“Only with a lot of very hard work. There are still a couple people here who look at me cross-eyed. How did Sabine come across Katie?” Michael was curious.
“Katie and her mam are quilters. Sabine owns a fabric store just north of our community. Katie went there when we forbade everyone from going to English businesses. The only time we are allowed to interact with the English now is when we take orders or deliver them.”
“Ach, what a mess. So, she met Sabine, who realized somehow that she recognized her name? Feel free to speak to anyone here in Goshen. Even those who don’t believe me.”
Thus began one of the most surreal weeks of John and Lovina’s lives. When they finished, they had a notebook full of notes, which they would be sharing with their community and the mayor of Big Valley.
As John became more and more resolute of the need to end Katie’s deceptions, Lovina felt an equal determination to ensure that Katie got the help she needed. Katie was also a member of their community, and they could not turn their backs on Katie solely to save themselves.
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Best,
Rachel
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Rachel S
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Being a neighbor of the Mennonite community, she started writing Amish romance fiction as a way of looking at the Amish community. She wanted to present a fair and honest representation of a love that is both romantic and sweet. She hopes her readers enjoy her efforts.
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