Officer Tannahill gave Beth Ann a sympathetic look before motioning to follow him down a hallway. Dawn had arrived while she sat in the reception area, trying to be patient. Outside the one window she could see from her bench, the snow had thinned to the occasional flake, but various officers coming into the building had reported almost a foot had fallen.
Beth Ann wished Robert had been able to come with her. She longed to reach out and take his hand as she would have one of the children’s. The comfort of someone familiar, someone who represented normalcy. She wanted that connection to prove this wasn’t an appalling nightmare.
Each door along the hall was shut, but she heard voices behind a few she passed. Someone laughed from a closed room, and she flinched. What could be funny in a place like this?
The officer, his thin face set in stern lines, looked to be about the same age as the children’s mother. Had he gone through school with Kim Henderson?
“You can wait here, Ms. Overholt,” he said with the slightest motion of his head toward a door to the left. Opening it, he pointed to a single table with two chairs. The room was otherwise bare. No calendar or window broke the institutional green color of the walls.
Beth Ann felt queasy. She wished Kim Henderson hadn’t been so insistent the only person she’d talk to was Beth Ann.
Another door opened, and Kim walked in, wearing an ill-fitting jumpsuit and handcuffs. Seeing her in the bright light made Beth Ann realize how the woman resembled her children. She had the same bright red hair, though hers was mussed, and her face shared Crystal’s delicate shape. Her eyes were like Dougie’s had been when Beth Ann first met him on the village green. Filled with fear and anger. Dark circles surrounded them, and Beth Ann wondered when Kim had last slept.
A female officer led Kim to the table and latched her cuffs to it before stepping back. Neither she nor Officer Tannahill left the room.
“I hear,” Kim said in lieu of greeting, “you’ve been taking care of my kids since that no-good sister of mine dumped them and headed to Vegas.”
“I’m Beth Ann Overholt, and, yes, they’ve been staying with me.”
“I hear you’re rich.” Her lips twisted in an impotent sneer. “Not that you dress like a rich woman. Where did you find that shapeless dress?”
Beth Ann ignored the question. “Where did you hear something like that?”
Kim shrugged. “I don’t know. From a bunch of people. Guess it’s the talk of Evergreen Corners how some plain woman hit the lottery. I didn’t know you Goody Two-shoes played the lottery.”
“I don’t.”
“But you’re loaded.” She didn’t make it a question.
“I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to talk about your children.”
“Are they okay?” The question created the first crack in Kim’s hard demeanor, and Beth Ann felt sympathy stirring anew in her heart for the woman.
Knowing she must be honest, she said, “I hope they will be. It’s not easy to see your mom arrested.”
“It’s not like it’s the first time.”
Beth Ann closed her eyes and sent a request heavenward for the right words to break through Kim’s hard facade so they could talk.
“Why did you want to speak with me?” she asked.
Again Kim’s gaze shifted away, but this time to aim at the two officers. “Some privacy, okay?”
They moved to stand closer to the door where they could see, but when Kim lowered her voice, they couldn’t overhear.
Kim folded her arms on the table, frowning as her handcuffs clattered. “Look. Here’s the situation. I’ve got a deal for you.”
“You have a deal for me?”
“Yeah. You take care of my problems, and I’ll take care of yours.”
“I don’t understand.”
Kim smiled. “It’s simple. I need money for a good lawyer who’ll get me out. One who’ll let me plea for time served and won’t insist I go to rehab.”
“Weren’t you getting help there?”
“What I was or wasn’t getting isn’t part of this discussion. What I want to talk about is making a deal so you pay for a lawyer who can promise me a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Beth Ann wasn’t ready to agree to any such thing, but she couldn’t keep from asking, “What would I get in return?”
“My kids.”
“What?” She tried to say more, but words stuck in her throat. Kim was using her children to bargain for money?
Again Kim shrugged. “They can’t be on their own. They’re too little. I knew that when I got shipped off to rehab. My no-good sister didn’t watch them like she promised, and I don’t want my kids going into foster care. I grew up in the system, and I don’t want my kids to.”
“I agree.”
“Good. So you’ll help me?”
Her mind was so full of contradictory thoughts she couldn’t think straight. “You want me to pay for a lawyer for you and in return I get to continue to watch the children. Is that right?”
“Not exactly. I want you to get me a lawyer who’ll get the charges dropped and me out. You get my kids. I’ll sign them over to you.”
As her heart soared at the idea of having the children stay with her, Beth Ann exclaimed, “Kim, you can’t mean that!”
Both cops turned toward them, but looked away when Kim scowled.
“I do.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “I’ll sign away my rights. It’s just me. Their fathers are dead.”
“Fathers? I thought—”
“There were two, but I was foolish enough only to marry one.” She eyed Beth Ann. “I hope I’m not shocking you.”
Raising her chin, Beth Ann replied, “I may live plain, but I know how things happen.”
“I’m sure you think you do.” She leaned her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand. “You Amish?”
“No.” She hadn’t come to talk about herself. “Kim, your children need their mother.”
“They need a mother, but not me. You seem like a nice lady. You’d make them a good mother.” A faint smile slid along her lips. “I know you think I’m not worth much, but I’m good at figuring people out, and I figure you care a lot about my kids. Otherwise, why would you be here?”
“The children miss you.”
“They’ll get over it. I did when my mother dumped me and never came back.”
Beth Ann understood. Kim didn’t want her children moved from home to home, wondering if anyone in the world cared about them. She wasn’t dumping Dougie, Crystal and Tommy because she loved her drugs more than she did them. She was seeking a way to give them a better future.
“I can’t give you an answer today,” Beth Ann said.
“My arraignment is Tuesday. It’s taking that long because Christmas is on Saturday and Monday’s a holiday. I’ll need a lawyer. A good one. Not one of the public defenders just out of law school.” She sniffed. “One of them got me stuck in rehab last time.”
Beth Ann bit her lip to keep from saying the young public defender had done Kim a big favor. Infuriating the woman wouldn’t help anyone.
When she remained silent, Kim asked, “Will you think about it?”
“I will.”
“Get me an answer very, very soon.”
“As soon as I can.” Pushing back her chair, Beth Ann stood.
The two police officers moved toward the table. The woman unhooked Kim’s cuffs from the table and led her away.
Beth Ann followed Officer Tannahill out. When he drove her back to Evergreen Corners and bid her to have a good day, she wondered if it was possible. Every cell within her was shaken by Kim’s request to trade her children for a chance to continue her drug-addicted life.
When she opened the apartment door, she was astonished to see the living room filled with the friends she’d made in Evergreen Corners. The Whittakers, the Millers, the Kauffmans, Robert and his sister Rachel. Dougie, Crystal and Tommy regarded her with a mixture of hope and uncertainty.
She knelt in front of them. “Your mom looks okay, and she asked about you.”
“Really?” Dougie wasn’t as ready to swallow her statement as his siblings were.
“Yes.” Glancing at her friends, she said, “She talked about the three of you the whole time.”
Abby stepped forward and held out her hands to the younger children. “Komm with me, and let’s make those chocolate chip cookies I was telling you about.”
Beth Ann said, “The social worker—”
“Is supposed to be here in about two hours, ain’t so?” Abby’s smile remained steady. “That will give me and the kinder plenty of time to have nice warm cookies ready.”
“Can we go?” asked Crystal.
She thought Dougie might protest, but he got up along with his sister and brother. Pulling on their winter coats, they went with Abby out the door. Beth Ann could hear Tommy prattling about how his penders would make him a better baker.
Robert helped her draw off her coat. “How are you?”
She wished she could throw herself in his arms and sob as the children had in hers. It was impossible to tear the memory of Kim offering up her children from her memory. Yet as she looked at the worried faces in the room, she knew she didn’t have to deal with the problem by herself.
Not mincing words, she told them what Kim had asked of her. Worry became dismay and despair. When Isaac asked them to pray for the Henderson family, she bent her head. A sense of community, of belonging, of being where God meant her to be, filled her as she prayed.
Robert asked, “What can we do to help, Beth Ann?”
She guessed he had no idea how much that simple question gave her hope all wasn’t lost. “I thought about it. I plan to ask Pastor Hershey and you, Gladys, to recommend a good lawyer for Kim.”
“You’ll pay for his or her services?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll take the kinder in return?” Gladys asked. “You can’t be thinking of doing that.”
“Of course I’m not! The children aren’t for sale. I’ve loved having them with me, but how would they feel if they discover what their mother had done?” She choked as she added, “What I’d done?”
Turning to the others, Robert cleared his throat. “I think Beth Ann and I need to talk.”
Each person gave her a warm smile as he or she went out of the apartment. In their wake, silence fell on the room.
She dropped to the sofa and stared at the floor until Robert brought her a steaming cup.
“I thought you might want kaffi,” he said.
“Thank you.” She took a careful sip. It was stronger than she liked it, but she needed the boost of caffeine after a sleepless night.
As he sat facing her, he had her repeat the story again. He asked as soon as she was finished, “Are you going to tell Deana this?”
Ice clamped around her heart, so cold and deep she half expected the cup to freeze in her hand. “I hadn’t thought about that. I know I should, but what if she takes the children away today?”
“She might not. If she doesn’t have a placement for them—”
“I’m not ready to risk that. Are you?”
He stood. Not meeting her eyes, he said, “I don’t think you should make me a part of any plan you’re making for the kinder.”
“What?”
“I can’t be part of it.”
She recoiled, as shocked as if he’d slapped her. He’d been so calm, so steady, so much like that old bridge he wanted to repair. Battered around the edges, but refusing to collapse. Now he looked ill.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You’re not going to be part of what? The children’s lives? You’re already a part of those.”
“I won’t be much longer.” He met her eyes. “I’ve been offered a job. A gut job.”
She smiled. “Robert, that’s great news! Congratulations!”
“It’s in Rutland, more than an hour and a half away by car. I’ll be moving there if I take the job.”
Somehow she set the cup on the table without dropping it. Everything she’d feared might happen was happening.
“Wouldn’t you be able to come and visit on your days off?” she whispered.
“I could, but I shouldn’t.”
“I don’t understand.”
He met her puzzled gaze. “I know you don’t, but I can’t risk it.”
“Risk what?”
“I almost lost my temper with Dougie the other night.”
“And I did lose my temper with you. So what does that have to do with anything?”
He drew in a deep breath, then let it sift past his clenched teeth. “You losing your temper is different.”
“How?”
“When you lost your temper, you yelled at me.”
“That’s what happens when I get angry. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the way I am.”
Squatting in front of her, he said, “You don’t know me as well as you think you do. My daed was a cruel man, Beth Ann. I don’t know why, but whenever he lost his temper or felt someone had insulted him or he had a bad day, he’d take it out on us, his kinder. Usually on Rachel, which is why she jumped the fence when she was seventeen. That was more than twenty years ago. I didn’t see her again until a couple of months ago.”
“Really?” She’d never guessed either Robert’s or Rachel’s past was filled with such pain and loss. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not something either of us talk about. Isaac knows, of course. He was set to defend Rachel and her daughters from Daed, if necessary, but it never was. Daed is dead, so he can’t beat us ever again.”
“Your father beat you?”
He nodded. “Ja. More than once we should have gone to the hospital, but he refused to take us. His legacies are a load of debt and a temper that could destroy me and anyone near to me.”
She cupped his face. “You don’t have to be like your father. You say I don’t know you, but I do. You’re kind and loving.”
“You don’t know what I’m like inside. My daed’s temper—”
A fist hammered on the door, and Isaac burst into the apartment. “Robert, the Hendersons’ house is collapsing. Last night’s snowstorm must have been too much for the roof.”
Jumping to her feet, she said, “Go, Robert!”
“You, too, Beth Ann.”
“I’ve got the social worker coming in—”
Isaac snapped, “You need to komm! Dougie is in the house!”
Robert wondered if his face was as colorless as Beth Ann’s. They ran after Isaac through snow that reached over the top of his boots to the Hendersons’ street. The sound of sirens came from every direction. As they raced around the corner, he saw both a fire truck and an ambulance coming up from the center of the village. Police cars were speeding toward them from higher up the hill.
As he watched, the house slid another few inches backwards, and the tub fell through the porch. The crowd in front of the house yelled warnings. Either the foundation had failed or a joist supporting the house had broken. He pushed toward the house where Abby was trying to get Tommy and Crystal out of the way.
A sharp creak came from above them, and shingles pelted the street. He grabbed Beth Ann with one hand and the kinder with the other. Abby scurried away with them.
Shouts followed the sound of glass cracking in the windows and falling to the porch. The supports for the porch roof teetered.
Robert whirled to the kinder. “Are you sure he’s in there?”
Crystal nodded, tears flooding her cheeks.
“Beth Ann, stay with the kids.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get Dougie, of course.”
“What if the house collapses?”
He grasped her shoulders. “I know my way around tumbledown structures. Remember? I was going to fix the old bridge.”
“I don’t want to lose both of you.”
“You aren’t going to lose either of us.” He pulled her close for a swift kiss, not caring that people saw. It was more difficult than he’d guessed to end it.
As he released her, she whispered, “Get Dougie and get out fast!”
He touched her cheek with two fingers before running to the house. A shout came from behind him as he climbed the tilting steps. He saw a police officer waving him away from the house.
Instead he rushed inside. The floors were sloping at a precarious angle. He lurched forward, using the tilting banister to pull himself along. His name was shouted, and he looked back to see a policeman in the doorway.
“I’m getting Dougie Henderson,” he called back.
“Let me help. Do you know where he might be?”
“I don’t—” The floor quaked under his feet, and he grasped the railing with both hands.
The policeman seized the door molding before it cracked and fell off the wall. It missed Robert by inches. Dust flew up to smother them.
Through the noise of dishes shattering, Robert heard his name. Not from outside, but from the dining room.
“This way.” He pushed away from the stairs.
The table was upside down by the far wall. Plaster covered it, but his eyes fixed on an arm waving above it.
Moving as quickly as he could, he rounded the end of the table. Relief exploded within him when he saw Dougie pressed to the wall. He bent to embrace the boy, then noticed his right leg was at a strange angle beneath the table. Against his chest, Dougie held a dirty sock, and tears coursed down his face.
Robert shouted to the policeman to alert the EMTs and bent to lift the table off the boy’s leg. When he realized Dougie couldn’t move his leg by himself, Robert hefted the table toward the rear of the house. It crashed into the kitchen wall, sending more dust and plaster down on them.
He slipped his arms under the boy. Scrambling to his feet, he staggered across the floor. The boards beneath his feet seemed more like a trampoline than solid lumber. More creaks came from around them.
“We’ve got to get out,” Dougie said.
Robert took one step forward, and the house shifted. Cracks climbed the wall. Plaster dust blinded him.
A hand grasped his elbow. He recognized the slender fingers and wanted to shout at Beth Ann to get out of the house. He couldn’t talk because he could hardly breathe.
Someone seized his other arm, pulling him up the ever-steeper floor. He stumbled through the door. Beth Ann’s arm went around him after Dougie was plucked from his hold. She pushed him off the porch.
Behind them a loud crash sent a gray cloud billowing through the broken windows. He coughed, struggling to breathe. Did he hear someone say the rear of the house had fallen in? He wasn’t sure.
“Are you okay?” Beth Ann asked as her arm propped him up again.
“Ja. Dougie?”
“There.” She led him to where the boy was being placed on a gurney. A woman was already examining his right leg and called for splints to stabilize it.
Robert straightened. How could Dougie have been so careless? He looked from the sock the boy clutched to his face. The fright there quelled Robert’s fury.
“Are you going to punish me?” the boy asked in a small voice.
“Ja.”
He stiffened. “You’ll have to catch me to spank me.”
“Catching you won’t be hard when you’ve broken your leg, but I’m not going to spank you.”
Disbelief filled Dougie’s voice. “I deserve it.”
“Ja, you do, but I’m not going to spank you. You know what you did was wrong, ain’t so?”
“I guess so.”
“You guess so?”
“Yeah.” He looked past Robert.
Beth Ann and the younger kinder edged closer. The EMT assured her that except for Dougie’s leg, he was fine.
“Why?” Beth Ann said as she took the boy’s hand. “Why did you go in there when you knew the house was condemned?”
“I had to get Mommy’s money.”
“You went in there for money?” Disbelief filled Beth Ann’s voice. “How could you be so foolish when you know I’ve got enough money for whatever you need?”
“I didn’t want to ask you.”
She blinked as abrupt tears rushed into her eyes. “Because you wanted the money to help your mother?”
“No!” He gave her the way-too-familiar frown that suggested she didn’t have a brain in her head. Looking at Robert, he asked, “You understand, don’t you?”
She was astonished when Robert replied, “Ja, I do.”
“Then one of you explain it to me!” she pleaded.
“It’s simple, Beth Ann.” He faced her. “He didn’t go in there to get the money for Kim. He went in to get it so she couldn’t get her hands on it.”
Dougie nodded.
Comprehension was a clap of thunder resonating through Beth Ann. Dougie didn’t want his mother to take the easy way out by abusing more drugs. He wanted her to get the help she needed. In spite of the times she’d abandoned him and his siblings, he loved his mother.
“What is going on?” demanded a woman from behind her.
Beth Ann wanted to groan when she heard Deana’s question. Knowing she had to give the social worker a quick and honest answer, she wondered if there was any way to salvage the situation.
Gladys appeared out of the crowd. “You’re the children’s social worker, aren’t you? Come with me, young lady, and I’ll explain everything to you.” She steered Deana away before the social worker could ask a single question.
“Our social worker?” asked Crystal. “Why is she here?”
“Is she taking us away?” Dougie winced as he spoke.
“Take us away?” Tommy began to cry. “No, no, no!”
“We want to live with you, Beth Ann,” Crystal said with the passion of an eight-year-old who saw no shades of gray. “Don’t send us away. Please, don’t.”
“I never would send you away, but—”
The EMT said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to get Dougie to the hospital to have X-rays.”
“Can I go with him?” Beth Ann pleaded.
“Yes, but only one parent can ride in the ambulance.”
Robert curved his hand along her cheek. “Go! After you get home, we need to talk.”
“I know.” As she was handed up into the vehicle and shown where to sit beside the gurney, she couldn’t pull her gaze away from Robert’s until the door closed. Folding Dougie’s hand between hers, she forced herself to focus on the present. She had no idea what the future would bring, but feared it wouldn’t include either Robert or the children.
Tony Whittaker brought Beth Ann and Dougie back on freshly plowed roads to Evergreen Corners as the sun set beyond the Green Mountains. The mayor’s husband helped her tote the boy up the stairs after a single glance revealed Robert wasn’t steady on his feet. Dried blood on his hair marked where debris had glanced off his head, but he’d already taken a couple of ibuprofen and felt better.
Abby sent supper, and Dougie was asleep before dessert was over. Beth Ann shared in furtive whispers what Dougie had told her at the hospital. The sock, which now contained less than thirty dollars, had been the way Dougie had paid for most of the groceries to be delivered to the apartment. He’d used a computer in the school library to place the order and then hidden the money for the deliveryman. That explained why, once the children were homeschooled, the deliveries halted.
Beth Ann tucked each child in with Robert’s help. She’d expected them to be wired because they’d have presents in the morning, but the day had left them exhausted. Soon they all were asleep.
She cleared the table and washed the dishes, telling Robert to sit so she didn’t have to worry about him falling. That he complied told her his head must have been aching more than she’d guessed.
As she wrung the dishrag, he said, “We never finished our conversation earlier.”
“No, but I’ve had plenty of time to think about what you said.” She faced him and leaned against the counter. “If the job in Rutland is a good one, you need to take it, Robert. The children will be gone in a couple of weeks, so there’s no reason for you to stay.”
“Do you think the children are the only consideration?”
“No, but you need to think about your future.”
“My future shouldn’t include kinder.”
His words, spoken with regret, shocked her. “You’re great with the kids. If you’re talking about your temper, when have you lost it with them?”
“I almost lost it today and the other night I almost—”
“Listen to yourself, Robert! I almost lost it. But you didn’t. You controlled your temper.”
“Barely.”
“Don’t you see? God doesn’t ask us to do anything but our best, and you’ve done your best to keep your temper in check.”
“I might not always be able to control it.”
“You aren’t your father. You know the pain and degradation of abuse.” She sat beside him. “You and Rachel are both wonderful with children.” Stroking his cheek, she said, “Take the job. We’ll figure out the future one day at a time.”
“So you’ve decided what you want?”
“Yes, I want what I have here. A place where I can feel as if I belong with people who care about me and whom I care about. I came to Evergreen Corners because I thought I’d have a chance to think about what I wanted, but I’ve come to realize I’ve got everything I want and everything I need.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll use the money my aunt left me to buy Mrs. Weiskopf’s store and a home in Evergreen Corners. I plan to fight to keep the children and to talk to Isaac about being baptized Amish.”
“What?” His eyes became as round as a cereal bowl. “You’d have to give up your car and your phone and—”
“It’s not about what I’d give up. It’s what I’d gain. A loving faith family and a community where I know I belong.” She raised her gaze to meet his and whispered, “And a chance to be with the man I love.”
“You love me?”
She laughed. “Of course I do, you silly man! I don’t go around kissing random guys.”
When he dropped to his knees beside her and clasped her hands in his, he said, “I love you, too, but I suspect you already know because you seem to know everything I’m thinking.”
“I’ve prayed that you loved me.” She leaned her forehead against his. “I asked God to put me on the path He wanted me to walk, and He brought me to you.”
Muted giggles came from the doorway. She saw the three children, Dougie propped up by his sister and brother, grinning at them.
Her face was tilted toward Robert’s as he said, “Let’s give our eavesdroppers something worth listening to. Beth Ann, will you have an unemployed, broke Amish man for your husband?”
“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather marry.” As he stood, drawing her to her feet and into his arms, he bent to kiss her. The joyful dance of her heart matched the children’s cheers.