Chapter 16
“Leah! Leah, what happened?” Jude shouted as he ran from the barn. When she didn’t turn to look at him—urged Mose into a full gallop as though demons from hell were chasing her—apprehension overwhelmed him. His wife was no sissy. What could possibly have upset her so badly that she would race away from her guests?
“Dat, where’s Leah goin’ in such a hurry?” Stevie asked as he joined Jude outside to follow Mose’s progress to the road. “She was cryin’ so hard she didn’t even see us.”
Jude’s gut clenched. His son had just confirmed a detail he’d missed because he’d been driving a nail when Leah had entered the barn. “I’m going after her—but you stay here, Stevie,” he added quickly. “Don’t worry, son, I’ll bring her home and we’ll get this situation figured out.”
A few minutes later, Jude was urging Rusty down the lane, aware that his bay gelding was much more accustomed to pulling a rig than galloping with a rider on his back—and also aware that it had been years since he’d ridden a horse bareback. To keep from losing his hat, he tucked it under his thigh. When they reached the road, Jude steered the horse to the right, as Leah had done—but after that, all he had to go on was instinct. She was nowhere in sight, and the dust Mose had kicked up had already settled.
Where would Leah go? Surely she wouldn’t head for her mamm’s place clear over in Cedar Creek . . .
If she’s going there, she’ll at least slow her horse to a walk; he can’t run for the entire hour it takes to reach the Otto farm.
As the brisk wind caught at Jude’s open barn jacket, it occurred to him that Leah hadn’t been wearing a coat—her dress had been a deep red blur against the gray sky as she’d galloped away. Although he urged Rusty along the shoulder of the road, the poor horse was already huffing clouds of steam and slowing down as the wind whipped at his black mane—which made Jude think his chances of catching up to Leah were slim to none.
Be smart about this. No matter how upset she is, Leah will come to her senses before she’ll risk injuring Mose—and she has to be getting terribly cold by now.
Jude allowed Rusty to find his own pace as they passed the Flaud place and the Hartzler farm. He gazed across the pasture where Saul Hartzler’s Black Angus cattle huddled together for warmth, watching him curiously. The fences around these properties would prevent Leah from cutting across them—and as he studied the wooded area along the border of Jeremiah’s land, he didn’t think she would’ve ridden into the trees, either.
As Jude approached the main road of Morning Star’s business district, his thoughts went into a tailspin. The sky was hung with heavy gray clouds and the first snowflakes stung his face. When snow came this late in the winter, it rarely stayed on the ground long—but today it was surely a nuisance. He halted his horse until a few cars went by, gazing to the right and to the left and ahead of him.
“Rusty, you have a better idea where Mose went than I do,” he said as he stroked the gelding’s warm cinnamon-colored neck. “From here Leah could’ve gone around to the south, or across town, or—well, I have no idea, fella,” he added with a sigh.
When the way was clear, Jude followed his instinct and steered Rusty along the shoulder of the main road rather than crossing it into town. Considering Leah’s emotional state, he didn’t think she would’ve ridden in traffic or in front of Plain businesses where local folks might’ve recognized her—or called out to her about why she wasn’t wearing a coat.
Maybe by now she’s so cold she’s turned back toward home.
Jude sighed and kept scanning the farmland he was passing. Leah hadn’t been all that excited about the quilting frolic—had gone along with the idea because she knew her mother would enjoy the company of other women after living alone these past few months. It seemed unlikely that his wife would return to the house until she thought the neighbor ladies were gone.
She might’ve slipped into somebody’s barn. Or maybe she went into a store in town to get warm. Now that Lenore’s at our place, I can’t think of a single woman Leah would run to while she’s in such a state of turmoil....
Leah’s lack of female friends saddened Jude—but it occurred to him that sooner or later, his wife would return home because she was totally devoted to little Betsy. She was more able than most women to look after herself, even if she had taken off like a shot without a coat, so Jude relaxed a little. . . let his mind travel down its own paths rather than trying to force ideas to come.
Rusty had slowed to a walk. The snow contained tiny pellets of sleet and pinged against Jude’s face as it sparkled like diamonds in the gelding’s black mane, and it showed no sign of letting up. He hated to head for home without Leah, yet in his mind he could hear her scolding him for needlessly keeping his horse out in the cold while he was searching for her. With a sigh, Jude guided his gelding east at the next intersection to go home by another way—on another couple of roads Leah might’ve followed, he told himself.
He brushed the snow from his hair and crammed his hat back on his head, his eyes never leaving the fields and lanes of the Plain farms he rode past. The evergreens in the Slabaugh sisters’ windbreak were taking on the lace of a snow cover, and as Jude glanced at their white farmhouse, he thought it appeared as tightly fastened and austere as the maidels themselves. Beyond the house sat a prim white barn and another outbuilding—and then a flash of red out in the stubbled cornfield made Jude suck in his breath.
“Leah!” he hollered as he nudged Rusty into the Slabaughs’ lane. “Leah, please wait!”
All Jude could figure was that Leah was trying to find a shortcut home, rather than following the roads—and at that moment he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that he’d found her, and that she’d stopped Mose to look at him. He urged Rusty into a canter, thankful that his bay seemed to realize they’d fulfilled their mission and would soon be returning home to the warm barn.
Jude’s heart was hammering as he sped across the closely cropped cornfield, his gaze fixed on Leah. Never mind that she sat hunched against the wind and snow and that her hair hung in wet, uneven clumps around her neck. To him, she’d never seemed more beautiful or a more welcome sight for his worried eyes. Only when he was a few yards away did he rein in the horse. When Rusty came up alongside Leah and Mose, Jude slung his arm around his wife’s shoulders and pulled her close for a clinging, desperate kiss.
“I thought I’d lost you—couldn’t understand why you’d—” Jude rasped before he kissed Leah again. “My stars, woman, don’t ever scare me this way again! What would I do if you didn’t come home?”
When he felt her shiver, Jude shrugged out of his barn coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. Still holding her as close as the two horses’ bodies would allow, he gazed around them. “Let’s head for the barn. We’ve got to get you out of this snow, sweetheart.”
* * *
Leah let out a sob and allowed Jude to take her reins and lead Mose to the barn. She’d been five kinds of foolish to rush off without a coat, and two kinds of stupid to allow Alice’s and Adeline’s cutting remarks to get the better of her. When Jude hopped off Rusty to slide the barn door open, she was grateful that Mose had enough sense to get in out of the nasty weather and that Rusty immediately came inside with them. Because she’d left home in a silly, mindless snit, she’d caused two fine horses—and her wonderful husband—needless pain and exposure to the cold. It would serve her right if she caught a horrible cold for running off like a goose.
Behind her, Leah heard a pffft! A glow lit the shadowy barn as Jude hung the Slabaughs’ lantern from a long nail in the barn wall. He closed the big door and came up beside her, opening his arms. She fell into his embrace and began weeping against his shoulder like a woman who’d lost her last friend.
He came after you. He thought he’d lost you. Leah’s thoughts spun in circles that slowly began to unwind, and she became aware that Jude was shaking, too, wrapping his arms around her beneath the coat as though he never intended to let her go. Don’t ever scare me this way again! What would I do if you didn’t come home?
When Leah raised her head, she was stunned to see that Jude’s face was wet with tears. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “I should’ve known better—”
“What happened, sweetheart?” he whispered urgently. “You’re the bravest woman I know, so I can’t imagine what upset you so badly.”
Leah wiped her face against her arm. Her clothes were soaked and clinging to her, chilling her to the bone. Her hair had come undone and was hanging in wet bunches around her shoulders—and somewhere along the way, her kapp had blown off. Jude’s dark eyes searched hers relentlessly, yet desperately. . . lovingly. When he took the bandanna from his shirt pocket and began to blot her face and hair, Leah began to cry again—but this time it was love rather than fear driving her emotions.
And when have you ever allowed your emotions to get so far out of control? You could’ve told Jude about the twins’ remarks in the barn at home and saved him a lot of bother.
Leah sighed and took a couple of deep breaths. Bless him, Jude spotted a barn coat hanging on a peg near the door and he brought it to her . . . eased his own soaked coat gently off her shoulders and helped her into the dry one. He wasn’t pushing her for answers, or chiding her for riding off in such a huff. He simply waited for her to regain her mental balance, rubbing her chilled, raw hands between his large, warm ones. The horses wandered back into stalls, following their noses to hay and water and a Slabaugh horse that whickered a welcome.
At last Leah cleared her throat. “The frolic was going like it was supposed to—unless you count the way I was so clueless as to carry food out to the ladies who were quilting,” she added with a sigh. “But when Anne remarked about how I was handling Betsy as though she were my own child—”
“Jah, the two of you together make a sweet picture,” Jude agreed, encouraging her with his loving gaze.
“—Alice announced that she believes Betsy is my baby,” Leah continued, closing her eyes against the pain of the twins’ accusations. “And of course, Adeline chimed in, and between the two of them they—they speculated that I’d had Betsy out of wedlock and hidden her at Mama’s while you were courting me, so you wouldn’t know about my secret and my sins until after we were married.”
Jude’s mouth fell open. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever—”
“Jah, but the women just gaped and gawked, thinking that maybe the girls had it right,” Leah protested. “I was so stunned—so tongue-tied—that I surely must’ve looked guilty to them. So I ran,” she continued in a whisper. “I had to get out of there, Jude. I-I’m sorry—”
“No!” he insisted, gently grasping her arms. “You have nothing to apologize for, Leah. But when I get home to those girls—”
Jude turned from her, so angry that it took him several moments to regain his composure. He exhaled fiercely and then held his head in his hands. “I can’t begin to imagine how humiliated you must’ve felt, Leah,” he said in a voice she could barely hear. “My first impulse is to rush home and have the girls apologize to you and to your guests—”
“If they’re still at the house,” Leah said glumly. While she craved the opportunity for Jude to set things straight before Mama’s quilting friends went home, a part of her cringed at the thought of facing them all again.
Jude shook his head, still upset about his daughters’ accusations. He pulled Leah close for another hug, rubbing her briskly to get her warm. “But my first concern is you—getting you home and into dry clothes,” he said. He exhaled as though trying to rid himself of anger so he could think clearly. “And you know what, Leah? Even if what the twins said were true—even if you had hidden Betsy from me while we were courting—it wouldn’t change my love for you one bit.”
Leah blinked. Jude surely couldn’t be serious, after the way Frieda had deceived him by keeping the same sort of secret—twice. What man would want to know that his second wife had betrayed him as well?
“And besides,” he continued, easing away to gaze at her, “I’ve known you for too many years to believe you’d pull such a stunt—and your mother’s not the sort of woman to go along with such a hoax, either. I’m grateful to God, however, that Betsy has come to us, and I intend to adopt her and make her a permanent part of our family.”
Leah’s throat tightened with such love that she couldn’t speak for a moment. “Oh, Jude, I love you so much for—for believing in me,” she whispered. “And for wanting to be Betsy’s dat. I want us to adopt her, too.”
When she sneezed suddenly, Jude gave her his damp bandanna so she could blow her nose. He glanced around the barn. “Are you up to riding Mose back home? Or shall I go back and fetch a rig so you’ll be out of the weather—”
“What’s a little more snow?” Leah asked as she held up the sides of her soaked skirt. “I can’t really get any wetter than I already am.”
Jude kissed her lovingly. “You and I are going home to rectify this situation with the girls,” he stated, “and then we’re going to make plans to get away for a few days. You know that B and B that’s on the road to Cedar Creek? The one the Kanagy fellows’ wives run?”
Leah nodded, a spark of expectation warming her. “The double house beside the auction barn?”
“Yup. We’re getting a room there,” Jude said, gripping her hand. “You deserve some time off for gut behavior, Mrs. Shetler—and I don’t get to spend nearly enough time alone with you.”
Leah threw her arms around him. How had she ever managed to marry such a loving, thoughtful man? “That doesn’t sound like something an Amish husband would do for his wife,” she admitted softly. “I don’t know of anyone who’s stayed there.”
“Then it’s time we show Amish husbands that romancing their wives with a little time away is gut for both parties involved,” Jude insisted with a gleam in his eye. “The Bible tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, so how could anyone say I’m being too extravagant? Let’s get you home, sweetheart,” he added gently. “You’ve had a rough time of it today.”