A Promise of Forgiveness by Jo Ann Brown

Author:Jo Ann Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-11-29T18:56:11+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

When Naomi said she should check on the kinder and send Celesta home before she came to the dawdi haus to make sure Kara was settled in, Samuel heard his sister draw in a deep breath. To protest? Or to ask a question? Kara might be having second thoughts about staying at the Gingerichs’, and he didn’t want her running away again. She might not be found a second time.

Whatever Kara might have said was silenced when Naomi smiled and said, “I’ll be in to check on you in a few minutes.”

“When can I see the kinder?”

“In the morning. They should all be asleep now. I try to have them in bed before the sun sets on these late evenings.”

“Oh,” Kara said with a nervous giggle, “I should have known that.”

“You’ll learn. I promise you these three kinder will keep all three of us grown-ups hopping.”

In the dim interior of the buggy, Samuel could see how pleased Kara was to be included as an adult. It shocked him each time he recalled she was only a couple of years younger than he’d been when he jumped the fence. Back then, he’d believed he knew everything there was to know. He couldn’t have been more wrong then, and he couldn’t be more wrong now if he treated his little sister as a kind. That might compel her to leave.

He unhitched the horse, then picked up two grocery bags of Kara’s things from the back of the buggy, stuffing them into the crook of his right arm before reaching for his cane. Kara carried two more as they walked around the side of the house to go to the dawdi haus.

“The barn over there is the buggy shop,” he said into the silence.

“How’s he doing?” Kara hesitated. “She said he’d had a stroke and you were helping him.”

“He should be home in a day or two. I’ll be helping him with his physical therapy because, as you can see, I’ve had a bunch myself.”

“What happened to you?”

He paused and faced her. “What do you mean?”

She gestured toward his cane. “Why do you use that? What happened?”

“You don’t know?”

She shook her head.

“I was in a car accident. Didn’t Mamm tell you about it?”

“No. Mamm refuses to let your name be spoken in our house.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised, but the revelation sent a piercing pain to the center of his heart, where his yearning for his mamm to acknowledge him lingered. “I see.”

“I don’t!” she said with every bit of a teenager’s fervor. “You’re my brother. I should have known you’d been injured in a car accident. Mamm needs to think about someone other than herself once in a while.”

Though he wanted to agree with her, he had to keep in mind that once she returned home, she might not be as willing to rebel against everything Mamm said and did. He remained silent as he led the way up the porch steps to the front door. Opening it, he motioned for Kara to go in ahead of him.

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