A Ready-Made Amish Family by Jo Ann Brown

Author:Jo Ann Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Three days later, Clara was astonished to see Isaiah waiting in the kitchen when she came downstairs to start breakfast. Usually, at this hour just before dawn, he’d be out to the barn doing chores. She was about to ask him if everything was okay when the stern expression on his face told her it wasn’t.

“There’s been a death at the Gingerich house. Henry Gingerich,” he said without a preamble. “A heart attack in his sleep. I need to get over there to help the family.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Do you want me to pack food for you to take with you?”

He shook his head. “No. There will be plenty there. You know how plain folks make sure the grieving family has more to eat than they need.” His eyes shifted toward the freezer compartment on the refrigerator. He swallowed so hard she could see the motion.

Though the last of the food brought for Melvin and Esta’s funeral had been used up, she guessed he couldn’t get the picture of the stuffed freezer out of his mind. It was a lingering reminder of his loss.

“Is there anything else I can do?” she asked.

“Will you explain to the kids that I may not be able to get to their picnic at school?” He raked his hand through his pale hair, leaving it spiked across the top of his head.

She resisted the temptation to smooth those strands. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure the boys see everything at school.”

“I promised Andrew and Ammon I would attend with them.”

“I know.”

The older twins had been excited last night about visiting the school they’d attend in the fall. Neva Fry had taken over the school when Isaiah’s younger sister, Esther, married, and, as the new teacher, Neva had decided to ask next year’s first-time students to attend school for a fun day so the building and scholars would be familiar to them on their first day. In addition, she asked the parents to join in a frolic of cleaning the school building and yard.

With the gates done, Isaiah had looked forward to spending time with the twins at the school gathering. He’d volunteered to help paint the small outhouses used by the scholars. The buckets of white paint were already in the family buggy. Neither Isaiah nor Clara had mentioned that the twins might not be in Paradise Springs in the fall. Until they knew for sure who was going to take them and where, there was no reason to disrupt the kinder further.

“The twins will understand,” she said, though she wasn’t sure.

“If you tell them I’ve gone to oversee plans for a funeral.” His face lost what little color it’d had. “But I don’t want them to know that. Not on such a special day.”

She put her hand on his arm. “Go and be with the Gingerich family. They need you more than the kinder do.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“I am. Let me do what you hired me to do.”

He put his hand over hers, and she found herself sinking into the depths of his blue-gray eyes.

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