Plain Confession by Emma Miller

Author:Emma Miller [Miller, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Alma was standing at the stable door when Rachel drove up the Studer driveway, and immediately came out into the yard. Rachel had taken the chance that the Studers might be home at chore time, so she’d changed into her near-Amish garb and driven out to the farm again. After their wonderful afternoon together, Evan had left Stone Mill to escort his mother to a formal mother-son affair at her country club. The only child of a widow, he had obligations to his own family.

“Did you go to see Moses again?” Alma asked in Deitsch when Rachel got out of the Jeep. “Are they feeding my boy enough? Is he well?” she worried aloud, not really seeming to expect an answer. “I talked with the bishop. He says he will go to the prison to pray with Moses if they will let him in.” She looked up at Rachel earnestly through eyeglasses that needed a good cleaning. “Do you think they will? I don’t see why not. My son should have that right.” The older woman was again dressed for outside work. She wore a man’s heavy coat, muck boots, and a navy wool scarf.

“I’ve stopped a couple of times, but you haven’t been home,” Rachel told her, tugging on an old denim jacket she’d borrowed from her parents’ laundry room months ago. “To tell you what’s going on with Moses. Did Mary Rose mention it?”

“Come in.” Alma motioned toward the barn. “We were just milking the cows when I heard your motorcar.”

Rachel spotted Mary Rose at the clothesline across the yard, taking down a load of wash. She waved to her before she followed Alma into the old stone barn. Although it was still light outside, the stable had only a few narrow slits for windows, and it took a moment for Rachel’s eyes to adjust to the semidarkness.

“The wind is sharp,” Alma said. “No need for you to catch an ague.”

Rachel offered a tight-lipped smile, taking in the sights and sounds of the barn. A person could learn a lot about someone else from the way they kept their animals.

There were five tie stalls and a larger box stall with several half-grown calves. She counted three cows and a driving horse, all munching hay and grain from their individual mangers. The stable was as clean and orderly as Alma’s kitchen. There was an underlying scent of animals and dung, but the primary smells were sweet clover hay, molasses, and grain. Above her head, a low wide-plank ceiling told her that there was a substantial loft.

“I wanted to tell you that the attorney I spoke with will take Moses’s case. He’s still saying he did it, but at least he’s agreed to let the lawyer help him. She’ll make sure that Moses’s rights are upheld.” Rachel spotted Lemuel in a corner stall, seated on a low stool, milking a black-and-white cow. A lantern hung from an overhead beam, casting a pale light and even more shadows.

“I don’t care what it costs,” Alma said, breaking open a bale of hay.

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