Amish Homecoming by Jo Ann Brown

Author:Jo Ann Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Where could Mandy be? Mamm hadn’t seen her for the past hour, though she knew Mandy had come home from school, because she’d made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies with her granddaughter.

Leah found no sign of the girl or Shep in any of the outbuildings. She saw Daed working out behind the barn. He was repairing the belt on the stationary engine that ran some of the equipment on the farm. For once, Mandy wasn’t near where he was.

Where else could she be on a Saturday?

Shadowing her eyes, Leah looked across the field toward Ezra’s farm. The milk herd was scattered in one field as the cows grazed. Clothes hung on the line stretching from the house to the barn, but no one was in the yard. She looked along the fence lines that she could see from where she stood, but Mandy wasn’t in sight.

She opened the gate on her family’s side of the field. She picked her way across the field as quickly as she could. She didn’t want to leave Mamm home without someone else there very long. Just in case Daed fell again. That was why she’d turned down Ezra’s offer to drive her to the grocery store to pick up Mamm’s order. The next day, when Mandy was home from school, Leah had collected the groceries knowing that her niece would help, if necessary. She thanked God again that it hadn’t been.

The days of rain had left the ground muddy, and pockets of water were hidden beneath the thick grass. When her foot sank into one, she grimaced and focused on watching where she walked. She made it across the field without soaking her other sneaker.

She understood why the house had appeared deserted when she saw that the family’s buggy was gone. Wanda and Esther must be calling on someone or running errands. Was Ezra gone, too? She didn’t see anyone working in any of the fields, which was odd for him on a Saturday. With all the rain, he’d been out cutting hay whenever the skies were clear.

A sharp bark caught Leah’s ear. Looking at the field behind the barn, the one she hadn’t been able to view from home, she saw Mandy. The little girl was leaning over the fence, her bare toes curled on top of the lowest rail and holding her hand out toward some cows, who regarded her with indifference. Shep had his head stuck through the railing and seemed to believe that the cows understood what his barking meant.

“Mandy!” she said as she hurried to where her niece stood. “You know you’re supposed to let someone know when you’re leaving the farm.”

Glancing over her shoulder with a smile, her niece waved the handful of grass toward the cows, but they had no interest in being fed that way. “I can’t see where Mamm Millich is. Do you see her? Do you think she’s had her calf? I want to be able to get a photo of the calf to show Isabella when I go to her party.

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