A Simple Faith: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel (48 page)

Pulling the blanket up on her shoulders, Rachel went over to the double bed and sat down facing Molly. “You have a big heart, liewe.” Too big to take on worries about James.

“I pray for everyone who was in that van,” Molly said. “It must have been a terrible thing, being in a crash. Ben says two cars can crack each other in half, just like eggshells.”

“Don’t let Ben scare you. He’s full of stories these days, and he wasn’t there.” At seventeen, their brother Ben was feeling his oats, as Dat said. Although rumspringa was meant to be a time for parents to look the other way while their teenaged son or daughter found a mate in the Amish community, some young people pushed the walls out way too far. Rachel had heard talk of Ben learning to drive a car and racing motorbikes. But mostly, he seemed to collect tidbits of Englisher culture, gobbling up stories about the Englisher world as if they were candy.

“Are you still scared to ride in a car?” Molly asked.

“A little,” Rachel admitted. “But I don’t get that tight feeling inside anymore. The meetings with Dylan have helped me a lot.” Dylan Monroe was an Englisher counselor who had offered free
sessions to help the passengers deal with the aftermath of the accident. Post-traumatic stress, he called it.

“You’re so brave.”

“Not really.” As Rachel smoothed back her sister’s hair, she thought of the story shared by Ruben Zook, one of the other passengers. The notion of angels had come up when the group members were questioning why they were spared while Tom Lapp was taken by Gott and James was seriously injured. “Ruben says that we had angels with us that afternoon. Gott’s angels, watching over us.”

Molly flung her arms around Rachel and hugged her close. “I love that story. Sometimes when I can’t sleep at night, I pretend that an angel just slipped into bed beside me. And that helps me sleep.”

“That’s a wonderful good way to doze off.” Rachel yawned. “But now it’s time to get up.”

“Time to greet the day!” Molly pushed back the covers, slipped out of bed, then turned back to Rachel. “I’m so glad you moved back down with us. I missed you.”

Rachel smiled. “I’m glad, too.”

Molly prodded Bethany, whose face was pressed into her pillow. “Now it’s time to get up, sleepyhead.”

“I’m up,” Bethany groaned. “How could I sleep with you two yacking?”

“Rise and shine,” Rachel said as she began to pin her long hair back. “It’s the early bird that gets the worm.”

“I want to sleep.” Bethany rolled over and groaned. “I don’t need any worms.”

Chuckling softly, Rachel was glad to be back down here sharing a room with her sisters. Gott did work in wondrous ways.

R
OSALIND
L
AUER
grew up in a large family in Maryland and began visiting Lancaster County’s Amish community as a child. She attended Wagner College in New York City and worked as an editor for Simon & Schuster and Harlequin Books. She currently lives with her family in Oregon, where she writes in the shade of some towering two-hundred-year-old Douglas fir trees.