Amish Country Box Set: Restless Hearts\The Doctor's Blessing\Courting Ruth (18 page)

Her fingers touched a photo, and she drew in a deep breath and let it out. “I think this was one of the boys I saw at the auction.” She shook her head. “Not just think. I’m sure.”

“Okay.” He moved to her side to look at the photo.

She glanced up at him. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize until I saw the picture that I really could identify him.
I guess I got a better look than I thought when he rounded the corner.”

He looked at the photo, his heart sinking. “Jared Michaels. He’s just sixteen, but he’s already had a couple of brushes with trouble.”

“You know him?”

“I know everyone, remember? Somehow, I’m not surprised you picked out Jared’s picture.”

“I can only say that he was one of the boys at the auction. There’s no connection between the auction and the vandals.”

“Unfortunately, there is a link. Someone came back to the site of the auction that night and trashed the things that hadn’t sold. Stuff was left sitting outside, so that made it easier for them.”

“You didn’t tell me that before.” She frowned at him.

“If you hadn’t been able to identify anyone, there’d have been no need for you to know.”

He thought she might flare up at that, but she just nodded, her eyes thoughtful. “You don’t look especially happy at having the boy identified,” Fiona said. “What trouble has he been in?”

“Nothing serious. And unfortunately nothing he was ever held responsible for. His mother claimed her son couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong, and his father took a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude.”

“You think they’ll do the same with this?”

“I think I’d like to have a little proof before I actually tackle Jared.”

“Well, I wish you success with it.” She stood up, obviously ready to escape.

He held out his hand to stop her. “There’s something else.”

“I didn’t see enough of the other boys to be able—”

“It’s not that.” He took a breath. This was going to hurt her, but he didn’t see any way out of it. “I received an anonymous tip this morning, saying the caller knew who the Amish boy was who’s running with the vandals.”

Her eyes darkened, as if she were bracing herself for bad news.

“Who?”

“Rachel’s brother. Levi Stolzfus.”

* * *

“I just can’t believe it.” Fiona took the curtain rod from her Aunt Siobhan’s hand and mounted the step stool to slip one end into its bracket.

“Can’t believe Levi would do it, or can’t believe anyone would say that about him?”

Siobhan held the other end of the rod, her hand keeping the drape from dragging on the floor of Fiona’s living room. Not only had her aunt insisted she had the perfect drapes for the room, she’d even hemmed them to fit and then come to help Fiona hang them.

“Both, I guess.” She stepped back down, moved the stool and climbed up to take care of the other side. “He’s such a quiet boy—I haven’t gotten to know him as well as I have Rachel. But even so, I just can’t believe it of him.”

Did she really know him well enough to say? That was the question that had haunted her since she’d stormed out of Ted’s office.

“What is he, about thirteen?” Her aunt smoothed the folds of the drapes. “That’s a difficult age. Boys can become secretive and very easily influenced by their peers.”

“You sound as if you speak from experience.”

Siobhan smiled. “After the crew I raised? You can believe I speak from experience. What one of them didn’t think of to do, the others did. And Ryan was the worst of the lot, always trying to outdo his older brothers with one outrageous trick after another.”

“Well, now he’s settled down to be a model husband and father, hasn’t he?”

“That he has.” Siobhan’s face softened into a sweet smile. “I have to say that grandchildren are a wonderful reward for having raised your children.”

“I’m sure they are.” Although she couldn’t imagine her stepmother thinking it a good thing for anyone to call her “Grandma.”

She stepped down from her perch, stroking the floral print fabric with pleasure. “These really are beautiful. The colors are almost like a watercolor painting. You’re sure you didn’t need them any longer?”

“My husband said that he’d get hay fever if he had to sleep in a room that looked like a flower garden any longer.”

“So you let him have his way.”

She waved a hand in the air. “It was a pleasure. And now you can enjoy them.”

Her aunt smiled as if she really enjoyed giving something up to make her husband happy. Well, maybe that went along with the fact that Siobhan and Joe were as obviously in love as any newlyweds.

“I
will
enjoy them.” Fiona carried the step stool to the next window. “To say nothing of appreciating your hard work in fixing them.”

Curtains for her living room from one aunt; a quilt for her bed from another. She wasn’t used to the sensation of having all these relatives wanting to help her.

“What did your friend think about the likelihood of young Levi being involved?”

Ted. Her friend. She wasn’t sure that was how she would describe their relationship at this point.

“I don’t think he liked it much, but of course he has to investigate. It’s his job.” That came out rather tartly, and her aunt seemed to notice.

“Yes, it
is
his job. He certainly couldn’t show favoritism toward someone just because he knows them.”

“I know that.” She went back up on the step stool and took the second rod her aunt handed her. “But it is his job, not mine.”

Aunt Siobhan raised her eyebrows. “Has someone suggested that it’s yours?”

She fitted the rod end carefully in place. “He keeps talking about the responsibility that comes with belonging, as if I should—”

She stopped. She really hadn’t intended to say that much to anyone, although of course Aunt Siobhan was perfectly trustworthy.

“He wants you to do something.” Siobhan took her hand as she clambered down. “And you don’t want to.”

“No. I don’t.” She may as well tell her aunt the rest of it. Surely Siobhan would agree with her. “He doesn’t want to talk to Levi in any official way if he can help it. Not yet.”

Her aunt nodded. “I can understand why he’d feel that way, given his friendship with the family.”

“He wants
me
to do it.” The words burst out of her. “Just because Rachel and Levi sometimes come to visit me, he thinks I can get him to admit it if he’s involved.”

“Is that how he put it? Try to get him to admit something?” Siobhan sounded doubtful.

“Well, not exactly.” She was ashamed of herself for trying to make Ted’s request sound worse that it was. “He just wants me to bring up the subject and see if Levi reacts. He seems to feel that if he is involved, he might be longing for someone to give him an opening to talk about it.”

She looked at her aunt. The curtain fabric cascaded from her hands, making her look as if she held a bouquet of flowers.

“I don’t want to be the one. Is that cowardly?”

“No one would think that.” Siobhan’s gaze was as loving as if she were counseling one of her own children. “But that’s not really the point, is it? You don’t want to feel as if you’re betraying your family, just when you’re starting to be accepted by them.”

Everyone seemed to see that clearly. “That’s not wrong, is it?”

“No, not wrong. But you know, if the boy is involved in these tricks, the sooner it ends, the better it will be for him. I can’t imagine, from what you’ve said, that he’s anything but a pawn for these older boys.”

“If it’s him.” She still wasn’t ready to concede that.

“If it’s him,” her aunt agreed. “Still, if it is, it would do him more harm not to stop him. What if they did something that hurt a person, instead of property? He could be held accountable, even if all he did was keep watch.”

That sinking feeling was the recognition that she didn’t have any choice in the matter. “So you think I should do this.”

Siobhan stroked her shoulder gently. “I think you should pray about it and open your heart for God’s answer. You’ll know what to do when the time comes, I promise.”

* * *

You’ll know what to do when the time comes.

Aunt Siobhan’s words sounded in Fiona’s heart as she cleaned up after her last appointment the next day. Though they probably wouldn’t recognize it, her aunt Siobhan and her aunt Emma were similar in many ways, especially in the fact that they were both strong women of God.

I want to be like them, Lord, but I don’t feel very strong right now. Please guide me. Help me to find the answer.

She dropped a load of sheets into the washer in the
kitchen and started it, finding its hum companionable in the quiet house. Even with patients, family and new friends, the house still sometimes felt lonely.

The clop of a horse’s hooves alerted her, and she looked out the kitchen window to see Rachel halting her buggy next to the back steps. She wasn’t alone. Levi sat beside her.

Panic gripped her.
Not now, Lord. I’m not ready yet.
She’d asked God to help her find the answer, and He’d immediately presented her with an opportunity to do just that, ready or not.

She dried her hands and reached the door just as her young cousins did. Rachel beamed at her. “We surprise you, ja?”

“Yes, you do. Come in, please.”

“I must do some shopping at Ruth’s for my mother.” She gave Levi a little push toward Fiona. “Levi does not like shopping. Is all right if he watches the television?”

She could hardly imagine this was anything but God’s answer to her prayer, with the opportunity to talk to Levi alone thrust at her.

“Of course.” She touched Levi’s shoulder lightly. “Go on in, Levi. I’ll fix a snack for you.”

He nodded, not speaking, and headed down the hall. She glanced at Rachel, who was frowning at the doorway through which her brother had gone.

“Is anything wrong?”

“N-no.” Rachel didn’t sound as confident as she usually did. “It’s just that Levi has been quiet—more
quiet than usual. Often I can worm it out if something bothers him, but not this time.” She shook her head. “I will come back soon. Thank you, Cousin Fiona.”

She stood for a few minutes after Rachel left, hands braced against the counter.
Please, Lord.

She took a breath. She knew what she had to do. The question was, could she do it? Well, she had to try.

Quickly, she took out the peanut butter, bread and jelly. It might be easier to talk over a snack, assuming she could get the boy to talk at all.

She put the sandwiches on a tray, added two glasses of milk, and carried the tray through to the waiting room, where Levi sat cross-legged on the rug in front of the television, gaze rapt on the flickering images on the screen.

Sitting down next to him, she held out the tray.

“Ser gut.”
He gave her a shy smile that made him look about eight. He took a bite of the sandwich, returning his attention to the television.

She couldn’t possibly force a bite down her dry throat. Instead, she drained half a glass of milk.

Some cowardly part of her told her to get up, make an excuse and scurry back to the kitchen until Rachel returned. Don’t get involved. That’s safer. You can’t get hurt that way.

But it was too late for that. She was already involved, and no matter what happened, she had to try.

She glanced at the television, looking for something to start the conversation. The show was typical cartoon fare, with plucky teen heroes battling monsters.

“I’ve never seen this one before. Is it good?”

Levi shrugged. “Is all right. Not as good as video games.”

Something tightened inside her. “I’ve never played one of those. Do you like them?”

“You have to learn to control them.” He gestured with his hands, as if working an imaginary control. “I learned fast.”

That was so close to bragging that it took her aback for an instant. Without noticing it, she’d become accustomed to the ingrained Amish modesty.

“You must have some English friends to teach you video games.” Who are they, Levi? What trouble did they lead you into?

“I have some. There’s nothing bad with that.” His voice turned defensive. “You are English, and you are my cousin.”

“That’s true,” she said slowly.
Do it.
“Unless those English friends want you to do something you know is wrong. Then it might be very bad.”

Levi stared at her, blue eyes widening. Then he dropped the remains of his sandwich, scrambled to his feet and bolted for the door.

“Levi—”

But by the time she reached the door, he was gone.

She stood in the doorway for a moment, arguing with herself. He hadn’t admitted anything, had he? There was nothing that she could really tell Ted—no evidence that Levi was involved with the vandals.

But she couldn’t fool herself about this. Something had been very wrong about the way the boy reacted.

Her aunt Siobhan’s words came back to her again. If Levi was involved, the best thing for him was to be caught quickly, before anything else happened. She couldn’t hide her head in the sand. She had to call Ted.

She glared at the phone a few minutes later, frustrated. It was one thing to get her courage screwed up to do this, and another to be confronted with nothing but an automatic answering machine instead of Ted.

If she waited until later—but that was the coward’s way out, and she couldn’t take that any longer. The message tone sounded.

“Ted, it’s Fiona. I just had a conversation with my cousin. I think we’d better talk as soon as possible.”

There, it was done. Why was it that doing the right thing felt so much like being a traitor?

Chapter Thirteen

“L
ook, I’m really sorry I didn’t get back to you last night.”

Ted stood just inside Fiona’s kitchen doorway, because she hadn’t offered him a seat. Judging by how annoyed she looked with him, it was a wonder she’d even let him in the door.

“That’s all right.” She didn’t sound as if it was all right, but at least she’d said the words. Fiona poured a mug of coffee and held it out to him.

“Thanks.” The mug warmed his palms, but it didn’t take away the chill in the atmosphere.