Love Still Stands (14 page)

At least not many cars traversed the road at this time of the evening. Not on a weekday.
Most folks were already home doing their evening chores and settling down to read
the paper or sew or play games—or if they were Englisch, watch TV. He let his mind
wander to that contraption and the made-up stories they watched on it. Was it really
that different from reading a book? He didn’t care enough to belabor the thought.
He sighed and settled into the saddle, wishing for his bed and his pillow.

A horn blared, its shriek making him jump. Ned leapt ahead. The Morgan strained against
the reins, nearly ripping them from Elijah’s hands.
Here we go again
. He fought to keep control of the powerhouse of horseflesh beneath him. “Easy, boy,
easy!”

The headlights flashed around him. The car bore down on him. Elijah swerved to the
shoulder and hazarded a glance back. The lights engulfed him, blinded him. He threw
his hand to his forehead, trying to block the glare.

Why didn’t they slow? Couldn’t they see the mammoth horse striding along the side
of the road? Surely the driver saw him. How could he not? This wasn’t a darkened dirt
road off the beaten track. “Hey!”

The car, its color and style lost in the brilliant lights blinding Elijah, hurtled
toward him. A swoosh of wind caught his breath and took it away.

Ned screamed in a high, fierce whinny that went on and on. The front bumper glanced
off the horse’s side in a powerful blow. The force of the jolt knocked Ned into the
embankment. No longer able to maintain his grip on the flailing horse, Elijah sailed
airborne. He somersaulted in a dizzying trajectory that seemed to last for days. He
fought to see. The lights overhead tilted wildly around him. Ned reared up on his
hind legs, his front legs beating the air.

Elijah had no time to prepare for impact. His body collided with the ground in an
all-out, bruising assault that knocked any remaining air from his lungs. He instinctively
curled into a ball and allowed himself to roll. Pain shot through his body. Eyes closed,
he came to rest, weeds tickling his face. He tried to comprehend what had happened.
He waited, thinking he would hear a door slam and footsteps. None came. The car hadn’t
stopped.

So be it. Time to get up. He didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever.
Elijah tasted salty blood. He’d bit his tongue and his lip. He swallowed against nausea.
The ham and beans and cinnamon roll rose in his throat. He breathed through it. He
moved his arms and legs and immediately regretted it. His breathing sounded ragged
in the sudden, blaring silence.

Adrenaline faded, leaving behind a deep weariness. He had to get up or he would simply
spend the night beside the road. He forced himself to open his eyes and sucked in
cool night air, once, twice, three times, then moved his head to look around. Pain
rippled between his eyes and along the back side of his head. He stifled a groan.
A soft nicker answered. Ned had returned. The sound of the horse’s labored breathing
joined his own.

“Ned.” Elijah struggled to sit up. Purple and black dots danced in his vision. His
head pounded. “Ned, are you all right?”

The horse nickered again. Elijah tested his arms and found both would take his weight,
so he pushed off the ground to pull himself upright. His legs held. He slapped both
hands on his knees and stayed bent over a few seconds, waiting for the dizziness to
pass.

“You can do it.” He spoke aloud, more to himself than the horse. He straightened.
The road in front of him tipped side to side, then righted itself. “That’s better.”

A few more shallow breaths and he trusted his legs to carry him toward the horse.
“Hey you, Ned, come here, boy. It’s okay.”

The horse didn’t move toward him, but didn’t skitter away, either. The whites of his
eyes shone in the overhead lights. The horse’s smell of sweat and fear wafted from
him. Whispering soft nothings, Elijah tramped through the overgrown weeds and grass
until he reached the horse. He smoothed his hand down the animal’s sleek neck. “It’s
okay,” he murmured as he moved toward the animal’s back. “Driver needs to be more
careful, I reckon, don’t you?”

He ran a hand down each leg. The front right one was swollen. “That hurts, doesn’t
it, boy?”

Ned tossed his head and nickered, more loudly this time. He shied away from Elijah’s
touch. A dark wetness coated his fingers. The horse had a gash the length of his left
front leg. “I’m sorry, boy.” Elijah wiped away the blood on the weeds that reached
nearly to his waist. “I’m so sorry.”

He bit his lip against the bruising pain. It felt like a baseball smacking against
the back of his head over and over again with no discernable rhythm. “Well, we can’t
stay here, can we, boy?”

He gathered the reins and tugged. The horse followed, but with a profound limp. Elijah
longed to strike out at someone, anyone.
No
. He cringed at his own disobedience.
Forgive me
. Doing wrong when wronged only led down a dark, violent road, a place he never wanted
to go. As his mother often told him, two wrongs did not make a right. “It was an accident,”
he said instead, as if Ned could understand. “And even if it wasn’t, it’s my job to
forgive this person who doesn’t know me and probably doesn’t realize what a problem
he’s caused.”

Enough talking aloud to himself. Better to save his breath for the long walk. After
they turned on to the dirt road that led to Silas’s house, it became harder and harder
to lift his feet. He stumbled in the deep ruts. Ned slowed so much Elijah resorted
to tugging on the reins. As much as he didn’t want to hurt the animal, he had to keep
him moving forward.

Time passed in fits and starts. He might still be stumbling along at daybreak. Maybe
days from now. He concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. He counted
the steps.

Lights flashed ahead of him, up and down, in the ruts of the road. He jerked from
the dazed reverie of someone who needed desperately to sleep. After a second, he realized
he was seeing the battery-operated lights of a buggy coming toward him.

“Elijah, is that you?” Silas’s voice boomed behind the blinding lights. “What are
you doing? What’s wrong with the horse?”

Elijah staggered to a stop. He bowed his head.
Thank You, Jesus, thank You
.

“It’s me.”

“Where have you been? You’re always home by dark. I was beginning to think you lost
yourself in this new countryside.”

“Nee.”

Silas stopped the buggy in the middle of the road. He clamored down. “What happened
to you?” The humor in his voice had disappeared. “Is that blood on your forehead?”

Chapter 14

B
ethel took a side-swipe glance at Elijah. He held the reins with a white-knuckled
grip. The patch of bandage on his forehead peeked out from under his hair and his
hat. The scratches and bruises on the side of his face were made all the more noticeable
by the paleness of his skin. A man normally as neat as a Plain living room, he looked
as if he’d slept in his clothes. Scratches covered the back of his hands, red and
raw looking. When he arrived well before the appointed hour to take her into town,
he’d refused her offer of a cup of
kaffi
and declined to come in the house. He tried to hide the grimace when he helped her
climb in the buggy, but she saw it and heard the stifled grunt. Still, he hadn’t said
a word. She clutched her bag with its sweats and sneakers close to her chest and waited
for him to tell her what happened.

Nothing. He hadn’t said two words the entire time they traveled on the dirt road or
when they turned onto the highway. “What’s the matter?” It couldn’t hurt to ask, could
it? “You seem awful jumpy.”

“Nothing. I’m not jumpy. I just want to get you into town quick as possible.”

“At this rate, we’ll be early.” The sun hadn’t risen yet, and cars were few and far
between. “We practically have the road to ourselves.”

“I like it that way.” His face reddened. “I mean, I don’t like a lot of traffic.”

“So that’s why we left earlier than need be.”

“Jah.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened to you, or do you want me to guess?”

“It’s not that interesting.” He glanced over his shoulder as if checking to see if
they were being followed. White lines tightened around his mouth. “You don’t need
to know.”

“You’re hurt. That interests me. I want to know.”

“I don’t want you to be scared or worry. I think it was an accident. Just an accident.”
For the first time he looked at her directly. The cut across his nose gave him a battered
look, like someone who’d been in a fight. She hadn’t seen that on a Plain man before.
“A car ran me and Ned off the road last night. But I’m fine.”

“Fine? You look like you’ve been beat up.” She contemplated his words. “You’re sure
it was an accident? Yesterday that truck—”

“Just coincidence. People drive too fast on this highway. They’re not used to buggies
and horseback riders. We need to be more careful.” He sounded as if he were trying
to convince himself as well as her. “I took a tumble, but I landed in the weeds. Silas’s
fraa doctored me. I’m fine.”

“Did the car stop? Was it intentional?”

“The car didn’t stop. I don’t know if it was intentional. I suspect it was an accident,
but then the driver was scared of getting into trouble, so he moved on.”

“And left you on the side of the road.”

“Jah.”

“So you just got up, dusted yourself off, and rode on home?”

“I got up, dusted myself off, but then I walked Ned home. His leg is hurt pretty bad.”

“Can it be fixed?” Bethel knew how much horses meant to the farming operation, and
they were very expensive to replace. They were held in high regard. “Did Silas doctor
it?”

“He tried, but we figure we need to get a vet out there to look at him.” He sighed.
“I think we’ll have to put him down.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

“Do you hurt?” She ventured the words, not sure how he’d react to such a question.
Men didn’t like to admit to pain or weakness.

Again, he glanced at her, then back at the road. “Jah.”

“Do you need a doctor? We’ll be near the medical center. The emergency room will be
open.”

“Nee. I’ll drop you, then go by the vet to see when he can come out.”

“The veterinary hospital won’t be open this early. You could go to the emergency room.
Are you sure—”

“Could we not talk?”

Surprised and a little bewildered by his brusqueness, she nodded. Elijah had always
been so quick at conversation. She didn’t like what this had done to him. She thought
of the horn blaring on their first trip into town. What if that truck had gotten too
close to them? She sneaked another peek at Elijah. His jaw was set, his expression
grim. What sort of new beginning was this? First the house vandalized and nearly burned
down. Then the incidents on the road. Did the Englischers dislike them that much?
How could they? They didn’t even know her family and friends.

These thoughts occupied her as they drove into New Hope. The closer they got to the
rehab clinic the more tense she felt. Soon she’d be in a room filled with these very
people. People who didn’t want her or her kind around. Maybe she should tell the doctor
she’d changed her mind. But she couldn’t avoid therapy and help Leah. She had to help
Leah.

Elijah pulled the buggy up to the curb in front of the clinic. “Whoa.” He didn’t move
to get down immediately. Neither did she.

Finally, he turned to her. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For taking it out on you.”

“You didn’t.”

His gaze went beyond her to the building and then back to her. “You must be a little
nervous about this, and I’m sorry if I made it worse.”

“You didn’t.”

“Do you have to be so nice?”

He jumped down from the buggy with a grunt. His back to her, he bent over for a second,
hands on his knees. His breathing sounded too loud to her. “Elijah, please.”

He strode around the buggy and looked up at her. The purple-green bruises and angry
scratches stood out against the whiteness of his skin. He held out both hands. “Down
you go.”

“You need to go to the doctor.”

“I don’t.”

“You’re stubborn as an old man.”

“Jah.”

She allowed him to help her down. He handed her the crutches and then started toward
the double doors. “What are you doing?”

“Luke said I was to deliver you to the doctor.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I’m not leaving you standing out here. Let’s go.”

She had no choice but to follow him. He tried the red button Shawn had used the previous
day. Nothing. He peered through the glass. “Looks dark in there. Nobody’s here yet.”

A red car sat in the parking lot in a slot marked
Staff
. “Someone’s here. Try knocking.”

He knocked and a few seconds later the doors opened. Doctor Karen waved and smiled.
“Right on time. Are you Bethel’s boyfriend? Come on in. I can give you a little tour
if you like.”