The Bishop's Daughter (8 page)

Jimmy shrugged. “I—I suppose that would be okay. It’s a start, anyway.”

Dad nodded, then took a long drink of beer. Jimmy cringed.
If he doesn’t keep this promise, then I’m going to take matters into my own hands
.

L
eona was nearly finished helping Mom with the breakfast dishes when a knock sounded at the back door. She dried her hands and went to answer it.

“Guder mariye,”
Abner said when she opened the door.

“Good morning,” she responded. “What brings you by here so early?”

“Emanuel and I came to give you a ride over to the schoolhouse.”

Leona wondered how Abner knew she had planned to go to school this morning but didn’t bother to raise the question. “I appreciate the offer, but my daed will be taking me.”

Abner shook his head. “I ran into him on my way home from work last night, and he asked if I could come by and get you—said he had to be in the town of Blue Ball early this morning to bid on a paint job.”

She stared at him, dumbfounded. “Papa never mentioned anything to me about leaving early today, and I’m sure he would have said something if he hadn’t been able to drive me to school.”

“Jah, well, he must have gotten busy and forgot to tell you.” Abner lifted his straw hat from his head and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Maybe he figured you’d find out from me.”

Leona leaned against the doorjamb as she tried to piece everything together. It wasn’t like Papa to be so forgetful or promise to do something and then not follow through. She was about to say that she would need to speak with her daed about this, when she remembered that he had left the house right after breakfast. She figured he’d gone out to the barn to do a few chores, but maybe Richard Jamison, his English employee, had come by in his van. He and Papa could be halfway to Blue Ball by now.

Abner nodded toward his open buggy, parked alongside the house,
and she noticed Emanuel sitting in the back. “Are you about ready to go then?”

Leona wished she could drive herself to school today, but she knew neither one of her folks would condone that idea. Not with the headaches that snuck up on her when she least expected them. “I’ll need to speak to my mamm first and see if she knows whether Papa’s left for work or not,” she said.

He nodded. “Okay. I’ll be waitin’ in the buggy with my brother then.”

Jim removed a five-gallon bucket of paint from the back of his van and glanced over his shoulder. Jimmy and two of his employees stood on scaffolding as they sprayed one side of the grocery store they had been painting this week. He’d felt a sense of relief when Jimmy said he would be here today, but he cringed when he thought about the promise he’d made to his son about calling the lawyer in Maryland.
I’ll wait a couple days, and then I’ll tell him I called the lawyer but that he had no information to give. Maybe then Jimmy will stop asking questions and give up on the idea of trying to find his biological parents. He needs to let it drop, that’s for sure. And I’ll need to make sure that he does
.

Jim had fought to get to sleep again last night but finally found some relief when he took the herbal tablets he’d bought at Holly Simmons’s health food store. A shot of whiskey would have done the trick just as well, but he was already pushing his luck with Jimmy and couldn’t risk angering him by getting caught guzzling a drink.

“Where do you want this paint to go?” Jim’s foreman asked.

“You can take it to the guys working on the other side of the building,” he mumbled.

“Sure thing, boss.” Ed started to walk away but turned back around. “It’s good to see Jimmy at work this morning.”

Jim’s only reply was a brief nod.

“The kid’s been acting kind of quiet, though. Do you know if there’s something wrong?”

Yeah, plenty
, Jim thought while shaking his head to indicate the opposite. “Everything’s fine, Ed.” He clenched his fists. “Never been better.”

“I hope you won’t be late for work because you took the time to drive me to the schoolhouse,” Leona said, glancing over at Abner in the driver’s seat of his open buggy.

“He took the day off so he could come to the picnic with me,” Emanuel chimed in from his seat in the back.

“Yeah, and if you should get tired and need to leave early, I’ll be there to take you home,” Abner added.

Leona clung to the edge of her seat as they jostled down the driveway heading to the main road. “That’s kind of you, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Maybe so. Maybe not.”

Irritation welled up within her. It was bad enough that the humidity this morning was stifling. Now her emotions were getting the best of her, too. Abner had no reason to be worried about her. She was tempted to tell him to turn around and take her back home, but that would mean she would miss seeing her students today.

“There’s sure been a lot of corn goin’ into the ground this past week,” Abner said as they passed a neighboring farm where an Amish man and his son worked side by side in the field.

Leona nodded but made no reply. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk.
Why did Papa have to leave early this morning? And why did he ask Abner to drive me to school? He should have at least told me about it
.

“Oats, hay, and wheat are growin’ nicely now,” Abner droned on. “It won’t be long ’til the womenfolk in our community can start cannin’ peas and strawberries.”

Emanuel smacked his lips. “I sure can’t wait for our mamm’s strawberry pie. She makes the best in all of Lancaster County, ain’t that right, Abner?”

“Jah, she sure does,” his brother agreed. “And strawberries should be getting ripe by the middle of June.”

Leona’s head had started to throb, and her nose quickly followed suit. The pain couldn’t be blamed on her glasses resting too heavily on the spots that were still tender, because she’d put them in her purse before she left home.
I wish we would hurry up and get there. It’s times like this when I’d like to be riding in a car
.

Half an hour later, they pulled into the school yard. Several children milled about, some on the swings and others playing on the set of teeter-totters. The sight brought tears to Leona’s eyes. Oh how she had missed her pupils these past few weeks!

Hannah Fisher bounded up to the buggy as soon as Abner stopped the horse. “Teacher Leona, it’s so good to have you back!”

“That’s for sure,” Emanuel chimed in.

“It’s good to be here.” Leona climbed down from the buggy. “Danki for the ride, Abner.”

He nodded. “I have a couple of errands to run in town, so I’ll take care of those now, but I’ll be back in time for the picnic.”

“My mamm’s comin’ to the picnic, too,” Hannah said, bouncing up and down.

Leona nodded at Hannah and then Emanuel. “Shall we go inside now?”

“Jah,” they said in unison.

At noontime, Jimmy decided to take his lunch to the park, which wasn’t far from the store they had been painting. It would be a welcome relief to get off alone for a while, and it would be better than sitting around with the guys trying to make idle conversation. The morning had gone by quickly, and for that he was glad. He’d made an effort to keep busy and had tried not to think about anything other than the job they were doing. He still hadn’t made up his mind about what to do concerning his search for his birth family once his dad contacted the lawyer.

Jimmy had just grabbed his lunch pail from the back of his pickup and closed the tailgate when his dad showed up. “Where are you going, son?”

“I thought I’d walk over to the park to eat my lunch.”

“Want some company?” Brad, one of the new painters, called out.

“I’d—uh—rather be alone. Maybe some other time.” Jimmy hurried down the sidewalk, and a short time later, he entered the park and took a seat on a bench. He flipped open his lunch pail and stared at the contents—a tuna sandwich he’d made this morning and a couple of store-bought cookies. Neither appealed, so he grabbed his thermos
of milk and poured some into the lid. When he took a drink, the cool liquid felt good on his parched throat. However, it did little to relieve the tension that seemed to be working its way through every muscle and nerve in his body.

Jimmy stared across the playground at the swings and spiral slide. It made him think of the park close to home—the one he and Mom had visited many times when he was a boy. He’d met Allen there, and it hadn’t taken long for the two of them to become friends. Mom and Allen’s mother had hit it off, too, and soon after that, they’d started going to the same church the Walters family attended.

“Those were happy times,” Jimmy murmured. “Wish I could slip back to those days and stay there.”

A horn honked, and his gaze went to the parking lot where a black sports car had pulled in. “What are you doing here?” he called as Allen exited the car.

As his friend sauntered up to him, a lock of dark brown hair fell across his forehead. “I didn’t have to work at the lumber mill today, so I stopped by the grocery store where your dad’s paint crew has been working.”

“How come?”

“I was looking for you, and your dad told me you had come to the park to eat your lunch.”

Jimmy nodded. “I needed to be alone for a while.”

Allen took a seat on the bench beside him. “I know there’s something bothering you, Jimmy. You wouldn’t have stayed overnight at my house on a weeknight if not. And you wouldn’t have been acting like your best friend had just died, either.”

Jimmy smiled in spite of his dour mood. “You’re my best friend, and I’m thankful you’re still very much alive.”

Allen pointed to the lunch Jimmy hadn’t touched. “Just one more proof that something must be eating you.”

Jimmy groaned. “You’re right, there is. And it’s a
big
something.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“No. Yes. Well, I guess maybe I should.”

“If it’s something you don’t want repeated, you can count on me to keep my mouth shut.”

“I know. You’ve never blabbed anything I’ve told you in confidence.”

Allen snickered. “Yeah, like you’ve ever told me anything exciting enough to want to blab.”

Jimmy shivered despite the sun’s warming rays. “What I have to say wouldn’t be considered exciting. It was a pretty big shock, though.”