Breath of Spring Read online

  Yonnie cleared his throat. “It’s where I live. My apartment’s above the bank.”

  “I don’t care where—turn around right this minute and take me home!” Annie Mae’s temples pounded painfully as she stared out the car window. “How could ya think I’d want to come to where Dat’s—well, he’s up to no gut, for sure and for certain! He might’ve claimed that God spoke to him, leadin’ him to start this new colony, but ya can’t tell me he wasn’t listenin’ to the Devil instead.”

  Yonnie pulled into a parking space in front of Alma’s Down-Home Café and leveled his gaze at her. “Is that the kind of claptrap you’re hearing in Willow Ridge?” he asked calmly. “Maybe you should experience Higher Ground for yourself instead of believing the gossip of folks who’ve never been here. And besides . . . I thought you’d like to see the nice new home where your little brothers and Sara are living.”

  Annie Mae sucked in her breath. Hadn’t she seen Joey and Josh, Timmy and Sara—their dear little faces—every night when she prayed for them? While she and Nellie and the others around Willow Ridge didn’t speak of them as often these days, she missed her siblings fiercely . . . still worried about who was watching over them while Dat went about his business of setting up Higher Ground. And by the looks of all this progress, her father had been a very busy man, indeed.

  “Can . . . can we drive past there?” she asked. “I—I don’t wanna go in, understand. Just want to see the place.”

  For a few moments there was only the quiet hum of the car’s engine as Yonnie gripped her hand, gazing into her eyes. “We can do that, sure. But let’s stop by my place first . . . catch up on what I’ve been missing about you while I’ve been getting this beautiful new town on its feet.”

  How was she supposed to answer that? Yonnie had confessed that he worked for her father, and that he was partly responsible for the way Higher Ground had so quickly come together. Nothing had changed about him, really. Yonnie still wanted her kisses—and whatever other liberties she would allow him. And in exchange, she might get a glimpse of the siblings she yearned for.

  “Promise me ya won’t make me see Dat,” she pleaded. “And promise me ya won’t tell him I’ve been here—or you can take me right on back to Willow Ridge. I’ll not have him thinkin’ I intend to come back to him, ever.”

  Yonnie’s gaze didn’t waver. “Not a problem. We’ve always had our secrets, you and I.”

  Could she believe him? Did she dare not go along with him, and miss the chance to see that her younger siblings were well situated? The steady clip-clop! clip-clop! of a horse’s hooves rang out on the pavement and she swiveled in time to see a familiar blue wagon approaching.

  “Adam!” She suddenly ducked down, barely shifting her roses from her lap before she crushed them. Why on Earth was he here—and at just the wrong moment? “Get me outta here, Yonnie. We can’t have him—he’ll be buttin’ in and tryin’ to take me—”

  “We don’t want that,” Yonnie agreed with a chuckle. “Not to worry, Annie Mae. Once he gets past us, I’ll pull around behind the bank so we can go upstairs the back way.”

  Was it her imagination, or did it take forever for Adam’s horse to pull his rumbling wagon down the street? Desperately trying to sort out her scrambled thoughts, Annie Mae kept her head down. Even after Yonnie backed the car and then smoothly maneuvered it to a different parking spot, she remained folded in half, not daring to show herself.

  Yonnie cut the engine. Ran his hand down her back to soothe her. “Hey. We’re fine now, sweet thing,” he said in a low, comforting voice. “Come on upstairs. There’s no one else around, and the bank’s closed. You’ll be invisible, I promise.”

  Annie Mae longed to believe those words as she sat up . . . as the doors of the car glided skyward in a smooth, continuous motion that left her exposed. She needed to be tucked up out of sight, in case Adam decided to circle around town. After all, he’d seen this flashy blue car when Yonnie had visited Willow Ridge, and he’d expressed his opinions to her in no uncertain terms.

  Step away from what Yonnie’s doing to you, before you get hurt . . . you don’t want to be another notch on his bedpost. You’re better than that, Annie Mae.

  Why did Adam Wagler’s words ring with so much truth now, when she’d considered him extremely rude for saying them the other day? And why had she ducked out of sight when he’d driven past? At this point, she didn’t have much choice about going upstairs with Yonnie if she wanted to see where the kids were living....

  After she hurried up the stairs and entered the rooms above the bank, Annie Mae realized what she’d let herself in for. Yonnie’s apartment wasn’t much bigger than the loft she and Nellie shared with Rhoda Lantz. From the entry, she saw his kitchen . . . a bathroom off to the side of it . . . a front room with a TV bolted to the wall . . . a bed with the sheets and coverlet folded down, as if he’d brought her here for a very specific purpose....

  Lord, Ya gotta help me. I’ve gotten myself into a tight spot and I don’t know how to get out.

  “Come here, Annie Mae,” Yonnie whispered. He put her bouquet on the kitchen counter and then stood behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. “All those times we went out before? Making out in my backseat or in the barn? Well, I can’t get your kisses out of my mind . . . want to feel your velvety skin and finally see you . . .”

  Yonnie and his cousins have been known to get girls in trouble . . .

  Too late Adam’s warning echoed in her mind. When Yonnie’s tongue teased at the rim of her ear, Annie Mae squawked so suddenly that he jumped. She broke away, but she only got as far as his picture window before he caught her. He grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head, pressing her body against the cold glass . . .

  Chapter Thirteen

  Adam froze, his gaze fixed on the upstairs window of the bank. Out of curiosity he’d passed through Higher Ground on his way home from taking Bishop Tom’s donations to the Mennonites’ missionary center in Morning Star. When he’d seen Yonnie’s sleek blue car idling in front of this new brick building—and then gliding around behind it—something had prompted him to circle the block and come back.

  No two ways about it: that was a Plain girl’s kapp and cape dress pressed against the window. The position of her hands left nothing to his imagination, either. Annie Mae had told him to butt out, but he quickly hitched his horse to the rail and then sprinted around to the staircase that ascended the back of the building. Up the steps he lunged, two at a time, as his heart beat a rapid tattoo that raced ahead of the worst-case scenarios in his mind.

  “Stoltzfus!” he hollered as he pounded on the door. “Open up! I know what you’re doing in there!”

  Silence. Seconds went by.

  Again Adam beat on the steel door. “Annie Mae? Are you all right?”

  A cry rang out, but it was quickly muffled. Adam figured Yonnie for the type who would lock up, yet when he tried the door, it opened. He stepped inside, running toward the two figures on the far side of the small apartment. He had no idea what he’d do if Stoltzfus gave him any trouble, but he would not allow Yonnie to take advantage of a girl he knew to be innocent and naive, even if she gave the impression that she was wild and reckless on dates.

  “What the—? Hold it right there!” Yonnie snapped as he dropped Annie Mae’s hands and pivoted. “You’ve got no right—”

  “I could say the same for you!” Adam retorted as he searched Annie Mae’s face and clothing for signs that he’d arrived too late. “Let’s get back home, Annie Mae. You’ve got no business being here.”

  Wrong thing to say. Though he’d heard her desperate cry and she’d seemed relieved to see him barging through the door, Annie Mae was now scowling at him. “What’re ya doin’ here, Adam?” she demanded defensively. “Don’t tell me you work for Dat now, too.”

  So that was the way of it? Adam didn’t waste time figuring out the ramifications of what she’d just revealed. He remained halfway across the apartment, sensing Yo
nnie would jump him if he came any closer.

  “Annie Mae’s eighteen,” the tall blond taunted him. “Old enough to see who she wants—and that’s not you, Wagler. Don’t make me show you to the door.”

  “She’s only seventeen,” Adam countered, although he was clutching at straws, stalling for time. “I don’t know what sort of stories you cooked up to get her here, but—”

  “It’s all right, Adam,” Annie Mae interrupted in a strained voice. “He—he brought me here to see the kids. Really.”

  Adam bit back another remark. If that was Yonnie’s ploy, to lure Annie Mae to Higher Ground on the pretext of visiting her little brothers and sister, this situation smelled even worse than he’d originally assumed. Was Yonnie actually planning to turn Annie Mae over to her father? Did Hiram know she was coming here? Adam had believed there was no love lost between this swaggering Mennonite and the former bishop of Willow Ridge . . . but who could have guessed that Yonnie Stoltzfus would be living in Hiram’s new town? It seemed more than mere coincidence that the man who’d been driven out of Willow Ridge in a black Cadillac would be connected to that blue sports car parked behind the bank....

  “Please go,” Annie Mae pleaded, clasping her hands in front of her apron. “It—it was gut of ya to check on me, but everything’s fine here, Adam. I can handle it. Really, I can.”

  What was he to do? If Annie Mae insisted she didn’t need him interfering with her social life, who was he to contradict her? Even though Adam’s instinct told him Yonnie was up to no good, maybe he had misjudged Annie Mae. Maybe the girl who’d lived next door wasn’t as innocent as he’d wanted to believe. Plain teenage girls had been known to try cigarettes and liquor and sex during their rumspringa. . . .

  “All right then,” he murmured. “I’ll mind my own business and go home.”

  “Best idea I’ve heard all day,” Yonnie agreed. Then he sneered. “Man, but you could use a shower. No wonder Annie Mae wants nothing to do with you, Wagler.”

  Reluctantly Adam turned to go. It still didn’t set right that Yonnie had brought Annie Mae to Higher Ground when he was apparently working for her dat now. And Annie Mae had appeared to be in a compromised position when he’d seen her in the window. . . .

  What if you’re wrong about her? What if she and Yonnie have been lovers for a long while and you’re just slow to catch on?

  Adam slammed the door behind him, more irritated—more wounded—by that idea than he cared to admit. As he descended the stairs, he shook his head about this whole situation. How could he have been passing through this fledgling town at just the right moment on this particular Saturday afternoon to catch Annie Mae with Stoltzfus?

  God doesn’t live in coincidences. He’s working you into His plan....

  As Adam drove away, his big blue wagon rumbling loudly over the bumpy part of the road that wasn’t yet paved, he figured he’d better get out of sight in case Stoltzfus was watching him. Yet something told him not to go too far.

  “Please take me home,” Annie Mae repeated. It annoyed her that Yonnie seemed even more determined to corner her after Adam had interrupted him—and it scared her, too, the way he’d pawed at her dress until she’d slapped his face. Did he think he could have anything he wanted because he was driving a fancy car? And working for her father? “Why’d ya think I’d want to come here to Dat’s new town anyway?”

  Yonnie stood before her with his arms crossed, looking far too tall and strong in a black shirt that tugged at his broad shoulders. That wing of blond hair was falling down over one cat-green eye, as though he knew just how hot he looked in his English haircut. “You haven’t seen the kids yet.”

  “Then let’s go!” Annie Mae stopped herself before she expressed her intense dislike—her distrust—of his motives. It was a long walk back to Willow Ridge, and Yonnie stood between her and the door, looking smugly predatory. She really, really should’ve gone with Adam. . . .

  “What’s your hurry, cupcake? Maybe I need to hear about your thing for Adam Wagler—because if he’s stalking you, you must be giving him a reason,” he continued in an edgy voice. “Now there’s a loser if I ever saw one. What’s he now, twenty-two? Still living with his brother and never goes out with girls? Makes me wonder if Adam even likes girls. Know what I mean?”

  A gasp escaped her. “That’s a bunch of baloney—”

  “So why would you settle for baloney when you could be sharing steak with me?” Yonnie cut in smoothly. He walked over to his kitchen, opened the fridge, and held up a bundle wrapped in white butcher paper. “See this? Freshly cut rib eye, which I figured to be sharing with you, along with a bottle of really fine wine, to celebrate Valentine’s Day and your visit. The first of many, I was hoping.”

  Annie Mae watched him closely, wondering what she could possibly say or do to get him off this one-track conversation. “So why is it ya started comin’ around again, Yonnie?” she challenged. “As long as it’s been, I figured ya had another girlfriend, or—”

  He let the fridge door drift shut. “I wanted you to get Luke Hooley out of your system—see him for yet another loser who’ll never be the man you need. What is it with all these single brothers living together in Willow Ridge, anyway?”

  A worm of worry crawled in her stomach. Where was Yonnie getting his information about Luke and Adam? And did he figure his insinuations about them would make her want him more? The longer he talked, the farther away Adam would be . . . and Yonnie’s overconfidence was wearing her thin.

  “Look,” she murmured, hoping she seemed reasonable rather than frightened, “it’s real nice that ya got that steak and wine and those roses, and that ya gave me a ride in your car, and—” She shrugged in exasperation. “But ya should’ve known that once ya mentioned my sibs, I’d have to see where they’re livin’ . . . have to know they’re okay before I could go along with whatever ya might want to do with me.”

  Yonnie’s eyes flashed like green fire. He strode over and threw open the door. “Fine! Have it your way,” he blurted as he tossed her coat at her. “Doesn’t seem like much of a date to me, but your priorities have obviously changed.”

  Annie Mae slipped into her coat as she hurried down the stairs. She didn’t like the way Yonnie had lashed out, but at least she was leaving his apartment, moving away from the alluring trap he’d set. When the doors of his car rose into the air, she ducked into the passenger seat before he could bring them down on her as payback for ruining his afternoon. She’d forgotten her roses, but maybe that was best.

  Are ya still here, God? she prayed as Yonnie dropped angrily into the driver’s seat. This isn’t goin’ the way either of us wanted, so now it seems I’ve lit his fuse....

  The car roared out of the bank’s lot and spun gravel as Yonnie steered it up the hill, where several new houses perched on plots of land. Who was living here, so soon after Dat had started the colony? How had so many houses gone up so fast? Surely Plain folks around here would’ve heard why Hiram Knepp had left Willow Ridge—and wouldn’t they want more acreage than what she was seeing along this road?

  But that train of thought derailed as they approached the largest house in town. The lower half of the house was red brick and the upper story was painted a rich buttery gold, accentuated with gables and windows. The front porch spanned the entire width of the place and had a pillared railing . . . the double front doors were made of glossy wood, with oval glass insets. This home seemed anything but Plain, and nestled on the highest point of town, it seemed to be watching over its neighbors—or lookin’ down on them, she thought. The large building still under construction behind it resembled the huge horse barn Dat had left behind, so Annie Mae had no doubt that this was where her father had transplanted the rest of her family. She held her breath. Yonnie slowed the car so she could stare through the low-slung windshield.

  “Happy now?” he muttered. “As you can see, your sibs are living pretty high on the hog, and—”

  “But who’s takin’ care of the
m while Dat’s gettin’ this town built?” she demanded. “It’s been two months since any of us have seen them, and—”

  One of the front doors burst open and out ran Joey and Josh, who were leading Sara and Timmy by the hand. Even with the car windows closed, their loud crying and distressed expressions made Annie Mae’s heart constrict. The kids were rushing down the front steps as fast as their little legs would carry them.

  “Stop the car!” she blurted. Instinctively she grabbed for the handle, and then realized she had no idea how to open these outrageous doors. “Yonnie, I have to—”

  Right behind the kids came a scowling young woman who brandished a paddle Annie Mae recognized from the barn back home. Because she’d been in charge of the kids’ discipline after their mamm passed, Dat had kept the paddle out there mostly as a warning. But this young woman looked angry enough to thrash them with it.

  “You brats have gone and done it now!” she screamed as the four children scattered on the snowy lawn. “You are the stupidest, meanest little—”

  Annie Mae grabbed Yonnie’s arm and stuck her face in his. “Let me out of this car. Now! That woman will not hit my kids with that paddle.”

  Yonnie stared at her in disbelief, but he pushed a button and the doors began their ascent. “Fine. If that’s how you want it—”

  She ducked and propelled herself outside before the doors had gone halfway up. “Joey! Josh!” she cried as she dashed toward them. “Sara, it’s me, punkin! You and Timmy come over here to Annie Mae!”

  Oh, but their tear-streaked faces looked pinched and their clothes were hanging on their too-thin bodies—and they were out here in the cold without any coats. Her heart hammered frantically as she called to them again, hurrying through the ankle-deep snow.

  “Annie Mae!” the twins hollered as one. Across the yard they sprinted, their arms stretched toward her, followed by her sister and Timmy. “Annie Mae, save us! Save us!”

  Her soul lurched at their words. When Josh and Joey rushed against her, she nearly fell backward from the force of the impact. She hugged them hard, and for once they didn’t fuss when she eagerly kissed their chilled faces.