A Home for Lydia (The Pebble Creek Amish Series) (36 page)

Seth and David’s bickering stopped as quickly as it had started, though the boy appeared as pale as Aaron felt. “I’ll hitch up the buggy now,” he said, and without waiting for an answer he was gone.

“Do you want me to go with you?” David asked.

“
Nein
. Stay with Anna. I believe she might be having pains. She could need you to be here to fetch the midwife.”

“She had pains twice this week already—”

“And this time it could be the real thing.” Aaron scrubbed his face with both hands. “When I was in the kitchen with her just now she had a spell, and it took me back. My
mamm
did the same thing with my youngest
bruder.
She had the same look on her face, the same way of closing her eyes and counting slowly. When she finally did go into labor, he was born within an hour. Stay here, David.”

Moments later Seth had driven the buggy up beside him and they were on their way to the cabins. Aaron realized later that he remembered nothing of the ride, only that he was aggravated with Seth for driving so slowly. When he mentioned it to him, the boy only glowered—much like the look he often threw at his
dat
—and urged the horse into a faster trot.

Aaron was out of the buggy before they had completely stopped it in the parking lot, which was full by the time they had reached it. The
Englischers
’ cars all belonged to the guests, and two police cars from the Cashton Police Department were in the lot as well.

He didn’t go to the office, though he could see that officers were working inside.

He didn’t go to the shop to see how much merchandise was missing.

He walked to the picnic tables, where the girls were serving breakfast. Aaron walked through the small crowd of guests, walked past Clara, and walked straight up to Lydia. He put his hands on her shoulders, and stared into her beautiful eyes.

Seeing her there, working efficiently as she did every morning, his heart finally slowed in its wild hammering, but he’d come this far at a madcap pace. No stopping now until he was sure. “Are you okay, Lydia?”

“
Ya,
of course.”

“You weren’t here when—”

“No.”

“I was worried that maybe…” He never finished the sentence, but he did touch her face. Her skin was even softer than he’d imagined. Her eyes widened in surprise, and he felt a small amount of guilt that he’d been avoiding her lately. For the briefest of moments, it seemed as though the small crowd of guests vanished. He could imagine what it would be like, just the two of them standing along the banks of Pebble Creek.

It didn’t last long.

Soon a child began crying—he wanted chocolate milk instead of plain. Another guest asked for more juice. Clara complained about the bugs landing on her stack of postcards. Even Seth grumbled in his normal fashion as he first pulled the lawn mower out, but he froze in place when an officer called out to him. Aaron glanced up and caught Seth as he asked no one in particular if he was expected to work without eating breakfast now—but there was something else in the lad’s eyes, some new worry. He needed to talk to the boy privately.

The entire group under the trees brought relief to Aaron’s heart. The cabins continued to run smoothly. Merchandise could be replaced—people couldn’t.

He’d speak with Seth in a moment.

First, he needed to sit and pull in a few deep breaths and watch Lydia as she moved among their guests, occasionally throwing him a questioning glance.

What if she had been there when the burglar had ransacked the buildings? What if she had been hurt? What would he have done?

The questions circled and collided in his mind so that he couldn’t possibly join in the breakfast that she had set out so prettily under the trees on the picnic tables they had only recently finished. Their guests were talking among themselves about the break-in, but Aaron assured them that everything was under control.

“So you’ve caught the person who did it?” This from an older
Englischer
who was tall and thin. “We rather enjoy it here and were thinking of coming back with our grandchildren.”

“Rest assured. It will not happen again if I have to sleep on the floor of the office every night the cabins are full.”

But he didn’t plan on doing that. He planned on getting to the bottom of this matter and soon.

He couldn’t go back to Indiana as long as the cabins’ success was in jeopardy, and he certainly couldn’t leave Lydia if there was any danger to her or her sister. As he walked toward the office to speak to the police, he vowed he would make this right, and part of doing so meant speaking to Lydia’s parents and assuring them that Lydia and Clara would not be in harm’s way.

He would take care of that tonight.

Chapter 30

G
abe arrived at the cabins as the police cars were leaving.

The parking lot was incredibly full—not only with
Englisch
cars from the guests but with buggies as well.

“What’s happened?” he asked Seth as he tied Chance to the hitching rail.

“Burglarized.” Seth rammed his hands into his pants pockets and glared across the cabin area toward the river.

“Is everyone okay?”

“
Ya
. The girls arrived and found the office door open.” Seth looked as if he were going to add more, but then he shook his head and clammed up.

“Do they have any idea who did it?”

“I heard Officer Tate say there had been some burglaries on the other side of the county. They might be able to match the prints…” Seth shrugged, as if the situation were hopeless.

Gabe thought it wasn’t completely impossible. There was a chance they could catch the person responsible.

Seth added, “Now the newspaper woman is here.”

Looking over toward the office, Gabe caught sight of Rae. “Excellent!”

“Since when do you like folks who put our business in the paper?”

Pulling in a deep breath, Gabe reminded himself to be patient. Seth was only seventeen, and he didn’t know Rae Caperton’s history, how she was an advocate for Amish communities, how she had lost a very close friend who was Amish. Few people knew those details, but they were the things that had convinced Gabe and Miriam to trust her.

“I do if the person is Rae Caperton. Few burdens are heavy if everyone lifts. Rae is one of those persons who helps to lift burdens.”

Seth shook his head, unconvinced. “What do you have there?”

Gabe glanced down at Grace’s drawing. It wasn’t much, but it could be a clue. At least it proved that the person might be someone they knew. “Something I want Aaron to see. Where is he?” He held up the piece of drawing paper. “This might help catch whoever robbed us.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed. “How—”

“Let’s find Aaron, and then I’ll only have to explain once.”

But Aaron was busy.

While Lydia was checking out guests, or attempting to, and Clara had moved from writing cards to cleaning the cabins as they prepared for the next group of guests, Aaron was left to deal with restocking the shed. Filling the shelves with a new collection of Amish goods was proving to be quite a chore.

The buggies Gabe had seen in the parking lot belonged to the line of folks waiting outside the Plain Shop. Many of them were the same people Gabe had visited not so long ago. They were from the whole Pebble Creek community—both the east side and the west side. The line stretched from the front door of the shop, down the steps, and out along the path.

The gathering of Plain folk was causing the guests to stop and stare, which in turn was making Lydia’s job of checking anyone out difficult.

“What’s going on here?” Gabe asked Clara, who was standing and leaning against the broom she was supposed to be using to sweep off the porch of cabin two.

“You heard about the burglary?”

“
Ya
.”

“Apparently they did too.”

Gabe recognized nearly everyone in line. Many were from families who attended his church on the east side of Pebble Creek, and everyone else seemed to be from the west side—families David and Lydia and Aaron would know. The men tended to be older gentlemen who Gabe knew didn’t have fields to plant because their sons would be doing that this morning. His own fields were ready for the seed, but he needed to take Grace’s drawing to Aaron if he could get past the crowd.

“Everyone just showed up?” he asked.

“
Ya
.”

“All of them are bringing more goods to sell?”

“Looks that way. Aaron explained he didn’t know when he’d be able to pay them for what had been stolen. They only nodded and said it wasn’t a problem.”

“So they’re replenishing his stock.”

“For free.”

Now Gabe understood why the
Englisch
guests were standing and watching. By now they all knew about the burglary, but what they hadn’t seen before was what many in the Amish community took for granted—the way each person fell in and helped one another when adversity struck. The guests probably were not aware that Aaron didn’t have insurance. They might not understand that business owners often didn’t purchase insurance because Amish considered insurance a form of gambling. Rather, they depended on one another.

The line continued to grow in front of the small building with the sign reading Plain Shop. The people patiently waiting for their turn to help were proof of a system that worked. In their community, showing up to lend a hand when someone was struggling was as natural as rain or accidents or hard times. It was the biblical way, and to Gabe’s way of thinking, it was the Plain way.

As Gabe watched he saw Rae making her way down the line. She’d told Miriam she planned on doing a story about the cabins, and it looked as if she’d found the perfect opportunity.

“I’m going to help Aaron,” Gabe said to Seth. “When the line is gone, I want you to join us. There’s something we need to talk about.”

It was an hour later before he was able to sit down with Aaron, Lydia, and Clara at one of the picnic tables and show them Grace’s drawing. He asked Rae to join them as well. Seth had either forgotten or become too busy.

“Grace drew this last Saturday?” Lydia asked.

“
Ya
. It doesn’t prove anything,” Gabe admitted. “It might not even be related to the burglary.”

“Seems too big of a coincidence.” Aaron gazed off toward the woods. “If someone were watching us—”

“Casing your place,” Rae said. “I’ve been following this string of burglaries, and though they seem to be amateurs, they are taking some precautions. They only hit when the place is empty. They choose places with no video surveillance, and they’re getting sloppier—like with the footprints in the mud.”

“If they were casing us…” Aaron tapped the drawing, “Why did they wait until last night?”

“Or this morning.” Clara moved closer to Lydia on the picnic bench.

Aaron nodded. “Could have been this morning. Why did they wait nearly a week to break in?”

“Because they knew you wouldn’t be here, Aaron.” Lydia turned the drawing so she could study it better. “Whoever this is, he knew you weren’t staying at the cabins last night. He waited for the perfect opportunity.”

Gabe combed his fingers through his beard. “All right. So it probably wasn’t one of your guests unless you announced you weren’t going to be here.”