LITMIR.BIZ

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know what to do. Will made us promise not to tell. But now Will is gone, and I don’t know what to do.”

      “Will Esch?” Colin rapped out the question.

      Benj nodded, choking back a sob.

      Will Esch. Rachel repeated the name silently. She knew the family. Will must be a couple of years older than Benj.

      “What do you mean, he’s gone?” Colin seemed to be having more success getting information out of Benj than she had, so Rachel forced herself to keep silent.

      “He...he was gone when his mother went to call him today. They think he’s run off. But what if he didn’t? What if something happened—” He fell silent so suddenly it was like shutting off a tap. He shook his head. “After I heard, I couldn’t go home. Daadi would know the minute he looked at me that something was wrong. I had to think on it a bit.” He gestured toward the hiding place, as if to say that had been his haven for thinking through his troubles.

      “Okay, so you and Will and somebody else were involved in something you shouldn’t have been, and Will made you promise not to tell anyone for fear you’d get into trouble.” Colin had put the story together more quickly than she had.

      Benj gulped and nodded.

      “That doesn’t explain why you’re so scared. Come on, out with the rest of it.”

      The command in Colin’s tone would have convinced someone a lot more sophisticated than a fourteen-year-old Amish boy, and Rachel could only be thankful he was there. She’d never have gotten this much out of Benj on her own.

      “We were...we were trespassing.” The way Benj seemed to be editing his words made Rachel fear they’d been doing something worse than trespassing. “And there was a man—he yelled at us, and we ran. But he...he had a shotgun. We got away, and Will said it would be all right as long as we didn’t tell anyone, that the man couldn’t know who we were. Will said if I told I could end up in jail.” He seemed to run out of steam, his voice trembling.

      Colin exchanged glances with her. “Look, first of all, nobody is going to put you in jail for trespassing. Secondly, if Will got a good scare over this, maybe he did decide to scoot out of town for a while.”

      “Maybe. Maybe he’s hiding, but then maybe the man will come after me.”

      It sounded absurd, but obviously her brother took the possibility seriously. “Benj, this isn’t something you can handle on your own. You need to tell Daadi—”

      “No!” Benj took a step back, his eyes widening. He looked more afraid of telling Daad than of the man with the shotgun. “Please, Rachel, I can’t. He would be so...so...”

      “Disappointed.” She finished the sentence for him. Of all people, she knew what it was like to disappoint Daad.

      “Ja. Please...I—I know I should tell him, but not yet.”

      “Your dad’s going to want to know where you’ve been,” Colin said. “Are you going to lie to him?”

      Benj shook his head. “I’ll tell him I was over at Joseph’s and forgot the time. That’s the truth. Just not all of it.”

      Rachel could only hope he hadn’t picked up that rationalization from her, back when she’d been hiding her meetings with Ronnie. “But if Will is hiding, Daad ought to know, so he can talk to Will’s folks.”

      “I can’t. If I told Will’s folks, he would...” Benj let that trail off, as if he couldn’t imagine what Will might do. A tear trickled down his cheek, and he didn’t even attempt to wipe it away. “Rachel, promise me. Promise me you won’t tell Daadi. Please.” He caught her hand, clinging to it, and her heart seemed to jolt.

      She couldn’t speak for a moment, and the silence seemed alive with crosscurrents—Benj’s desperation, Colin’s determination, her own indecision.

      If she told Daad, she would ruin the relationship she’d begun to build with her brother. If she didn’t tell him, and Daad found out, he would never forgive her. Either way, she stood to lose.

      But she didn’t really have a choice, not with her brother looking at her with such despair in his eyes. “I will not tell Daad,” she said slowly.

      She wouldn’t. Which meant she had to find a way of dealing with the situation Benj had gotten himself into on her own.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      COLIN WALKED WITH Benjamin as far as the covered bridge, half-thinking the boy might make a bolt for it rather than go home. But Benj walked, if reluctantly, up the lane, and his father came out to meet him.

      Colin turned back, emerging from the darkness of the covered bridge into the gentle haze of twilight in the valley. He couldn’t help a sideways glance down toward the dam. It looked so peaceful, the water tumbling over the edge to form a quiet pool beneath the trees. But local people knew that peacefulness was deceptive, and kids had always been warned away, even before Aaron Mast’s death.

      He headed for the stable where he’d left Rachel, only to see her disappearing into the back entrance of the house. The door closed with a somewhat determined thud.

      So Rachel didn’t want to have a conversation with him about her brother’s story. That was a shame, because he had no intention of letting it slide.

      When he reached the door he found that Rachel might have closed it, but she hadn’t locked it. He tapped on the frame while opening the door. This was not a talk he wanted to have through the door.

      Rachel spun to face him, annoyance clear in her expression. But he could see past the annoyance to the very real worry that dwelled beneath.

      “I don’t want to be rude, but I really wish—”

      “Be as rude as you like,” he invited. “I’m sure you don’t want to discuss your brother with me. But it’s too late. I heard, and I’m not going to walk away and conveniently forget.”

      “Why not?” She didn’t say it angrily. She actually looked as if she needed an answer to that question.

      Because I have something to make up to you, Rachel. “Because Benj is a friend, and he’s in trouble. And because you’re a friend, I hope, and you’ve just agreed to keep quiet about that trouble.”

      “I suppose you think I should have told on Benj.” Her voice snapped with irritation.

      “You sound like your little brother. Isn’t that what Benj did? Making a stupid promise got him into this grief.” Resisting the impulse to touch her arm, he gestured toward the kitchen table. “Come on, Rachel. You know I’m not going away that easily, and I didn’t make any promises. So let’s sit down and talk this over.”

      Her temper hung in the balance for an instant, but then she nodded, capitulating so suddenly it took him by surprise.

      “You’re right, of course. I’m sorry for snapping. Sit down. I’d better check on Mandy.”

      He’d like to think she’d given in because she trusted him, but he wasn’t that naive. He pulled out one of the ladder-back chairs and sat. No, she’d agreed to talk because of his implied threat. Trust had nothing to do with it.

      He glanced around the kitchen. He’d never been in it, that he recalled. Mrs. Mason hadn’t encouraged Ronnie to entertain his friends there. And they certainly hadn’t wanted to sit in that formal parlor, so the result had been that they’d gathered elsewhere. It looked more welcoming than he would have imagined, but maybe that was Rachel’s touch.

      Rachel was back in a moment, letting the kitchen door swing shut behind her. “She’s up in her room, so she won’t hear us. I don’t want Mandy knowing anything about Benj’s situation.” On the subject of her daughter, Rachel was uncompromising.

      “She won’t hear anything from me,” Colin said. “But that story

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