He refolded the letter from the attorney and put it back into its envelope before shoving it into the back pocket of his jeans.
He’d go over to the track first and see what was going on. With any luck and God on his side, he would have the money by the end of the week.
It was late afternoon before Emily found time alone to read Luke’s letter. She tied her bonnet over her prayer
kapp
and pulled her wool coat around her as best she could.
Normally she would have crawled into the hayloft to assure her privacy, but her right hand was practically useless. She couldn’t risk climbing when her cast had barely set.
Instead she found a clean, empty barn stall and shut herself inside. She just needed a little time to absorb Luke’s words.
She didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that his words were an apology and most likely his good-bye to her. She had made her feelings pretty clear. She was not willing to leave Wells Landing, and Luke had his own dreams to follow. Yet as much as her heart pounded in anticipation, she dreaded breaking the seal and actually reading what he’d written.
She hunkered down into the corner of the stall and slid open the envelope.
Her fingers shook slightly as she pulled the lined paper from inside and unfolded it. Luke’s childish scrawl ran across the page, its simplicity and familiarity bringing tears to her eyes.
Dear Emily,
There are no words to tell you how scared I was the other night. I held you close while we waited for the ambulance and prayed for God to let you live. In those long minutes I realized how selfish I’ve been. I’ve only been thinking of my own hopes and dreams for the future. As I held you, I came to realize that you have hopes and dreams as well. The only problem is your dreams center around Wells Landing and mine do not.
There was a time when our dreams were the same, back before I fell in love with cars. I wish I could tell you they don’t mean anything to me now, but even as I write this, I long to get back to the racing world and make my mark.
Your mark is different. You want a husband, a family, a house. One day I would love to give you all of those things, but it wouldn’t be in Wells Landing. I can never return. Never be satisfied with planting corn and milking cows for the rest of my days.
I know farming is a noble profession, but it’s not for me. I need excitement. I need the crowd, the fame, and the thrills that I can only find in the
Englisch
world.
After today, I’m sure your father will never let me see you again. Not that I blame him. I’d probably do just the same if you were my daughter. But I still wanted you to know that despite the differences that now separate us, I still love you. I always have, and I always will. It’s this love which makes me understand it’s time to let you go.
This is not an easy decision for me to make, but it must be done. So go, Emily, love. Go to Elam and get married. Accept his proposal and live happily ever after as the
Englisch
fairy tales say. If there is one person in this world who deserves to be that happy, it is you, my dear Em.
Wherever you go and whatever you do, know this one thing above all else. I will always love you.
Luke
Two cars sat in the parking lot when he pulled in twenty minutes later. One belonged to the boss-man, as they called the track manager, and the other was an old-fashioned Cadillac with a longhorn rack attached to the hood.
The car could only belong to one person. Perhaps luck was on his side. Or maybe it was God answering his prayers.
Luke smiled and pocketed his keys. For the first time in a long time, he felt everything was going to be okay.
He whistled under his breath as he let himself into the office, but he stopped short when he saw a girl sitting at the boss-man’s desk.
“Hi.”
She stood, watching him with dark brown eyes, as she ran her hands down her sides. “Hi, yourself.” She stretched, her gaze never leaving his. “You’re Luke, right? Luke Lam-bree?”
“Lambright,” he gently corrected. “Have we met before?”
She shook her head, her blond curls brushing the tops of her shoulders. “I’ve seen you around. And Daddy talks about you.”
“I’m sorry?” Then her words struck home, and he realized who stood before him. “You’re Sissy Hardin.”
“Nice to meet you.” She leaned one hip against the cluttered desk. If Luke had to guess, she was close to his age, but he’d heard the other guys talking. Sissy Hardin had one more year before she graduated from her
Englisch
high school.
It was hard for him to tell though. The
Englisch
were so different. She looked so much older, so
knowing
.
“Where’s Johnny?” he asked, referring to the boss-man by his given name.
She nodded her head toward the upstairs office. “He’s talking to Daddy.”
Luke nodded. “So he’s in?” he asked, his heart thumping. “Gus is going to grant my sponsorship?”
Her eyes sparkled. “From what I heard, yes. Does that make you happy?”
The air left him in a rush of relief. “Oh,
jah
. I mean yes. I’ve got bills stacking up and . . .” He shook his head. “I don’t mean to bore you with talk of money.”
She pushed herself off the desk and came around it to stand close to him. Really, really close to him. He wanted to move away from her but his feet seemed stuck to the floor. She smelled good, like clean clothes and honeysuckle.
“I find money very, very interesting,” she said, moving even closer.
Luke tried to move away, but Sissy grabbed one of his hands and placed it on her hip.
“Where are you going?” she whispered. Her tone was filled with sultry promise. “Stay here and let’s get to know each other better.”
“I, uh . . .” Was she coming on to him?
“Did you say you needed some money?” She grabbed his other hand and directed his arm around her.
“I don’t think this is right.” His protest was weak at best. He had never found himself in a situation like this. What was he supposed to do? Step away? Pretend like it never happened? Play along until he got what he needed? Nothing in his Amish upbringing had prepared him for this.
She laughed a throaty sophisticated sound. “You Amish boys are so funny. So sweet and innocent. Did you know you are all pink with embarrassment?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head.
“You know the only way to get what you want is to ask.” She ran a thumb over his lower lip. “What is it that you need, Luke?”
He shivered. “I need five hundred dollars.” Was he the only one dealing with her advances? Did Gus know? Did Gus care? How was Luke supposed to find out either way?
Her thumbnail scraped against his chin. “Not exactly what I mean, but I’m sure we can work out something.”
He wasn’t sure what
that
meant and was about to ask when a booming voice cut through the room.
“What in the sam hill is going on here?” Gus Hardin stormed down the stairs, looking from Luke to his daughter and back again.
Sissy’s hands were suddenly in the middle of Luke’s chest. She pushed him away yelling, “Get your hands off me” as if she hadn’t initiated the touch in the first place.
He stumbled backward, catching himself before he tripped over the chair Sissy had been sitting in when he came in.
“Luke?”
He turned to face Johnny Johnson, otherwise known as the boss-man to all the drivers.
“I—” He didn’t know how to explain. He hadn’t done anything. Yet it looked like he had.
Sissy ran her hands down herself as if putting her clothes to rights.
But nothing happened!
“I think it’s time for you to leave, son.” Gus’s booming voice lowered to a deadly level.
“What about my car?” He looked from Johnny to Gus. What about his dreams? Driving a race car? Making the big time?
The big man shook his head. “That’s not going to happen. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
Luke pulled his coat a little tighter around himself and ducked his head against the wind. Aside from when it had snowed, this was the coldest day of the year so far. And he was walking.
He’d left his car with his friend, a big
FOR SALE
sign in the front window. Anything they could get for it over the five hundred dollars Luke still owed him, his friend promised to send to his uncle’s house.
And that was where Luke was heading, back to his uncle’s, back to Wells Landing, his dreams in shreds.
Chapter Twenty-One
The first church Sunday after Elam and Emily’s breakup was held at Caroline and Andrew’s house. It had never been taken out of rotation when Abe married Esther and placed back in under the newlyweds’ names, but Caroline assured the church elders she could handle the load. Emily thought she was putting on too brave a face, but agreed to help out that week in getting the house ready.
Not that she was much help at all. Her heart was bruised and sore, her pride had taken a beating, and her spirit seemed to need constant rest. And that didn’t even account for her physical injuries. Her arm still ached, and whenever she was up for too long a time, her head began to throb.
“Here,” Lorie said, taking the dust rag from Emily who had been polishing the baseboards. “You look dead on your feet.”
Emily sat back on her heels and rubbed her eyes. Dead on her feet—that was a perfect way to describe how she felt.
She felt dead. Walking around, dead like one of those zombies in the haunted hayride, but still having to move among the living.
She had lost Luke to race car driving, and she had lost Elam to her own stupidity.
Now she was fairly certain neither one of them would talk to her. Oh, Luke would always be her friend, but he was off in the
Englisch
world. Despite what Elam had said, she knew he would avoid her like the plague. Why would he want to be friends with her when she had rebuffed every attempt he had made at a relationship with her?
But at night, when she was alone in her room, she thought of the kiss they had shared. It seemed like so much more than a simple kiss, or had time and longing turned it into so much more than it truly was?
She’d never know.
“Emily?
Emily
.” Lorie brought her back to the present.
“
Jah?
”
“You’ve not heard a word we’ve said.”
“Of course I have.”
Caroline gave a sage nod. “Of course. Then I’m sure you heard Lorie say Luke is back.”
“What?” Emily shook her head. “You’re just saying that because I wasn’t paying attention.”
Lorie rolled her eyes. “Now she admits it.”
Caroline shrugged and dropped down into the nearest chair.
“Are you feeling all right?” Lorie asked.
She nodded. “Just tired.”
“And the baby?”
Caroline beamed as she placed a protective hand over her still-slim midriff. “Right as rain, as my
dat
would say.”
Emily returned her friend’s smile, happy, so very delighted for Caroline and Andrew. She couldn’t imagine two people who deserved a more perfect union than the two of them. “Is Luke really back?” She hadn’t meant to ask the question. The words just slipped out all on their own.
Lorie nodded and braced her rear against the sideboard. “Jonah said he got back late Thursday night.”
“You haven’t seen him?” Emily shifted to sit cross-legged on the floor.
“
Nay
. Jonah acted like something was wrong, but he wouldn’t tell me what.”
After reading the letter Luke had left for her, something would have to be wrong for him to return. He had big plans and dreams in the
Englisch
world.
“Is Joseph okay?” she asked.
“His uncle? I s’ppose.” Lorie shrugged. “I’m surprised you didn’t know.”
Emily shook her head. “Things aren’t the same between us anymore.”
Her friends nodded sympathetically. But how could they understand something she didn’t even herself?
“And what about Elam?” Caroline asked.
Emily tried to smile, but tears rose in her eyes instead. “Elam broke up with me.”
“Oh, Em.” Caroline moved to her side and, in an instant, she was wrapped in a warm hug.
“I’m so sorry.” Lorie’s arms were there as well, sweet and comforting.
Emily swiped at the tears with the back of her hand and took a deep breath. “I can’t blame anyone but myself. He was patient and understanding, but that can only take a man so far.”
And she had been a fool. She missed Elam terribly, but she also missed James, Johanna, and the rest of the Riehls. She had started out helping them as an act of good will, but they had done so much more for her. They had given her back her joy when Luke left and her purpose after teaching.
Elam had said that he wanted to remain friends, but how could she go to his house and spend time with his family knowing she had failed him and embarrassed him in front of the community? She’d had everything she could have ever asked for in Elam, and she had foolishly thrown it all away in the name of girlish dreams.
She sucked in another shuddering breath. “Well, this is not getting the house clean for sure and for certain.” She rose to her feet and looked at each one of her friends in turn. Compassion and worry showed on their faces, but Emily smiled bravely. “Come on now. We have lots of work to do.”
Elam did his best to keep his mind on the sermon that Sunday. Not that he succeeded. His father sat to his right, hands clasped between his knees, eager gaze straight ahead. And all Elam could think about was that none of it would have been possible if not for Emily Ebersol.
His heart broke all over again at the mere thought of her.
Breaking up with her had been the hardest thing he had ever done, but he knew. He had been a fool from the start thinking he could compete with the likes of Luke Lambright. Elam would never be able to be so carefree and fun-loving. He wasn’t as handsome as Luke, by far. To most Amish girls, Elam knew he was
gut
husband material, but not for the bishop’s daughter. Luke had captured her heart long ago and locked it away so no one else could touch it.
And now he was back.
Three rows up and two seats over, Luke Lambright sat next to Jonah Miller, each one of them looking like they wished they were someplace else. Perhaps off with Lorie and Emily. How soon before they announced their intentions? Luke hadn’t joined the church so it would be another year before he and Emily could marry, but the lapse in time wouldn’t do anything for Elam. She would wait for Luke, he knew.
“There’s Emily.” His father leaned close and pointed one finger toward the women’s side of the congregation. Like Elam needed a reminder as to where Emily was. “She’s wearing green today.”
Dat
frowned.
Just another proof that she was over them all. Elam squeezed his father’s hand reassuringly. “She can’t wear purple all the time.”
Once the service was over, the benches were flipped into tables, and the food was served. Prayers were said, and the eating began.
“I want to take my plate and eat with Emily,”
Dat
said. His chin had taken on that stubborn slant Elam knew all too well.
“You know that is not allowed.”
“I have eaten with her before.”
Elam shook his head. “We’ve talked about this. You know the men are supposed to eat together and the women eat together.”
“That is dumb.” His father pouted.
“It may seem that way,
jah,
but that is how we do it.”
His father’s mouth twisted into a frown. “If we can’t eat with Emily, let’s find the bishop and eat with him.”
Dat
turned on his heel and started through the milling church members.
Elam had no choice but to follow behind him. Eating with the bishop was the last thing he wanted to do, the very last thing. And not because Elam was so intimidated by the bishop, but because he was Emily’s father.
Elam wondered how much Emily had said to her family about their breakup. He didn’t even know how her father felt about her accident and her being out with Luke Lambright. The bishop might hold hope for Luke yet.
But regardless of Elam’s feelings, he couldn’t leave his
vatter
alone. With his childlike mind had come an impulsiveness that had to be monitored. Secretly Elam believed his
dat
could control it more than he let on, but he supposed it was a small compensation for all that James had suffered. He had lost so much in one afternoon, that Elam couldn’t find fault. Still there were times when he wished his father would try a bit harder to behave. Like now.
He found the men in the barn. They held their plates in their hands and ate while looking at one of the beautiful horses Andrew Fitch boarded for breeders.
Elam had heard Andrew was about to embark in horse breeding himself and he was interested in knowing more, but not at the price of eating with the bishop.
“There he is.” His father’s words insinuated that he had been talking about him before he came up.
Elam winced. He could only imagine what
Dat
had been saying.
“Bishop.” Elam nodded to Emily’s father, then turned to the man he was talking to, Dan Troyer, the minister.
“I was just telling the bishop here about you and Emily.”
Elam cleared his throat. “I’m sure Cephas knows all there is to know.”
“
Nay
.” His father shook his head. “We both agree that we don’t know why the two of you broke up. And he says Emily has been beside herself ever since.”
How long
had
his father been talking to the bishop?
Elam shifted from one foot to the other. “This is not something I’m comfortable talking about.”
The bishop pinned him with those blue eyes so like his daughter’s. “But you do care for Emily?”
He couldn’t lie. Not to the bishop. “Very much so.”
Cephas nodded. “Maybe you should come by the house and talk to her. Perhaps the two of you can clear up these matters.”
He wished it was that simple.
But before he could respond, his father did. “Elam thinks now that Luke is back, Emily will want to marry him instead.”
“
Dat!
” Short of grabbing his
vatter
by the arm and hustling him out of the barn, all Elam could do was shoot him a warning look.
Dat
simply smiled in return.
The bishop frowned and cast his own look at Luke as he stood at the end of the stalls with Andrew Fitch and Jonah Miller. “
Ach,
” he said with a shake of his head. But Elam had the feeling he wanted to say more.
He couldn’t imagine the bishop would approve of his daughter running around with a wayward soul like Luke. As much as Elam wished otherwise, Luke had done nothing wrong. He had not joined the church. He was free to come and go as he pleased, though his run-around time was quickly drawing to a close.
Cephas Ebersol loved his daughters and would want to see them all well married and happy. Happiness for Emily would mean Luke. It was a fact that Elam was still coming to terms with.
He wrapped his free hand around his
dat
’s arm. “Come on,
Dat
. I think
Mamm
is looking for you.”
Elam nodded to the bishop and the minister, then quickly led his father away.
“But I thought the men and the women weren’t supposed to eat together.”
“You’re not eating,” Elam said, tossing his own plate into the trash barrel just outside the barn doors. “You’re walking ’round with a plate and causing trouble.”
His father grinned and pulled away from Elam’s grasp.
Thankfully he made no move to go back and harass the bishop, and instead grabbed a cheese-covered cracker off his plate. “Uhmm, this is
gut
. Is this the goat cheese that Emily’s family makes?”
“Stop.” Elam raised his hands in surrender. “Just stop, please.”
“You’ll never win her over with that attitude.”
“I tried to win her over, and I failed. Luke won.”
Dat
shook his head. “Not according to the bishop.”
Elam sighed. It was times like these when his father’s injury became even more apparent. How could Elam explain? It wasn’t as simple as his
dat
wished it to be, and that was that. “One day soon, she’ll marry Luke Lambright,” Elam said. His heart gave a painful lurch as he said the words out loud. “I’ve accepted that,” he lied. “And you should, too.”
Emily took a big gulp of her lemonade and wiped a quick hand across her forehead. The congregation had been served food and drink and now everyone was milling around, finishing their sweets and visiting with one another.
Thankfully the day had turned out sunny and cool, but not as cold as January could typically be.
Several of the older church members had asked about her cast, but all in all, the news of her accident with Luke had spread through the community like a wildfire through dry grass.
She absently scratched at the top of the purple cast as if somehow that would ease the itch inside. She hated the cast, hated everything it stood for and all that it reminded her of. All that she had lost.
She had seen Elam earlier, following his
dat
into the barn, but she hadn’t said a word to him. She had used the fact that she was still helping everyone get served as an excuse, but in truth she wasn’t ready to face him.
“Hey, Emily.”
She turned as Luke came up, his bright smile a bit dimmer these days. “Luke.” She hadn’t talked to him since he had come back. “It’s
gut
to see you at church today.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “It seemed like the thing to do.”
But it was one step closer to where he needed to be.
“And dressed as an Amish man again.”
“
Onkle
thought it best.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but it was. It was huge. So many nights since he had been gone she had prayed for his return. At first so they could be married, but as things changed and her feelings for Elam grew, she prayed for Luke’s soul. How was he supposed to fight the temptations of the world?