The Saddle Maker's Son Part 8

As if hearing the tension in their voices, Grace opened her eyes. They were a stunning ocean blue, brilliant against her fair skin. "Ma-ma-ma-ma." She frowned as she babbled, arms and tiny fists flailing. Rebekah might look familiar, but she wasn't Mama. "Ma-ma-ma."

Rebekah allowed herself to forget for one brief second the circ.u.mstances of this secret visit. She patted the baby's dimpled cheek. "Smart girl, says 'Mama' first."

"Really it's just babble most of the time. I don't think she knows what she's saying yet." Leila's eyes, as blue as her baby's, were bright with tears. "Please forgive me."

"I forgive you." Rebekah said the words automatically. Saying it was one thing. Doing it, quite another. "It's just been hard since you left."

"I had to go."

"For Jesse?" She would never know that kind of love. "Why did he have to leave?"

"I didn't leave just for Jesse. I left because I needed to worship in a different way."

The words made no sense. Rebekah stared at the road beyond her sister. Wind rustled the leaves in the trees overhead. Dust rippled and danced in the air. "You can always come home."

"We're not coming home. We're moving."

"Moving?"

"Leaving Bee County. For Dallas."

More words that didn't make sense.

Leila plucked at a loose thread on Gracie's onesie. Her gaze didn't meet Rebekah's. "That's what I came to tell you. Jesse has applied to college. In Dallas. He wants to get his bachelor's and then go to seminary."

"Dallas."

Leila nodded. Tears darkened her blonde eyelashes. "If he gets in, we'll move by the end of summer."

"How long?"

"Two years to finish the bachelor's. Another two to three for the master's. He'll have to work so it'll take longer."

Forever.

"But you'll come back after he's done."

Leila c.o.c.ked her head, her smile tight, eyes downcast. "It depends."

"Depends?"

"On where he's appointed to pastor. The church."

Anywhere, in other words.

The ache in Rebekah's throat made it impossible for her to answer. They would leave Bee County, and any chance she had of seeing them would disappear on the same hard, cold wind that had taken Leila from them on Christmas Eve two years ago.

"I want to find a way to spend some time with you and the others before we go. So Grace can have a chance to know you. All of you. Her real family."

"It's not possible."

"We're not shunned. We've stayed away out of respect."

"I know, but it would-"

"Hurt too much?"

"Mudder says it's best this way."

"So you don't become infected with our disease?" Leila's gaze didn't meet Rebekah's. "So you won't do what I did and end up going to h.e.l.l too?"

That's what Mudder couldn't seem to understand. Rebekah had no desire to leave her community. In fact, she only wanted to stay and be a fraa and mudder.

"I'm sorry."

Leila could say that a hundred times and it wouldn't make things better. "It's all right. You and Jesse need to go. Do what you have to do."

"I wish there was something I could do to make it up to you."

"There is." She couldn't send Leila away without asking for her help. It was selfish to think of only herself and how it would be easier not to be reminded of all they had lost when Leila and Jesse made their decisions. "There is one thing. I found these two kinner in the shed at the school earlier this week. From El Salvador."

"You found children in the shed?" Leila took Gracie into her arms and snuggled her against her chest as if thinking what it would be like to have her child off in some distant foreign country. "How did they get there? What did they do? What did you do?"

"Convinced them to stay. Bribed them with food." Rebekah wrapped her arms around her midsection, wishing she had Gracie back for a minute more. "They were starving and dirty and scared."

"It's good that you were there to help them, then. Others might not have been as kind."

"We took them in, but Mordecai, Jeremiah, and Will are meditating on what to do with them now. I'm afraid they'll decide to call the sheriff."

Gracie began to wiggle, her round face wrinkling in a grimace. Leila shushed her and rocked her in her arms in a silent lullaby. "Jesse is working with a coalition of faith-based organizations trying to find homes for as many of the immigrant children as they can. Maybe he can help you place them."

Leila used many words now that Rebekah didn't understand, but it didn't matter. Jesse had the means to help Diego and Lupe. "Can you take them to your house?"

"Now?"

"They're up at the school."

"How would you explain their disappearance?"

Rebekah leaned closer to her sister and kissed Grace's cheek. The baby's skin was so soft and warm. Tears threatened to choke her. She breathed. "I would tell the truth. I asked you to help."

"Then they'll really come down on you. They'll never let you out of the house-"

The thud-thud of horse's hooves against packed, sun-hardened dirt made them both spin toward the path. Gott, please don't let it be Mordecai. Or worse, Jeremiah.

A palomino the color of honey emerged from the stand of live oaks pulling a buggy. Tobias held the reins, his cobalt-blue shirt shimmering in the sun. He pulled up and muttered, "Whoa, whoa."

The horse slowed, then stopped in a prance that spoke of a desire to head for the open road. Tobias's gaze traveled from Rebekah to Leila and back. "You again."

ELEVEN.

Rebekah stepped between her sister and Tobias's buggy. He leaned back in the seat, but every part of him seemed tense and poised for action. She stood straighter and introduced Tobias to Leila. "This is my schweschder. We're just having a quick visit."

His unrelenting gaze, filled with a mix of curiosity and what seemed like suspicion, studied her. She fought the urge to pat her hair back under her kapp and smooth her wrinkled ap.r.o.n. He moved on to Leila and then the car. "Strange place for visiting." He shoved his hat back, revealing those green eyes flecked with gold. Eyes that would mesmerize under other circ.u.mstances. Now they were cool and brilliant as cut gla.s.s in the sun. "Usually people visit in their homes where they can offer their guests a gla.s.s of tea or a cup of kaffi. They don't do it on someone else's property on a back road so no one can see them."

Rebekah crossed her arms. Who cared about his eyes? Not her. Or his opinion. The horse pranced and shimmied to one side, but he handled it with ease. It was no concern of his why she and Leila met here. "What are you doing out here?"

"This is my daed's property. He asked me to stop at the school on my way home for lunch-something about rattlesnakes." Tobias glanced at Leila, at the car, and then back at Rebekah, his expression seeming to indicate that he wondered why he was explaining himself. He did have a right to be on his daed's property. "You must be the Leila mentioned at Mordecai's house the other night."

Her confusion apparent in her face, Leila glanced at Rebekah. "Y'all were talking about me?"

"You and Jesse. About you helping the kinner." Rebekah sidled closer to Leila. "Mordecai didn't want you involved-"

"Of course he didn't-"

"Why don't you bring your sister up to the house? My sister Martha made biscuits for breakfast." Tobias's tone wasn't all that inviting despite his offer. "There's honey. Mordecai brought us a batch this morning. Neighborly of him. He didn't mention a visit from a daughter."

"Leila's not his daughter." Rebekah wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h the words back. Mordecai wasn't their father, but he'd been a good stepfather from the day he exchanged vows with Mudder. He didn't deserve disrespect. "We're his stepdaughters. Leila was just leaving. She'll take the car off your daed's property."

"The proper thing to do would be to welcome a new neighbor."

He was right, but she couldn't trust a stranger to understand. "Leila has to get back. The baby will be hungry soon, and her husband will be waiting for her."

"Best they go, then." Apparently the man excelled at reading between the lines. "I reckon school is back in session after lunches were eaten. Susan must be wondering where you are. Or does she know you're talking to Leila after Jeremiah and the others said not to do it?"

She didn't owe him an explanation. Not at all. "Nee."

"Welcome to Bee County." Leila brushed past Rebekah and offered her hand to Tobias. Such an Englisch thing for a woman to do. Tobias's countenance didn't change. He leaned down and grasped her hand in a quick shake. Leila smiled up at him. "Don't blame my sister for any of this. I wanted to . . . see her. It was my idea and it was a bad one. Since I'm here, she told me about the children from El Salvador. Jesse might be able to help. I'll ask him as soon as I get home."

"I don't think the bishop wants your husband's help."

"He might decide to put his feelings aside about keeping us separate for the sake of the children." Leila spoke in a deliberate tone Rebekah hadn't heard from her sister before. Like she knew what she was talking about and had a right to talk. "In the meantime, I hope you can see that it wouldn't do any good to tell the others about our visit until we know more about the options out there for those two little ones."

"I haven't been in my new district a week and you want me to keep secret a visit you know the bishop would not approve of?" He lifted his hat and settled it on his fine, straight brown hair. "I don't know about you, but where I come from, that's not the way we do things."

"Rebekah has had a hard row to hoe, and it's my fault. I don't want to make it worse." Leila's earnest tone seemed to have no effect on Tobias. "Coming here might have been a mistake, but Rebekah's heart is in the right place. We might be able to help two kids who are a long way from home. That's what's really important."

"Are you shunned?"

"Nee."

Tobias's gaze lifted to the horizon. He said nothing for seconds that seemed to last years. "Are you thinking of returning to the fold?"

"No."

He c.o.c.ked his head. "Then you should go now."

Who did he think he was? A stranger telling her sister what to do. Heat rushed to Rebekah's face. Her heart pounded in her throat. She fought off an absurd desire to stamp her foot. "You don't get to tell her what to do-"

"Hush." Gracie cooed, her arms flailing in the air. Leila hugged her to her chest. "He's right. Give the baby a kiss. I love you. I'm sorry for the pain I've caused you. All of you."

Rebekah did as she was told, then straightened. "You'll talk to Jesse?"

"As soon as I get home."

"You won't leave without looking into it?"

You won't leave me without saying good-bye?

"We'll not go until after the baby is born."

That time would come too soon. Three months, four at the most. "Write me."

"I will."

Three minutes later Leila was gone, one arm stuck through the open window, waving as she drove away into the bright, hot light, leaving Rebekah with empty arms and a heart with a hole the size of the state of Texas. She ducked her head and trudged past the man who sat on his high horse-and buggy-with such judgment. "I better get moving. Susan will be missing me."

"I'm sorry about your sister."

The rough compa.s.sion in his voice only served to cause the lump in her throat to expand until she found it hard to swallow, let alone speak. Rebekah nodded and kept walking.

"This place sure is dry and dusty."

Rebekah had no trouble remembering her first impressions of Bee County. His words were kind in comparison. Dirty. Ugly. Not fit for humans. Leaving the only home she'd ever known in Tennessee-lush by comparison-had been the hardest thing she'd ever done. Until now.

"It's not so bad." She paused and turned back. "You get used to it."

"I'm not sure I want-"

Caleb came storming through the brush, stumbled over a rock, and fell to his knees. "Rebekah, I've been looking all over for you. Susan is worried." Her brother righted himself. His bewildered gaze flew from Tobias to Rebekah. "Oh."

Oh was right.

TWELVE.