"Spurious?" Matthew questioned.
When she opened her mouth to explain, he laughed and held up his hands.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help teasing. You have an amazing vocabulary."
She swatted him with the dish towel. "Well, I should, considering my occupation."
Hannah stood and hugged Jenny, then her brother. "I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow to help you with the proofreading, Jenny."
"Of course."
"I'll walk you home," Chris said.
"There's no need—" Hannah began.
Chris gave her "the look" and she subsided.
After all, women weren't the only ones who could use it.
"Does this sort of thing happen often?"
Hannah glanced at Chris as they walked to her house, the flashlight she carried beaming a path for them. "The visit from the bishop?"
She shrugged. "Not often. After all, we know the Ordnung, the rules of conduct. We've been taught it since we were children.Mostly, our church leaders are there for us when we seek spiritual advice."
"It's awfully dark out tonight."
"I believe that's why they call it night," she told him.
"Very funny."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you if anything jumps out of the woods," Hannah teased.
"Maybe it's easier not to fear if you don't know of all the bad things in the world."
"We are a community that wishes to be apart, but it doesn't mean that we're not aware of the 'bad things' as you call them.We're not immune to accidents or—what is the expression? Things that go bump in the night."
He chuckled. "Yes, that's the expression."
They reached the steps leading up to her house.
"Wait," he said when she started to ascend the steps.
She turned and looked at him.
"I'm sorry if my actions caused a problem for you," he told her quietly.
"Don't worry about it. It's probably just cranky Josiah who sent it. He had a fuss when Jenny came here."
"He did?"
She nodded. "He eventually changed his mind. Well, that's actually going a little too far. He's . . . come to accept that she's not here to draw media attention to the community just because she is a journalist."
"Then why make a fuss about you?" Chris said suddenly."I'm the outsider. Why didn't the letter-writer complain about me?"
"I'm sorry, I'm not following you."
He repeated what he'd said and she shook her head. "I don't know. But it's not worth spending any more time or emotion on it. Don't you worry about it, either."
"Here," she said, handing him the flashlight "You can borrow this so you can walk back."
She stood on the porch watching the shining beam light his way and wished that she could take them back to the evening when they sat up talking all night.
15
Several days after the fire, Chris looked up from his work to see Jenny waving at Matthew to come in from the field.
Out of curiosity, he watched them talking in the distance, and it seemed to be about something serious. Then the two of them went into the house.
The next time Chris looked up, Matthew was approaching him. He looked even more serious than usual and he glanced briefly at Chris, then away as he called to one of the men nearby.
"He'll take over for you. I need to talk to you for a minute."
Chris turned over the reins of the horses to Sam. He could tell something big was bothering Matthew.
"I didn't give him the book."
Matthew stopped and turned to look at him. "Book?"
Chris realized that he didn't know. Now what could he say?
"Joshua," he said finally. "He wanted to read a book I'm reading, and I said I'd have to ask you because it's about soldiers.When the book disappeared I thought he'd borrowed it."
Matthew frowned. "Joshua wouldn't take something without permission."
"I don't think so either," Chris said quickly. "When it went missing, I asked him if he borrowed it because I was concerned that you and Jenny might get mad at me if he read it without permission. I know that such things are against your beliefs."
"Jenny and I don't try to hide things that are Englisch from our kinner. But no, I'd rather he didn't get exposed to adult books about such subjects until he was older."
He began walking again. "But that's not why I came to get you in the middle of our workday."
They rounded the house and Chris saw a car parked in the drive, one with the official county insignia. A man sat on the porch, one who looked familiar. Jenny was serving him coffee and a plate of cookies. She left a carafe of coffee and cups for Matthew and Chris.
It took a little while but Chris remembered when he'd seen the man—he was the fire investigator. Who could forget anything or anyone from the day the barn had burst into flames and a man had been hurt. Eli was still recovering from his burns and not back to work.