A Time to Heal(67)

"You're being deliberately cruel," she said, her lips trembling."Why? Something's wrong. You wouldn't do that unless something was wrong."

"Nothing's wrong," he said. "It's just time for me to go."

He started walking, and from the corner of his eye he saw her climb back into the buggy. After a moment it began moving down the road. He breathed a sigh of relief.

But the relief was short-lived.

Several minutes later, a car slowed and then stopped. A man with a ball cap pulled low over his sunglasses leaned out the open window.

"Hey, Pretty Boy."

Only one man had ever called him that, the nickname a sarcastic comment on what he thought was Chris's boy-nextdoor looks.

Chris's blood froze.

It was Malcolm Kraft.





Babe!

How dare he talk to her like that! Hannah fumed. Like she was some—some—well, she didn't know what word to use.

And talking about how he felt relieved that they hadn't had sex so he didn't have to worry about her showing up to make him claim a "brat"! That was just plain crude—even more unlike Chris. She realized that she hadn't known him long, but she couldn't be that wrong about a person. Could she?

Was he really like that and he'd just covered it up all this time? No, she didn't believe that. She'd always been a good judge of character, even if she didn't spend a lot of time out in the Englisch world.

It took another half mile of thinking hard, trying to puzzle out his behavior. Why would he drive her away? Why? He seemed to be trying to put distance between them. Like he wanted to get her to leave for some reason. She didn't know the reason, but she remembered that he'd been looking around so carefully, as if he expected someone.

Well, she didn't intend to just go away. He owed her some answers.





She slowed the horse and then guided it to make a U-turn.Then she yanked on the reins, urging Pilot to go faster in Chris's direction.

He had some explaining to do.

But as she drew closer, she saw that he stood not far from where she'd left him and he was talking to someone in a car.What was going on? she wondered as she slowed the horse to a stop and waited.

Chris raised his hands, the way she'd seen a man do once when a police officer arrested him. Glancing over, she saw then sun glint off something shiny in the hand of the driver of the car.

He had a gun, and he was pointing it at Chris!

Her heart skipped a beat, and she felt nauseous for a moment.Then she forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down.She glanced up and down the road, hoping someone would be around.

But the road, usually busy at this time, was empty. There were no homes or businesses close enough to go to, and she didn't have a cell phone.

But there was God.

She sent up a quick prayer to Him and then got the buggy rolling.

Both men turned to look at her as she approached. Her eyes were on Chris and she saw his widen with fear. He mouthed a word she knew, even if she'd never used it. She wiped one clammy hand, then the other, on the skirt of her dress.

Pulling up beside Chris, she waved to him. "Hi, need a ride?"

"He's coming with me," the other man said.

She glanced at the man and gave him a bright smile. "It's okay, I can give him a ride."

"No, really, he's coming with me."

"It's okay. You can go now."

"I know who you are," said the man in the car. "Your name's Hannah."

"She's just passing by," Chris said. "Let her go."

"I know who she is," the man repeated. "Don't try to pull something over on me."

Hannah studied the man. His photo had been printed with the article. "And I know you too."

"Don't," Chris hissed at her. Turning to Kraft, he held out his hands, palms up. "C'mon, man, I'll go with you. Just leave her out of it."

"Why? You didn't care what it did to my wife when you accused me."

"You talk like he's the one who did the bad thing. But you did it. You're the one who should have been thinking of your wife when you took that girl and raped her. I read that her parents turned her out saying she'd been dishonored."

"The sex was consensual. I can't help that they have weird religious customs there." He gave her a disparaging glance."So, Chris, you been crying to little Pilgrim girl here?"

Hannah merely looked at him. "No. I looked it up on the Internet. You raped her. Why are you blaming Chris for what you did? Why can't you leave him alone?"

Malcolm told her furiously. "Shut up!" he yelled. "You don't know what you're talking about! He ruined my life!"

"It's time to stop blaming others, Malcolm," she said, her tone quiet and reasonable. "Ask God to put you on a better path. It's not too late to start new."