a fact she needed to remember. How thoroughly he had filled her mind with lies so that she sometimes confused her innocence with guilt.
“You’re the reason, Sarah, that we have to hide from the police,” Victor had complained on more than one occasion. “If I didn’t need to protect you, I would be free to come and go. Instead, we must hole up and hide out so the corrupt cops won’t find you and sell you into slavery along with your sister.”
He had brainwashed her with his constant badgering about her guilt. Fear, fatigue and her dulled senses, caused by the drugs he forced on her, had added to her confusion.
Thankfully, today, she was able to think rationally enough to seize the opportunity to escape. Pulling in a fortifying breath, she smelled the musty scent of the tarp mixed with the damp cool air of the encroaching storm. If dark clouds hung overhead, hopefully, they weren’t a harbinger of what would happen to her in the next few moments.
Instead of the weather, she focused on the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves on the pavement and tried to ignore the blast of a horn and the revved acceleration of the vehicle that forced the buggy to the side of the road.
“Hold up there, Belle.” The deep voice of the Amish man quieting his horse should have calmed her unease, but knowing Victor was the reason brought another volley of fear to wrap around her spine and underscored the seriousness of her situation as the buggy came to a stop.
God help me, she silently prayed. Help the Amish man. Save both of us from Victor.
“Hey, Amish.” Victor’s voice. “Did you see a woman leave my house?”
“Your mudder?”
“Not my mother.” Victor’s sharp retort reminded Sarah of the caustic tone he often used with her. “A twenty-one-year-old woman wearing jeans and a sweater.”
“She is your schweschder?” The Amish voice was deep and calming.
“What?” Victor didn’t understand.
“Your schweschder,” the Amish man repeated. “Is your sister the woman for whom you are searching?”
“I don’t have a sister,” Victor spat. “I’m looking for the woman who works for us, helping my mother. Did you see anyone?”
“A car passed by, heading toward Petersville. A woman sat in the passenger seat. The man driving had a bald head.”
“What color was the woman’s hair?”
“Blond. This is perhaps the woman you are seeking?”
Victor grumbled. A car door slammed and tires squealed as he drove away. Sarah held her breath and listened to the sound of the engine disappearing into the distance.
“He’s gone.” The Amish man’s voice was low and reassuring. “You can come out now.”
He had known she was under the tarp?
She raised the edge of the covering and stared up at a square jaw, furrowed brow and deep-set eyes filled with question.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked.
She hadn’t expected his concern or the tears that filled her eyes. “Not until today.”
“He will return soon. Plus, a storm is approaching.”
She looked at the darkening sky.
“I will take you someplace safe. Do you have family in the area?”
She glanced at a nearby road sign—Petersville 5 miles, Willkommen 30 miles—and shook her head. “My sister will be here tomorrow or the day after. She’ll make sure I’m safe once she arrives.”
“But today you need lodging,” he said, calmly stating the obvious. “Stay under the tarp in case Victor returns.”
Without further discussion, he turned his gaze to the road and clicked his tongue. The buggy jerked as the horse responded. Sarah found the sound of the horse’s hooves on the pavement and the sway of the carriage mildly soothing.
She didn’t know anything about the Amish man, yet he had helped her escape. She had to trust him, at least for the moment. From what she knew about the Amish, they kept to themselves and had little to do with law enforcement. If so, the man in the buggy might help her elude the crooked cops who had hijacked Miriam’s car and were searching for both sisters even now. He might also help her reconnect with Miriam and take both of them to safety. But where would that be?
Sarah had moved from town to town her entire life with no place to call home except the short-term rentals where she and her mother and sisters had lived for a month or two at most, before moving on to the next temporary lodging. How foolish she was to think her life in the future would be different, no matter how much she longed for stability and a home of her own.
Relieved though Sarah was to be free of Victor, she worried about his mother now left home alone with her crazed son. Over the last few weeks, Ms. Hazel’s condition had deteriorated much too quickly, making Sarah wonder if Victor was doing something to speed up her decline.
Concern for the older woman weighed heavily on Sarah’s shoulders, but she couldn’t do anything to help Ms. Hazel at the moment. Right now, she needed to close her eyes and rest. Sarah had escaped, although she felt anything but free while hiding under the tarp with Victor prowling the area in search of her.
Should Victor return to question her rescuer again, would the Amish man whose faith embraced peaceful nonresistance be able to save her? Or would Victor find her? She shuddered at the thought, knowing that if he got his hands on her once more, Victor would ensure Sarah never escaped again.
* * *
The dark sky mirrored Joachim’s inner struggle. Passing through the intersection where Eli died had been Joachim’s undoing earlier. Now he was hiding a woman he did not know. The added complication only made him more conflicted.
All too clearly, he had recognized the pain on the woman’s face as she glanced down at him from the window and again as she stood on the stairway inside the Thomin house, her finger to her lips and her eyes pleading for mercy. Her expression had reminded Joachim of his own sense of hopelessness and despair that had overwhelmed him following his brother’s death.
Was that what had drawn Joachim to the woman and made him long to protect her?
He glanced at the rear of the buggy, where she lay under the tarp. By the steady rise and fall of the heavy covering, he presumed she had fallen asleep, which was probably for the best. Fatigue had lined her face along with fear that made him grateful he had come to her rescue.
The wind picked up, and the temperature dropped as dark clouds billowed overhead. Joachim needed to find shelter before the storm brought more chaos to this already confusing day.
He flicked the reins, hurrying Belle. Instinctively, she knew the route he had chosen to take.
The woman needed a place to hole up for a day or two until she could connect with her sister. Petersville was the nearest town, but that was the direction Victor had gone. When he failed to find her there, he would more than likely retrace his route to search more thoroughly in the local area.
The
