she’d do tomorrow night, she wasn’t sure. Maybe one of her Englisch friends would let her stay at her house. She must have one who wasn’t afraid of Austin.
But most of her Englisch friends had been Austin’s friends a lot longer than they’d been hers.
She’d never felt more alone. Her whole life, she’d been surrounded by friends, both female and male. As she grew up, the male friends became admirers, and she’d had fun flirting with them. Soon, if her suspicions that she was pregnant were true, none of them would be interested in her.
Though she’d glowered at Micah, he hadn’t backed away from his insistence she speak with her daed. He’d always been stubborn, but she’d usually persuaded him to change his mind. Not tonight. She recognized the set of his square jaw, identical to his twin brother’s, except Micah didn’t have a cleft in his chin. His black hair fell into his startlingly blue eyes that saw so much and revealed so little. His days spent in construction work had broadened his shoulders and knotted muscles in his arms beneath his work coat. She couldn’t believe some girl hadn’t snagged him as her husband in the past year.
And you should be glad for that. She hated listening to her conscience, but she couldn’t argue with it. If he hadn’t been out tonight, she wasn’t sure where she could have found shelter without resorting to knocking on doors.
But Micah couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to talk to her daed and she couldn’t tell him the truth. She needed to know if she was pregnant or not. And if she was... With a sigh, she admitted she didn’t know what she’d do.
The house where Sean and Gemma Donnelly lived was closer to Ronks than Paradise Springs. Katie Kay was relieved because the two districts her daed oversaw as a bishop didn’t reach that far west. The Donnellys’ single-story house was close to the road, and, unlike the plain houses they’d passed, bright lights glowed in the windows. Electric wires ran high over the driveway, where a pair of vans, one with lettering on the side, were parked. She couldn’t read what was painted on it, and she didn’t care.
All she wanted was to have a place to sleep and to wake in the morning to find tonight had been nothing but a nightmare. It had to be. Austin wouldn’t have treated her heartlessly, and her heroic knight in a gray buggy wouldn’t have been Micah. What a joke on her!
Drawing in his horse, Micah stopped the buggy next to one van. She saw a hitching post nearby and wondered why it was there. Maybe the people inside provided a service to the plain community. He lashed the reins around it while she stepped out with the towel over her head to hold off the rain.
“This way,” Micah said, walking along flagstones to the front door.
She followed without saying anything. When he knocked a couple of times and then opened the door, she knew he must be a regular visitor. Amish people walked in without knocking but not the Englischers she’d met. They’d been horrified the first time she entered without waiting for someone to open the door. She’d been mortified, not realizing then how many more mistakes she had ahead of her.
“Is something wrong, Micah?” asked an Englischer as he entered the narrow hallway on the other side of the door. He wasn’t as tall as Micah, but he wore similar work clothes. His hair was red and tightly curled both on his head and in his thick beard and mustache.
“We didn’t expect you back tonight.” A woman followed the man into the hallway. She was plump and wore her dark hair in a ponytail. Dressed in a flowery bathrobe and fluffy slippers, she looked ready for bed. “Are you okay? Is Rascal all right?”
“We’re fine. I left him tied out by the driveway,” Micah answered, and Katie Kay realized Rascal must be his horse. An odd name for a buggy horse, but maybe the beast wasn’t plodding and slow when the weather was gut. “Sean and Gemma Donnelly, this is my...friend. Katie Kay Lapp.”
Did the others hear his hesitation? It made her sad, though she wasn’t quite sure why. She’d treated him poorly, so she should be grateful he attached the word friend to her name. She needed a friend.
“Come inside,” Gemma said with a welcoming smile. “What a horrible night to be out! Can I get you something hot to drink? I think there’s cocoa left in the cupboard.”
“Perfect,” Katie Kay said at the same time Micah replied, “No, thanks, we don’t need anything.”
He frowned at her, and she wanted to ask why. Gemma had offered, and she’d accepted. She understood when Gemma turned, revealing the unmistakable outline of a very pregnant body. In a few months, she could look the same. Her fingers went to her belly. Was it as flat as it’d been a few weeks ago?
“Actually,” Katie Kay hurried to add, “I’m fine. Being inside and warm is helping. I’ll skip the cocoa.” She hoped her stomach wouldn’t growl and betray the fact she hadn’t had anything to eat since noon, when she’d finally been able to hold down food. All morning, she’d been sick...as she had for the past week. She’d had to accept the possibility she was pregnant.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything?” the woman asked.
“Ja.” The Deitsch word slipped out as it hadn’t in months. She was exhausted. That had to be the reason. It couldn’t have anything to do with the brooding man beside her.
Such a description of Micah astonished her. Micah usually had been the one getting everyone to laugh. He and his brothers always teased each other, and if they could draw others into their sport, all the better. Yet, he stood like a disapproving Old Testament patriarch, not a hint of humor on his face.
The red-haired man asked, “What’s up, Micah?”
“Katie Kay needs a place to stay tonight. Can she stay here with you?”
Questions flickered across both Englischers’ faces, but she was relieved when, after a glance was exchanged, Gemma said, “Certainly. There’s an extra bed in Olivia’s room.” She smiled at Katie Kay. “Olivia is our four-year-old daughter. I don’t think she’d mind sharing her room as long as you’re okay with sleeping with a chatterbox. She talks all day, as well as half the night in her sleep.”
“That will be fine.” What else could she say? She’d rather sleep in the rain? No, she was glad for the chance to be under a roof and warm. It hadn’t been warm the past week in the apartment she shared with Austin and his friends. There hadn’t been money to pay for heat, so they’d used what blankets they had and hoped the winter wouldn’t be bad. “Is Olivia your only child?”
She ignored the look Micah fired at her when she didn’t use the common Deitsch word for child. Why would she say kind? The Donnellys weren’t Amish, and she had no idea how much of the language they understood. Probably some, because they were Micah’s friends.
“No,” Gemma replied with another warm smile. “We have two sons. DJ, which is short for Sean Donnelly Junior, is going to turn six in January, and Jayden is almost two.” She laced her hands together over her distended belly. “And this is son number three. Dylan. He’ll be here in a couple of months. His due date is Christmas, but he’ll come when he wants. As they all do.” She laughed, but a hint of fatigue slipped in. “Sean, why don’t you help Micah get her bags?”
“I don’t have any,” she said.
“Oh.” Gemma regained her composure. “Well, then we won’t have to worry about Sean clomping up the stairs and waking the kids. Come in and sit down. We just finished watching the news.”
As
