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Marianna balled her fists at her side. She wouldn’t be able to hold the words in if she tried. Maybe, as those back in Indiana believed, she’d already been corrupted by the Englisch ways.
    Dat studied her, frustration reflecting in his gray eyes.
    Her words poured out. “I can read it in your eyes, Dat.” She tried to keep her tone respectful. A heavy weariness came upon her, surprising her. “But we both know that’s not the truth. She didn’t want him here for a surprise. She—she’s worried about me. Worried I’m not going to carry through with my plans to marry Aaron.” Marianna clenched her fists then slowly released them. Her mother did what any Amish mother who’d already lost three children would do. Marianna cleared her throat. “Like I’ve told you before, Ben’s a good friend. Nothing more.”
    Even as he nodded, she could see her father didn’t believe her. Dat rubbed the back of his hand against his forehead, as if wiping away a memory. Maybe the memory of her and Ben in this very room. He in his Englisch clothes, she in Amish dress. Her with his guitar in his hands, and him—with his arms around her. His cheek close. Her body resting against his. She guessed that’s what Dat thought about.
    Maybe because the memory always hung in front of her, like frozen breath on the air.
    It was a memory she’d have to pluck from the surface of her heart and plunge deeper inside. She had Aaron to think of now. He needed her. And a good Amish girl never turned her back on a friend.

CHAPTER SIX

    Dat had only to explain the situation and Annie gave Marianna the day off. She and Dat walked home through the snow. The exertion of wading through the calf-high drifts kept her warm, but neither spoke. Disbelief sealed her lips, and Dat’s far-off gaze held a hint of betrayal. His own wife had lied to him. Not by words, but by silence.
    Arriving at home thirty minutes later, Marianna stepped through the front door. Her scraggly dog Trapper greeted her first, jumping against her leg. His tail wagged as quick as the beating of hummingbird wings. She patted his head, enough to satisfy him, and then her eyes fell on Aaron. He partly sat, partly lay on the sofa. Three pillows supported his leg, casted to mid-thigh.
    Charlie sat on a cushion on the floor, his own leg bandaged. It had been nearly a month and a half since his accident, and the burn was healing. The doctor asked Mem to keep him home from school for at least another month. The other two boys were at school and the baby napped in her cradle near the woodstove. Ellie was nowhere to be seen, and Marianna assumed the young girl was upstairs. Charlie’s eyes fixed on Aaron, a look of camaraderie between them.
    Aaron wore no hat and the glow of the fireplace radiated off his blond hair, which looked silky smooth and fell across his forehead in straight bangs. Her heart did a double beat—something she hadn’t expected.
    His eyes fixed on her and his lips curled into a close-lipped smile. Then his lips parted. “Surprise, Marianna. Although this wasn’t how I imagined things.”
    In an instant the angst over him being here vanished. It was Aaron. Even if she didn’t have the same strong, romantic feelings she once had for him, he was her friend. They’d attended school together since the first year. He’d put frogs in her lunch pail. She’d tied his shoelaces together under the porch as he sat and chatted with friends. Even now a giggle threatened to bubble up as she remembered the look on his face when he stood only to tumble.
    “Well, you always have been clumsy.” She removed her gloves, unbuttoned her heavy wool coat and hung it, then placed a hand on her hip. Then, all joking aside, she moved toward him, her smile fading. “So what happened? I heard at the store it was some type of automobile accident.”
    “ Ja . It happened so fast.” He shook his head. “I bet when my letter finally reaches my mother she’ll smile and nod.”
    “That