Read Cheryl Reavis for Free Online

their seats.
    “What is it?” she whispered to Leah, not wanting to look around.
    “It’s Eli Graeber,” Leah whispered back. “He’s standing.”
    Caroline could already hear him addressing Johann Rial in German, and there was more commotion among the congregation. Leah gave a sharp intake of breath.
    “What is he saying, Leah?” she whispered, squeezing Leah’s hand hard. Did Eli know about her and Kader Gerhardt after all? Surely, surely he wouldn’t stand up in church and say that she had been with the German schoolmaster.
    “Eli says he is willing to offer you marriage if Frederich withdraws his pledge,” Leah said.
    “He what?” Caroline cried, turning around now. Eli was indeed standing—and Frederich had him by the arm.
    “Sitzt sich!” Frederich bellowed, trying to make him sit down.
    Eli pulled free and began to speak over the clamor around him.
    “Eli says he owns half the land, half the farm,” Leah translated rapidly. “He says he has the right to take whoever he pleases—and his uncle is—”
    Her translation was interrupted by another outburst from Frederich.
    Sit down! Sit down! Caroline prayed, as if her litany could stop whatever Eli was doing by sheer force of will. Oh, dear God, she thought. Everyone will think Eli is the one.
    Eli Graeber suddenly looked in her direction, but he was speaking to Johann Rial. Then he was making his way to where she sat, waiting at the end of the pew for Johann to join him.
    “Eli wants to know what you say,” Leah said.
    “I don’t say anything!” She sat with her head bowed, as if she could hide somehow. Everyone was staring at her— she tried desperately not to cry. She hadn’t expected this. In her worst nightmare she hadn’t expected this.
    “Come, Caroline,” Leah said, trying to get her to stand up.
    “No-please. No!”
    “Caroline, Eli and Johann want to talk to you!” Leah whispered urgently.
    “Leah, I can’t—I have to get out of here!”
    She would have tried to run, but both John Steigermann and his wife had gotten up so that Eli could come into the pew and Leah was blocking the other way out. She was hopelessly trapped. Eli was actually going to address her here and now, in front of all these people.
    “Caroline Holt,” he said.
    She forced herself to look up at him, and she was immediately struck by two things. How determined he looked. And how unhappy.
    “Eli, what are you trying to do?” she whispered, knowing he wouldn’t understand. Then she abruptly covered her face with her hands. I can’t bear this! I can’t!
    “Caroline Holt,” he said again. “Sehen Sie mich an.”
    “Eli says to look at him,” Leah translated.
    “Bitte,” Eli said. “Don’t be…afraid,” he managed in English.
    Caroline turned away from him. Afraid? She wasn’t afraid. She was humiliated.
    He held his hand out to her, much the way he had that day he found her on the schoolroom stairs.
    “Come. We talk now,” he said. “You come away from all these—” He gestured toward the people around them. “Their business is— not to know—”
    He stopped struggling to find the English words and simply waited, his hand still outstretched.
    A farmer’s hand, Caroline thought. A hand like Avery’s. Like Frederich’s and her father’s.
    “Kommen Sie,” Eli said. “I…help you.”
    Help? she thought incredulously. He had made a spectacle of her. How could he help?
    He abruptly reached for her hand and she let him pull her upward, not because she intended to talk to him, but because he was the only way out of this place. When had she ever talked to Eli Graeber about anything? There was only that one time, that day in the church when he’d kept Mary Louise and Lise from seeing her. How much had he understood then? How much did he understand now?
    She glanced at Johann Rial. He wanted to say something very badly. Then she took a deep breath and let Eli lead her out of the pew. They followed Johann, and she meant to keep her eyes