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or Millie about her return before the grapevine buzzed like a swarm of hornets. Longtime residents would remember who she was and why she’d left, and when they quizzed Dat about her return, he would not be happy. Forgive and forget might be the key to the Amish faith, but unless her father had undergone a personality transplant, he would never welcome her back.
    With a sigh, Nora glanced at the soup congealing in the saucepan. “It’s been a really long day, guys. How about if I visit with you again some other time?”
    One of Luke’s eyebrows rose in a distinctive curve, accentuating his furtive green-eyed gaze. “You sure you’ll be all right here without any lights, or—”
    “Or any company in this big ole house?” Ira asked. “Might get kinda spooky here, all by your lonesome.”
    Nora caught herself before she revealed that she knew quite well how to get by with lanterns. She pointed to the two battery lamps on the counter. “I’ll be fine, really. But thanks for asking.”
    “And your bed’s put together?” Luke asked with another of his suggestive gazes.
    With an exasperated gasp, Nora pointed to the back door. “Who do you think you’re dealing with? I really don’t need your help.”
    The brothers exchanged a knowing look as they put on their straw hats and left.
    Nora felt a tension headache coming on. Would her words come back to haunt her once Luke and Ira knew who she really was?

Chapter Five
    As they left her grandparents’ house to return to the wedding festivities, Millie had to walk very fast to keep up with her mamm . Her heart throbbed painfully from overhearing just enough of the adults’ conversation to be bothersome—and she felt as though she’d explode because of what she had not heard.
    “So who’s Nora?” she demanded in a strained voice.
    Mamm glanced up the county highway in one direction and then down the other before they crossed it. Her face nearly matched her white kapp and light blond hair, and she was clutching Ella so tightly that the poor little girl’s eyes were wide. “We’ll talk about it when we get home,” she answered stiffly.
    “But I’ll be going back to take care of Mammi tonight, so—”
    “Nora is your dat ’s sister,” her mother snapped. “He needs to know she’s in town—or else we need to take your mammi to a doctor, if she’s been hallucinatin’.”
    Millie frowned. “If Dat has a sister, why have I never heard about her? And why doesn’t she live here in—”
    “Enough already!” Mamm stepped in front of Millie, stopping her on the shoulder of the road. “Not a word of this to anybody until we can be sure what’s goin’ on, understand me?”
    Millie’s heart shriveled. All her life she’d endured her dat ’s temper and her grandfather’s brusque manner, so her mother’s angry demand sliced her heart like a knife. “I—I only asked,” she whimpered, “because it sounds like everybody but me knows what’s going on and—and because of what Miriam said before she left. She was worried about me, Mamm. Because of this Nora.”
    Suddenly Mamm’s face fell and she let out the breath she’d been holding. She caressed Millie’s cheek. “I’m sorry it’s come to this,” she murmured. “We can’t understand why the Lord allows things to happen the way they do. If I’d had my way, you would’ve been told about Nora long ago.”
    Her mother appeared torn between what she knew and what she wasn’t ready to reveal, so Millie sensed she’d better keep her questions to herself. She swallowed hard, but the lump remained in her throat as they resumed their rapid stroll to the Brenneman place. Clusters of wedding guests dotted the lawn beneath the big shade trees, some of them in chairs and some of them standing. Farther across the lot, the little girls were squealing in their best pastel dresses while the boys darted after them, playing tag. Millie had the feeling she’d never again feel that carefree, once the family