Read Hidden Mercies for Free Online

house that did not ring with the sound of children’s laughter.
    “I need to go inside, change my clothes, and shower,” Claire said.
    She found herself savoring the word shower . It had been only a little over a year since Levi put in plumbing for her. Leaving the conservative Swartzentruber Amish sect for the Old Order Amish had been an agonizing decision, but it had allowed some amazingly welcome additions to her life—like a bathroom, and a windshield on her buggy for when it rained.
    “Supper is on the stove,” Maddy said. “I made chicken stew.”
    “If your hands prepared it,” Claire said, “I know it will be wonderful good.”
    She had started up the stairs to her room, when she heard a man’s voice on the front porch. It was the kind of voice that sounded rough, as though ruined by too many years of smoking cigarettes, and it held no hint of the Germanic lilt of her people.
    She did not mind the women tourists who stopped. They were almost always polite and considerate, but a lone man worried her.
    The shower would have to wait until the man was safely gone. It was comforting to know that Levi was only a few yards away, in the workshop.
    She hurried into the front room as Amy wheeled herself into the house. A tall man with short, salt-and-pepper hair held the door for her. This was the person she had seen at Mrs. Yoder’s a few days earlier.
    “Can I help you?” she asked.
    The moment the stranger saw her, his expression changed. There was a look of recognition there that disturbed her.
    Once, long ago, when she was a young woman, she had received many unwanted glances from men. Now, as a middle-aged Amish woman, she was used to being overlooked, nearly invisible, which was something she fervently welcomed. No decent Amish woman wanted to attract the notice of an Englisch man.
    In spite of the recent scars, the man still somehow managed to be attractive. He was well built and held himself straight, but she did not like the pallor that she saw coming over him. When sweat suddenly popped out on his forehead, the healer in her grew concerned.
    “Are you all right?” she asked. “You do not look well.”
    “I’m—I’m sorry.” He dropped into the nearest chair. “I’ve only been out of the hospital a few days. I honestly thought I was stronger than this.”
    From the looks of him, she was half afraid this strange man was about to faint.
    “Put your head down.” She was no longer afraid of him. A man so weak he couldn’t stand up was not a threat. He leaned over, both elbows on his knees.
    “Shrapnel.” He answered a question she had not asked.
    Ah. That explained much. This man was a soldier, as she had thought two days ago when she’d seen him at Mrs. Yoder’s.
    She remembered his limp—it was his left leg that he favored—and the way he struggled to extract some bills from his wallet with damaged hands. In fact, in her opinion, she remembered him just a little too well. Why would she bother to memorize so many details about an Englisch man?
    Then he slumped and completely lost consciousness. She found herself bearing the full weight of this stranger, trying to keep him from hitting his face on the linoleum of her front room floor.
    Maddy walked into the front room, ready to go work for Rose, and stopped dead. “What’s going on?”
    “Get Levi, Maddy. Quick! We have Druwwel .”
    “Levi,” Maddy yelled as she ran out the door, “come quick! We have trouble!”

chapter F OUR
    T om awoke, disoriented, in a room as bare of decoration as an army barracks. More bare, actually. Sometimes there were pinups in a barracks.
    A dark blue curtain was swagged to one side of the window in front of him. He moved his head slightly to see where he was. That slight movement brought an angel to his side.
    Not an angel, of course. He blinked to clear his head. An Amish woman in a light blue dress and a white head covering.
    The fog cleared a little. This wasn’t just any Amish woman. It was Claire.