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didn’t wait for an argument. She just ran into the house.

Chapter Five
     
    “I still say you should have told me.” Abe punctuated his words by pounding the nails into the stall door he was fixing.
    Josiah, holding the door steady for him, moved his fingers safely out of the way. “Leah begged me not to. What else could I do?”
    “You should have thought of something,” Abe said stubbornly, but it was clear he couldn’t think of a real answer.
    “Anyway, if one of my sisters wanted your help, you would do it.” Josiah pressed his advantage.
    Abe’s frown dissolved in a grin. “Your sisters are older and married and living clear out in Indiana. What would they want with me?”
    “Nothing, but if they did…”
    Abe tossed the hammer into his toolbox. “All right, ja. I’m glad you’re trying to help our Leah. But what can we do?”
    That question was what Josiah had been hoping to hear. After a restless night spent thinking of how Leah had run into the house to hide her tears from him, he’d only been able to come up with one possibility.
    “How about going with me to talk to Becky Lapp? She’s working at the Farm Market just down the road.”
    Abe ruffled the sandy beard that marked his status as a married man. “Ja, I know, but what does Becky Lapp have to do with it?”
    “She used to work for Mrs. Grayson in the house, just like Leah does. I figured she might be able to tell us something helpful about the woman.”
    “Don’t see what it would be,” Abe grumbled, but he was already lifting the harness from its rack.
    Josiah didn’t, either, but he had to do something, and talking to Becky was all he’d come up with. He didn’t seriously believe Becky would have gone back to the Grayson house and taken the ring, of course, but maybe she could tell them something that would help them understand the woman.
    In a few minutes they were riding down the road behind Abe’s buggy horse.
    “Like old times, ain’t so?” Abe flicked the lines. “I never thought you’d move back. I figured you were settled out there for gut. What made you komm?”
    Josiah shrugged, vaguely uncomfortable at the question. “My uncle taught me a lot, but his own boys were coming along to be settled in the business. With my sisters married and my mother remarrying…” He shrugged. “I guess I figured I was better off here.” The truth was, he’d felt as if none of them needed him anymore.
    Abe cocked an eyebrow at him. “Going to settle down, get married? You’d like it fine.”
    “Just like a new husband, trying to push everyone else into marriage.”
    “There are plenty of sweet, pretty girls here,” Abe said. “As many as there are in Indiana, I’d guess.”
    Like Leah . Josiah studied the fields of pumpkins they were passing so he didn’t have to look at his friend.
    “Maybe, in time. I don’t want to rush into anything.” Too bad that his heart seemed to be rushing ahead of his head in that department. “Here we are.”
    Abe pulled the buggy up to the rail under the shade of the trees. The gravel lot at the Farmers Market was full of cars, and a couple of tour buses were parked along the edge.
    “Market’s busy today, it being Saturday,” Abe said. “Becky might not have time to talk.”
    “We can try.” Josiah slid down.
    He had to make an effort to ignore the tourists who were gawking at them as they walked toward the building. He’d forgotten the hordes of tourists that descended on Lancaster County, especially on a fall weekend. There weren’t so many where he’d lived in Indiana.
    A line of people with cameras stretched in front of the counter where Becky was selling hot soft pretzels and apple cider, but when Josiah waved at her, she grinned and jerked her head toward the rear door. They skirted the building to the back, and in a moment Becky joined them there.
    “Ach, if it isn’t Josiah King, back from Indiana. I wondered when you’d come to see me. How are you?” She smiled up