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called the Amish Education grant—from some well-intentioned people who thought the Amish needed rescuing—Laura would be able to afford school without any family help. But Ellie didn’t know that, and Seth could use her ignorance to his advantage.
    Ellie turned up her nose. Seth could see her debating with herself. She couldn’t stand to back down, especially in front of the other children.
    Seth forced humility into his voice. “Please, Ellie. We will all help extra.”
    “I will give Pookie a bath,” said Joshua.
    What a good boy. Joshua hated Pookie.
    Ellie shook her head. “No one bathes Pookie but me. You have to rub his fur just so or he develops a skin condition.”
    “I will oil the cabinets,” Seth said.
    Ellie relaxed the lines of her frown. She couldn’t resist a well-oiled cabinet. “Very well. If you all work doubly hard to make up for Laura’s vanity, I will agree to let her eat.”
    Seth clenched his jaw and bit his tongue and focused squarely on the beam in his own eye. Ellie couldn’t help herself. She refused to be wrong about anything. Seth’s greatest challenge was to convince her to change her mind while she still believed she was right. It was exhausting. And humbling.
    “Joshua,” Ellie scolded, “quit talking and eat. I declare, you could talk a goat to death.”
    With a few more horses sold at auction, Seth could eke out enough to start work on his own house. Then his siblings would be safe from Ellie.
    That day couldn’t come soon enough.

Chapter 5
    Miriam glanced around her and ducked into the drugstore, reluctant to be caught anywhere near the scene of the crime. Oppressive, accusing silence attacked her senses as soon as the glass door swished closed behind her. A fluorescent light above her head buzzed and flickered as her gaze darted around shelves piled high with sterile white boxes and jars of antiseptic cream. She covered her nose for fear that her lungs would be scorched by the smell of alcohol and orthopedic shoes.
    A young woman with three different colors of hair and ears full of earrings stood at the cash register. “Can I help you?” she said, popping her gum.
    The force of Miriam’s heartbeat surprised her. It took a minute for her to form words on her tongue. “My…a friend of mine came in here a few days ago and took something from your store. She forgot to pay.”
    The clerk looked at Miriam suspiciously and paused her gum-chewing. “What did she take?”
    Miriam forged ahead with her rehearsed speech. “It cost fifteen dollars. Here is twenty. Will that be enough?”
    “I have to know what it was so I can key in the right code,” said the clerk. “Otherwise my count is off by the end of the night.”
    “Won’t you just take the money?”
    The young woman folded her arms and shook her head. “Show me the item she took so I can ring it up.”
    Miriam felt as if her lungs were stuffed with cotton as she stood at the counter with the twenty-dollar bill wadded in her fist. What could she do now? She refused to even go down the row with the pregnancy tests, let alone touch one. The thought of such humiliation made her ill.
    “Can I help?”
    Already completely mortified, Miriam turned to see Seth Lambright standing behind her. Her throat constricted, effectively cutting off any air she might have taken into her tight lungs. Had he heard her entire embarrassing conversation? The possibility left her light-headed.
    “Hello,” Seth said, with a no-nonsense, stiff line to his lips.
    Until she actually formed the words, Miriam thought it would be impossible to speak. “Nae. No, thank you.” She felt the heat travel up her neck and overspread her cheeks.
    He studied her face as if she were a criminal with a horrible secret.
    She couldn’t bear his piercing eyes. Who was he to judge her? “I—I was just leaving,” she stuttered.
    Seth shook his head slightly, nudged his way past Miriam, and leaned over the counter to the clerk. The young woman backed