Read Susanna's Dream: The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley, Book Two for Free Online Page A

mother.”
    “Getting her more upset won’t help her,” Susanna pointed out.
    “I will go to the doctor,” Dora announced, sitting up with Chloe’s help.
    Nate held out for another second, and then he shrugged. “Ja, have it your way.”
    Before Dora could resist, Nate bent and scooped her up in his arms. Holding her easily as he straightened, he glanced at Susanna, and she had no difficulty in reading his expression.
    You see, I was right.
That was what he was thinking.
It’s time she retired.
    Nate strode toward the door. Susanna hurried to hold it open for them and then followed to help him get Dora settled in the backseat. Susanna recognized Jack Shaffer, one of the retired Englischers who did deliveries, behind the wheel. Nate climbed in next to his mother, and Susanna watched until they were out of sight, managing to keep a smile on her face.
    Then, once they were gone, she could feel herself crumbling.
    Chloe nudged her back inside. She reached out to flip the sign on the door to CLOSED , and then put her arm around Susanna and steered her firmly toward the back room.
    “I shouldn’t close in the middle of the day,” she protested.
    “Any real customers will wait. They’d probably just be the curious if they saw Dora’s son carrying her out of here anyway. You don’t want to answer a lot of questions.”
    “I suppose you’re right, but . . .”
    “No buts. You’ll sit down. You can use my cell phone to call Dora’s doctor. Meanwhile, I’ll make you a cup of tea. You need a little recuperation time, too.”
    Susanna managed a shaky laugh. “I do feel a bit bowled over. It was so scary to see Dora pass out. One minute she was talking perfectly normally, and the next she was on the floor.”
    Chloe pushed her into the rocking chair and began to assemble the tea on the small stove in the back room. She’d shared a cup often enough with Susanna and Dora to know where things were. Susanna placed the call, explained matters to the doctor’s receptionist, and then was glad to lean back and let her thoughts go where they would.
    Unfortunately, where they chose to go was in the direction of what would happen now. Nate was no doubt convinced that this incident proved his point. He’d be even more determined to get his mother to give up the shop.
    Susanna leaned her head on her hand. Naturally she couldn’t want Dora to hang on to the shop just for her sake. If it was best for Dora to give it up, then Susanna would have no choice. She brooded over it, trying to see a solution.
    Chloe pressed a steaming mug into her hand, and she took it automatically. The first sip seemed to ease the tightness in her throat.
    “You’re thinking this makes it more likely that Dora will have to give up the shop, aren’t you?” Chloe perched on the edge of Dora’s usual chair, looking a bit out of place in denim jeans and a bright blue sweater.
    “I suppose so.” Susanna rubbed her forehead. “I wish I knew what to do.”
    “I take it you can’t afford to buy her out right now,” Chloe said, with an air of fearing she was going too far.
    “No, not now. Maybe in a few years, but I’m beginning to fear I don’t have a few years.”
    “You might take out a loan. Or I’d be glad to help, if I can.”
    Susanna’s cheeks grew warm at the thought of accepting what amounted to charity from an Englischer. “I . . . I couldn’t impose on you. You hardly know me.”
    Chloe sucked in a deep breath, like a swimmer about to plunge underwater. “I know you better than you think, Susanna. We . . . Lydia Beachy and I . . . We thought we shouldn’t tell you when your mother was so ill. But the truth of it is that we’re not strangers. We’re your sisters.”

C HAPTER T HREE
    C hloe held her breath, praying she hadn’t made a mistake in telling Susanna the truth. All she wanted was to help her sister, and surely this was the right way to go about it.
    Uneasiness stirred. Susanna wasn’t reacting at all.