Along Wooded Paths Read Online Free PDF

in two straight lines and her concerned eyes were fixed on Jebadiah.
    “The van must’ve been taking the corner too fast.” She pointed to the copy of The Daily Interlake, the newspaper spread on the table before him. “Did ya read an Amish man was the passenger and he’s up in the hospital in Kalispell?”
    “ Ja , I can’t say I know of anyone missing.” Jebadiah looked toward his bushy eyebrows as if doing a mental count. Leaning forward, arms on the table, he stroked his beard, which reached the second button on his simple blue shirt. “Maybe they’re mistaken. Coulda been someone dressed plain.”
    “Or maybe someone coming for a visit.” Millie’s voice and mannerisms were fit for a chow line. A rancher’s wife all her life, her face was as weathered as the leather saddlebag hanging on the dining room wall. But Marianna had discovered Millie’s interior wasn’t nearly as tough. Weeks ago the older woman had bought two sacks of groceries and loaded them in the back seat of Jenny Avery’s compact car while the young mom shared a bowl of soup with her four-year-old daughter, Kenzie. Jenny had asked around, but no one spilled the beans. Millie even tucked a hundred-dollar bill into a box of Pop Tarts, Marianna later heard.
    Marianna grabbed up the carafe of fresh coffee to top off her customers’ mugs and to get a glimpse of the photo in the newspaper. Her heartbeat always quickened at any news of a vehicle accident, whether buggy or automobile. Her two sisters had died in such an accident on the very night she was born, when a semitruck hit their buggy. Even though she’d never met Marilyn and Joanna, the fast falling snow reminded her of their loss. No sooner had she swept off a layer of pain over heart, than another layer fell. What muddy footprints hid underneath the thin covering of protection she’d built around her soul?
    All those years she spent always trying to be the perfect Amish girl to make up for her sisters’ loss. . . . All that changed when her family moved to Montana. Here she discovered maybe God had a plan for her alone.
    “Heard that passenger got his leg broke real bad.” This from Howard Anderson, who sat across the dining room. “My wife Annabelle called down to check on him. It’s a young man from Indiana come to Montana for a visit. Goes by the name of Aaron Zook.”
    “Aaron?” The whispered name escaped Marianna’s lips. There could be another Aaron Zook, but she knew it wasn’t. It was her Aaron—the man she’d always thought she’d marry.
    “Whoa there!” Millie’s voice split the air, and Marianna looked down. Hot coffee poured over the mug and onto the table.
    “I’m so sorry.” Marianna set the carafe on the table and grabbed up her apron, wiping the spill. “It didn’t get on you, did it?”
    “No, just soggied up my napkin.” Millie chuckled. “I’m still a bit chilled from the elements, but I wasn’t wanting to get warmed up that way.”
    “I’m so sorry.” Marianna hurried to the kitchen for a soapy towel. Her hands trembled as she plunged them into the sink. The hot water stung, but she barely noticed as she rung the washcloth out. Her chest tightened, as if someone had poured concrete into her lungs. Months ago she hadn’t wanted to leave Aaron, and now?
    She felt trapped.
    She hurried back and wiped up the table. Should she call home and ask her parents if they knew about Aaron being here? Would they answer the phone? Should she talk to Annie, who worked on the schedule in the back office, and ask for the day off? To trudge back home. To discover what Aaron’s being here meant. Why he hadn’t told her he was coming? He wouldn’t just show up without an invitation. He would have written a letter . . .
    Mem.
    The heaviness on her chest increased. She pulled back her shoulders, sucking in a breath.
    Ever since Marianna got off the train and returned to West Kootenai, Mem had acted strange. When Marianna entered the front door a month