Annie's Truth (Touch of Grace) Read Online Free PDF Page B

searched for a glimpse of the men or a drastic change in the weather. From the corner of her eye she could see her sister and mother did the same. By the time they finished, Mamm was almost pacing, attending to tiny, trivial details around the kitchen.
    Finally Amos guided Samuel and Thomas through the kitchen door with Eli and Augustus following at his usual snail’s pace even now. The door fought against Amos’s grip on the doorknob, and the wind caused it to bounce against his boot.
    Mamm gathered the younger boys around her. “What took you so long?”
    “That wind’s fierce.” Amos kicked off his boots and placed them in the mudroom, side by side.
    “We moved what we could into the barn, tied down the rest.” Eli removed his coat and hung it on a rack that held ten rungs and twice that many coats.
    “Do you think it’ll turn into a tornado?” Mamm helped the younger boys off with their jackets and sent them out of the room with the girls.
    “Hope not. All that crop-moving would be for nothing.” Amos sat in a chair by the black wood-burning stove. He opened the small door where the logs were fed and rubbed his hands together. Mamm set the kettle on the stove to make tea just as Annie headed toward the door.
    “Come here, Annie.” Amos’s strident voice filled the room.
    Annie stopped and turned to her daed. He continued the same motion, warming his hands and leaning toward the hot stove. It was almost as if he hadn’t spoken at all. Mamm turned at the waist, froze, and then looked at her husband.
    Annie sat in a chair by her daed, placed her hands in her lap, and waited. Amos closed the stove door and studied her. “You need to go back to the way things were.”
    Not sure of what he was asking, Annie frowned. “What do you mean?”
    His stern eyes bore into hers. “Like it was before you found out.”
    “I can’t, Daed.”
    “Puh, you will.”
    “It’s changed me.”
    “It doesn’t change anything.” He forced his words between clenched teeth.
    Annie turned her head as a tear rolled down her cheek. She couldn’t win this war of words. He wouldn’t let her feel, wouldn’t let her search for what she needed. “I need to find her.”
    “You ungrateful child.” Her father slowly shook his head.
    “Nee, Daed.” Annie lifted her hand to his arm. He pulled back and put two fingers to his temple. “Daed, please.” Her ears rang as her heart pounded.
    Annie stared at her mamm. She had backed up against the counter with one hand covering her mouth. Annie stood and walked quickly to her. Mamm enveloped Annie into her arms, letting her hide just for a moment, until Annie heard the creak of a chair and the footsteps of her daed slowly fade away.
    She turned too late; he was gone. Maybe it was better this way, so she could talk with her mamm alone. “I have to try to find out who I really am. You understand, don’t you?”
    Mamm shook her head once, slowly. “Nee, but I can’t stand to see the struggle tear inside you either.” She held Annie’s face in her palms, and Annie saw the anguish in her eyes. “You’re such a sensitive girl. I’d hoped you’d never know.” Mamm’s head tilted as her hands slipped away.
    “This is a path that calls my heart, Mamm. I have to follow where it leads me.”
    The shuffling noise of Thomas dragging his slippers across the floor caused them both to turn to him.
    “I’m hungry.” He plunked down in a chair with sleepy eyes and rested his head on his stuffed rabbit that he’d laid on the table. His eyes slowly closed, jerked open for a second, and then closed.
    Mamm squeezed Annie’s hand. “You’d best get some sleep.” She pressed her lips together. “Tomorrow’s a new day.”
    Annie nodded, feeling her mamm understood. She might not welcome Annie’s decision, but at least Mamm seemed to know how she felt and what she needed to do. Annie rested in that as she walked up the flight of stairs to her room. Not only a new day, but a new