“Jah, you know Dat—er, Judah—will spell it all out when he gets back from his walk, because Leah will tell him everything even though she promised she’d keep her mouth shut.” Alice spat at the stack of plates on the table. “Two-faced liar. What does he see in her, anyway?”
Chapter 9
By the time Leah had revealed the knowledge she’d gained about the twins this afternoon, she felt much better. It was such a comfort to walk arm in arm with Jude, their pace slower now that she had shared the most appalling of the details about Adeline and Alice. When Jude stepped in front of her, stopping at the edge of the unplowed cornfield south of the house, his eyes glimmered like dark, hot chocolate.
“Leah, I had no idea my girls were so far gone,” he said sadly. “You probably saved them from a fate worse than we want to imagine when you went after them today, and I owe you a debt I can never repay.”
Leah’s heart thudded steadily when he pulled her close and kissed her. The evening wind was picking up enough that she grabbed the strings of her kapp to keep it from blowing off, yet the cold didn’t faze her. She always felt so safe and warm—so centered—when Jude held her this way. “What bothered me most was that the girls seemed so comfortable with their cigarettes and beer in that smoky old pool hall,” she said, shaking her head. “Another girl around their age was so deep into flirting with two of the guys that they pulled her tank top down and—well, I—I was about ready to run at that point.”
Jude sighed, resting his forehead against hers. “When I smelled smoke on you, the pool hall was the first place that came to mind,” he admitted. “Back in my wilder days, Jeremiah and I spent some time there. I can only imagine how much tackier the place must be by now, and I can’t imagine the clientele has improved over the years, either.”
“Why would so many young men be spending their time there?” Leah asked in disbelief. “Why don’t they have jobs, or families, or—”
“A lot of them work the night shift at the pet food processing plant down the road—not that such work makes them bad people,” he added quickly. “It just means they have time to kill during the day, and at that age, young men tend to congregate at places where they can eat cheap meals and drink beer. I’ve known a few Amish boys who’ve worked at the plant—and a few who’ve spent some time shooting pool during their rumspringa.”
Leah frowned, considering this. “I can’t imagine Plain fellows wanting to endure such ridicule about their clothing, just to play pool and drink beer.”
Jude smiled sadly at her. “They wear English jeans and shirts, just like Alice and Adeline, so they sort of blend in with the crowd,” he explained. “Considering how Jeremiah and I did that now and again, I should’ve guessed my girls might be masquerading as English. I just never dreamed they’d have any reason to go to such a dive.”
“Maybe those English guys they supposedly run with work at the pet food plant,” she mused aloud. “I didn’t see any sign of them, but I got the feeling the girls were waiting for them.”
“With dangly earrings and Tinker Bell tattoos,” Jude muttered, shaking his head as he gazed toward the house. “I have half a notion to cut down that big tree by their bedroom window, except it shades that whole side of the house in the summer.”
Leah smiled sadly, tracing the lines that bracketed Jude’s mouth until her fingertips teased his cropped, curly beard. “I suspect they’d find other ways—other times—to slip away, if they’re so intent on being away from home to socialize with boys.”
“Jah, well—their old man might just take them down a peg or two,” Jude blurted out. “Rumspringa or not—no matter what they heard through the wall—I’m still their dat, and I’m responsible for their well-being until they marry. At the rate they’re sliding downhill, no respectable Amish men will want to hitch up with them if they’ve become too worldly or too free with their favors.”
Leah winced. Alice and Adeline might be sophisticated enough to pass for English at a pool hall, but that didn’t mean they knew how to prevent a pregnancy. And because they did everything together, chances were good that if one of them was getting intimate with boys, the other was, too.
Jude would love and support his girls no matter what they did, but he would be crushed—and he’d become the topic of hot, disapproving gossip—if he had to send the twins away to have babies out of wedlock.
“What’s our next move?” Leah asked softly. “Just so you’ll know, I had to promise them I’d not tell you anything to get them to come home today.”
“Puh! They lost the right to our silence the moment Jeremiah walked into the sale barn with Stevie today to tell me where you’d gone. Bishop Vernon was in on the conversation, too.” Jude wrapped his arm around Leah’s shoulders and started walking toward the house. “It’s time for some tough talk on my part and some straight answers on theirs.”
Although Leah knew they were doing the right thing by challenging the twins to own up to their questionable behavior and change their ways, she prayed that Jude would find words to straighten them out without further alienating them. She couldn’t imagine how difficult it must be for them to question their lineage—to doubt their deceased mother’s integrity.
Please, Lord, don’t let them rush down the same primrose path Frieda followed, getting too involved with those English boys just to spite their dat. They have no idea how quickly their lives can spin out of control.
As they got close to home, squares of soft yellow lamplight glowed in the windows, and the white house seemed to shimmer
