When Jude heard the girls suck in their breath, he reached for Leah’s hand. “Gut answer,” he whispered. “You nailed them, sweetheart.”
As he steered the horse into the lane that led to their home, however, Jude realized that it would take a lot more than the present-day prophets and the quicker singing he’d pondered in church to keep his daughters involved in the Amish faith.
Any help You can suggest would be extremely welcome, Lord, Jude prayed. Then, with a smile, he added, And I thank You for sending me Leah, who is truly the answer to the greatest questions of my everyday life.
Chapter 14
Alice stood beside Adeline at their bedroom window, gazing out at the patch of lantern light that bobbed through the evening shadows toward the barn. “Let’s get going, while Dat’s doing the chores.”
“Do you suppose Leah and Lenore will stay busy in the kitchen long enough?” Adeline whispered.
“It’s a chance we have to take. We’ve got to find that cell phone before Dexter gets any madder at us for not answering it or texting him.”
Silently, barefoot, the two of them slipped into the hallway. Outside of Dat’s room, they paused to listen for noises downstairs before entering. Hearing nothing, they went directly to the dresser. They had agreed to leave the door open so the hinge wouldn’t creak.
“It’s got to be here,” Adeline whispered as she silently opened the top drawer on her side. “Most likely Dat put it someplace obvious like his sock drawer, figuring we’d never dare come looking for it.”
“Or maybe Leah hid it. It would be just like her,” Alice pointed out as she began rummaging through Leah’s kapps and black stockings. “Hmm . . . it’s not here, so maybe it’s in her underwear drawer—”
Adeline grabbed Alice’s arm and sucked in her breath. “Who was that?” she whispered frantically as she gazed into the dresser mirror. “I swear I heard something—saw a blur of somebody passing by in the hall. Please tell me it wasn’t Leah spying on us.”
“You’re just jittery,” Alice hastened to reassure her. “We can’t lose our nerve—and besides, what can she say? That phone doesn’t belong to us, and it was wrong of Dat to take it.”
“But she’ll tell him, and then he’ll—”
“Quit worrying and keep looking!” Alice muttered as she opened another drawer. “We don’t have much time.”
“It would be easier if we could light the lamp.”
“Like that’s going to happen,” Alice shot back. “Besides, what else would they have that feels slick and flat like a cell phone?”
Adeline shrugged, sighing loudly in frustration. She eased the third drawer shut and opened the bottom one.
“So whaddya doin’? Why’re ya in Dat and Leah’s room?”
Stevie’s voice nearly made Alice jump out of her skin. She gazed at Adeline in the darkness and then stared into the dresser mirror. Their little brother stood silhouetted in the doorway, leaning against the jamb as though he might’ve been there for a while. “Just putting away laundry,” she replied nonchalantly. She turned, flashing Stevie a smile.
“And when we saw how messy these drawers were, we decided to straighten them,” Adeline added as she, too, turned to look at Stevie.
Alice’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so she saw how Stevie’s brow furrowed in disbelief. “Then why don’t ya light the lamp, so’s you can see what you’re doin’?” he asked.
“We can put away laundry without wasting a match—we do it all the time, you know,” Alice replied in a tone that brooked no argument. “Why aren’t you out in the barn helping Dat with the chores?”
“But this is Wednesday, and ya washed the clothes on Monday,” Stevie pointed out.
Alice’s stomach tightened. Their brother didn’t sound the least bit convinced by the tale they were telling him, and the minutes were ticking by. She looked to Adeline, hoping she’d say something that would convince Stevie to believe them and move on.
Adeline cleared her throat. “Leah sent us up here to fetch her some bobby pins so—”
“Because her hair is coming loose from scrubbing the floor,” Alice added quickly. “She’s getting the house cleaned for Lenore’s quilting frolic, you know.”
After a few moments of contemplation, Stevie shook his head. “Nuh-uh,” he countered. “You’re lookin’ for that cell phone Dat hid. And I won’t tell ya where he put it, neither. Not even for a hundred dollars.”
Alice lurched forward, glaring at him. “You know where it is?” she demanded.
“You’d better—we have to have that phone,” Adeline insisted, “or Dexter will come here and get really mad at us.”
“Jah, and we’ll tell him you know where it is,” Alice said as she started toward the doorway. “Trust me, Stevie, you don’t want to mess with the likes of Dexter and Phil.”
“They’ll throw you in the back of the pickup,” Adeline chimed in as she kept pace with Alice. “And then they’ll drive you way, way out of town and dump you somewhere totally strange. You’ll never find your way home.”
“So do the right thing, Stevie.” Alice stopped directly in front of him, holding his gaze as she towered above him. “Just tell us where the phone is. We won’t tell Dat you let it slip about where he hid—”
“Jah, why would we tell him?” Adeline asked. “It’ll be our little secret.”
Alice crossed her arms, driving her point home. “And if those English guys haul you away for holding out on them, not telling them—or us—where the phone is, we’ll keep quiet about that, too. Dat and Leah won’t have a clue what happened to you. It’ll be like you just disappeared—poof!” she said with a dramatic snap of her fingers. “Days and weeks will go by—”
Stevie waved her off. “You girls are full of beans. Dat won’t let those guys do nothin’ to me.”
When he turned and started down the hall, Alice grabbed his shoulder. “Stevie, stop it!” she whispered fiercely.
“How much do we have to pay you?” Adeline muttered as she took hold of his suspenders.
“I’m not sayin’ nothin’. Not even
