“I know you wouldn’t.” Mary Aaron paused between bites of her sandwich. “I just can’t imagine spending Thanksgiving in a restaurant eating turkey raised in some tiny cage. Will you and Evan and his mother spend time in prayer?”
Rachel considered how to answer. “Just grace. No extended time of prayer.” She picked at the crust of her sandwich. “If you become English, you can still be strong in your faith in God, but in the world God becomes a smaller part of your life. Most English people don’t think of Him first as the Amish do.”
“I wouldn’t be like that,” Mary Aaron said thoughtfully. “I couldn’t be. If I become an Englisher, my faith will still come first.” She looked up at Rachel, her pretty face earnest. “That’s possible, isn’t it? To live a godly life and also drive a car?”
Chapter 13
“Of course it’s possible. It’s something I’ve had to struggle with,” Rachel admitted. “I haven’t always been successful, but I keep trying.”
“And Evan, does he feel the same way?” Mary Aaron’s face was earnest. “Will your home be centered around God?”
“I hope so. But living as an Englisher is harder in some ways than living Amish. Nothing is as simple as it was when I lived at home. The bishop and the elders told us how to live and we did it as best we could. I don’t think we worried as much about staying on the right path because it was laid out for us.”
Mary Aaron winced. “It sounds complicated.”
“It is. My mother told me that the ordnung isn’t a rope to bind us but a cradle to rock us. Does that make sense to you?”
“Ya, it does. Sometimes I get impatient with the rules. They seem silly, like the straight pins instead of buttons and that it’s all right to ride in a car but you can’t own one. But when you get down to it, I can see that buttons are a symbol of something bad in the past.”
“Soldiers who came to kill and imprison us for our faith,” Rachel said.
“Exactly. So, by not using buttons today, we remember those who died rather than deny God’s message. And not having an automobile keeps you closer to family and neighbors.” Mary Aaron smiled. “I’m glad I can talk about it with you. Timothy doesn’t understand. He just accepts the ordnung.”
“But he still sneaks out to see movies and I know he has a cell phone,” Rachel teased.
“Ne, actually he doesn’t. He gave up both. Next thing you know, he’ll be wearing a hat with a wider brim to tell everyone how conservative he is.”
“You think he’s showing off?”
Mary Aaron shook her head. “Ne, it’s just his newfound enthusiasm for the sermons the young preacher gives. Not so much God smiting this one and that and more New Testament and the teachings of Jesus. Mam says give Timothy time and he’ll find his balance. He was a good person before he got so religious and he’ll be a good person after. But she does warn me not to wait too long or I might lose him. She says half the mothers in the valley will be pointing him out to their eligible daughters, and she might be right.”
“She might be. But don’t use that reason to marry. Marry him only if you love him and you know you want to live out your life as he does.”
The two finished their sandwiches in silence and then Rachel returned to the whiteboard. She circled the words Persons of Interest. “I think we need to add Lemuel here as well.”
“Lemuel? Really?”
Rachel stared at the board. “According to Joe Troyer, he and Moses went off together after the fight in the woods between Joe and Daniel. Joe didn’t hunt with him, though. He didn’t hunt with Moses or Lemuel.”
“You think Lemuel did it and Moses covered for him? Or they both did it together?”
“I don’t know. But something was going on in that household.”
“Something bad enough for a fourteen-year-old to kill his brother-in-law?” Mary Aaron asked, her eyes round with surprise.
“My gut tells me that isn’t what happened.” Rachel sighed. “He’s just a kid, but . . .”
“Put him on the list. One of us can talk to him. See if he was with Moses. Maybe you can ask Moses.”
“I don’t know if I can get in to see him in prison again until he’s allowed to have regular visitors.” Rachel added Lemuel’s name on the board under Persons of Interest. “Evan had to call in a favor to get me in the first time.”
“How about Joe? He didn’t seem too fond of Daniel, either,” Mary Aaron suggested. “Maybe he was angry or even embarrassed by what happened that morning. He told you himself he was alone after that. Maybe he came back around and shot Daniel out of that tree stand.”
“Sounds a little far-fetched. Remember, we’re talking about the Amish here.”
“All these scenarios are far-fetched,” Mary Aaron pointed out. “Add him to the list.”
Rachel wrote in Joe beneath Rosh and Lemuel, then turned to her cousin. “I need to talk to Salome again.”
“The midwife?” Mary Aaron looked perplexed. “I thought she wouldn’t say anything about Daniel.”
“It wasn’t what she said. It was what she didn’t say. She got upset and asked me to leave after I brought it up. She knows something that she’s not telling. And my guess is that it has to do with how Daniel treated Mary Rose.”
“Which would mean what? Mary Rose might have killed him?”
“No . . . maybe. I don’t know,” Rachel said. “She could have, I suppose. But it doesn’t seem in her nature.”
“Which brings us back to the idea that someone close to her, someone who loved her and saw her being mistreated, may have decided to do something about it. Someone like her brother.”
“A brother or a friend.”
“You mean Rosh.”
Rachel stood back and stared at
