“I’m going to pick three more carrots!” Rue said, running for the door. Thomas watched her slam outside, then looked over at Mary and Patience.
“Oh, she’s fine,” Mary said. “It’s good to have young ones help. Besides, they have more energy.”
Mary looked out the window, then rapped on the glass.
“No, Rue! Not those! Those are cucumbers!” Mammi called. “Over more...more...by the tree, Rue! Yes!”
Patience stood at the counter mashing potatoes, and he saw the smile tickle her lips. She glanced up and met his gaze, her eyes glittering with humor.
“She’s gone to see the chickens...” Mary sighed, turning back to the stove. “The Englishers really don’t teach their kinner how to fetch things, do they?”
Patience laughed. “She’s new at this.”
Mary muttered something Thomas couldn’t make out, and he chuckled. “She’ll come back with carrot tops, you know.”
Four-year-old Englishers didn’t know how to pull carrots, and he got up from his seat and headed to the side door to see how she was doing. But when he got there, all he could see was a single, dirt-covered carrot, several more carrot tops, as he’d predicted, but no Rue. She wasn’t in the garden or at the chicken coop, either. His heart sped up, and as he scanned the property, he spotted her over by the corral.
“Rue!” he called.
Rue looked over her shoulder, but didn’t stop moving closer to the horses. The unbroken stallion was closest to the fence, and Thomas’s heart stuttered to a stop.
“Rue!” he barked, sounding a whole lot gruffer than he even intended. The girl stopped. She didn’t turn, though, and she seemed undecided about what she was going to do. He didn’t have time to find out.
Thomas headed out of the house and then strode across the yard in Rue’s direction. She saw him coming, and instead of turning back, she climbed up on the fence and thrust her hand out toward the stallion.
The horse, whether in response to the unexpected hand, or to Thomas’s thundercloud of a face, shied back just as Thomas arrived and slipped an arm around Rue’s waist, plucking her neatly off the fence.
Rue set up a howl, and he stalked back toward the house, his daughter under his arm. His heart was hammering hard in his chest, and when he got to the side door, he was met with four mildly surprised adults staring at him.
“She went for the horses,” he said, putting Rue down. She immediately collapsed into a pile, wailing her heart out.
“That’s very dangerous,” Amos said. “And she didn’t listen.”
“I’m telling you,” Mary said, fire in her eyes. “It’s those Englishers and their lazy way of bringing up their kinner. No discipline!”
But Thomas wasn’t actually convinced of that. Rue couldn’t be blamed for not knowing the dangers around her. She hadn’t been raised with horses and chickens and carrots that came from the ground. She knew about cars, crosswalks and not to talk to strangers. Not much of that applied here—not on a daily basis, at least.
And yet, he was the daet here, and everyone was looking to him to decide on what should be done. It wasn’t just a misunderstanding—she’d willfully disobeyed. She had to be disciplined, but the prospect of doing so clamped a vise around his chest.
“Come, Rue,” he said firmly, picking her up and setting her on her feet. Then he led her out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
Rue continued to cry, but he could tell at this point that her crying was mostly put on for effect, and she watched him with teary curiosity as he led her up to the bedroom she shared with Mary.
He set her on the side of Mary’s bed, and she sniffled and wiped her eyes.
“Why didn’t you obey?” he asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to her.
Rue didn’t answer.
“There are rules in this home, Rue,” Thomas said slowly. “And they are going to be different rules than what you had with your mamm. You won’t have to worry about the same things. There will be no day care, or holding a rope, or electrical sockets. But there are dangers here, too. And those horses are dangerous. They could crush you.”
“I wanted to hug him,” Rue said.
Thomas felt that rise of frustration. Why did she have to be so different? Why couldn’t she see reason? Obviously, small kinner weren’t going to be as rational as when they got older, but even the little Amish kinner knew better than to try to hug horses in a corral. They learned quickly from the adults around them.
“He could have bitten you,” Thomas added. “That horse has very big teeth.”
Rue pulled her fingers back into a small fist and licked her lips.
“You must never disobey like that again,” Thomas said firmly. “What did your mamm do when you got in trouble at home?”
Rue blinked up at him.
“Did you get sent to your room? Did you get put in a corner?”
Rue didn’t answer. Had she been corrected at all?
He looked around the room. He had to make a point, or else she might get herself badly injured next, all because of uncurbed defiance.
His gaze landed on her suitcase, and he rose to his feet and went over to it. Rue’s gaze followed him, and as he opened the case, her entire body lurched forward.
“No!” Rue shouted.
Thomas pulled her pajamas out of the case and laid them on the edge of the bed.
“I am going to leave you your pajamas, but I am taking the rest of your old clothes until you can listen better. When you are able to do as you’re told and obey the first time, you can have your suitcase back.”
Rue’s eyes stayed fixed on the case, filling with tears. The color had gone out of her cheeks and her hands trembled. “No...”
He could already feel how deeply this was cutting the girl, but he’d made a decision and he had to stand by it. Kinner didn’t benefit from parents who swayed with
