The Search The Secrets of Crittenden Cou - By Shelley Shepard Gray Page 0,16

but herself. She should have listened to her mother and stayed away.

Because if anything was true, it was that she wasn’t Jacob Schrock’s friend at all. In fact, she could very well be his enemy. She’d known he felt like that, and once more, she couldn’t say she blamed him.

Turning around, she mumbled to his mother, “Goodbye, Mrs. Schrock.”

“But, didn’t you want something? There must have been a reason you came in,” Mrs. Schrock said.

“It wasn’t anything important.”

The lady’s expression turned hesitant. “Do you still want to use the ladies’ room and get cleaned up?“

“Let her leave, Mamm,” Jacob said as the puppies started barking again. “The sooner she’s out of our lives, the better.”

Deborah tucked her chin and strode from the back room toward the front of the store, nearly running into Walker Anderson.

He held up his arms to keep her from knocking into him. “Hey, Deborah. When did you get back in town?” he asked with a smile that slowly vanished as he noticed her disheveled appearance. “Um . . . how are you?”

She’d just walked three miles to get humiliated by Jacob Schrock and was now covered with puppy prints and slime. Now she was going to have to walk back without getting what she’d come for.

So, she wasn’t fine. She wasn’t close to fine. But she couldn’t very well say that, now could she? “I’m all right.” Trying to smile, she said, “You?”

His eyes narrowed. “Where is everyone?”

“Mrs. Schrock and Jacob are in the back room. With the puppies.”

Walker’s eyes suddenly looked as pained as she felt. “Those puppies are like miniature horses.” He ran a hand through his short hair. “I tell you what, some days I’m sure this place is going to kill me.” As if he’d suddenly noticed her hands were empty, he said, “Hey, do you need some help? You came here to shop, right?”

There was nothing she needed more than to get out of the store. “I don’t need anything. I’ll just be going.”

“All right. Well, I’ll be seeing you.” Just as he turned away, she heard Walker groan in frustration. “These puppies have now left a present for me to pick up.”

Walking quickly to the front door, she heard him grumble some more. He sounded so put upon, she would have normally found it funny.

But the tears were falling too fast. Much too fast for laughter.

As she began the long walk home, Deborah considered praying for Jacob. He was obviously in a lot of pain, but she so wished things would get better between them.

But unfortunately, she barely believed even the Lord could convince Jacob Schrock to ever forgive her.

After all, her brother had made his life miserable. And both she and Jacob knew it.

Chapter 6

“Perry was the type of man to give you the coat off his back. If he didn’t need it, that is.”

JACOB SCHROCK

Frannie, can you hear me?” A pause. “Frannie? Frannie, try to wake up now.”

She heard the voice clearly, and understood what he was asking. Part of her wanted to open her eyes and focus on the voice, but the rest of her far preferred to stay in the peaceful foggy slumber.

It had been a long and difficult night. After her surgery, she’d spent time in a recovery room, where she’d been poked and prodded by nurses who wouldn’t tell her exactly how bad her wounds were.

Would she see out of her eye again?

She fought a rising panic and focused on what she did know. That she wanted to leave this place, if only to get some rest.

Hours had gone by before she was wheeled to a regular hospital room.

But it offered no rest, either.

Throughout the night, she was alternately awoken up by her roommate—a chatty, rather loud woman occupying the other side their room—or by nurses taking her blood pressure and temperature.

Only during the last few hours had the painkillers kicked in enough to drown out the noise, the visits, the ache around her eye, allowing her body to finally relax and drift into a peaceful slumber.

She stretched a leg. Then the other. Perhaps if she shifted just enough, she could drift right back into oblivion and ignore her visitor.

Ignore his summons.

“Frannie?”

Wearily, she gave up sleep’s grip and allowed her attention to drift to the voice coming from the chair next to her bed.

A voice, which had risen yet again. “Frannie? Francis? Wake up.”

There was only one man who said her name like that. With the speed of ice melting, she opened her left