has hurt you.”
“I’m okay,” he murmured. “Right now, I’m okay.” As he reached up and lightly pressed his fingers on top of hers. Just as if her touch was the very thing he needed.
For a moment, right then and there . . . Beth was sure there wasn’t another person in the room.
Not one who mattered, anyway.
Funny how life was like a bramble bush, Deborah Borntrager thought. Their lives were all so muddled together, linked and pulled, that one person’s decision affected so many other people’s.
When Frannie Eicher got hurt and had to go to the hospital, Beth Bylar made the choice to step in and help run the Yellow Bird Inn.
And when Beth made the choice to do Frannie’s job, that meant that she couldn’t watch the children she usually did. Which was how Deborah had come to be holding a baby.
The sweet baby was an angel for sure. Only four months old, she reminded Deborah of a doll, she was so tiny and perfect. She was a good baby, too. During the four hours she’d watched her, all little Pippa had wanted to do was be held and rocked.
Deborah figured she could do that all day long.
“Ah, Pippa,” she whispered when the baby squirmed a bit and shifted closer to her chest. “You are a miracle, now, aren’t you?”
Baby Pippa responded by kicking her feet a little, then curling back toward Deborah, claiming her heart.
“You better be careful, Deborah,” her mother teased from the door. “You’ve got such a look of love and affection on your face, you’re going to change your mind about children.”
“That’s not likely. Pippa is definitely not like most babies in the world.”
One afternoon when Deborah was seven, after sitting through hours of church in a muggy barn, next to two squirming three-year-olds, Deborah had claimed that she would never have children.
Though, of course, she’d said that as a child, privately Deborah had never felt her mind would change. She’d never been one to ache for motherhood like so many of the other women in their community.
Maybe she’d feel differently when she was married and had her own house. She hoped so. But for now, she was thankful to only be watching another woman’s baby for a short amount of time.
With a dreamy expression on her face, her mother spoke. “I think little Pippa here is like most babies. She reminds me of you, as a matter of fact. You were a wonderful-gut baby.”
Deborah chuckled. “That’s not what you used to say about Perry!” she teased. “You said he was a real handful.”
“That’s different. Perry was a boy. Besides, he was always stubborn and restless. Even before—” Her voice quavered, then with a jerk, she turned and rushed away.
Deborah sighed.
Living with Perry’s memory and all of the assorted mixed-up emotions that came with it was becoming harder and harder to do. Never did her parents want to hear even the slightest criticism of his character.
Not even, it seemed, when he was a baby.
As Pippa squirmed in her arms again, Deborah found herself praying that Sheriff Kramer and his city detective friend would never uncover the truth about Perry’s death.
If it simply remained a mystery, she could pretend that she didn’t know more than she did. And that would be a very good thing.
Chapter 20
“Finding Perry Borntrager’s body wasn’t the worst thing to happen to me. Dreaming about it every single night is.”
ABBY ANDERSON
When Frannie spied the pain etched in Chris Ellis’s face, she rushed to his side to be of help. “Come sit down, Chris,” she said gently. “I’ll bring you a glass of water and a cold compress for your eye.”
“He needs a steak or something for that shiner,” Luke said. “But I’ll take care of that in a little bit.” As his gaze rested on her, he frowned. “Frannie, you should sit down, too.”
There was no way she was going to have other people wait on her in her own home. “I’m perfectly fine. Beth’s been waiting on me hand and foot from the moment I got home.”
“No, I’ve been trying to do that,” Beth corrected. “And you still aren’t taking it easy. If you’re not careful, I’m going to tell the doctor that you should’ve stayed in the hospital longer.”
Ignoring Beth’s jibe and Luke’s watchful eye, she walked toward the kitchen. “I’ll be right back with that water, Chris.”
Just as she was at the sink, filling a mason jar with ice and water, she heard Luke begin his questioning.
“I’d guess you