Her Amish Suitor's Secret Page 9

  “Alone? In the dark?”

  “I have a flashlight.” She shone it in his face, and he swatted at the ray of light as if it was a bug until she turned it off.

  “Do you mind if I kumme with you?”

  “You just said you were tired.”

  “Jah, but I’d feel personally responsible if anything happened to you,” he said. “Or to anyone who crosses your path.”

  “Voll schpass.” She laughed. “Okay, but hurry up—and wear your boots.”

  As they paddled across the lake, Rose pointed out the fireflies blinking brightly beneath the trees along the shoreline. “Look. Our own private fireworks display.”

  “And the best thing is they’re silent fireworks.”

  “You don’t like how noisy fireworks are?”

  “Let’s just say I’ve really kumme to appreciate the serenity of Serenity Lake.”

  “Isn’t it quiet where you live in Wisconsin?”

  “It’s not this quiet. This peaceful. There’s something about being here, where sometimes the loudest sound I hear is water lapping the shore... It makes me feel so calm. I feel like that when I’m working in the fields, too. Probably because when I was young I used to escape to the garden when—”

  Rose stopped paddling, eager to hear the rest of his sentence. He hardly ever talked about his youth. “When what?” she pressed, looking over her shoulder to get a glimpse of his face.

  * * *

  Over the past couple of weeks while chatting with Rose, Caleb had occasionally forgotten to guard his Englisch identity, but until now, he’d always guarded his emotions, especially those concerning his upbringing. He hadn’t meant to disclose his feelings tonight—he hadn’t even intended to spend any time alone with Rose. But opening up to her seemed to happen naturally, in spite of yesterday’s resolution to put distance between himself and the Amish of Serenity Ridge. So he continued, “My mamm and daed bickered a lot and it helped to go outdoors to get away from them. When I was gardening, I forgot about their troubles. Tending to Gott’s creation made me feel... Well, it made me feel tranquil.” Kind of like how I feel right now.

  Caleb had also stopped paddling and mild waves gently rocked the canoe. In the moonlight, he could see Rose’s eyebrows were furrowed and she appeared to be contemplating what he’d just said. After a quiet spell, she questioned, “Does gardening still bring you a sense of tranquility?”

  “Jah, it does.” Caleb’s mouth went dry as he anticipated her next question: she was going to ask why he’d become a teacher instead of a farmer, and he couldn’t drum up a credible reply.

  Instead, she gave him a fetching smile and, before twisting forward in her seat again, she added, “I’m glad. For our sake, as well as for yours.”

  Caleb let his breath out slowly. He dipped his paddle into the water and Rose did, too. As they journeyed he thought about how amazing it felt to confide in her. Maybe he wasn’t being honest about the facts of his life, but tonight he’d been honest about his emotions. And even though Rose’s back was to him as she sat in the bow, there was something so...not necessarily romantic, but so personal about being with her that he’d never felt with his friends or any of the women he’d ever dated. Rose seems to enjoy spending time with me, too, Caleb rationalized. So what’s the harm in continuing to develop friendships here as long as no one finds out I’m Englisch?

  When they pulled onto the shore near the trailhead by Paradise Point, Caleb hopped out and dragged the canoe several feet up the embankment so Rose wouldn’t get her shoes wet, and then they headed for the forested path. It was much darker beneath the trees than on the open water, so Rose shone the flashlight on the ground in front of her. Caleb initially tried to follow in her footsteps but after tripping twice, he decided to accompany her side by side on the narrow path in order to get the benefit of the light.

  “I think we should talk so we don’t startle any animals,” Rose announced loudly. “Or we should sing.”

  “My singing would frighten the animals,” Caleb jested.

  “In that case, you should have serenaded the skunks on the porch—maybe they would have left.”

  “Or they would have sprayed me,” Caleb said. “This probably isn’t the right time to ask, but are there many other kinds of animals in these woods?”

  “Serenity Ridge has a family of moose that sometimes make their presence known. The other night when I was coming back from the dining hall, I thought I heard one in the bushes behind me, but then it went quiet.”

  Caleb’s ears perked up. “What night was that?”

  “I think it was last Monday or Tuesday, but don’t worry, it turned out to be a deer—I saw its tracks on the path. That’s the thing about animals and buwe—they always leave tracks. When my breider were young, my mamm always knew when they’d been exploring down by the swamp instead of doing their chores because of what her kitchen floor looked like. You’d think it would occur to them to take off their shoes before they came inside, but it never did,” Rose said, giggling.

  For the rest of their hike Caleb asked questions about her siblings and their families, and he told her a couple anecdotes about Ryan, too. Finally the trees thinned out and Rose announced they were nearing the summit. Caleb was about to remark he wished they’d brought refreshments when he heard a noise in the distance, almost a metallic sound, or like something scraping against a rock. He came to a halt and tugged Rose’s arm to make her stop, too. With his chin nearly resting on her shoulder, he whispered into her ear, “What was that?”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” she whispered back, and flashed the light into the woods on one side of the path and then the other. Caleb didn’t see anything unusual. He didn’t hear anything unusual, either, other than the thundering of his pulse, which was probably more from standing so close to Rose than from being alarmed. Half a minute passed and nothing stirred in the woods.

  He must have imagined it, Caleb thought, merely two seconds before an earsplitting shot reverberated through the night air.

  Chapter Six

  Rose giggled when Caleb nearly leaped out of his skin—he was even jumpier than she’d been lately. “Quick, they’re starting the fireworks!” she exclaimed as a volley of initial explosions resonated in the valley. She hurried the last few yards up the wooded path into the clearing. From there they’d have to scramble up a gravelly incline in order to gain enough height to see beyond the trees, but they wouldn’t have enough time or light to scale the larger rocks comprising the ridge. “It’s treacherous up here. Don’t trip.”

  A few more separate booms sounded as Rose led Caleb to a rounded boulder. They hoisted themselves onto it right before the sky erupted into a dazzling kaleidoscopic array of designs and the accompanying cacophony ricocheted off the surrounding ridges and hills. Rose nudged Caleb and pointed to the lake below, which reflected splendorous patterns flaring across the sky.

  “It’s doubly beautiful,” he mumbled—exactly what she’d been thinking.

  Rose glanced at his profile, which was illuminated by the prismatic flickering of the exploding fireworks. He’d removed his hat, and his head was tilted slightly upward, damp curls sticking to his forehead and temples. He was slack jawed and motionless except for the occasional lowering and lifting of the long dark fringe of his eyelashes. Rose was nearly as mesmerized by his astonishment as he was by the fireworks, and she had to force her gaze back toward the sky.

  “Ooh,” she sighed, touching her throat as resplendence shattered the dark.

  “Ahh,” Caleb exclaimed after a particularly radiant shower of color rained down from above.

  When neon green, yellow and purple streaks zigzagged through the night, simultaneously they said, “Wow.” Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing. Rose didn’t know what was so funny, but she couldn’t contain her glee. And when the grand finale rocketed through the atmosphere with chro
matic explosions too spectacular for words, they hopped to their feet and applauded while vehicles in the distant valley honked their horns. As it quieted, Rose and Caleb stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the cloud of smoke drift over the far hills.

  “That was...” Caleb appeared to be searching for a word.

  Rose understood without him saying it. “Jah, it was.” She pushed the button on her flashlight, which cast a feeble glow. She shook it and smacked it against her palm, but the light remained dim.

  “Here, let me try.” Caleb unscrewed the top, took the batteries out and reinserted them; this time the light wouldn’t come on. “We’ll just have to take it slowly. Let me go first,” he said. He made his way down the incline sideways, bracing his forearm at a perpendicular angle so Rose could lean on it for balance. As she did, she thought of Julia. Rose supposed if someone saw her and Caleb just now they might jump to conclusions similar to those she’d been afraid they’d make about Caleb escorting Julia to her car. I hope we get back to the camp before the Englischers do, she fretted. I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression.

  When they reached the beginning of the path through the woods, Rose released her grip, but at that second something flapped erratically between the trees. She screamed and grabbed Caleb’s arm with one hand, using her other hand to cover her head.

  “It was just a bat,” he informed her.

  “Ick!” Rose crouched lower.

  “How can someone who doesn’t sleep with her doors locked and who’s willing to hike up a mountain in the dark alone be afraid of bats?”

  “I’m not afraid of them.” Rose burrowed her face into her arm. “I just don’t like them swooping at my head.”

  “You know it’s a myth that they make nests in women’s hair, right?”

  “Jah. So?”

  “And they won’t bump into you by accident. They use echolocation and they can catch insects midair, so they have really good aim,” he reasoned.

  “They also have rabies,” she said, peeking over her elbow at him. “Some of them do anyway.”

  “Well, you’ve seen what happened to the canoe when you tried traveling blindfolded, so you can’t walk down the trail with your eyes covered.” Rose understood Caleb was trying to quell her anxiety with humor, but it wasn’t working: she really, really loathed bats. “Do you want to wear my hut? You can keep the brim lowered so you won’t notice them.”

  “Them? There’s more than one?” she whimpered.

  Caleb pried her fingers from his arm and tugged her hand from her head so he could place his hat on her. Even atop of her prayer kapp, the hat wiggled loosely, and as Rose tilted her head to look at him, the brim slipped forward, reducing her vision. “I can hardly see.”

  “That’s the point. You keep looking down at your feet while I lead you forward,” he said definitively, clasping her hand in his.

  “But it’s dark. How will you see?”

  “I’ll manage.”

  “We’re going to go back the same way we came up, right? Because you don’t know the way on the other paths and they’re difficult to follow even during the day.”

  “Jah. We’re going back the same way we came up,” he assured her. “Ready?”

  Rose took a deep breath. “Ready.”

  * * *

  Although she was nervously chatting nonstop, after a few minutes Rose loosened her grip so her fingertips weren’t pressing into the back of Caleb’s hand. If only she weren’t so anxious... Then what? She might enjoy walking hand in hand with him? Caleb quickly dismissed the thought, reminding himself that she wasn’t holding his hand because she wanted to.

  The difficulty of navigating through the dark, combined with Rose’s halting pace, made for a slow descent and it probably took them twice as long as usual to get to the end of the trail. “We’re almost to the bottom,” Caleb told Rose. “Finally.”

  “Sorry I was so slow. You must really regret not going to Serenity Ridge instead.”

  “Not at all,” he answered honestly as he led her into the clearing. “This has been much more—hey! Where’s the canoe?” It wasn’t resting where he’d left it on the embankment.

  Rose dropped his hand and lifted the hat from her head. “What in the world...? Oh, look, there it is, over there.” The boat was floating to the west, some twenty yards from shore.

  “How did that happen? Is this a prank?”

  “Neh,” Rose assured him. “It must have drifted off. We probably didn’t pull it out of the water far enough.”

  Caleb was already taking off his boots. “I made sure it was secure. Those tiny waves couldn’t have carried it away—a person had to have moved it.” He unlaced his other boot.

  “But there weren’t any other boats here when we came. And no one can access Paradise Point from the other side—it’s private property.”

  “That doesn’t mean it can’t be accessed. Besides, someone might have kumme here after we started hiking.”

  “Maybe,” Rose said. “But who would do that?”

  Who, indeed? “I’ll be right back.” Caleb waded into the chilly water until it reached his waist, and then he dived forward and swam to retrieve the canoe, tugging it to shore by its rope.

  “Denki for doing that,” she said. “You must be cold.”

  “Neh,” he said. “Just wet.”

  “At least your hat is dry.” Rose pointed to her head.

  “My boots are, too.” Caleb picked up his footwear and held the canoe steady for Rose to climb in. They both donned their life vests and then he pushed off from shore.

  “Now are you sorry you didn’t go to Serenity Ridge instead?” she asked as they paddled across the lake.

  “Neh,” he answered. “Aside from almost getting clobbered with a paddle and going for a midnight swim in my clothes, this has been the most schpass I’ve had in ages. I didn’t even mind your tantrum about the bats.”

  “I’d splash you for that, but you’re already wet so it wouldn’t do any gut.”

  “With the way things are going tonight, we’d probably capsize,” Caleb said, chuckling. Yet even if we did, I’d still choose hanging out with you over being anywhere else.

  * * *

  When they pulled ashore, Rose was relieved to see all the cabins were dark—undoubtedly the guests had already returned and were in bed. Not wishing to wake them or be seen coming home with Caleb, she whispered, “Look, a light is on at the haus. That means the meed must have gotten home and the skunks are gone.”

  “Gut—otherwise I would have had to pop a screen and boost one of you through a window.”

  Rose realized she was actually glad he hadn’t thought of that earlier, because she would have missed out on an adventurous evening. They flipped the canoe on the sand, and put the paddles and life vests in the shed. Just as they reached the fork in the path veering off to his cabin, a bright light shone in their eyes.

  “Rose? Caleb?” Charity questioned loudly. “Are you okay? Where have you been?”

  “Shh, you’ll wake the guests,” Rose scolded. Suddenly Hope stepped forward and threw her arms around Rose, sobbing audibly into her neck. “What’s wrong, Hope? Kumme to the haus and we’ll talk about it there.”

  Rose’s heart drummed her ribs as the four of them hurried toward the house. Had the girls received news about Sol? Please, Lord, show me how to comfort them, she prayed desperately. Or had something happened that upset them at the fireworks? Maybe Oliver Graham had said something to them again...

  Once they were in the gathering room, Hope sank into the couch and covered her eyes with her arm, much like Rose had after seeing the bats. Rose settled beside her and placed a hand on the middle of her shoulders while Charity paced across the rag rug in the center of the room. Caleb, still wet, stood in the doorway.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Rose asked at the sam
e time Charity questioned if Rose and Caleb had capsized on the lake.

  “Neh, we’re fine. You tell us what’s wrong, first,” Rose insisted.

  Charity explained, “Caleb never showed up to the fireworks, and when we got home you weren’t here, either, Rose. We didn’t know what happened to you. We waited and waited. Hope recalled what Oliver Graham said about the thief, and the longer we waited the more worried we got. I thought Hope was going to hyperventilate. Why didn’t you leave a note?”

  “Oh, Hope,” Rose moaned, patting her back. “I’m so sorry I gave you such a fright—both of you. A skunk and her kits were on the porch so I couldn’t get into the haus to leave you a note. I thought I’d be home long before you got here.”

  “I’m sorry, too,” Caleb said. “There was a traffic jam so I decided not to go to the ridge after all. Rose wanted to see the fireworks from Paradise Point and I didn’t think it was schmaert for her to go alone, so I went with her. Somehow our canoe floated off and I had to swim after it. Otherwise, we would have been back before you were.”

  Rose was grateful he didn’t tell the girls her disdain for bats had caused an additional delay. “I really didn’t mean to worry you,” she repeated, leaning closer to take Hope’s hand from her eyes.

  “Well, you did,” Charity said accusingly before slumping into the armchair. She muttered, “We’re the teenagers. The two of you are supposed to worry about us, not the other way around.”

  Rose chuckled, glad the tension was dissipating. “We promise not to do anything that will make you worry in the future, okay? But I can see we’re all letting our imaginations run away with us. We never worried about criminals harming us before, and we don’t need to worry about them now. And I think we ought to leave the back door unlocked during the day like we used to, so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Especially with the skunks coming up on the porch.”