The Bridge of Peace (43 page)

“I realized that I can’t be the one to finish it, so I did my part.” He went to the center of it and opened the toolbox. “The hammer and nails are in here.”

“I can see that.”

He shrugged. “Whenever you’re ready … if you’re ever ready.”

“I … I’m not.”

“Okay.” He closed the toolbox. “I didn’t think you would be yet. I know how this must look to you, and I know what people are going to think, but we know what is between us. Truth of what exists between couples is all that matters.”

His words pulled her, making her almost powerless to resist. But the man before her—with his perfect body, blue eyes, and gorgeous voice—couldn’t really love her, could he?

Grey shifted. “So … how are you?”

“I don’t really know. Confused, I guess.” She shrugged. “And surprised. I mean we were really yelling at each other. I … I can’t even believe it.”

“Ya. I don’t regret it, though. I left knowing you better.”

“That’s scary.”

“You know me better too.”

“That isn’t as scary.”

“Not for you. It is for me.”

“Is this how relationships work?”

“Sometimes … maybe. I don’t really care how they’re supposed to work, only that ours does. You know?”

She sort of did, and she liked how he viewed relationships. But he knew everything about her, and there was something he wasn’t telling her. Was it hidden feelings he didn’t want her to know about or something else?

“Lennie!” Allen’s craggy voice hollered. He hurried over to her. “I didn’t know you were here. Kumm uff rei.”

He told her to come in, but he had no greeting for Grey? She glanced from one man to the other.

“Kumm,” he said again.

She looked at Grey. He and Allen had never been at odds. Grey must’ve told him, and Allen obviously didn’t approve. He’d jeopardize his friendship with Allen for her?

Unwilling to make anything between Grey and Allen worse but wanting to share a sentiment, she thought of something. “I have daisies blooming in the greenhouse. In a few months I might relinquish them to you.”

“I’m ready for them whenever you say they’re ready.”

“Oh, and you can make those flowers say anything you want them to if you know the trick.”

“I know how to get the wrong answer. Will you show me how to get the right one?”

She liked the wordplay between them, and an image formed in her mind—moonlight filtering into a dark bedroom. Grey was on a bed, sitting with his back against several pillows, talking and laughing. She lay across the foot of the bed, chatting openly while snacking on something. The bond between them could not be seen by human eye, but even now she felt its magnitude. “I think maybe … someday.”

He nodded. As she and Allen walked back toward the house, Allen turned, watched Grey for a moment, and waved.

Thirty-Seven

Dwayne sat in Michael’s living room listening to Grey reason with the school board. Dwayne’s hands shook with anger as he glared at Peter, and he fought to keep his mouth shut. He’d sown enough seeds of scandal against Lena that everyone ought to hold her suspect. When he prodded people a bit, they said they wanted to leave the matter in the school board’s hands, insisting that everyone needed forgiveness over something they’d done in recent months. Bunch of idiots! Not a one took the bait about Lena planning Elsie’s demise or chasing after Grey. Not a one! What really had him furious was that Michael had called a board meeting because Grey had insisted. And Grey had talked Peter into answering a few questions.

Grey sat in front of Peter, talking all serenelike. It made Dwayne sick. But Lena had better luck than he’d figured on. Some brother or friend or even her Daed always stepped between him and her, just like when he was tracking her in the woods the other day.

Peter finished explaining what Samantha did and said that week Lena had brought her into the school.

“Denki, Peter,” Grey said. “Does anyone want to ask a question or make a comment about this aspect before I move on to another?”

One of the board member’s wives spoke up. “Sounds to me like that woman offered a lot of clever ideas and wisdom for helping the children, but I heard nothing any of us would disagree with.”

Grey chuckled. “Well said. Anyone else?”

The board members murmured among themselves and their wives, all nodding like hollow little bobbleheads.

Dwayne’s Mamm put her hands on her hips. “That don’t change that Lena took matters into her own hands. She had no right to decide on her own to bring in an outsider. It doesn’t matter if that outsider was giving out gold.”

“Yes, Mollie, we realize that,” Michael added. “We’re not talking about reinstating her right now. We’re simply assessing the damage. You seem to think Samantha hypnotized your son, but he keeps saying she didn’t.”

Dwayne’s mother glanced at him, but she didn’t tell the board who’d told her that.

“Peter.” Grey placed his elbow on one leg. “Samantha only came to the school a few times right after Elsie died. Why did you see her more than that?”

“Lena asked if I needed to talk to somebody. Lena … she’s got an eye for what’s really happening inside her students. I told her no, but later on, after I kept waking with nightmares and got to where I couldn’t stand eating, Dwayne told me I should tell Lena I needed to talk to Samantha again. It helped.” Peter looked at his Mamm. “I … I’m sorry, but when I started thinking about killing myself, I just wanted to talk to that woman again.”

“Peter!” Mamm screamed. “What are you saying? That’s … a … sin!”

“Let’s not get into a debate on what is and isn’t a sin.” Grey put his hand on Peter’s leg. “Nothing is a sin because one feels drawn to it. It was a temptation that he sought help to avoid. If being tempted is a sin, then where does that leave Jesus?”

Dwayne’s Mamm plunked into a chair. “Ya … ya … I hadn’t thought about it. That woman … she helped you?”

“A lot, Mamm. I never saw her do or say nothing that might pull someone from the faith. She only wanted to teach us some things she’s learned about dealing with shocking and violent deaths, and she likes learning things I can teach her.”

Leeriness crossed Mamm’s face. “What did she need to know from a boy?”

“Well, she wanted to know how to measure a horse by hands and the difference between a pony’s, donkey’s, and horse’s personality and what she should look for to know if a horse is a good one. She’s been thinking about buying one for her children.”

Dwayne couldn’t stand Peter’s disloyalty, and he refused to hear another word from any of them. Lena had cast a spell on all of them, and the only way to break it was to kill her. He slammed the door as he left, mounted his horse, and rode home. He stormed into the tool shed and found the goods he’d been hiding there.

After he placed the thick part of the baseball bat in the vise, he tightened the clamps. He grabbed the steel horseshoe and lined it up against the wooden bat. He tried it upside down, right side up, and sideways. Sideways was the ticket. It had taken a bit of effort and patience to find a heavy steel horseshoe like this one. But it would be worth all the hassle. He opened a package of screws and began anchoring the shoe to the bat.

Tomorrow would be her last day. He hoped she didn’t enjoy it. And he’d just be so very sad to learn her rogue horse had stomped her to death.

Lena set the pressing iron facedown on the heating plate. Her home smelled of freshly made bread. She’d opened the windows at daybreak, and even as it neared noontime, the cool May air kept the room comfortable as she baked and ironed.

Her Daed wouldn’t be back from Ada’s until nearly dark, and when he did get home, he would have already eaten dinner. But she wanted to take a loaf of bread to each member of the school board and apologize for overstepping her bounds. She still believed the scholars did nothing but benefit from Samantha’s visits, but Lena had been stubborn and rebellious to refuse to submit to anyone else’s opinions and concerns but her own. She would apologize for her lack of submission.

Other than her family, she’d seen very few people. Five days ago she’d stood in Allen’s yard talking with Grey across the creek with the half-finished bridge between them. She longed to finish her half, but that awful feeling of
something
kept tugging at her. If she could get a peace about that one thing, she’d be ready to complete her half of the bridge.

She understood now what he’d meant when he’d said,
I’ll build us a bridge … in every way possible
.

The structure symbolized her part in meeting him at a place where they could understand each other, but she just couldn’t do that, couldn’t promise to be his again until she knew what this catch in her spirit was about.

Her horse neighed loud and long. She went to the front door, but before she stepped outside, unease warred inside her. Nicky jumped up and followed her. “Not this time, ol’ girl. She’s spooked enough without you getting near her.” Ignoring her reluctance, Lena went outside and closed the front door so Nicky wouldn’t push the screen door open and follow her.

She hurried down the steps, but that odd feeling caught in her gut again. She stopped and studied the barn. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and she commanded her imagination to quit being silly. Even as she chided herself, she stopped walking. Nicky’s angry bark blasted through the air.

She went back toward her home. As she climbed the steps, a shadow fell, and boards creaked as Dwayne came around the corner of the wraparound porch.

He tapped a baseball bat on the porch floor. “Going somewhere?” He smiled and held up the bat, showing her the attached horseshoe. “I think you’ve got horse problems, ma’am.” He laughed. “Almost as if somebody has been taking a cattle prod to her. Of course, you make that real easy because you like her kept in the stall. Now that bull wasn’t as easy to use the cattle prod on. I had to be on a fast horse that knew how to take direction. And poor Aaron thinks he didn’t repair the fence good when I’m the one who undid his handiwork. But the end result was not aimed at anyone but you.”

Lena couldn’t catch her breath or make her body move. She just stood there trying to think of what to do. Scratching on the solid door, Nicky barked and growled, but she couldn’t get out.

Dwayne flinched when Nicky lunged at an open window, knocking over a side table and kerosene lantern. “Just look at how this has turned out. That bull gored the wrong person, but this new plan means Grey can lose two women in the same way. He’ll never get over the odds of that. It’ll drive him nuts. Who knows, I’ve come to hate him so much, I just might be around to make it happen a third time.”

She had to get past Dwayne and inside her home. If she couldn’t get in, just getting the door open would free Nicky. That’d give her time to … to … what? Lena needed a plan.

He gestured toward the barn. “This way, Teacher Lena.”

She suddenly remembered a self-defense move she’d learned while in public school. Unsure if she could do it, she felt woozy. He planned on killing her, but she didn’t have to make it easy for him.

When she didn’t do his bidding, he grabbed her by the arm, jerking her along as he went down the steps. She resisted his pull. “A fighter, eh? I figured on that. It’ll make the marks I leave on you look more like a horse stomped you to death.”

He moved to the same step she was on and towered over her like Peter had at the beginning of the school year. As he peered down at her, she arched her free hand back, jutting out the ball of it, and jammed it into his nose as hard as she could. Blood gushed, and he stumbled backward; landing on his backside on the steps, he screamed and cursed.

The dog barked and growled while lunging at the screened window. She hurried up the steps, across the porch, and clutched the doorknob. Before she could turn it, his hand caught her by the ankle and pulled her feet out from under her.