A mute, foundling girl hides from her pursuers with the help of a reluctant recluse. The two of them have nothing in common except deep emotional scars. Who is she? How did she end up unconscious and scantily clothed on Evan's isolated property? Why...
A few minutes later, I pulled the truck beside the buggy. The woman had parked it beside a barn and was in the process of unhitching the horse. She spoke something to her daughter in that Pennsylvania Dutch language used by the Amish. I didn't savvy.
The girl approached me and said, "I'm to take you to my dad. He should be in the milk house."
"Thank you. What's your name?"
"Ruth Miller." She walked away, leading me onward.
We entered a barn filled with maybe twenty stalls for dairy cows. The air smelled of fresh cut straw. A man with his back turned to us sat on a stool tinkering with some gadget. Ruth tapped him on the shoulder. When the man saw me, he stood and appraised me.
He wasn't Ruth's father. This man had no beard which meant he wasn't married. He wore classic Amish garb, black slacks held up by suspenders. I could tell by his bulging biceps he was no stranger to hard work. Ruth spoke to him in Pennsylvania Dutch.
The young man looked at me. "What's this my sister is going on about a kidnapped girl."
"It's true. Her name is Sophia Marie Bieler and she's sixteen. Titus Weiss has her and intends to force her into being his bride. I'm going to free her from his clutches. Can you tell me how to get to his place?"
He leaned to the side and spit on the ground as if hearing the name Titus Weiss had been distasteful. "That man is giving all of us trouble, giving the Amish a bad reputation too. He may claim to be Amish, but he is not. No congregation will have him or his sons."
He and Ruth exchanged words in their language. He told her, "No. We will not get Dad involved in this." He made a shooing motion with his hand. "Go help our mom."
We watched the girl walk away.
I extended my hand. "I'm Evan Snyder."
We shook. He said, "I'm Caleb Miller. How is it that you, an Englisher, are mixed up in an Amish girl's problems?"
"It's a long story. I'd be happy to tell you all about it, but now is not the time. Every minute that passes puts Sophie in greater danger. Please, tell me how to get to the Weiss farm and I'll get out of your hair."
"Alone?" Caleb asked. "You intend to drive up to his house alone, face him and his two sons, and demand he hand over Sophie?"
"That's my intent."
Caleb shook his head. "Those men will kill you."
"I thought you Amish were a peaceable lot."
"We are, but as I already told you that man is not Amish. He's a pretender. He and his sons are devil spawn."
We were getting off topic and wasting time. "How do I get there?"
Caleb gave me directions. As I suspected, it wasn't far.
"Thank you." I turned to leave.
"Wait. I'm going to help you."
I shot him a sideways glance. "You don't act like a typical Amish man."
He grabbed a jacket from a hook on a nearby post. "I'm seventeen and still in my period of freedom. My friends and I have been wanting to call to account those Weiss men for some time now."
He walked me to my truck, passed by his mother and Ruth and didn't say a word to them. I read somewhere how during the period of freedom, families turn a blind eye to what their children do.
Caleb climbed into the passenger seat. He said, "We'll be making a few stops to pick up my friends."
"No can do. I'm not stopping."
The young man frowned. "Don't try to do this on your own."
"Don't worry. I'm not going to barge in and announce myself. I'll do some stealthy recon and locate where Sophie is being kept. If she's not in immediate danger, I'll wait until nightfall to sneak in and rescue her. After she's safely away I'll call the cops and let them deal with the bastards."
Caleb pointed ahead through the windshield. "Drop me off at that farm. I'll round up my friends and meet up with you as soon as I can."
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