Free Heritage of Lancaster County 02 The Confession by Unknown Page A

Everything about her charmed Laura. Yet if there was any disappointment at all, it might've been in the color of Katie's hair.
    Laura had always fantasized that her flesh and blood would surely share her own fiery red locks. Still, strawberry blond was most becoming and enhanced the girl's light brown brows and lashes beautifully.
    If only she could really see this vision of love before her, marred only by the inability to focus her eyes and truly savor her daughter's appearance. "Oh my, there are so many, many things I want to tell you," Laura heard herself saying. "Things that a mother and her long-absent daughter might share."
    Behind her, she was aware of Rosie's sniffling, and Laura was quite sure there were tears in her husband's eyes as well. A swell of gratitude to him took her breath for the moment. She must ask him how he'd managed to locate Katherine-- and so close to Christmas. But that could wait. "We must take our afternoon tea together," she told the girl. "Just the two of us."
    At that, Dylan spoke up, emerging from the corner of the room. "Tea is on the way."
    "Wonderful." Laura kept her chin up, looking directly at him, though he appeared as a blur to her fuzzy vision.
    79 Nurse Judah checked Laura's pulse before excusing her- self. Rosie seemed more reluctant to leave and leaned over to whisper, "Are you certain I won't be needed?"
    "Thank you, but no," Laura said, though a hammer in her heart tripped at an unceasing pace. The pain of the years, the excruciating loss.., all of it came sweeping through the room, overpowering her. The weight of worry, the haunting memories nearly engulfed her as she sat helplessly in her wheelchair, and for one dreamlike instant, she had to glance around to secure the moment--to reorient herself as to what had just taken place.
    It was then she noticed that Dylan had moved to a chair only a few feet from Katie. Why had he remained in spite of her request for seclusion?
    She avoided his gaze and turned her attention to the primly dressed Katie, wearing the same shade of blue and the black apron she'd observed on several Amishwomen while in Lancaster County last month. In fact, if memory served her correctly, the color was the same hue that Rebecca, her baby's adopted mother, had worn the day they met in the corridor of Lancaster General Hospital nearly twenty-three years ago.
    "Katie, will you consider staying over for the holidays?" she asked, smiling at the prospect.
    Before her daughter could respond, Dylan cut in, addressing Katie. "Mrs. Bennett, er, your mother and I would love to have you celebrate Christmas with us." He turned, delivering an adoring gesture toward Laura as if the two of them were, in all reality, the happiest couple in the world.
    "More than anything, I want you to stay," Laura said, her throat growing increasingly dry as she sat motionless, for all practical purposes, paralyzed. The disturbing, yet not unwelcome tension of the situation--the powerful sense of
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    seeing yet not truly seeing her daughter--left her reeling, breathless.
    Dylan seemed eager to dissipate the heaviness in the room. "If you wish, I can have the butler show you to one of our upstairs guest rooms."
    "By all means," Laura added. "We'll make you quite comfortable here, Katie."
    At that, the Amish girl lit up. "We'll get better acquainted, maybe? Jah?"
    "Oh, I do hope so." Deep within her, Laura offered a silent thanksgiving to the Lord for bringing her precious Ka-
    tie to her.., right on time.
    On time.
    So was afternoon tea. Rosie served it, along with pastry delicacies fit for a newly reunited royal family.
    Although a thousand questions flooded Laura's mind as they sipped tea and buttered their tarts, she refrained from voicing a single one, uncomfortable with the idea of quizzing her travel-weary daughter so soon upon her arrival. Along with that, despite her appreciation forNis gift to her, she was feeling somewhat put out with Dylan, who was clearly becoming an