Free A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel by Rosalind Lauer Page B

she realized that she was wrong. It was Jonah
     King. He and his brother were both tall, with broad shoulders that seemed to test
     their shirts. And Jonah’s dark hair and eyes beneath his straw hat were so like his
     brother’s.
    Her sister Sarah’s words came back to her. She did need to move on.
    Annie uttered a quick prayer to Gott, asking Him to free her heart.
    She glanced back at the roof. Of course Adam wouldn’t be here. They wouldn’t be able
     to spare him with everyone trying to finish up the harvest.
    Just then Jonah King lifted his head and waved to her. She swallowed hard. He’d caught
     her staring. She nodded primly, turning back to the clothesline.
    “How’s your lip?” he called down.
    Annie pressed her fingers to her mouth. “Much better, denki,” she called before ducking
     behind the wall of a damp sheet. The swelling must have gone down overnight. It didn’t
     hurt at all.
    Odd how the body could heal quickly, but the heart took its good old time.

TWELVE
    G uitar music floated from the boom box behind him as Gabe drove his buggy toward town.
     He had decided to combine his run into town with a trip to the school to see Emma.
     Of course, everyone thought he was stopping by the school to drop his brother and
     sister off. No one knew he had been out late last night, driving down dark roads with
     Emma beside him.
    He knew there would be students there this morning. No chance to kiss or pull her
     into his arms. But it would be enough, just looking in her eyes for a bit. That smart,
     steady flicker in her eyes always made him feel good. He could see the love in Emma’s
     eyes, and on a cold September morning, there was nothing quite like that.
    The hum of an engine over the music let him know that a vehicle was creeping up behind
     him.
    Gabe slowed the buggy and directed Mercury to the far right of the road to let the
     vehicle behind him pass.
    The yellow bus’s engine grumbled as it slowly moved around their open carriage, taking
     Englisher children to their school.
    “I wonder what it’s like to ride a bus to school every day,” Ruthie said.
    “I want to drive a school bus,” Simon said. “No one on the road would be bigger than
     me. And if a bad person came along, I could close the door and drive away.”
    Gabe kept quiet. Simon had a fear of evil bred from the trauma of witnessing their
     parents’ murder, but he’d gotten much better in the last year. Gabe smiled at the
     notion of Simon driving a yellow bus. The boy would get his chance to drive a vehicle
     soon enough, and Ruthie … well, Ruthie was a girl. She might live her whole life without
     hearing of a boy’s rumspringa antics.
    Squinting, Gabe measured the bus with his eyes. He had never driven anything that
     big, but he had been behind the wheel of a car before. It had been fun to drive a
     car, but nothing like the thrill of racing over bumps and taking tight turns on a
     motorbike.
    He was itching to get back on a motorbike. Now that he’d had a taste, it was just
     like Ben had said. He felt the need for speed.
    To hit the throttle and have the bike surge ahead, that was power. And the way the
     brakes responded when you wanted … that was control. Two things that Amish life lacked … power
     and control. The pace of life was slow, and someone else was always making decisions
     for you.
    Gabe liked being in command, and the bikes gave him that.
    As their buggy approached, he spotted Emma on the front porch of the schoolhouse,
     sitting beside a student. He hoped she wouldn’t be mad at him for stopping by. Emma
     was always careful about their relationship. She didn’t want folks seeing them together,
     but he figured the students wouldn’t think anything of Gabe dropping off his brother
     and sister.
    “We’d better turn off the music,” Gabe told his siblings, who were sitting in the
     cramped backseat area. “Do you know how to do it, Simon?”
    “I got it,” Simon said, and the music