Free Dark Crossings by Marta Perry Page A

noticed.
    “So,” Abby went on, when he just stared at her, “my thief could
be either of those women, or Mr. Tornelli, too. Are the insurance woman and the
police detective thin? The Tornellis looked pretty slender.”
    Ben shook his head to clear it, then realized she would think
he was saying no. “ Ja, they’re all in good shape, as auslanders put it. Are you saying your pursuer
today was thin?”
    She nodded. “But then so are all the others I can mention to
the sheriff. Elam, Burt Commons. You know, I just assumed my thief and stalker
was a man, but maybe not. I think someone must have been pretty slender to get
through my basement window. But now the next question—why? If it’s Elam or Burt
Commons, I guess I know. Elam wants me to sell my house to the gun club in town,
and he’d get a cut of the sale. Plus he’s upset I turned down his proposal to
wed him. Burt is furious I intervened when he was after you. But, land sakes,
why would the outsiders be after me, if it’s them?”
    “Maybe whoever was on the bridge arguing thought you were
watching them, then when you took the diamond… I don’t know. I do know you
either need to stay here all night, or I’m going to take my sleeping bag across
the bridge again and camp out in your kitchen or front room.”
    “Ben, you know we can’t,” she protested, finally letting go of
his hands.
    “We’ve already stepped over the line big-time. I’ll explain
everything to the bishop tomorrow, and you can tell the sheriff—our two main
confessors, right? Just one more night, and we’ll get help tomorrow. I’m sure
the bishop will get someone to come out and stay with you—maybe with me, too,
until we can really be together. And I want that. I want us to have a future
getting to know each other better. This whole thing has been a blessing in
dis—”
    “Simply a blessing. I think so, too, but not in disguise. The
one in disguise is the evil person who’s been sneaking around, and I just hope
and pray the sheriff will find out who and stop it.”
    “As they say in the big, bad world then, my place or yours
tonight? I promise I’ll control myself better than I did a while ago.”
    “Just for now, I hope,” she said, standing and shaking out her
soil-smudged skirts. Her kapp was still a bit awry
from when they’d kissed.
    “Okay,” he said. “I say we lock up tight here and head across
the bridge. With you and your house being watched, it’s more important to guard
your mushrooms than my boxes. But first, I want you to take a look at something
in the back room—the second bedroom, not where I sleep.”
    “Not another surprise, after all you told me.”
    “One, I hope—I think—you’ll like.”
    * * *
    A BBY FOLLOWED B EN ACROSS his workshop/living area and peeked in as he
flicked on an electric light. Lined up around the four walls of the mostly empty
room were what she would call hope chests. Among the Plain People, maidals cherished them and filled them with heirloom
quilts, towels and linens. Liddy had kept her big battery-run clock tucked in
amid the sheets in hers, a chest she might have started with Ben in mind, but
which had gone with her when she and Adam moved to Pennsylvania.
    “They’re just perfect,” Abby told him, standing in the doorway.
Her mind darted to one of the earlier circle letters she’d received from Sarah
and Lena, in which they’d all talked about their hope chests, as well as their
hopes and dreams for homes and families of their own someday.
    “Which one do you like best?” Ben asked, eager as a boy. “Take
a look. Even if you have one already, a second one can never hurt.”
    “I do have one that was my grossmamm’ s. It’s special to me, so I won’t say my favorite here
right now.” She longed to examine each chest, but still didn’t go into the
room.
    “You’re right,” he said, coming back toward her. “The rules of
the bann —take nothing from the hand of the one
shunned.”
    “But someday, I