Free Abby Finds Her Calling by Naomi King

footsteps behind her: Zanna had chosen to face the fire. Abby slowed down, but her sister didn’t catch up.
    Then, across the road, the front door opened and Emma Graber came out. She broke into a run, across the blacktop and past the mercantile, passing Abby as though she didn’t even see her. James’s sister wiped her hands on her apron as she stood in front of Zanna. Her wounded expression left no doubt of what was on her mind.“What’s this about a baby?” she demanded breathlessly. “I heard the Coblentz twins talking in the store when you called them. How long have you known, Zanna?”
    Abby closed her eyes. Emma’s heartbreak came out loud and clear, and Zanna needed to hear it.
    A sob escaped Emma as she continued. “And all this time you and James have been doing everything together, planning to get hitched, and—”
    “You don’t understand,” Zanna murmured.
    “—you both seemed so
happy
! Yet James has never let on to us about a baby.”
    Emma’s sentence ended in a sob, and then there was a painful pause. Abby waited, wondering what would come next. Would this be the part that finally made Zanna realize how she’d stung everyone who loved her?
    “James doesn’t
know
there’s a baby—does he, Zanna?” Emma whimpered and backed toward the road, still wringing her hands. “Don’t you be coming over, hear me? Mamm and Dat are still stirred up about the wedding, and
this
news—well, they can’t handle it right now. James—”
    “Don’t you say a word to him!” Zanna cried out.
    “—went over past Queen City on a repair call,” Emma continued doggedly. “If you’re not gonna tell him, then
I
will! How can you think I’ll keep such a thing from my brother? From the man who has eyes for nobody but
you
, Zanna Lambright? It’ll be all over Cedar Creek in an hour, you know. Mary and Martha probably told everyone they saw on their way home.”
    When Emma finally realized Abby was there, too, she clapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she rasped. Then she dashed back across the road, the sound of her sobs drifting back to them.
    As she focused on Zanna, Abby sighed sadly. “I hope you’re ready to own up to what you know—the straight-on truth. You’re going to hear a lot tougher talk than this before the night’s through.”

Chapter 7

    “S o you’re telling me you spent the past couple nights hiding in a barn rather than asking your family for help?” Sam demanded. “And you’re saying James Graber took advantage of your innocence and then acted like he didn’t care about the consequences?” Their brother glared sternly from his end of the long table, where the whole family waited silently for this discussion to end so the meal could begin.
    Not that anyone felt like eating. Matt and the three girls focused on their empty plates while Abby sat with her head bowed, holding Mamm’s trembling hand… knowing better than to tell Sam how to handle the situation.
    “Suzanna, you told better lies than that when you were five,” Sam blurted out. “And we’ll sit here until we get the truth from you.”
    Zanna blanched, paler than milk. “I—I just wish I could’ve talked to Dat, and maybe none of this would’ve happened,” she said, a hitch in her voice. “Mamm never told me how
not
to have babies—”
    “Well, wishing won’t bring Dat back, little sister,” Sam replied. “And frankly, I’m thankful our dat’s not here to witness this disgrace.Not so much because there’s a baby, but because
his
precious baby is putting us all through the grinder with her whims and her tale-telling.”
    “Sam, please,” Barbara pleaded softly.
    Abby tightened her hand around their mother’s. While it was true that Mamm hadn’t passed along much knowledge of what went on behind a married couple’s door, the preachers had made it clear enough that such goings-on were wrong outside of wedlock. Even if they knew little about sexual mechanics, Amish girls clearly understood