Free The Search by Suzanne Fisher

was doing, but she never planned to reveal her secret. She never wanted to upset her sister’s life.
    Today, that noble intention turned upside down.
    Bertha said she was going to tell Bess and Jonah the truth this summer. It was high time. Bertha said when she saw Lainey in town a few weeks ago, she decided she would do all she could to get Bess out here as soon as she could. Now the time was right, she said. Maybe not today, but soon.
    At least Bess would be here all summer. And so would Lainey.
    Lainey’s thoughts bounced to Jonah. Bertha didn’t offer up much information about him—typical of her—but she did say that Bess was his only family. Lainey was sorry to hear that Rebecca hadn’t survived the accident. Rebecca had always been kind to Lainey. It gave Lainey comfort to think she might have given her peace in those last moments, laying Colleen in her arms. She remembered Rebecca had been a beauty—small and delicate. It was plain to see how much she and Jonah loved each other. She had thought they were the luckiest two people on earth . . . until the accident.
    As she thought about all Bertha had told her today, she found it hard to believe. But life could be like that, she had learned. A single decision, a moment in time, and the ground could shift beneath your feet.

4
    ______
    When Bess came into the kitchen the next morning, Mammi was pouring batter on the waffle iron while the coffee perked. Mammi had finally relented to Bess’s pleading and allowed her to drink coffee, as long as it was half milk. Peering out the window, Bess noticed Billy was already out in the fields among the roses. Unlike other mornings, she wasn’t in any hurry to join him. She picked up her fork as Mammi brought her a waffle, then put it down as Mammi sat down and bowed her head. Mammi’s prayers were never short.
    When Mammi lifted her head, she said matter-of-factly, “You got in awful late.”
    Bess poured syrup over her waffle. “By nine. You were asleep in the rocker. I didn’t know if I should wake you to outen the lights.” She had decided against it when she realized that her grandmother had taken out her false teeth. The sight made Bess shudder. Mammi’s mouth had looked like a shrunken apple.
    “I never sleep.”
    Bess rolled her eyes.
    “Did you have a good time?”
    Bess nodded, distracted, and chewed slowly.
    “Then why are you sitting there with a face as long as a wet week?”
    Bess rested her chin on her propped-up hand. “I’m all at sea.”
    “What’s making you so mixed up?”
    “Do you know a girl named Betsy Mast?”
    Mammi raised an eyebrow at Bess, then her gaze shifted through the window to Billy in the fields, bent over a blooming rose. “Es schlackt net allemol ei as es dunnert.” Lightning doesn’t strike every time it thunders.
    “I’m not so sure, Mammi. You know boys.” Bess sighed dramatically and took a sip of her coffee-laced milk.
    Mammi nodded. “Boys are trouble. But girls is worse.” She started filling up the sink with soapy water.
    Bess gave up a smile, in spite of her grim mood.
    One sure way of surviving heartache was to stay busy, Mammi told her, and shooed her out to join Billy by the roses. Bess picked up a basket on the porch and slowly went out to the field.
    Last night, with her chin propped on the windowsill watching the moon rise, she had given her runaway feelings about Billy some serious thought. She’d barely known him a week. Now was the time to reel her heart back in, before she found herself falling off the edge of no return—the way Billy’s face looked when he caught sight of Betsy Mast.
    So that’s the way things were going to be. She thought she had found the man of her dreams . . . but it was only an illusion. A tragic illusion. She sat in the moonlight and shed a tear or two. It didn’t take much to set her off, now that she was fifteen. Her feelings were as tender and easily bruised as a ripe summer peach. Even Blackie, her cat, had