Free Simple Secrets (The Harmony Series 1) by Nancy Mehl Page A

They were dressed almost exactly the same, in long pastel dresses covered by a white pinafore. Both wore caps with ribbons that hung next to their faces.
    Sam sat closest to the older woman whose face had gone horribly pale. He reached out and caught her as she staggered.
    “Emily!” Abel cried out. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded vigorously and pushed away from Sam, steadying herself. But the look of fear in her wide eyes told me a different story.
    This woman was terrified of Jacob Glick.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Six
    “I hope Emily’s feeling better.” Sam glanced over to the table where the Muellers sat, waiting for their pancakes.
    “Yeah, me, too.”
    Emily Mueller’s hurried explanation of a sharp pain in her side left me with more questions than answers. I didn’t want to think she’d lied to me, but her reaction seemed to be more a response to the name of Jacob Glick than to some kind of physical pain.
    Eventually she regained her composure, even managing to paste a smile back on her face before Abel ushered his family to their own table. Sam and I accepted an invitation for Sunday dinner tomorrow after church. The request for our presence hadn’t come from Emily. I had to wonder if she was as happy as her husband to welcome us to her home.
    I watched the Muellers as I finished my breakfast. Although Emily wouldn’t look my way, her daughter, Hannah, seemed fascinated by me. I wasn’t quite sure why. There were other non-Mennonite people in Harmony. What was so special about me?
    The girl’s head covering and simple dress couldn’t hide her natural beauty. Tendrils of golden blond hair trailed from beneath her cap, and her large sky blue eyes were framed by flawless skin. A lack of makeup certainly didn’t hurt her stunning looks. A teenage boy, eating breakfast with his family at a nearby table, kept sneaking glances at her. I didn’t blame him a bit.
    As if reading my mind, Sam said, “Hannah Mueller seems quite taken with you. Probably because Abel introduced you as an artist. You’ll see some of Hannah’s paintings at Ruth’s. Harmony has a few artisans, including Joyce Bechtold. She painted your uncle’s birdhouses.” He lowered his voice. “Although she’d never admit it, I think Joyce hoped someday Ben would become more than just someone she worked with. In all those years, he never gave her any kind of encouragement.” He grunted and looked past me, as if viewing something I couldn’t see. “I saw him stare at her once when he didn’t know I was watching him. I could have sworn I saw something in his face ... a tenderness.” He shook his head and refocused his attention on me. “Must have been my imagination. If he was interested in her, why wouldn’t he have said something? Except for loving God, finding the right person to share your life with is the most important thing in the world.”
    Was that how he felt about Mary? She kept looking our way, as if checking up on us. Obviously, her relationship with Sam wasn’t that secure—in her mind anyway.
    I waited while Sam went up to the register to pay our bill. Mary said something to him that seemed to upset him. She tried to grab his arm, but he gently wrestled it away from her. As he turned to walk back to where I sat, the look Mary shot me was one of pure anger. Her expression shook me. I certainly wasn’t after her boyfriend. In fact, I had no intention of starting a relationship with anyone in Harmony. Not even a man as nice as Sam Goodrich.
    “Let’s take that tour,” he said when he reached the table. I stood up and was headed for the front door when he put his hand on my shoulder. “Wait a minute,” he said. “I just thought of something.” He pointed at some pictures against the far wall of the restaurant. “There are some old pictures of Harmony here. I think your Jacob Glick might be in one of them.”
    I followed him to a grouping of black-and-white photos. Sure enough, they appeared to be