Free Susanna's Dream: The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley, Book Two by Marta Perry Page B

bewildering array of vendors. People crowded around tables featuring everything from doll clothes to woven baskets to racks of jams and jellies. Down at the end of the row, a local church group was doing a brisk business in sausage and pepper sandwiches.
    He was staring around, trying to spot Chloe in the crowd, when someone tugged on his sleeve.
    Chloe smiled at him. “You were so busy looking around, you missed me. This is great, isn’t it?”
    “Are you saying that as a consumer or as a student of Pennsylvania folk art?” He nodded toward the bag she carried.
    “A little of both,” she admitted. “I found some handmade jewelry I couldn’t resist.”
    “Not an Amish vendor, then.” He took her arm and tugged her aside to avoid a woman pushing a stroller that contained, instead of a baby, several bags of milled flour.
    “No, but I’ve heard there’s a stand run by an Amish family that has handspun yarn, and I’d love to find them.” She looked around, apparently infected with shopping fever.
    “That’s probably the Brand family. I’ll help you locate them.”
    Chloe nodded, but as they started down the row of vendors, her expression turned pensive.
    “Problems?” he asked, keeping his tone light.
    Chloe shook her head. “Not exactly. Lydia and I decided we’d wait a few days before trying to talk to Susanna again. Together, this time.”
    “You’re not still blaming yourself for telling her, are you?”
    “I don’t see anyone else around to blame, do you?” She shook her head. “Sorry. Lydia refuses to scold me for it, so I guess I have to do it myself.”
    He pressed her hand, feeling her fingers curl around his. “Try forgiving yourself,” he suggested.
    She smiled, but with a slight shake of her head. Chloe might sometimes be impulsive, but she also had high standards for herself. He’d seen that in her attention to her work and her family.
    “You said you had something to tell me.” She paused at a table filled with crocheted baby caps and sweaters, fingering the soft wool as gently as if she touched the baby for whom it was intended.
    “Right.” He pulled his thoughts away from the pleasure of watching her. “Apparently, if my sources are right, Susanna went to Pleasant Valley to see Bishop Mose yesterday.”
    Chloe swung toward him, her eyes widening. “She did? Are you sure?”
    “Sure as I can be without asking the bishop, and I can hardly do that. Paula Schatz saw her, and she was interested since she knew your mother. She knows Susanna by sight, as well as the man who was with her. Nathaniel Gaus, who runs the bulk foods store here in town.”
    “That’s her partner’s son. The one who’s so eager for his mother to give up the shop.” Chloe’s eyes clouded. “I wonder what he was doing there with her.”
    “I thought you’d be wondering what
she
was doing there,” he said.
    “I am, of course, but I can figure that out. She’d have gone to Bishop Mose to see if the story I told her was true.” He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. “That’s a good sign, don’t you think? That shows she’s interested, and Bishop Mose would surely encourage her to see us. Maybe he’ll talk to Lydia about it.”
    “Maybe,” Seth said, doubt shading the word. “But I suspect Bishop Mose has kept a lot of secrets in his time.”
    “I guess he has.” She frowned, and he knew the secret she was thinking about—the secret that had kept her and Lydia apart for so long. She seemed to make an effort to smile. “In any event, thanks for telling me. We can hope it makes our visit to Susanna easier.”
    He nodded. Whether the bishop’s words helped or not, he had a lot of confidence in Lydia’s tact. And, though Chloe wouldn’t like it, Susanna was more likely to respond to Lydia, who was Amish, than to an Englisch person, no matter how well intended.
    He knew that line between Amish and Englisch—he’d been balancing on one side or the other for most of his