Free Plain Jayne by Hillary Manton Lodge

skilled negotiator, because I found myself driving Ida’s Buick to town the following afternoon.
    Ida held my bike as collateral.
    â€œRemind me what you told your mother?” I said as we zipped down the highway at fifty-five beautiful miles per hour.
    â€œI told her Grandma needed us to take some things to a neighbor, and they were too heavy for her to lift, so she asked us to help.”
    â€œAnd then didn’t come along?”
    â€œShe’s busy today.”
    â€œWith what?”
    Sara shrugged.
    If there was anything I remembered from my teen days, it was the necessity of details in a good parental lie. Not that Sara needed to know that… although she seemed a bit proud of her subterfuge.
    She had also insisted that I stay in my Amish clothes, lest anyone suspect we were headed to the outside world. But being a reporter, and a darn good one, I didn’t mind the fact that I was driving a Buick older than my older sister and wearing a bonnet.
    The Buick? The bonnet? All prime material.
    As was Spencer’s face when we walked in.
    â€œMs. Tate!” he said, and that was all.
    Nothing makes a man speechless faster than a grown woman in a pinafore.
    â€œI have mended clothes for Levi,” Sara said, full of noble purpose.
    Spencer nodded, still silent, before retreating down the hall toward Levi’s office.
    Sara frowned. “He’s usually more talkative than that.”
    I restrained a smirk. “It’s been a tough day for him.”
    â€œJayne! Sara!” Levi grinned like a boy receiving a dirt bike. “What are you ladies doing?”
    Sara pulled the bundle out from under her arm. “I have your clothes.”
    â€œOh. Good. Come back to my office.”
    Sara all but skipped after him. I lagged behind, watching.
    They belonged with one another, brother and sister. Seeing them together, studying their faces, I could see the family resemblance. Granted, Levi’s hair was dark and Sara’s blond, but the slight upturn of the nose and the shape of the eyes identified them as siblings. The way they both seemed to smile with their whole face. Not that I’d seen Sara smile very often. Was she simply more serious in disposition, or unhappy? I’d had friends in high school with permanent rain clouds over their heads. Somehow, Sara didn’t strike me as being one of them.
    Levi turned at the threshold of his office door. “Coming?”
    I nodded and quickened my steps.
    â€œYou know,” Levi said, closing the door after I’d stepped through, “I haven’t seen Spencer speechless since his mother announced that she was ‘down with new bling.’”
    I winced. “I hate the word ‘bling.’ It came and went and yet it’s still printed in the media.”
    â€œAnd uttered by mothers.”
    â€œI’m sure Spencer was glad to know how hip his mother was.”
    â€œHe couldn’t talk for five minutes.”
    â€œThat must be a record.”
    â€œLevi!” Sara tugged on his sleeve. I quieted and let her have a moment with her brother.
    With painstaking care, she pulled out each garment and showed him how she had tended to each piece of fabric.
    â€œThey all look perfect,” Levi told her.
    Sara smiled and tried on the humble-Amish expression, but she didn’tquite make it. They chatted for a few minutes before she excused herself to the ladies’ room.
    Leaving Levi and me alone together.
    â€œShe’s starting to talk like you,” he said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYour mannerisms, your patterns of speech. She admires you.”
    I snorted. “You wouldn’t think it.”
    â€œShe’s seventeen,” he said with a laugh. “It’s her prerogative.”
    â€œI met Ida.”
    â€œHow is she?”
    â€œFine, although I have no previous experience to compare it with. I can’t tell you if she looks worn or has lost weight, but I can say she likes