Fraying at the Edge Read Online Free Page B

Summer Grove as if the only hardship was how it inconvenienced them and their Mamm.
    Dan drew a deep breath. “Sorry, Quill.”
    Quill nodded.
    “For what?” Erastus asked.
    Dan sighed, shaking his head. “Ariana wasn’t just a companion and helper for Mamm.”
    “Oh…,” Erastus said. “Yeah, I didn’t…Sorry about that. It’s easy to forget she’s more than someone who watched after Mamm. I haven’t seen Ariana since she was four or five, so I doubt I’d even recognize her.” He gestured at Elam. “Would you?”
    “I don’t think so. Like you, I only saw her from a distance, mostly as she was walking away or hidden by the laundry she was hanging out.”
    Leon shrugged. “Doubt I would either.”
    Apparently Quill’s brothers weren’t as good as he was at finding a spot where they could see her without her seeing them. Catching glimpses of her as he sat in the loft of his Daed’s cooperage shop had helped Quill cope during those first few years after he left. She was light and air in a heavy and dark world.
    A memory hit, and Quill chuckled. “Dan would recognize her.” His eldest brother had left the Amish when Quill was seven and Ariana was two, so it was ironic that he was the only other brother who could identify her.
    Dan laughed. “Yes, I could…I think. Although I have to admit she startled me, and she was toting a hunting gun.” He pointed his index finger at Elam’s chest, as if his finger were the barrel of the gun and Ariana had him in her sights.
    The table broke into laughter.
    “Do I know this story?” Leon asked.
    Dan leaned back in his chair. “I went to visit Mamm late at night about two years ago, and I fell asleep. I woke to the sound of Ariana calling out to Mamm.”
    “The voice I know,” Elam said. “I can hear Ariana calling to Mamm now. ‘Berta?’ She says it like honey rolled in powdered sugar, as Mamm would say.”
    They laughed, but Quill wondered how badly Ariana was missing her loved ones right now.
    “Anyway, I rushed to the closet to wait until Mamm could distract her and I could sneak out. I thought I was being quiet when I finally left the closet and tiptoed toward the back door, but I came face to face with her, and she was carrying Daed’s Remington Mag.” He laughed. “I promise that huge rifle looked twice its size at that moment.”
    “What was she doing brandishing a gun?”
    “Good question. I had that same thought
after
the incident.” Dan pointed at Quill. “The reason is his fault.”
    “True.” Quill couldn’t help but smile, and it felt odd.
    “He’d told her that if she ever heard an intruder, get the gun, and if the person didn’t run off, put a bullet in the chamber and fire it at the floor near them. I was afraid to move.”
    Leon roared with laughter. “You were afraid she’d miss that huge floor and hit your tiny heart.”
    The room vibrated with laughter.
    “Hey,” Dan said, “I need this Grinch-sized heart.”
    “So what happened?”
    “I glanced at Mamm, and I knew coming clean with Ariana wasn’t the answer.” Dan paused. “Am I right?”
    Quill nodded. If Dan had revealed who he was or why he was there, Ariana would’ve had to carry the secret or to expose Mamm for seeing her sons behind the bishop’s back.
    Dan lifted a glass and waved it about as he swayed in his chair. “So I acted like I was drunk and had accidentally entered the wrong home, and I begged her not to shoot me.”
    His brothers broke into laughter, but Quill didn’t join them.
    “Okay, guys. Enough.” Dan put the glass down. The merriment quickly faded. Dan laced his fingers, sighing. “It was an act of trickery, and in one way or another, we’ve all lied to Ariana over the years. She deserved better.”
    His brothers nodded and mumbled apologies.
    “So,” Elam said, “circling back to the topic, maybe we should talk to Mamm again about returning to her family in Indiana.”
    Dan stood and gathered plates from those who had