A Cowboy at Heart Read Online Free Page B

to talk to the man and explain how it is in language he can understand.”
    Luke frowned. “If you think you can handle it.”
    “No problem.”
    Colin nodded. “He’s the best one among us for the job.”
    Jesse grinned. “I’ll get my things.”
    And I won’t be taking any Amish pie along with me, either .

    “ Maummi Switzer, I wish you would sit in the shade and rest.” Katie tried to instill the right balance of concern and ease in her voice as she watched the old woman wrestle with a stubborn weed that threatened one of her tomato plants. “I will pull these weeds for you.”
    “Too many for a girl to handle alone.” The old woman waved across the huge garden. “And I’ve left them too long.” She looked up. “But I thank ye kindly for lending a hand. So ist’s ja besser zwei als eins; denn sie genieβen doch ihrer Arbeit wohl .”
    Katie bit back a sigh. Maummi Switzer was well knownthroughout Apple Grove for her ready store of proverbs. This one came straight from die Bibel , and how could she argue with that? Yes, the labor of two did yield more results than one, but if one of the laborers was a worried elderly woman with a weak heart, the risks were not worth the yield. Perhaps a dose of her own medicine would convince her.
    “Ein Unkraut ist nicht mehr als eine Blume in Verkleidung.” A weed is no more than a flower in disguise . Katie’s mader had quoted that saying to Fader in the week just past. True, she had been referring to a rowdy goat that had been terrorizing the rest of the small herd they kept, but it seemed appropriate to the moment.
    Or not.
    Maummi Switzer straightened and pressed a fist into the small of her back, her mouth a hard line. “Did our dear Lord not say Das Unkraut sind die Kinder der Bosheit ?” The weeds are the children of the wicked one .
    Did the Lord say that? Katie couldn’t immediately think where in die Bible the quote appeared, but she knew better than to do battle with a master of proverbs. She conceded the point with a nod and lowered her eyes to her task of uprooting one of the wicked children that had begun to reach toward a righteous tomato plant. But she kept a covert watch on the elderly woman, who took the opportunity to stretch her back and stare toward the empty road.
    Katie followed her gaze. What was taking Jonas so long? The noon meal had come and gone hours past, and there was still no sign of his return. This morning when Katie performed the favor he’d asked of her, to deliver the message to his mader , the woman she had called Maummi Switzer since she and Emma had become friends as girls, she’d been alarmed at Maummi Switzer’s pale skinand the slight tremor in her hands when she heard the news. She’d ridden her cart home to tell her own mader she would spend the day with the elderly woman, at least until Jonas returned.
    Not that she could do much for a failing heart. Though she was becoming adept at binding wounds and nursing fevers, the most she could do for internal ailments was prepare a hawthorn berry tea and pray it calmed her patient. Still, Maummi Switzer was a well-loved member of the Amish community of Apple Grove, and the thought of leaving her alone to worry and fret over her son’s unusual behavior was unthinkable.
    Katie didn’t doubt for a minute that the older woman’s worries were justified. She stretched her gaze across the wheat field, where the ominous thick wire sliced across the landscape. From the snatches of conversation she’d overheard, she surmised the nature of Jonas’s errand. Someone had threatened his land and Bishop Miller had refused help. Therefore, Jonas had turned to his Englisch son-in-law.
    Katie’s fingers tightened around a fledgling weed, and she ripped it out of the soft earth with a savage gesture. How could Fader Miller refuse to help Jonas in the face of violent men? It was his job, his responsibility as bishop, to shepherd God’s flock here in Apple Grove. A shepherd did not leave