Read Online Miriam's Heart by Emma Miller - Free Book Online

“I thought you’d be home from church earlier.”
    “We stayed to help clean up and to visit.”
    “Ya,” Susanna chimed in. “We had chocolate cake and ginger cookies.”
    They walked through the barn to join John in Molly’s stall. The mare was contentedly chewing a mouthful of new hay. “How is she doing?” Miriam asked, stroking the horse’s neck.
    John patted Molly’s rump. “Good girl,” he murmured.
    His gaze met Miriam’s, and she knew instinctively, that whatever concern he had for the horse, he’d come to see her as well. She waited.
    Outside, in the pound, the cows mooed. It was past time for milking. They’d stayed too long at Samuel’s. Any minute, Irwin and Anna would be here to help with evening chores. “Is Molly worse?”
    “Her hoof doesn’t seem any worse than this morning,” he answered, “but it really isn’t any better, either.”
    “I’m applying the medicine exactly as you told me,” Miriam assured him. She couldn’t help thinking how cute he was, and how not-Amish he looked in his jeans and long-sleeve T-shirt and green ball cap that read John Deere.
    “Ya,” Susanna said. “Miriam’s making Molly better. I love Molly.”
    John looked at Susanna and then back at Miriam, and she realized that he wanted to tell her something without her sister hearing.
    Miriam glanced at Susanna. “I think Molly needs a new mineral block.” She picked up the remains of the one in her feed box. “There’s a new one in the feed room. Could you get it, Susanna?”
    Her sister nodded and hurried away, eager to help, as always.
    Miriam felt a small twinge of guilt to have deceived Susanna to get her out of the way, but she trusted John. If it was bad news, Miriam would want to pick the time and the place to tell Susanna. She crumpled a corner of her apron into a ball and glanced at him expectantly. “Molly isn’t worse, is she?”
    “It feels like the hoof is heating up. Here.” He crouched down beside the mare and laid his hand gently on Molly’s leg just above the hoof.
    Miriam crouched beside him and then he surprised her by grabbing her hand. She didn’t know what to do. It was warm and big and—
    “Right here.” He pressed her hand to the same spot he’d just touched. “Feel it?”
    He was so close, she could smell fabric softener. Even though his jeans were dirty from being in barns, his shirt was clean. He’d put on a clean shirt before coming.
    Miriam tried to block out John and just feel what he was trying to get her to feel. Molly’s leg was definitely warm. “ Ya. I feel it.”
    He stood up, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small red cell phone. “I was thinking. In case she spikes a fever, or if you needed to ask me—anything…about her treatment. If you had questions.” He passed her the phone. “I want you to have this.”
    She stared at the cell phone in her hand. It was a lot smaller than a deck of cards and so bright that it almost glowed. “A phone?”
    Some of the boys who considered themselves rumspringa —in their running around years—had phones but Miriam didn’t know any girls who did—at least not in Kent County. Telephones weren’t allowed by the Ordnung, the church rules.
    “I don’t know,” she hedged. She wanted the phone badly. She’d always been fascinated by them. It was so tempting to take it. John was right. If there was a problem in the night with Molly, she could reach him right away, instead of walking to the chair shop and using the phone there.
    “It’s okay, right? For something like this? I don’t want to get you in trouble.” His brow furrowed and she saw how concerned he was for her. “This is the power button. You push that and then hit #1. I programmed in my number. To send, you hit this button.”
    “I know how they work,” she assured him. “I see the English customers using them all the time at Spence’s and in the stores.” She hesitated, feeling the weight of the phone in her hand.
    “I