Read Online Plain Fear: Forgiven: A Novel by Leanna Ellis - Free Book Online Page A

from the speakers. She gauged his reaction. Samuel had never particularly liked her taste in music, but Brydon kept time, thumb against thigh.
    “You like Led Zeppelin?” she asked.
    He gave her a sly smile. “Did you know there’s a connection—” he thumbed toward the backseat—“between the band and your book?”
    “My book?” In the rearview mirror, she couldn’t see the book on the seat. But its presence loomed, filling the spaces in the car with shadows. “It’s not mine.”
    “There’s still a connection.”

Chapter Eleven
    It was after dark when he arrived, late by Amish standards, as most households turned in at the close of daylight. Each farmhouse Samuel passed looked as innocent as a sleeping babe. Night snuggled in, shadows deepened, and the cool spring air burrowed into his bones. His cheeks felt numb, his ears hollow from the wind, and his backside dead from the thrum of the motorcycle.
    Samuel found the Yoder’s homestead, which now belonged to Levi and Hannah Fisher. He remembered his mother telling him that poor Ruby Yoder had died. Was that why her family had left Lancaster County? Had they wanted to escape the memories the way Pop had wanted to put distance between his family and Jacob’s death?
    His old home was not far from the Yoder’s, just out Slow Gait Road, but he didn’t bother going by, not at this time of night—maybe never. Someone else lived there now. He didn’t even know who had bought the shop and house; he’d never asked. Would it do any good to stir up old memories and more pain? But wasn’t that what he was doing in his quest to connect with Jacob?
    Shoving aside confusing thoughts, he turned onto the gravel drive. The headlight of his motorcycle cut through the darkness and shone across the mailbox, which read Fisher , and the beam slanted over a wagon and push-powered lawn mower. Not much else could be seen in the dark, but a distant yellow light highlighted one window along the front of the house. From his past visits to the farm, when he was a boy, he knew the barn was off to the left, near the silo, and the washhouse to the right, near the garden. Pasture and farmland extended out behind the one-story house. He wondered if Levi had plans to expand the quaint house as his family grew.
    A shagbark hickory provided shelter for his bike. The three-quarter moon slid out from behind a cloud and revealed the tree’s bare branches, stretching outward in all directions. As he walked toward the house, the white-painted porch railing glowed like ghost’s teeth. An odd feeling stirred the hair at the back of his neck as Samuel climbed the steps. Before he could knock, the door swung open.
    “Samuel?” Hannah Schmidt Fisher greeted her brother-in-law with a warm and welcoming smile. She wore her blond hair pulled back in the traditional Amish style, beneath a prayer cap. Tiredness crinkled the corners of her eyes, but she still looked happy and content. No longer the skinny young girl he’d known a few years back before he’d moved with his folks to Ohio, her figure was now a bit plumper and her face rounder. But then again, she’d just had twins.
    “Come on in,” she said, her voice soft and welcoming. She gave him a hug as he came through the door. “Did you eat on the way? Or are you hungry?”
    He laughed softly. “I ate, but…”
    Her grin widened, highlighted by the flickering light of the kerosene lamp. “But you could probably eat again, ja ? Come, sit at the table, and I’ll fix you a plate.”
    She led him into the kitchen, which looked like most other Amish kitchens. A propane-powered refrigerator took up space in the corner. An eating table sat in the middle of the room. A calendar hung on one wall. It had not yet been turned to April, and the picture above the March grid was of a meadow filled with yellow buttercups. Next to the stove, two quilted potholders hung not only for decoration but purpose.
    While she scooped food out of containers, she