Where Shadows Meet(33)

SMOKE STILL LINGERED in the air from the ordeal the night before. Hannah slept restlessly in the old bed, the single window in the room looking out over the Indiana hills. She was back in her hometown, yet she wasn’t part of her family, her people. Did she even want to be? Her life here was a lifetime ago. She coiled her thick braid at the nape of her neck. She’d forgotten how hard it was to see in the small mirror that only showed part of her head. Her gaze stared back, and she wondered who that woman was. She didn’t know anymore.

Angie spoke from behind her. “Do I look okay? I have no idea since this place only has that teeny mirror. What’s up with that?”

Hannah turned. Her friend’s black skirt touched the top of stylish boots. The lacy black top plunged farther than Hannah ever wanted to wear again, but it looked good on Angie. “You look lovely. We don’t hold with vanity. A full-length mirror would encourage us to put too much emphasis on our appearance.”

“Yeah, but I can’t even tell if my slip is showing.” Angie twirled on heels high enough to give her a nosebleed.

“Not a sliver of it.” Hannah gave her hair a last pat.

“You sure you want to wear that old shapeless thing?” Angie pulled on the loose waist of Hannah’s dress. “It’s like a gunnysack.”

Her aunt had hung one of Hannah’s old dresses in the bedroom closet, and she’d put it on. She looked down at the plain blue dress. “You’re right. I think I’ll change. The bishop might think I intend to confess at the next meeting.” Besides, it seemed she was a girl again, and the clothing brought back the horror of the night she’d found the bodies of her family.

She stepped past two twin beds with no headboards. They were neatly made up with white sheets and blankets. She opened the closet, her hand hovering over a plain black dress with three-quarter-length sleeves. So severe and unflattering. Was it a sin to want to look nice? She’d tried to cover up after the way Reece made her dress, but maybe she’d gone too far.

After changing her shoes to low pumps, she defiantly added a simple locket to the outfit. Her family and friends would think she was a heathen for wearing the jewelry, but she needed some space from them, and this would create it.

Angie shook her head. “It’s better, but sheesh, Hannah. I wish you’d let me take you shopping sometime. You’ve got a terrific figure, great hair and skin, and you do nothing to enhance your assets. I know you think you need to look the part of a matronly quilt expert, but you’re only thirty-two. Live a little!”

“Reece used to make me wear slinky dresses that plunged to my navel, and high heels,” she said. Her skin still burned at the memory of the way men looked at her.

“You’re kidding! You?”

“I hated them.” Hannah smoothed her skirt with her hand. “Has Aunt Nora come out yet?”

“Nope. Not a peep from her room.”

“I’ll check on her.” Hannah went to her aunt’s closed doorway down the hall off the living room. There was no sound from the other side. She tiptoed to the door and listened. Nothing. Rapping her knuckles softly against the wood, she called to her aunt. At first she thought the older woman would ignore the summons, but the door finally opened.

Her aunt was fully dressed in her usual dark blue dress and sensible shoes. The prayer bonnet looked a bit askew, but her features were composed as she tucked a hanky up her sleeve. “We should probably go down. Everyone will be arriving.”

Hannah nodded and followed her aunt downstairs. Buggies were beginning to pull into the drive, dozens of them. Men hauled in backless benches and lined them up around the living and dining rooms and the kitchen. Women carried covered dishes for after the burial.

Her back erect, Aunt Nora accepted their handshakes and thoughtful words.

An hour later, they were all assembled. Hannah followed her aunt to the dining room and sat on the bench beside her. Moe’s coffin was a plain pine box. The split top was hinged, and the upper portion of it had been folded back to reveal Moe’s face. Hannah clasped her hands together as the usher seated people on the benches. She barely noticed Sarah and the girls come in. Luca would grieve that he’d missed the funeral. He likely didn’t even know yet. He had no phone with him.

Angie sat on the bench behind Hannah and her aunt. Hannah turned around and whispered to Angie that they would sit through a regular church service, not a real funeral as the Englisch knew it. The bishop removed his hat, and in unison, the other men in the line of ministers removed theirs, as did all the men in the house. The bishop began to speak, an exhortation from the Old Testament. Preparation for death was the main theme of the sermon, and that theme was continued thirty minutes later by the second minister. When he was done, the minister read Moe’s obituary in German, then dismissed the men to prepare for the viewing.

In spite of the number of people attending, the rearrangement went forward in near silence. The house emptied of mourners, and the men carried the coffin to the entry. Friends and neighbors filed past Moe to say their good-byes. Several people nodded to Nora and murmured condolences as they left to get in their buggies and go to the graveyard.

Hannah whispered to Angie that she wanted to go to the grave site in a buggy. Slipping away from the crowd, she hurried to the barn and hitched up a spry black horse to Moe’s single-seater. She waited until the last of the buggies pulled out, then fell into the line behind them.