“The pig is jealous,” Maami said. “Have you ever seen such a thing? It’s almost as if these creatures know what’s going on.”

  I knew that they did.

  I shook my finger at the pig. “Don’t be jealous. She still loves you, too.”

  As if she understood his expression, too, she leaned down and gave Jethro a kiss on the top of his head. The pig smiled.

  Just then, Charlotte came down the stairs from the apartment with the warm soup. It did smell heavenly. I was tempted to ask her if there was any more upstairs so I could make myself a bowl. But I refrained.

  “I’ll start cleaning up the kitchen for the end of the day,” Charlotte said.

  “Thank you, Charlotte,” I said as she disappeared through the kitchen door.

  Hannah took the piece of thick homemade bread from the tray and took a bite. She ate the bread quickly.

  Maami frowned. “When was the last time the child ate?”

  “She had a large cookie when we were at the Dutch Muffin,” I said.

  “I like sweets as much as the next person, but a child needs real food to grow.”

  The door to the shop opened then, and Aiden filled the frame, pausing as his eyes fell on Hannah. He stepped inside.

  Aiden looked at me then, and his eyes were full of compassion for the child. “She doesn’t know about Rosemary?”

  I shook my head.

  He nodded and pulled a chair out in front of the child. He began to sign. Hannah perked up and signed back. Their signing was so fast, the only thing I caught was that Aiden was telling her his name.

  I stared at him. “You never told me that you could sign.”

  “Why would I? It’s never come up,” he said, looking at me. “I also speak Spanish. I felt it was my duty as an officer of the law to be able to communicate with those I’m helping. In the summer, there are many people from Mexico here working on the English farms to pick the berries and other crops. Someone in the department should know it.”

  I felt my heart swell. What was this incredible man with so much compassion and goodness in his heart doing with me? It was one of the many times I told myself that I didn’t deserve him.

  Aiden looked at me. “Someone needs to tell her about Rosemary, but I think I need to call children’s services. I want to do this right, with the least amount of trauma to Hannah.”

  Aiden signed something to the little girl. She laughed, and then he stood up, removing his phone from its clip on his belt. “I’m just going to step outside for a minute to make the call.”

  I nodded. Maami sat next to Hannah and held her hand. The two of them took turns petting Nutmeg, who purred furiously with all the extra attention. Jethro bumped one and then the other with his snout to remind them not to forget that he was there, too.

  I walked to the window and looked outside. I watched Aiden pace up and down the sidewalk as he spoke on the phone. Whatever he heard on the other end of the conversation, he wasn’t happy about it.

  Aiden ended the call, and I jumped away from the window before he saw that I’d been spying. However, if he knew me at all, he wouldn’t be the least surprised that I had been.

  Maami pointed at the bowl of soup, and Hannah seemed to get the hint that she should eat. She tucked into the soup eagerly. Maami held Nutmeg for her.

  Aiden gestured for me to join him in the corner of the room. “I spoke with the county’s children’s services. It’s the end of the day. They can’t send a social worker until tomorrow to assess Hannah.”

  My eyes went wide. “What do we do until then?”

  “Keep her here. Would it be okay if she spent the night with Clara?”

  “I’m sure my grandmother wouldn’t mind, and I think Hannah would be more comfortable in an Amish home instead of my little rental house. Maybe you can teach Charlotte some signs before you leave, so that they can communicate.” I glanced back at the little girl.

  She laughed as Nutmeg made a motion with his paw to reach her soup. He likely smelled the chicken. The little orange cat was a chicken fiend.

  Maami swatted away his paw, and Hannah giggled.

  “I can show Charlotte some signs. Hannah’s a bright girl. I hate to keep this secret from her, but because no one has a claim to her, social services has to make an assessment.”

  “Even though she’s Amish.”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  I stepped closer to him. “I think she’s Emily’s first child.”

  “I thought the same thing when I saw her.” He ran his hand through his hair.

  “Does that mean Emily has a claim to her?” I asked.

  “I would think so, but would she want her? She gave the child up originally.”

  I pressed my lips together. “I don’t know. From what I understand of the adoption, I’m certain that she wasn’t given much other choice.”

  “That may be, but we can’t make any assumptions about what Emily wants now. Someone did that to her before, and as you can see, it didn’t end well for Hannah. Hannah must come first in all of this.”

  “Agreed.” I paused. “I have to tell Emily that her daughter might be here.”

  Aiden shook his head. “Let’s wait until Hannah meets the social worker.”

  I frowned.

  “Bailey, please. We have to do this right in order to make sure Hannah goes to the best home for her.”

  “Okay,” I whispered, but in my heart, I knew it was a mistake.

  As promised, I took Jethro back to Juliet around six. Hannah was sad to say goodbye to the pig.

  I searched the sign language gestures on my phone and fumbled through to tell her that she would see the pig again soon. Thankfully, at the church Juliet seemed to be preoccupied with her women’s program and didn’t ask me any prying questions about the murder or about why I wasn’t engaged to her son yet. I handed over the pig and made a run for it.

  That night, I stayed at Swissmen Sweets long after closing to spend time with Hannah. As the evening went on, she became more and more uncertain. She must have wondered when she was going back home to Wooster. Aiden had explained to her before he left that she would be spending the night at the candy shop, but she was still a small child. How could she really understand what he meant? The language barrier didn’t help.

  I stayed until Maami tucked Hannah into bed. I left my car parked on the street, deciding to walk home. I had a lot to think about. I’d become involved in this case as a favor to Emily, but now I had a much more important reason. A child had lost her mother. What if Hannah was the reason for the murder? If that was the case, then Hannah wouldn’t be safe until the killer was brought to justice. I paused on Apple Street. I was halfway home to my little rental house. It was eight-thirty in the evening. The sun had just set over the village.

  I had an unexplainable urge to return to the candy shop. I spun on my heel and began walking, and then my walk changed into a run. I came around the corner onto Main Street just in time to see a large form standing outside of Swissmen Sweets.

  I couldn’t see the person’s face, but it was a man in Amish clothes, and he cupped his hands around his face, staring into the window.

  “Hey!” I cried and ran toward him.

  Without looking at me, the man took off.

  I ran as fast as I could, but he sprinted down the street, outpacing me with his much longer legs, plus he had had a head start. At the end of the block, I bent at the waist, gasping for air. I hadn’t run that fast since I was in high school. Honestly, it was possible that I hadn’t run that fast in my entire life.

  Footsteps approached me from behind. I spun around with my fist up, ready to strike.

  Deputy Little yelped. “Bailey, don’t hit me.”

  “Little? What are you doing here?”

  “Deputy Brody asked me to keep watch on Swissmen Sweets because of the little girl who’s staying there.”

  “Did you see a man running away from the shop?” I asked. “He was looking in the window.”

  He grimaced. “No, I didn’t. I went to my car to get a book to read. I was going to sit at the gazebo and keep an eye on the candy shop from there.” His face turned red as he said this.

  I glanced at the gazebo and thought I saw a shadow move.

  “No, there is no one over there,” he said a little too quickly. “I was just there.”

  I frowned. “Well, I’m going to stay here for the night. We can both keep watch on Hannah.”

  He nodded and glanced nervously at the square one last time.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The next morning, I had an ache in my back from sleeping on the floor in the front room of the candy shop. I hadn’t gone upstairs to my grandmother’s apartment after seeing Deputy Little on the sidewalk. I didn’t want to scare my grandmother, Charlotte, or Hannah. Instead, I’d made a makeshift bed out of two of the ladder-back chairs in the front of the shop. It had been a fine idea until I fell off one of them in the middle of the night. I guessed that Deputy Little had been more comfortable sleeping in his car than I had been sleeping on the cold pine floor with just a threadbare blanket that I had found in the hall closet to keep me warm.

  By three in the morning, I decided to get up and start working on the candies for the day. If I couldn’t sleep, I might as well make candy.

  “Bailey? What are you doing here so early?” my grandmother asked when she came into the kitchen at four-thirty.

  I told her about the previous night’s events.

  A fierce expression crossed her usually gentle face. “We will protect the girl.”

  I smiled, and we worked in silence for over an hour until Charlotte and Hannah wandered into the kitchen rubbing their eyes. Hannah looked even smaller in the nightshirt that she must have borrowed from Charlotte to sleep in.

  “You know what?” I said. “We should do something fun. Why don’t we all go to the Sunbeam Café for breakfast? They open at seven. That will give us enough time to eat and come back to open the shop by ten. I’ve already done most of the prep work for the day.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Charlotte said with a yawn. “They make the best pancakes. I want a double stack!”

  We were all in agreement. A double stack sounded just about right to me. After the night I’d had, I might make mine a triple.

  The Sunbeam Café was on the other side of the playground in the village square, near Juliet’s church. It had opened about a year ago and was owned by Darcy Woodin, a young English woman with the curliest blond hair I had ever seen. It was as if she styled her hair with a corkscrew, but it was completely natural. I knew because I’d asked her once.

  Darcy was usually in the back cooking, while her grandmother, Lois Henry, ran the front of the café. I felt a kinship to the Sunbeam because it was a grandmother-granddaughter business, just like Swissmen Sweets. It was a nice place to go for lunch or dinner when I became tired of the heavy Amish food that was served in most restaurants in the area.

  Also, Lois was a hoot, and I thought she would be just the one to distract Hannah from becoming homesick. That, or she’d scare her to death.

  Lois and her granddaughter weren’t Amish, but Lois was really not Amish. She was in her late sixties, styled her fiery, red-purple hair in spikes, and adored heavy makeup and costume jewelry. She also had a big personality. All the same, she’d grown up in Holmes County and knew the Amish way of life well. Somehow, despite her outlandish appearance and behavior, she had the ability to put people at ease and was accepted in the Amish community. I knew a lot of that had to do with her best friend, Millie Fisher, the Amish matchmaker in the village. The two women could not have been more different, yet they were a perfect fit, like yin and yang. Although that was a reference that Millie mostly likely had never heard.

  I held open the café door, and Charlotte, Maami, and Hannah went in. I followed a few steps behind.

  Charlotte hugged herself. “I’m starved. Bailey, when was the last time we ate?”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t remember. I’d been so wrapped up in helping Hannah that food didn’t seem to matter in the least. I’d claimed to be too anxious to eat dinner the night before, but I might have snuck a couple of pieces of fudge while everyone else was sleeping.

  The inviting scents coming from the café made my stomach rumble. I decided Charlotte was right. A double stack was definitely in order.

  Lois looked up from the counter. “Well, what do we have here? The whole crew from Swissmen Sweets! This is quite a treat for us. Coming in for breakfast?”

  “Yep,” Charlotte said. “I already know that I want a double stack of Darcy’s pancakes.”

  Lois shook her pen at her. “As if there is anything else worth eating to get your day going.” She bent at the waist and peered down at Hannah. “And who is this adorable young lady with you?”

  “This is Hannah. She’s staying with my grandmother for a few days. She’s from Wooster,” I said, keeping my explanation simple.

  Lois wasn’t buying it. “Where is her family then?”

  I made a face.

  Lois folded her arm. “Spill, girl.”

  “She was Rosemary’s daughter,” I said.

  “The woman who died at the pretzel shop?” she whispered. Lois didn’t know that she could have shouted and Hannah still wouldn’t have been able to hear her.

  I nodded.

  “Poor child.” Her face fell. “Doesn’t she have anyone else?”

  “Aiden is going to find out where she should go. Until then she’s staying at Swissmen Sweets with Charlotte and my grandmother.”

  “Of course she is,” Lois said and then turned to Hannah. “And would you like pancakes, too?”

  Hannah stared at her. She then grabbed Maami’s skirts and ducked behind her.

  “I didn’t mean to scare her.” She patted her spiky, red-purple hair. “I know this look is not very Amish, but I mean well.”

  I smiled. “I know, Lois. Hannah just can’t understand what you’re saying.”

  She looked up. “Doesn’t she speak English? Is she not in school yet?”

  “It’s not that.” I lowered my voice. “She can’t hear you. She’s deaf. She knows sign language. Aiden knows it, too, which is a real blessing. I don’t know what we would do if he didn’t.” I made a face. “Until Aiden returns, we have to do a lot of pantomiming.” I glanced at Hannah. “She is such a sweet and trusting child. She just follows us wherever we take her.”

  Lois pressed her hands to her heart. “How sad. But if she knows American Sign Language, then that’s all we need.” She waved at Hannah. The young girl looked at her with those big blue eyes that were so much like Emily’s.

  Lois moved her hands rapidly. Hannah’s eyes lit up, and she signed back.

  I stared at Lois. “What did you ask her?”

  “I introduced myself. Then I asked her what she wanted to eat.” She grinned. “She wants pancakes and a piece of lemon pie. I think you should allow the pie in this case.”

  “She can have whatever she wants,” I said as relief flooded me. It was such a blessing to have someone else close by who could communicate with Hannah. I knew Aiden wouldn’t be available to translate for us every time we might need him. “Where did you learn to sign?”

  She grinned. “My second husband had a deaf brother, so I took it upon myself to learn when we were married. The whole family could sign, and I felt I should be able to as well. The skill was the best thing that came out of the marriage. The rest of it was a total waste.” She waved at Hannah again, and the young girl beamed at her. “You all take a seat, and I will come by and grab the rest of your order.” She pointed at a table near the window.

  After we were settled, Lois came back with a tray holding three mugs of coffee, four glasses of water, and a giant piece of lemon meringue pie. She set the piece of pie in front Hannah. Hannah beamed. We gave our orders, and Hannah dug into the pie.

  Maami added cream to her coffee and passed it to Charlotte. Charlotte, knowing I had a terrible sweet tooth, slid the cream and sugar in my direction. Hannah hummed softly to herself while she ate the pie. She was happy, and she was unaware she was making a noise to express it. I wondered the last time I had been so happy that I hummed just because I could not hold in my joy. I swallowed hard as I doctored my coffee. For this brief moment, with three generations around this small table, all seemed to be right with the world. Sustained by coffee and lemon meringue pie, we could not be touched by the outside world. We could forget about such things as murder.

  Charlotte cocked her head. “She really loves lemon. Doesn’t that seem like a sour flavor for such a young girl to love? The only other person I know who enjoys lemon that much is Emily.”

  I nearly choked on my coffee.

  Maami patted my back. “Bailey, are you quite all right?”

  The strong coffee burned the back of my throat.

  “I’m fine,” I croaked like a frog.

  In short order, Lois returned with our food. There was a stack of pancakes for Hannah, scrambled eggs and French toast for Maami, more pancakes for Charlotte, and a western omelet and toast for me. I’d decided I needed some protein for breakfast instead of pancakes. I was so hungry that I didn’t doubt for a second that I could eat every last bite of every dish.

  “That was fast,” Charlotte said when Lois finished setting out the food.

  Lois tucked her serving tray under her arm. “Well, I knew you and Hannah wanted pancakes, and Bailey and Clara always order the same thing for breakfast when they come here, so I had Darcy get a start on it. I figured that Bailey would be sleuthing to find the killer.” She winked at me.

  For a second time, the coffee burned the back of my throat. At least I didn’t choke this time because I was ready for it.

  Charlotte sighed as she took a bite of her pancakes. “I could eat pancakes for every meal.”

  It didn’t sound like a bad idea to me.

  My grandmother smiled at Charlotte. “Perhaps you say that now, but everyone tires of the same thing day in and day out. Change is gut for the soul, even difficult change.”

  I spread strawberry jam on my toast, and Aiden’s new job opportunity came to the forefront of my mind. He had been working as a sheriff’s deputy for so long. Maybe he needed this change.