“The day Leroy and I were to leave, Leroy asked me to meet him at the covered bridge. He had a car, you know. He’d been saving his money. For the future. Our future.” She smiles the brilliant smile of a girl in love, and I know that in her mind she’s no longer standing in this old barn with me. She’s seventeen years old and waiting for her lover.

“I’d never been away from home before,” she whispers. “I was so scared. What would my mamm do? Would the Amish speak of me behind my back? And what of my datt, who was so very strict? He’d told me I’d marry Jeramy Kline, after all. But my love for Leroy was much more powerful than the fear.” She shrugs. “I packed my little satchel. I waited until dawn, and after my datt left for the day, I walked to the bridge and I waited for Leroy.” She lowers her head, her brows coming together in anguish. “I waited for two days. I spent the night at the bridge because I was afraid if I went home, Leroy would come for me and I wouldn’t be there. He never came.”

“Why didn’t he show?”

Her eyes meet mine. I see knowledge in their depths. Words too painful to utter aloud, but a story that must be told. “It was Jeramy who finally came for me. That second day. He found me sitting there, crying and near physical collapse. He told me Leroy had left town. And then he asked me to marry him.”

“Jeramy knew about your relationship with Leroy?”

“I didn’t tell anyone, but a young girl wears her heart on her sleeve. That kind of love is difficult to conceal. Looking back, I think he must have known. My datt, too.” She looks off in the distance, and her eyes glaze. “I was too young and naive not to believe Jeramy. I believed Leroy had left without me. All these years, I believed he’d left to chase all those crazy dreams he had. I was happy for him. I was secretly rooting for him to find the success he’d craved for so long and worked so hard for.” She looks down at the leather rein in her hand as if not quite remembering why it’s there. “I think Jeramy knew I was with child. Even as I cried for Leroy, he asked me to marry him.