Aware of the anxiety in Britta’s voice, she asked, “Are ya all right?”

“It was hard.” Britta tightened her scarf. “And Mary cried, which made it even harder. I think it ferhoodled them both . . . and no wonder.”

“Jah,” Susie said.

Britta glanced at her. “I also stuck my neck out and asked for the bishop’s help in tellin’ the People. I want it out in the open—don’t want the grapevine to get a hold of it.”

“Gut thinkin’.” Susie assumed he’d do that at a members’ meeting after the next Preaching service.

Britta paused, then continued. “I asked Bishop somethin’ else.” She shivered a little. “About searching for my birth mother.”

Susie felt a wave of shock. “You want to?”

Britta nodded. “I do.”

Susie thought of asking if she’d try to visit her, too, but she could see how difficult this was for Britta. “Does Mamma know?”

“It’s what I wrote in the last letter I sent.”

Susie cringed, afraid how it would affect Mamma to hear this. Would she have told Britta about the past if she’d known Britta would search?

Britta led the mare out of the shafts and toward the stable, while Susie moved the buggy over to the carriage shed, somewhat comforted that Britta had opened up to her about all of this. But now she was concerned how Kathleen, if found, might affect and influence her dear, uncertain sister.

CHAPTER
40

Susie walked across the backyard to the house, contemplating all that Britta had revealed from her visit to the bishop. Inside, she headed to the basement to check on the hanging clothes, which were still damp. It would likely take the rest of the afternoon and possibly overnight for them to dry.

Standing there, she remembered the times she and Britta had helped Mamma hang the washing on these lines Dat had strung up so long ago. Mamma had used some of that time to help teach them the Beatitudes and how to say the Lord’s Prayer. Britta had always been so eager to learn, like a little sponge soaking up the things Mamma shared about the “simple gifts”—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—signs of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Surely Britta won’t abandon those essential teachings, or the things that have made us a family, Susie thought. Or will a relationship with her birth mother put a wedge between us?