She had wanted a simpler life in Amish country...
The caring community in her new Missouri small town was a healing salve for Nadia Markovic’s wounded spirit...until someone broke into her apartment above her Amish quilt shop and robbed her while she was sleeping. The thief made off with all the funds they’d just raised through the sale of her neighbours’ handmade quilts. And police chief Ben Slater can’t rule her out as the prime suspect. Only her Amish friends are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. People are angry enough to even target her with violence... But while Ben might not trust her, he’s committed to protecting her, confusing her feelings for this man who’s pulling her apart!
“I regret having had to put you through this search,” he said stiffly. “I can only tell you I was doing my job.”
“I’ve lost everything.” She looked at the store’s disarray in despair.
“You haven’t.” Ben wanted to grip her upper arms and make her meet his eyes, but knew better. “You have supporters. People will realize you would never have stolen that money. Just...give them time.”
“I can’t afford to give them time,” Nadia said drily. “And...do I want people who condemned me without a second thought to become good customers? They would have to pretend, and I’d have to pretend...” She shook her head. “I can’t stay in Byrum, not after this. And I’ll never dare call the police again, I know that.”
“Nadia—”
She took a step back. “You’ve worn out your welcome.”
He hesitated, but recognized he couldn’t make this better. Not now, maybe not ever.
He dipped his head. “Things will look better tomorrow.”
She didn’t dignify that with a response.
When he walked out, she immediately locked the door behind him.
The story that became Her Amish Protectors sneaked up on me while I was writing Plain Refuge. First I became intrigued by a character, then by an idea.
Ben Slater came to life only because Daniel, the hero in Plain Refuge, needed a friend, someone he connected with on a deep level. Thus we got Ben, who had inexplicably left an urban police department in New Jersey to take a job as chief of a small-town department in rural Missouri. The “why” didn’t matter in Plain Refuge, but it began to bug me. I’d created the guy. Why would he do something like that?
And then there was the quilt auction. I chaired a large charity auction (benefiting a no-kill animal shelter) for fifteen years. It was a huge amount of work. The week leading up to the auction was insane. Auction day, I started with setup first thing in the morning and kept going through wrap-up at eleven o’clock or so at night. Then the drive home, and I’d topple into bed, so exhausted I slept like the dead for twelve hours. And here’s the thing: someone had to take all that money home. Of course, that was me. It always made me just a teeny bit nervous to keep it from Saturday night through Monday morning. What I had in a box in the bedroom were mostly credit-card slips. But the Amish deal primarily in cash, so the proceeds of the quilt auction...are a temptation!
Janice
Her Amish Protectors
Janice Kay Johnson
An author of more than ninety books for children and adults (seventy-five for Harlequin), JANICE KAY JOHNSON writes about love and family—about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. A USA TODAY bestselling author and an eight-time finalist for a Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, she won a RITA® Award in 2008 for her Harlequin Superromance novel Snowbound. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small town north of Seattle, Washington.
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