Plain Peril. Alison Stone

Hannah glanced behind Lester and noticed Spencer sitting on the porch steps talking animatedly to the girls. They had bright smiles on their faces, the first she had seen since returning to Apple Creek.

      Hannah refocused on Lester. “If I left the girls in your care, could I visit them?”

      A muscle pulsed in his jaw. “Neh. Your life in the outside world would only confuse them. Raising her children here was important to Ruth. Ruth is gone, but don’t take her children away from everything that is important to them.”

      Hannah hated Lester’s message, but she knew he was right. She backed away from him and made a show of swiping imaginary hay from her skirt. “I’ll have to think about it.”

      “Fannie Mae will be a good mem to them.”

      Hannah’s gaze drifted to Lester’s wife, standing apart as Spencer played with the two girls. Perhaps the woman didn’t know how to interact with children because she didn’t have any of her own. Indecision weighed heavily on Hannah, sucking the air out of her lungs.

      “You should give this serious consideration.” Lester adjusted his straw hat by its brim. “I believe Gott has bigger plans for me in this community. I don’t want my family distracted by the outside world.”

      “Gott decides such things. Not man. Be humble,” Willard scolded Lester.

      Lester bristled. Perhaps Lester, like Hannah, had forgotten Willard was standing within earshot.

      Hannah ran a hand across the back of her neck. “You want me to leave and to leave quietly?”

      Lester’s dark eyes bored into her. “I want what’s best for my brother’s children.”

      “My sister would want me to be their guardian.”

      “The children still have a guardian. Their father.” Lester’s eyebrows disappeared under his hat.

      “I will be their guardian until that matter is settled.” Hannah bustled past Lester and strode up the hill. The ache in her brain pounded in time with her racing heart.

      “Everything okay?” Spencer stood when Hannah reached the porch. The compassion in his eyes diffused a fraction of her anger. Six-year-old Emma jumped to her feet to stand next to Spencer, looking up at him with big blue eyes as trusting as her mem’s.

      Hannah glanced at Fannie Mae quickly, then back at Spencer. “Everything is great. Girls, would you like some fresh-baked muffins?” Hannah wanted to make up for the lumpy oatmeal from earlier, but feared her baking skills were also rusty.

      Emma and Sarah raced Hannah inside. The screen door slammed in its frame, shutting out the outside world, even if only temporarily.