As she drew closer, she saw Mam’s new student, Irwin Beachy, crawl out from under the porch. His face and shirt were smudged black, and he was holding his hands out awkwardly, as though they’d been burned.
“Irwin? What happened? Are you hurt?” she called to him.
The boy’s eyes widened in terror. Without answering, he dashed away toward the woods.
“Irwin!” Ruth shouted. “Come back!”
When the boy vanished in the trees, she turned back to the school. An ugly crackling noise rose and flames rippled between the floorboards of the front porch. Through the open door, she could see tongues of red flame shimmering through the black smoke. The cloakroom seemed engulfed in fire, but the thick inner door that led to the single classroom was securely closed.
Wrapping her apron around her hands to protect them, Ruth grabbed the smoking rope that dangled from the cast-iron bell by the steps. She yanked hard, and the old bell pealed out the alarm. Then she released the rope and darted to the hand water pump that stood in the yard.
By the shouts and cries coming from the ball field, Ruth knew that the children had heard the bell and seen the smoke. By school age, every Amish child knew what to do in case of a fire, and she was certain they would arrive in seconds. She pumped hard on the handle of the water pump, filling the bucket that always sat there, and then ran back to dash the water onto the front wall of the school. Two of the older boys pounded up behind her. Toby Troyer pulled off his shirt and beat at the flames with it. Vernon Beachy grabbed the empty bucket from Ruth’s hands and raced back to refill it.
Ruth’s mother directed the fire-fighting efforts and instructed the older girls to take the smaller children back to where Susanna waited so that they would be out of danger.
Two of the Beachy boys carried the rain barrel to the other side of the schoolhouse and splashed water against the wall. Other boys used their lunch buckets to carry water. One moment they seemed as if they were winning the battle, but the next moment, flames would shoot up in a new spot. Someone passed her a bucket of water, and Ruth rushed in to throw it on the porch roof. As long as the roof didn’t catch fire, the building might be saved. Abruptly, a sensation of heat washed up over her. She glanced down to see that sparks had ignited the hem of her apron.
As she reached down frantically to tear off the smoldering apron, strong hands closed around her waist and lifted her off the ground. Before she could utter a protest, Ruth found herself thrown onto the ground and roughly rolled over and over in the grass. Her bonnet came off, her hairpins came loose, and her hair tumbled down her back.
“Are you trying to kill yourself? Didn’t you see your apron on fire?” A stranger with the face of an angel lifted her into his arms, and gazed into her face.
Ruth couldn’t catch her breath. All she could do, for a second, was stare into the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. Behind her she heard the shouts of male voices, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from the eyes.
“Are you all right?”
She swallowed hard, unable to find her voice, and nodded as she began to cough.
“You scared me half to death,” he murmured, still holding her against him, his body as hot against hers as the flames of the fire behind them.
“Is she hurt?” Mam laid a hand on Ruth’s arm as her rescuer backed away from the smoking building.
The sound of her mother’s voice brought her back to the reality of the situation. “Put me down,” she ordered, embarrassed now. “I’m fine.”
“Her apron was on fire. Her clothes would have gone up next,” he explained, lowering Ruth gently until her bare feet touched the ground.
“It looks like the fire’s almost out,” Mam said, turning to see Roman and one of the older boys spraying the back wall with fire extinguishers. “Thank goodness they were able to climb in the window and get the extinguishers.”
Ruth snatched off her ruined apron and accepted her Kapp that Mam handed her. Flustered, she stuffed her loose hair up in the dirty Kapp, stabbing the pins she had left into the hastily gathered knot of red hair.
“You sure you’re all right?” The beautiful stranger was beside her again. He cupped a strong hand under her chin, tilted her head up and looked boldly into her face.
Ruth bristled and brushed away his hand. The man staring at her was no angel and entirely too handsome for his own good. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with butter-yellow hair that tumbled over one eye and a dimple on his square chin. He was clean-shaven, she noticed, so he wasn’t married, although he was certainly old enough.
She choked and coughed again, more flustered by his familiarity than by the smoke still lingering in her mouth and lungs.
“Eli Lapp.” He offered his hand to her the way the English did, but she didn’t take it.
Another flush of embarrassment crept across her face.
“And you must be Ruth, Hannah’s daughter,” he said, letting his hand drop, but still grinning.
Ruth looked to her mother, feeling a betrayal of sorts. Mam knew this Eli? How did he know Mam? How did he know Ruth?
A hint of unease flashed across her mother’s face, quickly replaced with her normal calm. “Eli is Roman’s sister’s son. He’s come from Belleville, Pennsylvania, to work for Roman. We met at the chair shop yesterday. Thank the Lord he was close enough to help. You might have been badly burned.”
“I didn’t need rescuing,” she protested. She didn’t want to be beholden to this arrogant stranger who made her feel so foolish. “I saw the sparks. I was taking my apron off when he threw me on the grass.”
“Nevertheless, I thank God that he sent someone to watch over you.” Mam squeezed her hand. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Mam turned to face the school. The fire seemed to be out, and the men had set aside the fire extinguishers. “I just don’t see how this could have happened. We haven’t had a fire in the stove in weeks, and we have no electricity.”
“I’d say somebody started it,” Eli replied. “That’s how this kind of thing usually happens.”
Immediately, Ruth thought of Irwin Beachy, who she’d seen running away from the school, but she didn’t say anything. Irwin had a reputation for causing trouble. He’d been a thorn in Mam’s classroom ever since he’d come from Ohio to live with his cousins after his parents had died. But Irwin could have just been frightened by the fire. It would be wrong to accuse him, especially in front of this Eli.
“It was good you came when you did,” Mam said to Roman as he approached. “God must have sent you. If it wasn’t for you, we might have lost the school.”
“We were delivering a table to Esther Mose. We heard the bell.” Roman glanced at Ruth. “Good you thought to ring it.” He slapped Eli’s shoulder. “And good my nephew saw Ruth’s clothes catch fire.”
“Glad to be of service.” Eli stared boldly at Ruth and she felt heat wash over her again. “I’d hate to see such a pretty face burned.”
Ruth felt so self-conscious that she wanted to melt into the grass. “We’re thankful God sent you to save the school,” she said stiffly.
“No lives were lost and no one was injured,” Mam said. “Wood can be replaced.” She straightened her shoulders. “It appears we’ll be in need of a good carpenter. We’re nearly at the end of the school term, and the children can’t miss any days, especially those who are graduating.”
Eli winked at Ruth. Even with her face smudged with soot and her red hair all in a tangle, she was the prettiest girl he’d ever laid eyes