Inside the school gym, a few rows of plastic chairs beckoned. Rufus and Annalise sat together. It was an odd sensation to be next to her in a group of people. In church, the most he could hope for was a glimpse of her among the women, across the wide rooms of hosts' homes. Rufus estimated about forty English had come- and thirty-five of them were speaking into cell phones, reading cell phone screens, closing cell phones, putting away cell phones.

Annalise used to be like that. He doubted she even had her cell phone with her tonight. People could change. Rufus liked to think so, at least in Annalise's case.

Tom Reynolds stood behind a table at the front of a group of chairs and cleared his throat heavily.

"Thank you all for coming," Tom said as the thin crowd settled. "As you know, this is not an official town meeting. It's just a conversation. A few of us have had some ideas for a project, and it seemed wise to invite others into the discussion. If you wish to speak, just raise your hand and I will call on you one at a time."

Tom scanned the gathering as heads nodded then recapped the idea for creating a recreation area on acreage the town owned. "The likelihood is the town council will make the project official, provided the community is willing to help. The project is outside the town's budget, though, so funding will be minimal. If the idea does come to fruition, it will be because the community makes it happen."

Rufus glanced at Annalise. She seemed to be listening intently. He wished they had sat farther back. He could not tell who might have come in late and sat down behind him.

Karl Kramer, for instance.

As soon as Tom Reynolds invited comments, Mo was up on her feet and standing in the aisle.

"We must have strong leadership," she said. "Someone who knows what he's doing. Someone who has the right skills for the sort of project we're undertaking. I propose that we ask Rufus Beiler to head it up."

Murmurs rose, and feet shuffled, but Mo held up a settling hand. "I know some of you are still unsure about the Amish in our community, but you all know Rufus Beiler. He does excellent work. You could trust him with your life." She turned to nod at Rufus.

"Why aren't any of the other Amish here?" someone asked. "If they are not going to support this, why should we put one of them in charge?"

Rufus winced.

"Tell them." Annalise elbowed him, whispering. "Explain how the Amish stay home with their families in the evening."

He shook his head.

Mo was still in the aisle. "You can't ask for a more dependable man than Rufus Beiler." She pointed around the gathering. "I know some of you have hired him to build your cabinets and to make furniture. When he accepts a project, he commits to excellence."

"Too bad you're not running for president." Annalise covered her mouth to hide her grin.

"Perhaps we should hear what Rufus has to say," someone suggested.

It was as if a wind blew through the place and turned every head toward Rufus.

He stood slowly, his hands on the back of the empty chair in front of him. "I suspected something like this might come up." He paused. "I recommend we include Karl Kramer in leading this project."

Annie heard the collective gasp.

"Karl Kramer!" Mo put both her fists on her hips. "You can't be serious. Karl Kramer would be the first person to wish the Amish would disappear from Westcliffe and all of Custer County."

"I did not say it would be without challenge." Rufus's fingers drummed the chair's back.

"He tried to kill you last year," Mo said. "If Tom hadn't found you on that construction site, you might have bled to death."

"We don't know that Karl was responsible for that."

"The police dropped the investigation because you would not press charges."

"The past is the past," Rufus said. "I bear no grudge toward Mr. Kramer. I think we both have seen there is work enough in this valley for the two of us-and others. I have already spoken with Mr. Kramer, and he has agreed to be coleaders."

"You and Karl Kramer?" Tom Reynolds's voice quivered in confusion. "You are proposing that you and Karl would work together?"

"I am."

Objection welled in Annie. Over the winter, she had tried hard to understand Rufus's refusal to press charges against the man who almost certainly attacked him. But Jesus said to turn the other cheek, as Rufus always reminded her. Instead of revenge, Rufus steered his own livelihood away from projects that would aggravate Karl, even sacrificing jobs that would have turned a good profit.

Keeping peace from a distance seemed to be working. So why would he voluntarily step within reach of Karl's slap?

"Rufus." Annie reached over and touched his hand, which still thumped the chair. He dropped his hands to his sides, away from her touch.

Annie grimaced at the sight around them. Voices erupted, people talking over each other. Mo looked like she was ready to punch someone. Here and there others stood to have their say.

Tom held out both hands to settle the crowd. "Let me suggest that this would be a good time to take a break. There are coffee and cookies in the back. We can reconvene in fifteen minutes."

Mo hurtled toward Rufus. Others swarmed as well. Annie found herself snared under a web of swinging elbows. She scooted over one plastic chair at a time until she came to the end of the row. There she stood up to consider the crowd around Rufus.

These people liked him.

They trusted him.

They clamored for him.

Rufus stood patiently in his black trousers and collarless jacket, his hat on his head. If he were married, he would have a beard. No doubt it would grow long and curly, like his father's, and cover the space of chest where his shirt formed a white V under his chin.

On the surface he had nothing in common with these people. Nothing in common with her. The thought unsettled her.

Annie moved slowly toward the table in the back where refreshments were set up. She never drank coffee this late in the day anymore. That was her old life. She might still be tempted to use her phone and drive in Colorado Springs, but staying up all night drinking coffee and working no longer held allure. Drifting toward the meager refreshments merely gave her a chance to think. Annie picked up a thickly frosted sugar cookie, which she knew for a fact came from the bakery on Main Street, and retreated to a corner.

Rufus's proposal stunned her. Work with Karl Kramer? Yet she could see the wisdom. If Rufus Beiler and Karl Kramer could work together, the Amish and the English might truly find their balance with each other. But without funding, Rufus's effort might come to nothing.

Every problem had an answer. At least one, and probably more. It was just a matter of finding the most efficient one.

It was coming to her, taking shape, finding focus. Just because she no longer owned a high-tech business did not mean she could not sift through solutions. By the time Rufus disentangled himself and stood at her side with a steaming Styrofoam cup, she had manipulated the factors to a pleasing conclusion.

She turned her face up to him. "I want to help, Rufus."

"Everyone is invited to help." He sipped his coffee.

"When I sold my business, I put all that money in a charitable foundation. It's not for my personal use. But this project would be perfect."

As usual, his face did not give him away. Annie plowed ahead.

"They'll settle this question of who should lead the project, and it will be you and Karl, together. You'll insist on the partnership, and because they want you so much they'll take Karl in the deal."

Rufus raised one eyebrow.

"The next issue will be money," Annie continued. "Tom already said the town doesn't have any. If money were not an issue, this recreation area could be done really well, and everyone would be happy to be part of it. I can do my part by arranging the financial end."

His eyes softened now. "Annalise, you have a kind heart. But it's not that simple."

"Why not? I wouldn't be using the money for personal reasons."

"But you would still be controlling it."

She shook her head. "Not if I set up a special account with the bank for you to access. The money would go there. I would have nothing to do with it." She waved her hands, nearly dropping the cookie. "You and Karl could decide together how to spend it."

"Annalise-"

Tom's voice interrupted him as Tom called the meeting back to order.

"Please don't suggest this," Rufus said, "not until we have a chance to talk more."

She stared into his violet-blue eyes and knew he would never agree, but for now she nodded. "Excuse me. I need to talk to Tom before he starts again."

"Annalise, please, do not speak to him about money tonight."

Annie ducked past Rufus, pulling a phone from her pocket in the same motion. She flipped it open, thumbed a few buttons, and cleared the Internet search history. By the time she reached Tom across the room, her intentions shifted. She held out the phone.

"Carter must have my phone," she said. "If you don't mind, ask him to bring it by the shop."

Tom tucked the phone in his shirt pocket. "I'm going to have to hang his phone around his neck. Or take it away from him. I'm not sure which."

"He was helping me when he set it down. Anyone could have picked up the wrong phone."

Tom scanned the room. "We'd better get started again."

Annie returned to her seat next to Rufus.

When the meeting reconvened, Mo reluctantly agreed to the arrangement Rufus suggested, and others agreed. Karl and Rufus would run the project-including raising the needed donations of materials, labor, and money.

The ride home was quiet. Rufus pulled on the reins in front of Annie's house, set the brake, and turned on the bench to face her.

"Thanks for the ride." Annie knew she was muttering but she could not help it. Why was it so hard for Rufus to understand that using the money in her foundation could benefit everyone in Westcliffe? She started to get down from the bench.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Annalise, why do you think the English buy my furniture and cabinets?"

In the dark, she could not see his eyes. What was he really asking? "You do beautiful work. I don't have to be Amish to see that."

"Other people produce their merchandise more quickly, for less money."

"But it's not as good. There is value in your craftsmanship. It will last. "

He nodded. "It is the Amish way. We build to last. Furniture, families, communities. There are no shortcuts."

"I don't see why generosity would undermine the Amish way." Heat crawled up the back of her neck.

He picked up one of her hands. "Sometimes the solutions must come from within the problem."

Twenty-Two.

A week later Beth Stutzman laid another thick slice of pork roast on Rufus's plate. The third one. Fortunately, her father had already scraped the last of the mashed potatoes from the serving bowl.

Rufus smiled blandly into the beam of Beth's face.

She sat on his right. On his left was Johanna, and across the table sat Essie. Their uniform hairstyle accentuated the similarities of their features, differentiated only by different eye colors.

The Stutzmans were living in their own home-and not a minute too soon, which was an opinion Rufus kept to himself. When Beth invited him to dinner as a way to say thank you for his help in readying their home, he assumed his whole family would be there. He came straight from Mo's motel after installing some trim. Even then, he assumed his family would arrive in the second buggy at any moment. Only when he saw how the dining room table was set did he realize he had been singled out for the invitation.

"Tell us what you've been working on, Rufus." Ike Stutzman tore a corner off a slice of bread and steered it into his mouth. "The girls tell me you make beautiful end tables."

"I do have several orders for custom tables." Rufus politely pushed his fork through the tender pork. "I'll be taking a load to Colorado Springs next week."

"Do you make tables for the English?"

Rufus swallowed another bite, unsure of the shading of Ike's question. "Many English appreciate our value in both beauty and usefulness. It is not against Ordnung to do business with them."

"I suppose not."

Stifling a sigh, Rufus ate yet another bite of pork roast. "You seem to have settled in well here."

"I miss your family already," Beth said.

With her hair pinned perfectly and her posture flawless, Beth exuded competency at everything she put her hand to. Rufus resisted her gaze. "I'm sure we will see each other," he said.

"I have a feeling I will find myself wandering to your place in the afternoons, looking for a way to be helpful."

"I'm sure there will be plenty to do here," Rufus said. "You'll get used to a new routine soon enough."

"But our view is not nearly as lovely as yours."

Rufus nodded politely. It was not possible to have a bad view of the Sangre de Cristos from anywhere around Westcliffe.

"Where are the boys tonight?" he asked.

Edna Stutzman waved one hand. "Oh, you know, rumschpringe. They are having their running around time."

"They have made friends with some town boys." Beth seemed eager to share the information. "Your brother introduced them."

Rufus's eyebrows lifted a notch. Joel was introducing Amish boys to town boys?