Lifted Up by Angels by Lurlene McDaniel Page A

box from the bag. In the box, nestled in cotton, was a porcelain lop-eared rabbit, not more than a few inches long. It glowed alabaster white in the light from the dashboard. “Oh, Ethan. It’s beautiful.”
    “It is small. It is cute. You said girls like such things.”
    Leah realized that she couldn’t hold a grudge against Ethan. Her annoyance with him evaporated. “You’re a very thoughtful, kind person, Ethan. Thank you—not just for the present, but for going with me today. It meant a lot to me.”
    “You are welcome. You make me happy, Leah. Happier than anything else I have ever known.”
    Leah watched him walk toward the old farmhouse and back into his Amish world. She drove off, to return to hers.
    The next day, Mrs. Stoltz asked Leah to go out to the Longacre farm to buy fresh vegetables for her kitchen. “They have the best in the whole area,” she told Leah, “and I know you’re friends with them.”
    Leah figured Kathy must have said somethingto Mrs. Stoltz about Leah’s knowing the Longacres. She was happy to have an excuse to see her friends.
    “I like Ethan’s haircut,” Charity said as she and Leah walked in the garden, picking ripe vegetables. Colorful flowers, used as natural insect repellants, grew between the orderly rows.
    “Everyone noticed it then, I guess.”
    “Yes. It was noticed.”
    “Did your family approve?”
    “Rebekah and I approved.”
    “But your parents didn’t?”
    “Not Papa. He told Ethan that he looked fancy.”
    Knowing her fears had been realized, Leah asked, “What did Ethan say?”
    “He told Papa that it was his hair and that he could do with it as he liked.”
    “You mean they argued about it.” Leah couldn’t understand what was so bad about Ethan’s getting his hair cut differently. He’d done nothing wrong.
    “Not an argument,” Charity said, answering Leah’s question. “Papa does not argue. But you know when he is not pleased.”
    “I’ll bet,” Leah muttered. She couldn’t accept Mr. Longacre’s stern ways.
    Charity lifted the stalk of a tomato plant, plucked several rosy red ripe ones, and put them in the basket she carried. “Let’s not talk of Ethan’s haircut,” she said. “Let’s talk about the carnival and campout. Ethan says that you will come with us.”
    “It sounds like fun.” Leah hoped she sounded sincere.
    “I am excited. It is something we all look forward to while we are growing up. This is my first year to be old enough to go.”
    “Will you go with Jonah?”
    Charity had been pulling green beans from climbing vines. At the mention of Jonah, her hands grew still. “Yes. But no one knows except you.”
    “Don’t you think kids will figure it out when they see the two of you together? Why keep it such a big secret?”
    “We go as a group, not as couples,” Charity said. “Jonah will be there. I will be there. That is all.”
    “But you and Jonah know that the two of you are really together, right?”
    “That is right.”
    Leah couldn’t fathom this logic, but she knew it was important to Charity to pretend that sheand Jonah were just part of the group, nothing more. “I won’t tell a soul,” she said.
    Charity handed the basket to Leah, gathered the corners of her apron to make a bowl, and tossed a handful of green beans into it. “I have a favor to ask of you, Leah.”
    “Sure. Just name it.”
    “I want you to help me change my appearance for the campout.”
    “Like how?”
    “I want to dress English for that night.”
    Warning bells went off in Leah’s head. “Why can’t the other Amish girls help you?”
    “I could ask some of them, but I don’t want to. I want you to help me. You are real English. They are not.”
    “I’ve seen some of them dressed up, and they look pretty real to me.” It wasn’t that Leah didn’t want to help Charity—she did. It was that she didn’t want to get into any more hot water with Mr. Longacre. She was afraid he might forbid Charity and Ethan to see