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.“Now, let me have a gander at you! Oh my! Them spectacles of yours are a sight for shore eyes.”“Sore eyes,” Jakob grated from over by the washstand.“Her eyes won’t be sore, what with her a-wearin’ these.Know what, Emmy-Lou? Those glasses of yours look like jewelry for your purdy little face.”“They do,” Annie said slowly.She smiled and ran her fingers through Emmy-Lou’s mussed curls.“I like them on you.Can you see better now?”“On the way home I spied all sorts of things.Daddy didn’t make me take off my glasses when I napped ’cuz the case was in the satchel, and Daddy watched me and my glasses.When I waked up, I saw his shirt.Daddy forgot to do one of his buttons today.I helped him do it up.”While Annie swiped a damp rag over the little girl, Hope put food on the table.For all of his daughter’s chatter, Jakob was notably silent.A long trip would make a body weary—but that didn’t account for the strain in his jaw or the way he avoided meeting her gaze.Feeling unsettled, Hope quickly cut and cored an apple.“Y’all come have a bite.”“I gotta go potty.”“I’ll take you.” Hope reached for her.Taking her out of the house would permit Jakob to tell Annie what was wrong.When she came back, Hope’s step faltered.Holding Annie as she sobbed all over his shirt, Jakob looked up at Hope; then his gaze skidded to his daughter and jerked away.Emmy-Lou clutched Hope’s hand and quavered, “What’s a-wrong?”“Aunt Annie knows you don’t like the dark.She’s been worried about us riding home at nighttime.”To his credit, Mr.Stauffer hadn’t lied.Then again, deep down inside Hope knew that he hadn’t completely answered his daughter’s innocent question.“Don’t worry.” Emmy-Lou left Hope, went over, and wound her arms around Annie’s skirts.“I got Jesus in my heart and a special angel to watch over me, and the twinkle moon.” Emmy-Lou drew in a deep breath and started singing the verse Hope taught her yesterday, after she’d made the terrible realization something was wrong.Her childish soprano filled the kitchen.“Then the traveler in the dark,Thanks you for your tiny spark,He could not see which way to go,If you did not twinkle so,Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”Hope joined in, “How I wonder what you are.”Jakob rasped, “Emmy-Lou’s been singing that on the way home.”Blessedly oblivious, Emmy-Lou piped up, “Uh-huh.I did.And Daddy and me didn’t worry—did we, Daddy?”Jakob eased away from Annie and knelt on the floor.Gathering his daughter close, he pressed his cheek against her hair and held her.“We’re home safely.”He hadn’t lied.He hadn’t said he didn’t worry, but his response satisfied Emmy-Lou.She yawned.“I’m tired.”“Then you can just drink some milk, and I’ll tuck you in.” Annie wiped her eyes and scurried toward the table.Burrowing close to her father, Emmy-Lou sighed.“Daddy, your tummy is growling like a bear.”“Then maybe he ought to pull up a chair and have hisself some supper.”While Annie put her niece to bed, Jakob silently shoveled his supper into his mouth.Boots grated up the back steps, and Phineas’s voice whispered through the open window.“It’s me.”“Come in,” Jakob rumbled back in a subdued tone.Hope quickly poured him a cup of coffee and refilled her boss’s mug.Phineas slouched down at his usual place at the table, and Hope wavered between sitting down and standing at the stove just so she’d have an excuse to keep moving.Jakob focused on her chair and nodded toward it, so she did as he wished.The clock ticked.Upstairs, Annie’s murmurings and Emmy-Lou’s sleep-slurred words blended into a lull.Jakob set down his fork.“The glasses will help some, but we don’t know how long.Something’s wrong.My Emmy-Lou.” His Adam’s apple bobbed with the swallow he took to steel himself.“She could stay as she is, but in the future, she may be blind.”“So,” Phineas said.“No,” Hope moaned at the same time.“The doctor said nothing can be done.” Jakob raked his hand through his hair.“I should have noticed it before now.”“If nothing can be done,” Hope looked at him, “then why would it make any difference?”“I would have been more careful with her.If I had known, she wouldn’t have been outside and fallen into that wellhole!”“You cannot believe that.” Phineas drummed his fingers on the tabletop.“How many times have we praised the Lord for delivering her? Would you blame yourself now for something God used for His glory?”Ignoring that, Jakob stared at the lantern [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]