The Captive Heart Read Free Page B

told Rachel the younger girls and Ada were already asleep, she touched Miriam’s shoulder in the dark and broached the subject.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with Micah Shrock?” she whispered. No point beating around the bush.
    Miriam drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Nothing. Micah’s a nice enough boy. I just think he’s a little immature.”
    â€œBoy? Miriam, he’s six-foot-three, and he’s the oldest unmarried boy in Paradise Valley.”
    Miriam didn’t answer for a second. “That doesn’t make him a man. He just seems so . . . I don’t know.”
    â€œSeems so what ? Amish?” She let the word hang for a moment before she went on. “I think you only have eyes for Domingo, Miriam. I know he’s handsome, and I like him too, but he’s not one of us. You’re playing with fire.”
    Miriam’s head turned toward her and she raised herself up on an elbow. “Domingo is not interested in me, Rachel. He has never said anything to make me think he sees me as anything but a friend.”
    â€œCualnezqui,” Rachel whispered. “Why would he call you beautiful if he didn’t have feelings for you?”
    Miriam hesitated for a long time. “Who knows? Maybe he was teasing, the way you tease a little girl, calling her pretty. Besides, it’s a Nahuatl word and he thinks we don’t know what it means. I bet after he finds out we’re onto his little joke he won’t say it anymore. So you can relax, Rachel. He’s our friend, and that’s probably all he’s ever going to be.”
    â€œBut you like him.”
    â€œEverybody likes him. Even Dat is crazy about him, so don’t make it sound like it’s just me.”
    â€œDat doesn’t look at him the way you do. I’ve seen it, Miriam. You should be careful what you want. Why, Kyra said he’s not even a Christian. Kyra’s mother raised her to be a good Catholic, but she said their father made a Nahua warrior out of Domingo. He doesn’t even go to church.”
    â€œDomingo is a good man, and it’s not our place to judge outsiders,” Miriam whispered. “The condition of his soul is between him and Gott.”
    â€œBut he is an outsider, Miriam. If you married him it would break our mother’s heart.”
    Miriam’s voice came across the darkness more like a hiss than a whisper. “So now I’m going to marry him, Rachel? First of all it’s up to the man to choose, not the girl. I told you, Domingo has never once said he wanted to be anything more than a friend. I don’t know where you get these crazy ideas!”
    Miriam punched her pillow twice and flopped back onto it with a sigh.
    Rachel waited a minute to let her calm down and then whispered, “I only wanted to know what was wrong with Micah, that’s all. He’s a good worker. Strong. For a girl in your position, he seems like a good option.”
    â€œA good worker,” Miriam echoed. “What you really mean is a good provider—a good husband . You might want to consider that I’m not just a girl in my position ; I’m a human being with thoughts and desires of my own. I barely know Micah, so I don’t like to say anything bad about him, but he seems a little pushy if you want to know the truth. Besides, I don’t know what we would talk about. As a friend, I don’t have anything against him, but if I ever find the man I want to marry— if , I say—he’ll be a man I can talk to, a man who can think and carry on a conversation about something besides farming.”
    Conceding defeat, for now, Rachel rolled over to face the other way.
    â€œGood luck,” she whispered into her pillow.

    Domingo showed up for work at dawn on Monday morning, and Caleb had him hitch up the surrey. After breakfast Domingo went along while Caleb took Ira and John on a tour of the valley so they could pick out