Out of curiosity he’d passed through Higher Ground on his way home from taking Bishop Tom’s donations to the Mennonites’ missionary center in Morning Star. When he’d seen Yonnie’s sleek blue car idling in front of this new brick building—and then gliding around behind it—something had prompted him to circle the block and come back. No two ways about it: that was a Plain girl’s kapp and cape dress pressed against the window. The position of her hands left nothing to his imagination, either. Annie Mae had told him to butt out, but he quickly hitched his horse to the rail and then sprinted around to the staircase that ascended the back of the building. Up the steps he lunged, two at a time, as his heart beat a rapid tattoo that raced ahead of the worst-case scenarios in his mind. “Stoltzfus!” he hollered as he pounded on the door. “Open up! I know what you’re doing in there!” Silence. Seconds went by. Again Adam beat on the steel door. “Annie Mae? Are you all right?”
