With the trip up to Rigby and everything that had happened, sending out another flock of notes to cancel the meeting had not occurred to her even once, and by the time Emma brought it up toward the end of their frolic, it was too late to call it off.So, on Wednesday at two, Carrie held open the door just long enough for the rain and wind to push women through it, and slammed it behind them. Amelia and Emma came together, bringing Amelia’s mother, Ruth Lehman. Carrie’s sister Susan picked up Mary Lapp, and then collected Lydia’s aunt, Priscilla Bontrager, at the Whinburg bus station on their way in. And to Carrie’s surprise, Esther Grohl brought her youngest sister, Sarah—she who had been seeing Alvin Esch.“She and Lydia used to be friendly, before all this happened,” Esther explained as she took off her coat and black away bonnet, both dripping with rain. “She wanted to help.”Carrie slipped an arm around the girl’s waist and squeezed her. “I’m sure she can.”She’d been up at five that morning baking, so there was a carrot cake, juicy with canned pineapple and raisins, three kinds of pie, and a blueberry coffee cake with a cinnamon streusel topping.
