The Amish Bachelor's Baby. Jo Ann Brown

the toddler, too.

      Becky Sue burst into the kitchen, wearing a borrowed robe over a nightgown too short for her. Her hair was half-braided and her kapp was missing. “What’s wrong with Joey?”

      “I think he’s overtired,” Annie said. “Bopplin get strange notions in their heads when they’re Joey’s age. Some don’t like men. Others fear dogs or cats or tiny bugs.”

      “Do you know why he’s scared of men?” Caleb didn’t want to admit how relieved he was Joey’s antipathy wasn’t aimed solely at him, because he’d always got along well with kinder.

      Becky Sue shrugged. Or she tried to, but her shoulders must have been as stiff as his had been outside in the cold, because they curtailed the motion. Instead of answering him further, she hefted her son and walked away.

      Caleb watched her climb the stairs at the front of the house and vanish along with the boppli. Her lack of answer told him plenty. She was hiding even more than he’d guessed.