Hide and Secret (3) (The Mysteries of Middlefield Series, Band 3) - Softcover

Fuller, Kathleen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400317193 ISBN 13: 9781400317196

Verlag: Tommy Nelson, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Anna Mae Shetler is a tomboy who loves nothing more than exploring the woods with her two best friends, Amos and Jeremiah. During a game of hide and seek they stumble upon a mystery that will threaten to tear apart their friendship, and―as they soon discover―it’s a mystery that caused a rift in their families decades earlier. 

Anna Mae and her friends are playing in the old tree house in the woods when a floor board suddenly breaks. No one is seriously hurt, but when they take a second look, they see that a metal box of money and a diary are hidden under the floor in the crook of the tree branches. Upon further inspection, they discover that it is a lot of money.

As the three set out to solve the mystery, they learn that Jeremiah and Anna Mae’s grandmothers were once great friends, something they would have never guessed since the two women have only been distantly civil to each other in their lifetimes. As they search further, Jeremiah and Anna Mae realize there is a missing third party who must certainly hold the answers to this puzzle. Before they can find out, the money disappears again and threatens the trust of the three friends.

Can Anna Mae solve this mystery before it tears apart more relationships? And can God heal decades-old pain and distrust?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

With over two million copies sold, Kathleen Fuller is the USA TODAY bestselling author of several bestselling novels, including the Hearts of Middlefield novels, the Middlefield Family novels, the Amish of Birch Creek series, and the Amish Letters series as well as a middle-grade Amish series, the Mysteries of Middlefield. Visit her online at KathleenFuller.com; Instagram: @kathleen_fuller_writes; Facebook: @WriterKathleenFuller; X: @TheKatJam.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Hide and Secret

Book Three: The Mysteries of Middlefield SeriesBy Kathleen Fuller

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Fuller
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1719-6

Chapter One

"Three ... Two ... one ... ready or not, here I come!"

Anna Mae Shetler heard Jeremiah's voice over her shoulder and knew he'd be catching up to her, fast. Amos and Jeremiah Mullet were her best friends, and the three of them had played hide-and-seek in these woods for as long as she could remember.

She pushed deeper into the trees, deeper than she had ever gone before, looking for a place to hide. She gasped for breath and felt the bite of January air.

A quick thaw two days ago had melted much of the snow, but it was still cold. Anna Mae dodged around bare branches and leaped over patches of snow. She had no idea where Amos was, but she could hear Jeremiah cracking the underbrush behind her, hot on her heels.

Since she was five years old, Anna Mae had always outrun him, found a place to hide. But not this time. She felt a grip on her shoulder and glanced back to see Jeremiah pulling on her blue wool coat.

"Gotcha!" He yanked harder.

Just as she tried to break free, her foot skidded on a frozen patch, and she lost her balance. Her feet went out from under her, and she slid backward into a pile of cold, wet leaves.

"Ooof!" Jeremiah hit the ground beside her. He rolled over, grinning. "You're it."

Anna Mae pushed herself up to a sitting position and tried to catch her breath. She pulled at a couple of leaves stuck to her cheek.

Jeremiah looked around. "Where's Amos?"

Anna Mae shrugged. "How should I know?" Her tone came across sharper than she had intended.

Jeremiah reached for his yellow straw hat and brushed wet snow off the brim. "Are you all right?"

"Ya, I'm fine." She wasn't hurt, just annoyed that she'd been caught.

"Good," he said. "'Cause I got you. Guess you're not the fastest anymore."

Anna Mae sat there fuming until the dampness of the cold ground began to seep through her skirt. "You don't have to rub it in." She jumped to her feet and straightened her coat. Then she checked her black kapp to make sure it was still in place.

"Let's go find Amos."

Amos was fourteen, a year older than both Anna Mae and Jeremiah. He was Jeremiah's opposite, stocky and slow, where his brother was lean and tall.

And fast, she had to admit. Faster than she was, now. The idea bugged her.

She and Jeremiah had been competitors for years, whether it was running races or playing baseball or getting the best grades. Right now they both had straight A's, and Anna Mae intended to keep it that way.

She scowled at the triumphant expression on Jeremiah's face. "Don't get too proud," she said. "I slipped."

"After I caught up with you."

For a minute Anna Mae watched him, grinning, his freckled cheeks red from the cold. Then her eyes drifted beyond him, to a tall, thick tree a few yards away.

"Look!" She pointed.

Jeremiah's eyes followed the direction of her forefinger.

"Ya, I see him." He lowered his voice. "Amos doesn't realize he's too big to hide behind a tree."

Anna Mae squinted against the winter sunlight. Sure enough, to one side she could see a bit of Amos's jacket and his two elbows, sticking out from behind a tree trunk. Apparently he was leaning with his back against the tree, trying to catch his breath.

"No," she said. "That's not what I mean. Look there."

She could tell by the expression on Jeremiah's face the moment he saw it. A broad, stout oak tree, now stripped of most of its leaves, with gray wooden planks nailed at intervals up the trunk to form a ladder.

Jeremiah stared at her for a split second. "A treehouse?"

"Looks like it," she said. She walked toward it. "Seems like it's been here a long time. Why haven't we found it before now?"

"We rarely come this far," Jeremiah said. "Besides, the place is so well hidden you wouldn't see it unless you knew it was here."

Anna Mae gazed up. He was right. The treehouse itself, like the ladder, was weathered a silvery-gray, almost the same color as the branches. It blended perfectly with the tree and with the surrounding woods. Perfectly camouflaged.

"You think it'll hold us?" she asked.

Jeremiah laughed. "One way to find out." He was already hauling himself up the wood planks attached to the trunk.

Anna followed. A few seconds later they were in the tree-house, flopped on the floor and panting.

"This is amazing," Jeremiah said.

It was. High up in the tree, Anna Mae felt completely invisible, separated from the rest of the world. The tree-house was one big platform with walls and a roof and window openings on two sides, looking out into the woods.

"Jeremiah!" Amos's voice came floating up to them. "Anna Mae! Where are you?"

Jeremiah grinned and stuck his head out one of the windows. Anna Mae went to the other opening and looked down. Directly below them was Amos's broad form, topped with a straw hat just like his brother's.

"Up here," Jeremiah said.

Amos looked around, obviously bewildered.

"Up!" Jeremiah repeated. "Look up!"

"Oh!" Amos grinned. "How'd you get up there?"

"Come around the other side of the tree," Anna Mae said. "But be careful."

In a moment or two they heard the sound of Amos's heavy boots on the planks. His large head suddenly poked through the opening.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Jeremiah said.

"Ya." Amos hauled himself through the opening and collapsed beside them on the wood floor. "Where'd it come from?"

"No idea," Anna Mae said. "But it looks like nobody's been here in a very long time."

Amos jumped to his feet and stomped around the perimeter of the treehouse, looking out the windows.

"Careful," Jeremiah said. "We don't know how sturdy it is."

"It's fine." Amos kicked at a loose floorboard. "Except for this loose board."

He hit the board one more time with his boot, dislodging it.

"Take it easy." Jeremiah walked over and examined the board.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't know it was that loose."

But Jeremiah ignored his words. He touched the rough-grained board and moved it aside. "Wait. Something's wrong here."

Anna Mae glanced down. "Wht do you mean? I don't see anything but an empty space."

"Exactly. It's a space. Like a hiding place." Jeremiah looked up at her and Amos. "We should be seeing all the way through to the ground."

Amos sniffed. "I don't get it."

Instead of answering, Jeremiah reached inside the hole. A moment later he pulled out a long, narrow steel box.

Anna Mae let out a gasp. "What is that?"

"I don't know." Jeremiah set it on the floor. "But like this treehouse, it's old. And it's heavy."

"It don't look that heavy to me." Amos grabbed it up by the handle. As he lifted it, the handle broke. The box slammed against the floor. The lid flew open. Coins jangled against the wooden floor, and dozens of bills spilled out—mostly ones, but a few fives and tens too, even a couple of twenties.

"Whoa. That's a lot of money." Amos looked at Anna Mae and Jeremiah and started to grin. "We're rich!" He began grabbing bills and coins and stuffing them into his book bag.

Anna Mae felt a strange rippling in her stomach, an excitement she couldn't quite identify. Amos was right—it was a lot of money. More than she'd ever seen all in one place. Shock quickly...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Tommy Nelson
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1400317193
• ISBN 13: 9781400317196
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Thomas Nelson; https://www.thomasnelson.com/about-us/; ; Damson Lane; Hull; East Yorkshire; HU8 7DS; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: Reckitt Benckiser Deutschland GmbH; consumerhealth_de@reckitt.com; ; Darwinstrasse 2-4; Heidelberg; 69115; Deutschland