Huckleberry Hearts

by Jennifer Beckstrand

Chapter Seventeen

  Even with the temperature hovering near freezing and his fingers feeling like they were going to fall off, the heat rose off Zach’s body as if he were boiling from the inside out.

  He’d be horsewhipped before he let Norman Coblenz and Elmer Lee bully Cassie. No one, not even her own brother, would be allowed to hurt her as long as Zach had something to say about it. And he had an awful lot to say about it.

  He loved her too much to provoke Norman when she stood there pleading with her eyes for him to stop. He could pretend to be contrite if it made her happy but only until she disappeared safely into the house. With his back turned and his laundry basket empty, he heard her walk up the porch steps and close the front door.

  He slowly turned to face Norman and Elmer Lee and Luke, who had just come from the barn. He felt sorry for Luke, who was going to get his share of Zach’s wrath when he had no clue what had happened. Or maybe he did know. Maybe they’d all come to Huckleberry Hill today to browbeat Cassie into submission.

  Zach put on the face he showed to hostile soccer opponents, the expression that said, “If you mess with me, I’ll rip your head off.”

  “Norman,” he said, because Norman was clearly the ringleader of the gang, “I’m only going to tell you nicely one more time. I won’t put up with you talking to Cassie like that. If you want to yell at somebody, yell at me, but leave Cassie alone or you’ll have to deal with someone who’s not afraid to fight back.”

  Norman’s face turned to stone. Elmer Lee looked only slightly less imposing, mostly because there remained a spark of confusion in his eyes. Luke turned pale. He’d just walked in on something he clearly didn’t want to be part of.

  “It’s okay,” Luke said. “Whatever Norman did, he didn’t mean to hurt Cassie’s feelings. He—”

  Completely ignoring Luke, Norman took a step forward and folded his arms across his chest. Zach folded his arms in return. They must have looked like two sea lions on the Discovery Channel about to do battle.

  “Not afraid to fight back?” Norman said. “This is the second time you’ve hid behind Cassie’s skirts.”

  “I’m not hiding now.”

  “I’m not afraid of you, Dr. Reynolds.” Norman motioned to the laundry basket at Zach’s feet. “Is this all you know how to do? Woman’s work? I noticed how you turned tail and ran into the house the first chance you got when we butchered that hog.”

  Zach almost plowed his fist into Norman’s pointy nose. He’d saved Norman’s own daughter from a terrible accident and gotten injured in the process, and Norman accused him of not being man enough to stick a pig? His gut clenched with the impulse to flatten Norman with a swift right hook to the jaw. But he didn’t move. He wasn’t a brute, and Norman wouldn’t appreciate his reasons for giving him a bloody nose.

  Norman pointed his thumb at Elmer Lee. “He’s not afraid to stick a pig.”

  Luke seemed to have a little more sense than Norman. “The doctor pulled Priscilla out of the fire. Don’t you remember?”

  Zach nodded a thank-you to Luke before turning his attention to Norman again. “I don’t care what you think of me, but you will leave Cassie alone or I will make you.”

  Norman’s scowl cut deep lines into his face. “I am a man of peace. If you strike me, I will turn the other cheek. Your threats have no power over me.”

  “Cassie likes godly men,” Elmer Lee said.

  Zach scrubbed his hand down his face. “Get off your high horse. I would never hit you. I’m not that stupid or that volatile. You’ve had free rein to pick on Cassie because she doesn’t fight back. You make her feel guilty and small. Just remember that the next time you try it, I will fight back for her.”

  “Cassie doesn’t argue with me because her own guilty conscience whispers to her that I am right. She will come back to our way of thinking if we show her the way. If we remind her of her wicked ways and keep the memory of her sins before her eyes, she will yearn for forgiveness.”

  Luke’s eyes darted between Norman and Zach. “Cassie doesn’t—”

  “Keep quiet, Luke,” Norman snapped. “You don’t know anything.”

  Norman didn’t realize that he pushed Cassie further away from the church and her family with every harsh word he uttered. “Cassie is not wicked,” Zach said through clenched teeth.

  Norman lifted his chin. “The Englisch know nothing about the ways of God. You like her, but what can you offer her? If you truly cared about her soul, you would stay away from her.”

  Zach stood his ground. He wouldn’t let Norman weaken his resolve to be the kind of man Cassie could love. The kind of man Cassie deserved. “Your mistake is underestimating me.”

  Norman turned his face away from Zach. “I have said what I have said.” He turned toward the house. Elmer Lee followed close on his heels. Luke was a little slower to go along.

  “Wait,” Zach said.

  Norman and his wingmen turned back.

  “I want your promise that you’ll leave Cassie alone,” Zach said, knowing he wouldn’t get any such promise.

  Norman grunted his disapproval. “I’ll not stop trying to save my sister.”

  “Then we haven’t solved anything.”

  “Stay away from Cassie,” Norman said. “That will solve everything.”

  “You’re stubborn and self-righteous.”

  “And you want to pick a fight.”

  A crazy idea popped into his head. “What about a friendly contest?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A wrestling match.” Zach didn’t’ technically know how to wrestle, but he’d had it out with a few center midfielders before, and Norman wasn’t near as intimidating as that. “We draw a circle in the snow. If I throw you out of the circle, you promise to quit pestering Cassie about coming back to the church. You never mention that pink dress or white kapp or question her faith again.”

  Norman glanced at Elmer Lee. “And if I win?”

  Zach swallowed the boulder-sized lump in his throat. The stakes had to be high to gain Norman’s cooperation. “Then I promise not to set foot on Huckleberry Hill again.”

  “What about my mammi?”

  “I will still see her at the hospital like all my other patients.” And Cassie too. Hopefully Norman wouldn’t think about the other places he and Cassie could run into each other. But how would he win her heart if he couldn’t come to Huckleberry Hill?

  Zach glanced toward the house. What would Cassie say if she knew what they were plotting? She’d probably hate him for life. “Cassie can’t know.”

  Norman stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and mulled it over. “Elmer Lee will be Cassie’s husband someday. He should wrestle you.”

  Zach should have anticipated that. He had several inches on Norman. Cassie’s brother would never agree to a wrestling match he couldn’t win.

  Elmer Lee didn’t even flinch. He was big and powerful, and Zach did laundry and wore pink shirts. No doubt he thought he could clear Zach out of any circle with a flick of his wrist.

  Zach would have smacked himself upside the head if he had an extra hand. Wrestling Norman or even Luke was one thing, but Elmer Lee looked as if he ate nails for breakfast. He eyed Elmer Lee’s thick arms and solid frame. It wasn’t too late to back out.

  Zach took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. Nothing mattered but Cassie’s happiness, and he wouldn’t gain Norman’s cooperation easily. He’d have to do it the hard way. His gaze traveled the length of Elmer Lee’s large frame. He’d have to do it the really hard way. He didn’t have any wrestling experience, except with his older brothers, who had never been gentle. He suddenly felt grateful for all the times they’d ground his face into the dirt. He’d learned a few things.

  Besides, he’d been able to hold his ground when he had gotten older. A lot of what happened on the soccer pitch felt like wrestling. He was a brick wall. If he was smart about it, he could take Elmer Lee down.

  Zach nodded. “Do you agree, Elmer Lee?”r />
  Elmer Lee flared his nostrils like a horse before a race. “A friendly match.”

  They shook on it.

  “The bishop wouldn’t approve,” Luke said. “We believe in nonviolence.”

  “It will be friendly,” Norman said. Nobody argued with him, but nobody believed it either, not even Luke.

  “We can’t do it here,” Zach said. “I don’t want Cassie to see.”

  Norman smirked. “You don’t want her to see you get beat.”

  “I know a place,” said Elmer Lee. “Flat ground, lots of snow.”

  Zach held up his car keys and jangled them. “I’ll drive.”

  Cassie took the fastest shower of her life. Hopefully Zach had gone back to the hospital, and Elmer Lee and her brothers were in the barn hunting for sap buckets. She had been reluctant to leave them outside alone together, but she thought the best way to avoid conflict was to remove the source of conflict itself. Her. Maybe Zach would stop glaring at Norman if Cassie weren’t there for Norman to admonish. She could only hope.

  The pink dress went over her head. After securing the front with straight pins, she tied a half apron around her waist. She towel-dried her hair and put it into a stumpy little bun before pulling the prayer covering over it and pinning it in place. She’d done it so many times, it barely took her five minutes.

  She pulled on her stockings and went to the great room. Dawdi perused a seed catalog, and Mammi was attempting to fix Zach’s knitting project. It wasn’t going well. She’d surely have to throw it away and start over.

  Cassie went to the front door and slipped her feet into her snow boots, then donned her coat and rushed outside. She half expected to see Zach and Norman engaged in a fistfight. Instead, she saw lots of footprints and no men. The buggy stood where they’d left it, but when she looked in the barn, her brothers were nowhere to be seen. She came back outside scratching her head.

  Zach’s car was missing. Where had they all gone?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Elmer Lee had picked a good spot. A pasture somewhere on the outskirts of Bonduel with flat ground, lots of space, and no one in sight for miles. A good place to dispose of his body if they wanted to. Not that Norman would do that. Zach had watched too many TV movies.

  Zach parked his car on the hard ice alongside the dirt road. They got out and trudged through the deep snow to the middle of the field. Norman found a long stick and drew a circle in the snow, maybe ten feet in diameter.

  Zach hadn’t been able to formulate any sort of strategy on the ride over. The scarf had come off in the car, but should he take off his coat, or would that just make it easier for Elmer Lee to wrap his arms around him? What about gloves? He didn’t feel sure about anything except that Elmer Lee wasn’t going to budge him out of that circle. He refused to lose Cassie.

  He stepped into the circle and took off his coat. He’d move more quickly without it, and if there was anything he’d learned in soccer, it was that quickness trumped brute force. Usually.

  The cold sliced through his skin like sharp pieces of glass, but he ignored it. He’d be sweating soon enough.

  With his coat still on, Elmer Lee stood on the opposite side of the circle facing Zach.

  “We shouldn’t do this,” Luke said.

  Zach gave him a quick smile. “It’s okay. No one’s going to get hurt. Isn’t that right, Elmer Lee?”

  Elmer Lee nodded. He didn’t seem like the vindictive type, just someone easily led by a bully like Norman.

  It went without saying that they were really fighting for Cassie, and she was worth every drop of blood. Elmer Lee wouldn’t go down easy.

  And Zach really hoped there wouldn’t be blood.

  “The first person with any part of their body out of the circle wins,” Norman said, almost cheerfully. Of course he was cheerful. Elmer Lee would be doing all the work.

  Zach didn’t waste any time. Trying to push him out of the circle with sheer momentum, he ran at Elmer Lee and clapped his arms around him in a bear hug. Elmer Lee stumbled backward but didn’t step anywhere near the edge of the circle. He hooked an elbow under Zach’s armpit and tried to wrench Zach’s arm from around him. Zach countered with a quick twist so he still had his arms around Elmer Lee but was now behind him.

  Planting his foot, he kicked his leg and swiped Elmer Lee’s feet out from under him. Norman shouted as both Zach and Elmer Lee tumbled to the ground with Zach on top. In an amazing show of strength, Elmer Lee reached behind him, grabbed onto Zach’s T-shirt, and pulled Zach off his back. Zach rolled away from Elmer Lee in the snow as Elmer Lee stood up and came barreling toward him, trying Zach’s first strategy.

  At the last second, Zach crouched low and took Elmer Lee’s legs out from under him. Elmer Lee landed on his stomach, and Zach flopped on top of him. Zach made the mistake of not keeping his head low. In an attempt to escape, Elmer Lee elbowed him in the face.

  He heard a sickening crack as pain shot through his head. His vision blurred, and he held on tight until the dizziness subsided and he could see straight again. The pain knocked the wind out of him, and he gasped for air. The Amish guy had broken his nose.

  Blood poured from his nose and dripped onto Elmer Lee’s coat and face. Elmer Lee must have felt the warm moisture on his cheek, because his resistance slackened. His hesitation proved his downfall because Zach was going to take any advantage he could get. By shoving his hands into the snow and curling them beneath Elmer Lee, Zach was able to wrap his arms all the way around the wide span of Elmer Lee’s chest. Digging his boots into the frozen ground, he lifted Elmer Lee just enough to shove his head and one of his shoulders out of the circle.

  He thought he heard Norman groan behind him, but his ears were ringing too loudly to be sure.

  Good enough, as far as Zach was concerned. The adrenaline pulsed through his veins as he struggled to his feet and staggered away from Elmer Lee. Elmer Lee rose to his hands and knees first and then stood. He swayed a bit, but he didn’t look worse for wear. A light red scrape marred the side of his face, but it probably wouldn’t even show in a couple of hours. Nothing like the blood pouring from Zach’s nose or the double shiners that were bound to follow.

  Could you bleed to death with a bloody nose?

  Not without a lot of effort.

  Norman patted Elmer Lee on the arm, mumbling something Zach couldn’t hear. He didn’t care what they were talking about. He had won, and Norman had lost. Cassie would get some peace.

  Zach bent over so the blood from his nose could drip into the snow. Blood looked extra red against a sparkly white background. He certainly hoped it stopped bleeding by the time his shift started at five. He reached down, scooped up a handful of snow, and placed it over his nose. He hissed at the icy coldness. Nothing stung like a broken nose. Would his nose be more crooked than it already was? Maybe Elmer Lee’s elbow had straightened it out for him. Would Cassie like him with a normal nose? Did she even like him now?

  Luke handed him his coat, with only the faintest of smiles on his face. Zach opted not to put it back on. He was soaking wet. It would only make him colder when he got in the car.

  Elmer Lee shuffled through the snow and handed Zach a handkerchief.

  “Denki,” Zach said, with as flawless an accent as he could muster with a handful of ice pressed against his nose.

  “Is it broken?” Elmer Lee asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Ach, du lieva. I’m sorry. I didn’t try to.”

  Zach held the handkerchief at his chin to catch the blood and melting snow that dribbled down his face. “I know. I put my face in the wrong place.”

  Elmer Lee gazed down at the red snow. “No hard feelings?”

  “No hard feelings.”

  Norman frowned. “This doesn’t mean that Elmer Lee won’t still try to convince Cassie to marry him.”

  Zach pulled his hand from his nose. “As long as you don’t say one more word to Cassie about the church or her soul or how she’s destroying your
family, Elmer Lee can do all the courting he wants.”

  If Zach had anything to say about it, Cassie would soon forget all about Elmer Lee.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Zach flexed his arm and rotated his shoulder. A little sore, but nothing he couldn’t handle. More than one soccer collision had left him worse off than this.

  His nose was the big problem. The swelling would eventually go down, but the two black eyes would linger for days. There would be no hiding them from Cassie unless he wore a pair of sunglasses everywhere he went. She’d get suspicious.

  What was he going to tell her?

  Just thinking of Cassie got his heart racing as if he’d just run the hundred-meter sprint. Had he ever truly loved a girl before her?

  He strolled down the dim hall of the hospital with a cup of coffee in one hand and checked his phone for the third time. Three a.m. Only two more hours to go on his shift. Then he could go home and sleep off this throbbing broken-nose headache.

  He paused at Austin Stetson’s door. Austin’s mom often slept on a cot in Austin’s room, but she was working the night shift and Austin was alone tonight. Zach felt bad for anybody who had to sleep overnight at the hospital, but especially a little kid. Austin had been here for weeks, and Zach had promised his mom that he’d check on him when she couldn’t be around.

  Zach put his ear to the door. He heard the normal hisses and beeps of the machines in Austin’s room, but he also might have heard something else. Soft whimpering or the faint voices coming from the nurses’ station?

  As silently as possible, Zach opened the door and tiptoed into Austin’s room. He’d hate himself if he woke the poor kid.

  Austin lay on his back with his head propped against his pillow. His hand covered his face, but Zach could still see the tears that slid down his cheeks and found a path down his neck to where they soaked into the collar of his Manchester City pajamas.

  “Hey, bud,” Zach whispered. “Having a bad night?”

  Austin swiped his hand across his face, erasing most of the evidence. He didn’t like to cry in front of Zach. “I’m okay,” he said in a small, quivering voice. He squinted at Zach in the dim light. “What happened to your nose? It’s big and red.”