Lia sighed through her laughter. “Oh! I am so sorry. Very sorry. It could have been me.”
“Better me than you, is that what you are saying?”
“Only so you understand that I am very, very grateful.”
She felt his gaze intensify as they stood staring at each other. Without warning, he leaned forward, planted a swift kiss on her lips, and disappeared into the barn before Lia even realized what had happened.
Her head seemed to be doing cartwheels as she brushed her fingers lightly over her mouth. What in the world had he done?
Stunned into silence and paralyzed by the impact of Moses’s touch, she watched him as, without another word, he led his horse from the barn, quickly hitched up his buggy, and drove it down the lane.
Her lips tingled pleasantly, but whether from the meatball sauce or the kiss, she couldn’t tell.
Surely they would tingle for days.
Chapter Seven
Absentmindedly stirring a pot of stew, Lia gazed at the rain pouring off the eaves of her house. The cloudburst came so fast, outside the window looked like a waterfall. The shadows in the kitchen deepened as the sky grew dark with heavy rainclouds. Lia had been back in Wautoma for only five days, but she already missed Huckleberry Hill as if it were her true home.
The night following Moses’s unexpected, uncalled for, and unnecessary kiss, Lia got word that Treva Bontrager had passed away and that Lia was wanted at home to help with food for the funeral. She caught a ride to Wautoma the very next day with a van full of mourners from Bonduel.
Treva’s death was neither sudden nor unexpected. She passed at ninety-two years old and had been living with her granddaughter for over a decade. For the better part of two days, Mamm and Lia baked bread and pies and made three salads to serve at the dinner after services.
The funeral service took place Saturday, and even though Lia’s time with her family had been short, she was ready to return to Bonduel. To see Anna and Felty. Oh, how she missed them.
Yes, Anna and Felty.
The van would stop by the house tomorrow morning to take her back to Huckleberry Hill. She had already packed.
Lia’s nephew, Thomas, tugged on her apron. “Aunt Lia?” She hadn’t even heard him come into the room. This dazed and distracted state of hers would have to stop.
“Aunt Lia, Mammi wants to know when supper will be ready.”
Lia tousled Thomas’s golden hair. “Tell Mammi the corn bread has ten more minutes, then we will be ready. Will you set the table?”
“Jah. I will tell Mammi first.”
The chubby four-year-old raced out of the room to deliver his message. Lia grinned. She never tired of the nieces and nephews. Her four older brothers, Toby, Monroe, Luke, and Perry, were all married. Toby and Monroe had four children each. Luke had two sons, and Perry’s wife was expecting their first.
Perry, twenty-five and newly married, was Lia’s closest brother. He stood six foot five—as tall as Moses—and watched out for her like a shepherd would his favorite lamb.
Monroe’s four children were sleeping over this week while Monroe and his wife were in Ohio visiting relatives.
Thomas, Monroe’s youngest, bustled back into the room as if he couldn’t wait to set the table for Aunt Lia. “How many are eating?”
“Hold up your fingers and count while I say the names. Mammi, Dawdi, Aunt Rachel, me, you, Susie Lynn, Mary, and Linda Rose.”
Thomas clapped his hands in delight. “Nine.”
“Eight. I will pull the bowls off the shelf for you.”
The timer rang, and Lia pulled the pan of corn bread out of the cookstove and replaced it with a raisin pie. Moses liked her raisin pie. Or at least he thought he would once he got a chance to really taste it. Lia pressed her fingers to her lips. Six days since he had kissed her. She could still feel his feather-soft touch.
“Aunt Lia, why are you smiling?”
“Never you mind. Here are the napkins.”
It meant nothing—the kiss. He’d offered it almost casually, like a handshake. What in the world did he mean by giving her a peck and then running away like his pants were on fire? Never mind that she had never been kissed in her life and that boys and girls weren’t supposed to kiss until they were courting or engaged or maybe even married. Moses Zimmerman probably kissed girls with regularity just to brag about it to his friends.
Thomas finished with the table. “Gute job, Thomas. Now go find Mammi and the others and tell them time for supper.”
Moses had made it plain that he didn’t want a wife. He should have told her that he was still willing to kiss a few girls.
Rachel appeared in the kitchen with Monroe’s three daughters, Susie Lynn, Mary, and Linda Rose. The nieces loved Rachel. She would sit with them in her bedroom, and they would brush each other’s hair and giggle and tell stories about boys.
The four girls flopped down in their seats, followed closely behind by Mamm, who had been folding laundry. “What a blessing I had those clothes off the line before the rain started. It looks to make down heavy all night.”
Dat appeared from outside and hung his dripping slicker on the hook in the washroom. He didn’t waste time once he sat down. As soon as Lia slid into her seat, Dat bowed his head and the family joined him for prayer.
After silent grace, Mamm took the ladle and began serving up stew. “We must thank Lia for this delicious meal. I’ve missed your special corn bread.”
“Denki, Lia,” said Thomas.
Lia put her forehead against Thomas’s. “You are welcome.”
Lia cut the pan of corn bread into squares while Rachel poured milk. “You will never guess what happened to me on Saturday after the funeral,” Rachel said, addressing the whole family. “The fun-er-al.” She annunciated each syllable as if the very word would horrify the children.
“What?” Susie Lynn and Linda Rose asked at the same time.
Rachel paused for dramatic effect. “Clemens Schrock asked me to marry him. On the day of the fun-er-al. Can you believe that? Wouldn’t a boy with any sense know not to propose marriage on the day someone dies?”
“It wasn’t actually the day Aunt Treva died,” Mamm said.
“I refused him. It was ridiculous that he would propose to me.”
Lia knew better than to ask. She did anyway. “Why was it ridiculous? You are a pretty girl. Of course the boys want to marry you.”
“Clemens works at the mill. At-the-mill.” Those long, drawn-out syllables again. “He’s short and has a pudgy face and pockmarks on his cheeks from all that acne he used to have. He doesn’t even own his own farm or house or anything. If I married him, I would end up living in that tiny dawdi house with only a wall between me and his parents.” Rachel sighed and stared into space as if she were trying to see her future. “I’ll not marry a man who isn’t handsome. He has to be handsome or I won’t be able to stomach him. And tall.”
Susie Lynn, eight years old, nodded. “Me too. I want to marry Floyd Weaver.”
Lia knew better than to argue. She did anyway. “Clemens is a nice young man. The mill is a gute job, and he takes care of his dat’s farm all by himself. And when the Bennetts lost half their shingles in the windstorm, he spent a week fixing their roof.”
Rachel turned up her nose. “If you like him so well, why don’t you marry him?”
“I didn’t say I think you should marry him, only that he is a nice young man.”
Mamm clicked the handle of the ladle on the edge of the pot and glanced at Lia. “Now, children. Don’t argue. Rachel can marry whomever she pleases.” That was Mamm’s mild way of scolding Lia. Ever since they’d almost lost her as a little girl, both parents did their best to make sure Rachel was never displeased.
“Jah,” Dat said. “Rachel is pretty enough to have her pick. We just need to find someone gute enough.”
As soon as Rachel had turned eighteen last year, talk at the dinner table centered around finding a suitable husband for her, as if it were some impossible task.
But to Lia, it didn’t seem hard at all to find Rachel a boy. She was so beautiful and petite that the boys flocked to Shetlers’ door like sparrows on the telephone wire. But Rachel and Dat were finicky. It had to be a handsome boy with an attractive income and a pious family, preferably with a gute piece of land of his own. No Wautoma boys measured up.
After Rachel had turned down her third marriage proposal and despaired of ever finding the perfect husband, they joked that maybe Lia would be the first Shetler girl to marry after all. She and Rachel had a good laugh about that.
“Lia, would you get the cheese from the shelf?” Dat said.
Thomas swung his feet back and forth. “Can I have cheese?”
Lia found a small wheel of white cheese and sliced away the wax before she studied the label and caught her breath. “Where did you get this cheese?”
Mamm glanced in her direction. “I gave it to your dat for his birthday. It came in a gift basket.”
“This is Moses’s cheese!”
“Who is Moses?” Dat asked.
“The Helmuths’ grandson, Moses Zimmerman. He runs a cheese factory in Bonduel.”
“Do you know him?”
“Jah, he comes to Huckleberry Hill to help with chores. He bought me some of his baby swiss at auction. It is delicious.”
Dat held out his hand. “Let’s have a try.”
Lia quickly cut seven slices and passed them out to her family.
“This is yummy,” Mamm said. “I hoped it would be gute. I bought it at the T&M market.”
“Very gute, very gute,” Dat said. “We’ll have to keep an eye out for more from Zimmerman Cheese. It is a gute thing to buy from other Amish.”
Lia almost burst with pride for Moses. She put more slices on a plate and brought them to the table. “He bought the cheese factory from an Englischer five years ago when he was only twenty-one. He has worked hard. A man in Green Bay will buy all the cheese Moses can make, and for a gute price too.”
Mamm took another piece and broke it into her stew. “Have you met his wife and children?”
“Oh, he’s not married. Though, heaven knows, such a fine young man could be.”
Rachel served herself another piece of corn bread. “He is probably homely.”
Linda Rose and Susie Lynn giggled behind their hands.
Lia teasingly scolded Rachel with her eyes. “Nae. He is pleasant to look at.” She grinned and poked Susie Lynn lightly in the ribs. “He is handsomer than Floyd Weaver.”
Susie’s laughter sounded like water tripping over the rocks. “He is not.”
Dat laid down his spoon and propped an elbow on the table. “Is he a gute man of the Church?”
“As gute as they come, to be sure.”
Leaning back in his chair, Dat folded his arms across his chest and cocked his head to the side in deep thought. “Just the thing for our Rachel.”
“What do you mean, Dat?” Rachel said.
“We’ve gone through all the boys in Wautoma. Maybe your husband has been waiting in Bonduel all this time.”
Rachel knit her brows together. “You mean the one who makes cheese?”
“Jah. I’m sure of it. If he is everything Lia says, he would make a fine husband for you.”
Lia’s heart sank to her toes, but she managed a weak smile. “Too bad he lives in Bonduel.”
Dat’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, and he leaned forward. “Bonduel is only an hour by car. You could take Rachel with you for a visit.”
“That is a fine idea,” Mamm chimed in. “He will be thrilled to meet our Rachel.”
Rachel seemed mildly curious. “I might want to see for myself if he is so handsome.”
Lia felt as if a buggy full of church benches had parked itself on her chest. She didn’t want Rachel to come to Bonduel. Huckleberry Hill and the Helmuths belonged to Lia. Even if it was a silly notion, they felt like her own private family. She didn’t want to share them with Rachel. And she knew what would happen. Once they met Rachel, Lia would cease to be important to them.
“He doesn’t want to get married,” Lia said.
Dat frowned. “He told you this?”
“Jah. He said he is not looking for a wife.”
Dat laced his fingers together. “Of course he would tell you that, Lia. He does not want to marry you. But he has not met our Rachel. He’ll change his mind when he lays eyes on her.”
Mamm nodded her agreement. Dat and Rachel smiled triumphantly at each other.
Lia felt her power sink further. Whatever objections to marriage Moses had, they would vanish when he saw Rachel.
“Why don’t you take Rachel to Bonduel with you tomorrow?” Mamm said. “Roy is bound to have room for one more in his van.”
Dat slapped the table as a wonderful-gute idea came to him. “Better yet, why don’t Rachel take Lia’s place?”
Rachel’s eyes opened wide. “You want me to go by myself?”
“Once Rachel goes, Lia will not be wanted there. She would only get in the way of their courtship.”
Lia’s voice rose with her distress. “Nae, Dat. The Helmuths hired me for the summer, not Rachel. It would not be proper to—”
“They need a girl to help them keep house and garden,” Dat said. “Rachel will do as well as you. Why should they care who it is as long as she does the job? Besides, they will soon realize why Rachel has been sent and be happy for a wonderful-gute girl for their grandson.”
Lia fought hard to keep the tears from her eyes. “Rachel might not like him,” she said feebly. But once Dat set his mind to it, she knew he wouldn’t be dissuaded.
“If I don’t like him I won’t have to stay there,” Rachel said. “I can come home, and you can go back. I’d rather not work that hard on someone else’s farm with nothing to show for it.”
Every glimmer of hope died. Lia had no doubt that Rachel would like Moses. Not only was he tall and handsome, the two qualities highest on Rachel’s list, but he had an easy laugh and a ready cheerfulness that put people instantly at ease. And he treated everyone so kindly. Who wouldn’t like that?
Dat popped another piece of cheese into his mouth. “It’s settled, then. Rachel will go in Lia’s place, and Lord willing, we will have a wedding in November.”
This was how it had always been with Lia and Rachel. Their parents catered to Rachel’s every need and expected Lia to acquiesce cheerfully. After all, it had been Lia’s fault that Rachel nearly died fourteen years ago.
Lia had been only nine years old, but she already loved to cook. She wanted to surprise Mamm with fresh greens and pork chops for supper, so she had sneaked out of the house to gather wild asparagus along the stream bank. Even as a five-year-old, Rachel liked getting her own way, and she stomped her feet and threatened to ruin Lia’s surprise if Lia didn’t let her tag along. Rachel had played by the shallow stream while Lia collected asparagus spears in her apron. More than once she had scolded Rachel for splashing her, but Rachel paid no heed until she got carried away and fell face-first into the water. The icy, early spring runoff soaked Rachel clear through.
By the time they got home, Rachel was shivering violently, and within hours, she had developed the gravelly cough that could only mean croup. Lia would never forget how pale Rachel looked as they loaded her into the ambulance. Lia had never seen her parents so terrified.
Why didn’t you keep better watch over her? Dat had accused just before he climbed into the ambulance. Rachel spent the next four days in the hospital, and Lia had spent the next four days praying for Rachel’s recovery and pleading for forgiveness for her carelessness. If Rachel died, it would have been her fault.
For the next month, Lia and Mamm had nursed Rachel back to health. Dat instructed Lia to keep Rachel happy at all costs. If Rachel got upset, she would cry and then scream, and her weak lungs couldn’t take the strain. When she didn’t get her way, she bawled until her lips turned blue, and Mamm agreed to anything Rachel wanted to keep her from making herself sicker.
> Lia became the forgotten one, the girl whose mistake had almost cost the Shetlers their youngest child.
Mamm and Rachel chattered merrily about winter weddings while Lia silently cleared the dishes from the table. Rachel had stopped throwing tantrums years ago, but everything in the Shetler household still revolved around her.
Lia held her breath as unjustifiable sadness tore at her heart. Moses wasn’t interested in her and never would be, so why would she grieve if she lost him to Rachel? He had never been hers to lose. She had only really been acquainted with him for four weeks. Still, she didn’t know if she could bear his falling in love with her sister. And he would fall in love with Rachel. Beautiful, delicate Rachel was the perfect combination of coy and charming that attracted boys like honey. Moses’s reluctance could not withstand Rachel’s beauty.
Lia’s cheeks were dry of tears but she sensed the slightest tingle on her lips where Moses Zimmerman had kissed her good-bye.
Moses found Mammi and Dawdi in the barn tending to the batch of newly hatched chicks in their incubator. The fuzzy yellow balls peeped and shivered like a pan of popcorn popping on the stove. Mammi had her fist wrapped around a tiny chick, petting its head with her index finger. Dawdi fiddled with his new fan while humming “I Need No Mansions.”
“Can I help?” Moses said.
Mammi’s face lit up like a summer morning. “Moses, you are here mighty early yet.”
“Can you see what’s clogging up my fan?” Dawdi asked.
Moses could see Mammi watching him out of the corner of her eye. “Come to see Lia?” she asked. “The van driver told us he’d be back this way about this time today.”
Dawdi wiped off his greasy hands. “You told him three times already, Annie girl. He knows when Lia gets back.”
“That’s why he came early, isn’t it, Moses?”
Moses knelt on one knee to have a look at Dawdi’s fan. “I came early because the hair on the back of my neck twitched this morning, and I had a feeling Dawdi would need help with the fan. We don’t want the chicks to freeze to death.”
Mammi placed her chick into the sea of other chicks and propped her hands on her hips, looking very pleased with herself. “Oh, Moses, you are such a tease.”
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