by Jan Drexler
His eyes narrowed as he spoke, and he watched Aaron’s face. Aaron kept his expression neutral but watched Solomon’s eyes in return.
“I thought we might have met a few years ago, in the Shenandoah Valley.”
The other man’s pupils widened, although nothing else in his expression changed. “I’ve never been to the Shenandoah. Isn’t that in Virginia?”
“Yes.” Aaron switched to Englisch. “I was there with Heath’s division during the war.”
“You’re not Amish, then? I didn’t think so.” Solomon’s Englisch words echoed with the soft, rolling accent of the Blue Ridge.
Aaron adjusted his crutch. “Your voice betrays you. I know a Virginian when I hear him.”
Solomon chuckled. “You have a good ear. My family was originally from Virginia, but when our Amish community dwindled, my parents moved to Pennsylvania. That was many years ago, when I was still a boy.”
Could Aaron have been mistaken? The voice, the manner, even the tobacco scent all told him this was the spy from the Shenandoah Valley, but he had never seen that man’s face.
Solomon’s smile remained, but his expression grew hard. “So, what is a non-Amish Zook doing here in Ohio?”
“Jonas Weaver is a friend. I came this far with him.”
“You have no interest in his sister, then?”
“What if I did?”
The smile widened and the voice lowered. “I’d tell you to move on. You have no place here. You’re an outsider that will never be part of the community.” He pulled a pair of fine leather gloves from a pocket inside his coat. “On the other hand, I am the perfect husband for Elizabeth. I will be able to support her well, and she will have a good standing in the church with me as her husband. None of the folks here can claim the kind of heritage I can. Especially you.”
Aaron’s fists clenched.
“And if you try to tell anyone I said any of this, I will deny it. Think, Aaron Zook.” He reached over and tapped Aaron’s forehead. “Who will they believe? A war veteran who is only half a man, or me, a successful farmer and member of the community?”
Solomon tipped his hat to Aaron, then walked away to the horse and buggy he had left waiting on the main road.
Solomon’s words echoed in Aaron’s mind with the beat of the horse’s trotting hoofs. Half a man. Half a man. That’s exactly what he was. Half a man who would never be able to support himself or . . . He threw the crutch on the ground.
Or find a woman who would ever look at him with anything but pity.
Before Ruby left for home on Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth had made her promise to spend Monday morning with her. Mamm had agreed to care for the little ones, and Elizabeth set out with the pony cart on Monday morning to pick up Ruby and take her along to Solomon’s house.
She hadn’t slept at all the night before. The memory of Solomon’s deep brown eyes twinkling at her warred with her better sense. One minute her imagination would have him embracing her with the gentle, protective comfort of her feather bed, and the next she would be fighting off his attentions in the nightmare that often visited her dreams. Then she would sit up in bed, sweaty and nauseous, unable to go back to sleep until she had woken up fully, paced around her small bedroom, then crawled back into bed for another fitful hour or two.
“It’s just silliness,” she said to herself as she turned Pie onto the stone bridge. “I’m letting my imagination take me places that I don’t belong.”
The pony shook his head and trotted faster when he saw the open barn door.
“Not today, Pie.” Elizabeth turned him toward the hitching rail in front of the house. “No lounging in Datt’s barn for you.”
Ruby slipped out of the kitchen door before Elizabeth could tie the pony to the rail, waving Elizabeth back into the cart.
“Mamm has little Lovinia occupied for the moment,” she said as she took her seat. “If the baby sees me leave, she will cry until we are out of sight. This way, all she knows is that she’s with her grossmutti.”
“And she has the other children to keep her company, too.” Elizabeth backed Pie away from the house, then turned him toward the road again.
“You never told me where we are going today. If we’re going into town, I’ll need to stop by the house and get my shopping list.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Not that far. It would be too much for Pie.” She paused. Now, in the light of day, it seemed silly to have asked Ruby to come with her. “Solomon asked me to come to his house this morning and have lunch with him.”
“Are you certain I’m not going to be in the way?”
“Not at all. I know better than to be alone with a man.” Elizabeth forced a smile. “What would Salome say?”
That brought a laugh from Ruby. She knew how Salome’s rumors spread, better than most others. Elizabeth’s hands grew sweaty on the reins. Ruby would also understand that Salome’s rumors weren’t the only thing she was cautious about. She had learned her lesson about putting herself in a compromising position with a man.
“I’m glad we have these few minutes alone,” Ruby said as Pie walked up the slope past Reuben’s old cabin. “I want you to be the first to know, after Gideon, of course.”
Elizabeth shook herself out of her morose thoughts. “What is it?”
“I’m expecting another little one, sometime before Christmas.”
Ruby had blushed a bright red and her face shone. Elizabeth was happy for her. Really. She gave her sister a hug, letting go of the reins. Pie’s walk slowed as he reached the turnoff at the top of the hill.
“That is wonderful news, Ruby.”
Tears blurred her vision. She fumbled for the reins she had dropped and started Pie off again, down the road toward Millersburg and Abel Patterson’s place, Solomon Mast’s new farm. But Ruby knew her too well.
“I know—” Ruby broke off and put an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders. “I know you wanted your own children with Reuben. I’m sorry that he died before—”
“Don’t.” Elizabeth interrupted her sister. “Don’t even think about it. That is all in the past.” She took a shuddering breath, then tried to smile. “It’s all right. Maybe someday I’ll meet someone, or maybe not.”
Maybe Solomon . . .
Ruby spoke Elizabeth’s thoughts out loud. “Maybe Solomon Mast is the one for you. He couldn’t stop watching you yesterday afternoon.”
“That’s why I wanted you to come with me today. Sometimes I think he might be a good husband, but I don’t trust my own judgment. And I don’t trust myself alone with any man. I don’t want to end up with another Reuben.”
“Solomon isn’t anything like Reuben.” Ruby squeezed her shoulders again. “And I’ll keep you from being charmed into doing something you don’t want to do.” She grinned. “Solomon is very good looking, isn’t he?”
“Too handsome for me. Why would he even look at me twice?”
“Because you are a very beautiful woman. Both outside and on the inside, where it counts.”
Elizabeth drew a shuddering breath again as Abel’s big brick house came into view. Ruby knew her as well as anyone could, but she didn’t know about the black pit of sin and despair that hid itself from her family and friends. If anyone knew, they would hate her. Cast her out from the church and their lives. But if she was lucky, no one would ever know. Especially Solomon Mast.
“Look,” Ruby said, shading her eyes with one hand. “Solomon is on the porch waiting for us.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Waiting for me. He doesn’t know you’re coming.”
“Well then, I will be a nice surprise for him.” Ruby didn’t look the least bit worried.
When Elizabeth drove up to the hitching rail on the gravel drive, Solomon met them at the bottom of the porch steps. It could have been only in her imagination, but she thought she saw a frown cross his face. But when he caught Pie’s bridle and looped the reins over the rail, he was smiling at both of them.
“Welcome to Fairacres,”
he said, extending a hand to help Ruby out of the cart, and then Elizabeth. “I didn’t expect to see you, Ruby. I thought you would be busy today tending to your little ones.”
“Mamm is happy to take care of them this morning so I could accompany Elizabeth.”
“You didn’t need to go to the trouble.” Solomon smiled at Elizabeth, his eyes twinkling, just like in her dream. “We would have gotten along just fine on our own.”
As Solomon led the way up the steps, Ruby said, “I didn’t know Abel Patterson had named his farm.”
“I had that privilege.” Solomon stopped on the top step and let his gaze sweep around the farm, finally resting on Elizabeth. “The countryside around here is very fair, and I thought my farm should reflect that.”
Ruby, standing behind Solomon, caught Elizabeth’s eye and raised her eyebrows. Elizabeth knew what she was thinking, that naming a farm was a fancy thing to do. But she supposed Solomon knew best.
“After all,” Solomon said as he led the way to some willow chairs on the wide porch, “once Elizabeth and I marry, we will join our farms together. My eighty acres added to her one hundred sixty will create a grand farm, and one worthy of the name Fairacres.”
“I haven’t yet said that I will marry you,” Elizabeth said. She sat next to Ruby in a willow seat large enough for two.
Solomon’s smile didn’t change. “That will come in due time. You will soon see that my ideas are good for both of us.”
A young woman in a simple dress with a handkerchief tied around her head came out of the house carrying a tray. Her skin was darker than any person Elizabeth had ever seen, even among the few freed slaves that lived in Millersburg.
“Thank you, Dulcey,” Solomon said in Englisch. “You can set the tray here on the table. And as you can see, I have an extra guest for luncheon. Bring another plate and silverware.”
The woman didn’t look up but put the tray down and fled back into the house.
Elizabeth exchanged glances with Ruby again.
“Who is Dulcey?” she asked.
“She is my housekeeper and cook. I found her in Millersburg, and since she was looking for a job, I brought her here.”
“She doesn’t look very happy,” Ruby said.
“She has had a hard life.” Solomon’s face grew sad. “She was born in the Deep South. Mississippi, I think. How she ended up here I don’t know. But until the end of the war, she was a slave.”
The woman came out to the porch again with the plate and silverware, then started laying out the items for a picnic, setting three places and bowls of cooked minced chicken with slices of bread, cold potatoes, and strawberries. A covered basket came last, with the mouthwatering scent of fresh biscuits rising from it. She turned to go back into the house, but Ruby stopped her.
“Aren’t you going to have lunch with us, Dulcey?”
Dulcey glanced in Solomon’s direction, her gaze still lowered.
Solomon chuckled. “Dulcey will be happier in the kitchen, won’t you?”
Dulcey nodded and disappeared. Once she was gone, Solomon bowed his head for the silent prayer. After a very short time, before Elizabeth had finished her own prayer, she heard the clank of a spoon in a serving dish. Solomon was helping himself to the food.
“Once we’re married,” he said, “Elizabeth won’t have to tie herself down with dull chores. Dulcey will take care of everything.”
Elizabeth had been reaching for the glass of water in front of her, but at Solomon’s words, she stopped.
“We Amish don’t employ servants, Solomon. Surely you know that. Dulcey would be a great help with the housework, but I wouldn’t think of letting her do it all. I would work together with her. We could become great friends, I think.”
Solomon’s smile only grew wider. “What a kind thought. With everything you say, I am more convinced that we are meant to be together.” He beamed at Ruby. “I know I have much to learn about living in your more conservative district, but I intend to make my home here, with a lovely wife by my side.”
He turned his gaze to Elizabeth when he said the last phrase, and her heart melted. This man was nothing like Reuben and seemed to have her best interests in mind. Could she get used to living in such a big house, with a hired woman to help her? Her mind flitted ahead to children filling the house, days spent working by Dulcey’s side, and Solomon coming home in the evening, caressing each of the little ones on the head and leading them all in family worship after their supper. Perhaps Dulcey would also find a husband who could work on the farm. Their children would fill the house to bursting. How blessed could she be?
“What are you smiling about, my dear?”
Elizabeth focused on him, her imaginary life still very fresh in her mind. “I was just thinking about how beautiful the weather is today.”
Solomon reached over and took her hand in his. “It is a perfect day, isn’t it?”
Clouds moved in on Monday afternoon, providing a respite from the bright late-May sunshine, but not the heat. Aaron wiped his arm across his sweaty brow before he grasped the end of the beam he and Jonas were lifting into place. This one was the center beam and the support for the attic loft Jonas was putting in his house. He and Jonas held it in place as Abraham slid the support post under the center. When they were finished, Aaron sat on an upended log in the middle of Jonas’s future kitchen to catch his breath.
“It’s beginning to look like a house,” Jonas said, stepping back and looking up toward where the rafters would be placed next. “There were times when I never thought I would finish this house.”
“I always knew you would finish it.” Abraham took a drink of water from an earthenware jug and passed it to Aaron. “Even when the first house blew down in the storm, I didn’t give up hope. You’re a man who finishes what he sets out to do.”
Aaron passed the jug to Jonas and looked around the spacious ground floor of the house. Jonas had often told him that thoughts of Katie and their unfinished house were what kept him going through the long nights in the army hospital. He had to agree with Abraham. Nothing would stop Jonas once he set his mind to something.
“What about you, Aaron?” Jonas sat on a pile of sawn lumber and took a drink of the cool water. “You aren’t still thinking of going west, are you?”
Aaron shifted on his seat, easing the pain in his leg. Jonas was known for following through on his plans. Could he do any less? “It’s what I’ve been planning, ever since my home was destroyed. With nothing to go back to, I figured I’d head out that way once the fighting was over.” He rubbed his leg. “I never figured on this, though.”
“I wish you would decide to settle here,” Abraham said as he sat next to Jonas. “You fit in well, and there’s always work for a skilled harness maker.”
“I’m not sure I’m what you’d call skilled.”
“Dan says you have a natural talent. It’s a good, steady job for a man looking to make a home somewhere.”
He could always settle in some little town out where no one had ever heard the name Zook. Out where it didn’t matter if you were from Tennessee or Pennsylvania. Out where a man’s worth was based on what he could do, not who his kin were.
Aaron rubbed his leg again. The muscles cramped every once in a while, and he didn’t think anything of it, except that out west his leg would be the first thing folks saw. Everywhere he went, he would have to prove himself. Something a whole man wouldn’t need to do.
“Why is Mamm taking care of Ruby’s children today?” Jonas asked, taking the conversation past where Aaron had dropped out of it.
“Ruby is spending the day with Elizabeth. Lydia said Elizabeth told her Solomon Mast had invited her to see his house and farm.”
“Is he thinking about courting her?” Jonas asked.
Aaron looked from Jonas to Abraham. “He can’t,” he said. “He isn’t—” Aaron stopped himself. Solomon just might be Amish. Just might be who he said he was. “He isn’t the right man for her.”
Abraham leaned his elbows on his knees. “He appears to be a good Amish man, in spite of a few unusual ways. But he’s trying to fit into the community. I heard that he asked to be considered for membership in the church.”
Aaron’s insides coiled, but he had no evidence for his suspicions. It was his word against Solomon’s, and he might be wrong. But if he was right, Elizabeth had no business being near him.
“I just have a bad feeling about him, that’s all.” Aaron took another drink of water. If Solomon was the man Aaron suspected him to be, Elizabeth needed to be warned, and he was the only one who could do it.
After supper, Aaron walked up to Elizabeth’s house. All afternoon he had waged a war with himself, what he should say to her and how. He had no claim on her. Nothing gave him the authority to put his stick in her fire. If she wanted Solomon to court her, he couldn’t say anything about it. But he’d give warning to anyone about to step into a rattler’s nest, whether he knew them or not.
He was being a friend. That was all.
Elizabeth was sitting on the front porch working on something with her knitting needles, rocking and humming to herself. The same song Ma had always sung about the Rock of Ages. She hadn’t seen him yet as he stood in the evening shadows under the pines. A soft wind blew through them, sounding like the sea on the Virginia coast, catching Elizabeth’s kapp strings. As he watched, one blew over her shoulder, but she didn’t notice. She kept rocking and knitting, the evening sun landing on her face every time the chair went forward. He didn’t blame Solomon Mast for wanting her.
He continued toward the porch steps until she finally saw him approaching.
“Is that you, Aaron? I didn’t see you coming.”
“You were busy wool-gathering.”
“I was thinking about my day. I saw that a lot of work got done on Katie’s house. Did you help Jonas today?”
“Ja, I did.” Aaron tried to think how he would say what he needed to say in Pennsylvania Dutch but gave up. He switched to Englisch. “I heard you and Ruby went to Solomon’s this morning.”
