Under the Harvest Moon: Book Seven

by Samantha Jillian Bayarr

  Under the Harvest Moon

  Book 7 Jacob’s Daughter series

  WRITTEN BY

  Samantha Jillian Bayarr

  © 2012 by Samantha Jillian Bayarr

  Cover/internal design © 2012 Livingston Hall Publishers

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form either written, photocopying, or electronically without the express permission of the author or publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and are therefore used fictitiously. Any similarity or resemblance to actual persons; living or dead, places or events is purely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or publisher.

  All brand names or product names mentioned in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names, and are the sole ownership of their respective holders. Livingston Hall Publishers is not associated with any products or brands named in this book.

  All scripture references in this book used from New International Version of the Bible

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  Includes a BONUS RECIPE by Diana Montgomery for…

  DUTCH COUNTRY PUMPKIN ROLLS

  Chapter 1

  “Come quick!” Rachel pleaded with Doctor Davis from the phone at her Aenti Bess’s B&B. “Mei aenti’s rolling on the floor holding her stomach. Something’s really wrong with her! I can’t get her to stop crying long enough to ask her what happened!”

  Rachel wasn’t sure what the doctor could do for her Aenti, but Bess had given her a strict warning not to call for an ambulance—even if her appendix burst. She wouldn’t tell the woman that the doc insisted on sending an ambulance anyway.

  For a moment, Rachel considered whether she should leave Bess to look for her husband, Jessup, but his horse and buggy wasn’t in the barn when she’d arrived, and Bess’s screams had prompted her into the haus. Taking a deep breath, Rachel ran back to tend to her crying aenti, whose screams became louder the closer she came to the kitchen entrance. Right where she’d left her, Bess lay sprawled across the floor in a puddle of water. Her deep blue dress was soaked and clung to her skin as the poor woman doubled over, groaning from the pain.

  Rachel scanned the kitchen for a possible source of the water, but realized the puddle was only under Bess. It hadn’t been there when she’d gone into the parlor to call for the doctor.

  She’d seen this before!

  “Aenti, can you get up so I can move you to the sofa? I think you might be more comfortable there until the doctor gets here.”

  “Nee,” she groaned before doubling at her ample waistline.

  Bess had always been a thick woman, and Rachel knew there was no way she could get her to the sofa without some cooperation from the woman.

  Rachel gulped. “Aenti, I don’t mean to pry, but when was your last cycle?”

  Bess suddenly opened her eyes and glared at her niece. “I went through the change about the same time I married Jessup,” she grunted. “Ach, am I hemorrhaging? It feels like my insides are trying to come outside of me.” She reached down and felt the dampness of her dress, and then brought her hand to her face for examination. Confused at the lack of what she thought would be blood on her dampened hand, Bess looked to Rachel quizzically.

  “You’re not bleeding, but I suspect you might be—having a boppli!

  “Nee, that’s impossible,” she grunted and bore down. “I’m old and already went through the change. Doctor Davis even said it was so.”

  It wasn’t impossible. Bess was only in her early fifties. Many of the women in the community had bopplies well into their fifties.

  Bess grunted again and cried out. “I have to go to the washroom.”

  Rachel had no idea how she would get her there, but she suspected Bess was feeling a need to bear down. Bess and Jessup had been married for more than a year now, and the woman had always been so plump that she could easily disguise a pregnancy in the folds of her girth. But how could she have gone this long without knowing she was pregnant? Was it even possible? Rachel supposed at her age, Bess and Doctor Davis both would have assumed the change before a pregnancy. Since her Aenti had never been pregnant before, she wouldn’t have known to look for it. But how was it that none of her familye had even suspected?

  “Can you get up?” Rachel asked in-between the woman’s cries.

  Bess shook her head frantically as she held her breath and grunted. “I’m sorry for the mess I’m about to make. I can’t make this urge stop.”

  Suddenly Bess’s face turned pale. “I think my womb just fell out. Maybe—you should call for that ambulance.” She began to cry and Rachel soothed her.

  Rachel approached her next statement with care, hoping she wouldn’t offend her aenti. “I should make certain you are not bleeding.”

  “Hurry,” Bess cried. “If I’m dying and you can save me, then do what you have to.”

  Rachel could hear the sudden panic in Bess’s voice, and wondered if she should reassure her by admitting that an ambulance was on its way. Reluctantly, Rachel lifted the water-soaked dress to see what was happening. Both joy and anxiety filled her as she spotted the crown of a boppli’s head.

  Rachel looked at Bess sternly. “I need you to push as hard as you can when the pain seizes you again. I can see the boppli’s head.”

  There was no time for either of them to think about it. Within seconds Bess grunted and pushed with a loud screech. Rachel eased out one shoulder, cradling the head just before the wee one slipped from her aenti’s womb. Tears filled Rachel’s eyes, emotion constricting her throat as Bess rested her head on the linoleum from pure exhaustion, the pains finally subsiding.

  Rachel used the corner of her apron to wipe the boppli’s mouth, causing him to let out a wail. Bess’s head popped up from the floor and stared at the wiggling infant in Rachel’s hands.

  Immediately, Rachel handed him to his mamm as she watched her aenti’s expression turn from shock to sheer joy as she reached for her boppli. Bess cradled the infant in her arms while Rachel pulled a pillow and lap quilt from the sofa to make her aenti more comfortable until help arrived. After tucking the pillow under her head, she reached up onto the table and grabbed yarn and a pair of sheers where Bess had been crocheting before the pains had consumed her. Rachel tied the length of yarn in two spots onto the cord and snipped it with the sewing sheers.

  Bess hadn’t taken her eyes off her new son and hadn’t paid any attention to Rachel’s bustling about her kitchen. By the dreamy look in her aenti’s eyes, Rachel could tell she was enamored with her unexpected gift.

  Chapter 2

  Jessup burst in the back door of the B&B, shock paling his face. He looked at his fraa lying on the kitchen floor, a boppli in her arms, while Rachel sopped up water from the floor around her.

  Rachel looked up from the chore. “Onkel Jessup, I think aenti has something to tell you.”

  Bess looked up from the wiggling bundle in her arms long enough to beckon her husband to her side. “Kume, meet your new son.”

  Jessup nearly fell over. He stepped back and caught himself against a kitchen chair as he stared at his fraa. His heart raced, but strangely, no pain existed there. He put his hand to his chest. Was he having a heart attack, but was in too much shock to notice the pain?

  Jessup looked at the boppli in Bess’s arms, and at the expression on her face. He’d seen that look before from his deceased fraa when she’d borne him his kinner. Now he was
a new daed again. Was he ready for this? Would his aging body hold out long enough to watch the wee one grow to be a mann?

  A thrilling fear gripped Jessup, but he swallowed it as he knelt close to his fraa’s head to place a kiss on her forehead. He placed a hand over the boppli’s head and smoothed his dark hair. Tears welled up in his eyes as he felt pure love for his fraa and new son.

  “He’s really ours?” Jessup asked with a shaky voice.

  “He is a miracle, jah?” Bess asked.

  “I suppose the doc was wrong about you going through the change,” Jessup chuckled.

  They both laughed and cried at the same time, as Jessup cradled his familye in his arms. To start over with his fraa was truly a miracle, jah.

  Rachel entered the room, holding another quilt she’d taken from the spare room upstairs, and handed it to her onkel.

  “If we wrap the boppli, then we can get Aenti into her own bed where she might be more comfortable while we wait for Doctor Davis.”

  As Rachel wrapped the boppli in the quilt, Doctor Davis walked in through the kitchen. With the door open, they could hear the siren from the ambulance nearing the B&B.

  Doctor Davis looked to each of the faces, and then focused on the bundle in Rachel’s arms. “What happened here? Bess, are you alright?”

  Bess let out an unusual giggle none of them had ever heard before. “I had a boppli! I wasn’t going through the change after all. I was pregnant!”

  Doctor Davis smiled. “It’s not the first time I’ve been wrong.”

  Jessup shook the doctor’s hand. “I’m mighty glad you were wrong this time. He’s a handsome fella, ain’t so?”

  They shook hands vigorously. “Yes, he is. Let’s get momma into her own bed if we can, so I can examine her. How are you feeling, Bess?”

  “I couldn’t be better. Did you call for an ambulance?”

  Doctor Davis nodded. “I was worried it was something serious, so I called for one as a precaution. Do you want them to stand by until I make sure everything is alright?”

  Bess shook her head as she admired her newborn son. “Everything is fine. Send them away.”

  Rachel followed the two menner into the bedroom, her new little cousin resting peacefully in her arms. It seemed strange and natural at the same time for Rachel to recognize who the boppli was in connection to her.

  Once Bess was safely in her own room, she asked Rachel to help her into her nightgown. Rachel handed the boppli to Doctor Davis, and then went to the bureau to get fresh linen bedclothes for her aenti. Doctor Davis busied himself examining the new arrival while Rachel fussed with Bess to get her settled. Jessup quickly left the room to meet the ambulance and to send them on their way.

  Doctor Davis pulled the stethoscope from his ears. “That’s one strong boy you have there.”

  Rachel excused herself to make some tea for her aenti. When she entered the kitchen, she realized she’d almost forgotten about the mess on the floor. Aenti would be in no condition to take on her house chores for at least a week, depending on what the doc said to her. But given her age, Rachel imagined her aenti would be bound to bed-rest for at least that long.

  Inside the mudroom, Rachel found a bucket, a stack of clean rags, and a scrub brush she knew she could use to clean the floor. She filled the bucket and set to work after putting on the kettle for tea.

  Blake entered the kitchen while Rachel was finishing up the floor. He looked at her a little strangely.

  “Why is the doc’s buggy here?”

  Rachel emptied the bucket of dirty water out the back door and wrung out the rags she’d used beneath her feet to “mop” the floor. “Doctor Davis is here for Aenti.”

  Blake looked around at the disheveled kitchen.

  “What happened here?”

  The tea kettle whistled and Rachel wiped her hands on her apron so she could remove it before it lost all its water through the steam cap. Rachel looked back at Blake, her eyes gleaming. “Aenti Bess had a boppli.”

  Blake chuckled. “A baby? I didn’t know she was expecting.”

  Rachel laughed. “Neither did poor Aenti. She had an awful time of it. No one was here, so I had to deliver him.”

  “Him? She has a boy? Jessup has to be beside himself.”

  “Mei onkel is quite beside himself indeed.” Rachel laughed at the sound of her own statement. “I can’t believe those two didn’t know she was expecting. Aenti assumed it was the change she was going through, but this is such a wunderbaar blessing.”

  Blake pulled Rachel into his arms and nuzzled her neck. “By this time next year, we could have a boppli of our own.”

  Rachel felt heat rise in her cheeks at the thought of having Blake’s kinner. “Maybe we should concentrate on getting married first. I can’t believe we are to be married in less than two weeks! This past year has gone by so fast.”

  Blake pulled away from her and drew a letter from his pocket. “I finally got a letter from Bruce.”

  Rachel’s ears perked up at the sound of her kidnapper’s name. It was hard for Rachel to believe that it had been more than a year since her ordeal with Blake’s father, but she felt safe knowing he’d been in prison the entire time.

  “By the look on your face, it must be gut news,” Rachel said, trying not to worry.

  Chapter 3

  Blake held the letter up in front of his face, a faint smile forming on his lips. “I’m guessing that having a year to sober up and reflect on his lifetime of mistakes has been good for him. His letter says he started attending the church services they have at the chapel in the prison.”

  “That is gut news. I suspect you still have cause for concern. You look a little stressed.”

  Blake pulled the straw hat from his head and placed it on a hook near the kitchen door. Looping his fingers in his suspenders, he let them snap against his muscular chest. “He doesn’t understand why I took the baptism to become Amish. He thinks I did it just for you. I’ve tried explaining to him that because of my baptism I was able to forgive him for kidnapping you and shooting me. I’m hoping that the church-going will open his eyes. It’s obviously bringing him around a little bit or he wouldn’t have written back to me after all this time.”

  “We can continue to keep him in our prayers,” Rachel offered. “Surely Gott will soften his heart.”

  Blake let out a breath in a whoosh. “I pray that it is so. But his letter didn’t sound as remorseful as I’d hoped.”

  Rachel wrapped her arms around Blake and placed a soft kiss on his neck. “You’ve done your part by forgiving him. The rest is up to him. Perhaps in time.”

  ****

  Jessup couldn’t take his eyes off his new son. He cradled the wee one in his arms while Doctor Davis finished his examination of Bess. He couldn’t wait to show him off to his older kinner and the rest of his familye.

  For now, he would savor this moment and cherish it, remembering how quickly bopplies grow. His immediate thought was to get the cradle he’d made for his first-born, but it had been left behind in Nappanee along with most of their belongings when they’d moved to the B&B. Their mudder could never part with the cradle or quilts and such, saying they could someday be used for grandkinner. But after her death, Jessup couldn’t bear to see them. As far as he knew, the items had remained undisturbed in the attic of his farm haus that his eldest bruder had moved into after Jessup had left Nappanee. Surely Bess would want to make new things for the boppli in the meantime, but he aimed to get that cradle somehow.

  When the doctor finished with Bess, Jessup pulled the ladder-back chair next to the bed, his new son tucked in his other arm. He looked up into his fraa’s dreamy face and smiled.

  “What shall we call him?”

  Bess managed a weak smile. “I was thinking since he is my first, and probably my last boppli, that I should give him the name Adam.”

  Jessup smiled. “Das gut. It’s a strong name for such a strong buwe.”

  Jessup couldn’t help but feel a swell of
pride as he gazed lovingly upon his boppli. The wee one represented a new start for him. He’d been feeling his age recently as his kinner continued to grow older. His oldest would be out on his own in just a few short years, but with a new bruder in the haus, perhaps the buwe wouldn’t seem so eager to grow up.

  Bess closed her eyes, feeling too sleepy to resist a little nap. With Jessup and her new boppli securely next to her, she yielded to her body’s prompting to let sleep overtake her. Jessup slipped out of the room with Adam in his arms. Once he was in the kitchen, he handed the boppli over to Rachel.

  “I need to call Hiram to give him the news of his schweschder’s boppli. Won’t he be surprised? I suppose I will make calls to the rest of our familye. If Bess wakes up, let her know where I am.”

  Blake winked at Rachel as he followed Jessup into the front parlor of the B&B. She knew they would most likely be preoccupied for a while, so she took the boppli into the private sitting room to relax in the rocking chair. It had been a long day, and she hadn’t made it back to bakery to reopen for the afternoon.

  “I don’t care if my customers missed me this afternoon,” she cooed at little Adam. “I wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to help bring you into this world for all the customers in Elkhart County.”

  If Rachel hadn’t come over early to have lunch with Aenti Bess, the woman would have been on her own. The thought made Rachel shudder. The thing she was most grateful for was that there were presently no guests staying at the B&B. One thing was certain, though, they would either have to close down temporarily, or hire someone to run the place until Aenti Bess was back on her feet.

  She peered down at little Adam sleeping trustfully in her arms.

  Danki, Gott for this little miracle.

  Chapter 4

  Lila King looked out across the room of the crowded bus station. Most everyone was being greeted or sent off by a loved-one, but not her. She was waiting for a stranger to pick her up. She felt foreign among a sea of Englischers as she leaned against Onkel Jessup’s handmade cradle. It was large and heavy, and she’d had to have assistance from the driver to haul the cradle into the waiting area of the bus station.