Promise Lodge

by Charlotte Hubbard

  “No harm done, then?” he asked earnestly.

  “None at all.”

  “Gut. I’d never hurt you, Rosetta,” Truman added as she drained the sink and filled it with clean water. “But then, that was also my intention when I was engaged to a nice young lady, and I lost her because she got tired of me having to be right. So now you know what a tyrant I can be.”

  Rosetta stopped placing filets into the water to look up at him. Truman’s handsome face was etched with remorse, as though he realized how different his life might be if that young lady had married him. With his sandy hair crushed from wearing his straw hat and his shirt smeared with fish blood, he looked anything but tyrannical.

  “Not to worry,” Rosetta said. “As a maidel, I’m used to having things my way—which is the right way, of course—so you’ll not stand a chance when it comes to bossing me around. Now you know what an outspoken, opinionated old biddy I can be.”

  Truman’s hazel eyes held her gaze for a moment. Then he laughed out loud. “Fair enough. All the more reason we shouldn’t get tangled up with each other.”

  “Right,” Rosetta agreed, even as his words brought intimate images to mind. “So mark that down. I allowed you to be right, Truman.”

  “Yes, ma’am, you did,” he said with a grin.

  After they’d layered the remaining fish in another bin, Truman placed the containers in the deep freeze while Rosetta held its door for him. She was pleased that they’d reached an understanding and had remained on good terms while they’d defused the awareness that filled the small mudroom. Or at least they’d tried to.

  “Here—you really need to wash up before you leave,” Rosetta said as she offered him a round, grainy bar of soap. “Every stray cat in the countryside will follow you home if you don’t.”

  Truman smiled as he lathered his arms and hands. “Mamm would tell me straight out that I stink, so see? You can be very diplomatic rather than just bossy—but what’s in this soap? Lemon, maybe?”

  “And some orange oil, and the gritty texture comes from cornmeal,” Rosetta replied as she accepted the soap and washed her hands with it. “Our men seem to think it gets them clean without making them smell like girls. We women like it for freshening our hands after we’ve been cutting up onions.”

  “I suppose you made this soap, too? I like that it’s round and it fits my hands while I’m washing.”

  Rosetta nodded, flushing at his compliment. “I use an oiled length of plastic plumbing pipe to mold it. The towel’s hanging at the side of the sink.”

  As Truman dried with one end of the towel and Rosetta used the other, she smiled up at him. “You’ve been a big help this evening. I’m going to send a bar of this cornmeal soap home with you—and a bar of the lavender mint for your mother,” she added as she opened the cabinet beside the sink. “Tell her we missed meeting her tonight.”

  Truman nodded, his hazel eyes softening as he accepted her gift. “Walk with me partway? It’s an awfully nice night out.”

  Rosetta nipped her lip. She wanted to walk with him, yet maybe it was best not to encourage any further contact—and Amos, Noah, and Roman were likely to come out of the barn at any moment. They would tease her ceaselessly if they believed she and Truman were . . .

  “I’ll go as far as the shed—to be sure the goats and chickens are in for the night,” she added quickly. “We’ve heard coyotes coming around.”

  Truman smiled as though he saw through her excuse. “Jah, out here in the countryside, all sorts of critters prowl around in the dark. And then there’s me,” he teased as he playfully wiggled his eyebrows. He grabbed his hat and then held the door for her.

  Rosetta’s heart turned handsprings as they stepped out into the moonlit evening. Years it had been since she’d enjoyed a man’s company so much, yet she reminded herself of the reality of their religious situations—and her dream of managing apartments for other women who wanted a more independent Plain way of life. She inhaled deeply, enjoying the perfume of the honeysuckle bushes on the breeze as they strolled around the side of the lodge. The moonlight shimmered on the rippling lake, where bullfrogs and cicadas sang their evening duet. The night sky, dotted with stars and constellations, spread forever in every direction.

  “God really knew what He was doing when He created the heavens and the earth,” Rosetta murmured. “I’ve not traveled much, but I can’t think that anywhere else is as pretty as this tract of land.”

  “No place like home,” Truman said softly. “And I’m glad there’s light in the windows now when I glance over here at night. I like to think it’s your room I see—”

  “Praise God and holler hallelujah! I think we found it, Beulah!”

  “Jah, Ruby, there’s lights on so I sure hope somebody’s home!”

  Rosetta’s head swiveled in the direction of the approaching female voices. She hurried toward the front of the lodge, spotting two women who wore floral print calf-length dresses and white kapps that glowed in the moonlight as they strode down the lane. Truman jogged toward them, calling out a greeting before he relieved the ladies of their suitcases.

  “You look mighty young to be the Preacher Amos mentioned in The Budget ad for this place,” one of the women remarked.

  “Well, he’s sure not the Rosetta Bender who writes the weekly column from Promise,” her companion said with a laugh. “You smell to high heaven, young man, but I’m sure there’s a gut reason you’ve got fish innards smeared on your shirt.”

  Rosetta’s pulse raced as she covered the remaining distance to meet their guests. Could it be that their first potential residents had arrived? She didn’t recall any of the letters mentioning a Beulah or a Ruby, but she sensed that these ladies were going to tell more of a story than would fit into a mere letter.

  “I’m Rosetta Bender!” she said, holding her hands out to them. “This young man is our neighbor, Truman Wickey, and he’s helped us clean the fish we caught in our lake this evening. Welcome to Promise Lodge!”

  Two sturdy hands gripped hers as two sets of shining eyes gazed at her through identical pairs of wire-rimmed glasses. “I’m Beulah Kuhn and this is my sister Ruby,” the taller, stouter woman said. “We couldn’t believe our eyes when we read you were setting up apartments for maidels—”

  “But we hope it’s true—and we hope you’ve got some places left,” Ruby cut in eagerly, “because we’ve packed our bags and run away from home!”

  Rosetta stood speechless. She was guessing these sisters were seventysomething, and their print dresses suggested they were Mennonites. Hearing that they’d left where they’d been living after reading her column in The Budget stunned her. She glanced over their heads at Truman, who was smiling.

  “I’ll carry these suitcases into the lobby and let you ladies get acquainted,” he said. “Ruby and Beulah, I’m happy to meet you—and next time I won’t smell so gamey. You’re in gut hands if you’ve come to stay with Rosetta and her sisters.”

  Rosetta watched Truman spring up the stairs with the luggage, and then gave him a little wave as he strode past them, heading toward the road. She was grateful that Ruby and Beulah had spoken loudly, announcing their arrival before Truman had said anything more about looking toward her bedroom.

  “You might be a maidel now, missy,” Beulah remarked as they started up the porch stairs.

  “But that fellow’s got his eye on you,” her sister finished crisply. “And you’re still of an age to follow your fancy, too—if he’s gut enough for you. But never settle.”

  “Jah, a life well spent alone beats being a man’s slave any day. Ruby and I are living proof of that,” Beulah added before her laugh rang off the porch ceiling. “But here we are, telling you what to do before we’ve been here five minutes! We’d have arrived a whole lot sooner if our driver had looked at our road map instead of listening to that newfangled thingamajig on his dashboard.”

  “Puh! That woman telling him to turn around while she recalculated was every bit as l
ost as he was,” Ruby insisted. As the three of them stepped into the lobby, she looked upward with an expression of sublime awe. “Ohhh!” she murmured excitedly. “Here we are, Sister, and it’s even more wonderful than I dared to imagine.”

  “Sure is,” Beulah replied as she grabbed her sister’s hand. “I love this place already. Sign us up, Rosetta. And thank You, Jesus, for giving us the gumption to leave our brother’s place and come here to find a new home.”

  “Amen, Sister.”

  Rosetta gazed at them, deeply touched by their remarks. “My sisters and I felt the same way when we first saw this lodge and the land around it,” she said softly. “We’ve been working very hard to get it ready—”

  “And we aim to help in whatever ways you need us to,” Ruby assured her. She smiled sweetly, covering a yawn. “But I’m thinking we’d best get to bed so we don’t waken everybody. Plenty of time for talk tomorrow.”

  “Jah, it’s been a long day. It’s not really our way to just show up and expect folks to cater to us,” Beulah insisted. “But we’ll be forever grateful if you’ve got beds and some furniture we can use until—”

  Rosetta grasped their hands, adoring these two sisters already. “Just so happens I’ve made up a couple of rooms,” she assured them. “You can decide which ones you’d like for your apartments tomorrow when it’s light and you’re rested. Welcome home, Ruby and Beulah. We’re glad you’re here.”

  * * *

  “Gut morning!” Rosetta called out when Beulah and Ruby came into the kitchen. “You slept well, I hope?”

  “Like a rock,” Beulah replied.

  “Jah, it’s not nearly this quiet back home, what with Delbert’s eight kids kicking up a fuss when they wake up,” Ruby explained with a shake of her head. “The oldest twins are eleven, and from there they stair-step downward in age—”

  “And our brother’s house is feeling so crowded, we figured coming to Promise Lodge would give them another bedroom—”

  “And truth be told, we’re a little weary of the way Delbert and Claire keep having more kids, figuring we’ll be their built-in babysitters,” Ruby blurted. “That’s probably not a very Christian attitude, is it?”

  “And we needed an adventure before we got too old to get out of our rut,” Beulah added earnestly. “So after we read your columns, we packed our bags and took off without telling anybody. I suppose we should call home this morning so they won’t wonder if kidnappers snatched us in the night.”

  “Puh! Kidnappers would have their hands full dealing with the two of us!” Ruby declared.

  Rosetta followed this rapid-fire conversation, smiling at the way the sisters finished each other’s sentences without batting an eye. “You can call them anytime you’re ready,” she said, gesturing toward the phone on the back wall. “My sisters, Mattie and Christine, are out gathering eggs and weeding the gardens until Amos and the boys finish milking Christine’s cows. Here—come take a look now that the sun’s up.”

  Ruby and Beulah eagerly preceded her through the lobby and out to the wide porch. Two hummingbirds hovered near the orange blooms of the trumpet vines before darting off as the women approached. Sunlight dappled the grass beneath the tall oaks that shaded the lodge, and out beyond the barn Rosetta’s goats grazed alongside the horses. The treetops swayed gently on the breeze, which carried the heady scent of the honeysuckle bushes out by the road. As one, the Kuhn sisters sighed and gazed out over the property, their faces alight with awe.

  “Oh, Sister, we’ve come to the Garden of Eden,” Beulah murmured.

  “The land of milk and honey,” Ruby said as she nodded in agreement. “It’s even more wonderful than I’d imagined it from your reports in The Budget, Rosetta. And what’s that I see beyond the lake? Apple trees?”

  “Jah, from what we’ve heard, the area churches that once owned this property sold the apples as a way to fund their camp programs,” Rosetta replied, shielding her eyes to get a better look. “Truman has told the fellows he can help them revive the orchard—keeping it mowed this summer and then pruning back the overgrown trees this winter. It’ll make a gut source of income for somebody in a year or so—”

  “And it’ll be even more productive with my bees to pollinate the blossoms!” Ruby exclaimed. “We can move my hives here from Versailles and those little bees will think they’ve landed in heaven, with all the flowers and bushes around to sip from.”

  “Along with the money from selling Ruby’s honey, we’ve laid by a nice nest egg from our wages at the cheese factory, too,” Beulah told Rosetta. “If it would be all right with you folks, we could build a small factory here and make cheese from your cows’ milk! Wouldn’t take a building any bigger than that shed I see.”

  “You’d have milk from my dairy goats, too,” Rosetta pointed out. Her heart thudded happily at the prospect of adding bees, honey, and a cheese factory to the businesses she and her sisters were running. “Is it difficult to transport your bees without getting stung?”

  Ruby chuckled. “I’ll be there to oversee the packing, so it’ll be a piece of cake. We’ll wrap straps around the hives and duct tape the holes late at night, when they’re all inside, so they won’t escape while we’re moving them,” she explained. “I know of folks who transport their hives from place to place all over the country, depending on whether it’s apples or grapes or almonds that need pollinating. I don’t have that big an operation, of course.”

  “This’ll be the perfect new home for your bees,” Beulah remarked. “Lots of room for them—”

  “Jah, they do best with about an acre for each hive of bees,” said Ruby.

  “—and we won’t be hearing any more complaints from Claire about the kids getting stung because they were playing too close to the hives,” Beulah continued. The skin around her eyes crinkled as she smiled at Rosetta. “Let us know what your apartments are going for, and we’ll advance you several months’ rent. We aim to pay our way and earn our keep from the get-go.”

  “May we have those rooms down the hall in the corner—the two that share a bathroom between them?” Ruby asked with a lift in her voice. “We’d be right at home there. What a blessing that we saw your columns and Amos’s ad—”

  “And that we hit the road to find this place instead if ignoring God’s nudge to get out and do something useful—something fun!—with the rest of our lives,” Beulah finished. She slipped a finger beneath her glasses to clear away a tear. “He’s never failed us yet, our Jesus. I can’t wait to tell Delbert about our new home!”

  “They’ll never believe what we’ve gone and done,” Ruby agreed. She shielded her eyes with her hand, gazing at a big truck that was rumbling out of the metal building at the Wickey place. “Is that your boyfriend driving that truck, Rosetta?”

  Rosetta swatted Ruby’s shoulder playfully. “Truman owns a landscaping company. He’s a Mennonite, so don’t be thinking I’ll hitch up with him.”

  “We’re Mennonites, too, you know,” Beulah said. “So I hope it’s all right if we want to have electricity to run our cheese machines.”

  “Amos and Roman run the bulk milk tanks with electricity, so if you put your little factory near the barn, you can hook right in,” Rosetta replied. “And speaking of our fellows, here they come. Let’s get the stove fired up for some sausage and eggs, and you can get acquainted with everyone over breakfast.”

  “Show me the flour bin and I’ll whip up some biscuits,” Ruby said as they went back into the lodge.

  “I’ll be in charge of the gravy—and in appreciation for your wonderful welcome, Ruby and I will cook tonight’s supper,” Beulah offered.

  Rosetta’s eyes widened. “I’d be silly to turn down an offer like that.”

  “Better yet, we’ll cook up enough to have for our dinner tomorrow, too, so we’ll not be working on Sunday. How’s that?”

  Rosetta laughed as they entered the kitchen together. “I like the way you girls jump in and make things happen. Something tells me you two a
nd we three Bender sisters will become gut friends in a hurry!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  That afternoon as Rosetta came downstairs, she inhaled appreciatively. Ruby and Beulah had been cooking and baking most of the day and the whole lodge smelled heavenly. Meanwhile, Rosetta had been able to clean the two corner rooms and the bathroom the Kuhn sisters wanted to rent. Deborah had agreed to paint the apartments on Monday, and Amos had bought their requested buttery yellow and pale blue paint—which would soon freshen Rosetta’s apartment and her sisters’ rooms, as well.

  “What smells so wonderful-gut?” Rosetta asked as she entered the kitchen. “It’s such a treat to have you cooking our supper and tomorrow’s dinner.”

  Beulah checked the three bread pans in the oven and closed the door. “We thought we’d make some of our family’s favorites,” she replied. “We’re having pizza meat loaf, and Ruby’s ready to put her creamed potato loaf in the oven—”

  “Topped with lots of cheese,” Ruby added. When she expertly overturned a loaf pan, Rosetta’s eyes widened as a molded block of chunky, creamed potatoes landed in her casserole dish. She unmolded a second loaf beside the first.

  “—so along with a couple jars of green beans from your cellar, and a loaf of fresh bread, I don’t think anybody’ll go away hungry.” Beulah nodded with satisfaction. “It’s fun to cook for folks who appreciate our efforts.”

  “And you should see this apricot-cherry slab pie Ruby baked,” Laura said from the dining room, where she and her sister were setting the silverware on a long table.

  “Jah, we’re keeping an eye on it to be sure it’s still intact come time for supper,” Phoebe teased. “Roman and Amos have been eyeballing it all afternoon.”

  Rosetta laughed. It was such a pleasure to see the Kuhn sisters making themselves at home in the big kitchen. She hoped to see more women offer to share the cooking chores as they moved into her apartments, because that could be a way for them all to become good friends. “And how did your call to your brother go?”