Promise Lodge

by Charlotte Hubbard

  “Because they think we’re too old to grab them and apply our hands to their backsides when they need it—not that their mamm would tolerate us doing that.” Beulah shook her head in frustrated disapproval. “It’s not a gut idea to spare the rod and spoil the child. In the end, everybody pays for that mistake.”

  Noah was listening intently, touched by the tale the Kuhns were telling between the lines. The roar of an engine made them all turn to watch a big pickup truck enter the grounds. “Looks like we’ve got more company,” he said. “Queenie, you stay right here. No barking—and no getting feisty, hear me?”

  The black-and-white dog let out a frustrated woof and sat down at Noah’s side.

  “Uh-oh,” Beulah murmured.

  “We should’ve known,” Ruby said with a sigh. “That’s our little brother, Delbert, come to fetch us home, no doubt.”

  “Well, he’s our younger brother,” Beulah clarified. “Nothing little about him.”

  Noah had to agree. The fellow who unfolded himself out of the cab stood nearly seven feet tall from his boots to the top of his straw hat. Noah waved and started toward the man, wondering what he could say to ease the strain Ruby and Beulah had probably caused by leaving home without any warning.

  “Welcome to Promise Lodge,” he called out as Roman caught up to him. “You’ve picked a great day to see the place.”

  “Well, what I see is two sisters who nearly gave me a heart attack when they disappeared,” Delbert replied curtly. “What were Claire and I supposed to think when you didn’t show up to fix dinner? The kids were crying and worried about somebody breaking in to steal you away.”

  Although Noah could understand the concern that creased Delbert’s weathered face, he felt bad for Ruby and Beulah. They were walking toward their brother with their heads slightly bowed, clutching one another’s hand. The happy confidence they’d displayed just moments ago had been replaced by childlike remorse.

  “We did call you,” Beulah pointed out.

  “And we came here because we figured if we got out of your house, Claire would have an easier time of getting the kids ready for school and church in the mornings,” Ruby said contritely. “Here, we’ve each got our own room—”

  “And we share a bathroom for just the two of us, instead one for all twelve of us,” Beulah reasoned aloud.

  When the two ladies stopped in front of him, Delbert placed his hands on his hips. “I’ve told you I was going to convert that hall closet into a half-bath—”

  “And bless your heart, you’ve had the toilet and sink for that project for as long as I can recall,” Ruby said gently. “You’re a busy man with a busy family. We truly appreciate the way you’ve looked after us all these years—”

  “—and we saw this as an opportunity to let your young family have more space,” Beulah continued with an earnest expression. “We know we get in the way sometimes. And it’ll only get more crowded as the kids—and Ruby and I—get older.”

  Delbert let out an exasperated sigh. “What makes you think you can just take off on your own? How can you afford to pay any rent?”

  The sisters looked at each other as though they shared a juicy little secret. “I’ve been saving up my money from working at the cheese factory,” Beulah replied proudly.

  “And I’ve got my honey money,” Ruby said. “It’s amazing what you can accumulate when you live a simple life—”

  “And we thank you for not charging us rent—”

  “—although we certainly did our share of cooking and nose-wiping and—

  “—diaper changing and laundry and scrubbing floors and—”

  “—and now we’re going to take care of ourselves in this lovely new colony—”

  “—where we’re making friends and figuring out where to put Ruby’s hives—”

  “—and Beulah’s going to start up a little cheese factory, using the milk from the Holsteins and the dairy goats that are already here!”

  Noah had stepped aside, watching Delbert follow his sisters’ conversation with an expression of bewildered disbelief on his tanned face. The big man cleared his throat as though he was about to deliver a speech he’d been practicing during his drive. Instead, he shook his head.

  “But it’s my responsibility to see to your needs,” Delbert insisted. “Claire and I are happy to have you in our home—”

  “When the Lord whispered in our ears to come and look this place over,” Beulah began.

  “We knew it was the answer to our prayers,” Ruby went on in a voice that was barely audible. “Please don’t think we’re ungrateful. We—we just wanted to—”

  “—try our hand at living independently, before we got too old and senile to know what we’d been missing.” Beulah exhaled slowly. “We’re sorry for the worry we’ve caused you, Delbert. But our minds are made up.”

  “Our rent’s paid for the next six months, too,” Ruby pointed out. “We were coming home tomorrow to fetch the bees and the rest of our clothes, and to tell the family more about our new adventure.”

  Noah sensed the Kuhn family could use some private time, so he glanced at Roman and the girls. “We’ll let you folks talk this out,” he said. “Feel free to look the place over—and to stay and have dinner with us, Delbert.”

  Ruby grinned like an excited little kid. “Jah, you should see the big dining room, and the rooms where we gals can hold quilting frolics—”

  “Come up and see our apartments—which will only be rented to maidels and widows, all nice and proper,” Beulah added.

  “Once you meet the three sisters who started this place, along with Preacher Amos—”

  “—you’ll feel a whole lot better about us being here,” Beulah assured him. “And when you come to visit, the kids can fish in Rainbow Lake, and play with Queenie—”

  The dog let out an exuberant woof and wagged her tail. Noah was relieved when Delbert laughed and the stiffness left his broad shoulders.

  “Well, I’ve driven all this way, so I might as well take a gut look at the place,” he said as he gazed at the orchard and the pasture. “It is pretty here. But I’m still not happy about the way you two just up and left us. If something bad happened to you, I could never forgive myself.”

  Noah clasped Deborah’s hand and started toward the lake, with his brother and cousins following them. “I have to think Delbert’s heart is in the right place, and that he did the responsible thing, coming to fetch his sisters,” he said in a low voice. “But I get the feeling he’s never seen Ruby’s and Beulah’s more adventurous side.”

  Deborah chuckled. “I suspect they’ll talk circles around him until he gets too dizzy to keep up with them. But I hope they work it out.”

  “Jah, I’d hate to see them have to go back, if they don’t really want to,” Laura said. “I really do like them.”

  Roman glanced toward the porch of the lodge, where they could see Preacher Amos, their mamm, and their aunts sitting with the Lehmans. “Just as Delbert’s doing the right thing, looking after his sisters, Bishop Floyd is standing up for beliefs about women and our religion that have existed for centuries,” he pointed out. “We might not like the way he’s been talking, but he’s right. He’ll not be the only man who’ll say that Mamm and the aunts have taken too much control and are stepping out of line.”

  “I’m glad Preacher Amos said they wanted a deposit to hold the cabin the Lehmans are in,” Phoebe remarked. “I think Bishop Floyd took it more seriously because a man was asking him for money instead of Aunt Mattie.”

  “Do you think they’ll stay?” Deborah asked. “Frances seems to like it here.”

  “Floyd impresses me as the type who’ll do things his way,” Laura chimed in. “When he told that Lester fellow on the phone that they might be better off starting a colony themselves, I got the idea he already had another place in mind.”

  Noah smiled, relieved that he would be visiting the job site with Truman tomorrow when the Lehmans left for Ohio. “God knows the
answers to all our questions,” he murmured, “and we’ll have to wait until He decides to reveal them.”

  * * *

  That evening, after everyone had eaten a light supper, Rosetta walked Ruby and Beulah out to Delbert’s truck. Her heart felt heavy. It was clear that Delbert wanted the best for his older sisters, yet she sensed that once the three of them left Promise Lodge, he would put his foot down and make his sisters stay in his home with Claire and the kids. When he passed them in a long-legged stride, carrying their suitcases to the truck, Rosetta slipped her arms around Beulah’s and Ruby’s shoulders.

  “I hope you’ll have a peaceful ride back,” she said ruefully. “I’m sorry your brother is so upset about you wanting to live here.”

  “Oh, it’s us who’s sorry,” Beulah replied with a shake of her head.

  “Jah, we knew Delbert would be peeved at us,” Ruby said in a sorrowful voice, “but after we called him to tell him we were okay, I didn’t figure on him coming to haul us home.”

  “It’s not over yet,” Beulah insisted. “We love it here, Rosetta, and we want you to keep our rent money and hold our apartments for us. We’ll figure out a way to change Delbert’s mind.”

  “And if we see that’s not going to happen, we’ll let you know where to send our money.” Ruby reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a rectangular bar of soap. She inhaled its fragrance wistfully. “Awfully nice of you to welcome us with your homemade soap—”

  “And to send a fresh bar along for Claire, too,” Beulah added. “In the short time we’ve been at Promise Lodge, we’ve felt such kindness and compassion. Denki for welcoming us so warmly. We wish you and your sisters all the best as more folks come here to build new homes.”

  “Better get a move on,” Delbert called out from the truck’s window. “We’ve got a ways to go.”

  With a sigh, Ruby and Beulah both hugged Rosetta tightly. She was surprised at how attached she already felt to these ladies. She would miss them a lot.

  “We’ll keep in touch,” Beulah said as she eased away.

  “Don’t give up on us,” Ruby insisted. “I still plan to come back with my bees.”

  Rosetta nodded, her throat so tight she couldn’t respond. She watched the ladies clamber into the truck’s extended cab, waving until the vehicle rolled beneath the metal entryway sign.

  What if they don’t come back? What if Delbert—and other men in other families—won’t allow their maidel sisters and widowed mamms to live in our apartments? Have I made a really stupid assumption, Lord, dreaming that I could provide homes for other Plain women? Has all the money I’ve spent been wasted?

  Rosetta sighed and turned to walk back to the lodge. Bishop Floyd’s voice drifted out from the porch, where he sat talking to Amos in that holier-than-thou tone she’d already come to resent.

  But what if Floyd had a point? What if the other men who built homes here gave her the same sort of grief about how unnatural it was for women to live independently?

  Rosetta walked over to the fence where her goats stood watching her, chewing on grass. “What do you think, girls?” she murmured as she stroked their flat, bony foreheads. “What am I going to do if I can’t earn back the money I’ve invested in this place? Sure, Mattie and Christine will share their income, but that’s not the way we agreed it would work.”

  Rosetta walked around to the mudroom door so she wouldn’t have to deal with the bishop. Up the back stairs she went, and into her apartment. She would really regret it if she couldn’t live independently, as she’d planned—but she’d hate it even more if God decided Floyd Lehman was right.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Monday morning as Deborah was helping Laura and Phoebe carry the hash browns, fried bell peppers, onions, and crumbled sausage to the table for their haystack breakfast, the phone rang. Christine was the closest, so she answered it.

  “Hello?” She turned toward the dining room, where everyone was taking a seat. “Amos is here, jah. I’ll put him on.”

  She laid the receiver on the counter and picked up the big bowl of cheese sauce as Amos made his way to the phone. “It’s Preacher Eli calling from Coldstream,” she said in a low voice. “Sounds important.”

  Deborah’s throat tightened. Why would her father be calling Amos? Dat had been one of the loudest naysayers when Mattie and her sisters had sold their farms to come to Promise—and he’d considered Preacher Amos a traitor and a fool for joining them, too. She took her seat between Laura and Phoebe as Noah and Roman sat down across the table.

  Frances turned to Mattie and whispered, “This is one of the preachers from your former settlement, jah?”

  “It is,” Mattie replied. “Eli also happens to be Deborah’s dat—maybe with news about the unfortunate goings-on there,” she murmured. “Let’s listen.”

  As everyone kept quiet to hear Amos’s side of the conversation, Deborah looked away from Bishop Floyd’s piercing gaze. She’d felt fortunate that the story of her run-ins with Isaac hadn’t been mentioned during the Lehmans’ visit, and she sensed she would soon be subjected to Floyd’s nosy questions.

  “Hello, Eli. How’ve you been?” Preacher Amos said cordially. His brow furrowed as he listened. “Oh, my . . . and what did Obadiah say to that? If the new owner found Isaac’s driver’s license in the barn, that’s a horse of a whole different color.”

  Deborah’s eyes widened. Across the table, Noah leaned forward to listen more intently.

  “Well, you can’t blame Sheriff Renfro for doing his job,” Amos pointed out. “Sounds to me like he was being more than fair, all things considered . . . Jah, that Presley fellow’s only asking for what’s rightfully his.”

  “Who’s Presley?” Phoebe whispered.

  “The English fellow who bought my farm,” Rosetta murmured. “Apparently he’s ready to move in and—”

  “Well, I’ll have to think about that,” Amos went on in a louder voice. “Roman’s got to be here to milk Christine’s cows twice a day, and Noah’s landed a new job, so he can’t come, either,” he explained. “Truth be told, after the way Isaac slipped in on us last week, I’m not keen on leaving the women by themselves . . . Jah, I’ll get back to you on that, Eli. Gut to hear from you. Give our best to Alma and the rest of your family.”

  Amos returned to the table, his lips twitching in an odd smile. “We’d best pray over this fine breakfast while it’s hot—and lift up a word for our friends in Coldstream, as well,” he added. “Then I’ll share that earful of news from Eli.”

  Deborah’s pulse pounded as she bowed her head. It seemed the drama with Isaac had risen a notch higher. She prayed that Amos’s intriguing facial expression meant the situation wouldn’t be affecting them here in Promise. It would be a blessing if Amos nipped Floyd’s curiosity in the bud, too, but there was no predicting what the bishop might ask. Please, Lord Jesus, keep me strong in my faith as we hear what Dat had to say.

  “I sure do love a haystack breakfast,” Preacher Amos said as he arranged a layer of hash browns on his plate. “And it seems hay is a subject of interest in Coldstream, as well. When Keith Presley was checking out the damage to the Bender barn, he found Isaac Chupp’s driver’s license in a corner that hadn’t burned, amongst some of the boys’ beer boxes.”

  “Well, then,” Christine said with a decisive nod. “There’s no denying Isaac was there. Not that we ever doubted Deborah’s story.”

  “And aren’t we glad she called nine-one-one?” Mattie chimed in. “Had the firefighters not put out the flames, that scrap of evidence would’ve burned up with the rest of the place.”

  Bishop Floyd’s brow furrowed as he gazed across the table at Deborah. “And why did you call the police? Why did you get involved in a situation where boys were drinking beer and—”

  “That’s a long story, best saved for another time,” Noah interrupted impatiently.

  “Isaac Chupp is the bishop’s son,” Mattie said in a purposeful tone. “And Bishop Obadiah’s refusal to re
in him in was our main reason for leaving Coldstream.”

  Frances’s eyes widened. Deborah was extremely grateful that her longtime neighbors were determined to steer the conversation away from her painful past and concentrate on this morning’s new information. She put a small helping of hash browns on her plate, but she’d lost her appetite.

  “So what’d Presley do?” Roman asked. He covered his layer of hash browns with peppers and onions. “Seems to me Obadiah’s not got a leg to stand on now.”

  “Presley took the license to Sheriff Renfro, and the two of them paid a visit to the Chupp place,” Amos recounted. “Apparently Obadiah had no idea about the driver’s license or Isaac’s having a car, because Eli said the starch went right out of him. Isaac wasn’t home, but the sheriff drove around the back roads and ran across him and Kerry on the blacktop going into Eulah.”

  Amos grew more serious as he ladled cheese sauce over top of the sausage and vegetable haystack on his plate. “Renfro pulled Isaac over for driving without a license. Took both boys to his office and called Obadiah and Presley in to talk to them.”

  Deborah’s heart thudded. Was it wrong to feel so smug, so vindicated, because Isaac had finally gotten caught by someone who would do something about his behavior? The food on her plate smelled heavenly, but she set down her fork to listen to the rest of this story.

  Across the table, Noah appeared pleased. “No way for Obadiah—or Isaac—to wiggle out of that.”

  “Not a very gut impression to make on the new neighbors,” Mattie said. “I can imagine Mr. Presley was peeved about losing his barn before he moved in.”

  “Seems Keith Presley’s the sort to turn the other cheek,” Amos replied in an approving tone. “He said he wouldn’t press charges if the barn was replaced with a new one, because he didn’t want Isaac to have a black mark on his record for arson at such a young age.”