Rosemary Opens Her Heart: Home at Cedar Creek, Book Two

by Naomi King

  “Rosemary!” Footsteps echoed in the stairwell, and Beth Ann burst into the kitchen with Ruthie close behind her. “Have you seen— Is Katie down here with you?”

  Rosemary’s eyebrows flew up. “No, I thought she was with you.”

  Beth Ann’s stricken expression sent Matt’s pulse into high gear. “Have you looked in all the upstairs rooms? Checked the closets?”

  His sister’s expression matched Beth Ann’s as she took off to search the main level. “Katie?” Ruthie called out. “Katie, are you playing hide-and-seek?”

  “We were just— I’m so sorry, Rosemary!” Beth Ann replied in a tight voice. “We got busy chatting about which room I’d like, and—”

  “It’s all right, Beth Ann. Let’s spread out and look for her,” Rosemary murmured. “She’s probably poking around in all these new rooms. You know how she likes to have us chase after her now that she can go down the steps on her bottom.”

  Matt was already heading for the door. “Check the house and yard,” he suggested, “while I look outside. Could be if she’s seen folks still visiting up at the Grabers’, she went to find her grandpa.”

  Rosemary nodded, keeping a purposeful calm about her. After all, the first time Matt had met her, she was looking for the pixie who had considered it a game to get away from her mamm. This time, though, they had no idea how long Katie had been gone. And once Matt stepped outside, he realized how many hiding places the empty outbuildings offered an inquisitive little kid.

  Puppies! Play with the puppies! As Matt heard Katie’s excited voice in his mind, he circled Titus’s new house and then looked across the road toward his own pastures. The redbud blooms had almost all changed to green leaves. Katie was wearing a dress the color of a thistle, with a white pinafore, so she should be easy to spot.

  Matt jogged across the blacktop ahead of Mervin Mast’s carriage. “Seen Katie?” he called out.

  Mervin and Bessie shook their heads. “We’ll keep an eye out,” Bessie replied. “Can’t have her on this road now that everybody’s driving home.”

  The thought of a horse spooking, maybe trampling the little girl who was unaware of the damage such large animals could do, sent Matt’s heartbeat up a notch. How far could Katie possibly have gone in such a short time? Had she slipped down the stairs while he was kissing Rosemary? Surely those unsteady, dimpled legs couldn’t have carried her much beyond the yard. Yet, as he recalled the toddler’s agility when she’d darted away from Rosemary at Zanna’s wedding, he realized he could take nothing for granted.

  Matt reached the fence at the edge of the Lambright property and ran faster, toward the barns. Maybe Katie had headed this way, thinking to play with Abby, or—

  Where are the dogs? Ordinarily Pearl and Panda rushed out to greet him, barking and wagging their tails. Once past the sheep barn, Matt clambered over the wooden gate and sprinted around the barnyard. “Panda?” he called out. Then he whistled between his two fingers. “Pearl! Come on up here, pups!” he hollered.

  No sign of movement. He’d never thought about it before, but Matt was now aware of how far their pastures spread in every direction…how easy it would be for a little girl to wander along Cedar Creek and stumble on tree roots before falling into the water. Or if she went up to one of the ewes, thinking it was an oversized dog…

  Matt gazed back toward the Bontrager place. Rosemary and the two girls were out in the yard, calling Katie’s name, and even from here he could read the fear on their faces. Should he bridle a horse and go looking along the front fence line? Should he run to the Grabers’ and form a search party while some able-bodied fellows were still there? Truly worried now, he let out another loud whistle.

  A single woof! made his head swivel. Matt didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, to run or stand stock-still. Tiny Katie was toddling through the lush spring grass with Panda on one side and Pearl on the other, blissfully unaware of the turmoil she’d caused. She was over where the lambs liked to play, not far from the feeders and watering troughs. However, a handful of ewes stood off to the side, where they could charge over at the first sign that Katie intended to handle their offspring.

  “Thank you, Lord,” he murmured. For a moment he watched his wonderful dogs escorting the little girl across the green pasture dotted with dandelions. “And a little child shall lead them” from the Book of Isaiah came to mind.

  But Rosemary’s little girl wasn’t out of danger. Had it not been for his dogs instinctively flanking her, keeping the contrary ewes in their places, Katie might well be a lavender heap in the grass, mauled by those protective mother sheep. Matt stepped slowly toward the trio, signaling to the dogs to keep them from running toward him. Their tongues lolled and their tails wagged as though they knew they were the heroes of the moment. When Katie saw him and cried out in delight, Panda and Pearl remained beside her as she walked faster, her little arms extended toward the sky in excitement.

  “Matt!” she squealed. “Katie play with the puppies!”

  Matt swallowed a big lump in his throat and strode toward her, his arms outstretched. What was this crazy sensation crackling through him, as though he’d been struck by the arc from a welder? For a fleeting moment, Katie was his child and he’d nearly lost her in a dozen potentially hazardous ways and places. But she was safe! Happy to see him and at ease with his dogs, even though Panda and Pearl stood taller than she did. He covered the last ten feet in a rush and grabbed her up.

  “Katie, you gave your mamm and me quite a scare,” he said sternly, yet he couldn’t be angry with her. He held her sweet weight against him, nuzzling the flyaway tendrils that had escaped her pulled-back pigtails. “When we get you back to your mamm, I wouldn’t be surprised if she swats your bottom—”

  Katie clapped both sides of his face between her chubby hands. “I love you, Matt!”

  So much for lecturing her about the dangers of running off and the punishment that might follow. Once again her words rendered Matt speechless, head over heels in love…awash in the wonder of having a child declare him worthy of her affection. Katie looked so much like Rosemary, with intensely green eyes and a turned-up nose, that he already knew she’d have fellows seeking her out sooner than he cared to think about.

  “You say it, too, Matt!”

  His breath stuck in his chest. Was it putting the cart before the horse to say those three little words to this pixie again before he’d said them to her mother? Was she manipulating this serious situation with her affection? Yet if he didn’t respond…

  Katie’s eyes coaxed him.

  “I love you, too, Katie,” he whispered.

  “Jah, I know it.” She giggled before nuzzling his nose.

  Matt wasn’t aware of crossing the road. He surely must have floated, for his feet didn’t seem to touch the ground as he made his way between the buggies pulling away from the Graber place. Folks he’d known all his life called out relieved greetings when they saw who was in his arms.

  Rosemary ran toward him, followed by Beth Ann and Ruthie. “You little imp! I was worried half out of my—”

  “Jah, I know it.” Katie’s matter-of-fact tone made Matt shudder with trying not to laugh while Rosemary disciplined her. “How much do you love me, Mama?” When Rosemary stopped beside him, reaching for her daughter, Katie threw her arms around his neck.

  Matt’s heart danced. This moment, this memory, would live on through his lifetime…this sweet scene in which Rosemary stood looking up at him with such relief and gratitude while her child clung to him as though she’d never let go. What kind of love was this that held him so close, so effortlessly as mother and daughter staked their claims on his heart?

  “Oh, but you’re a sly one, buttering us up so we won’t punish you,” Rosemary murmured. “But you’re not to run off from Beth Ann—or any of us—ever again. Understand me, Katie? You could’ve gotten hurt or lost. We didn’t know where to find you.”

  “Those big sheep could trample you,” Matt joined in. “They get
really mean when strangers come too close to their babies.”

  “But they know Katie now,” the little girl murmured. “Like the puppies do. Like Grandpa’s sheeps do.”

  I am the good shepherd…I know my sheep and am known of mine…and I lay down my life for the sheep.

  The familiar Scripture came to Matt out of the blue and drove home a point in a way nothing else could. This lamb in his arms was a precious gift, and she had just become his lamb in an inexplicable, irrefutable way. So as Beth Ann and Ruthie gathered around them to complete the circle, what else could he do but treasure this moment of closeness they all shared? The Good Shepherd had watched over them from above—thanks in part to the four-legged shepherds Matt particularly cherished.

  Life—and love—simply didn’t get any better.

  Chapter 24

  Abby settled herself on one of the tall stools at the workbench in James’s carriage shop, clearing a space for her writing tablet. Ordinarily she wrote her letters for the Budget before she went to bed, but she craved the sound of James’s voice…a different inspiration for this piece. It wasn’t easy to come up with something fresh and interesting to say each week as she reported the news of Cedar Creek.

  She smiled at James, who was working with his shirtsleeves rolled to his elbows on this warm evening in late May. “You’re sure you don’t mind me keeping you company?” she asked. “I haven’t seen nearly enough of you this week.”

  James looked up from the bright red open carriage he was constructing. “That’s not going to change for a while, either,” he remarked ruefully. “Just when I’d had ideas about disappearing with you on Saturday nights, I got all those extra orders. Then Perry left me shorthanded. Can’t expect Leon or Noah to work much overtime—”

  “Jah, when you’re the boss, you keep the show running.”

  “—and when you’re single, you’re not giving up as much family time as your employees with kids, or so it seems to me. I feel bad about Emma having to spend the evening with the folks after tending them all day, but bless her, she’s not one to complain.” James picked up a shiny black wheel and slipped it onto the front axle of the carriage.

  Abby slid down from her stool. She placed her hands on his shoulders from behind him and began to massage the stiff muscles. “They were well into a game of Settlers of Catan when I stopped by a few minutes ago,” she said as she kneaded the tightness between his shoulder blades. “Your dat was all excited about the bricks and wool he was collecting as resources. Said it brought to mind the way Titus Yutzy would be pasturing his flock next door by the end of this week—almost like we’re playing a real-life game of Settlers of Cedar Creek.”

  James laughed. He flexed his shoulders as she continued to rub his muscles. “It’s gut he sees it that way. Gives him something to focus forward on instead of thinking about his best buddy Paul being gone.”

  Abby enjoyed the warmth that came through James’s twill shirt as she pressed her thumbs in circular motions at the base of his skull. For several moments they stood that way, giving and receiving comfort by sharing each other’s company. Not a romantic Saturday night, but it was an improvement over staying home while Phoebe, Gail, and Matt went out on dates, wasn’t it? Certainly better than that evening she’d cried after James hadn’t kissed her.

  “And how are things at the store, Abby?” James asked as he turned to face her. “It’s not like I’ve seen a lot of you, either, since the lot fell to Sam last week.”

  She drank in the timbre of his voice…the way his hair looked rumpled and needed cutting…the shine in his chocolate-brown eyes as he gazed at her. “Jah, there’s that. Even with the girls helping, sometimes we’re stretched pretty thin without Sam,” she replied. “He’s set aside a few hours on weekday mornings for studying his Scriptures and meeting with Vernon and Abe. I suppose there’ll come a time when preaching will be second nature to him, but he still feels overwhelmed by what he doesn’t yet know.”

  “Any fellow would,” James agreed. “But truth be told, I was glad your brother was chosen—not just because he was my choice, but because Carl, Zeke, and Mose aren’t as…seasoned.”

  “I picked him, too.” Abby climbed back onto the stool. “He’s the wisest man I know, now that Dat’s passed. Not that I go around telling him that!”

  James’s laughter echoed in the upper spaces of the workshop. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “His sister Abigail would make a gut preacher, if she were a man. But I’m glad she’s not.”

  And wasn’t that a fine thing to say? As James returned his attention to the red carriage he was working on, Abby opened her notebook and picked up her pencil.

  An incredible change is coming over Cedar Creek. We are rolling along life’s highway like carriages, some of us leaving town—like Perry Bontrager, gone to live closer to Salome’s parents. And we are welcoming Titus, Rosemary, Beth Ann, and Katie Yutzy to town with their wagonloads of furniture and sheep.

  Carriages play an important part in Plain lives, and our local carriage maker, James Graber, has been blessed with many new orders for specialty rigs as a result of a magazine article featuring one of his open coaches. The modern world is embracing Amish craftsmanship, and we are pleased to share the work of our hands with those who value our dependable products. We gals have recently enjoyed two frolics, to present Salome Bontrager and then Beth Ann Yutzy with quilts, because when we share our time and hand-sewn projects, we express a love that outlasts words.

  James looked up from tightening the bolts on the second wheel. “You’ve got a mighty intent expression on your face, Abby. Must take that sort of concentration to be a writer.”

  “Jah, you could say that,” Abby replied in a faraway voice. “Although the custom work you do requires a skill I could never hope to have. But I suppose I put words on the page as well as the next scribe.”

  “Puh! No one writes pieces like you do, Abby. My folks—and everyone else in these parts—turn to your letter first thing each week when the Budget comes in the mail,” he declared. “So where do you get your ideas for weaving Plain ways into our local news?”

  Heat crept up her neck. She couldn’t admit she’d been gawking at James while he worked…but even so, would everyone realize that scribe Abigail Lambright was head over heels for the man she was writing about? “Oh, the ideas come from all over,” she hedged. “Instinct and thin air, mostly.”

  He rolled the third black wheel toward the opposite side of the carriage. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Abby. You could put all of your pieces together and come up with a real gut book—and folks would snap it off the shelves, too,” he added. “Takes a special talent to do that, you know.”

  A book? While she had saved the drafts of her Budget pieces in her loose-leaf notebook, the thought of compiling them had never occurred to her…and when would she have the time to take on such a project? “Everybody has a special talent or two, James. They’re part of the package God gives us when we’re born. And from there, as we grow up and grow in our faith, it’s up to us how we use those gifts,” she said. “It would be wrong for me not to write—or not to sew and mind Sam’s store—just as it would be a waste of your gifts to farm or to make pallets instead of creating extra-special carriages.”

  She watched him tighten the shiny black bolts on the final wheel. It was a pleasure to observe a master craftsman at work. The man and his tools accomplished so much, seamlessly and with no apparent effort. Abby had noticed this while Owen and Amos Coblentz had built her house, too—but they weren’t nearly as fascinating as James Graber. “So…are you going to tell me about this rig, James? You’ve never built a bright red one—although your Mardi Gras coach was mighty colorful.”

  His face lit up. “Seems Santa needs a new carriage for the Christmas parade at Disneyland, clear out in California,” he replied. “And while Santa’s not part of our Plain celebration, the fellow ordering this rig told me how many homeless kids would be receiving food and warm clothes
from his company, for Santa to deliver after the parade. That made it more worth my while.”

  “Well, what do you know about that?” Abby whispered as she considered this. “Who would’ve thought such a rig would come from Cedar Creek, Missouri?”

  She loved the way his cheeks colored. James apparently had no idea how special the outside world considered his work. “It’s my calling, getting folks where they need to go,” he replied, “just like you sew wonderful-gut clothing, and write, and make everyone you meet feel special.”

  The heat rose to her face and she stared at her writing tablet. “Oh, James, you say the nicest things.”

  “I speak the truth, is all. And I’m happy you came over to spend this evening with me,” he added. “I don’t ordinarily like having somebody hang around while I work, but you? I realize now how much I crave your company, Abby. It brings me a lot of happiness. A lot of peace.”

  Who said she was the only one whose words could change the world? Abby’s heart fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings as she gripped her pencil. “I—I like spending time with you, too, James,” she whispered.

  The world went still as he laid his wrench on the carriage seat and came to stand in front of her. He took her hands in his, and she rose to face him. “Abby.”

  Was he going to say something life-changing, like I love you or Will you marry me? Abby held her breath, unable to shift her gaze from his. She’d known her answer to that question for years, but it still made her tingly to think that he might express his affections, his intentions, in this unexpected time and place. “Yes, James?”

  He looked right through to her soul. “I…This isn’t how I expected our lives to work out, but—” He paused, looking as nervous as Abby felt. “Well, our feelings for each other have raced along lately, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. But I hope you’ll understand that I can’t commit myself for a while,” he said hoarsely.