A Simple Wish

by Charlotte Hubbard

  “And the sooner we get out of the girls’ way, the sooner we can eat,” Asa pointed out, nodding toward the front room.

  Dat glared at the twin brothers as though he were planning a retort for their ears alone, and then he stalked out of the kitchen. “Carry on, ladies,” Asa murmured as Drew blew them all a kiss.

  When the men had left, Loretta and her sisters all stood near the refrigerator as Rosalyn took out bowls of macaroni salad, coleslaw, and carrot salad. “An air conditioner?” Edith demanded in a shocked whisper. “Since when—”

  “I have no idea,” Rosalyn murmured.

  “Well, that might explain why Dat has been spending so much time in his shop this summer,” Loretta said in a huff. “It was fine for us girls to be running the canners, working in all that heat, while he was as cool as a cucumber—”

  Edith gently squeezed her shoulder. “Apparently Bishop Tom has handled it,” she pointed out softly. “Think of the ruckus we would’ve caused had one of us discovered that air conditioner.”

  “Jah, and we might not like it that Drew knows more than we do about Dat’s fall from grace,” Rosalyn said, “but he’s the better person to hold his information over Dat’s head, because he’s a man and he doesn’t really answer to Dat. I like that,” she added, smiling gratefully at Loretta. “If you and Drew really want to live at home, I thank you from the bottom of my maidel heart.”

  Loretta was about to remark that Rosalyn would surely find her own husband someday, except Dat walked into the kitchen and took his usual place at the head of the table—even though it was Asa’s table. She exchanged a resigned glance with her sisters and carried the bowls of salad to the table while Edith wound the twins’ swings so they would keep the babies occupied for a while longer.

  Loretta sighed. No matter how badly she yearned for happiness and peace among her family members, there were things—and people—she was simply unable to change.

  * * *

  As all heads bowed around the table, Drew observed Cornelius through partially open eyes. The man was a bundle of nerves now that he and Asa had exposed the secret air conditioner and the fact that the bishop had confiscated it. The girls’ startled expressions had confirmed Drew’s suspicions: their dat was dead set against confessing even the most minor of his mistakes to his daughters.

  But now he realizes that I might know a lot more than he’d originally figured on, Drew thought smugly. And except for the exact amount of money he’s gambled away, I believe I do.

  When Asa cleared his throat to end the silent prayer before Cornelius could do it, Drew smiled to himself. He’d told his brother about the magnitude of Cornelius’s misbehavior, and Asa had agreed that those details should remain confidential, because Bishop Tom and Preacher Ben were ultimately in charge of the deacon’s discipline. But Asa was incensed enough not to put up with any more of his father-in-law’s bullying. It could only be good for the Riehl sisters that two more men had joined their family.

  Cornelius shot Asa a sour look but said nothing about him usurping the power of ending the prayer. He scowled at the platter of cold grilled chicken in front of him and then at the sliced ham, the various bowls of salad, and the basket of bread. “For this, I’ve waited all morning?” he grumbled as he reached for the chicken. “Same stuff we had for dinner nearly every day this week.”

  “And for that which we are about to receive, Lord, we are truly grateful,” Drew intoned as he picked up the nearest bowl of salad. “Cornelius, maybe if you told us why you’re so impatient and critical today, we could relieve you of your emotional burden.”

  “A burden shared is a burden halved,” Loretta quipped quickly.

  Drew winked at her, pleased to see she was rising above her father’s persistent rancor.

  “Maybe if you’d mind your own business and leave me alone, Detweiler, we’d all be better off,” Cornelius shot back.

  Drew took his time spooning carrot salad onto his plate, determined not to give Loretta’s dat the power to shut down their dinner discussion. “All right,” he said after a few moments, “the rest of us will continue talking as though you’re not here. Feel free not to respond while we go about our business and leave you alone.”

  Edith’s dark eyes sparkled as she accepted the platter of cold grilled chicken from her father. “A little bird tells me there’s to be a wedding in the near future,” she said happily, “but I’m waiting to hear a date. Weddings are such happy occasions—and we could all use one of those.”

  “That’s not news,” Cornelius muttered under his breath.

  “Chirp, chirp!” Loretta teased, ignoring her dat. “A lot of folks have been assuming Drew and I would get hitched, but right after he proposed the first time, I backed out because I didn’t want to live at home anymore,” she explained lightly. She made a point of looking at everyone except her father. “However, after a deeper discussion of the subject yesterday, I’ve seen the wisdom of Drew’s desire to live at our place for a while after we’re married—so I said yes again, and this time it’s going to stick! It’s in a woman’s best interest to listen to her man, and to share his beliefs, after all.”

  Cornelius’s eyes widened as he gripped the bowl of macaroni salad he was holding. “Since when do you listen to anything a man says?” he demanded tersely. “Detweiler told me he was moving in with us if you’d marry him, but that was just an idle threat. He’s said and done a lot of things to play people false, after all.”

  Drew returned the radiant smile Loretta was sending him from across the table as though her father weren’t present. He was glad to see the sisters having a little innocent fun.

  “I’m still waiting to hear a date,” Rosalyn chimed in, assuming her sisters’ light tone. “I hope I can squeeze your wedding into my jam-packed social calendar, Loretta.”

  Everyone except Cornelius laughed, Rosalyn loudest of all. Cornelius set the bowl of macaroni salad on the table with a loud thunk.

  “Thursday, October twentieth,” Loretta said sweetly. “That gives us three and a half weeks to prepare the celebration and gives Drew and me time to complete our counseling sessions with the bishop.”

  Edith rose from the table and went to the calendar on the wall. She grabbed a pen from the drawer beneath it, lifted the page for September, and sketched the outline of a heart around the third Thursday of October. “It’s official!” she declared. “Congratulations, Loretta and Drew!”

  “Jah, welcome to the family,” Asa teased as he pumped Drew’s hand. “I guess that means you’ll soon be my brother-in-law as well as my twin.”

  “Marriage complicates a lot of relationships,” Drew shot back with a laugh.

  Cornelius grunted. “Got that right.”

  “But I hope to un-complicate our wedding day by holding the dinner at the Grill N Skillet, as we did for you and Edith,” Drew continued without so much as a glance toward Loretta’s dat. “Josiah and Savilla put on such a fine spread for your wedding—”

  “Twice,” Asa put in with a chuckle.

  “—that I thought we’d go with the same arrangement this time,” Drew continued.

  “You won’t get a tastier wedding cake than Miriam makes,” Edith reminded them. “And I’m appointing myself the gal in charge of asking our neighbor ladies for pies.”

  “I volunteer to call our friends in Roseville and the far-flung family in Indiana and Ohio,” Rosalyn said eagerly.

  “Why do we want to see those people again?” Cornelius muttered. “They were just here in June.”

  “And if you want to hold the wedding here at our place,” Asa said, “we have all the space we need when we take down the two interior walls to expand the front room.”

  “Oh, think of the cleaning and furniture shifting that would save at our house,” Rosalyn murmured.

  “Jah, when you got married, the pew benches fit just right here, to give the bishop and the preacher and Deacon Cornelius plenty of space in the center of the room while they read the Bible and
delivered their sermons,” Drew recalled. Then he raised his eyebrows. “Too bad your original wedding day got waylaid by some guy with a huge chip on his shoulder and a bottle of sleeping pills.”

  “It all worked out, brother,” Asa insisted immediately, clapping Drew on the back. “I’ve never let those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches come between us.”

  “Your mistake,” Cornelius retorted under his breath.

  The kitchen got very quiet. Even the twins were still as they sat in their wound-down swing sets. “Beg your pardon, Cornelius?” Asa demanded. “Did you say something?”

  “We were leaving you alone, as you asked, Dat,” Edith said in a deceptively calm voice. “But when you question the way Asa forgave Drew for what he did, I draw the line at remaining silent. Drew confessed, and he’s been forgiven. From what I’ve heard, you’d do well to follow his example.”

  Drew’s eyes widened. It still meant a lot to him every time Edith insisted she’d forgiven him for pretending to be Asa at her wedding and for slipping sleeping pills into Asa’s sandwich on the previous evening. It meant even more that Cornelius’s youngest daughter had dared to speak so boldly to her father on his behalf.

  Cornelius’s face was turning red again as he glared at Edith. “Marriage seems to have made you forget your place,” he muttered, appearing ready to launch into a sermon about children honoring their parents.

  “And while you’re at our place,” Asa said, leaning forward to gaze directly at Cornelius, “you’ll do well to remember that we Detweilers don’t tolerate unjust criticism or men who expect the women in their family to act like doormats.”

  “But that’s the Old Order way of things!” Cornelius lashed out. “God put Adam in charge over all His other creations, and He declared that wives were to obey their husbands!”

  “And He created women because He knew we men would make a mess of things, too,” Drew said lightly, although he was totally serious. It was time for Cornelius to get a taste of how life would be different—very different—after he moved into the Riehl home.

  “It’s also the Old Order way of things to confess our sins and to ask forgiveness,” Drew continued firmly. “Confession has made a better man of me, Cornelius, and I hope the same transformation will take place in your life when you admit to the extent of your wrongdoing during all those trips to Kansas City. It amazes me that Bishop Tom and Preacher Ben have allowed you to remain the deacon of our church district. Shall I say more?”

  Cornelius paled and clapped his mouth shut.

  The kitchen rang with tense silence for a few moments, until Rosalyn shook her head.

  “What did you do, Dat?” she whispered. “All my life I’ve believed you were the authority on right living, and that as a pillar of the church, you were to help shepherd folks who’d wandered from the path to salvation. Is it worth risking your own salvation to keep such a serious secret?”

  “I don’t have to listen to this, you den of vipers!” Cornelius stood up so suddenly that his chair flew back and clattered against the kitchen floor. He strode from the kitchen and, seconds later, slammed the front door behind him.

  Startled, Louisa began to cry in her swing, and Leroy joined her. For the next few minutes Edith and Asa focused on comforting the little twins with bottles of goat’s milk that Edith had been warming in a pan of hot water on the stove. Rosalyn appeared stunned by the vehemence of her father’s outburst, while Loretta’s hazel eyes remained wide with surprise.

  “That settles it,” Loretta said as she reached for Rosalyn’s hand. “I’m not leaving you to live with Dat all by yourself.”

  “And when the day comes that we move into our own home, you’ll have a room there, Rosalyn,” Drew said.

  Rosalyn sighed sadly. “He’s getting worse, isn’t he? The depression and grief have been eating away at him until—”

  “Jah, he’s still hanging on to his grief—and manipulating it to get his own way,” Asa interrupted tersely. “But his guilt—his secret—is digging a hole so deep that it’s become an emotional grave. Cornelius knows that confessing is the right thing to do, yet he refuses to submit to the ways of our faith.”

  “One of these days his transgressions are going to catch up to him,” Edith predicted softly. She cradled Louisa in the crook of her arm as she held the baby’s bottle. “We can only pray that his misbehavior won’t drag a lot of other people down with him.”

  Drew sighed to himself. He had a feeling that Edith might be right—that Cornelius’s situation might get worse before it got better, and that when the truth came out, it might shake Willow Ridge like a major earthquake.

  As the five of them finished their dinner and enjoyed the cherry and pineapple fried pies Rosalyn had brought, Drew’s thoughts turned toward making his fiancée glad she’d agreed to marry him. Cornelius wasn’t the only man who had a few secrets—but the treasures Drew had hidden in the back room of the furniture shop would be a surprise Loretta could enjoy for years to come. He was waiting for the right time to show them to her.

  While the sisters cleared the table, Drew and Asa carried the little twins into the front room and placed them in the playpen. Drew was amazed at how fast his children were growing—their little faces and bodies appeared different nearly every time he saw them. Lately he’d noticed how they resembled Molly Ropp around their eyes and noses, but he kept such observations to himself. One of the things he looked forward to most when he married Loretta was watching her grow round with his children.

  And who would’ve believed you’d be thinking that way? his thoughts teased him. Just a few months previously he’d been skulking around Willow Ridge as he spied on Asa and Edith, envious of their courtship. Now he wanted to be settled in a home with a wife and children—and it seemed that God’s plans for him and Loretta were finally lining up that way.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  As Wyatt entered Ben and Miriam’s front room on Sunday, he was surprised to hear so many voices and conversations coming from the kitchen when his car was the only vehicle in the driveway. “Good to see you, Ben,” he said as they shook hands. “This is my sister Vanessa, visiting from Lexington, Kentucky—”

  “Jah, so I heard,” Ben said with a chuckle. He extended his hand toward her as well. “We’re mighty happy to meet you, Vanessa. Welcome to our home.”

  Vanessa’s eyes were wide as she glanced back toward the noisy kitchen. “Sounds like you have a large family,” she said a little nervously.

  “It’s the usual crowd here today. With you folks, we’ll have fifteen adults, a couple of kids, and three wee ones—and we don’t expect you to remember everybody’s name,” he added with a boyish grin. “Ah, here’s Rebecca. I’ll let her make the introductions.”

  Wyatt’s mouth almost dropped open. Rebecca was dressed Plain, wearing a dusty blue dress and a white apron, which fell to midcalf. With her hair pulled back beneath a pleated white prayer kapp and no makeup on her radiant face, she bore little resemblance to his tech-oriented website designer.

  “Wyatt and Vanessa!” Rebecca said, reaching for their hands. She chuckled at their expressions. “Sometimes I dress like my sisters because even though we grew up apart, we’re very close now. It’s a triplet thing.”

  For a moment, he’d feared her attire might indicate her desire to become Amish, which would render her off-limits to a thoroughly English man. And what does it mean that you want her right this minute because that dress and kapp make her look so innocent and untouched?

  His thoughts stopped wandering when two young women identical to Rebecca emerged from the kitchen wearing dresses and kapps of the same style and color. When the three of them linked arms, grinning mischievously, Wyatt laughed. “Oh my,” he said, shaking his head as he studied the three of them closely. “If I didn’t know Rebecca was in the middle, I couldn’t tell you apart.”

  “I bet you ladies get a lot of enjoyment out of that,” Vanessa said as she, too, looked them over in amazement.

  �
�This is Rachel,” Rebecca said, holding her fingers in rabbit ears behind one of her sisters’ heads. “She lives across the road with Micah Brenneman and baby Amelia, in the big white house that sits a ways behind the café. And Rhoda—”

  Rebecca hugged the sister on her other side as Rhoda waved at them. “Rhoda is married to our local nurse, Andy Leitner, and her little Aden is two months old now. They live in the upstairs apartment above the clinic.”

  “And we have Andy’s kids, Brett and Taylor, as well as his mamm, Betty, living with us,” Rhoda put in. “I was the wicked sister who fell in love with a divorced English man. But he joined the Old Order to be with me—and the folks in Willow Ridge have welcomed him as though he’s been Amish all his life.”

  “We’re blessed to have somebody with Andy’s medical knowledge in town,” Rachel remarked with a nod. “And the way I hear it, we’re blessed to have you here, Wyatt, wanting to raise draft horses.”

  “Jah, I already know some men who’re interested in your horses,” Rhoda chimed in.

  “My Micah, for one,” Rachel said quickly. “The horses available at the sale barn between here and Morning Star have mostly been for pleasure riding lately—not sturdy enough for pulling wagons.”

  Wyatt was listening carefully, pleased with what he heard—and noting that the triplets even sounded alike as they wove their sentences together. “Micah was on the crew that helped raise my barns,” he recalled. “I’ll be happy to talk about horses whenever he’s ready. And I’ll have some Thoroughbreds retired from racing that will make nice buggy horses once they’re trained.”

  “Come on in!” Rhoda said, gesturing for them to follow. “Everybody’s ready to sit down at the table and get to know you two.”

  Although Wyatt had met and worked with most of the men around town, it was an odd sensation to be the only male in the kitchen without a beard, suspenders, and a solid-colored short-sleeve shirt. Miriam was making her way through the group of women who were placing dishes of food on the table, wiping her hands on a tea towel.