A Simple Vow

by Charlotte Hubbard

  Loretta chuckled. “Patience is a virtue,” she quipped. “And sometimes it’s one of mine.”

  They went downstairs and checked on the babies, who were still sleeping soundly in their baskets on the porch. After they all made a couple more trips upstairs with the supplies, Nora enjoyed one of Rosalyn’s chocolate-chip cookies and drove back to her store, which she’d closed for her visit to the Riehl place. The sisters had given her plenty of food for thought, and as she entered Simple Gifts through the back door, she realized someone was talking—

  Rounding the corner of a display, Nora stopped herself before she loudly demanded who was in her store. Asa was talking on the phone—and she’d given him permission to use it—so she slipped quietly to the front door to remove her note about being gone for a while.

  “Think about this,” Asa was saying earnestly. “There’s property for sale here in Willow Ridge, where our shop would do a whole lot more business than it does in Clifford. Everybody who runs a store here is doing really well—so seriously, let’s talk about this when I get back on Monday.”

  Nora stood still, looking out the door as she considered what Asa was saying. She’d heard Luke and Ira discussing the place across the road from the Riehls, as they were always on the lookout for cropland where their wheat, corn, and specialty grains could be grown.

  “It doesn’t hurt that there are a lot of unattached women here, either—three of them right across the road from this farm,” Asa continued with a chuckle. “That alone would make it worth our while to get out of Clifford. Think about it. See ya.”

  Doesn’t sound like he’s got much of a headache. Nora recalled Edith’s trembling lower lip, and her idea that Asa had been running away from her—yet now his jovial tone suggested he had plans for more than the land that was for sale.

  Nora turned, crossing her arms as he hung up the phone. “Asa, maybe I’ve got this all wrong,” she said tersely, “but if you’re playing Edith false, taking advantage of her trusting nature, stop it right now. If you break her heart, I’ll see that your business never gets off the ground in Willow Ridge.”

  Asa’s jaw tightened. He stared at her. “What makes you think—”

  “I’ve been around the block a time or two, with men who took what they wanted and then left me to fend for myself,” she stated. “So don’t start with me, and don’t lie to Edith. Maybe you’d better go take something for that headache, you think?”

  Asa’s eyes narrowed, but he had sense enough not to snap back at her. “Yes, ma’am,” he muttered under his breath. “I believe I will.”

  * * *

  As Edith gently placed Leroy and Louisa in the shaded playpen Saturday morning, she sighed happily. It was a perfect day for planting more of the garden, so she and her sisters had put on their faded work dresses and kerchiefs. “You kids can play with your new toys, and we’ll be right here where you can watch us,” she said as she put a couple of cloth dolls and balls in with them.

  The twins gazed up at her with their dark eyes. After Louisa pushed herself up into a sitting position, so did Leroy. “Bah-bah-bah!” the little girl chattered.

  “Bah, bah, black sheep, have you any wool?” Edith said in a singsong voice, delighted when the twins smiled at her.

  “Our lettuce, peas, and onions are off to a gut start,” Rosalyn remarked as she stuck a stake into the moist, turned earth. From there, she took a second stake and unwound its long string as she walked the length of the garden, making a guideline for planting a straight row. “What say we put the beets and carrots alongside them, and then the potatoes can go at this end?”

  Loretta nodded, toting her bin of seed potatoes and a hoe to where Rosalyn had pointed. “The soil’s nice and loose there. I’ve got this job covered!”

  With a final smile at the babies, Edith grabbed a hoe and made a shallow trench in the soil. As Edith followed the string, careful not to trample the row of bright yellow-green lettuce beside her, Rosalyn leaned over at the row’s beginning to drop beet seeds into the trench. The three of them had worked together in the garden since they were little girls helping their mamm, so the planting went quickly. “One row or two for beets?” Edith called out.

  “We had way too many beets last year,” Loretta said. Beets had never been her favorite vegetable.

  “I’d rather have more carrots and turnips,” Rosalyn agreed. “This house has a big root cellar, so we won’t have to put everything into jars so fast—and beets make such a mess!”

  “I’m all for less mess,” Edith remarked. “If the babies stay, we’ll have a busy summer before we even deal with picking and canning. Do you suppose Dat would agree to getting another deep freeze? Freezing is a lot less effort than canning.”

  “We can ask him later in the season. Catch him in a gut mood and—oh, is that who I think it is, over across the road?” Loretta asked with a rise in her voice.

  When Edith reached the end of the row, she turned. She swallowed, hoping her face wasn’t turning pink. There was no mistaking Asa’s black hair and height as he stood beside Luke Hooley, replacing his straw hat. The two men were gesturing and talking as they looked toward the house that was for sale. A third fellow, English by the looks of him, was nodding as he stood beside them.

  You’re a sweet girl. Better than I deserve.

  How many times had Asa’s parting words taunted her since yesterday? And what did they mean? Edith had decided not to mention this to her sisters, who were older and more experienced with men—but they were looking at her, expecting an explanation for Asa’s presence. “Asa was sort of interested in how much that place was selling for.”

  “Sort of interested?” Loretta teased.

  “As in, he might want to live there?” Rosalyn chimed in. “Now isn’t that interesting? What did you two talk about yesterday, anyway?”

  Edith sighed and started toward the other end of the garden with her hoe. “I’m the wrong one to ask. He was all excited about moving his furniture business here—at least until I said how nice it would be if he lived across the road,” she said glumly. “Then he started making excuses. Said he had a headache and took off across the backyard as though I’d caused it.”

  “A lover’s quarrel—or he got cold feet,” Loretta remarked.

  “It’ll blow over,” Rosalyn predicted sympathetically. “Asa seems like a really nice guy. And he’s gut with the twins.”

  Maybe that won’t matter. Maybe the babies won’t be staying, and maybe Asa won’t be moving here. Edith stuck the corner of her hoe firmly into the soil and dragged it parallel to her previous row, about a foot away. She focused on her work, figuring her sisters were whispering about her as they leaned over the top of the playpen to pay attention to the twins for a moment.

  Edith did not figure on hearing her father’s voice, however, calling out to the men across the road. “Luke Hooley, is that you?” he said as he strode down their lane. “Got a question about the eggs we’re selling at your mill store.”

  As she and her sisters glanced at Dat and then at each other, they shrugged. Edith hadn’t heard Dat expressing any interest in the chickens his cousin Reuben had left behind when he’d traded homes with them—but Dat had been doing some bookkeeping at the kitchen table after breakfast, so perhaps something about the receipts had caught his attention. Loretta went back to planting potatoes while Rosalyn and Edith covered the beet seeds and planted carrots in the next two rows. Their backs were to the road, so Edith jumped when Loretta let out a yelp.

  “Asa!” her sister exclaimed. “And what brings you here on this fine spring morning?”

  Edith really wished her backside weren’t pointing at the sky while she continued along a row with her carrot seeds. Keeping her head down made it easier to follow Asa’s conversation without gawking at him, however.

  “Luke and I met the real estate fellow and looked at the place across the road,” he replied. “Checked out the house and the outbuildings. Luke’s looking for more plots to raise his
grains, because it’ll soon be time to get them planted. He has to find somebody who’ll farm for him first, however.”

  Edith glanced behind her. Dat was still chatting with Luke out by the road—and Asa was walking toward the playpen, but he was looking at her. Edith quickly righted herself and felt the blood rushing in her head. She waved self-consciously. Asa tipped his hat before lifting Louisa into his arms.

  Feeling compelled to visit with him—like a moth to the flame, she thought—Edith walked into the shade with her hoe. “So what did you think of the house and the property?” she asked, thinking that would be a safe subject.

  Asa waggled his eyebrows at the baby, getting a laugh in return. “It’s a decent size, overall—but of course I’d have to have the wiring taken out or cover the outlets,” he added. He lowered Louisa back into the playpen and picked up her brother. “But I have a lot of hurdles to clear before I cross that bridge—such as convincing my brother that coming to Willow Ridge would be a gut move. He’s not one for making big changes. And how about you, little man?” Asa asked the boy he’d cradled in his bent elbow. He wrinkled his nose. “Something tells me a change would do you gut.”

  “I’m headed inside anyway,” Rosalyn said as she leaned her hoe against a tree. “I’ll take Leroy and then come back to check Louisa.”

  “I’ll get her,” Loretta insisted as she, too, set aside her hoe and fetched a baby. “We can’t have these wee ones making a bad impression on company, after all.”

  Edith realized immediately that, once again, her sisters were leaving her and Asa alone together. What could she do except carry on a conversation, trying not to act as though he’d hurt her feelings?

  “Would this be a gut time to fetch my clothes?” he asked. “I owe Ben Hooley some money for my horse—”

  “They’re folded and waiting in the pantry,” she replied, wiping her dirt-smudged hands on her old skirt. “I’ll go get them.”

  “If I take them across the back lot, maybe your father won’t get after you for washing them,” Asa suggested as he followed her toward the rear of the house. “He was quizzing Luke about the price you girls are getting for your eggs, insisting that it costs more to feed the chickens than the Hooleys are paying you.”

  “Oh, my. Dat watches his dollars pretty closely.” Edith’s cheeks tingled with embarrassment. “I hope he didn’t ask you anything too personal about—”

  Asa let out a short laugh. “He shook my hand and turned right to Luke, as though he didn’t really see me. Once your dat realizes I’m the guy Will blames for fathering the twins, though, he’ll have plenty of questions.”

  “Jah, there’s that,” Edith murmured as she swung open the door to the mudroom. She stepped into the pantry and grabbed the brown grocery sack she’d stashed in the darkest corner. “Turns out we didn’t need any baby formula or supplies, so I put your money back in your pants pocket. Denki for offering to pay for it.”

  “You’re a peach for doing my laundry.” Asa blocked the pantry doorway, casting his tall shadow over her as he smiled. “I’m sorry I left in such a hurry yesterday, Edith. I was hoping to catch my brother in the shop when I called him. But he didn’t answer.”

  “Folks are never waiting by the phone when you want them to be.” Edith’s cheeks prickled with heat. She hoped Asa would call her after he’d returned to Clifford, even as she realized that if Dat got to the phone shanty before she did, he would assume something was going on between the two of them.

  “Before I go home, though, I’m stopping through Roseville to visit with Will,” Asa said. “I’m a man of my word, Edith. I hope you’ll believe that about me—and trust me to uphold my end of that promise, the way I know you’ll care for the twins. Better go.”

  “Jah, bye,” she whispered.

  Asa’s smile looked alluring and mysterious in the unlit pantry, and his bruises and cut forehead were not noticeable in the dim light. He winked at her before he left.

  Edith remained in the pantry after she heard the screen door close. She wanted to believe what Asa had said about upholding his end of the vow about the twins . . . even though it might mean those two precious babies would be taken away from her. Once again Edith reminded herself that it wasn’t her place to cling to the twins for her own gratification. She was to watch for a sign from God and live the way He was directing her.

  The front door banged, and her father settled himself in his chair at the kitchen table. Edith knew better than to dawdle until her sisters came looking for her, so she stepped out into the kitchen and very quietly shut the pantry door.

  Dat turned immediately. “I got you girls another fifty cents a dozen for your eggs,” he announced smugly. “Told Hooley it was highway robbery, considering how costly his organic chicken feed is—and how hard you girls work at keeping an eye on the birds as they roam around the pasture, and cleaning out their house.”

  Edith kept a straight face, but inside she wilted. Luke couldn’t have been pleased about Dat’s challenging his pay rate.

  “Hooley impresses me as a gut sort, mostly—even though he carried on about that Asa fellow more than I cared to listen to,” her father went on. “He says Detweiler’s financially solvent enough to consider buying that land across the road, and that he’s thinking to pay Asa a nice rental fee for the use of the cropland. Luke also told me how Asa was going to hold Will Gingerich accountable and get to the bottom of this baby dilemma—but I’ll believe that when I see it.”

  Dat studied her, twisting his pencil between his thumb and forefinger. “Cat got your tongue, missy?”

  Edith shook her head. “No, I—I’m just listening to you, Dat, before I go out and plant more garden with Loretta and Rosalyn.”

  His lips twitched. “I know what you’re thinking, Daughter. Asa Detweiler’s caught your fancy. He talks a gut line—or at least he convinced Luke to partner with him—but you can’t help noticing how those twins look just like him. Maybe Will’s dead wife was the only one telling the truth.”

  Edith swallowed hard. She couldn’t think of a word to say as she mentally reviewed the babies’ faces for signs that Asa had fathered them.

  “I predict that if Detweiler actually confronts Will Gingerich, nothing will come of it,” Dat went on in a lower voice. “And once he leaves Willow Ridge on Monday, I believe we’ll have seen the last of him. Plan accordingly.”

  Edith did her best not to blink or to let her eyes tear up as she held Dat’s gaze.

  “It’s not my intention to be cruel, understand,” her father went on. “I just don’t trust Asa—or Will—any farther than I could throw them.”

  After an intense moment of silence, Dat focused on his ledger again. Edith slipped out the back door, clenching her teeth against a whimper until she was out of his earshot. Her sisters were bent low in the garden, so she took a moment to look past the chicken house to the grassy pasture where the chickens pecked contentedly. When she felt she had her emotions under control again, she went over to the playpen. Leroy clapped his hands and grinned up at her, so Edith picked him up.

  Yes, his wispy hair was turning dark—but it was brown rather than black. He was slender, like Asa—but Andy had declared the babies underweight because their mother probably hadn’t been able to feed them. It was anyone’s guess what Molly Gingerich had looked like, and Edith wasn’t about to press Will for details of his deceased wife’s appearance. These babies’ faces and eyes were still changing—every day, it seemed—so declaring their resemblance to anyone seemed a fool’s game.

  It’s not my intention to be cruel—

  “Edith, what’s the matter?” Loretta asked as she approached the playpen. “You’re looking at Leroy as though he’s done something horribly wrong, even though he’s just an innocent little baby.”

  Willing the frown from her face, Edith sighed. “Of course he’s innocent, a sweet lamb of God,” she murmured. She cleared her throat. “Dat just told me he insisted on Luke’s paying us another fifty cents a dozen fo
r our eggs.”

  Loretta sucked in her breath. “How’s Luke to make any profit if he pays us so much more?”

  “Is it just me, or has Dat been pinching the pennies harder since we moved here?” Rosalyn wondered aloud as she came to join their conversation. “I thought his clock business was picking up—his workbench is piled with repairs—”

  “And he’s shipped a lot of new clocks lately,” Loretta put in. “Just Tuesday, the UPS man took five or six of them.”

  “Folks here have been stopping by to look at his clocks, too,” Rosalyn said. “Ira Hooley bought one for his new house, and the Witmers have hung one in the Grill N Skillet with a sign about Dat’s business.”

  When Louisa flapped her arms and let out a little squawk, Loretta leaned down to pluck her from the playpen. “All this talk about clocks and penny-pinching is boring, jah?” she murmured as she nuzzled the little girl’s cheek.

  Edith shifted Leroy to her other arm, thinking she already noticed some weight gain since they’d switched to goat milk. “Maybe you should think about working at Simple Gifts after all, Loretta. Nora wouldn’t have carried on about how popular your rugs will be if she didn’t believe her customers would buy them, or come to rug-making classes.”

  “And even if you didn’t teach classes, I’m thinking Nora would pay you a decent hourly wage,” Rosalyn said. Her forehead puckered as she thought for a moment. “Do you suppose Dat’s reacting to the twins’ being here? Thinking we’ll be out a lot of money, the longer we keep them?”

  Edith shrugged. “He knows Nazareth is donating their milk—which she could be making into cheese to sell at Luke’s store,” she pointed out.

  “Maybe we should show him all the baby stuff Nora brought over,” Loretta said. “And maybe he just found a mistake in our receipts and it’s got him going. He’s been a lot more distracted by little things like that since Mamm passed.”