A Bride's Agreement

by Elaine Bonner

  Regina’s heart writhed for her beloved. She prayed God would give her words to comfort him. “I know, my Liebling. Today, I did not see the Herr Rothhaus who came to our home in April. That man is kind, gentle, and caring. Today, I saw only hate. Hate is ugly, and it can make even those we love ugly.” Turning to him, she reached out and pressed her palm against his wounded face. “I pray God will root out the hate from your Vater’s heart so we can again see the gut man we know and love.” Her words made her think of Sophie’s treachery, and her heart experienced a double sting.

  Diedrich’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He didn’t reply, making her wonder if he didn’t trust his voice. Instead, he touched her hand still on his cheek then turned his face against her palm and kissed it. Taking the reins back in hand, he clicked his tongue and flicked the line on Gypsy’s back, setting the pony clopping along the road again.

  As they turned into the lane that led to the house, he glanced over at her. “What made you change your mind?”

  The memory of Sophie’s hateful words rushed back to sting anew. Regina felt a deepening kinship with the man she loved. Today they had both experienced painful disappointment in people close to them. She fidgeted, reluctant to repeat what she had heard while eavesdropping. But since it affected Diedrich as well as her, she decided he had a right to know what Sophie was plotting. After recounting the conversation she’d heard this morning between Sophie and Ezra, Regina twisted the fistful of apron she’d been wadding in her hands. “I always knew Sophie wasn’t especially fond of me, but I never imagined she disliked me so much.” Rogue tears stung her nose, forcing her to sniff them back. “How could she act so sweet to me, when all the time she hated me?”

  Diedrich shook his head and patted her hand. “I do not know, my Liebchen, just as I do not know how my Vater could let hate turn him into a man I do not recognize. But nothing is impossible with Gott. We must pray for Him to soften Sophie’s heart as well as Vater’s.”

  As they neared the house, Papa emerged from the big, yawning doors at the end of the barn. At the sight of Regina and Diedrich together, a look of pleased surprise registered on his face. He quickened his steps and met them between the barn and the house. Standing eye-level with Regina and Diedrich on the cart’s low seat, he glanced between the two, his smile widening. “Has Herr Rothhaus changed his mind, then? Praise be to Gott!”

  “Nein, Papa.” Shaking her head, Regina reached out and gripped her father’s arm to stifle his celebration. At Papa’s puzzled look, Diedrich supplied the gist of what had just taken place outside the new log house.

  Papa scowled and shook his head. “It is sorry I am to hear it.” He pressed his hand on Diedrich’s shoulder. “But you did the right thing, Sohn.” A wry grin lifted the corner of his mouth. “It is never wrong to remind even a parent of Christ’s commandments. Whatever your Vater may have said in anger, I know he loves you. In his letters to me, I could tell he was desperate to get you to America and out of reach of conscription. We must pray your words take root in his heart and that Gott will change him here and here.” He tapped his chest and then his head. Turning to Regina, he patted her cheek. “It is happy I am that you have decided to trust Gott, Tochter. It is not always an easy thing to do.” He glanced upward. “But Gott will reward your faith.”

  Regina smiled and hugged Papa. Though she had shared with Diedrich Sophie’s selfish and deceitful plans, she prayed she could spare Papa and Mama ever learning of them.

  Papa helped Regina down from the cart, and the three of them walked to the house together. “Your Mutter will be interested to hear of your news,” he said as he opened the door for Regina. But when they trooped into the kitchen, Mama was not in sight. Instead, it was Sophie who turned from mixing corn bread batter in the large crockery bowl.

  Upon seeing Diedrich with his arm around Regina, Sophie’s eyes widened. To her shame, Regina experienced a flash of satisfaction at the dismay on her sister’s face.

  Papa crossed to Sophie. “Where is your Mutter? We have news to tell her.”

  Sophie blanched and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She glanced toward the doorway that led to the interior of the house just as Mama emerged with Henry in her arms.

  “What news?” Mama took in the three of them and gave a little gasp. With trembling arms, she lowered her squirming grandson to the floor. Her dark eyes swam with unshed tears, and she clutched at her chest. “Herr Rothhaus has repented. Praise be to—”

  “Nein, Catharine.” Papa stepped to her side and gently explained what had transpired.

  The joy left Mama’s face, and Regina was struck by the stark contrast between Mama’s crestfallen expression and Sophie’s hopeful one.

  The starch returned to Mama’s frame, and she lifted her chin. “But it is a beginning. Gott is working, I think.”

  “Ja.” Papa nodded then turned to Regina and Diedrich. “When Georg sees you are determined to wed, he will relent and bless your union.” He smiled, his countenance brightening. “And soon I shall have a gut German son-in-law to inherit my farm.”

  Everyone chuckled but Sophie. Whirling on the group, she stomped her foot, and her face turned stormy. “It is not fair!” She glowered at Papa. “Regina is not even of your blood, yet she gets the farm simply because she is willing to marry the man you handpicked for her?” Casting a scathing glance at Diedrich, she snorted. “Why, you scarcely know him.” She stomped her foot again. “It is not fair, I say! I am the oldest and your blood daughter. I should inherit with my son—your blood grandson.” With a flourish of her wrist, she gave Regina a supercilious wave. “Not that spineless little pretender.” She wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something bad. “She’s not even my sister!”

  Though Sophie’s sentiments came as no surprise to Regina, her sister’s outburst and subsequent venomous diatribe stunned her. Regina and her sisters, including Sophie, had never before disrespected their parents in such a blatant manner. Diedrich stiffened at Regina’s side. With his arm protectively around her back, he slid his hand up and down her left arm in a comforting motion. Regina was sure he understood little of Sophie’s words, and wondered if Sophie had chosen to deliver her tirade in English for that very reason. Yet Sophie’s angry demeanor and disdainful looks left little doubt as to the subject of her ire.

  “Sophie.” Mama uttered her eldest daughter’s name with a disappointed sigh.

  Papa stiffened, and his brow lowered in a dark scowl. “Enough, Sophie! Regina is my Tochter, the same as you are.” He strode to Sophie, and for an instant, fear glinted in her eyes. But when he spoke, his voice was calm, and his words measured. “It is sad I am, Tochter, that you are so bitter toward the Schwester Gott has given you. Your Mutter and I have always tried to deal fairly with you and your Schwestern.” He shook his head and held out his hands in a helpless gesture. “You knew when you married Ezra I wanted to give the land one day to a farmer—a farmer with ties to the Old Country.”

  Sophie’s eyes welled with tears, and Regina’s heart went out to her. She could see how Sophie must feel much like Esau of old when his mother and brother contrived to deprive him of his birthright. But as Papa pointed out, Sophie, like Esau, had willingly forfeited any claim to the land when she married Ezra.

  Sophie lifted a defiant yet trembling chin. “But I fell in love with Ezra.”

  Papa put his hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “And so it was right for you to marry him. But he is not a farmer. And Henry, too, may well decide to follow his Vater and become a wheelwright or practice another trade altogether.” He gave Sophie a fond, indulgent smile. “Because your Mutter and I give the farm to Regina does not mean we love you and Elsie any less. Like now, you, Ezra, and Henry, as well as Elsie and William, will always have a home here if you need one. But Ezra and William are not farmers. It is sorry I am that you think your Mutter and I are unfair to want the land we bought and worked on all these years to go to a daughter and Schwiegersohn who will farm it as we have.”

  P
apa’s eye twinkled, and he quirked a grin at Regina. “I do not know what I would have done if Regina, too, had settled her heart on a merchant or a wheelwright or… a miller.”

  At the word “miller,” Regina’s heart jumped, and heat flooded her face. Had Papa suspected her earlier infatuation with Eli? She ventured a glance up at Diedrich’s face. His lips were pressed in a firm line, and his gaze skittered to the floor.

  “But praise be to Gott,” Papa continued, “Regina has settled her heart on Diedrich.”

  Sophie sniffed and folded her arms over her chest. Her rigid demeanor suggested she was not yet ready to surrender the argument. “But Herr Rothhaus may never grant them permission to marry. And Henry may grow up and decide to be a farmer. At least he is your own blood.”

  Mama, who had remained quiet but attentive to the exchange between Papa and Sophie, now glanced around the room, her attention clearly detached from the ongoing conversation. “Henry. Where is Henry?”

  CHAPTER 27

  Everyone stopped and looked around the kitchen, but Henry was not there.

  Sophie shrugged. “He has probably crawled into Regina’s bed again to take a nap. You know how he loves to do that. I’m sure I will find him there.” She headed for the house’s interior with Mama on her heels.

  Papa checked the washroom without success, and fear flickered in Regina’s chest. Though she suspected Sophie was right and Henry was fast asleep in her bed, she wouldn’t be easy until she knew he was safe. She held her breath, expecting any second to hear her sister or mother announce they had found him.

  Instead, Sophie’s voice from inside the house turned increasingly frantic as she called her son’s name. The next moment she burst into the kitchen, her face white and her eyes wild. “He is nowhere. I can find him nowhere.” Her voice cracked, and she began to tremble.

  Mama appeared behind her, looking as pale and shaken as her daughter. She turned desperate eyes to Papa. “Ernst, he is not in the house.”

  The flicker of fear in Regina’s chest flared. It was not unusual to occasionally lose sight of the active toddler, but until this moment, they had always quickly discovered his whereabouts.

  Sophie clutched her heaving chest. “My baby! My kleines Kind. Where could he be?” Her words came out in breathless puffs, and Regina feared her sister might swoon.

  As Mama and Sophie embraced, Papa slowly pumped his flattened hands up and down. “Now, now, we must stay calm. He cannot have gone far. We will find him in a bit.”

  Despite Papa’s assurances, Sophie began to sob in Mama’s arms. At that moment, Ezra came in from cutting hay. His face full of alarm, he rushed to Sophie and Mama. “What is wrong?”

  Turning from Mama, Sophie gripped her husband and sobbed against his neck. “He–Henry. We cannot find Henry… anywhere.”

  The alarm on Ezra’s face grew as he patted his wife’s back. “Has anybody looked upstairs?” The tightness in his voice revealed his concern. “I caught him climbing up there yesterday.”

  At his suggestion, Regina flew up the stairs, wondering why no one had thought of it sooner. But a quick perusal of the room revealed no Henry. She checked under the bed and in the wardrobe—every nook and cranny where a two-year-old could hide. As each spot revealed no Henry, Regina’s heart began to pound, and rising panic threatened to swamp her. Downstairs, she could hear the others scurrying around. Soon the whole house rang with a discordant chorus of people calling the little boy’s name.

  Regina hurried downstairs, and Diedrich met her at the bottom step. Fear stole her breath, and she could only shake her head at his hopeful look. Now true terror gripped her, and her whole body began to shake. Both the front and back doors were propped open to allow a cooling cross breeze. While everyone was focused on the argument between Sophie and Papa, Henry had obviously exited the house through one of the open doors. But which one? She thought of Papa’s bull, Stark. The well. Even her gentle pony, Gypsy, tethered beside the lane, could be lethal to a two-year-old if the child crawled between the pony’s hooves and the animal impulsively kicked out. A shudder shook Regina’s frame.

  Diedrich grasped her shoulders and fixed her with a calm and steady gaze. “We will find him, Regina. Gott will help us find him. You must believe that.”

  Unable to speak, she nodded. Fear paralyzed her brain until she couldn’t even fashion a coherent prayer.

  “Everyone outside!” At Papa’s booming voice, everyone jerked to attention then scrambled for the back door. Regina was glad for Diedrich’s strong arm around her waist, lending support to her quavering limbs.

  Sophie and Ezra stood fixed, their gazes darting around. They looked as if they would like to go in all directions at once, but their inability to do so kept them rooted in place.

  Papa began suggesting places Henry might hide. Diedrich held up a hand. “Wait.” At his quiet but firm voice, everyone turned to him. “I think we should first pray for guidance. Gott knows where Henry is. If we ask, He will keep the kleinen Jungen safe and lead us to him.”

  Papa nodded. “Ja. You are right, Sohn. We must first go to Gott in prayer.”

  Forming a circle, everyone joined hands, and Papa began in a strong voice, thickened by emotion. “Vater Gott, You know where our little Henry is hiding. We ask You to keep him safe and direct us as we go in search of our precious Kleinen.” When he referred to Henry as their precious little one, Papa’s voice cracked, and Diedrich stepped in to utter a hearty “Amen.”

  Even before the word had faded away, everyone scattered. Over the next few minutes, they checked the well, the chicken coop, and the outhouse. When they all gathered empty-handed at the back door again, Sophie looked pale, shaken, and on the verge of collapse. Regina suspected she looked much the same as the terror in her chest grew to a growling monster.

  Diedrich glanced toward the barn. “We have not yet checked the barn.”

  Mama sank, a trembling mass, to the built-up flat stones that edged the base of the well. At Diedrich’s suggestion, she gasped and gripped her chest, rekindled fright shining from her worry-lined face. Her voice turned breathless. “The horses. The cow. Stark is in there.” She lifted her terror-stricken eyes to Papa as if pleading for him to contradict Diedrich. “Not the barn, Ernst. Henry is only a baby. He surely could not have gone as far as the barn, do you think?”

  Papa pressed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and shook his head. “Nein. I’m sure he is playing with us and hiding, or has fallen asleep in a place we have not yet thought of.”

  Despite Mama and Papa’s denials, Diedrich continued to glance toward the barn, a look of urgency animating his features. “Still, it is worth looking, I think. Once when my little niece Maria was about Henry’s age, she hid in the barn for two hours before we found her.”

  Regina sensed something was tugging Diedrich toward the barn. They had prayed for God to guide them. To ignore what could well be divine nudges seemed beyond foolish. She trusted Diedrich’s instincts. “I agree with Diedrich, Papa. I think we should look in the barn.”

  Deliberation played over Papa’s anguished face. He obviously questioned wasting time on a fruitless search in what he considered an unlikely spot. At the same time, she suspected that Papa also was wondering if God had planted the hunch in Diedrich’s mind. At last he nodded. “Ja. We shall look in the barn.” At his pronouncement, he and the others followed Regina and Diedrich to the large, weathered structure across the lane.

  As they stepped into the building, Regina blinked, trying to force her eyes to more quickly adjust to the dim light. With trepidation, she turned her attention to the big bull’s stall. To her relief, the large animal stood sedately munching hay and flicking away flies with the brushy end of his tail. The cow, too, was all alone in her stall, as were the two huge Clydesdales.

  As she walked beneath the hayloft, a shower of hay dust filtered down, accompanied by what sounded like a faint giggle. She looked up and gasped as her heart catapulted to her throat. Perched on the edge o
f the loft with his bare legs dangling over the side beneath his gown, Henry looked down on them, his angelic expression keen with interest.

  Afraid to speak or even breathe, Regina gripped Diedrich’s arm. He followed her gaze and tensed. Mama, Papa, Sophie, and Ezra all gave a collective gasp.

  “How on earth…” Ezra uttered the words Regina was sure filled everyone’s minds.

  The answer stood propped against the loft. Evidently, Henry had somehow managed to climb the long ladder either Papa or Ezra had left there. Regina cringed, imagining the toddler’s precarious climb, his unsteady feet at times stepping on the hem of his gown in the course of his ascent. Her heart nearly stopped at the thought. But somehow God had helped the little boy to safely scale the ladder and reach the summit.

  Sophie gripped Ezra’s arm. “Do not just stand there, Ezra. Go up and get him!”

  Ezra hesitated. “I don’t know, Sophie. I don’t want to scare him. He might…” Leaving the thought to dangle like Henry’s legs, Ezra dragged his hand over his mouth. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

  Papa turned from Mama, who clung to his arm, and cupped his hands around Sophie’s shoulders. He kept his voice low and calm, though it sounded brittle enough to break. “Ezra is right, Sophie. We must be careful not to frighten him.”

  Sophie huffed. “Oh, for goodness’ sake! If no one else will go, I will.” She headed toward the ladder. “Mama is coming, Henry.”

  “Mama.” Henry leaned forward, evoking another collective gasp from the adults below. Sophie froze with her foot on the ladder’s bottom rung.

  Regina’s heart stuck in her throat. She gripped Diedrich’s arm and prayed. God, please help us find a way to get him safely down.

  Ezra grasped Sophie’s shoulders, gently moving her aside. “I’ll go up.”