A Plain and Sweet Christmas Romance Collection

by Lauralee Bliss

  Removing her gloves from the pockets of her coat, she ran her hands over the soft doeskin.

  She didn’t know the first thing about making woolen materials, but she had enjoyed managing the kitchen long ago. If Meredith approved, she would meet with Matthias today to see if he was serious.

  And then she would start working right away.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Sophie slowly followed Will around the second floor of the mill. The male workers didn’t look hostile as much as they looked perplexed, probably wondering why an outsider and a woman was touring their floor. Part of her wondered as well why she had agreed to do this. Like she’d tried to explain to Will and then Matthias, a woolen mill was nothing like a kitchen house, but Matthias said he was confident that she could do this job.

  She wished she felt confident as well.

  After the picking machine removed dirt and debris from the wool, Will explained, the workers washed it in the mill and spread it out on long wooden frames to dry overnight. The wool was dyed and fed through the giant rollers on the carding machines on the floor above them. Then it was either spun into yarn or woven into flannel on the looms in the nearby weaving building.

  She brushed her fingers over the wet wool as she watched the men work at the carding machines, the wooden floor trembling under her boots.

  How could she possibly help when she knew nothing about turning wool into yarn or flannel?

  A bell rang, and the workers dried their hands on their overalls as they stepped away from the frames.

  “Where are they going?” she asked Will.

  He nodded toward a table at the center of the room. “They’re stopping for a coffee break.”

  “How long do they work?” she asked.

  “Nine hours a day. The same as everyone else.”

  “Except the kitchen workers,” she said with a wry smile. “They are in the kitchen from five until midnight sometimes.”

  He sighed, clearly exasperated at her. “They work in shifts.”

  When she met his gaze, he looked quickly away. Like she’d seared him with her glance. “Have I done something to offend you?” she asked.

  He crossed his arms. “You don’t have any power over me, Sophie.”

  “I—” She hesitated, not quite knowing how to respond. “I’m sorry if I did something to anger you.”

  “You don’t need to apologize for anything.”

  His lips pressed together in a hard line, and she wondered where that easy smile had gone. The one that used to make her laugh.

  “Why did you ask me to work at the mill?”

  “Matthias thinks we need your help.”

  “What do you think?” she asked.

  “I think we need a miracle.” He turned abruptly away from her toward the table. “Do you want coffee?”

  She hesitated, uncertain if he was talking to her or someone else. When he didn’t turn back, she followed him into another room.

  After breakfast this morning, she’d asked Meredith about staying in Amana for a few weeks longer. Not only did Meredith approve of the plan, she’d hugged Sophie.

  She couldn’t remember the last time her daughter had hugged her.

  Meredith had also asked if she could go to school with Cassie in the mornings after the holiday. Sophie asked Matthias about schooling when they met, and he’d readily agreed to the plan. The community, he’d said, would provide for Meredith and Sophie alike until they returned to Des Moines.

  She studied the workers huddled around a table, some of them drinking beer from bottles, others sipping black coffee from tins. They all held bread in their hands as they laughed together with their colleagues and friends.

  It reminded her of her years in the kitchen house. Of the friendships that she’d taken for granted back then.

  As she watched them eat, an idea began to form in her mind.

  She smiled when Will handed her a tin with the coffee.

  Perhaps she could help them after all.

  Chapter 6

  This is ludicrous,” Will declared, leaning against the desk in his grandfather’s office, his mind racing at Sophie’s proposal.

  It was unheard of in the Amana Colonies. Matthias, however, pressed his fingers together in an arch over his desk, seeming to consider Sophie’s idea. “How much would it cost?” he asked.

  Sophie slid a piece of paper with numbers across his desk, and Matthias slowly reviewed them. When he looked up again, Will saw the admiration in his eyes. “This is good, Sophie,” he said. “Very good.”

  Will groaned, shaking his head. It wasn’t good at all. “The elders will never approve this.”

  Finally Matthias looked over at him. “If you have a better idea, I want to hear it.”

  That was the problem. He didn’t have a better idea nor would he. Sophie’s idea was unconventional but solid and completely workable if the elders approved. They’d never done anything like it before, but it didn’t mean they shouldn’t try.

  He admired her creativity—and honestly admired her for much more. But that didn’t mean he wanted to work alongside her to implement this plan.

  “When can we begin?” Matthias asked.

  Sophie tapped her pencil on the desk. “Depending on the elders’ approval, we could start by the end of the week.”

  Will shook his head. “We have to find outsiders to employ first.”

  Turning, she smiled at him. “I know exactly where to find them.”

  With her smile, he caught a glimpse of what this plan could mean for them. For him. If they switched to two shifts, like the kitchen house workers, they could potentially double their production.

  While they didn’t have enough workers in Amana for two shifts, Sophie proposed that they hire outside workers for a short season, a couple of months at the most, to complete their order for Sears and then catch up on their other work. If they could fulfill all their current orders by March, perhaps he could return to managing the fields in the spring. No longer would he have to be cooped up in the mill.

  He uncrossed his arms, glancing back at his grandfather. “When can you talk to the elders about it?”

  Matthias leaned back in his chair. “Tonight. After the prayer meeting.”

  Perhaps he would pray they’d approve her idea.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Machines stalled inside the mill as workers flooded toward the second-story window. Sophie stepped up to the window beside them and looked down at a black Stanley Steamer as it parked beside the front door.

  Who had come to Amana in such a fancy automobile?

  There were more automobiles in Des Moines these days, but clearly it was a rare sight here as the men admired the vehicle from their perch above the street.

  Thankfully, no snow covered the road into town—and the sky was clear—but who would be driving an automobile so far away from a city, during the winter? The driver could easily get stranded in one of Iowa’s snowstorms.

  Sophie started to move away from the window when the car door opened, and she saw the flash of a bowler hat. Then a man with a wool overcoat stepped out of the vehicle. When he turned his head up toward the second floor, her heart seemed to collapse.

  Senator John Hoffman was in Amana.

  She braced herself on the windowsill, her mind swirling as she stepped to the side, moving toward a chair. What was John doing here?

  She’d left him a telephone message a few days ago explaining that she wouldn’t be returning to Des Moines until the end of January. She hadn’t received a reply back, and she’d been much too busy at the mill to think any more about it.

  Eyeing the door to the staircase, she thought about running again, this time away from Amana, but there was no place for her to run from here.

  All the workers drifted away from the windows, back to the machinery. The work resumed around her at a steady pace, but her heart drummed a different beat of its own. Not one of anticipation or delight. It was the erratic, pounding beat of dread.

&nb
sp; In that moment, she wished that Will was here with her.

  The thought startled her and then slowly settled into her mind. Will had changed from the jovial man of their youth, but his animosity toward her began to chill after the elders approved her idea. She admired his strength and leadership and—after fighting her initially—his willingness to change his mind and try something new.

  John would be in the downstairs office by now, but she didn’t move from her chair. Ironically, the same day she’d left a message with his housekeeper, Will had boarded a train in the nearby village of Homestead and traveled to Des Moines to ask thirty or so unemployed coal miners if they’d like temporary work.

  According to Matthias, it had taken an hour to persuade the elders to invite outsider workers into the mill, in order to double their production, but eventually everyone agreed that they needed to attempt this for the good of their community.

  The carding machine clicked behind her; the floor vibrated under her boots. And she felt comfort in this steady rhythm of work.

  Just like Matthias had convinced the elders, she would need to make John understand how important it was for her and Meredith to remain in Amana for another month. Surely he would be pleased that Meredith was beginning to engage in life again and that Sophie was helping at the mill.

  When she returned to Des Moines, she would give John an answer about marriage. These four weeks would give them both some extra time to evaluate their future together.

  The door to the staircase opened, and Matthias stepped into the carding room. Reluctantly she rose and walked across the floor to greet him.

  “You have a visitor downstairs,” he said.

  She nodded. “The entire crew watched him drive up in his automobile.”

  One of his gray eyebrows slid up. “Yet you are still up here.”

  “John won’t be very happy with me.”

  “He doesn’t seem to be happy at anyone.”

  “He’s—” She hesitated, wondering how much to tell the man in front of her. And she wondered why she felt the need to defend the man downstairs. “He’s a very important person in Des Moines.”

  “I see.” Matthias moved back toward the door. “Much too important to spend his day motoring over to our colonies.”

  “He wants me to spend Christmas in Des Moines.”

  “What do you want?” Matthias asked.

  She rubbed her hands together. “I want to stay here.”

  Matthias reached for the latch on the door to reopen it. “Then it seems that you’ve already made up your mind.”

  She straightened her shoulders. She knew what she wanted, but what if her decision induced John to change his mind about their marriage? What if Meredith had to spend the rest of her life without a father to help care for her?

  Matthias quietly descended the stairs in front of her, and when they reached the bottom floor, she could see John through the office window, pacing the floor. He was twisting his stiff bowler hat in his hands, clearly not pleased.

  Matthias motioned to the door, and she took a deep breath before walking inside.

  “Hello, John,” she said simply.

  He turned abruptly toward her, but instead of greeting her, he pointed toward Matthias in the doorway. “We need to talk in private.”

  Matthias nodded his head. “I will wait in the next room.”

  Sophie turned back to John. His face was flushed, and for the first time it seemed, she really looked at him. At the ribbon of extra flesh that bulged around his starched collar. At the dark green eyes that flashed with anger. He was the same height as her, but with his bravado, he’d always seemed much taller. Larger than life.

  What did she really know about the man before her?

  “Matthias is a good man,” she said, scolding him like she might have done with Meredith when she was younger. “You didn’t have to be so harsh.”

  John shook his head. “He has no right to make you work here.”

  “No one is making me do anything,” she tried to explain. “I’m helping them with their production.”

  His laughter grated on her skin.

  “Why is that funny?” she demanded, her fists balled up at her sides.

  “You are a beautiful woman, Sophie, and a delightful hostess, but how are you supposed to help with the production at a woolen mill?”

  She cringed. There was so much that he didn’t know about her. So much that he would never appreciate about her years growing up in the Amanas. Until this past week, she hadn’t even realized that she’d lost part of herself when she and Conrad moved away.

  Here she wasn’t prided on her own work though. In Amana she was part of a team.

  “They need me here through the new year.”

  “I need you, Sophie,” John said. “In Des Moines.”

  She pointed to the window. “Did you buy a new automobile?” she asked, attempting to calm his frustration.

  He placed his hat on the cluttered desk. “I was going to surprise you.”

  Unlike a train, she would ride in an automobile, but she still wasn’t fond of them. “I liked the green one you had.”

  “This one’s not for me,” he said. “I bought it for you, as a Christmas present.”

  She nodded slowly, her gaze focused on the window glass. He was waiting for her to express her gratitude, but she couldn’t seem to muster her thanksgiving for a gift she didn’t want.

  “I thought you’d be excited about it.”

  “It’s still hard for me to be excited about anything, John.”

  “Conrad has been gone for a year,” he replied, his voice bland. His wife had only been gone for six months now, and somehow he’d had the strength to move on.

  Back in Des Moines, she’d felt as if she were stuck in a whirlpool of grief, but in Amana, she’d felt glimpses of joy returning to her heart. She’d delighted in the treasure of God’s priceless gifts—the snow on the fence posts, the scent of pine in the breeze, the stillness of the night, the peace in her heart after a hard day of work.

  God’s gifts were good. Pure. Given without expectation because she could never give such beauty back to Him.

  This gift from John was much different. He gave it because he wanted something in return. Something she didn’t know if she could give.

  And she knew in that moment, she wasn’t ready to marry him. Nor was she ready to return to Des Moines before or in the days after Christmas. She had to stay in Amana a little longer, for herself and Meredith.

  The words slowly formed in her mind, but she never got to speak them.

  “What is that—” John muttered.

  Following his gaze out the window, she watched as three covered hacks, their benches filled with workingmen, pulled up beside the Stanley Steamer.

  Will had returned. And it appeared he’d brought an entire force with him.

  She forgot John as she watched Will hop down from the wagon’s bench, rounding the wagon to speak with the men.

  And she prayed her idea wasn’t ludicrous after all.

  Chapter 7

  As he stepped around the wagon, Will eyed the fancy automobile parked outside the mill. Had a representative from Sears come to check on their order? They could have telephoned from Chicago, but perhaps they were getting nervous about fulfilling their catalog orders in time.

  Surely Matthias had assured them that they were moving quickly forward with production, though Will didn’t know how well it would bode for a customer to watch an entire crew of new workers arrive at the mill.

  It was too late to worry about that now, he supposed.

  He’d found the coal miners near the base of Sherman Hill, exactly where Sophie said they would be. And they were as anxious for work as she’d thought.

  It had been a sloppy hiring process, but he’d taken the men who seemed the most desperate for work. Then he’d paid each man ten dollars in advance pay to give their families before buying them a ticket on the train, eastward bound to Homestead.

 
; He hesitated beside the sideboard, scanning the windows on the second floor of the mill as the coal miners stepped out of the wagon.

  Was Sophie working up there this morning? While part of him was anxious to see her again, the honest part of him knew it would be heart wrenching.

  When he was in Des Moines, he’d traveled up the hill to find the house Conrad had built for his family. It was a three-story home, painted yellow and white, with a fancy turret enclosed by windows. A front lawn sloped up to the house, and Will imagined it blooming with flowers each spring.

  Standing on that hill, he wondered about Sophie’s life there. And he realized that no matter how hard he tried, he would never have been able to build Sophie a home as grand as that one. He might have loved her, cared for her needs, but wealth would have eluded them. All his needs were met here in Amana—and he received a few luxuries as well—but he never would have succeeded like Conrad on the outside.

  Sophie wouldn’t be here in the colonies much longer. This time together, the stolen weeks working together, would end very soon.

  He sighed.

  No matter how much he pined, it was much too late for him and Sophie. She’d crossed over into a different world now while he had both feet solidly set in the Amanas.

  Distraction wasn’t an option in the next month. Nor was failure. As much as he’d protested her idea to recruit a second shift of workers, he hoped the plan would work. With almost three-dozen men in these wagons, committed to learning the woolen trade, perhaps they really could finish this order in time.

  The front door of the mill opened, and he shaded his eyes, looking for Sophie, but a man rushed out of the mill instead—an outsider he didn’t recognize—and marched straight toward the second wagon.

  “Henry?” the man asked.

  Henry, one of the former managers at Saylorville Coal Company, lowered his head. “Hello, Senator Hoffman.”

  “Why aren’t you at the mine?” The senator demanded before he addressed the entire group. “Why aren’t all of you at the mine?”