Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3

by Barbara Cameron

  They waited until she walked out of the room and then turned to each other and laughed.

  “Kinner,” said Gideon.

  “Kinner,” she agreed.

  He reached for her hand and held it, smiling at her until Leah came into the room to tell them that all of the class had arrived.

  17

  Anna!”

  She glanced up from her knitting to see where the voice was coming from.

  “Anna!”

  Getting up, Anna walked toward the front display window where she found Naomi kneeling inside.

  “An—oh, there you are!”

  “Why are you yelling?”

  Naomi grinned. “Didn’t know where you were.”

  “So instead of going to look for me . . .”

  “Hey, I’m tired. I saved myself some steps by not going to look for you. It’s been a long week helping Nick with some paperwork for his business. Do you have the knit caps for the display window?”

  “I’ll get them. I just finished another one last night.” She went for the box and returned with them. “You decide which ones to use. I can’t. I don’t know if I like the ones with the bunny ears or the cupcake hats better.”

  “Let’s do some of both.” Naomi handed her a doll they used to display the hats in the window. “Has Mary Katherine come in yet?”

  Anna shook her head. “She had a doctor appointment this morning, remember? She should be here soon.”

  “Can you help me?”

  “Sure.”

  They worked together to place Mary Katherine’s woven vests—perfect for Englisch women to wear for warmth over blouses and turtlenecks. Naomi had made several special quilts that were lighter weight and a couple of tote bags with a quilt square on the front. Anna’s baby hats that looked like little cupcakes were always popular, but she added more of the little Easter-themed hats after the few she’d knitted last year had sold quickly. The little hats with bunny ears were quick and easy to knit, and she enjoyed thinking about the babies and toddlers who’d wear them.

  Naomi sat back on her heels in the bay window. “Mary Katherine should have been back by now.”

  “I know.” Anna frowned, then she turned to pick up the fabric wall hangings Jamie had made that were like little seasonal pictures composed of fabric scraps.

  “Here are the new dolls I promised you for the window,” Leah announced. She handed over a box filled with them and glanced at the contents of the window. “Nice work. Should get the attention of people walking past.”

  The bell over the door rang as a customer walked in. Leah hurried over to help her.

  “How’s Gideon?”

  “Fine. Busy with spring planting. I haven’t seen much of him lately.”

  Naomi touched her arm. “Is everything okay?”

  “Fine. I’m just taking things slowly. It’s a big step.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that.”

  Anna went still. “Should I be asking you if everything is all right?”

  “With Nick and me? Yes, things are great.” She smiled. “He’s sweet and thoughtful and very gentle with me. Nothing like John.”

  It was a narrow miss, Anna thought as she watched her cousin arrange her grandmother’s dolls in the window. Naomi had almost convinced herself that she had to stay with her former fiancé even though he was showing signs that he’d be an abusive mann.

  “How did you do it?”

  Naomi’s eyebrows went up. “Do what? Break things off with John or marry Nick?”

  “Both.”

  “I wasn’t willing to be in an abusive marriage,” Naomi said. “I deserve more than that.”

  “But it can’t have been easy to trust after being with someone like John.”

  “It wasn’t. You know that. It took a long time.”

  “Are you having trouble trusting, Anna?”

  Anna’s mouth nearly dropped open. She shouldn’t have been surprised at her cousin’s perception. The three of them had always been closer to each other than the many cousins in the family.

  Looking up, Anna met Naomi’s concerned gaze. “Yes.” She sighed. “It’s hard when it was Samuel and me for so long.” She hesitated. “I think Gideon’s concerned that I’m not ready for a relationship yet. That I’m not over Samuel.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “I hate when people talk like you can ever be over someone who was such an important part of your life! How can you be? They’ll always be a part of it. You just learn that you have to go on. You have to find a way to live without them.”

  She stopped and gazed at the people passing the window, on their way to shop or find a good restaurant for some Amish food.

  “And if you loved someone and felt that love from them, how could you not want that again? If nothing else, Samuel told me he wanted me to marry again.”

  “Do you think Gideon is feeling insecure? Maybe he doesn’t think he can live up to what Samuel was to you.”

  “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that. I certainly am not as good a person as Mary was.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “Hey!” Indignant, Anna looked away from the tourists outside to Naomi.

  “Well, she was a very sweet person.”

  “What am I? Sour?”

  Naomi laughed and poked Anna with her elbow.

  “I’ve changed.”

  “Yes, you have. I haven’t been interrogated for ages.”

  “Well, I figure I have to be careful asking certain questions now that you’re married.”

  Naomi laughed and blushed.

  Anna laughed and pointed a finger at her. “I wouldn’t ask that!”

  “The old you might have.”

  Laughing, Anna nodded. “You’re right! I would have! Nothing was off limits, especially when we were having a Girls’ Night Out with Mary Katherine and Jamie!”

  “What’s so funny?” Mary Katherine asked.

  “You’re back! We didn’t see you come in!”

  “The two of you were having too much fun laughing your heads off when we walked past.”

  Surprised, Anna looked up. “We were just talking about Naomi and Nick’s love life.”

  “Anna!” Naomi stared at her, scandalized. “Don’t listen to her, Mary Katherine! We weren’t doing any such thing!”

  “Well, it’s a relief to see Anna looking more cheerful. She’s been moping a little this past week.”

  “You didn’t share anything about us, did you?” Jacob asked Mary Katherine.

  Now Anna felt her face flame. “Uh—we didn’t see you standing there, Jacob.”

  “Obviously not,” he said with a grin.

  “And I wouldn’t share anything personal about us with these two,” Mary Katherine assured her husband.

  “Anna was just being outrageous,” Naomi muttered.

  She started to say something, but her attention was suddenly drawn to Mary Katherine’s face, then Jacob’s.

  “What is it? What did the doctor say?”

  The day had been long, and it wasn’t over yet.

  When Gideon looked up and saw Anna at the end of the field, though, the fatigue and hunger faded away.

  She picked her way carefully through the clods of dirt, carrying a thermos and a paper bag. “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  “I brought you some coffee and a sandwich to tide you over until supper.”

  “How did I get so lucky?”

  She smiled. “Don’t know. Where’s Sarah Rose?” she asked as she poured him a cup of coffee from the thermos and handed it to him.

  “With my mother. She’s been helping watch her after school while I get the planting done.”

  Anna took the plastic cup from him when he finished and gave him the sandwich. She watched him peel the waxed paper from it carefully so he didn’t touch it with his dirty hands. The sandwich was gone in a couple of healthy bites.

  “This is great. It’ll hold me over for a while. Can you stay for supper? Sarah Rose wil
l be back then,” he added as an incentive.

  “Not tonight. I just wanted to stop by and share some good news. Mary Katherine and Jacob are having twins.”

  “Zwillingbopplin? That’s great news!”

  She nodded. “She’s cutting back on her schedule a bit so we might not see as much of each other for the last few months.”

  “We already weren’t seeing each other enough,” he said softly, moving closer.

  Anna backed away and started to trip, but he reached out and grabbed her arm and stopped her from falling.

  He brushed at the sleeve of her dress. “Sorry, I got you dirty.”

  “It’s okay. I’d have gotten worse if I’d fallen. I have to go. I’ll see you later in the week.”

  “Later in the week.” He sighed.

  She bit back her smile at his expression. “You know, you look just like your daughter right now. Just like she did when you told her she couldn’t have a kitten.”

  “Hey!” he called after her as she walked away, giggling.

  A buggy rolled to a stop in the drive. Gideon stood there, wondering who was visiting, and lifted his hand in greeting when he saw Matthew Bontrager and Chris Matlock.

  “How is your planting going?” Matthew asked when he got close enough.

  “Gut. Yours?”

  “The same. I have a brother-in-law living right next door to help.”

  Chris grinned at Matthew. “Is that the only reason to be glad I live next door?”

  “Give me a minute. Let me think,” Matthew said, folding his arms across his chest and staring up at the sky.

  Then, catching the look on Chris’s face, he clapped him on the back and chuckled. “Maybe watching the way you and Hannah managed to fall in love and get married without killing each other.”

  Chris laughed. “That sister of yours is no submissive woman, that’s for sure.”

  “None of them are,” Gideon told him. “Well, Mary was, somewhat. I’m finding Anna isn’t.

  “Wait,” he said. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I hadn’t expected her to be like Mary. After all, we all knew each other from school. But between Anna and Sarah Rose, I don’t think it’s going to be a quiet house.”

  Matthew and Chris looked at each other, and then they burst into laughter. “Is there such a thing?”

  Gideon thought about it. Matthew and Jenny had started their marriage with his three kinner and then added one of their own. Chris and Hannah—after almost losing their first child when Hannah developed complications—now looked forward to their second child in the fall.

  “So how are you doing with the planting?” Matthew asked him, scanning the fields. “You still need some help?”

  Gideon nodded. “You hear of anyone?”

  “Ben Zook is looking for some extra work,” Jacob told him. “He said he’s getting married after harvest, and he’s saving to get his own place.”

  “I’d like to talk to him.”

  “Mud sale’s day after tomorrow. Why don’t I tell him to meet you there?”

  Gideon nodded. “Sounds good. Danki.”

  “Wilkumm.”

  “See you there.”

  Well, he might not have plans with Anna in the coming days, but he’d soon be able to talk to Ben about helping him with planting.

  Gideon sighed. Such was his life right now. Well, the sooner he got the planting done, the sooner the crop would grow and thrive and be harvested. And at the end of the harvest, maybe he’d be getting married to Anna.

  Anna touched her lips with her fingertips as she walked back to her buggy.

  She’d swear they tingled.

  Gideon’s kisses . . . yes, Samuel had kissed her before they married, and yes, of course she had been attracted to Samuel. But they’d been so young, just a boy and a girl, really. Their kisses were youthful and exuberant.

  These kisses of Gideon’s . . . they were a man’s, and now that she had been married, she knew what they promised.

  She’d only kissed one man . . . been with one man in her life. It was such a big step to kiss another. Be with another. She was a widow, and she wanted to remarry. Every woman wanted that. At least here, in her community.

  She was more than a little in love with Gideon already, despite saying that she wanted to take things slowly. Who wouldn’t be? He was a handsome, hardworking man who understood her and supported what she did, who had taken what she’d said when she was upset with him about deciding things and not done it again. He’d listened to her. And there was no discounting how wonderful a father he was and would be again if God decided to give them the gift of children.

  Thoughtful, she walked back to her buggy and drove home. She spent the evening as she usually did after work—she ate her supper in the kitchen, washed up the few dishes, and wandered into the living room.

  As was her custom, she worked for a little while on knitting a baby cap, then tired of it. She picked up a book to read, couldn’t get interested in it, and finally gave up and climbed the stairs to her room.

  After she changed into a nightgown, she climbed into bed and tried to sleep, but soon found that despite being physically tired, sleep wouldn’t come.

  She reached for her Bible and thumbed through it. Reading it always calmed her. The pages seemed to fall open to the book of Matthew. It wasn’t surprising. She turned to it often because there she found the answers to questions she didn’t even know she had.

  Tonight was no different.

  Gideon kept Sarah Rose’s hand firmly in his as they headed toward the sale. The event was crowded already with bargain hunters of all ages. Household goods, farming and yard equipment, furniture . . . there was a little of everything displayed for sale.

  Delicious scents of frying doughnuts, bacon and egg sandwiches, kettle corn, and local sausages and cheeses wafted from the tables.

  “Why do they call it a mud sale?” Sarah Rose wanted to know as she eyed the man using a big wooden paddle to stir a big cast iron kettle of popcorn. “They don’t sell mud.”

  Before Gideon could answer, she’d run ahead of him and was standing at the edge of a mud puddle.

  “Maybe because the ground’s thawed and there’s a lot of mud this time of year?” he asked. “And do not jump in that puddle.”

  To his utter surprise, she didn’t. And she didn’t pout about it, either. Instead, she smiled at someone standing behind him. He turned and found Anna.

  “I didn’t know you’d be here!” he told her, surprised.

  “I didn’t, either. My grandmother gave us a few hours off. There’s a loom Mary Katherine wants to take a look at.”

  “How are you?” he asked her, careful not to ask something too personal.

  His daughter, however, looked absorbed in Mary Katherine’s pregnant abdomen. He reached for his wallet and thrust a dollar into her hands.

  “Go get some kettle corn for us. Wait,” he told her, handing her two more dollar bills. “Get some for Anna and Mary Katherine, too.”

  She brightened and ran to do his bidding.

  “Good save,” Anna told him, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

  “It would have been all right if she wanted to ask a question,” Mary Katherine chided him. “She’s just curious about the baby.” She paused. “Babies.”

  “I’m happy for you and Jacob,” Gideon said, and it must have been the right thing to say, for she glowed.

  Glowed. He glanced over to where Sarah Rose waited by the kettle.

  “Kinner are a gift from God. Imagine, getting two at once.” She shook her head in amazement.

  “I don’t know why you were so surprised. There are several sets of them on your side of the family,” Anna reminded her.

  “True. Still, sometimes things seem like a miracle when they’re happening to you.”

  Anna smiled. It was so nice to see how happy her cousin was at being married and being pregnant.

  Sarah Rose returned with three bags of kettle corn and handed them out with great car
e and a sense of importance. Gideon smiled when he saw that she didn’t save the bag that seemed to have a little more in it than the others.

  Mary Katherine glanced toward the items set up around the firehouse. “I need to go take a look at the loom before the auction starts.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Anna said.

  “No need, I—”

  “I promised Jacob I’d keep an eye on you.” Anna slipped her arm through one of Mary Katherine’s, then turned to Gideon. “I’ll see you before we leave?”

  Mary Katherine waited until they were a distance away before she turned to Anna. “I don’t need a babysitter. You could have stayed to talk to Gideon.”

  “I came to be with you, not to turn this into a date with him.”

  “What were you and Naomi talking about so intensely that you almost didn’t see me walk past the display window?”

  “Nothing important.”

  “I think it was important, or you wouldn’t have missed seeing me.”

  Anna smiled as she glanced at Mary Katherine. “It’s pretty hard to miss you these days.”

  She just laughed when her cousin elbowed her. They found the section outside the firehouse where the loom was displayed. Anna watched as Mary Katherine looked it over and asked the owner questions about it.

  Bidding was spirited on the Amish quilts, the hand-carved furniture, and farm equipment. Anna enjoyed watching but wondered if Mary Katherine was going to be able to endure the hard folding chairs they were seated on before she had to leave.

  A man took the empty seat next to Mary Katherine. Anna looked over and saw that Jacob had shown up, pleasing his wife to no end.

  “How did the loom look?”

  “I love it. I’m going to bid on it.”

  He glanced at Anna and said hello, then the two of them held a quiet discussion on how much the loom was worth.

  Bidding started a few minutes later. Mary Katherine bid, had her bid raised again and again. Anna scanned the audience to see who was interested in the loom and saw it was a woman who owned a craft shop. But Anna knew the woman didn’t weave.

  “She must just want it to decorate her shop,” Anna whispered to Mary Katherine. “You said she buys some of the things in the shop from overseas.”