He reached over and grasped her hand. “We both learned a lot, ya?” He sighed. “A year seems so far away.”
“It’ll go quickly now that you’re here and we’re seeing each other,” she said. “And the time would pass the same if we were waiting for something or not,” she reminded him.
“True.” He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles, grinning when she looked surprised. It showed him he didn’t make romantic gestures often enough. Public displays of affection were discouraged in their community but in private, at times like this, when no one could see, he could make them.
Reluctantly, he turned in the direction of home and dropped her off at her house before pulling into his drive and putting the horse and buggy up for the night.
“We had a good ride for the day, didn’t we?” he asked Nellie as he led her into her stall. “I’m so happy to be with both of you again. Well, happier to be with her but you understand.” He rubbed her nose and latched the stall gate.
Inside, he found his dat dozing in his recliner, The Budget newspaper spread over his stomach. His mudder looked up with a smile. Her fingers were busily knitting a baby blanket.
“For the new Miller boppli,” she explained when she saw him glance at it. “Did you have a gut evening?”
He nodded. “I called Sam and John. They said they hoped you were both feeling better.” It was mostly the truth. They cared about her even if they hadn’t said it quite that way. But he couldn’t say they said the same about their dat. That would be lying.
“That was very nice of you to call them.” She gathered up her knitting and tucked it into the basket beside her chair. “Time for me to get to bed.”
“Gut nacht.” He escaped before she woke his dat.
He heard her chuckle as he left the room. She knew what he was doing.
16
Lavina and Mary Elizabeth worked quickly to hitch up the buggy. Together they made fast work of it.
“It’s definitely getting cooler,” Mary Elizabeth said as she jumped into the buggy. She shivered and pulled the buggy blanket over her lap. “Do you need a blanket?”
Lavina shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Wonder if we’re going to have a cold winter.”
“Winter’s always cold, silly.”
“Nee, I mean are we going to have a record cold one like we had two winters ago?”
“I don’t know. Check Daed’s almanac.”
Mary Elizabeth took a deep breath. “It might be a little cold, but it feels gut to be out of the house. I’m so happy that the quilt was found so I don’t have to replace it quickly.”
“Me, too.”
“Look, there’s a patch of frost on the ground,” Mary Elizabeth said as they approached the road. She shivered again.
“I can’t wait for the first snow.”
“I can. I don’t like cold weather.” She looked over. “Tell me why you’re in such a gut mood this morning.”
“I am?” But Lavina could feel herself smiling.
“You are! C’mon, tell me!” Mary Elizabeth bounced on the seat.
“Calm down. You’ll scare Daisy.” She glanced at Mary Elizabeth. “I’ll tell you if you promise you won’t tell anyone else.”
“I promise.”
Lavina bit her lip. Such things were kept private, but she knew Mary Elizabeth would keep it a secret. Rose Anna, on the other hand . . . couldn’t keep a secret for five minutes.
“David and I are dating again.”
Mary Elizabeth let out a whoop, startling their horse. “That’s fantastic! Oh, I’m so happy!”
“Remember, you promised.”
“I know, I know. Oh, I just felt this would happen.”
“Then you knew more than I did.”
She pulled to the side of the road to allow a car to pass. After she checked for traffic, she pulled back onto the road.
“You know I told you that when we got home there was an ambulance at David’s house, and his dat had to go to the hospital? Well, he’s allrecht; he just had heartburn, not the heart attack they feared. But his mudder got sick while she was there with him.”
“Oh my, what happened?”
“David said her blood pressure spiked because of the stress. She has to watch it more carefully. He seems worried about her. But we’ve been talking, and I think David’s been doing a lot of thinking. He said attending the wedding made him realize how much he missed church and everyone. And I think he sees his parents are getting older and he should be here. He says he’s staying no matter what happens. He’s hoping his dat will beat the cancer and be around for a long time.”
She glanced at Mary Elizabeth. “He hopes one day he can find a way to buy his own farm.”
“That’s not going to be easy.”
Lavina bit her lip. “Nee. Look, I don’t know if I should say anything about this, get your hopes up. He said he’s going to try to talk to his bruders about buying a farm together.”
Mary Elizabeth’s hand flew to her lips. “That would be wunderbaar.” Then she dropped her hand and her shoulders slumped. “How can that happen? You know land is as dear as gold in this county. And none of the bruders is working a job that pays much.”
Lavina nodded. “I know. So you know what it’s going to take?”
“What?”
She smiled slowly. “A miracle.”
“You say that like it’s so easy.”
“It is. I’m not the One who has to make it happen.” She turned to smile at Mary Elizabeth. “Right?”
“You’re right,” Mary Elizabeth’s smile bloomed slowly. “You’re right.”
They rode along in silence for a few blocks.
“It would be . . . beyond wunderbaar if Sam and John came home and the bruders worked a farm together again.”
“It would.”
Mary Elizabeth’s lips trembled. “I’ve missed Sam so much. Rose Anna’s missed John.”
“I know.”
She looked over. “Of course. You had longer to grieve than we did. David left first. Sam and John stayed for several months before they couldn’t stand it and left the farm.”
“I don’t think Rose Anna is ready for us to talk about this yet,” Lavina said carefully. “I don’t want to get her hopes up.”
“I agree.”
“So we pray for this without Rose Anna?”
Mary Elizabeth nodded. “Allrecht.”
Lavina pulled into the parking lot behind the shelter. “Kumm, let’s go have fun.”
“What’s in all these bags?” Mary Elizabeth asked as she helped carry two of them into the shelter.
“You’ll see.”
Kate looked up as they walked into the classroom. “Looks like someone went shopping.”
Lavina grinned. “I got some ideas when I went to Leah’s shop, and well, they were having a sale, and when I told her what I was buying for she gave me this discount . . . ”
“So you couldn’t resist . . .” Kate said, chuckling.
“The ladies can make some quilted hearts, or Christmas tree ornaments, or some microwave or oven potholders. Or look how cute this little basket is made of rags that you roll and then build the shape. Emma makes them for Stitches in Time.” She pulled one of Rachel Ann’s gingerbread cookie shaped pillows out of the bag. “These don’t take much time at all and they’re so cute for kids, don’t you think?”
“I’ve never seen you so excited,” Kate said, grinning.
“It’s not just the gifts or Christmas,” Mary Elizabeth told her.
“You promised!” Lavina cried. “You’re as bad as Rose Anna. Actually, I don’t think that was five minutes.”
“What’s going on?” Kate looked from one to the other.
“David and I are dating again. But Mary Elizabeth promised to keep it a secret.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful! Congratulations!”
“Thank you.” Lavina felt herself beaming.
Kate held up her hand. “I swear, I won’t tell
anyone. Not even my husband. You’ve got my word of honor.”
She looked past Lavina. “I think someone would like to talk to you,” she murmured.
Lavina turned and saw Carrie standing hesitantly in the doorway. “I’ll be right back.”
“Can we talk for a minute?” Carrie asked her when she got to the back of the room. Her eyes were a little red and puffy like she’d been crying, and one of them had a faint purple bruise around it.
“Sure.”
“I wanted to apologize to you for what happened to your quilt. I never thought talking to Ed would lead to him stealing it.”
“It’s not your fault. He’s the one who did it. Are you all right?”
Carrie touched a finger to the corner of one eye. “That’s the last time that man is ever going to hit me.”
She sniffed and raised her chin. “Anyway, I just wanted to say I’m sorry and I’m glad you got the quilt back.”
“Thanks. Are you going to stay and sew today?”
“I don’t think so.” She stepped out of the way as women began filing in.
“Please stay,” Lavina said, holding out her hand. “I got some great material and crafts and things for us to make Christmas gifts.”
“I don’t have anyone to make anything for.”
“Then let’s make some for people who don’t have what we have.”
“What do I have?” Carrie asked, sounding bitter.
“You have a place to live where people care about you,” Lavina said gently. “Friends. A chance to make a new, better life for yourself.”
The tears started again. Lavina put her arm around her and led her to a chair. “Stay. We’ll have some fun.”
Carrie pulled a tissue from the pocket of her worn jeans. “I’m not making a potholder. We had to make those in home ec class.”
Lavina laughed. “You don’t have to make a potholder.”
***
David found himself looking at his surroundings in a different way since his talk with Lavina.
He had to admit that he’d been like a horse with blinders on all his life—looking straight ahead, never to the right or left, totally focused on what was straight ahead. And that focus was on the family farm. All the time that he and his bruders weren’t getting along with their dat, somehow it hadn’t sunk in that it wouldn’t be theirs one day in the future.
That was the way things were here. A family built together, whether it was a farm or a business, then the kinner took over and the parents moved into the dawdi haus at the rear of the family home. And when it was time, if the parents needed caring for, the kinner did it. They took care of their own, the Amish did.
But then things had become unbearable and David had had to leave. The farm, his beloved farm, had been left behind along with a dat he’d never gotten along with, a mudder he’d loved but who’d been put in the middle, and because of the way she’d been raised, stood with her mann and watched her sons leave one by one.
David hadn’t been able to think of finding his own farm then—not only was he caught up in the emotion of leaving the only home he’d ever known, he barely had enough to rent a room in the home of an elderly widow distantly related to his friend, Bill.
Now, as he drove to work, he found himself looking at the land he passed with new eyes. The land hadn’t changed in price overnight but something in him had. For the first time in a long, long time he had hope. He and Lavina were together again and he could envision a future with her. They couldn’t get married until next fall but they’d be together, dating, planning their future.
The two of them had been given a second chance and with that second chance . . . well surely there would be some place for them to have a home, however small it was. Many Amish homes were big, but that often came years after a newly married couple moved into them. They moved into a small house and as their family grew, they added on. And on.
Surely there was some small place they could start and build on. A verse from the Bible came to him. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:2).
He didn’t know what God’s plan was for him, for Lavina. But surely there was some small patch of land, a small house, where he could farm, where he could start a family.
He had to believe.
For now it was gut to do an honest day’s work, go home, get cleaned up, and eat supper with his parents, or go to eat at Lavina’s house where her parents and her schweschders welcomed him and made him feel part of the family again.
He and Lavina had always enjoyed being together inexpensively—drives in the buggy cost only some horse feed, after all, and they loved having an occasional coffee and baked treat at their favorite place. Sometimes they just took along a thermos of coffee and something Lavina baked. Being together, talking, discovering each other again was all the entertainment they needed.
David told her about his time in the Englisch world when he’d rented the little room, and she told him how she’d begun volunteering teaching the quilting class with Kate. It was at a shelter for abused women and their children in a hidden location. That was why the day he’d wanted to help her and Mary Elizabeth deliver the bed they were donating, they hadn’t allowed him to go there with them.
As she talked he saw a side of her he hadn’t before. Before he’d left, she’d been a bit shy, introverted, and while experienced in quilting, she hadn’t acted as confident of her skills as she did now.
“You’re really enjoying teaching the class.”
“Well, I’m not so much teaching as helping,” she said modestly. “But ya, I’m enjoying it. I like helping. A lot of these ladies don’t have any confidence, any skills. Kate’s class is helping them with both. And it’s nice to see them making friends with each other after not having any for so long. Their husbands and boyfriends kept them from having friends as a way of isolating them and controlling them.”
That concept was new to him, but he listened and tried to understand what she was saying. Mary Elizabeth had even joined her a couple of times.
“What did you do while you were gone last year? In your spare time, I mean?”
He shrugged. “Nothing interesting. Watched a lot of television. Sports, mostly. The landlady had a little television in the room I rented. Read. Brooded.”
“You’re good at brooding.”
He glanced at her and saw her grin. “Oh, you think you’re funny.”
“It’s true. You know it’s true.”
David turned back to look at the road. Then he couldn’t help chuckling. “You’re right. Well, it used to be true. I don’t think I brood much anymore.”
“Maybe not.”
“I should stop by my landlady’s house one day after work,” he said. “She was very nice to me. I sometimes raked her yard or shoveled her walk so she wouldn’t have to do it. So she’d invite me to supper once in a while. She reminded me of my grossmudder.”
He fell silent. One of the things that grieved him still was that his grossmudder—his dat’s mudder—had died while he was gone.
A few minutes later he pulled up in his drive and turned to her.
“Ready?”
“Schur.”
He got out, opened her door, and held her hand, giving it a squeeze for reassurance as they climbed the steps to the front door.
“Remember, no telling them about our plans. You promised.” She tried to withdraw her hand from his.
“I promise.” Reluctantly he let go of her hand and they went inside.
She’d been in his house many times over the years, been invited to supper many times, until tensions had run so high that he hadn’t wanted to expose her to it.
His mudder stood stirring something in a pot on the stove. His dat already sat in his chair at the head of the table. David hid a grin as he reached over and pinched off a corner of a piece of cornbread and popped it into his mouth.
Waneta turned from the stove and gave her a big smile.
“Wilkumm! So glad you could have supper with us tonight. Isn’t it nice, Amos?”
He mumbled a greeting that had his fraa narrowing her eyes and glancing at the food already sitting on the table. “Amos, are you getting into the cornbread?”
He shook his head, but didn’t say anything, his cheeks obviously full of cornbread. He nodded at Lavina and continued munching.
David pulled out a chair for Lavina and earned an approving nod from his mudder.
“Something smells delicious,” Lavina said.
“I made stuffed pork chops and scalloped potatoes. One of Amos’s favorites. Hope you like pork chops.”
“Love them.”
Waneta set the platter on the table and seated herself. “I had the time to cook today, but tomorrow we’ll be spending much of the day at the hospital.”
David saw his dat frown, but after the meal was blessed, he forked up a chop and passed the platter to David.
The atmosphere was different than the last time. Amos sat eating his supper, and while he didn’t contribute much to the conversation, he didn’t sit glowering at David as he had in the past. Waneta asked Lavina about her family, the quilting class, about Leah and her shop.
“Been a while since I got there,” she said. “Since I shopped.”
“I’d be happy to pick up anything you need,” Lavina offered.
“I’d just like to go and look at some new fabric.”
“Why don’t I pick you up and we’ll go tomorrow?”
Waneta passed her the dish of applesauce for her pork chop. “Amos and I have to go to the hospital for his PET scan tomorrow.”
Amos looked up. “You don’t have to go. I can go by myself.”
“But I want to go.”
He got up and slammed his chair against the table. “I don’t have to be taken like I’m a kind!” he snapped. “Go do something you want to do!”
“But I want to go!” she cried.
But she spoke to his retreating back. He stomped upstairs, and they heard his footsteps stop and then the bed creaked as he sat down on it.
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