Paul swelled with indignation. “Dan Kanagy has a way of worming his way into people’s good opinion, but don’t forget how his family cheated mine out of that piece of land.”
Dawdi turned his attention to Paul and narrowed his eyes. “That’s an old argument. You should forgive your brother his trespasses.”
Lily smiled to herself. She and her dawdi actually saw eye to eye about something.
Paul squared his shoulders. “I have forgiven him, but I will never forget what happened. I won’t let them cheat my family again.”
Dawdi didn’t back down. His eye could have seared a hole right through the straw hat in Paul’s hand. “If you have truly forgiven, then you would forget. Search your heart. You’re harboring bitterness there.”
Paul didn’t reply. He wouldn’t argue with Dawdi, but he wouldn’t admit that he might be wrong. His face turned from green to a dark shade of rose petal pink.
As justified as Lily felt, she’d rather not sit there and watch Paul squirm. “Dawdi, we need to ask your advice. Someone has been making mischief on our farm, and we don’t know what to do about it.”
“What kind of mischief?”
Lily met eyes with Poppy. They both knew they weren’t to mention the barn incident. “Three weeks ago, someone tipped over one of our beehives. After that, they pulled our laundry off the line in the middle of the night, and yesterday, they sneaked into our barn and removed one of the wheels from our buggy.”
Dawdi stroked his beard. “Have you any idea who it might be?”
“None at all,” Poppy said. “Dan thinks it’s Englisch teenagers playing pranks.”
“That’s what I said,” Paul insisted, pouting as if another child had stolen his toy.
The lines on Dawdi’s forehead bunched up as they always did when he stewed over a problem. “Years ago, there was a family in Cashton who was getting their propane stolen during the night. They put a watch at the tank, but the thief got smart and came around on Sundays when they weren’t home. They thought of buying an expensive lock to secure the tank. Instead, their dat taped a simple note to the tank. It said, ‘If you need our propane, take as much as you want. You are not stealing from us. We give it to you freely.’ They didn’t want the poor man to have more sins heaped upon his head. The thief never plagued them again. I hope he saw the error of his ways and came to sore repentance.”
Lily thought on that for a minute. “Do you think we should write our own note?”
“Lord willing, it will prick someone’s conscience,” Dawdi said. “But if not, it might bring you a measure of peace. Gotte’s peace comes not by the world. As your friend Paul here has forgotten, Jesus said if a man takes your coat, give him your cloak also.”
Beads of sweat appeared on Paul’s forehead, and agitation rose off him like steam. “I haven’t forgotten. I told you already I don’t forget.”
Dawdi regarded Paul with a critical gaze. “Look to the beam in your own eye before plucking your bruder’s mote.”
With his face getting redder by the minute, Paul stood up, probably feeling the need to justify himself or divert Dawdi’s attention. “There is a bigger problem, Solomon. I hate to say it, but I’m afraid your granddaughters have been led astray.”
Led astray? Lily stole a look at Poppy. Poppy rolled her eyes.
Talk of sin and wickedness pricked Dawdi’s interest more than anything else. “Who is leading my girls astray?”
Paul paced across the small room. “Bitsy is encouraging them to go against the Ordnung.”
Dawdi’s face became a dark storm cloud. “What has she done?”
Lily was as curious as Dawdi and far more irritated.
Paul swept his hand in the direction of the sofa where Lily and her sisters sat. “All three of them wear Englisch jeans around the farm.”
Englisch jeans? That was worse than a missing buggy wheel?
Lily’s annoyance turned to indignation. She’d already explained the necessity of a bee suit. Had Paul not listened?
Poppy blew out air from between her lips and threw herself against the back of the sofa. Even Rose looked put out, and she never got annoyed.
Dawdi frowned, but he didn’t erupt as Paul probably hoped he would. “Are you talking about the trousers they wear for beekeeping?”
Paul folded his arms across his chest and flashed a smug look in Poppy’s direction. “Jah. It’s unseemly and immodest.”
Lily’s chin nearly scraped the floor. What did Paul think he was doing, blatantly insulting her schwesters and Aunt B, not to mention straining Lily’s patience something wonderful? He was obviously in an abominable mood.
When he got worked up like this, she could usually talk him down by meekly giving in to his wishes or apologizing for her unrighteousness. She felt too irked to do either. “Paul,” she said, “I already explained—”
He looked at her as if she were a small child, too ignorant to understand. “Just because your aendi gives you permission does not mean it’s right. She is a blind guide, leading you and your sisters into the ditch. Too many of die youngie follow worldly fashions.” He turned to Dawdi. “Your granddaughters have been baptized. They shouldn’t think of putting on men’s clothing.” Paul had the audacity to squat next to Lily and lay his hand over hers. She resisted the urge to snatch it away. “I’m sorry to have to resort to taking this to your dawdi, Lily, but he is the only one in your family who can see reason. Sometimes the men must put our foot down.”
Lily came within inches from grabbing both her sisters’ hands and storming out the door. Was it worth the extra hour it would take to walk home? It might be if she could be rid of Paul.
Dawdi looked as if he were carefully considering what Paul had told him. “I appreciate your concern for my granddaughters. They are already outsiders in the community because of their aendi Elizabeth. I have cautioned them time and again that they, of all people, must be strictly obedient to the Ordnung.”
Paul nodded so enthusiastically, his hair slapped against his forehead. “As Lily’s boyfriend, it is my duty to give the sisters correction when I see a need.”
Dawdi bowed his head in resignation. “Heaven knows they don’t get correction at home.”
“Dawdi,” Poppy protested, “please don’t speak ill of Aunt Bitsy.”
Poppy had enough courage to speak for the three of them, as she so often did at Dawdi’s house. It was gute of Poppy to try, but there was no reason to bother. Defense of Aunt Bitsy fell on deaf ears.
With every bone in her body, Lily wanted to give Paul a good scolding, but she’d never hear the end of it if she embarrassed him in front of Dawdi and Mammi. Besides, her censure would only make him grumpier.
“I never speak ill of another man, Priscilla. I am only stating the truth,” Dawdi said.
Paul looked exultant. Ach, how he loved to be right.
Dawdi settled back in his chair. “I have talked to the bishop about the beekeeper clothes. His nephew in Indiana keeps bees, and the girls can’t wear dresses when they do it or they will be stung, not once but several times. Since Elizabeth and the girls seem to be coming along fine with their honey, the bishop has given permission.”
In other words, since Aunt B had never asked for support from the church, they liked the honey business very much.
Dawdi eyed Paul. “Didn’t Lily tell you she got the bishop’s permission?”
“She did,” Paul stammered. “I only wanted you to be aware of what goes on. The girls have no fater to be strict with them.”
Was that the role of a fater—someone to be strict and unbending without a drop of mercy to temper his rules? Was that the kind of fater Paul would be? Lily didn’t remember her own dat that way.
Dawdi’s attention seemed to slide from Paul in an instant, and he turned to Mammi as if they were the only two people in the room. “I water my pillow every night with fears that Elizabeth will drag our girls to hell with her.”
“He saw fit to take our Salome and then let
the courts steal them from us,” Mammi said. “Gotte will see that our girls are raised up right.”
Dawdi gazed at his granddaughters. “You know you are always welcome to live with us. You are of age now to decide for yourselves, and we would give you a more godly home.”
Lily sat with her arms folded and her lips pressed together. Dawdi often spoke of his fear for their souls. Mammi had never accepted the fact that Mamm and Dat had left their daughters to Aunt Bitsy in their will.
Lily could not share Mammi’s distress. She thanked Gotte that she and her sisters had grown up with Aunt Bitsy instead of with their stern and unbending grandparents. Aunt Bitsy’s home had been filled with patience and affection. She was fiercely loyal to her girls, and Lily and her sisters were fiercely loyal to Aunt B. She was their rock, and they wouldn’t have traded her love for the world.
Poppy pressed her lips together in an amazing show of self-control. It was exhausting to sit and listen to insults being cast at the person Lily and her sisters loved most in the whole world, but defending Aunt B’s character only made Dawdi more passionate about their salvation.
“She’s colored her hair light blue,” Paul said.
Mammi looked as if she were trying to keep her emotions in check. “I hear tell she’s gotten a tattoo.”
Could no one see what a wonderful-gute person Aunt Bitsy was? She’d raised three girls on her own, and they’d managed without relying on anyone’s charity. All three girls had chosen baptism and could cook and sew and garden and do all the things a gute Amish frau was expected to do. Did that mean nothing to anyone?
Lily would have at least expected her own boyfriend to acknowledge Aunt Bitsy’s accomplishments.
Poppy knew better, but she always felt she had to try. “Dawdi,” she said, “Aunt Bitsy gave up her whole other life to raise us. She is your own daughter. Don’t you even love her?”
Dawdi narrowed his eyes in resentment. “No parent loves a child more. If I didn’t love her so much, I wouldn’t be so fearful for her salvation. She rejected everything I taught her and stabbed me right in the heart.” He shook a crooked finger in Poppy’s direction. “You are too much like her, Priscilla.”
“I have often told Lily that Poppy’s stubborn streak will get her in hot water one day,” Paul said, still determined to be important in the conversation.
Lily glared at Paul with all the harshness she could muster. Poppy’s glare looked no less potent.
Rose, of all people, had the presence of mind to take action before Poppy gave Paul a bloody nose. She stood, grabbed Lily’s hand and Poppy’s sleeve, and pulled them toward the kitchen. “What help do you need around the house before we go, Mammi?”
Mammi stood to follow them. “Ach, so many things. Can you do the floor?”
Paul cleared his throat. “I’m sure Poppy and Rose don’t mind staying, but Lily is helping at the market today.” He stood and smiled cheerfully as if he were unaware he had offended all three girls, including his bride-to-be. “Lily and I will be back to pick up the other girls in a couple of hours.”
Even knowing how annoyed Paul would be, Lily couldn’t abide the thought of spending another minute with him today. She pasted a smile on her face and made her voice as sweet as one-hundred-percent pure maple syrup. “Paul, I wouldn’t dream of leaving my sisters to do all this work by themselves. You go on along, and we’ll see you tomorrow at gmay.”
Paul studied Lily’s face and obviously saw something he didn’t like. His eyes tapered into slits, and his bottom lip protruded slightly from his face. He knew he had been dismissed.
Before he could protest, Mammi, oblivious to the brewing quarrel, started gathering up empty ice-cream bowls. “I would appreciate it if all three of you could stay. Poppy can help in the garden, Lily can mop floors, and Rose can bake bread for the fellowship supper after gmay tomorrow.”
With the help of his cane, Dawdi stood as well. He patted Paul on the shoulder. “I could truly use Poppy’s help in the garden. You can come back to fetch them at three o’clock.”
Lily saw the tantrum brewing behind Paul’s eyes, but she knew he wouldn’t argue with Dawdi. “Okay then. I will do what I can without Lily’s help at the market and come back in two hours.”
“No need,” Lily said, still with that syrupy, sticky sweetness to her voice. “It is a beautiful day. We will walk home.”
“Of all the stuff, Lily,” Paul said, trying to sound cheerful with a mouthful of bitterness. “It’s the least I can do for my girlfriend.”
“You’re a gute man,” Dawdi said.
Paul nodded, some of the tension falling from his face at Dawdi’s praise. “I try to be nothing less for Lily.”
Lily thought she should have felt something warm and gooey at Paul’s declaration, but she felt nothing but an eagerness for him to be gone.
For the first time since eighth grade, she didn’t believe him.
The thought was both shocking and liberating. She buried it deep.
Chapter Twenty
“Oh, sis yuscht,” Poppy said under her breath as she turned and looked behind her. “He came after all.”
Lily didn’t even glance backward. Not fifteen minutes from home, and Paul had finally caught up to them in his buggy.
Lily and her sisters had decided that they would leave Mammi and Dawdi’s half an hour early so they wouldn’t be there when Paul came to pick them up. They hoped he’d be discouraged from following them. Lily had underestimated his determination. Or annoyance. She didn’t know which had driven him to come so far out of his way.
With added determination, they kept walking even as Paul pulled his buggy beside them on the road. “Lily,” he called out his window. “Lily, why didn’t you wait for me?”
It surprised her that Paul actually sounded more hurt than irritated. Maybe he realized he crossed some sort of line at Mammi and Dawdi’s.
Lily slackened her steps slightly. Her sisters quickly outpaced her.
Paul kept the buggy even with her. “Lily, look at me. Why won’t you even look at me?”
She didn’t stop even though she didn’t believe he’d give up and head for home.
“Lily, don’t you even care about my feelings?”
Lily huffed out a heavy breath. She’d have to give in. The silent treatment was no way to communicate with her boyfriend. She stopped walking and pinned Paul with an I-dare-you-to-make-me-madder glare.
Poppy and Rose turned in unison. “Lily, you don’t have to explain anything,” Poppy said. “Just ignore him and come home.”
Lily shook her head. “You go ahead. I’ll catch up.”
Poppy’s frown deepened. “Don’t let him bully you.”
“He can’t help the way he is.”
Still frowning, Poppy shrugged in surrender, hooked her arm around Rose’s elbow, and kept walking.
Paul secured the reins and climbed out of the buggy. “What do you mean I can’t help the way I am?” He placed his hands on his hips and stared in Poppy’s direction. “I know Poppy doesn’t like me. People often resist correction when they should embrace it.”
Maybe she should have tried to explain things to Paul like she always did, tried to help him understand how much her unconventional family meant to her. She could usually talk him out of his foul mood if she worked hard enough and acted humble enough, but he had stretched her patience today until it had snapped like a rubber band. She wasn’t in the mood to appease Paul. She wasn’t even in the mood to talk to him.
Without a second glance, she turned on her heel and marched down the road, not even caring if Paul couldn’t keep up with her.
“Lily, what are you doing? I had the decency to stop. You could at least have the decency to talk to me.” The exasperation in his voice grew with every step.
She kept up her brisk pace. Paul wouldn’t be able to stay up with her. He already breathed heavily.
He reached out and grabbed her elbow. “Of all the stuff, Lily, we can’t talk if you
run away.”
Lily whirled around and gave Paul a white-hot glare. She had always been the one to make peace. Today, come what may, she would give Paul a piece of her mind. “If you say one more word against Poppy or Aunt Bitsy or my beekeeping outfit, I will run home and lock you out of my house.” She put extra determination in her voice. “And you know I can outrun you for sure and certain.”
Paul raised his hands and took a step back. “Okay, okay. What are you so worked up about all of a sudden?”
Lily almost started walking again. Paul rarely admitted to having faults or being wrong in an argument, but this time, he knew plain as day why she was mad at him. “Why have you set yourself against Aunt Bitsy?”
Paul made a show of innocent surprise. “I am a Christian. I haven’t set myself against anybody.”
“You told Dawdi that she has led us astray.”
Paul took the drastic measure of grabbing Lily’s hand. She didn’t pull away, mostly because he’d truly surprised her this time. He led her to a pasture fence that ran alongside the road and leaned against it. She kept her posture stiff, her hand in his the only indication that she wasn’t made out of stone. “Lily, I can’t believe you think I am against your aunt.” He put his arm around her shoulders. He could have knocked her over with a feather. “My first concern has always been for you and only you. You have to admit that anyone would have a hard time believing that the bishop approved of the jeans. I had to make sure that your aunt Bitsy hadn’t heard him wrong. Now that I know your dawdi also talked to the bishop, I can rest assured that you won’t be shunned for breaking the Ordnung. Anxiety made me bold in speaking. I am sorry if you think I have anything against your aunt.”
Lily pursed her lips. What he said made sense. He had always been concerned for her well-being, but did he understand how much she loved Aunt B? “She took us in, Paul. She didn’t have to.”
“And that was a very Christian thing to do.” He pulled her more tightly to him. She didn’t resist, but she didn’t exactly give in either. “But we all know that your grandparents would have gladly raised you, and they would have been a more fitting choice for the daughters of a minister. Your mammi certainly wouldn’t think of getting a tattoo on her neck.”
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