Crossing
Page 6
Finally the service ended. The men worked to put the benches and tables outside and to move the Keims’ furniture back in. The women went to the kitchen and then outside to set the tables for Sunday dinner, as was customary. Hosting a Sunday service was demanding, but everyone in the congregation brought food, and they always made sure that any cleaning after services and dinner was done.
This was the one good thing about the services to Yancy—plenty of good food. Fried chicken, roast beef, all sorts of vegetables and casseroles, pies and cakes—all in plenty, enough to satisfy even ravenous teenagers. The men were all seated and the women began to serve them, replenishing their bread baskets; and the butter, tea, and lemonade cooled in the stream.
A young woman, Hannah Lapp, refilled Yancy’s lemonade. She was thirteen and was in school with him. She was a pretty girl with sandy brown hair, dark brown eyes with perfect winging brows, and a beautiful complexion. She was a little shy, but she and Yancy had talked some, during lunches and recess. She tended to hover close by him at Sunday dinners. “Are you coming to the sing next Sunday, Yancy?” she asked softly.
“Hope not,” he answered shortly.
“You should come. There’ll be lots of games and good things to eat.”
Yancy shrugged. “That doesn’t make up for having to sit through a sing—when you can’t sing and you don’t even know what you’re supposed to be singing.”
“I could teach you some of them,” Hannah said. “Not all of them are long and hard German words.”
“If I cared,” Yancy said harshly. “Which I don’t.”
Rebecca Braun was across from Yancy, serving up fresh bread. She gave him a stern look, but he ducked his head and ate steadily.
“Oh—I—of course not,” Hannah said lamely. “I’m—sorry.” Quickly she moved along to the next man, to refill his glass.
After the meal, when everyone was meeting and talking in companionable groups, Becky came to sit beside Yancy, as he was still sitting on the bench at the table by himself.
“You weren’t very nice to Hannah, Yancy,” she said quietly. “I thought you were more of a gentleman.”
“Guess not,” Yancy muttered. “But I don’t see how it’s any of your concern, ma’am.”
“I think it is my business, Yancy, because I’m going to marry your father. I know I won’t be like your mother. But I would like to look at you as my son. And so I would like to know that my son is a kind man, a man that I can be proud of.”
Yancy stiffened. “You’re right—you’re not my mother. You’ll never be my mother. And besides, my father hasn’t asked you to marry him yet.”
“No, he hasn’t, but that’s because of me. I wanted to wait until I could be sure that he was the kind of man I wanted to marry. A good man, an honorable man that could make a good home for me.”
“And?” Yancy demanded.
“And he’s that man,” Becky said simply. “But there’s something else I’ve been watching and waiting for.”
“What’s that?”
“I wanted to see if you would be a good older brother to my children.”
This amused Yancy so much that despite himself, he smiled. This woman was the one person he saw of the Amish, besides his grandmother, who was different from the others. Becky Braun and Zemira Tremayne always spoke their minds directly, without hesitation or decoration. “So, do you think I’ll be good with your children?”
“No. Not right now, I don’t.”
Her abruptness startled Yancy. “Why wouldn’t I be a good brother? Is it because I’m part Indian?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“What is it then?”
“You haven’t learned how to be kind.” Becky paused and her eyes were fixed on Yancy with such an intensity that he couldn’t turn his gaze away from hers. She had a way of drawing people’s attention and keeping them fixed when she spoke. “You were short with Hannah, without need. You should be gentler with people, Yancy.”
Yancy was irritated. “I guess you better not marry my father then, if I’m not what you want in a son.”
“I know you could be.” Becky smiled suddenly, reached out, and pushed a lock of Yancy’s coal black hair from his forehead, where it had fallen. “I know you will be. I don’t need to wait any longer. So come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
“Just come with me and don’t ask questions.” Becky led Yancy through the crowd to the end of one of the tables, where Daniel sat with Becky’s family. They all looked up as they approached, and Daniel got to his feet. “Hello, Becky. I see you’ve corralled my son. Won’t you sit down?”
Becky stopped directly in front of Daniel and looked up at him. “Not just now, Mr. Tremayne. I need to know … do you still want to marry me?”
A silence fell over the group, and Yancy saw that his father was taken totally off guard. Astonishment marked Daniel’s face and then he turned red. But he answered solidly, “I do want to marry you, Rebecca Braun.”
“All right.” Becky smiled. “We’re engaged then, but I don’t want to wait a year.” A year was the common period most young couples waited before marriage. Now Becky turned to her father and said firmly, “Father, I know it’s not the Amish way, but Daniel and I are older. He’s proved himself to be a good man. We’d like your permission to get married in one month.”
Simon Braun wasn’t a man who was easily shocked, as he’d grown accustomed to Becky’s “wild ways” as he called them. He frowned and said, “Daughter, I know when you’ve made up your mind, a whole string of plow mules couldn’t drag you from it. But would you do me a favor, here and now? You know that we don’t condone marriage except for November and December, because of the harvest. Won’t you at least wait until then?”
Becky said stubbornly, “No, Father—”
Daniel took her hand, tucked it into his arm, and said, “Yes, Mr. Braun, we’ll be glad to wait until harvest is over. November will be fine.”
“But—” Becky began, looking up at him beseechingly.
Daniel put one finger on her lips. “Shush, bride. Let me win this one.”
She took a deep breath then laughed. She had a good laugh, a rich laugh. “All right, groom. But you’d better count this one dear. You won’t win many.”
“You sure won’t, Mr. Tremayne,” Simon Braun said, sighing and shaking his hand. “You surely won’t.”
CHAPTER FIVE
July 1857 was a bountiful harvest, almost more than anyone could ask for. The Tremayne fields of hay, wheat, and corn were bursting. The pantry and the root cellar were overrun from the kitchen garden with peas, squash, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes. Other women from the community came on Saturdays to help Becky and Zemira can them, as Becky and Zemira also went to their farms to help them with the riches of their lands.
Becky and Zemira sat on the veranda, sipping lemonade and shelling peas. The front veranda faced east, and often they could see the Blue Ridge Mountains, mostly just a grayish smoke on the horizon, but sometimes they could make out the dreamy peaks.
“I’ve never been there,” Zemira murmured. “Jacob and I thought that we might go to the mountains once. But somehow home never let us go.”
“Home is good,” Becky said quietly. “Sometimes it’s better just to stay close. At least, that’s how I feel now. I couldn’t ask for any other happiness.”
Zemira glanced at her sharply. “Becky, daughter, are you with child?”
Becky’s finely etched black eyebrows arched in surprise. “I—I think so. But it’s so early, I haven’t even told Daniel. How did you know, Grandmother?”
Zemira smiled. “I think the Lord tells me things. It’s not like I hear His voice; it’s just a knowing. So how far along are you?”
“I’ve been telling myself not to hope too much,” Becky answered. “It would just be a couple of weeks. But like you, Grandmother, I feel like I just … know.”
“Women do.” Zemira nodded. “Women generally do.”
“You and Daniel have been worried, haven’t you?” Zemira asked softly.
Becky didn’t answer; she ducked her head and shelled peas energetically.
“It’s all right,” Zemira continued. “I know you’ve wondered, though Daniel wouldn’t say anything. You’ve been married eight months now, and I know it makes you anxious to wait. Jacob and I were married for almost forty years and had only one son. And Daniel didn’t come along until we’d been married for fourteen years. I know you and he have thought about that.” Zemira sighed deeply. She wouldn’t tell of the two stillborn sisters Daniel had, one in 1818 and one in 1820. Daniel hadn’t been born until 1823.
“It’s—it’s not just you, Grandmother,” Becky said hesitantly. “It’s my family, too. I mean, I was born, but then it was eight years until Shadrach was born, and then another six until Judith, and a year later Lois. Daniel and I—it’s just that we both want children so badly, and we both want four, maybe five. I don’t know if I’ll—that is, if time—if we can—”
Zemira dropped her hands and gazed at her daughter-in-law sternly. “Child, you talk foolishness. My son has become a good man, a fine man, constant in the Lord and walking in His will. You are a good and faithful Christian woman. God will bless you. I’ve no doubt in my mind.”
Becky ducked her head. “Yes. Yes, you’re right, Grandmother, as always. I’m very proud of Daniel, and I’m so blessed to have him for a husband.”
Zemira nodded emphatically. “I’m so proud of him, too. He’s a good son, and a good husband, and a good father.” She bent to her work again. “But he did have his wanderings. And I think that Yancy may, too. You wouldn’t know it from the way Daniel is now, but Yancy is so much like him, when Daniel was in rumspringa.”
“You see that in Yancy? That same rebelliousness?”
Zemira glanced at her. “Has Daniel ever told you about his time then? When he left home?”
“No, he hasn’t, and I haven’t wanted to intrude on him to ask. Whatever happened then, he’s a different man now.”
“That’s the truth, daughter,” Zemira agreed. “And I have to say that Yancy is much better behaved than Daniel was then. Maybe it’s just a young man’s restlessness. He does get into scuffles with the young men, and the girls say he’s very forward with them.”
Becky laughed. “The young men that he’s bested say that, and I think the young girls that complain about him are the ones that don’t get his attention. He’s a very good-looking young man, you know, and he is strong and quick and probably very desirable to young women.”
“I suppose so,” Zemira said grumpily, “but the bishop is out here every week, it seems, complaining about another one of his scrapes. It’s getting harder to find excuses for him.”
Becky answered, “But you do find excuses for him, as I do. All we can do is pray, Grandmother. Pray that he stays with us and finds God. Until then, we must find more excuses.”
It was a fruitful year and a bountiful harvest. Even the winter seemed benevolent. They had picturesque snows for Thanksgiving and Christmas and bright, brisk days for the New Year.
Becky and Zemira had been right. Becky was expecting, and though it was an easy winter in the valley, it was hard for her and Daniel. She was due in April and it seemed as if the baby—and the spring—would never come.
But the times of the seasons always come, and the spring of 1858 was glorious. The long days were delightfully warm and the nights refreshingly cool. Rain came just as and when it should. Even
Yancy didn’t mind working the fields; the days were so pleasant and the planting was easy.
Early in the evening of April 16, the family was gathered in the parlor. A small, comfortable fire crackled, and the last sweet rays of the sun shone strong through the large windows. Daniel and Yancy were playing checkers while Zemira and Becky quilted.
Becky had never before been a very good seamstress, but Zemira was very skilled. Once Becky had applied herself to quilting under Zemira’s expert teaching, she had come to enjoy it.
Leaning back, she rubbed her eyes then sat motionless for a few moments, her eyes closed.
Zemira eyed her shrewdly. Once, when Zemira was young, she had been the best midwife in the community. But after her second stillborn daughter, she had refused to ever consider it again. Still, the founts of knowledge of men and women run deep and are hard to ignore.
Rebecca lifted her head with a small smile. “Daniel?”
“Yes, dearest?”
“I think it’s time for you to go fetch Esther Raber.”
Daniel jumped up, knocking the straight chair he was sitting in halfway across the room.
This made Yancy jump up in alarm, and his chair fell over.
“Stop!” Becky said, holding up one hand and laughing. “It’s no emergency, you know. This little one has taken a sweet time coming, and for all we know it may be tomorrow or the next day before he or she decides to put in an appearance. It’s fine, Daniel.”
Zemira pursed her lips. “It’s a girl, Daniel. And I do think you might step lively to get Mrs. Raber.”
Daniel turned and bolted from the room, followed by Yancy.
“Just—wait! Don’t kill your silly selves!” Becky called after them. “Grandmother, why did you scare them like that? How do you know?”
“Normally I don’t say much about what’s between a mother and her child and God. But you’re precious to me, daughter, and I have to say that I think this little girl is going to be born before midnight, even though I see you’re in real early light pains. Anyway, why don’t we go on upstairs and get you fixed up in bed? And I’ll have everything ready by the time Esther gets here. All I can say is”— she grunted a little, helping Becky rise from the straight-backed bench—”that I hope that silly, loud, little Leah Raber doesn’t insist on following Yancy over here. I declare right here and now, I think she’d kidnap him and hold him prisoner if she thought it would make him marry her.”
“Can’t blame her,” Becky said, smiling. “He is a handsome young man.”
“Doesn’t excuse her. She’s like a little gnat, always buzzing around him. So, daughter, what are you going to name her?”
“I’m going to be cautious and wait until we see what it is, Grandmother, even though I have faith in you. And anyway, I think I will let Daniel make the final decision when he sees her.”
“Her?” Zemira repeated mischievously as they struggled up the stairs.
“Or him,” Becky added quickly then bent over with a sudden sharp pain. “All right, all right, her,” she whispered. Looking up at Zemira, she grinned. “Guess she’s going to take after me.”
It took about an hour for Daniel and Yancy to bring Esther back to the farm, and by that time Rebecca was already in hard labor, though it was perfectly natural and normal. After an examination, Esther, a kind, gentle woman with warm, dark eyes, came out into the hallway and said, “It looks like we’re going to have a baby soon, Daniel. Please go downstairs … and don’t worry. Both Becky and the baby look very, very good.”
“But how do you know? What do you mean? What—?”
Esther was kind, but she could be firm when she had to be, particularly with wayward daughters like Leah and distraught fathers-to-be like Daniel. “You must trust me,” she said firmly. “I know, and certainly Zemira knows. She was the best midwife in the community.”
“Huh?” Daniel said, bewildered.
“Never mind. Just go downstairs, stay calm, and wait.”
Yancy and his father went downstairs and waited, but they certainly were not calm. They paced in the parlor, they paced in the dining room, and finally they went out and paced on the veranda. The night was beautiful, with a full silver moon and a spangling of stars spanning the sky. They didn’t notice. The only thing they noticed was when they accidentally ran into each other,
and then they muttered distractedly, “Uh, sorry.” They even ran into poor Hank a couple of times, who was sitting at the top of the steps, watching them blundering around with worried eyes.
In the still night, they heard a baby’s cry. It was eleven minutes to eleven.
Esther’s step sounded on the stairs, and they rushed into the house like mad bulls.
“Come on up,” she said, smiling widely. “They’re fine.”
They ran up the stairs and then, slowing down and almost tiptoeing, they went into the bedroom.
Rebecca sat up in bed. She looked tired, and her hair was dripping with sweat, but she smiled. “Look, Daniel! Just look! Isn’t she beautiful?”
“She … she? It’s a girl?” Daniel murmured, standing by the bed. “Thank the Lord! She’s—all right?” he asked Esther anxiously.
Zemira soundlessly came up to stand beside him. She beamed down at the baby. “She’s perfect, just perfect. She reminds me of—of—” She choked slightly, then finished in a low voice, “Of you, of course, Daniel. Of you.”
The baby was awake and seemed to stare right up at her father. She had reddish blond hair and light blue eyes, just like Daniel. Most babies just look like babies, but Yancy thought that she did indeed resemble Father.
Becky held her up for Daniel to hold. He took her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. “A little girl … a girl … Oh, thank you, wife.”
“Thank you, husband. So what shall we call her?”
“Well, we did talk about that. I know it’s kind of a mouthful, but I still like it. Callie Josephine? Callie after my grandmother and Josephine after your grandfather Joseph?”
“Callie Josephine it is,” Becky said, settling wearily back into her pillows. “What do you think about your new sister, Yancy?”
It gave Yancy a warm feeling for Becky to call the baby his sister instead of his half sister. Over the last two years he had come to love Becky, though he could never call her Mother. But this did give him a tie to the baby, for them to name her after his great-grandmother Callie. Grandmother had told him a lot about her mother. She had been a strong, loving woman.