by Sarah Price
Quietly, they slipped through the door and made their way down the lane.
After they had put some distance between themselves and the Riehls’ farmhouse, Sadie was the first to speak. “Please, Belle, you must reconsider. You don’t love that man.”
Ella quickly added her own thoughts. “Love him? Why, you don’t even know him!”
But Belle stood her ground. “I’ve promised to marry him and I cannot back out.” She paused. “Nee, I will not back out.”
“But he’s . . .”
Turning to Ella, Belle frowned. “Disfigured? Is that what you thought to say?”
“Oh, Belle!” Ella’s expression changed from concern to sorrow. “Would you think so little of me? Nee, I was going to say that he’s such a recluse, and bad-tempered, too.”
“I’m sorry, Ella. I should’ve known you wouldn’t say something so horrid.”
Her friend acknowledged the apology with a soft smile. “Ja, I know that he prefers a solitary life, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. And bad-tempered? Mayhaps that’s because so many people are so cruel to him.”
“I find this very sad,” Sadie said. “Getting married for convenience, rather than love? That’s not for me. Why, I can just look at my own daed and how he married so quickly after my maem passed away.”
Ella concurred. “Mine, too.”
Belle frowned. “But both of your daeds were happy when they remarried, ja?”
Sadie shrugged. “My daed isn’t unhappy. But she sure does rule the house. It’s not a partnership like he had with Maem. And she sure is hard on me at times.”
She wasn’t going to gossip about her stepmother, so she didn’t mention the past week, which had been filled with constant criticism and berating. Even if she did choose to tell her friends how Rachel was treating her, Sadie knew this was not the appropriate time to discuss such things. Her issues with Rachel were nothing compared to Belle’s current state of affairs.
Belle gave her friends a forced smile that was meant to reassure them. “I think I’ll just walk home now,” she announced. There was a faraway look in her eyes which her friends had never seen before. “Might you tell my family when you go back inside?”
Ella and Sadie watched as Belle walked down the driveway, her head hanging and her shoulders slumped over in defeat.
“Such a heavy burden she carries,” Sadie said with a sigh. “I just can’t imagine marrying a man I didn’t love.”
Ella shook her head. “Me neither.”
The sound of crunching gravel announced the approach of someone. Sadie glanced over her shoulder and saw Anna Rose Grimm walking toward them. Her eyes traveled the long driveway and watched as Belle disappeared down the lane.
“Such shocking news,” Anna Rose said. “It’s all everyone’s talking about.”
“I can only imagine,” Sadie replied. Oh, how the townspeople of Echo Creek loved to gossip.
Anna Rose stood next to Sadie. She was older than Sadie and, like Ella, blond-headed. With her pale skin and her propensity for wearing pink dresses, she always looked like a little fairy. Her older cousin, Elizabeth, was the teacher at the local schoolhouse, and sometimes Anna Rose helped her with teaching the lessons. She was kind and patient in that way.
“Are you coming back tonight for the singing?”
Sadie shrugged. Her heart felt heavy and she wasn’t in the mood for attending a singing anymore. In general, she didn’t like them much anyway. Too many of the young men clamored for her undivided attention. Not one singing passed when Sadie wasn’t asked to walk home with someone or ride in some fellow’s buggy. And she always politely declined.
She felt embarrassed by the interest the young men showed in her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them. She just didn’t like them that way. And she knew better than to lead on a man she had no intention of marrying.
“I’m not much in the mood, Anna Rose.” No, attending a singing that evening was the last thing Sadie wanted to do after hearing today’s distressing news.
Someone called Ella’s name from the Riehls’ house. She sighed. “Best get going, then.”
“Tonight?” Anna Rose prompted Ella.
But Ella shook her head. “I doubt I’ll be able to go,” she said as she walked away.
That didn’t surprise Sadie. Ella’s stepmother rarely let Ella do anything. Everyone knew that it was because Linda Troyer wanted her own daughters, Drusilla and Anna, to get all the attention—which they usually did. But it was never for the reasons Linda wanted.
Anna Rose looked at Sadie. “Please come,” she pleaded again.
Without Ella, there was no way Sadie was going to attend. “I don’t know, Anna Rose—”
Anna Rose exhaled and made a face. “I know several young women who would love to have so many men ask them to ride home in their buggies.”
Sadie frowned, suspecting that Anna Rose was referring to Drusilla and Anna. “Then those young women would be rather vain,” Sadie responded.
Anna Rose laughed. “True. Very true.” She placed her hand on Sadie’s arm. “Say you’ll come, then. It won’t be any fun if you aren’t there.” She paused. “Perhaps this will help. My cousin will be attending and he can bring us home. Then you will have a valid excuse for disappointing so many of the boys looking to escort you home.”
“Mayhaps,” Sadie reluctantly responded.
“Please!”
Seeing the look of desperation on Anna Rose’s face, Sadie finally relented. “Okay then. I’ll go. But don’t leave me alone with those Troyer girls. You know I can’t stand their willingness to share their opinions with anyone who will listen.”
Anna Rose laughed. “You and everyone else in Echo Creek. No wonder no one’s gone calling on them yet.”
Sadie shook her head. “Not so, Anna Rose. I’ve seen Drusilla at our neighbor’s farm on more than one occasion. Seems she’s struck up quite a friendship with Jenny Miller’s older bruder, Timothy.”
Opening her mouth, Anna Rose let a small gasp escape. “You don’t say!”
“I do say, but only because you must be the only person in Echo Creek who doesn’t already know it.” Sadie wasn’t one to carelessly spread gossip. Common knowledge, however, did not fall into that category.
“I wonder if they’ll marry this season.”
Sadie gave a slight shrug, knowing that speculating about such things did fall in the category of gossip.
Chapter Six
As soon as Sadie arrived at the singing, she knew she had made a terrible mistake. Not only were Drusilla and Anna holding court with the other young women, but Belle’s sisters, Verna and Susie, were there, too.
Those four were the most eligible young women in Echo Creek, and the only reason Sadie knew that was because each of them made certain everyone recognized it.
“What’s wrong, Sadie?” Anna Rose asked. They had arrived together, having met up in town so they could walk to the Riehls’ farm, the same place the worship service had been held earlier that same day. In the brisk autumn air, Sadie had felt unexpectedly optimistic about going to the singing, but now that they were there, she was having second thoughts and wished she hadn’t come at all.
“Just not feeling altogether social, I reckon,” she said, giving a little shrug. She tried to force a smile, but it felt strained. “Truth is that I keep thinking about Belle’s predicament.”
Leaning forward so no one could overhear her, Anna Rose whispered, “I know. It’s all so very strange!”
“Strange?” Sadie could think of many other words besides “strange” that would better describe Belle’s wedding announcement. The word “tragic” immediately came to mind, and her spirits sank even lower. “It’ll be different now that she won’t be attending singings with us anymore.”
“And living so far from town.”
Sadie hadn’t thought of that. With Belle marrying Adam, they would rarely get to see their friend. “Adam does live far from the town proper, doesn’t he?”
A sigh slipped through Anna Rose’s lips. “I suppose she has her reasons, Sadie, and that she has made peace with her decision. No sense in us feeling sorry for her. We don’t know the whole story and might never learn much more about it. But God has plans for all of us.” She waited until Sadie looked at her before she smiled. “And I’m sure he has a wunderbarr plan for Belle, even if none of us can figure out what it might be at the moment.”
Somehow, Anna Rose’s words made Sadie feel a bit better. Her heart still felt heavy, but she knew that God would take care of Belle, just as he always took care of all his children.
Trying to take her mind off Belle, Sadie scanned the crowded first-floor room of the Riehls’ house. The youth singings were held on every other Sunday at the same house where morning worship took place. On the off-Sundays, when they didn’t worship, there were no singings, either. Sometimes members of the youth groups, usually the more adventuresome ones, traveled to neighboring towns to attend their singings. Likewise, other youth groups sometimes came to the Echo Creek singings during their off-Sundays.
Today, however, it was especially crowded.
“I feel like an outsider,” Sadie whispered. “There’s an awful lot of young folk here whom I don’t know. Why, I don’t think I’ve met half the people in this room,” she added while wondering again why she had agreed to come.
Anna Rose also surveyed the room, but she appeared to be searching for someone particular. “I reckon you’re right. I only recognize a few people from Liberty Falls.”
“That’s an awful long way to travel for a youth singing.”
“Oh, just an hour or so by buggy, if they live on the east side, don’t you think?”
Sadie shrugged. She had never been to Liberty Falls. In fact, when it came right down to it, she had never left the vicinity of Echo Creek. At least not that she could remember. “I reckon. Still a long way.”
A group of young men walked by and Sadie frowned when she caught them looking at her and Anna Rose in a leering way. It made her doubly uncomfortable because she had never seen them before.
“Clearly those Liberty Falls fellows don’t have the same manners as our young men do,” Sadie observed drily.
Distracted, Anna Rose suddenly lit up and lifted her hand in the air. “Oh, look, Sadie! There’s my cousin,” she said while waving at a group of young men that were gathered on the other side of the room. Sadie glanced in the direction her friend was waving, but the room was so crowded, she couldn’t figure out who her friend was talking about.
“Sadie Whitaker!”
Upon hearing her name, she turned around. “Rhoda!” She embraced the young woman, a friend of hers from Liberty Creek. “I didn’t know you would be here tonight.”
Rhoda smiled, her pale face lit up by the curly red hair that framed it. “And why not? It isn’t often that our youth groups have a singing together. How are things here in Echo Creek?”
Sadie hadn’t seen Rhoda since the springtime, when she had traveled to Echo Creek with some friends to spend a day visiting with Ella, Belle, and Anna Rose. But that time, Sadie had known that Rhoda was coming, for she had written a letter the week prior. This time, Rhoda had surprised her.
“Quite well. And how are things in Liberty Creek?” She paused, remembering something from their visit several months ago. “How’s your grossmammi? She was feeling poorly the last time you visited.”
Rhoda’s smile left her face, and for a moment, Sadie feared the worst. “She’s not doing much better, I’m afraid. She’s bedridden now. But I spend time with her every week.”
Sadie wasn’t surprised. While Sadie considered Rhoda a friend, she wasn’t as familiar with her as she was with Ella, Belle, and Anna Rose. But it had always been apparent that Rhoda was thoughtful and kind. “She’s not gone to live with you, then?”
Shaking her head, Rhoda sighed. “Every week I ask her. But she’s still very stubborn, my grossmammi. She won’t give up her little haus in the woods.” Somehow, she managed to smile. “God’s taking care of her, I’m sure.” She glanced over Sadie’s shoulder. “Oh, I see Elizabeth. I best go say hello before the singing starts.”
Watching Rhoda hurry off toward Elizabeth, Sadie couldn’t help but think that Rhoda and her grandmother were fortunate to have each other. Sadie had never known her own grandparents. But if she had, she knew that she would’ve been as attentive to them as Rhoda was to her grandmother.
That was one of the things that Sadie loved about the Amish community. Aging parents weren’t sent away to old-age facilities; they were happily taken care of by their children and grandchildren at home. However, sometimes an older person, especially if they weren’t living in the grossdaddi haus on one of their children’s farms, refused. Clearly Rhoda’s grandmother fell into that category.
“So deep in thought, little songbird.”
Sadie was startled by the sound of the familiar voice near her ear. She couldn’t quite place it but knew she had heard it before. She spun around, even more surprised to see Frederick standing by her side. How could she not have noticed him sneaking up on her? “It’s you!”
He laughed. “Indeed it is.” Then, he pointed at her. “And it’s you,” he teased back.
Immediately she felt her cheeks redden.
She hadn’t given much thought to the handsome stranger who had caught her singing in the woods by the stream a few days earlier. It wasn’t that he hadn’t intrigued her, for he most certainly had! But she hadn’t expected she would ever see him again. And it had never crossed her mind that he’d show up at a youth gathering.
“I simply meant that . . .” What had she meant? The back of her neck began to feel warm. “I mean, well, I—”
He saved her from further awkwardness. “—You’re surprised to see me here?”
A wave of relief washed over her. “Ja, that’s exactly what I meant.”
With his hat tipped back on his head, Frederick rocked back and forth on his heels, his eyes scanning the room. “Understandable, since I rarely go to singings in my own church district, let alone another one. However, I heard that some of Echo Creek’s young women are magnificent singers.” His eyes met hers. “How could I resist?”
Sadie couldn’t help but smile. “I imagine you couldn’t.” When his eyes widened, she quickly added, “Hearing the singers, of course.”
Something lit up on his face—a look of amusement. She hadn’t meant to sound flirtatious or playful, but it was hard not to tease him back. And it was clear that he was enjoying their lively banter.
“There you are, Frederick!” Anna Rose appeared beside them, then linked her arm through Sadie’s. “This is my friend, Sadie Whitaker. She’s the one I’m hoping you can take home.”
Frederick raised an eyebrow. “This is Sadie Whitaker?”
Anna Rose frowned. “I don’t know of any other.”
He pursed his lips and gave Sadie serious study. “Can she sing?”
“What?” Anna Rose appeared shocked, but Sadie knew that Frederick was just teasing.
“I’ll agree to let her ride home in my buggy, but only if her voice is as pretty as she is.”
Her smile faded and Sadie felt the heat rise to her cheeks for the second time that night. She averted her eyes. Did he really think she was pretty?
Anna Rose recognized the jest and gave his arm a smack. “Oh, you! Always fooling and teasing.” She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Sadie. “Clearly you must realize that this is my cousin, Frederick Keim. And you might also realize that he’s rather witty, or he at least thinks he is.”
Frederick leaned over and, in a whisper loud enough for Sadie to hear, said to Anna Rose, “Remember when I told you I heard a little songbird sitting by the stream when I was on my way to town the other day?”
Anna Rose gave him a quizzical look.
He nodded his head in Sadie’s direction. “We’ve already met.”
Within seconds, Anna Rose put two and two together.
Her eyes grew larger and her lips made a small O shape. It took her a second to collect herself. “I see.” The corners of her mouth lifted into a teasing smile. “Now I understand why you wanted to come to the singing.”
Feeling uncomfortable with all the attention, Sadie stood on her tiptoes and glanced across the room. “They’re getting ready to start,” she announced, suddenly grateful that Frederick would have to take a seat on one of the long wooden benches on the men’s side of the room.
When the music started, the first few songs were hymns everyone was familiar with from worship. The only difference was that they were sung faster, instead of at the slow-paced rhythm the congregation used during service. Sadie tried to focus on singing, but she found it difficult. On more than one occasion, she snuck a peek across the room to where Frederick was sitting on a pine bench with the other men. And, on more than one occasion, she caught him sneaking a look in her direction, too.
Sadie felt as if butterflies were fluttering around inside her stomach. So much so that she found it difficult to concentrate on the music as she anticipated the long buggy ride home with Frederick.
After an hour, the group took a break, so Anna Rose and Sadie made their way to the table by the fireplace that was laden with refreshments. There were all sorts of goodies, including home-baked desserts and fresh-squeezed lemonade. When they had each finished a glass of lemonade and a shortbread cookie that was dusted with powdered sugar, Anna Rose excused herself to use the restroom. Standing alone, Sadie clasped her hands behind her back and rocked a little on her heels. She hummed a tune from the last song as she waited for her friend to return.
“Would you be near ready to leave?” a husky voice whispered. The hot breath on her ear made little goose bumps appear on her neck.
Startled, Sadie gave a little jump and quickly turned around. She wasn’t surprised to see Frederick standing there. “You like doing that to me, don’t you?” she said in a serious tone of voice, but she smiled when she spoke the words.
