by Sarah Price
“I told you she just needs to rest,” Samuel said.
Gideon elbowed him. “Shush now!”
David sat on the edge of the bed next to Sadie and leaned over so that he could touch her forehead. “Sadie? What’s happening?” He removed his hand. “You’re clammy, and your face”—he hesitated—“well, it’s swollen and it’s covered in hives.”
At that moment, Sadie knew. Oh, the extent of her stepmother’s jealousy! “Apples,” she managed to whisper through her parched lips. “She must have put apples in the chicken pot pie.”
“Who?” Samuel asked in a hushed voice.
“Rachel.”
“But you’re allergic to apples,” Dan said.
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” Gideon whispered.
Ignoring the others, David took charge. “We need to get her allergy medicine!” He stared at Stevie. “Fetch whatever you have left!”
Sadie shut her eyes. She could barely breathe. Her throat was swollen shut and when she tried to swallow, hoping to get some air, it felt as if she had bits of broken glass in her throat. In all of her life, she had never felt this way. She’d had several allergic reactions, mostly as a child, before her parents knew about her allergy to apples. But nothing, not even the soup that Rachel had inadvertently given to her just two weeks before, had caused her to react in such a way.
Surely Rachel had done this on purpose and with the most sinister of intentions.
In the fog of her mind, she heard the shuffling of feet. Was that someone standing by the bedside?
It was Stevie.
Her eyes were so swollen, she could barely open them to see him by David, an empty bottle of allergy medicine in his hand. He tipped it to the side and stared at his older brother. “I . . . I don’t have any more.”
Inwardly, she groaned.
“Check the bag Frederick brought,” David commanded as he snatched the empty bottle and flung it to the floor. “He said he brought more medicine for you!”
She heard the panic in the room as more than one of the brothers ran to the counter where Frederick had placed the bag that had contained the pie. Someone rustled through the bag, and then the room was silent.
“What—what’s wrong?” she managed to ask through her closed throat.
David placed his hand upon her arm. “Sadie, it appears that Frederick forgot to leave the medicine. The bag,” he said, “it’s empty.”
“No medicine?” Gideon cried out.
“He must have forgotten to leave it,” David repeated to his brother.
“Then we must get her medicine!” Gideon shouted, his voice alarmed instead of merely cantankerous. “Who shall go to town?”
David’s large, frightened eyes fell onto Sadie’s face and he cringed. “It’s too far away,” he mumbled. “And, without a horse, we won’t get there in time.”
The Grimm brothers began to bicker among themselves, but Sadie couldn’t make sense of their words. She began to feel light-headed. “I . . . I have to sleep,” she mumbled, not even sure if she was being heard. All she knew was that she couldn’t breathe, and sleep was all she wanted.
A darkness began to engulf her and she tried to wave her hand. Everything would be all right, she thought, if she could only sleep.
“I . . . must . . .” She didn’t finish the sentence before her head touched the pillow, her prayer kapp fell from her head, and her eyes shut. Sadie fell into a slumber so deep, no one could wake her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sadie could barely move. She didn’t have to open her eyes to know that the Grimm brothers stood around her bed, waiting for her to say something. With her breath coming in short waves, accompanied by a high-pitched wheezing, it was all she could do to focus on her breathing, let alone talk. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth and she could barely swallow.
In all her life, she had never had such a bad reaction. Of course, when her parents had first learned that she was allergic to apples, they had taken every precaution to help her avoid being exposed to them. Even when she went to school, the community had come together and none of the parents sent apples to school in their children’s lunch pails. Occasionally she had accidentally ingested something with apples in it, but usually it was in such a small quantity that she’d had just a minor reaction. Nothing like what she was experiencing tonight.
Now, however, Sadie feared the worst.
Could her stepmother have been filled with such jealousy and hatred that she wanted her dead? Or had she hoped to teach Sadie a lesson for running away and refusing to marry John?
In either case, Sadie knew she would have to find it in herself to forgive Rachel. It was the only way she could enter God’s kingdom. And without any medicine, she feared that she would enter his kingdom a lot sooner than she had expected.
“Hello? Where is everyone?”
The voice filtered through the house and Sadie heard a murmuring among the brothers. But she had a hard time making sense of what she was hearing. Surely it wasn’t the doctor. David had said they lived too far away to fetch the doctor. Hadn’t he?
She wasn’t even certain if she remembered that correctly.
More voices floated through the room. But Sadie was floating, too, in and out of consciousness. For what felt like a long moment, she was no longer in the Grimm brothers’ house but in a large field. She was sitting among golden grass, beneath the most beautiful blue sky. And near her were birds, rabbits, and deer. They seemed to be speaking, and for once, she could understand what they were saying.
They were singing, too.
And Sadie smiled.
She felt light and breezy, sitting in the midst of that field. Without a care in the world and among the gentlest of animals. God’s creatures.
“Sadie.”
The voice came from behind her. Sadie slowly turned her neck, expecting to see someone approaching.
“Sadie!”
This time, the voice was sharper and closer by her ear.
“Drink this.”
A floral scent hit her nostrils and she inhaled deeply. It smelled like the color purple. She liked the color purple.
A coldness filled her mouth and then moved down her throat. At first, she wasn’t certain what the sensation was. But it wasn’t long before she felt it again. This time, she realized that it wasn’t just coldness that filled her mouth, but wetness as well.
She drifted back and forth, between hearing the voice and sitting in the field listening to the animals sing. She had no idea why, but she felt torn between the two. Such a difficult decision, she thought each time she started to come around for a moment.
“Get me a cold cloth,” the voice said, and moments later, she felt something cool on her forehead, a dampness covering her eyes.
She returned to the field, drifting away as she watched the animals once again.
The next voice she heard was dearly familiar. A deeper voice that stole her away from the field.
“How much of the antihistamine did you give her?” the voice asked.
“Double the recommended dose.”
A pause before a third voice said, “Let me give her the adrenaline.” Within seconds, she felt a pinch in her arm and, slowly, she drifted back to the field.
Then, all at once, the song ended, and the animals surrounded her. Sadie smiled at them, lifting her hand to let a bluebird rest upon her little finger. She thanked them for the song, but told them she had to leave now. Gently she flicked her hand upward and the bird fluttered away, slowly fading before her eyes.
She looked down at the other animals. Without moving their limbs, they began to disappear too.
“Goodbye,” she called out, raising her hand to wave at them. “Until next time.” But, for some reason, she knew that there would be no next time.
Her eyes fluttered open and it took her a moment to focus. Where was she? Over her head were rough rafters and wide plank boards. She blinked, focusing her eyes on them.
She wasn’t at home. And this didn
’t look like the heaven she had always imagined, of that she was sure.
“Sadie!”
Slowly, she turned her head, her eyes focusing on the figure seated beside her. Frederick. She tried to smile, but it was hard to move her muscles.
“Don’t move,” he said quickly, pressing his hand on her shoulder so that she remained still. “Just rest.”
“Wh-what happened?”
“Shh.” Frederick stared down at her, his hazel eyes scanning her face.
Then, slowly, everything began to come back to her. Frederick’s arrival from Echo Creek. The wonderful news that her father had approved their marriage. The gift of Rachel’s chicken pot pie. The little songbird figurine. The tightening of her throat.
Sadie reached for his hand and, upon finding it, squeezed it with whatever strength she had left. “Apples. Rachel put apples in the pie.”
Frederick took a deep breath. “We know, Sadie.”
The enormity of the situation hit her. “I—I could’ve died,” she whispered. Without medicine, that surely would have been the outcome.
“But you didn’t, dear Sadie.” Frederick held her hand tightly. “You will be fine, thanks be to God.”
“How . . . ?” She shut her eyes as she tried to remember. “There was no medicine. David told me so. You hadn’t left it.”
Frederick’s voice caught. “I know, Sadie. I was so overjoyed about my conversation with your daed that I forgot it.” He clutched her hand, squeezing it. “When I unsaddled my horse, I discovered the medicine in my saddle bag. Part of me thought about waiting until morning to bring it to Stevie. I told myself he would be fine for just one night. But then a little voice in my head told me to turn around.” He leaned his cheek against her hand. “Or perhaps it was me, selfishly wanting to see you again.”
He pulled her hand up and pressed the back of it to his lips.
David appeared beside Frederick, his eyes wide, with dark circles beneath them. “Truly God must have spoken to our cousin, Sadie. Without that medicine, you would have left us for God’s kingdom, for sure and certain.”
For a moment, Sadie digested what David had just said. From the way they both looked so disheveled and worried, she knew how serious her situation had been. Truly she must have approached death. And yet, she had felt such peace, sitting in that field, surrounded by all the animals. Was it possible that she had been dreaming, her body’s defense mechanism while she fought to live? Or had she truly been approaching heaven, the animals waiting to take her to God’s kingdom?
“Thank God that I returned,” Frederick whispered. “To think of what might have happened if I had not.”
While it was true that without the medicine she might have left them, Sadie suspected that it was God who hadn’t called her home. It wasn’t her time to leave yet. But, after today, Sadie knew that, when her time did come, she would fear nothing, for God’s kingdom was everything she had imagined.
Suddenly, it dawned on her that she was not in heaven, but on earth. And while she was here, she knew that there was something she did fear. Or, rather, someone: Rachel.
“Frederick!”
He clutched her hand tighter. “I’m here.”
“Surely I cannot return to my daed’s haus now! What if she tries to poison me again? And my daed mustn’t find out what Rachel did to me. It would ruin their marriage. Promise me that you won’t tell him.”
And then she heard it. Her father’s voice.
“I’m afraid we already know.”
Once again, Sadie tried to sit up. She felt warm hands upon her back as someone assisted her. She glanced to her right and saw that the bishop was seated to her left. And her father stood next to him.
“Daed!”
Jacob moved forward, kneeling by the side of the mattress. He reached for her hand and clutched it close to his heart. “Sadie,” he said in a voice that cracked with emotion. “I came as soon as Samuel Grimm arrived at the haus and told me what had happened. I am so terribly sorry.” He lowered his eyes. “I was afraid that we were going to lose you.”
Sadie pressed her lips together, willing herself not to cry.
“I cannot believe Rachel did this.” His eyes narrowed. “And yet I have no choice but to accept the truth. She must be completely mad. How could I not have seen it?”
The guilt that clung to her father broke Sadie’s heart. But she had no words to console him.
“I believed her,” Jacob murmured. “I believed that she was truly remorseful over what she had done. And yet, I know that I am not guiltless.”
“Do not blame yourself,” Sadie said, hoping to console him.
But Jacob didn’t seem to hear her words. “Why, I never should’ve listened to her, Sadie. To think that I allowed her to convince me you’d be a good match for John Rabor.” He shut his eyes and shook his head. “What a fool I was to listen to her!”
“Daed—”
He held up his hand, determined to continue. “Nee, Sadie, let me finish, for my shame is great.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. In all her life, she had never seen her father look so forlorn and distressed.
“What I did was wrong,” Jacob admitted. “There is no excuse, Sadie. In fact, I can’t quite understand how it happened at all. Perhaps I just wanted peace in the haus. Perhaps I just needed Rachel to be at peace. Perhaps I just gave in because it was easier to do so. But I’m ashamed to admit that I was willing to condone your marrying a man who was ill-suited to you.” He laughed, but there was no joy in it. “Completely ill-suited. I don’t know how I ever thought otherwise. And when you ran away, I was distraught, knowing that my actions had played a part in your flight. I saw the error of my ways. That I had not listened to my own flesh and blood, but to a woman I realize now I know not. How ever can you forgive me?”
Sadie squeezed his hand. “You are forgiven, Daed.”
He met her gaze. “You’re far too generous, Sadie Whitaker. I fear that I am not deserving of your forgiveness.”
Behind him, the bishop cleared his throat, and Sadie looked at him. “As for Rachel,” he said in a solemn voice as he stroked his long beard, “you’ve nothing to fear, Sadie. You can return home safely, for she will not be a threat to you any longer.”
Her eyes traveled from the bishop’s face to her father’s.
Jacob moistened his lips, the color draining from his cheeks. “Until you are married, she will be under the Meidung.”
Sadie gasped. “Shunned?”
She had heard of people being shunned, but had never known anyone who actually was banned. Once shunned, Rachel would not be able to share a meal with others, worship with others, or even converse with members of their community, let alone members of neighboring communities. She would, in fact, be banished from all forms of Amish life until the bishop deemed otherwise.
Her father continued. “She will stay with the bishop and his fraa. Dorothy will provide spiritual guidance to Rachel until she confesses her sins to the church.”
“Will she confess?” Sadie asked. She couldn’t imagine the strength it would take to confess to having poisoned another person. Even harder to imagine was how Sadie could ever trust her stepmother again. She knew that, through prayer and her faith, she would eventually find a way to forgive Rachel, but could she truly forget? Could anyone?
The bishop raised a brow. “Rachel is willing to confess, ja. However, I have instructed her that the Meidung shall stay in effect until she has redeemed herself in the eyes of God.”
Stunned, Sadie sank back into the pillows.
Lifting his chin, the bishop clenched his teeth, the muscle in his jaw tightening. “And that could be quite a while,” he said tersely. “I’ll not have her confess just so she can return to the gut favor of our community.” His eyes softened as he returned his attention to Sadie. “As for you, Sadie, I will have you come home to Jacob’s haus as soon as you are well enough to travel.” He gestured toward Frederick. “I leave that decision in the h
ands of your future husband.”
Frederick straightened his shoulders. “I’ll make certain she is well tended to here at my cousins’ haus.”
The bishop nodded his approval. “Dorothy will come with some soup and to sit with her. I’ll send her as soon as I return to Echo Creek.” He leveled his gaze at Sadie. “I’m of the opinion that it’s better to have another woman stay with you until you can travel. The way the Amish grapevine has been spreading like the weed of sin that it is, I won’t risk having your reputation soiled by these most unusual of circumstances.”
Sadie blushed and averted her eyes.
“In the meantime,” he said as he set his straw hat upon his head and started to walk toward the door, “I must prepare my sermon for tomorrow’s worship as well as prepare to announce the wedding banns for the two of you.” He paused and looked at Frederick. “A week from next Tuesday, you say?”
Sadie’s eyes widened.
“Ja, that’s right.” Frederick reached out and placed his hand on Sadie’s arm. “And, unless Sadie objects, the wedding will be held at my parents’ farm. My maem insists. Without her stepmother there to assist her, it would be too much of a burden for Sadie to prepare the haus.” He smiled down at Sadie. “Besides, she is eager to meet her new dochder, who will be living with us in just nine days’ time.”
Nine days? Sadie could hardly believe it. “I’ve so much to do,” she murmured, more for herself than for anyone else to hear.
But Frederick had heard her. “You’ve only one thing to do, Sadie Whitaker. And that’s to rest. You leave the preparations for the wedding to my maem.”
Obediently, she shut her eyes. She was tired and felt the need to sleep. Her body had fought a valiant battle and, apparently, won. Sleep would help her heal and would also help the time pass so that nine days would become eight and eight would become seven. While she was eager to return to her father’s house, she was even more eager for the day she would join Frederick at his parents’ farm as his wife.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
While every bride cherishes her wedding day, Sadie was struck by how different her wedding was from Belle’s, the last wedding she had attended.
