“Good morning,” a guest greeted her in a hushed voice on the path near cabin four. He carried a fishing pole and his two young children hopped alongside him, one with a pail and the other with a net. They waved happily at Rose.
Glancing up, the man’s wife waved, too. “Such a lovely day, isn’t it?” she trilled.
“It is, jah.” Rose forced a smile even though there was nothing lovely about the day. Still, the good thing about having such a long to-do list was that it left no room for wallowing, and by the time Miriam arrived, Rose’s eyes were dry and her smile was sincere.
Miriam proved to be every bit as capable and diligent as Charity and Hope. As she punched down the dough for bread, she told Rose she and her mother had visited several houses in the district after Caleb brought her home the previous afternoon. Together they’d arranged coverage for Hope and Charity’s babysitting roles.
“Maria Mast can help you and Eleanor prepare and serve supper from Monday through Friday. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t get anyone to help with lunch, though.”
“Denki, denki, denki to you and your mamm for recruiting people to help!” Rose sang out. “As for lunch, I just set out bread and cheese, fruit, dessert and paper plates. It’s the easiest thing I do all day.”
Caleb stopped in later for a second cup of coffee and he seemed almost as happy as Rose was when she told him about the new staff arrangements. “That’s what I love about the Amish—everyone’s so community-minded.”
His comment struck Rose as peculiar. Community-minded was how Englischers described the Amish in newspaper articles or library books Rose had read, but it wasn’t a term she’d ever heard an Amish person use. Serving one another was at the core of their Christian beliefs; it was an expectation, not something to boast about. “Aren’t people community-minded in your district in Wisconsin?”
* * *
Caleb’s face felt inflamed. He lifted the cup to his mouth and took a swig to buy time before answering. “Jah, they are. I just meant... I meant...” He faltered. “I guess I was trying to say I appreciate the settlement here. The leit are especially helpful.”
His answer seemed to satisfy Rose. “Speaking of helpful leit, is your offer to help with whatever I need still valid?” she asked.
“Absolutely.” Caleb took another swallow of coffee; his mouth was so dry.
“Since today is Muundaag, I need to deposit the rent. But I noticed the hembeer are close to going bad on the north end of the field, so they should be picked this morning—”
“No problem, I’ll take care of them. You said the north end, right?”
“Jah, but I thought I’d pick the hembeer and you could deposit the money.”
Caleb balked. “You want me to go to the bank?” Rose didn’t even allow the twins to take the rent to the bank.
“Jah. Helen is coming soon and I need to talk to her about what kind of pies she wants this week. But if you’d rather not—”
“Neh. I’d like to go.” Caleb couldn’t help teasing, “Are you sure you trust me with all that cash? I might stash it in my hut for safekeeping and it could blow away...”
Instead of the smile he’d hoped to evoke, a frown tarnished Rose’s expression. “Of course I trust you with the cash. I’d trust you with my life, Caleb.”
“Denki,” he murmured, setting his hat low on his head so she couldn’t see his eyes. Caleb couldn’t imagine any woman ever saying something that meant as much to him as what Rose had just said and it nearly moved him to tears. Whether that was because he was overcome with joy or overwhelmed with guilt, he couldn’t tell for certain.
* * *
Rose took an instant liking to Maria Mast. Known for being an excellent cook, she was good-humored, candid and energetic. And, while she didn’t initiate idle chitchat herself, she seemed unfazed by Eleanor’s incessant jabbering.
“Maria got married last December, didn’t you, Maria?” Eleanor addressed both Rose and Maria simultaneously.
“That’s right.” Maria carried a large bowl of broccoli florets and a colander to the sink.
Now Eleanor turned to Rose, marveling, “She was a first-time bride. She’d never been married and widowed before then.”
Recognizing Eleanor was making a thinly veiled reference to Maria being single until she was in her thirties, Rose ignored the younger woman’s remark. “Please take the plates into the dining hall, Eleanor,” she requested brusquely.
Eleanor scuffed over to the cupboard and removed the plates in twos. “Your husband is from Indiana, isn’t he, Maria?”
“Jah,” said Maria as she dumped the florets into the colander and turned on the faucet. “I met Otto when he came to Serenity Ridge to visit Levi Swarey, his departed sister’s husband. But you were at our hochzich and you know this already. Why are you asking me about it now?”
“For Rose’s benefit,” Eleanor said bluntly, and Rose guffawed at her nerve.
“What would benefit me more is if you’d take those plates into the dining hall.”
Eleanor dallied, carefully aligning the patterns as she stacked the tray with dishes. “Did you and Otto have a long-distance courtship, Maria?”
“Jah. For a short time, when he returned to Indiana for a few months before moving here permanently.”
“That’s what I think Rose and Caleb should do once they leave Serenity Ridge. They could continue their court—”
“Eleanor!” Rose was mortified.
Eleanor leaned in Maria’s direction and whispered loudly, “She pretends they’re not a couple, but they really are.”
“That’s not true! You know what Scripture says about talebearers,” Rose warned, deliberately using a term from the Bible to prick Eleanor’s conscience. It didn’t work.
“I’m not trying to be a talebearer. I’m trying to point out that there’s still hope for you, Rose. If Maria could get married when she was over thirty, there’s no reason—”
“Eleanor—the plates!” Rose’s voice had a daunting edge to it, so Eleanor finally picked up the tray and retreated from the kitchen. “I’m sorry about that, Maria. Eleanor can be...indiscreet at times.”
Maria just laughed. “It’s nothing I didn’t hear often enough before I got married—sometimes from my own familye. They thought I should have married the first suitor to court me. My sister-in-law kept saying I wouldn’t be able to have bobblin if I didn’t hurry up and get married—and that was when I was in my midtwenties!” Maria patted her burgeoning belly. “But I’m so glad I waited until I met Otto.”
Rose had never spoken with anyone except her sisters and mother about marriage, and even they wouldn’t have been as forthright as Maria was being about the subject. There was something about her confidence that inspired Rose to confide, “I was planning to get married in Pennsylvania in the upcoming wedding season, but we...we called it off.”
Maria turned off the faucet and shook excess water from the colander. “Do you miss having him as your suitor?”
“Neh,” Rose answered after a thoughtful pause.
Nodding, Maria wiped her hands on her apron. “Gut. As I told my sister-in-law each time I broke up with a suitor, I’d rather stay single my entire life than marry a man whose absence didn’t splinter my heart to pieces.”
“So would I,” Rose agreed.
* * *
In the days following the girls’ departure, Caleb timed his work in the fields to coincide with Rose’s berry picking so he could give her a hand if she needed it—and to his delight, she always needed it. Sometimes they sang as they worked, sometimes they joked and once they prayed aloud for Sol. But Caleb treasured their conversations most of all; Rose truly was like a flower, opening up to him more and more beautifully beneath the summer sun.
On Friday afternoon, she even told him about her recent correspondence with Baker, saying she thought she’d finally made it c
lear to him they had no future together. This news made Caleb happier than he had a right to be; after all, it wasn’t as if he and Rose had a future together, either. His heart did a little jig all the same.
“Getting through to my mamm might be even more difficult than getting through to Baker. She keeps pressuring me to reconsider a courtship with him,” Rose grumbled. “That’s one of the reasons I’m not looking forward to going home.”
“What are the other reasons?”
“Well, if I earn enough money for the lease—which isn’t guaranteed—I’ll have to spend most of my time at the café.”
Caleb was incredulous. “But running the café is your goal, isn’t it?”
“Jah, of course it is. But I’ll miss working outside, the way I do here. I’ll miss the people, too.”
“Anyone in particular? Someone whose name begins with the letter C, for instance?” Caleb was blatantly joking, but he also wanted her to express she’d miss him so he could say it back to her.
“You mean Charity? Jah, I’ll definitely miss her. And Hope, Nancy and Sol, as well as Abram, Jaala and Eleanor.” Rose was teasing, too, counting on her fingers as she named the people she saw most often. “I’ll miss Helen, too.”
“Aren’t you forgetting someone?”
“Ach, you’re right!” Rose smacked her forehead. “Henry. Of course I’ll miss Henry, but we’re going to write to each other every day, so that will ease my loneliness.”
Caleb rolled his eyes the way Rose sometimes did, feigning aggravation. “You’re hilarious, you know that?”
“Am I? I thought I was briary.”
“You’re hilarious and briary.”
Rose chucked a blueberry at him but it sailed over his shoulder. “Oops. Guess I missed you, Caleb...” She giggled at her own wit. “There. I said it. Are you hallich now?”
“Delighted.” He tossed a handful of blueberries in her direction but not a single one hit her. “Looks like I missed you more, Rose.”
She gave him a saucy smirk. “Jah, I know.”
Caleb grinned and they resumed picking berries again. He supposed he should have felt guilty for flirting with her when he knew nothing could come of it, but he rationalized it was all in good fun. Besides, she’s flirting with me, too.
Later, as they were eating supper, Rose mentioned she’d forgotten to collect the money jar and put the leftover produce away, so Caleb offered to do it for her. When he reached the roadside stand he was alarmed to find the shelves toppled, vegetables and fruit strewn into the road, and broken jars littering the grass. His first thought was a car had accidentally crashed into the small building, but he didn’t see any structural damage; nor were there skid marks on the pavement.
Then he noticed Rose’s sign, still upright, was thickly splotched with raspberry jam. A big pink blob obscured her name, so instead of reading Rose’s Pies the sign now said S Pies. Spies. Caleb caught his breath and examined the markings closer. The wide circular smears reminded him of Liam’s finger paintings. This was no random accident; it was a message from the thief. It had to be. But did it mean the thief believed the Petersheims were spying on him? Was it meant to intimidate them, to keep them quiet?
His mind buzzing, Caleb collected as many shards of glass as he could and set them in one end of the wagon. There was no salvaging the rest of the produce, so he heaped the squished berries and badly bruised vegetables into the wagon and added the money jar to his haul, too. After setting the shelves upright he tucked the defaced sign beneath his arm and carted the whole mess to the barn. Later he’d recycle the glass and chop up the produce for compost; for now, he filled a bucket and grabbed rags, a broom and a flashlight, and returned to the stand. By the time he had finished cleaning the mess, Maria’s and Eleanor’s buggies were gone, which meant he could discuss the matter with Rose in private.
As usual, he found her in the dining hall preparing ingredients for making pies and bread the next morning. Caleb hesitated, carefully weighing his words before he spoke. He regretted having to deliver such distressing news when Rose was already burdened, and he hoped she wouldn’t fall apart. But when he told her what happened, she just clucked her tongue and shook her head. “I spent so much time making that jam and putting up the produce. I can’t believe someone thinks it’s funny to ruin it all. What a waste.”
“I’m afraid it’s not meant to be funny,” Caleb said. “I think it’s meant to frighten us. It’s possible Oliver was right about a criminal being in the area.”
Pouring flour into a measuring cup, Rose disagreed, “Neh. It’s only someone playing a prank—probably the same kids who did this before.”
“This happened before?” Caleb struggled to keep his voice down. “When?”
“I don’t know, a couple weeks ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he yelped.
“Because I didn’t want you to overreact, the way you’re doing now,” Rose said calmly, tapping the bottom of the flour sack. “I don’t like what they did any more than you do, but it’s not as if someone got hurt or something was stolen. Last time, they even paid for the pie they destroyed.”
Caleb was astounded by Rose’s naivete. “That’s because their intention wasn’t to steal money—it was to threaten us. Don’t you see? Listen, I know I said I wouldn’t go to the police, but now we have no choice—”
“Absatz!” Rose slammed the measuring cup on the counter and flour flew up in a puff. “It was my pie and my jam that was destroyed. This is my ant and onkel’s business, and they wouldn’t want the police snooping around here. If you can’t respect their wishes—especially when my onkel is... When he’s...he’s dying—then maybe you should leave!” Rose fled the room.
Caleb exhaled loudly and rubbed his fingertips hard against his forehead. He never expected Rose would suggest he should leave, and at the moment he was tempted to do just that. But he couldn’t abandon her now, when he was more suspicious than ever the thief was in the area. For that same reason, he couldn’t abandon his search for the coins. Yet Rose’s vehement objection showed Caleb that contacting the police was absolutely out of the question. Which left him with only one option.
He tipped his head to each side to crack his neck before joining Rose in the darkened dining hall. She was sitting at a table, dabbing her eyes with a napkin. He sat on the bench beside her, facing the opposite direction, toward the lake. “You’re right. I overreacted. I’m sorry.”
Rose sniffed, as if she didn’t quite believe him. Or maybe he just thought she didn’t quite believe him because he didn’t quite mean it. What he could say with conviction was, “I have no intention of disrespecting Nancy and Sol’s wishes.”
“You won’t go to the police?” Rose clarified.
“I won’t go to the police,” he echoed. Bumping his shoulder against hers, he added, “Even though I wholeheartedly believe anyone who’d waste your pie or jam should be locked up in jail.”
Rose snickered. “I’m sorry. I overreacted, too. I’m just so—”
She didn’t have to complete her sentence for him to know what she meant. She was burdened. About her uncle. Her business. The guests in the cabins. “I know. But it’s going to be okay,” he said as much to himself as to her.
For a fleeting moment, she rested her head against his shoulder, and it was all he could do not to press his ear against her head, too. Then she was swinging her legs over the bench and standing up. “I’d better get back to work,” she said.
When he returned to his cabin, Caleb considered calling his brother to tell him about Rose’s sign, but he decided the news might unnerve him and then Ryan would try to convince Caleb to call the police or to leave Serenity Ridge right away. I’d better just keep my mouth shut and my eyes open. And from now on, I’ll need to stay even closer to Rose. Which might have been the one good thing to come from someone vandalizing the produce stand.
“You have a new sign,” Helen observed when she picked up her order on Saturday morning. “Did the pie-throwing vandals wreak havoc again?”
“Jah. This time they knocked over the shelves and broke a lot of jars, too, so watch your step. Caleb tried to pick up all the glass, but I’ve found a few more pieces.”
“They ought to be held accountable for what they did!” Helen exclaimed. “Or are you going to justify it by telling me they paid for everything they ruined?”
“Neh, not this time.” Rose had no idea how she’d make up for the loss. She felt so anxious about the unexpected financial setback that for the first time in her life she seriously considered making the jam on the Sabbath. I would prepare a supper if I didn’t have enough leftovers—what’s so different about making jam? Of course, she knew the difference—supper was a necessity, whereas making jam for financial gain wasn’t. Still, the temptation plagued her as she paced the porch Sunday morning, waiting for Caleb, Abram and Jaala to come for worship.
Upon their arrival, Abram and Jaala announced they wouldn’t be staying for lunch the way they usually did. Aquilla King, a widow, had caught the bug that was making the rounds, so they were going to her house to minister to her.
“You look fatigued, Rose,” Jaala noticed. “Are you coming down with something, too?”
“Neh. I’m just worn-out with all there is to do around here.”
“It’s a blessing to have Maria and Miriam helping you, isn’t it? I remember how grateful Nancy was after you agreed to fill in for her so she could travel to Ohio,” Jaala commented.
Rose’s face burned; she shouldn’t have complained about work, especially because she’d received so much help with it. She was barely able to meet Abram’s eyes when he asked if she’d heard from Nancy lately. “Jah. She called on Thursday and said Sol is still fighting hard.”
Her Amish Suitor's Secret (Amish 0f Serenity Ridge Book 3) Page 15
