How was the young people’s gathering you girls went to last night?” Roman asked, nodding at his two daughters who sat to the left of him at the kitchen table.
“It was all right,” Martha said, reaching for a piece of toast.
Ruth just sat there with a dreamy look on her face.
“How about you, Ruth? Did you enjoy the young people’s get-together?”
“Jah, it was a lot of fun.”
Martha snickered. “Ruth’s in love.”
Judith’s eyebrows lifted in obvious surprise, but Roman looked over at Ruth and frowned. “Did Luke show up there? Are the two of you together again?”
Ruth shook her head. “No, Dad. Luke wasn’t there, and we aren’t a courting couple.”
He breathed out so forcefully that the air lifted a lock of hair from his forehead. “That’s a relief. As far as I’m concerned, that fellow can’t be trusted.”
Martha’s forehead wrinkled. “I’m sure Luke’s not the one responsible for the attacks against us. He doesn’t seem like the type to do something like that.”
“Jah, well, you can’t always judge a piece of wood by its color.”
Judith leaned close to Ruth. “If you’re not seeing Luke, then what did Martha mean when she said you were in love?”
Ruth lifted her gaze to the ceiling. “I’m not in love, Mom. I just got to know Martin a little better last night, that’s all.”
“Martin Gingerich?”
“Jah.”
“I talked to Abe Wengerd the other day, and he said he’d recently hired Martin as his apprentice,” Roman said.
Ruth nodded. “That’s what Martin told me. He said he thinks he’s going to like working in the boot and harness shop.”
“You should have seen the way Martin looked at Ruth,” Martha put in. “If ever there was a man in love, it has to be him.”
Ruth elbowed her sister. “Martin’s not in love with me any more than I am with him. As I said before, we’re just getting to know each other.”
“Jah, well, at least Martin’s settled down and joined the church. That’s more than I can say for Luke, who in my opinion is much too old to still be running around,” Roman grumbled.
Martha opened her mouth as if to respond, but he held up his hand. “Enough talk about Luke. Let’s get our breakfast finished and decide how we want to spend our day.”
“Since this is an off-Sunday from church, I thought it might be nice if we went calling on a few folks,” Judith spoke up.
“Martha and I had planned to take Anna on a picnic today,” Ruth said.
“We thought it might help take her mind off the puppy she lost,” Martha added.
“Besides, it will give Grace and Cleon some time alone together.”
“That’s a good idea,” Judith agreed. “Those two surely need to talk things through. With Anna out of the picture, it might be easier for them.”
Roman swallowed some coffee, then said, “If Grace hadn’t lied to Cleon, they wouldn’t have a problem.”
“She didn’t actually lie, Roman. She just withheld the facts about her previous marriage and having a daughter.”
He grunted. “From what Cleon told me, she didn’t tell him about her being in a family way, either.”
Judith shrugged, and the girls stared at their plates.
Roman grabbed a piece of toast and slathered it with a glob of apple butter. “I say we forget about Grace and Cleon’s problems and finish our breakfast.”
Grace paced between the kitchen sink and the table as she waited for Cleon to come downstairs. He’d gotten up long enough to drink a cup of coffee, but then he’d gone back to bed without eating breakfast, saying he had a headache. So Grace had fixed Anna’s breakfast and sent her off to spend the day with Ruth and Martha at the pond. She hoped a day of fun might lift her daughter’s spirits. Now if something could be done to lift her own.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs drew Grace’s attention, and she turned to greet Cleon when he entered the kitchen. “Is your koppweh gone?”
He nodded and yawned, stretching his arms overhead. “Can’t remember the last time I had a headache like that. A few more hours of sleep finally took it away, though.”
“I’m glad.” She motioned to the table. “If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll fix you something to eat.”
He glanced at the battery-operated clock on the far wall as he pulled out a chair and sat down. “It’s too late in the day for me to eat a big breakfast. Just a cup of coffee and some of those biscuits we had last night will do.”
Grace went to the stove for the coffeepot, then reached into the cupboard to retrieve a mug. After she’d filled it with hot coffee, she set it on the table in front of Cleon and went back to the counter to get the basket of biscuits. “Would you like me to warm them in the oven?”
“They’ll be fine the way they are.”
She placed the basket on the table, along with a dish of butter and a jar of strawberry jam. “Can I get you anything else?”
He shook his head.
“Ruth and Martha picked Anna up awhile ago, and they’re on their way to the pond.”
No response.
Grace pulled out the chair beside him and sat down. “I thought the two of us could spend the day together—maybe go for a walk or sit out on the porch swing and talk.” She watched his face, hoping to tell what he was thinking. His face was stoic.
He cut a biscuit in two and slathered some butter on both halves. “I’d planned to go over and see my folks today,” he mumbled. “Thought maybe I’d talk to Ivan about going in with me on some more beehives.”
“I could go along. It’s been a while since I visited with your folks.”
“I’d rather go alone.”
Grace’s heart sank. A dozen responses came to mind, but she couldn’t gather the presence of mind to verbalize one of them.
“Maybe you can spend the day with your folks,” he suggested.
She dared not say anything least she break down and cry, so she stared at a purple stain on the tablecloth until tears blinded her vision. What kind of marriage did they have with him sleeping in another room and the two of them barely speaking? Cleon had made it quite clear that he didn’t want to spend any time alone with her. Their marriage was a marriage in name only, just as Cleon had said it would be when he’d come home.
The now familiar churning in Grace’s stomach gripped her like a vise, and unable to stand the wall of silence between them, she pushed her chair away from the table and stood. One thing was certain: Only God could mend her broken marriage.
Cleon sat at the kitchen table staring into his empty mug and mulling things over. In his heart, he knew that he still loved Grace, but he felt frozen, unable to respond to her as a husband should respond to his wife. If only he could rid himself of the memory of her lies. How he wished he could erase everything that had happened between them and start over with the day they’d first met. Would Grace have said and done things differently if she’d known how things would turn out between them?
He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head, staring at the cracks in the ceiling. The gas lamp hanging overhead hissed softly, and he spotted a fly that had landed in a spider’s web in one corner of the room.
That’s how I feel, he thought ruefully. Like a trapped fly.
Cleon remembered his grandfather saying once that happiness didn’t depend on what life dished out to a person but rather on how the person chose to accept whatever came his way.
Guilt lay heavily on Cleon’s chest, and tension pulled the muscles in his neck and upper back as he shifted in his chair. It wasn’t good for a body to get so worked up, but every time he thought about Grace’s deception, it was as though his heart was being ripped in two. As a Christian, he should forgive, but did he have the strength to forget the past and look to a future with Grace and the baby she carried? Could he find enough love in his heart to be Anna’s stepfather?