CHAPTER 22

Karlina

I softly clapped my hands and herded the lambs toward the feeding machine that Anton had set up at the far end of the barn. The enclosed area provided them with a secure corner in which to feed. Just as the other lambs had learned to seek their mothers at feeding time, these lambs had quickly discovered this was the place where they would receive their milk. I smiled as they romped toward the feeding station with the energy and enthusiasm of hungry children. They were nudging one another in an effort to find their respective places when the door of the barn opened and a shaft of sunlight fell across the lambs’ woolly fleece. Anton had gone to the far pasture with the other sheep, and I hadn’t expected him to return for at least another hour.

“You’re back ahead of—Berndt!” I stepped away from the lambs and closed the gate to the feeding area. “I’m surprised to see you here. I thought Anton had returned early.”

Berndt strode toward me, his hands shoved deep inside his pockets. “I was over by the pond, but I didn’t see Anton. He probably moved to one of the far pastures.” He mashed his lips together in a hard line.

“It’s a beautiful day. It appears you have the afternoon to yourself. Why are you looking so unhappy?”

He picked up a long piece of straw and rolled it back and forth between his finger and thumb. “I’m not supposed to be by myself.” He sighed and then pitched the piece of straw to the floor. “What do you know about that Czech fellow, Jakub, and Dovie?”

I felt as though Berndt was setting a trap of sorts. The idea annoyed me. “Not a lot more than you do. You’ve met Jakub at the pond when we’ve been skating. He has come over to help with shearing for the past few years. He’s a hard worker and very polite. I’m not sure why you are linking him with Dovie.” I turned and walked back to the feeding area to check on the lambs. Berndt stayed close on my heels, and when I stopped, he nearly pushed me into the gate.

“Does Dovie talk about him?”

There had been a few times when Dovie and I had mentioned Jakub after meeting him while ice skating at the pond. But lately Dovie hadn’t said much about Jakub or anyone else. I hadn’t considered it before now, but our evening visits had become less specific and more condensed. “She hasn’t mentioned him since winter, when he would be at the pond skating sometimes.” I turned to face him. “Why are you asking questions about Jakub?”

Berndt raked his fingers through his thick hair. “Because I was supposed to meet her this afternoon—over by the pond.” He hesitated a moment and looked toward the lambs. “My father insisted I go to the mill and pick up the order of flour before I could leave for the rest of the afternoon, which meant I was late getting to the pond.” He inhaled a deep breath, pursed his lips, and then exhaled in a giant whoosh. “Dovie wasn’t there. I didn’t know if she’d been there and left or if she was late, too.”

“So did you wait?”

“Ja, I waited for a long time, but finally I decided I’d better head for home.”

“And you never saw her?”

He shook his head. “Nein. I had started walking toward home, but on the way I kept feeling the need to look over my shoulder. I was a good distance from the pond when I turned for the third time, and then I saw her.” He bowed his head. “She was with Jakub Sedlacek.”

I was doing my best to understand, but I couldn’t figure out how Dovie could have suddenly appeared with Jakub when Berndt had been watching for her at the pond. “Where did you see them? You turned around, and Jakub and Dovie suddenly appeared out of nowhere?”

He bobbed his head. “Ja! That’s exactly what happened. I couldn’t believe my eyes. One minute there is nothing, and the next minute I see two figures coming over the rise and down the hill. I stopped and watched because it looked like it might be Dovie, but I told myself it could not be. She wouldn’t go beyond the boundaries of our land.”

“I do not think it was her.” I motioned toward the lambs. “I need to see to them.”

Berndt followed behind me. “I was wrong—and so are you. It was Dovie. I am positive. And Jakub held her in his arms.”

“What?” I spun on my heel and stiffened. “Now I know you are mistaken. You saw someone else. Never would she behave in such a manner.” I wanted to order Berndt out of the barn for making such an accusation. How dare he!

“I know what I saw, Karlina. I care for Dovie. I didn’t want to believe it, either. But I am telling you the truth. I think maybe she saw me, too, but she didn’t acknowledge me. You should speak to her when you are alone this evening. Ask her where she was this afternoon. See what she tells you.” He stepped away from the feeding stall. “It will soon be suppertime. I must go home.”

The utter sadness in his voice tugged at my heart. “I will do my best to find out where she was today, but maybe this is a reminder of what you’ve been told by your Vater.”

He shrugged his shoulder. “We will see. I will hope there is some gut explanation for what I saw.” His voice cracked, and he turned and hurried away.

No doubt my mother would believe God had sent Berndt a warning. Right now I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t want to believe Dovie had permitted Jakub to take liberties with her. I also didn’t want to think Jakub would force his affections on a woman. He seemed a nice young man, always courteous and kind. Still, I didn’t know him well.

The lambs had completed their feeding, and I decided to head to the house a little early. I might get there before Dovie. If she’d seen Berndt, she would likely return at a slow pace in order to avoid meeting up with him.

Sister Marta was outside at the water pump when I neared the house and I waved to her. “Is Dovie inside, Sister Marta?”

She placed a large metal bucket beneath the pump and shook her head. “Not unless she has been upstairs in her room all afternoon. I haven’t seen her since we finished the noonday meal.” After priming the pump, she filled the bucket and commenced telling me about one of the junior girls who had dropped an entire bowl of eggs all over the floor earlier in the day. “What a mess we had.” She chuckled as she lifted and pushed down on the pump handle one final time. As she hoisted the bucket, she glanced toward the street. “Dovie’s coming down the sidewalk right now.” With the bucket handle tightly clasped in her hand, Sister Marta headed back inside.

I waited for a moment and then waved to Dovie. She offered a halfhearted wave in return and her usual smile didn’t appear. As she drew closer, I noticed the dirt stains and tear in her skirt. My hands trembled. Perhaps Jakub had attacked her. I rushed forward and wrapped her in an embrace.

“Are you all right?”

Dovie gently released herself from my hold and stared at me as though she thought I’d suddenly gone mad. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I pointed at her skirt. “Look at you. Your skirt is torn and dirty, and your hair is loose and tangled. What happened?”

She swiped a hand down the front of her black skirt. “I fell on a jagged rock and made a mess of my skirt. I think I can stitch it well enough to keep it from fraying any further. And with an apron over top, no one will notice the skirt has been mended.” She lifted several strands of hair and tucked them behind her ear. “The wind has been blowing, and my hair came loose on the walk home.”

“Where did you go?”

Her eyes opened wide. I hadn’t intended to sound so harsh, but I needed to know what had happened and if she was trying to protect Jakub.

“I went to the pond.” She flicked at a splotch of dirt.

“Is that where you fell down?”

She drew her lower lip between her teeth. “Not too far from there. I don’t have time to explain before supper, but we can talk before you leave for prayer meeting. I need to wash up before the bell rings.”

I stood there and watched her run indoors. For a moment I considered following her upstairs, but I knew I must wait.

The minute we’d finished the evening meal, I motioned Dovie to follow me upstairs. When we arrived in the parlor, I waved her toward the bedroom. “My Vater might come up to read his Bible before prayer service. Let’s go in the bedroom.”

Once inside, I closed the door and sat down on my bed. Dovie sat down opposite me and folded her hands in her lap. “First you must promise you won’t say anything about what I am going to tell you.”

“I’m not sure I can do that. What if it needs to be told?”

Determination shone in her eyes. “I promise that you are the only one who needs to know, but I must be able to trust you.”

I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing, but if I didn’t agree, she would never tell me what had happened during her outing. “I promise,” I whispered.

“Good.” Her lips curved in a satisfied smile. “I went to the pond today. I was supposed to meet Berndt.”

“I know.”

She frowned. “How did you know? I didn’t tell anyone.”

“He told me, but it doesn’t matter. Go ahead with your story.”

My interruption had distracted her, but she soon regained her momentum. “Berndt never did show up, but while I was waiting, Jakub appeared. He came down to the pond and begged me to come back to his house. His family is sick, and he wanted me to help.”

I stared in disbelief as she told me that she had gone to Jakub’s house. “I cannot believe you would do such a thing. You are joking with me, ja?”

“No, I’m not joking. They are very ill and need help. Isn’t that what Christians do? Help each other? Jakub begged me to go with him. How could I refuse?”

“Ach! I cannot believe you would be so foolish as to go alone with a stranger to his house. What were you thinking, Dovie? Do you not realize what could have happened?” I stopped and covered my mouth. “Did he hurt you? Is that how your skirt got torn?”

“Karlina! How could you even think such a thing about Jakub? He is a very nice young man, and he did nothing except seek help for his sick family.”

As I listened to her indictment, a flame of anger rose in my chest. “You should not be condemning me. You are the one who is in the wrong. You went off of our property with a man you barely know. And Berndt saw the two of you embracing.”

Dovie’s mouth dropped open. “I thought I saw him when I was coming back down to the pond, but he was nowhere in sight on my way home.”

“So you admit the two of you were embracing?”

“No! I lost my footing, and Jakub took hold of me to keep me from rolling down the hill. Since I had fallen on my way to his house and ripped my skirt, he was trying to protect me—nothing more. And if Berndt cares so much about me, he would have been at the pond on time and none of this would have happened.”

I needed to harness my anger. If we continued down this path, nothing would be resolved. “Let’s not place blame on anyone. Berndt’s father needed him to go to the mill and pick up flour. Berndt has work he must perform whether it interferes with his personal plans with you or not. And he couldn’t tell his father he was going to meet you, could he?”

Dovie shook her head. “No, but you must try to see this from my side, Karlina. I couldn’t tell Jakub that I wouldn’t help him when I was doing nothing else but sitting at the pond. I think you would have done the same thing had you been in my place.”

I wanted to tell her she was wrong. That I would have followed the rules and never gone off our land with an outsider, but I couldn’t. Truth be told, I didn’t know what I would have done. “You must not go back there, Dovie. It isn’t wise. Mutter and Vater would be very unhappy if they knew you went to Jakub’s house.”

Dovie inhaled a deep breath. “They need medicine, and I need you to go with me to help them. We can go tomorrow afternoon.”

“What?” The high-pitched squeak echoed in the room. “I cannot do that. Please don’t ask me.”

“But I am asking you. They need our help. I promised Jakub we would bring some medicine from the supply cabinet. Please say you’ll help. Jakub’s father is doing better, but Sophia, his mother, and his grandmother are very sick. I think it’s influenza.”

“Influenza?” I clasped a hand to my chest. “What if we should contract the illness and bring it back to the village? The effects could be horrible. I do not think my Mutter would understand if I intentionally took such a risk. My brothers died of pneumonia, and if something happened, she would—”

“My mother died of influenza, and neither my father nor I got sick. And you didn’t become ill when your brothers contracted pneumonia. Just because we go and help them doesn’t mean we’ll get sick.” She leaned forward and gathered my hands in hers. “Giving them medicine is the right thing to do, Karlina. Is it not what the Bible teaches us to do? Are the rules about not going off the land more important than people who need help?”

“I do not know.” I withdrew my hands from her clasp and leaned back. “I have never been faced with such a decision.” I rocked back and forth on the edge of the bed. “In order to help you, I must disobey my parents and the church. This goes against everything I have been taught.”

“Not everything, Karlina. You have learned God’s Word. Tell me that what I am asking you to do is not in the Bible.” Dovie pinned me with a hard stare.

“To help the sick and needy is a directive from the Bible, but to obey your parents is also an instruction I should follow. I am torn.” I bowed my head and stared at the pine floor. “I will pray and seek God’s answer.”

“What if you don’t have an answer by tomorrow? They could die.”

I lifted my head and met her beseeching gaze. “Even with our help, they may die, Dovie. Their future is in God’s hands, not ours.”

“But sometimes God wants our help. He expects us to be His hands, don’t you think?”

My stomach knotted. Dovie could present a better argument than anyone I’d ever met. But my answer needed to come from God—not Dovie Cates, for I would have much to explain should any of us become ill. “I must pray and seek God’s answer. Unless I believe it is God’s will for me to go to the Sedlacek farm, I will not go with you.” I wrung my hands together, and for the first time I wished Dovie hadn’t come to our village. If anything happened, I might never again gain my mother’s trust.

All during prayer meeting, I prayed about the problem Dovie had dumped in my lap. I prayed the Sedlacek family would get well without my help—that a miracle would heal all of them during the night and that Jakub would be waiting at the pond to tell Dovie she need not come to their house. I prayed for wisdom to do the correct thing and for God to direct my path. On the way home, I prayed Dovie would accept whatever decision the Lord placed on my heart. When I went to bed, I prayed God would provide a clear answer so that I would act in a manner that would please Him.

And I also prayed God would answer all of my prayers by morning.