After lunch, Rebecca was just about to head for the garden to do some weeding when Jacob stopped her.
“I’m going to be adding to the new garden space,” he said. “I could use an extra pair of hands.”
“Ja sure.” Her words were automatic, but then she paused. Did she really want to work on a project with Jacob? A small inner voice scolded her, You do if you want to keep your job.
She mentally shrugged. Jacob was now part of Caleb’s farm whether she liked it or not. Besides, she was curious about what he planned to do with the new garden space.
“Let’s move the chicken tractor first,” he suggested as they left the house and walked toward the garden. “I want to see how much they’ve scratched up.”
For the next several hours, he kept her busy. Together they trundled the chicken tractor to a new location, and then moved and spread compost over a new section of ground.
“It’s a long-term process,” he explained as they worked. “Permaculture is not something that is built up in a year, but over several years. However, once things are in place, as much as possible it starts to mimic the way nature does things, so going forward it’s mostly maintenance-free.”
“But how can a farm turn a profit if it doesn’t grow crops?” she asked, raking an area.
“It will grow crops,” he countered. “Just not in large fields of monoculture. In some ways, Caleb’s farm is the perfect size. It’s not so big that it dwarfs what I want to try, and it’s not so small that it won’t provide enough produce to turn a profit.”
He went on and on, explaining enthusiastically about his ideas, and Rebecca listened. She began to understand he didn’t want to dismantle the work she and Caleb had done, so much as supplement it. Despite herself, she was fascinated.
“How did you get involved in this newfangled farming technique?” she asked.
“I attended a day-long seminar,” he replied. “I learned that small-scale farming doesn’t have to mean years of backbreaking labor. Permaculture nurtures the soil, it creates happy livestock and it provides meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables that everyone demands—all for less work.” He stopped and gazed over the farm for a moment, a faraway look in his eyes. “I watched my father struggle to maintain the difficult work schedule as he got older, and I recognized there’s an easier way to keep a farm running than working oneself into the ground.”
“That’s why there are daadi hauses,” she replied. “So the older people don’t have to work as hard, and the younger people can take over the burden.”
“Ja sure, but my youngest bruder wasn’t old enough to take over the farm until my daed had worked himself too hard. There had to be an easier way, and I think permaculture is the answer.”
“But you said you were working for your older bruder on his farm, and he wasn’t interested in incorporating anything you suggested?”
“Ja. My older brother is a gut man, but stubborn. He wanted things done his way. I guess I’m stubborn, too, and wanted to try things my way. That’s why Caleb’s offer of this farm is such a blessing.”
“I can see why the bees are part of your plans,” she remarked at last.
He grinned. “Ja. Having such a concentration of pollinators is a huge benefit. And I’m glad,” he added, “that I won’t have to learn the intricacies of beekeeping right away, since a resident expert already lives here.”
She glanced at him. He was watching her with an enigmatic expression.
“So you’re not kicking me off the property?” she ventured.
“Nein,” he replied. “You told me yourself if you leave, the bees go with you. I don’t want to lose the bees.”
“Nice to be wanted,” she said sarcastically, and turned back to her raking. But she was pleased. If Jacob wanted to keep her around because of the bees, she didn’t mind. It meant she could stay on this farm she had come to love so well. It meant she didn’t have to move all of her hives. It meant she didn’t have to find a new place to live and work.
“Speaking of daadi hauses,” said Jacob after a few minutes’ silence, “Caleb said he’s been thinking, and the idea of staying here in Pierce has some appeal. He hasn’t made up his mind, but it seems more likely.”
She straightened up and smiled at him. “Oh, that would be wunnerschee!” she exclaimed. “I dreaded the thought of him leaving.”
“Well, he hasn’t entirely agreed yet,” Jacob said. “But I’m working on it. Being around him again makes me realize how much I loved that man while growing up. Maybe it’s because he and Naomi couldn’t have kids, but he was always the most wunnerschee uncle.”
“The whole church loves him here,” Rebecca added. “He’s like a grandfather to everyone. All the kinner know he’s gut for a story or perhaps some candy.”
“So how did you end up answering Caleb’s advertisement in The Budget, anyway?” Jacob asked as he spread more compost.
She debated for a few moments, then decided to tell him the truth. “I was escaping the matchmaking of my mamm and tante,” she confessed. “My mother and her sister’s favorite hobby is to get all the young people in the church married off.” She paused. “It didn’t work for me.”
“What happened?” he asked.
She shrugged. “My betrothed got cold feet at the last minute and left the community for an Englisch job shortly before we got married. Essentially he left me at the altar, though not quite as dramatically.”
“You’re kidding.” Jacob jerked upright and stared at her.
“Nein, I’m not kidding.” She could feel her cheeks flare with heat. “It was humiliating beyond belief. I told Mamm I’d had enough of her meddling in my love life. But as embarrassing as it was for me, it was worse for my best friend, Leah. She actually did marry the man my mother and aunt set her up with. It breaks my heart to see how unhappy she is.”
He winced. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Is he abusive?”
“Nein, they’re just not very compatible. Now she’s stuck with him for life. I think it was a blessing in disguise when Jeremiah dumped me.”
“So you answered an advertisement for a farm hand?”
“Ja. I’m surprised Caleb hired me instead of a strapping young man, but I think he was under the impression he was rescuing a damsel in distress when I explained about my mamm’s matchmaking. I’m more grateful than I can say to be here in Montana instead of back in Indiana.”
She didn’t say anything about Caleb’s own matchmaking inclinations between her and Jacob. However, she was no longer an impressionable young woman. With age came wisdom...and confidence. Never again would she be pushed into something she didn’t want to do...especially if it came with lifelong repercussions.
As for Jeremiah, she’d heard rumors that he’d worked for a while in the Englisch world and then moved to another town and joined the church there. And she didn’t much care. Even now, five years later, his actions still stung and she wanted no reminder of either her own youthful folly, or her mother’s insistence that marriage was the only goal she should have in life.
She glanced across the farm toward the bee yard. In some ways, her millions of honeybees had taken on a deeper significance than merely a productive apiary. They had taken the place of a husband. It was a lot to ask of a group of insects, but for the time being she was satisfied.
Jacob was the first fly in her ointment, but since he had just said she could stay where she was, she renewed her determination to prove her worth.
As for Caleb...while she desperately hoped the older man accepted Jacob’s offer to live in a daadi haus, she was determined not to let him push her into any unwanted relationship with his great-nephew.
Of all the reasons he speculated why Rebecca wasn’t married at the age of twenty-eight, being left at the altar was the last thing Jacob imagined. Such drama was rare among the Amish. Or was there another reason he dumped her?
Subtly, he glanced at her as she worked nearby. Her kapp was tidy, her dark brown hair was neatly confined beneath except for a few stray wisps. She wore a burgundy dress with a black apron, and she had a smudge of dirt on one cheek.
She was a complicated woman. If Caleb hoped a spark of affection would ignite between them, the old man was going to be disappointed.
On the other hand, Jacob did admire Rebecca. He could understand Caleb’s affection for her. Keeping her around simply to maintain the bees wouldn’t be so much of a hardship after all.
To his surprise, she piped up with a question. “You’re the same age I am,” she remarked. “Why aren’t you married?”
He grunted. “I wanted to be. I courted a girl years ago, but didn’t have anything to offer. No farm. No way to support a family while working for my brother.”
“What happened to the girl?”
“She married someone else. She’s very happy as far as I know. Has two kids. It’s like...it’s like everyone was ahead of me in their life’s plans. It was very frustrating. I saved every penny I could, but property is scarce in Ohio since it’s so crowded. I knew I couldn’t court anyone until my circumstances changed. That’s yet another reason I’m so grateful to Caleb for this inheritance.”
“Well, now that you’re here, you should look over the community’s inventory of available women and pick one,” Rebecca teased. “There’s a young widow, Grace Eicher, who might suit you. She has no children and is very pretty.”
“I thought you didn’t approve of matchmaking,” he remarked.
Her cheeks flushed. “Ja, you’re right. Besides, Grace is even more stubborn than I am, so you’d probably not suit each other.”
He chuckled. He didn’t know who this Grace Eicher was, but he doubted anyone could be more stubborn than Rebecca.
And yet...when they were working together like this, he found Rebecca enjoyable to be around. She was an admirable listener. She asked intelligent questions. She was astoundingly knowledgeable about the farm and her bees. He wondered...
No. No courtship. She didn’t seem to want it, and Jacob himself didn’t appreciate Caleb’s hints in that direction.
“Look at that.” He pointed to a flower. A honeybee had landed on its petals and was creeping toward the center. “I see bees everywhere. It’s wunnerschee. You must have noticed a huge uptick in the amount of food production after getting the hives.”
“Ja.” She, too, paused to watch the bee, a smile hovering on her lips. “I read something recently about urban farming, how people were planting vegetable plots in vacant lots, that kind of thing. A beekeeper came along and started putting hives near the vacant lots, and the productivity of the gardens exploded tenfold.”
“I’ve heard about urban gardening.” Jacob pitched some compost. “It’s a nice trend.”
“Ja, it is. But that article illustrated how important pollinators are. I have people asking me if I can put hives on their property for that reason. It would be a lot of work, though—not just to move the hives, but to maintain them if they’re scattered far and wide. And it’s just me working the bees.”
“What if you had another person to help?” Jacob asked. It occurred to him that providing pollination services across the settlement wasn’t a bad side gig.
“Ja, that might work,” she replied, returning to her raking. “But there’s no one else I’ve found.”
“If you offered pollination services, would you use your own hives, or try to establish new hives?” he asked.
“Hmm. I’m not sure.” She stopped raking and rubbed her chin. “I’ve almost got too many hives in one spot now. There’s something to be said for spreading them out to other farms on the settlement.”
“I could help you do that, you know,” he said quietly.
Rebecca snapped her head around and stared. “What?”
“You got me interested in honeybees,” he replied with a half smile. “I blame you for this. But honestly, if some others in the church want a hive or two on their property, I could help. It could become a sideline business.”
“J-ja,” she stuttered. “You remember when Ephraim King said he wanted bees? He’s not the only one who’s said that. People have offered to pay. I’d have to look up what might be reasonable to charge. Are you serious, Jacob? I had thought about offering pollination services before, but knew I couldn’t do it alone.”
“Then why don’t we start it as a small sideline business? We can split any income that comes in. We can also split the maintenance once the hives are in place on other properties.”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “This is so sudden, it will take some thinking through. But I know it would be a success. For two or three years now, people in church have expressed interest in having hives on their farms, so all we’d have to do is put the word out and we’d have as many locations as we’d want.”
“Is this a gut time of year to move hives?”
“Spring? Ja, couldn’t be better, for a number of reasons. One, the hives are lighter to lift up since they’re not heavy with honey. For another, there are a lot of spring flowers, so the bees will have food sources right away.”
“So it’s settled, then. We have a new business.”
She looked a little dazed, then laughed. “Ja, I guess we have a new business.”
“Besides putting the word out, what should be the first step to move a hive?”
“I’m not sure. I have some bee books in my cabin, so I’ll have to look it up. I think I remember reading they need to be able to identify their hive in the new location, so using color is a big help. You remember how some of the hives are painted in different colors? We could move those first.”
“Ja gut. And what if I installed a painted board right in front of the hive entrance? Like a landing board? That way they’d get used to identifying the new hive as theirs.”
“Have you been secretly reading up on bees?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“Nein, but I wouldn’t mind doing that. If you have any books you could lend me, I could do some research.”
Rebecca hugged herself. “A new business. This might work, Jacob!”
He laughed. “Ja, it’s exciting.”
What he didn’t want to admit was how Rebecca was transformed in that moment. He had never seen her so purely happy before. Her dark eyes sparkled, her body language was animated, her smile was beautiful.
“I have some leftover paint from a couple years ago still sitting in the barn,” she mused after a moment, resuming her raking. “I don’t know what kind of condition it’s in, but it doesn’t have to be anything fancy for entrance boards.”
“I can make some boards this afternoon,” he replied, pitching some compost to a new area. “They can be ready to paint tomorrow. How should we let church members know about hives?”
“Word of mouth will do the trick. I can get some flyers printed up in town and we can hand them out and ask people to spread the word. I’ll leave a stack at the Yoders’ store in town, too, and ask Mabel and Abe to give them to church members. For now, I think it would be best to just keep the hives on the settlement rather than scatter them farther afield out of town.”
“Ja gut,” he replied. He grinned, pleased with the whole idea—both of starting a new sideline business, and also, to his surprise, having a reason to work more closely with Rebecca.
“Eva Hostetler is gut at sketching and drawing. Maybe she can design the flyers,” she said. “If we start preparing right away, we should be ready to move hives within a couple weeks.” She leaned her rake against the cart. “In fact, I’m going to go check whether that paint in the barn is still any good.”
He also leaned his pitchfork against the cart, catching her enthusiasm. “And I’ll see what kind of wood is available for landing boards for the hives.”
She grinned. “And after that, let’s go figure out which hives we want to use for this project.”
“You’re on.”
Her grin widened. “You know what, Jacob? You’re not so bad when you’re not trying to kick me off the farm.”
He snorted in amusement. “And you’re not so bad when you’re talking about your bees.”
“Let’s go!”