Grace fell into step beside Zeke, remembering the sparks of his hand holding hers. Well, technically, she was beside Slush, since he was between them. She limped along, but the pain was getting better with the movement of walking. Patience rambled on about her morning, working in the kitchen washing glasses, then filling the clean glasses with vinegar water and delivering them to the men working. “Mamm say it important job.”
“It is a very important job.” Zeke glanced at her sister, then looked to Grace. “How was the visitation?”
“I not like to go.” Patience shuddered.
“Well, jah, I don’t like to go, either. But they are necessary to show a sense of community and joining together in mourning the dearly departed.” Zeke kicked at a broken shingle lying in the road, then bent to pick it up. “Although, in some cases, they are not so dear until they are departed.”
Patience frowned. “I not understand.”
Grace agreed with Zeke. When her great-aentie’s husband died, he stopped being the ogre that Aentie Linda complained about and turned into a saint who could do no wrong.
“Anyway. Visitation. As per usual?” Zeke asked.
How could she answer that? She considered her answer and glanced at Patience to see how closely she was listening. Then she stared at Zeke, willing him to understand what she wasn’t saying. “Um, jah. It started that way. But then some man walked in and, um, sort of upset the norm.”
Zeke gave her a sharp look. “Timothy?”
Grace nodded, then shrugged. “I think so, but I’m not sure.”
“You marry Zeke. Not Timothy,” Patience insisted.
Grace’s face warmed.
Zeke grimaced, a bit of red tinge to his cheeks. “Let’s not talk about that right now, Patience.”
Jah, because while Grace had a massive crush on Zeke, twenty-four hours was hardly enough time to fall in love. They barely knew each other. She didn’t even know his favorite flavor of ice cream. Or when his birthday was. Or a thousand other things that were shared during the courting season. But oh, she wanted to learn all she could about this man.
“I no like Timothy. He mean to me.” Patience’s eyes widened, and she slapped a hand over her mouth.
“How was Timothy mean to you?” Grace stopped and stared at her sister. Patience always made herself scarce when Timothy came over.
Patience shook her head. “No.”
“Come on, Patience. I need to know.”
“Can no tell.”
“We can’t fix it unless you tell us,” Zeke said.
Moisture glistened in her eyes. “He make fun of me. Call me mean name, like ‘ugly retard.’”
Zeke made a low growling sound deep in his throat.
Slush tucked his tail.
Grace’s eyes burned. “Oh, Patience. Why didn’t you say so?”
Tears dropped off Patience’s chin. “He tell me bad thing happen if I do.” A loud sob escaped. “Now bad thing happen.” She sniffled, and tears flowed heavier.
If Daed and their brothers knew what Patience had just said, Timothy—if he was Timothy—would wish the tornado had finished the job.
Zeke made another low rumbly noise.
Slush dropped to the muddy ground and rolled.
Grace wrinkled her nose at the dog, then gathered Patience into her arms. “You should have told me. You are not ugly. And—”
“And you are the sweetest, most lovable girl I know, and as long as I’m here, I’ll take care of you. I promise,” Zeke broke in. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Grace. “When you spoke to your daed, did you tell him any of this, Gracie?”
“I didn’t know!” Okay, maybe she shouldn’t have raised her voice.
Patience wailed louder, lurched into Zeke’s arms, and buried her runny nose against his chest.
He rubbed her back. “There, there.”
Slush stopped rolling and got up, leaning his muddy body against Patience’s formerly clean dress and giving Grace a look that clearly communicated, What did you do?
An ambulance approached from the direction they’d been walking. It turned into the driveway.
Thankfully, Patience didn’t notice. Grace fought the urge to run. Who got hurt? Daed? One of her brothers? Daadi? Why hadn’t she thought to ask?
Though Zeke didn’t know many in the community. He wouldn’t have been able to tell her.
A police car followed the ambulance.
Oh no, no, no.
Grace looked at Patience snuggled in Zeke’s arms, the dog leaning against her. Her sister was well taken care of.
“I’ve got to go.” She looked at the action and tilted her head that way to signal. Now she understood why Zeke asked Patience to go on a walk. He took even better care of her sister than she did.
Zeke nodded, kindness and understanding in his eyes. A glint promised they’d have that talk later. “Then go.”
She turned and ran.
* * *
Zeke wanted to cry along with Patience. She was such a sweet girl, and to be verbally abused by Gracie’s missing groom…He sighed. It was just unfathomable that anyone would treat another person that way. Especially one who couldn’t defend herself.
But if what Cliff said about Timothy was true, then Gracie’s postponed wedding had been a gift of Gott. Nothing less. Especially if she found the courage to tell him no, if he was still alive. Zeke tried to dissect his memory of her expression for hurt or grief, but all he remembered was irritation.
It was nothing short of amazing that Cliff and Gracie had prayed the same thing and that Gott had answered. Maybe Gott also answered Cliff’s other prayer to bring a new man for Gracie.
Zeke’s heart pounded as he tried to soothe Patience and ran a hand over Slush’s muddy fur.
The same Gott who forgave him his past mistakes. If Gott truly answered prayers, then maybe Zeke should add his own prayer that the full truth about Timothy would come out and Gracie would be set free. Even if she wasn’t for Zeke, she deserved better than Timothy.
But Cliff’s prayers made it baffling why he hadn’t spoken to Gracie’s daed—his son—about what he’d observed. It didn’t make sense that Seth wouldn’t care enough to approach his daughter about it if he knew, because he seemed like a loving, caring father.
Or maybe Cliff didn’t want to talk to Seth because Gracie’s mamm was friends with Timothy’s mamm and, according to Gracie, very much in favor of the marriage. But if they were truly friends, wouldn’t they be honest with each other about why Timothy was courting Gracie?
Oh, this was getting beyond confusing, not to mention Zeke was fairly certain this kind of restoration wasn’t in his job description. People were ever so much more complicated than buildings.
Then again, people were more important than anything made out of wood or stone. Relationships mattered. That was why Zeke wanted to help with special-needs individuals as well as troubled boys at the ranch.
Zeke recalled his own reckless and youngie days where he might have gotten involved in the things Cliff said Timothy was doing. If his boss hadn’t made him spend time with special-needs or troubled boys, he might have judged harshly what he didn’t understand. Perhaps Gott’s grace kept him from truly becoming what Daed once accused him of being. “Hmm,” he murmured.
“What?” Patience sniffled.
“Just thinking.” He shifted and the dampening material of his shirt touched his skin. He would have a wet patch, compliments of Patience’s tears, but it was a badge he’d wear with honor.
“Why he mean, Zeke? Why he not nice like you?” Patience sniffed.
“I don’t know, Patience. I don’t. All I know is that suffering is part of life. I’ve never met a strong person who hasn’t suffered. And you’re a strong person.” He’d learned to stand on his own feet in construction in part because of Daed’s harsh and unfair judgment.
“I pray Jesus to calm the storm. Why He not listen?”
Oh, she asked tough questions. “I think maybe He is working behind the scenes. That He still has more parts of the storm to calm.” Like Timothy. Maybe like Zeke’s relationship with Daed. Though how that’d be soothed with Zeke miles and miles away was beyond him. “All I know is the fiercest storm, the highest wall, the harshest word have no power against our Gott. He will prevail.” An inner peace guarded his heart like the ultimate storm shelter.
“He just speak and storm obey.” Patience attempted to snap her fingers.
“Weather storms obey Him. But now He’s dealing with people. He could make us obey Him, but He’s given us free will so we have to want to listen. It’s like if your daed tells us to do something, we have to choose to obey.”
How many times had Zeke disobeyed Daed? Maybe that had something to do with his miserable opinion of Zeke. He probably owed Daed a huge apology.
He’d call home tonight and apologize to Daed.
Patience sniffled again and wiped her nose on her dress. “I hungry.”
Zeke glanced at the sky again. It was near noon, but neither the ambulance nor the police car had left yet. Would she be upset to see them working on someone?
But of course, Patience didn’t know about the man falling. She turned and trotted toward home.
Slush whined and looked at Zeke.
Zeke fought his own whimper. If Patience witnessed anything, she might not handle it well. But on the other hand, he couldn’t tell her no, that she couldn’t go home. He shrugged at the dog and followed behind Patience closely.
The ambulance drove up to the end of the driveway.
Quietly. No lights.
Maybe because of all the horses or maybe because there was no need for the drivers to rush to the hospital.
Zeke’s eyes stung. So much loss.
Seth met him when he rounded the end of the haus. Patience darted ahead of him inside.
“It’s Jon.”
Jon. Brother number twelve. The one Zeke had the beginnings of a friendship with. His vision blurred.
“A driver is on the way to take my wife and me to the hospital.”
A measure of hope filled him. “He’s still alive, then.”
In the distance, sirens started to wail.
“He was when they loaded him in the ambulance. Gracie is a mess.” Seth inhaled deeply. “I trust you. But just in case, her grossdaadi and eleven brothers are still here. For now.”
Which translated into I don’t trust you. Zeke nodded. “Got it.”
“By the way, Gracie told me you told her to talk to me. I appreciate it. I had no idea she felt that way.” Seth had a grim expression.
“You need to talk to Cliff and to Patience. There’s more you don’t know.”
Seth grimaced. “I was afraid of that.” A heavy sigh. “Gracie ran to her room. I trust you,” he repeated.
And with that bit of not-so-helpful information mixed with the implied warning, Seth walked away.
Zeke stayed put. If only life came with instruction manuals for fathers. Or maybe one for young men attempting to understand fathers.
What was he supposed to do?
* * *
Grace bypassed her room and ran into Jon’s room, locked the door, and threw herself on his twin bed. He was still alive but unconscious, and his fiancée, Aubrey, was sticking to his side, even riding in the ambulance with him to the hospital.
Not fair, not fair, not fair. It was her brother, for pity’s sake. Her favorite brother. The one only two years older than her, the one who taught her to drive a buggy, the one who taught her how to swim, the one who went looking for her and Patience when they got lost in a record-breaking Illinois blizzard and couldn’t find their way home from school.
Grace wanted to argue, but it seemed fiancées trumped sisters and even parents. Which she kind of understood. If it were Zeke, she’d want to be with him.
Her breath lodged in her throat. Zeke. Not Timothy.
And Timothy was her fiancé.
Oh, that said so much.
One day, slightly more than twenty-four hours, and she’d fallen in love with a man who wasn’t her groom.
A man who’d never be her groom.
A man who’d leave her and return to his life in Indiana.
A man who her favorite brother actually liked…unlike Timothy.
She remembered their antics with the bird in her room just yesterday and then “Sleeping Beauty” and Patience’s kiss.
Tears flowed as she clutched Jon’s pillow to her heart.
Oh, Jon…