Sunday, December 10
I’m so glad you are nice,” a sweet-looking blond woman about ten years older than Susanna said as they joined the buffet line after the three-hour-long church service. “I didn’t think you would be.”
As the statement registered, Susanna felt her smile falter.
She should have been used to comments like this by now. Ever since she and her family moved here almost a month ago, all the adults in the community seemed to have a grudge against them. Try as they might, no one in her family could figure out exactly why.
Though her sister Amanda was sending her a warning look, Susanna realized she was more than a little tired of being in the dark.
Maybe it was time to get some answers. “I’m sorry if I’ve done something to offend you,” she replied in as conciliatory a tone as she was able. “If you tell me what I’ve done, I’ll attempt to make things better.”
The woman looked taken aback. “You haven’t done anything.”
“No?”
“Nee. I mean, not besides the obvious.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m still not following you.”
The blonde flushed. “You know . . . the way you treated the Vance family.”
“Me?”
She waved a hand. “I suppose it was your parents. The way they were so heavy-handed when they purchased the Vances’ farm.”
Now she was even more confused. “My family bought the Vances’ farm after they put it up for sale. There isn’t much more to the story than that.”
“Of course there is.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand. What was wrong with someone wanting to buy a farm that was up for sale?”
“Don’t make it sound like you are the innocent party. You and your family took advantage of the Vances’ difficult situation.”
“What situation?”
“I’m certainly not going to discuss it here with you.”
But hadn’t she just brought it up? Even more confused, Susanna glanced at her sister. Amanda was younger, but only by a year. She also had a better sense of handling difficult people.
But Amanda looked as perplexed as she felt.
Susanna was no expert on buying or selling real estate, but it sure seemed like far too many people were not only interested in their private business, but had a lot of emotional feelings about it, too.
And that didn’t make any sense.
Since she couldn’t think of a way to get better information without sounding like she was picking a fight, Susanna decided a slight change of subject might be in order. “I’m so glad we finally got to go to church today. I was home on bed rest for so long, I was getting a bit stir crazy.”
The woman flushed. “Of course. I heard about your buggy accident. It must have been so scary.”
“It was. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through.” Right up there with sitting in a hospital waiting room while her mother had emergency surgery.
“It’s a blessing you weren’t badly hurt.”
“I agree.” Physically, she was better. Mentally? Well, that was another story. Almost nightly, she’d wake up in a cold sweat, reliving the sound of gunshots. Of Star panicking and the buggy sliding out of control . . .
When she’d woken up in the hospital, her mother was sitting by her side. Mamm’s face was stark white. The only color Susanna saw came from her blue eyes—she’d been crying for hours.
Susanna had sustained a concussion, a colorful array of bumps and bruises, and some really awful scrapes on her arms and hands. But miraculously, nothing had been broken.
It truly was a blessing.
The doctors had kept her another day, then sent her home with firm warnings about taking things easy.
That hadn’t been hard to agree to. She’d felt as if . . . well, as if she’d been thrown from a moving buggy. Every part of her body ached.
Then, too, there was the grief she felt for Star. Star’s leg had been injured in her frantic bolt. The sheriff who came out to the scene of the accident had to put her down, right on the side of the road. Though Susanna knew she couldn’t have done anything differently, the loss of Star hit her hard. They’d had her for years, and she was such a steady, sweet-natured horse. Susanna felt like she’d let Star down. Almost as difficult to bear was the knowledge that her father was now going to have to buy another horse and buggy. It was a costly expense she knew they couldn’t really afford. Not after they’d used the majority of their savings to purchase the farm.
Days after Susanna had returned home, she caught a terrible cold. She was so feverish and sick, her family hadn’t even gone to church.
Now, here it was, a little over two weeks later, and they came to church only to discover that while some people were cordial, others, like this woman in line, were far more standoffish.
Disappointment coursed through her. She’d been so excited to finally make friends, but it had become evident that even the Christmas holiday wasn’t inspiring many of her neighbors to become more cordial.
As she scooped a small amount of pasta salad onto her plate, Susanna decided to stop worrying about things. Of course it was going to take time to make friends! She was simply being sensitive.
“I heard that you thought someone shot at you,” a dark-haired woman on the other side of the blonde said.
Maybe she wasn’t being sensitive after all. “I didn’t imagine I heard gunshots. I know I did. Someone was firing a rifle in the dark.”
“How can you be sure?” she asked. “Did they find any casings?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Your buggy wasn’t actually hit, was it?”
“Nee. But the gunfire scared my horse.”
“Shame, that.”
“Jah.” Actually, so much about their move to Kentucky had been a disappointment.
“Though our first weeks here have been eventful, I’m looking forward to celebrating Christmas here in Kentucky,” Amanda said, in that friendly way of hers that she’d mastered around the age of four. “Hart County is so different, but I’m sure we’ll enjoy the holidays very much.”
The woman’s posture eased. “I’m glad you are settling in. Now that you all are getting out and about, I suppose we’ll get to know each other better.”
“I imagine we will,” Amanda said with an angelic smile. It was another move she’d mastered.
Amanda was born with golden-blond hair and cornflower-blue eyes. She was bright, while Susanna appeared, with her brown hair and hazel eyes, more burnished. Amanda’s personality matched her appearance. She was vivacious and chatty while Susanna often struggled to find the right words to say.
“Would you girls like to sit with us?” the blond woman asked. “My name’s Rachel, by the way.”
“We would. Danke, Rachel,” Amanda said eagerly.
“But of course. We want to do everything we can to help ease your transition here.” Smiling far more warmly at Amanda, Rachel gestured to one of the long tables near the end of the driveway. “I’ll save you both a seat. You are okay eating outside, aren’t you? It’s a little chilly, but since the sun is out today, it’s better than being in the barn. It can get stuffy in there.”
“Oh, I agree,” Amanda said with an even brighter smile. “Now that most of the snow has melted, eating outside in the fresh air is wunderbaar. Before we know it, we’ll all be stuck inside for weeks.”
“Jah,” Susanna agreed. When Rachel and Amanda both turned to her, obviously hoping to hear something interesting or cute, she only smiled awkwardly. “It’s good to appreciate nice days, the weather is so unpredictable.” Of course, she realized that she was talking about so much more than the weather.
As they followed the other women out of the barn and over to a long table situated in the sun, Susanna scanned the crowd, especially the group of young men sitting near to where the food was set up. “Hey, Amanda? Do you see any man who looks the way I described my hero?” The paramedics had told her that the man who had rescued her asked not to be identified.
She’d thought that odd. Her father had, too. But her mother pointed out that the man might be afraid that they would do something to embarrass him. Some people didn’t like to be thanked.
Susanna had been really hoping to catch sight of him. Before church, when all the young people were milling around, she’d scanned the area carefully. But so far, no one looked like that burly man with the pale-blue eyes and ruddy complexion.
Amanda shook her head. “It’s too bad you don’t remember more details about your mystery man’s appearance.”
“I had a concussion and it was pitch-black outside. I was otherwise occupied,” she said with a grin. “I did remember his light-colored eyes, though. I know I would remember them. They were so light, one might even think they were gray.”
“Maybe we can ask Rachel and her friends if they have any idea who the man is.”
“That’s a gut idea.”
When they joined Rachel, the rest of the seats at the table were filled. After smiling at everyone, Susanna took a bite of her chicken and concentrated on learning more about the ladies.
First, there was Ava and her two daughters, Rachel and Ruth; then, there was Charity, the woman in line with dark hair, and sitting near her was her sister, Camilla. At the end of the table was Maggie, who didn’t say much but seemed to listen and watch all of them intently.
“Are you enjoying your new home?” Charity asked.
Susanna barely stifled a sigh. She had hoped to not talk about their house anymore, since it seemed to bring up so many bad feelings.
She studied Charity closely. Why had she brought it up? Was she being snide . . . or was it merely Susanna’s imagination? Shaking off the sense of unease, she nodded. “We are. It’s plenty big and has two bathrooms, which is always good when there are three girls in the house,” she joked.
If she had known them better, she would have explained how, compared to the small duplex they’d lived in back in Berlin, the purchase of this farm in Kentucky was a dream come true for all of them.
From the time she’d been a child, Susanna had hardly seen her father. In order to support them, he’d managed a wealthy Englisher’s farm. Because of the distance away, he’d even slept in a small suite of rooms in the back of one of his barns four or five nights a week.
While he was working, their mother took care of her, Amanda, and their little sister, Traci. Susanna knew her mother was lonely, and they all missed their happy, hardworking, affectionate father. But she’d also learned not to complain or wish for anything different. They were blessed to have each other.
But then about a year ago, two things happened that changed everything. First, their mother contracted a series of illnesses, eventually being in bed for almost a month with pneumonia. Their father worried about her terribly.
The second thing had been even harder on their father. The gentleman he worked for passed away—and had gifted him in his will with a sizable amount of money. Enough money for Daed to buy a farm of his own.
That money, combined with the money he’d saved, had been an answer to a prayer . . . until he realized how very little it would buy in Holmes County, Ohio. The land there was expensive. That’s when he hired a real estate agent and started searching for another location.
Which brought them to Kentucky and to the Vances’ property.
All that was why she hated to apologize for her father being so tough in his negotiations for that farm. If it had been more expensive, they would still be in their duplex, waiting to find the perfect piece of land for them.
But it sure didn’t seem like anyone here was interested in hearing their side of the sale. As the minutes wore on, everyone looked increasingly uncomfortable.
“What, um, Susanna means to say is that we are sure we will be mighty happy here,” Amanda said, for once sounding as tentative as her sister. “We feel blessed that the house came up for sale when it did.”
But if anything, the mention of being blessed seemed to bother everyone even more. Rachel exchanged glances with her girlfriends.
Sipping her coffee, Susanna was starting to wish they’d simply gone home right after church. She’d much rather be sitting in their family room reading than navigating her way through this awkward conversation.
Deciding to finish as quickly as possible, she took a big bite of macaroni.
Obviously resolving to smooth things over, Amanda smiled at everyone. “Can any of you all do us a favor? You see, when Susanna got in the accident, a local man came to her rescue. We know what he looks like but not his name.”
“That’s intriguing. Was he Amish?”
Susanna nodded. “He was. He was so kind, too. I kept hoping that he would stop by our house and say hello, but that hasn’t happened.” She shrugged. “But maybe he didn’t know my name, either.”
“That’s probably true. There are a lot of Amish in the county, now. It ain’t like it used to be, when we all knew each other and our horses, too.”
Susanna began to relax. Maybe this was going to be all right. She just had to stop from taking offense at every imagined slight.
“Describe him the best you can. Then I’ll start bringing likely men over,” Charity said with a smirk.
Susanna could just imagine how awkward that would be! “Nee,” she said quickly. “There’s no need for that.”
“Come on. It will be fun. What’s the benefit of sitting with people who know everyone if you don’t put us to good use?”
Amanda grinned. “She has a point, Sue.”
“All right. You’re right.” Smiling awkwardly, she said, “Well, the man was large.”
“Fat?”
“Oh, nee. He was built large, but not fat. More like a football player. Tall, too.”
“What color were his hair and eyes?”
“He had on a knit cap, but his eyebrows looked kind of brown.”
“Dark or light brown?”
She had to think for a minute. “Dark brown. I think.”
“And his eyes?”
“That, I remember,” she said with a smile, pleased at the game. “Light blue.” Remembering something else, she said, “Oh, and he had fair skin.”
“So you were rescued by a tall, hefty man with light-brown hair, fair skin, and light-blue eyes.”
“Jah. He had a deep voice, too. Kind of scratchy, but I could be wrong about that.”
She felt a new kind of tension as the other women exchanged glances. “What? Any ideas?”
Charity nodded. Rachel looked pained.
“What did I say?” Susanna asked. “Is something wrong?”
Again, everyone looked awkwardly at each other.
“You all are starting to make me worried,” Amanda joked. “What is the matter?”
“Nothing, except the man you are describing sounds an awful lot like”—Charity looked around, then pointed to a trio of men standing by the barn—“him.”
“Who?” Susanna got to her feet and turned. Staring at the men.
Just then, one of them looked directly at her. His gaze was solemn and blue. His pale cheeks were scruffy. He had on a thick wool coat, but even in the company of other men who were bundled up, he stood out.
He blinked, as he obviously recognized her, too.
She smiled.
Oh, but this was wonderful! At last, she was going to be able to thank him in person.
“Susanna, sit down,” Amanda said.
“I can’t. That’s him,” she said as she was about to begin walking his way. “Ladies, thank you! I’ve been so worried I wasn’t going to be able to thank him properly.”
Just then she noticed that the other women still weren’t smiling. “What?” she whispered. “What is wrong?”
“You really don’t know who he is, do you?” Rachel asked at last.
“I know he saved my life. What’s his name?”
“That is Neil Vance.”
“Neil Vance?”
As if reading her mind, Rachel nodded. “That very one. Your family bought his family’s farm.”
She felt like every bit of food she’d just consumed was now lodged in her windpipe. “That is quite a coincidence.”
“It’s something, all right. Because your parents didn’t want to pay a fair price for the farm, they are all living in a relative’s tiny older house. Everyone is struggling to make ends meet. At Christmastime, no less.”
“Instead of a coincidence, I think we should call it ironic. That’s more fitting. Ain’t so?” Charity asked the table at large.
Now Amanda was finally getting angry. “What is ironic?”
“Well, Neil Vance saved Susanna’s life, just days after all of you practically ruined his.”