CHAPTER
three

Next morning at breakfast, Sylvia was flabbergasted to hear Mamma saying something to Adeline about maybe squeezing in some time later to practice making stitches on fabric scraps. Her interest piqued, Sylvia wondered how this had come about. I thought Adeline was leaving today. . . .

Dat walked into the sunny kitchen, his hair mashed down from his straw hat. He went to stand behind his chair at the head of the table and pushed his hands into his gray trouser pockets. Typically, he would be heading out to Saturday market, but she assumed he’d stayed home to visit with Adeline.

Silently, Sylvia observed him while she set Mamma’s pretty new plates carefully on the table, a recent gift from Dat to mark their engagement twenty years ago. Adeline, too, seemed interested in helping, and she asked Mamma just now about putting napkins at each place setting.

“Oh, we don’t use cloth napkins, if that’s what ya mean,” Mamma told her politely. “Not even at big celebrations like weddings.”

Adeline’s eyelids fluttered. “Oh,” she said, apparently surprised.

“Sometimes, if we have finger food, like fried chicken, we use paper towels,” Mamma added.

Dat motioned for Adeline to take the seat at the foot of the table, where the guest of honor always sat. “We do plenty of things different around here,” he told her, smiling as he pulled out his chair. “I’m sure you’re discovering that, jah?”

Dat’s going out of his way to make her feel at ease, thought Sylvia, untying her work apron and placing it on the counter. She walked around Dat’s chair to sit at her usual spot, to the right of Mamma. And once Ernie and the boys hurried inside from washing up at the well pump, they quietly settled themselves at the table, too. Dat bowed his head to ask the silent blessing, everyone following his lead.

After the prayer, Dat asked Adeline, “Would you mind telling us something about your life? I remember your grandparents used to live on the beach.”

Adeline’s head bobbed. “Yes, and they still do. Actually, the ocean is my go-to place to wind down after exams or whenever I can get to Hilton Head,” she said. “My brother, Liam, lives there full-time now.”

“Does he swim in the ocean?” young Tommy asked.

“Sure,” Adeline replied, appearing a bit baffled. “And Liam and I enjoy paddleboarding, snorkeling, and sailing together when I visit.”

Tommy shook his head in apparent awe. “I wanna see the ocean someday.”

Dat chuckled under his breath. “We’ll have to think about that, son.”

“What else do ya like to do?” Tommy asked her, reaching for his glass of milk.

Sylvia wondered what had gotten into her littlest brother. He was falling all over himself!

“I like to play tennis, especially doubles with Liam and his friends, or with my fiancé and another couple,” Adeline replied. “But most of the year I’m in Georgia at college, pursuing the same course of study as Mom planned, though she never finished her degree.”

Sylvia thought it was interesting the way Adeline looked at Dat all the while she was supposedly answering Tommy’s question.

“Is that right?” Dat asked suddenly. “You’re going for a degree in biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech?”

“Graduating with honors next May, if I can keep up my GPA.”

Dat shook his head. “What do you know. I suppose your mom mentioned that I went there, too.”

Adeline nodded, and Ernie asked, “What’s a GPA?”

Sylvia paid attention as Dat explained what a grade point average was; she’d never heard of such a thing in the one-room schoolhouse she had attended for eight grades.

“If you don’t mind sticking around a little longer, Adeline, I’d be happy to show you our farming community,” Dat said, giving her a quick smile. “If that would interest you.”

Mamma jerked her head toward Dat, her eyes registering a concern Sylvia hadn’t expected to see.

“I don’t want to take time away from your work,” Adeline said.

Dat ran his hand through his beard. “I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want to,” he said. “Besides, there’s no place like Hickory Hollow.”

Glancing at her wristwatch, Adeline replied, “Sure, but if I stay longer than another day or two, I’ll have to purchase a few extra items of clothing. I didn’t exactly come prepared.”

“Ach, Sylvia can sew up some skirts or whatever ya need,” Mamma volunteered, nudging Sylvia under the table.

Too taken aback to say anything, Sylvia simply nodded her head and reached for her water glass.

“Some skirts?” Adeline asked, looking surprised.

Dat grinned. “Don’t worry, we won’t have you dressing Amish. Not anytime soon, that is.” He chuckled.

“Ach, Earnest,” Mamma said.

Adeline looked at Mamma and Sylvia in turn. “Thanks for the offer, but it’s really no trouble to pick up a few things.” Then she asked the location of the nearest shopping center.

Sylvia remained quiet during the rest of the meal as Dat talked with Adeline about his adjustment to Plain life—the differences he had encountered and the difficulties. It was like he was replaying his entry into his required Proving so long ago. Sylvia had never heard him talk so much about that time and wondered at his willingness to do so now.

Ernie and the younger boys were busy eating across the table, eyes fixed on their surprisingly talkative father, who continued conversing with Adeline. Adam was staring at Adeline, his mouth pressed firmly closed, not eating for long segments of time. Calvin was nearly scowling as he took a bite of sausage and then observed the young woman who claimed to be their eldest sister.

Sylvia found a small measure of comfort in her brothers’ reactions. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one feeling uneasy about Adeline’s presence. And to think that Dat and Mamma were encouraging her to stay on with them! But witnessing Dat’s seeming interest in his other daughter and his attempts to make her feel comfortable, Sylvia assumed that her parents had discussed this privately before breakfast.

Why then did Mamma look so surprised when Dat volunteered to show Adeline around the area?

———

Rhoda offered Adeline a second helping of scrambled eggs and sausage, but Adeline declined as graciously as she could. She did find it amazing how heartily Earnest, his wife, and his children could eat at this early hour. Granola, a piece of fruit, and green tea with raw honey had been her preferred breakfast fare since her move to an apartment near campus the fall of her sophomore year. Although she never had been one for much of a breakfast. Mom was the one who insisted on having several types of fresh fruit, oatmeal, and green tea, she thought fondly. Not so much Dad, who loved his poached eggs and bacon.

Thinking ahead to her senior year starting in a couple of weeks, Adeline realized that her appetite had diminished in the months since her mother’s passing. A light breakfast was also easier to put together, and she was quite satisfied to eat less. Besides, the last thing she needed was a sluggish brain.

Reaching for her glass of water, Adeline noticed Calvin—the boy with the most expressive mannerisms. His perpetual frown seemed to indicate his negative feelings toward her. From the way Adam stole sly glances at her, one hand tucked under a black suspender, he also seemed to have reservations about her. He acted much the same at the family gathering last night, she recalled.

Adeline thought of Liam, nearly a high-school freshman, and wondered what her brother would think if he knew. It crossed her mind that if Liam could drive and had discovered his biological father were Amish, he would have turned the car right around and floored it!

I’m invading these people’s lives, Adeline thought. Yet here I am.

She glanced around Rhoda’s humble kitchen, with its linoleum floor, humming gas lamp overhead, and lack of microwave—worlds apart from Grandy Ellison’s state-of-the art kitchen with computerized everything.

There’s no comparison with the way this family does things at the table, she thought, having taken note of Earnest’s head bowed in silent prayer before the meal and afterward, too, just as he had last evening at supper, the whole family joining in unison. For the longest time, it was silent around the table, except for the collective breathing. She had no idea how they knew when to stop and begin eating. Was there some unspoken clue she had missed? Or was this something they were so accustomed to, they all knew the expected amount of time to pray? As for herself, she hadn’t actually ever prayed per se before a meal or otherwise. Although Adeline had once dared to ask God why He had taken both of her parents so prematurely, she felt foolish afterward. After all, why ask someone she wasn’t sure was even there?

Licking her lips, Adeline studied the boys to her right, all sitting in stairstep fashion, with Ernie Jr. up near his father at the head of the table. It was sort of charming how every one of them dressed alike again today, suspenders over their short-sleeved pale blue shirts. They’re just as related to me as Liam, she realized suddenly. I have five half brothers!

Like the boys and her mother next to her, Sylvia sat as straight as a pole, not saying much. Last evening, Rhoda also had been more talkative, and Adeline wondered if she might be overwhelmed today. Did the woman regret being so welcoming?

She did seem sincere about having me stay around, though, Adeline thought, more eager to find out about them and their lives than to actually sew.

Rhoda didn’t want to come right out and ask Earnest if he was aware of the risk he was taking. But she had to make some suggestion about his hope to take Adeline out in the family carriage that morning.

“I’m done with secret keeping,” Earnest told her in the clock shop after breakfast as they went around winding up all the clocks.

She nodded. “You don’t have to convince me,” she said, hoping she wasn’t speaking out of turn. “I just think it might be best not to stir up more trouble. Adeline’s an Englischer, after all.”

“True, but what if I take Sylvie along?” Earnest replied. “They could sit together in the second bench seat, and Adeline wouldn’t be seen.”

“Des gut, jah,” she said, thankful he’d thought of a wise solution. She did not want to experience another shunning like the one her husband had just endured.

Earnest hitched up Lily to the buggy while Sylvie and Adeline waited on the back porch, seemingly still awkward around each other, although Sylvie seemed to be doing her best to break the ice. As best she can, considering . . .

When he was ready to go, the girls got themselves into the second bench seat, quiet now as Earnest picked up the driving lines and they headed down the driveway to Hickory Lane.

This is mighty strange, he thought while driving the family buggy around the neighborhood. It felt like he was seeing the mule-drawn mowers in the fields, the towering windmills, and the water wheel for the first time, and he remembered how the Hickory Hollow landscape had looked to him when he’d first arrived more than twenty years ago. How odd it was to realize now that even as he had been inquiring about how to join the Amish church, his first wife, Rosalind, was secretly pregnant with Adeline.

The thought saddened him. I missed out on her infancy, her growing-up years. . . . Earnest sighed, not turning to look at Adeline. Yet she’s here now.

———

“Do you ever miss driving a car?” Adeline asked Earnest as the carriage rolled past the bishop’s blacksmith shop.

“I never think about it anymore.”

She laughed softly, surprised. “I’m certain I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Makes sense why you’d think so.” Earnest sat perched on the hard bench seat, the driving lines in both hands, eyes fixed on the road.

“What about electricity?” she asked, trying to imagine what it would be like to also abandon that huge convenience.

“It took some getting used to.” Earnest paused and glanced over his shoulder at her and Sylvia behind him. He chuckled. “Okay, it was very hard.”

“But you must have thought it worthwhile.”

Earnest nodded. “I did. And for a lot of reasons that would undoubtedly seem strange to you.”

He didn’t attempt to explain, and she didn’t probe further.

Sylvia, sitting to Adeline’s right, remained quiet as she stared straight ahead, like she was tired. Or perhaps she didn’t really want to be there.

Not certain what to say to draw her out, Adeline turned her attention to the scenery, admiring the large farmhouses and even bigger two-story “bank barns,” as Earnest called them. With both carriage doors open on this warm day, she had an unobstructed view as they rode past one roadside produce stand after another, and then the attractive but quaint General Store and harness shop.

Earnest slowed the horse when they approached what Sylvia said was the one-room Amish schoolhouse, where she had attended “for all eight grades.”

“Only eight?” Adeline couldn’t understand why Sylvia seemed so pleased about it.

Earnest spoke up. “Amish schoolchildren graduate after the eighth grade. After that, they go on to get vocational training by working with their parents in some capacity—girls with their mothers or aunts, or even working at a quilt shop or restaurant or as a nanny for a family outside the Amish community. The same goes for boys, who work alongside their fathers. Most become farmers or dairymen or learn the ins and outs of occupations like harness or carriage making, welding, carpentry, and such.”

“But can they choose to further their education if they want to?” Adeline had to know; it seemed like a shame, otherwise.

Sylvia answered. “Very few of us go on to high school or college. The ones who do rarely remain Amish.”

Adeline tried to let that sink in, finding it hard to imagine not being able to pursue as much education as desired. She thought of how her own mother had not completed college. Because she had me. . . .

At every turn, Amish farmers with their mule teams were out cutting hay—a remarkable sight. Adeline had never been anywhere quite so remote. She recalled how, while driving into Lancaster County yesterday, she had gone from traveling main highways to suddenly finding herself on the narrow back roads leading into Hickory Hollow, some unlabeled by her phone’s GPS.

Several horse-drawn carriages passed by, and there were Amish people walking barefoot along the road. A few waved to Earnest. My father is an Amish clockmaker, she thought, studying him. She decided that Sylvia, Ernie, and Tommy most resembled him, while Adam and Calvin took after Rhoda. Sylvia has his chin line, she realized, wondering what characteristic, if any, she had from this man.

Unexpectedly, Earnest turned to glance back at her. She felt her cheeks warm, and she was rarely one to blush. “So, Rhoda says she plans to teach you to quilt,” he said, adjusting his straw hat with one hand, the driving lines in the other.

“Rhoda’s kind for offering,” Adeline replied, fixing her eyes on the road ahead, aware of the rise and fall of the horse’s head, the rhythmic bounce of its dark, thick mane.

“Well, if you’re serious, she’s one of the best quilters around.”

Sylvia nodded her agreement but again remained quiet.

Adeline wondered what they would think if she revealed how the bed quilt in the guest room had touched her, especially the intertwined hearts at the center. Like Mom’s pretty one.

They doubled back to a road they’d passed earlier, and Earnest’s horse pulled the carriage past a large spread of land where three quilts on a clothesline flapped in the breeze.

Adeline asked, “Do you know the names of those quilt patterns?”

Leaning forward, Sylvia squinted into the sunshine. “There’s a Double Wedding Ring and an Ocean Wave.” She shielded her eyes with her hand. “It looks like the last one’s a Sunshine Diamond quilt.”

Adeline loved the charming pattern names. “So who dreams up those designs?” she asked.

“Not sure, really. Some have been around for hundreds of years. Like with most things, there are lots of old traditions round here.”

“You and your mother are amazing quilters,” Adeline said to Sylvia. “You must enjoy working together.”

Sylvia nodded. “Oh jah. ’Specially durin’ the cold winter months.”

Adeline saw what looked like a small greenhouse and, farther down the road, another farmhouse surrounded by rose arbors. “So many roses!” she exclaimed. “Those arbors must be gorgeous when the flowers are at peak.”

Earnest gave a nod. “Until this past May, that was my old friend Mahlon Zook’s place—his wife, Mamie, lives there as a widow now.” Earnest paused long enough to sigh. “Mamie’s deciding whether to move in with one of her married sons after the harvest. It’s the way of the People to look after their widows and elderly.”

Adeline felt a pang of emotion at hearing him speak about his friend and his widow. She couldn’t help wondering if Earnest felt anything about her mother’s passing.

“You seem very interested in quilts,” he asked. “How did that come about?”

“Oh, my mom had a remarkably pretty one—a wedding gift made by one of her in-laws. Mom never said who, though.” Adeline stopped a moment as a realization overtook her. “I’d always assumed it was a gift to her and my stepdad, but it seems more likely that it came from her first wedding . . . to you.”

“Is that so?” Earnest seemed to come alive. “Did your mother say anything about where it was made?”

“I was fairly young when she first showed me.” She sighed. “Now I wish I’d listened more carefully. There is so much I don’t know about Mom’s past.” Or yours, she added mentally.

Earnest shook his head. “A wedding gift, you say?”

Adeline nodded. “There must have been a seasoned quilter in your family.”

“Was there ever!” Earnest went on to tell about his grandmother Zimmerman, who had made beautiful quilts for his mother. “Grandma died many years ago now.”

For a split second, Adeline wondered if that sort of talent was somehow passed on genetically. “I assume she would be my great-grandmother?”

“Jah.”

Adeline pondered that, still envisioning the pattern and meticulous stitches—so like those on the guest room quilt at Earnest and Rhoda’s farmhouse. The quilt seemed to reconnect her to the life she had lived prior to her mom’s passing. Most days, Adeline felt displaced, even floundering. My life is a crazy balancing act, she thought, aware her primary focus now was on studying and making top grades, leaving too little time for her fiancé or friends . . . and even less time to process her grief.

Without a doubt, she had been fortunate to meet a guy like Brendon Burgess two years ago. Her fiancé was not only responsible and level-headed but also caring and attentive. Even her mother had thought he was wonderful. They had both been glad when he’d chosen to stay in Georgia after graduating with his MBA—last winter he had landed a position with a prestigious Atlanta accounting firm.

Thinking of Brendon, Adeline hoped to find a way to contact him soon, as well as Grandpa and Grandy, to let them know she was all right and staying in an Amish community off the beaten path.

The last place I expected to end up!