CHAPTER
eleven

The next day, a no-Preaching Sunday, Sylvia got up earlier than anyone else except Dat to shower and dress. She wanted to help make breakfast, enjoying having Mamma to herself in the kitchen early in the morning.

Together, she and her mother moved about the airy space, each knowing what to do without saying much. Mamma gathered ingredients to make buttermilk pancakes while Sylvia got the blackberry jam out of the pantry and made toast, expecting Adeline to wander in at any moment. She won’t be around forever, thought Sylvia. Then things will return to normal.

It was impossible to glance out the window toward the barn without nagging thoughts of last night’s meeting with Titus. Unsettled feelings continued to brew within her.

“Good morning,” Adeline announced when she entered the kitchen wearing her new cropped pants and the breezy sleeveless yellow top.

“Guder Mariye to you, too,” Mamma replied with a smile. “You look like a sunbeam, ever so bright.”

Adeline dipped her head before looking over at Sylvia. “How are you, Sylvie?”

Sylvie? she thought, surprised.

“I hope you don’t mind if I call you that,” Adeline said quickly. “I heard your brothers refer to you that way yesterday.”

Sylvia forced a smile. “It’s okay,” she said, catching Mamma’s eye. Her expression indicated, “Be nice.”

Adeline, who seemed to have read the temperature in the room, was already backtracking. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to—”

“No, really . . . it’s fine.” Sylvia broadened her smile. “I like the nickname.”

“I do, too,” Adeline said a bit sheepishly.

“So do I,” Mamma added brightly, mixing the pancake batter by hand. “By the way, Sylvie, Dat will be stayin’ home with Adeline ’stead of goin’ visiting,” she said. “So if you’d like to stay, too, you may. Your brothers and I will go an’ see my parents and stay for the noon meal.” Mamma also mentioned taking along the two blueberry pies she’d baked yesterday while Sylvia and Adeline had gone shopping.

Dat surely wants more time with Adeline, Sylvia thought, figuring she would be in the way here. “Nee, I’ll go with ya to visit Dawdi and Mammi,” she said.

Mamma looked her way. “Well then, you and your brothers can go together,” she said. “And I’ll stay home.”

Now Sylvia felt bad about Mamma not getting to see her parents, something she so looked forward to, but Sylvia wasn’t going to argue in front of Adeline.

For her own part, she also hoped to visit Cousin Alma that afternoon. I’ll see how long we’re at Dawdi and Mammi’s, she mused, assuming Dat had told them yesterday about Adeline. Surely . . . otherwise Mamma wouldn’t send us kids over there alone.

———

Though Adeline had decided not to bring it up, she wanted to charge her phone in the car after breakfast and reach out to Brendon. She missed him and wanted to follow up on their conversation yesterday, when he had shown surprising interest in her sudden immersion into Amish culture. Eager for more details, she thought, glancing at Sylvia while the two of them set the table. He had also asked a series of questions about their beliefs, which was strange, considering his general indifference to religion.

She considered the peculiar interaction between Rhoda and Sylvia earlier, when Rhoda had suggested Sylvia stay home while Rhoda and the boys went to visit the grandparents. But Sylvia had immediately shot it down. Is she upset with me? Adeline wondered, realizing that she had barged into their lives. Without an ounce of warning. And it wasn’t as if she found it easy to fit in around here.

The strangest thought occurred to her: Is Sylvia threatened by me?

The idea was laughable, and Adeline dismissed it as absurd as she poured orange juice into eight small glasses while Sylvia poured coffee for her parents and herself. Adeline had never enjoyed the taste of coffee, having been raised to drink herbal or green teas—hot or cold. Mom thought it was far healthier . . . better for the brain. “Drink it at breakfast and lunch,” Adeline remembered her saying.

Glancing at Sylvia, she noticed dark circles under her eyes and decided it must have been a restless night for her. She’s not quite herself, Adeline thought, wondering if Sylvia and her mother were close enough for heart-to-heart talks. Rhoda certainly seemed like someone who could be trusted.

When at last the family sat down to eat, Adeline’s gaze took in everyone there, all of them dressed in their Sunday best. Earnest and his wife and kids were the proverbial picture of a happy family, though a decidedly old-fashioned one. And devout, she thought as they bowed their heads simultaneously for the mealtime blessing.

While the prayer was taking place—today it seemed extra long—she mentally tallied up the things she wanted to tell Brendon the next time they were in touch. If only she dared to send him a photo of Earnest and his family . . . but she was reluctant to do that without their permission, and she certainly would not inquire.

Finally, the blessing was finished, although she still didn’t know exactly how that was determined. Why doesn’t Earnest just pray aloud? This and other questions filtered through her mind as she took a single pancake from the platter, noticing that each of the boys had taken at least two larger ones, including little Tommy.

Ernie and Adam were more talkative at this meal, and Adeline assumed they were more comfortable with her presence. There was the usual table talk between Earnest and Rhoda, niceties from Earnest about how delicious everything tasted, and Rhoda smiling in response and asking him about things around his clock shop.

Sylvia, however, made only inconsequential small talk—a comment about last night’s rain and all the lightning. She hasn’t mentioned meeting her fiancé after dark, Adeline thought, guessing there was a reason. Perhaps she didn’t want her personal business to become everyone else’s business, too.

Suddenly, Ernie spoke up. “Onkel Curtis told me recently that courting carriages weren’t always open back in the old days.”

Earnest gave his son an amused look, as if he sensed he was trying to shift the conversation to something he thought might interest Adeline. “That’s what I’ve heard, too. It wasn’t till the late 1800s that people really took to the open carriages.”

Ernie poured more maple syrup onto his pancake-filled plate. “Onkel Curtis also said that, back in those days, Amish weren’t allowed to hitch up on Sundays, so people had to walk to Preachin’, no matter how far away they lived.”

Earnest’s eyes widened. “Is that so?”

“Jah.” Ernie grinned as though he was proud of himself for knowing something his father did not.

“Where’d Curtis hear this?” Earnest glanced at Rhoda, a hint of a twinkle in his eye.

“His Dawdi Mast told him, and Aendi Hannah asked Ella Mae, the old Wise Woman, to confirm it.” Ernie took a large bite of pancake, then forked up a bit of sausage, as well.

Adeline, meanwhile, was quite entertained, wondering why Ernie was so interested in courting buggies at his young age. And she wondered, too, who among the women of this area had earned the remarkable title of Wise Woman.

I really should be keeping a journal of this visit, she thought.

Even though she rarely ever helped with hitching up on a Sunday, Sylvia was thankful that Ernie and Adam managed the task without her assistance. Ernie did surprise her, though, by getting into the driver’s seat on the right side of the buggy and reaching for the driving lines, and Adam climbed in beside him.

Sylvia didn’t mind sitting in the second bench seat with Calvin and Tommy, glad for some time with her brothers. After the heavy rains last night, the air had a freshness to it, and she breathed in deeply.

It wasn’t long before Calvin asked why Dat and Mamma had wanted to spend time alone with Adeline today.

“Maybe Dat has somethin’ on his mind to discuss with her,” Ernie said with a glance over his shoulder.

“Like what?” Tommy asked, looking up at Sylvia from where he was squished between her and Calvin.

“Maybe to ask her not to dress so fancy round us kids,” Adam suggested.

Sylvia doubted that. When Englischers visited, they weren’t expected to dress Plain. As she listened to her brothers speculate aloud as to why they might have been sent to visit their grandparents, Sylvia did find it a little odd that Mamma had expected Dat to stay home with Adeline, although she didn’t admit it out loud. After all, wouldn’t Dat want to introduce his firstborn to his in-laws? Or was he uncomfortable around them, perhaps even embarrassed, coming off his recent shunning?

Something our family must never go through again, she thought, realizing just then how very concerned Titus and his family must be about Adeline.