Chapter Seventeen
Days later, Hal watched the capacious, summer clouds scud across the bright blue sky from the clinic window. Her spirit felt light enough to ride on one of those clouds. Most of the problems in her life had resolved themselves. Emma had helped her finish the wedding dress and one of the everyday dresses was almost done. Soon she would have her Amish wardrobe to wear when the time was right.
The biggest obstacle to her marrying John was the meeting with the bishop. She felt confident that would go well. Emma had been a good teacher. Hal could now stutter her way through enough Dutch to pass Bishop Bontrager’s inspection. Even words used in anger thanks to Stella Strutt. Not that she intended to use any of those words around the bishop. In spite of herself, Elton Bontrager liked her. She wanted to keep it that way.
She still had the nine classes of indoctrination to do, and she was eager to get them out of the way. As soon as she was bapisted into the church, John could have their marriage announced at a church meeting. Two weeks after the announcement, they would be able to have the ceremony.
Stella Strutt, no doubt, would have something to say about John Lapp marrying an English woman. Especially this wild redhead. She wasn’t a woman to give up when she believed she was right. Right now, Stella’s sights were on keeping the Amish community from using the clinic, thinking that would get rid of her. Sometimes, Hal felt as if she was wasting her time, waiting for patients. Maybe Stella Strutt had already done too much damage to her repetition.
Running a fingertip along the edge of the table, Hal pictured what it would be like to have a steady stream of patients. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen as long as Stella had so much influence over the Amish community. Hal didn’t intend to give up. Not by a long shot was she going to let Stella win this battle or any other if she could help it. Hal firmly believed the day would come when Stella’s cruel words about her wouldn’t carry any weight. As Emma so often said, Hal just had to have patience.
Hal heard the rustle of feet. John was standing in the clinic doorway, grinning at her like a cat that ate a canary. She looked at the happiness on his face and in his chocolate eyes and knew she should be smiling, too. This day and the days to come were too full of promise to keep going over bad thoughts. Thoughts of Stella were definitely a downer she didn’t need to ruin her day.
Hal stood up and leaned against the table. “Hello, sir. What can I do for you today? Have a splinter in your finger? Maybe a sprained ankle I can tape up?”
“Afraid not. I am as healthy as a horse,” chuckled John.
“Don’t get me started on the condition of your horses, Mr. Lapp,” Hal said, laughing.
Something was going on in the house beyond the clinic door. The children's excited voices led her to think something was up. She darted John a questioning look. He gave her a grin in return. “John, spill the beans. What is going on in there?”
“Come with me,” he said.
Hal followed him through the living room to the kitchen. They stopped at the doorway. Covered with dish towels, the table was filled almost as full of supplies as the day she’d gone with the children on the picnic. Emma hummed as she tied the bundles shut.
Hal put her hand on John’s shoulder. “What’s happening?”
John stuffed his hands into his trousers pockets. “We are going camping.”
“How fun! Where?”
“The picnic grove. Noah, did you bring your wagon up by the back door?” John asked.
“Yes.”
“Start filling it,” Emma instructed. She gave Hal a hug. “I would not have believed a wish on a rainbow could come true, but yours did.”
“If that’s true, the next rainbow I see I intend to make another wish,” Hal said amused.
“I might should warn you not to press your luck, but what will you wish for?” Emma asked.
“Don’t know. I need to give that some thought,” Hal mused. “When I decide I’ll tell you. You and I can wait to see if my wish comes true together.”
John grabbed her hand and led her outside. They walked down the lane holding hands, John pulling the wagon. It was stacked high with dish towel bundles.
“So you wish on rainbows,” John said.
“Sure, doesn’t everyone,” Hal said grinning at him. She looked back at the house. Emma waved at them from the porch. “Aren’t the children coming?” Hal asked.
“No.”
Hal stopped walking. The realization of what was taking place hit her. “You mean it’s just going to be you and me,” she squeaked.
John dropped the wagon tongue. It clattered as it hit the packed ground.
There he goes again, shoving his hands in his pant pockets, Hal thought as she waited for his explanation.
John stared at her, his chocolate brown eyes brimming with a loving warmth. No other man had ever looked at her like that before. “Yes. Is that all right?”
Hal hesitated. This move was so sudden. She had to think about this camping trip and what she wanted to happen next. No children. A private time alone with John Lapp. Marriage close to happening. Why wouldn’t spending the night with John be all right?
She saw the way John watched her. His eyes filled with love and now concern. That look made her heart feel like it might bounce out of her chest. John intended to wait patiently for her to make up her mind. A plain, simple man who questioned what her answer would be now that she’d figured out what was in store for her.
The freshly mowed hayfield gave off a pleasant odor of drying alfalfa. The setting sun threw a red streak of fiery light across the pond. The picnic grove trees loomed above the pasture grass, waving in the breeze as if beckoning them to keep coming.
“It’s a lovely evening for camping. Sure, I’ll come if you want me,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“You know the answer to that,” he said quietly.
“Is it that simple?” She asked wistfully.
In one swift movement, John stepped over the wagon tongue. Gently, he framed her face in his hands. “Yes. That simple if you love me.”
“I do love you.”
John picked up the wagon tongue, took her hand again and continued his slow march to the grove.
As they crossed the pasture, Hal glanced all around her, nervous about being in this open stretch of grass. “Where are the horses?”
“You are safe while you are with me,” John said, looking serious. “Always,” he added.
“That’s a great comfort, John,” she said, squeezing his hand.
John grinned at her nervousness. “The horses are shut in their pen for the night.”
“Good, I don’t want another run-in with Molly just yet,” Hal said.
As dusk set in, a gossamer mist rose from the pond as the chill of night met the warmth of day. A blue heron stalked into the cattails to hide. The annoying gnats Hal had battled during the day disappeared. A buzzing whine near her arm told her a lonely mosquito was coming in for a landing. Good thing there was a breeze. Otherwise, she’d be fighting more than one before they built the campfire.
Very clearly, someone had been to the picnic grove before them. If Hal had to make a guess, she would say Emma and the boys prepared the clearing for this overnight camp out. Sticks of wood piled in a rick were supported between two hickory nut trees. In the middle of the clearing, a ring of rocks was filled with a pile of sticks for a campfire.
Three wood blocks had been stood and lined up just beyond the rock ring. On the middle one was Emma’s vase, covered with painted red roses and blue forget-me-nots. It was chocked full of Queen Anne's lace, black-eyed Susans and wild fern leaves. The blocks on either side of the vase held glass candle holders with a white tapered candle in each. This camping trip had been planned ahead of time down to the littlest detail all right. She thought about Emma humming as she tied the bundles. Oh yeah, the name Emma comes to mind. This is her doing.
It was just turning from dusk to dark as John squatted down to light the fire.
Hal pointed to the candles. “Let me guess. Emma’s doing.”
Spreading a blanket out in the grass, John nodded, “She said English people think candles are important at times like these.”
“They are in a romantic English setting, but I don’t think candle light can beat a campfire in a romantic Amish setting,” said Hal, giggling.
“Just the same, I have to light the candles. Emma would be beside herself if I brought them back unused,” John declared.
A chorus of bull frogs sang a deep, bass song on the pond bank. The pond was close, but with that many voices, the frogs sounded loud enough to be hiding behind the trees with the peepers. Crickets, in the grass, were just about as loud. A dry limb cracked somewhere just beyond the fire light. Hal tensed and strained to hear. She grabbed John’s arm. “Something is out there!”
“Yes,” he said calmly. “All sorts of animals call the picnic grove home. We are the uninvited guests.”
“Like what kind of animals?” Hal asked, squinting to see in the brush around them.
John hunted through the food bundles in the wagon as he listed, “Coons, skunks, possums or a cat hunting for a field mouse.”
Hal grimaced at the thought of mice trying to smuggle into their camp. “I don’t do good around mice. Any chance any of those critters will try to run us off?”
“No. We are bigger than they are,” John said. The corners of his mouth twitched as he watched her search around the clearing. Finally, she got tired of beating the bushes with a limb and sat down on the blanket.
Suddenly, Hal looked worried about John going through the bundles. “What did Emma put in for supper? I can’t cook very good you know.”
“Emma sent along sandwiches and cookies. Popcorn, too. No cooking tonight.”
“Oh good. I love popcorn. Can we start with that first?” She paused then came up with a new worry. “What about breakfast?”
“We have eggs, lard and a skillet. Eggs are not hard to fry,” John assured her.
“No, guess I can manage that.” One worry seemed to lead to another one in her head. When she was nervous, she always fretted. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to change that. “What am I going to do, John? I depend on Emma for so much. One of these days she’s going to grow up and marry. How long do I have to learn to cook before she leaves us?”
John brought a bundle over and sat down by her on the blanket. “Emma will be baptized into the church at 18. She can date, but women usually wait until they are twenty to choose a husband.”
“At least, five years. Maybe that will be enough time,” Hal said doubtfully. She wasn’t certain.
“Enough worrying about Emma and cooking.” John leaned toward her to kiss her. Hal was watching the bushes on the other side of the fire. He had to say her name softly to get her attention. “Hal.”
The campfire flames danced in the night air, casting long shadows over his face. The flame of the candles flickered as they grew long and then short, depending on the breeze. The evening was sweet and mellow. In the distance, whippoorwills cried to each other. On the pond bank, bullfrogs still croaked their long rumbles. Fireflies darted here and there, lighting the dark with tiny glowing beacons.
How much more romantic could this night get? Hal thought as she leaned toward John to collect that kiss.
A series of shrill, high pitched yips carried from the rim of the hayfield ridge behind the grove. Hal snatched John’s arm and dug her fingernails into his shirt sleeve. Her eyes widened as she screeched, “What is that?”
“A pack of coyotes,” he said, removing her tight grip from his arm.
Somewhere in the underbrush came a wild, fierce, blood-thirsty, bone-chilling squall like scream.
Hal jumped out of her skin and came up on her knees. “John, that animal sounds fierce. What is that awful thing?”
Taking advantage of her nervousness, John dug at the dirt with a stick as he said, “Could be a mountain lion.”
“A mountain lion? Have you seen one around here?” She gave him a doubtful look.
“No, but Amos Muhlenberg has seen tracks on his land,” John said evenly.
“How far away does Amos live?”
John scratched the side of his head. “Fifteen miles from here.”
“Great! Is that all?” Hal said sarcastically as she ran for the wood pile. She gathered up an arm load of sticks and rushed back to the campfire. She threw the wood into the flames and turned to go for more.
“Whoa, Hal. Mind not putting any more wood on the fire. The kids will think we have set the grove on fire and come to rescue us. One thing I do not want tonight is for my kids to join us.” John got up and moved the blanket farther away. “Besides, I feel like a side of pork roasting on a spit already.” He plopped down again. Taking his hanky out of his back pocket, he wiped his sweaty face.
“Fine, I’ll let that old lion get you,” Hal snapped.
She twirled around and tromped out of the trees. She didn’t go too far before she sat down Indian fashion in the pasture. Faced with the pitch black night, she darted a look one way then the other. Suddenly, she wondered how smart she had been to leave the protection of John and a blazing fire. It might be her instead of John the mountain lion got out here in the open. A sliver of orange moon peeked above the horizon, ready to join the mass of stars twinkling in the black velvet sky. As Hal watched the moon come out of hiding, she heard the whisper of grass cease. John was standing behind her.
“Come sit beside me,” she invited, thinking if she had to die he might as well go with her for bringing her camping among so many wild animals. John had to know dangerous animals prowled the grove at night. What was he thinking when he picked here to camp out? They would have been a lot safer in the front yard or the barn.
As Hal put her hand on his chest, she felt John’s beard tickle her skin. “Isn’t that moon something? It must be an owl moon.”
“What makes you think that?” John asked, putting his hand over hers.
“Noah told me that’s what to call a full moon.” High up in one of the walnut trees, an owl hooted five times. “See I told you it was an owl moon.”
John laughed. “No. Noah needs some more information. An owl moon is in February when the owls are looking for a mate. I must admit though I feel like hooting right now to see if it works.”
“Oh,” Hal said quietly.
John’s voice sounded troubled. “Are you upset with me? I did not mean to hurt your feelings. The noise we heard was a very tiny screech owl not a mountain lion.”
“You should be careful about teasing me,” she warned.
“I see that,” he said huskily. “Maybe we should call tonight’s moon John’s moon since the owl has no right to claim it this time of year.”
“Oh, John, are you sure you know me well enough to want to put up with me?”
“You do surprise me when I least expect it, but I am quick to bounce back. I think the way you are is why I love you. Besides, you should know I can duck when I have to,” he said, chuckling
“Well, for your information I’m not mad at you. I’m nervous,” Hal whispered, keeping her eyes on the moon. Higher in the sky, the circle of light was some smaller and white except for the dark shadows of craters. “Can you fix that for me, Mr. Lapp?”
“I’ll give it a good try. There is another old saying. Courage is fear that has said its prayers. Have the courage to come to me, Hal, and your fears will blow away in the wind.” He put his hands in her hair and pulled her gently to him. Not for the run of the mill, the children might be watching, peck type kiss, but a long, lingering kiss that felt like it was going to knock Hal’s socks off.
After that kiss, she didn’t hear the frogs, mice, whippoorwills or that weird little owl anymore. She even forgot about the night roaming mountain lions and coyotes that might come into the camp uninvited to attack them. John would take care of her and protect her. After all, he did say he was supposed to be the boss in this family. When it came to fighting off wildlife, Hal intended to make him keep his word. Before morning, they might just find out how good his word was. They had the whole night ahead of them.
The End
About The Author
Fay Risner lives with her husband on a central Iowa acreage along with their chickens, rabbits, goats and cats. A retired Certified Nurse Aide, she now divides her time between writing books, livestock chores, working in her flower beds, the garden and going fishing with her husband. Fay writes books in various genre and languages – historical mystery series, Stringbean western series, Amish series set in southern Iowa and books for Caregivers about Alzheimer's. She uses 12 font print in her books and 14 font print in her novellas to make them reader friendly. Now her books are in Large Print. Her books have a mid western Iowa and small town flavor. She pulls the readers into her stories, making it hard for them to put a book down until the reader sees how the story ends. Readers say the characters are fun to get to know and often humorous enough to cause the readers to laugh out loud. The books leave readers wanting a sequel or a series so they can read about the characters again.
Enjoy Fay Risner's books and please leave a review to make others familiar with her work.
Other Books By Fay Risner
Nurse Hal Among The Amish Series
A Promise Is A Promise Doubting Thomas
The Rainbow’s End Amish Country Arson
Hal’s Worldly Temptations
Second Hand Goods As Her Name Is So Is Redbird
Emma’s Gossamer Dream The Courting Buggy
Joyful Wisdom
Amazing Gracie Historical Mystery Series
Neighbor Watchers Poor Defenseless Addie
Specious Nephew Will O Wisp
The Country Seat Killer The Chance Of A Sparrow
Moser Mansion Ghosts Locked Rock, Iowa Hatchet Murders
The Wayward Preacher Who Killed The Schoolmarm
Westerns
Stringbean Hooper Westerns Tread Lightly Sibby
The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary The Blue Bonnet-novella
Small Feet’s Many Moon Journey A Coffin To Lie On-novella
Ella Mayfield's Pawpaw Militia-Civil War
Christmas books
Christmas Traditions - An Amish Love Story
Christmas With Hover Hill Leona’s Christmas Bucket List
Fiction
Listen To Me Honey – novella Cowboy Girl Annie -novella Jacob's Spirit – novella Robot Grandma – novella
Katrina's Gift – novella
Haunted Teapot On Whistler Street -novella
Children Books
Spooks In Claiborne Mansion
My Children Are More Precious Than Gold
Mr. Quacker
Nonfiction about Alzheimer’s disease
Open A Window - Caregiver Handbook
Hello Alzheimer’s Goodbye Dad-author’s true story
Renee Brown Mystery Series
The Answering Machine Knew - novella
One Big Bat – novella Crystal's Beau-novella
Innocent Until Proven Guilty - novella
If you have enjoyed book two in the series about Nurse Hal next is book three Hal's Worldly Temptations. Here is the synopsis for that book.
Join the fun. You are invited to the wedding of John Lapp and Nurse Hal. Family and friends have gathered to cook, clean and plan. Men have put up a tent for the guests, so put on your bonnet or felt hat, hitch up your buggy and take a ride by scenic pastures and rolling hills to Wickenburg, Iowa. Take a seat on a bench next to Hal's folks. They will be glad to explain the ceremony because they came armed with Aunt Tootie's book on Amish customs. You will find a few surprises when little Daniel Lapp interrupts the bishop when he asks if anyone objects to the couple's marriage. Oh, and Stella Strutt has some sort of fit. It will be the most talked about Amish wedding for years to come. Hal's married life is downhill from there. She refuses to give up her car and cell phone. Getting caught by Stella Strutt at the Old Thrasher Reunion on a “joy ride” doesn't help her avoid punishment. Is Hal going to get sent away before she gets settled in? Stick around after the wedding and find out, why don't you?