On Monday, the minute there was a lull in customers, Lavinia took a break from working at the shop and hurried over to Hannah’s. She didn’t need quilting supplies or scraps left from a class to make her rugs. Today was the day she finally got to buy the material to make The Dress.
Her heart beat faster as she opened the door to the shop. Hannah had to still have the fabric Lavinia had yearned to buy weeks ago but had been too afraid to. She just had to have it.
Hannah glanced over from helping a customer at the cutting table and smiled a greeting as Lavinia walked to the table where the special fabrics were displayed. She looked over the bolts, moving each one aside as she looked for the one she wanted. But she didn’t find it.
Her heart sank. She’d so hoped for the rich, summery violet-blue—her favorite color. She looked at other colors and told herself that she could use the periwinkle or the robin’s-egg blue. But she’d so wanted the violet….
“Looking for something?” Hannah asked.
Lavinia turned. “Ya. I guess you sold out of it.” She couldn’t help sounding disappointed.
“You mean this one?” Hannah brought out a bolt of violet-blue fabric from behind her back. “I put it aside for you.”
“You did?”
Hannah nodded. “I knew you’d be wanting it, the way you looked at it.” She moved to the cutting table.
Neither of them talked about what the dress was for, because such things were private. But there was an air of suppressed excitement as Hannah cut the yardage and they matched spools of thread to the fabric.
“Danki for saving it for me.”
“What are friends for?” Hannah impulsively hugged her. “I’m happy for you.”
“Danki.”
They walked to the counter and Hannah rang up the sale. Then she carefully wrapped the fine fabric in tissue before folding it, placing it in a shopping bag, and handing it to Lavinia.
The bell over the door rang. Several ladies walked in and began browsing.
“Well, I’d better get back to the shop,” Lavinia said.
She felt guilty when she returned to the shop and found her mudder busily ringing up sales as several customers waited in line. She went behind the counter and tucked away the shopping bag under it, then walked over to help customers.
When the shop finally cleared, her mudder turned to her. Her eyes sparkled. “So did you get something special from Hannah’s?”
Lavinia pulled the bag out from under the counter. She drew the fabric from its tissue, held it up to her, and felt gratified when her mudder sighed.
“It’s lovely.” Rachel touched it. “Feels lovely, too. It’s perfect for a wedding dress. I knew that’s why you wanted to go to Hannah’s. I can’t wait to see you in it.”
“How did you know that’s why I wanted to go to Hannah’s?” she asked as she wrapped the fabric in the tissue and put it back into the bag.
“You’ve never looked so excited to go to her shop.” She stroked Lavinia’s cheek. “But I knew something was up before you went over there. Even your dat noticed there was something different about you this morning at breakfast.”
“He did? He didn’t say anything to me.” She tilted her head and studied her mudder. “When did he say something to you? We were in the same room until we left for work.”
Rachel smiled. “Couples married as long as your dat and me don’t always need to talk to communicate.”
Lavinia thought about that. She knew her eldres were very close, but she guessed she’d have to watch them more to see what her mudder was talking about. Maybe she could learn how to communicate better with Abe.
“You think Daed will be happy when I tell him?”
“If you’re happy, your dat will be happy. Besides, he likes Abe. Anyone who sees the two of you together can tell you love each other.”
“I am happy,” she said and hugged her mudder. “Actually, Abe didn’t propose.”
“I don’t understand.”
Lavinia laughed. “Well, he didn’t propose first. I got impatient, Mamm. It didn’t feel like he was ever going to propose. I know he’s been through a lot, and he’s traditional. He wanted to wait until things were more stable on his farm. But I don’t want to wait until everything’s perfect to get married. If we don’t get married after this harvest, we’d have to wait a whole year. So I did it. I proposed, and then he did.” She sat down on the stool behind the counter. “I shocked him. But he said ya.”
Rachel patted her cheek. “Who could resist you?”
“Well, thankfully, he didn’t.” She frowned. “We didn’t tell his eldres yet. It felt too soon somehow, seeing them right afterward.”
But it felt right to tell her mudder. After all, Rachel wasn’t just her mudder. She was her best friend.
“We stopped by Abe’s house on the way home, and while we were there getting some ice cream, Waneta got sick. Rebecca came over and checked her out,” she hurried to say when Rachel looked alarmed. “Waneta felt the heat got to her and Rebecca pretty much agreed. Abe’s worried about his mudder doing too much, but I told him she’s not going to stop.”
“I’m afraid you’re right.”
“Anyway, I hope that things get better for Abe’s farm, because it’s schur causing him a lot of worry.”
“Things will work out. Farms have their ups and downs, just like so many things in life.” She glanced at the shop window as several people stopped to look at the display. “Shop business isn’t always steady either, as you’ve noticed.”
They didn’t get to talk more, as the shop got busy and stayed that way until closing. But a busy shop was a profitable shop, and that’s what every shopkeeper wanted. They rode home tired but happy they’d had a successful day.
And the best part was the hug Lavinia got when she told her dat her good news when the familye sat down to eat supper.
“Abe’s a gut man,” he said, and her mudder smiled as their gazes met.
* * *
Abe was sitting at the kitchen table going over farm paperwork after lunch the next day when Wayne came to the door.
“Can you come take a look at Bessie?”
“Schur. What’s wrong?”
“I want you to take a look, see what you think.”
“Allrecht.” He got up and used his cane to follow Wayne out to the pasture. There, he saw that Bessie’s eyes were dull and her breathing a bit labored.
“Came on quick,” Wayne said. “She was fine this morning.”
“Call the vet,” Abe said without hesitating. “I don’t want you trying to take her temp without assistance, and I can’t help you with that with my arm in a cast. And I don’t want to risk Daed getting hurt.”
“I could call someone—” Wayne began.
Abe shook his head. “Call the doc.”
Wayne got out his cell phone and did as he asked. Abe sat beside the cow. He knew Bessie was old and a low producer, and she was a bit cranky these days. But she had produced a gut number of calves and milk in her time, and he felt a bond with her. It wasn’t true that a dairy farmer didn’t feel anything for his stock.
It didn’t take long for the vet to show up.
“Was in the neighborhood looking at one of Samuel Miller’s horses,” he said as he knelt to examine Bessie. “Your oldest, isn’t she?”
Abe nodded.
Bessie wasn’t happy having her temperature taken, but the vet and Wayne managed it together. Schur enough, the cow had a fever.
“Nothing’s going around,” the vet announced after using his stethoscope to listen to her lungs. “I’m thinking it’s pneumonia.”
He drew a blood sample, then administered a shot of antibiotics and told Abe to call if she wasn’t improved in the morning. “I’ll call you as soon as I get back to the office and take a look at the sample. In the meantime, keep her isolated from the other cows.”
“Thanks for coming so quickly. Give me a minute and I’ll write you a check.”
“I’ll bill you,” the vet said. “You know I’m not worried about you paying.” His cell phone rang. “Busy day,” he said after he checked the display. “Gotta take this. Call if you need me.”
He got in his truck, took the call, and then waved goodbye as he drove away.
“Nick hasn’t picked up this morning’s milk, has he?” Abe asked. Nick was an Englisch driver who picked up milk from the dairy farms and drove it to a plant for pasteurizing.
Wayne shook his head.
“We have to dump it until we hear back from the vet.”
Wayne nodded. “Tough break.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll tell him we’ll let him know when we need a pickup again.” After he completed the call, he turned to the cow. “C’mon, Bessie, let’s go put you in a stall away from the others.”
Abe followed him into the barn and made schur she had plenty of water and was comfortable. He sighed. Bessie was getting old, but he hoped she’d pull through this.
He went back in the house and tried to concentrate on his paperwork. It was hard not to wince at the feed bill. A dairy cow ate as much as a hundred pounds a day. They ate pasture grass in spring and summer, and silage—chopped grass—in the other seasons. Like many other dairy farmers, Abe grew as much of their food as possible but supplemented with grain and soybean meal. Add in the supplements and the bill was hefty.
“Saw Doc Smith was here,” his mudder said as she walked into the kitchen.
“Bessie’s not doing well.”
“Oh dear, that’s not gut.”
Abe told her what the doctor had said and shook his head. “I’m hoping the antibiotics get her through this.” He put stamps on the envelopes and walked out to the mailbox. He stood there for a moment watching the late-afternoon traffic on the road and wondered what kind of day Lavinia had had at the shop. The last time he’d been in town, he’d been surprised at how the tourist season had sneaked up on him with all that had been happening in his life. Each year it seemed more people came to Lancaster County to get a glimpse of life here. He didn’t see the attraction the Englisch had for seeing rural life and the Amish, but then again it was his life.
With a shrug, he walked back to the house. His dat sat in a rocking chair on the front porch reading The Budget.
“Wayne told me about Bessie,” he said, setting the newspaper down as Abe sat in the chair beside him. “She’s pulled through such before,” he reminded Abe.
Abe nodded. “But she was younger then. She’s getting older.”
“Aren’t we all,” his dat said as his faded blue eyes studied his sohn.
Abe glanced at the front door. “I want to talk about Mamm.”
Now it was Faron’s turn to make schur they were alone. “I wouldn’t be using the word ‘old’ around your mudder. Not if you want to stay well.”
“How can we keep her from overdoing and getting sick like yesterday?”
Faron sighed and shook his head. “Woman’s always worked too hard.”
“She really scared me,” Abe blurted out.
His dat patted his hand. “Me too.” He frowned. “The thing is, she really enjoys making cheese and ice cream and helping the farm prosper. Always has. She’s a gut farm fraa. Loves the land as much as we do. Always has.” He used his foot to make the chair rock in a gentle motion. “Seems to me that you found a maedel just as loyal, just as hardworking.”
Abe nodded.
“She’ll be a gut helpmate to you, a gut partner to you.”
Abe debated telling his dat that he and Lavinia had gotten engaged the day before, but felt it was something they should do together.
“It’s gut land, a gut place to live and raise a familye,” his dat mused. “It’ll go on a long time after all of us.”
Abe had always assumed that the farm would go on after him. But his fall and all the problems since had made him wonder if it would stay in the familye. He sat in the rocking chair and stared out at the fields on the other side of the road and thought about what his dat had said.