| |
“A maid?” Susan cried. “You want me to work as a lowly maid at your house? Nee! I will not do that. Surely, you have something else I can do? Why not set me up to work in the shop with Ruby? I would like to be around people.”
The bishop shook his head as David watched on. He could tell his friend was having a hard time keeping his anger at bay when Susan started throwing a temper tantrum. She acted precisely as his children had when he told them his decision to hire her.
Bishop Eischler put up his hand toward Susan and spoke, “Stop this nonsense right now. You will work for Mr. Fisher, or I will talk to the Bishop in another district to take you on.”
“But...”
“No, buts! We cannot have you working at the store around all the district members. You have a reputation for gossiping and lying. Until you can prove yourself to me and the district, you will work as a housekeeper to the Fisher family. Is that understood?”
Susan nodded, but her blue eyes snapped with anger, and he saw her jaw pulsing as she bit down on her back teeth. “When?” she sputtered. “When do I start?”
David took a calming breath. “Tomorrow morning. Bishop Eischler? Can Susan use the buggy to come over each morning?”
The man nodded in agreement.
“Be at my home at seven o’clock.”
“Would it not be easier if I lived at your dawdi haus?” Her eyes glistened and opened wider in anticipation of his answer.
David swallowed hard. Could the kinner be right? Was she interested in him as a husband? “Absolutely not! Mrs. Guthrie lives at the dawdi haus.”
“Do you have a spare bedroom for me? I cannot put out the Bishop and his family by permanently living here!”
Her reaction brought back his kinner’s words about her having eyes on marrying him. What had he done? “I am sure the Bishop does not mind you living among his family?”
The bishop nodded and offered, “You are most welcome to stay here, Susan. We know it is difficult for you since your brother died, but our decision is final.”
David and Bishop Eischler looked at each other, and David wondered if his friend felt the same way as he did, that this was making for a colossal mistake in judgment.
*~*
DAN RACED UP THE STAIRS, following Sarah. They had to do something. Any answer deserted him. “We need to talk. Can I come into your room?” Dan asked.
Sarah tossed open her door and motioned for him to enter. She threw herself upon her bed, leaving the straight-back chair for her brother. “What are we going to do?” Sarah asked her voice a mere whisper.
“I don’t know yet, but we have to do something.”
“She needs to go back to her district.”
Dan sat down and stretched out his legs. “We have been watching her. Can you think of anything she does that might help us?
“Nee.”
“Where does she go? What does she do?” Dan couldn’t sit anymore. He was too nervous, so he paced back and forth across the room. “What are we missing?”
Sarah sat up and tossed her legs over the side of the bed. “If it were me, I’d miss my friends and family. Wouldn’t you?
“Jah, I would. I’d write to you all the time.”
“And, I would beg you to come home.”
Suddenly stopping in his tracks, Dan cried, “That is it! I bet she gets letters from home. We ought to look in her mailbox to see from where she is getting mail. Then we can contact someone about her.”
“Could we tell them she is sick? They could come here and take her away.”
Dan took in the thrill on his sister’s face and felt his excitement leap in his chest. “What time does the mail come over at the bishops?
“Right after lunch.”
“We will have to start checking the box every day.”
Sarah hopped from the bed, stepped toward her brother, and hugged him. “You are so smart!” Suddenly, her brows knit together, giving her a somber expression. “We cannot go looking through the bishop’s mail. It will never work.”
Dan sat down and, with his elbows on his knees, dropped his head into his hands. “Let me think about this. There has to be a way to do something.”
Dan knew the route the mail carrier took. After he left his sister’s room, he looked out the window. Today would be a trial run to see if he dared to look through the bishop’s mail. If he did, every day, he would position himself to be there right after the mail carrier left.
It felt like days when the mail carrier finally arrived at their box down by the road. Theirs was pretty far from the house, but the bishop's home was closer to the highway. He had to go now. Daed should be back at work, and he hoped Mrs. Guthrie was busy in the kitchen because the front door was the closest means of escape.
He quietly went down the stairs, across the front room, and out the door. The bishop's place wasn’t that far, but he couldn’t walk down the middle of the road. Keeping to the trees and bushes beside the road slowed him down a bit, but it wasn’t far.
As he neared the bishop’s house, his heart started hammering in his chest, making the whooshing sounds in his ears nearly deafening.
This idea must work. It just had to.
He squatted behind the bushes waiting to get the courage to take the few steps to the mailbox. He knew it was wrong, but he truly wanted to help his family somehow. Taking a deep fortifying breath, he stood, walked to the box, and pulled the latch to open it.
It was empty.
Relief flooded him, and he relaxed.
‘Just what do you think you are doing?”
Daniel felt his heart drop to his stomach. Bishop Eischler stood behind him.
“Turn around and face me, young man.”
Daniel did as the bishop ordered. His worst fear just became a reality.
The bishop stood near him with his hands fisted on his hips and his long white beard stirring in the breeze. “Explain your actions, Daniel Fisher.”
“I-I...I am sorry, so sorry.” A sob pulled from his chest, and tears ran down his face. “I have to find s-some —some way—to stop her!”
He fell into the bishop’s welcoming arms and continued to sob.
The bishop held him until he calmed, then grasping his upper arms, pushed him away, so he looked straight into Daniel's eyes. “This is about Susan Lantz, is it not?”
Daniel nodded silently.
“You’re father, and I will take care of this son, but please tell me what you were doing in my mailbox.”
“We, my sister, and I thought if we could find a letter to Susan, we could contact them.”
“And what could they do?”
Daniel wiped the tears from his face and said, “we hoped they would tell her bishop about her brother's death, and the bishop would come for her and take her away, and she would leave our family alone.”
The bishop sighed. “This is a terrible situation for your family, and I’m sorry to say it is my fault for asking your daed to take that woman on.” He shook his head.
Dan blinked, clearing his mind to understand the bishop’s words. So, this is how it all started. “It’s not working very well.” He muttered under his breath.
“I hoped Susan having a job would allow Susan would give her a bit of self-esteem and courage to build a life. But it has not worked.”
“Like backfired. Susan wants to marry our daed, Bishop. We want Ruby Troyer to be our new maem. We love her so much.” Tears threatened to overtake him once again, but he dashed them with his fist, determined not to cry.
The bishop pulled him into a one-armed hug and said, “I think you have been through enough. You do know going through my mailbox is wrong?
Dan nodded.
“Then, we will keep this between us, but promise me you will let your daed and me handle this problem.”
“Ach, yes! I won’t try to get rid of Susan.”
“Gut!” The bishop uttered. “Now be on your way home.”
Dan ran right onto the dirt road and raced home. He would never divulge this incident to anyone, not even his sister.