CHAPTER 9
Josh dreaded the conversation he had to have on the way home after the singing. If Anna Mary had been upset before, wait until she heard his plans for the coming week. He braced himself for an explosion.
“Anna Mary, we didn’t get to finish talking before the singing. I’m sorry my actions upset you.”
She sniffled. “It wasn’t you so much as it was Rachel. She’s such a flirt. Did you see how she kept all those boys waiting on her, bringing her food and everything? Disgusting.”
Josh swallowed hard. He viewed things from a totally different perspective. Poor Rachel had appeared desperate to get away. He’d even considered rescuing her himself, but he didn’t want to add to the gossip. He debated with himself before asking mildly, “Do you think she really likes all that attention?”
“Of course, she does. If she didn’t, she’d tell them to go away.”
Neh, she wouldn’t. Rachel would never hurt anyone’s feelings. But Josh held his tongue. No point in riling Anna Mary by defending Rachel, even if, in his heart, he believed Anna Mary had judged Rachel wrongly.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to plunge ahead with the subject he’d rather avoid. “Speaking of Rachel, I’m scheduled to do repair work on her roof this week. I wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t be upset about rumors of me being at her house.”
“What?” Anna Mary shifted in her seat to stare at him. “How can you do this to me so soon after all the other things that happened?”
“It’s not like I have a choice.”
“Ask your daed to let you work on a different job. I don’t want you at her house.”
Now came the part Josh worried about most. “Daed didn’t book this job. I did.” At the fire in her eyes, he hastened to explain. “Not with Rachel. Someone else asked me to do it and is paying for it.”
Anna Mary narrowed her eyes. “Just you? Not your family business?”
Josh focused on turning his horse onto the narrow lane that led to her house before answering. “Jah, it’ll only be me. It’s not a big job. Shouldn’t take more than a few days.”
“You’ll be at Rachel’s for several days?”
The high-pitched ending on Anna Mary’s question scraped along his spine. To ease her anxiety, he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “I’ll be on Rachel’s roof for a few days.”
“But you’ll have to see her.”
“I’ll knock on her door the first day to get permission to store the shingles in their barn and find out what times will be best so I don’t disturb her mamm. After that, I’ll be coming and going without being around her.”
“Can’t you ask the person who’s paying you to get someone else to do the job?”
He didn’t want to give up this job. “If she gets upset with us, Daed might lose a lot of work. She hires us for many different jobs.”
Anna Mary frowned. “She?”
Josh would rather not say who’d requested him for this job, not after Anna Mary’s earlier worries. But when she tilted her head, expecting him to answer, he did.
“Mrs. Vandenberg?” Anna Mary screeched. “She had you carry Rachel’s pillows? And now she wants you to work at her house?”
Anna Mary’s panic almost convinced Josh to give up the job. Maybe one of his brothers could do it.
“What if Mrs. Vandenberg’s doing this to match you up with Rachel?”
“She’d be making a big mistake. No matter what she does, I could never get together with Rachel.”
“Why not?” Anna Mary eyed him with suspicion.
He couldn’t meet her eyes. “Something happened between us years ago. Before you moved here.”
“You . . . you . . . ?” she faltered.
Josh read the meaning in her expression. “Neh. Absolutely not. Nothing like that.” It sickened him that Anna Mary would even think that about him. And even more so about Rachel.
“Oh.” A satisfied smile crossed Anna Mary’s face. “She flirted with you like she does with all the boys, and then she turned you down?”
He shook his head. “I never joined that group of admirers.” Not that he didn’t want to. But if Rachel knew the real reason he’d turned away from her, she’d do more than turn him down.
“What happened then?” Anna Mary demanded.
Josh had never told anyone, and to his surprise, he didn’t trust her to keep it private. She’d tell Caroline, and then the whole world would know. Caroline didn’t mean to be a gossip, but she bounced around like an untrained puppy, sharing everything she knew just to be friendly.
“It’s a long story, and I need to get home soon. Daed wants to start extra early tomorrow because we lost roofing time when it rained Friday and Saturday. We got interior work done on the Myers’ house, but . . .”
Anna Mary’s eyes glazed over. Sometimes that hurt his feelings, but tonight he was grateful. He’d started rambling to distract her from the truth he never wanted to admit to anyone.
As he turned into her driveway, she wasn’t about to let him go so easily. “Just tell me a short version of the story.”
“It occurred so long ago. Better just to forget it.”
“But I can’t forget it if I don’t know what it is.”
He forced a laugh. “That’s true.” He waved a hand to quell her protests. “It doesn’t matter to us.”
She studied him with worried eyes. “You won’t go in her house?”
“I don’t need to go inside for anything.”
“You’d better not.” Anna Mary hopped out of the buggy and hurried toward her house without even a goodbye wave, making it clear she’d issued her final word on the subject.
Josh sat there staring after her. Why had he accepted this job? He didn’t want to hurt Anna Mary or tear apart their relationship. At the same time, he wanted to help Rachel.
Staying out of her house should be easy. He had no reason to spend time with her. Why did that thought leave him feeling adrift in a sea of sadness?
* * *
As Rachel pulled into her driveway after the singing, Martin’s mother fluttered around the door, wringing her hands. “Oh, gut, you’re back. Thank heavens.”
Rachel could barely breathe. “Is everything all right?” Did something happen to Mamm?
“I don’t know.” Mabel wrung her hands. “I just don’t know.” She stood in the doorway, blocking Rachel from entering.
Rachel wanted to push her aside and run to check on Mamm. “Is anything wrong with Mamm?”
“What?” Mabel’s owl-like eyes blinked several times, as if Rachel’s question made no sense. “Your mamm’s just fine.”
“She is?” Rachel wished Martin’s mother would get to the point. Like Martin, she seemed given to dramatics.
“Jah, she slept the whole time I was here.”
Rachel hid a smile. When Mamm preferred not to talk to someone, she feigned sleep. But what had gotten Mabel this agitated?
“Did something bad happen?”
Mabel sucked in a breath. “Jah, it did, for sure and certain. Your neighbor came over with a message.”
While Mabel patted her chest as if staving off a heart attack, Rachel mused over whether it would be faster to run over to their Englisch neighbor’s house to find out the news than to wait for Mabel to parse it out in tiny pieces.
“Your cousin Cindy is in the hospital for an emergency operation. Appen—something. I forget what it’s called.”
“Appendectomy?” Rachel suggested.
“That’s it.” Mabel beamed at Rachel. Then, her face fell into grave lines again. “Anyway, she wants you to watch her two children.”
Rachel would love to help her recently widowed cousin. “But I can’t go to Ohio. I have to take care of Mamm.” It made no sense for her cousin to ask Rachel to drive to Charm, not when her g’may would happily assist her.
“I wondered about that,” Mabel said. “She arranged for a driver to bring the children to your house tomorrow. They should be here in the early evening.”
“What?” Why didn’t she keep them at home? Perhaps Mabel had gotten the message mixed up. Rachel would have to check with her neighbor after Martin’s mamm left.
Mabel fanned herself. “I can’t believe anyone would send their children with an Englisch driver all this way. Why not let her church take care of them?”
Rachel had wondered that too. None of this sounded like Cindy, who’d organized her life so well after her husband’s death she’d barely needed any assistance from the church. She’d stepped into running the family business, had the baby she’d been expecting without her husband around to assist her, and kept the children with her when she went to work every day.
When Rachel didn’t respond to her question, Mabel’s hand-flapping increased. “Ach, I’m sorry. I’m standing here keeping you from your mamm. And you have plenty to do with two little ones arriving tomorrow.”
“Danke for everything.” Rachel reached for the screen door to open it wider, hoping to slip past Mabel.
“Let me just get my knitting.” Mabel pivoted and headed to the living room.
The door to Rachel’s sewing cupboard stood open, revealing stacks of fabric and unfinished projects. Red-faced, Mabel closed it. “I couldn’t help noticing your lovely quilts.”
Evidently, she’d been inspecting more than just the almost-completed quilt in the frame and the partially finished quillow resting on the couch arm.
“Danke.” Rachel hoped to hurry Mabel away. “I appreciate you staying with Mamm all this time.”
“I’m happy to do it. I told Martin to let you know I can come anytime. Did he tell you?”
“Jah, he did. That’s kind of you.” Rachel had no intention of taking her up on the offer. Mabel’s rotation once every few months taxed Mamm’s patience.
“I’ll tell Martin you said hello, shall I?” Her words came out in rapid, nervous bursts. “It’ll make his night. He thinks so highly of you. You two would be—”
Mercifully, she stopped before she finished. Though Rachel caught the drift. Mabel thought Rachel and Martin would make a perfect couple. And how could Rachel stop his mamm from implying Rachel had sent a special greeting to Martin without being impolite?
Rachel sighed inside. She had too many other things to think about. Cindy’s children coming tomorrow meant she couldn’t make as many quilts and quillows as usual. Bills would pile up. How would she make enough to catch up?
But she’d love having the children around, even if only for a week or two. Especially since she’d have no chance for children of her own. It worried her that she’d never met Cindy’s children, except through Cindy’s descriptions in her letters. How would they adjust to being so far from their mamm?
Cindy sending the children here concerned Rachel. It seemed so odd and out of character. Ever since her husband died, Cindy’s letters had praised the women in her g’may. She considered some of them closer than sisters. Why hadn’t she asked her sisters or friends for help rather than sending her children to stay with a cousin who was a stranger to them?