He needed gut advice.
From whom?
Frustration ate at Mark as he tossed another length of discarded wire he’d pulled out of the wall onto a pile in one corner of the barn, then leaned against the door. He yawned, fighting his exhaustion from too many hours of working on the house. Maybe if he’d had more sleep last night, he’d be able to think. He hadn’t realized how accustomed he’d become to sharing his concerns with Kirsten and listening to her common sense. Now... It wasn’t as if he could head over to her aenti’s house. What could he say?
Apologize for asking her to go to the benefit with him?
Saying he was sorry he’d asked her would be a lie.
Beg her to reconsider?
That wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t a matter of hochmut. It was a matter of... Okay, it was a matter of hochmut.
With a groan, Mark pushed off from the barn door and walked toward the house. Should he go to the benefit? He could make a contribution and stay home. He didn’t want to see who was taking her to the event at the firehouse. She must be going with someone else. She had mentioned she was going with her aenti, but what if she was going with another guy? Why else had she turned him down? He didn’t want to think she simply didn’t want to spend time with him. If that were so, why had she invited him along with the kids to visit the thrift stores in Shushan?
He had to stop tormenting himself with “what-ifs” and “maybes.” He should look at this as a life lesson. Learn, don’t churn. How many times had Daed said that when Mark was trying to master the basic skills in the woodshop? Mark had been frustrated then, too, stomping around and complaining of a sick stomach. Daed had patiently guided him through the steps Mark had been struggling to learn, and Mark’s stomach had stopped churning with stress.
He paused as he reached the porch steps. Back then, he’d depended on Daed for gut advice. Whom could he ask? His cousins, Lucas and Juan Kuepfer, seemed to believe church Sunday afternoons had been arranged for them to flirt. Every Sunday evening, they took different girls home in their buggies. He had no idea how they did that. It was time for him to find out.
Mark didn’t bother to hitch up his horse. Instead, he cut through his fields to where they connected with the Kuepfer farms that were side by side. Their houses were in as much need of work as his was, but he walked toward the barn where they milked their shared herd.
As he’d expected, the brothers were inside. They were tossing hay down from the loft to the ground floor. Shouting to each other, they kept up the spirited rivalry had started when Juan was born two years after Lucas.
“Busy?” Mark called up.
His cousins peered over the edge of the loft and grinned.
“Always,” Juan said before walking toward the ladder.
They came down, grinning. Lucas and Juan were as unalike in personality as they were in appearance. Though thrilled to have the opportunity to work the lush, red soil of Prince Edward Island, Lucas, who had inherited his dark eyes and kohl-black hair from his Mexican grossmammi, was apt to be found with his nose in a book or magazine about farm equipment or varieties of potatoes and corn.
Not Juan, whose light brown hair was a few shades darker than the corn in the bin by the ladder. He seldom sat still for anything other than meals or church. He focused his time on the maintaining the equipment and tending to the animals on the farm. Each animal had been given a name, something he hadn’t done in haste. He was determined that each cow or goat or chicken would have the name that suited her best. The only animal he hadn’t named was the nasty goose that nipped at the seat of his trousers whenever he walked by. As he’d said more than once, the name of a creature like that one shouldn’t be spoken aloud.
“How did you get past Christmas?” Juan asked as he peered out the door.
“Past Christmas?” Mark looked from one brother to the other. “We’ve got more than two weeks before Christmas.”
“No, not Christmas the day.”
Lucas grinned. “He’s talking about Christmas the goose.”
“Christmas?” he asked. “I thought you weren’t going to name her.”
“It’s not a name,” grumbled the younger man. “It’s a threat. If she rips another pair of my overalls, we’re going to have roast goose for Christmas.”
Mark laughed at his cousin’s serious tone, before saying, “I could use some advice.”
“We’ve got plenty of free advice,” Lucas said. “Realize you get what you pay for.”
“It’s about women.”
The brothers exchanged a glance before Juan said, “We’ve been wondering when you’d come by asking about that.” He pulled himself up to sit on the edge of the bin. “Word is you and Kirsten Petersheim are walking out together.”
“That word is wrong.”
Lucas rested his elbow on a rung in the ladder. “Is that so?”
“Trust me. It’s wrong.”
Again the brothers looked at each other before Lucas asked, “So what can we help you with? If your dashing gut looks and smooth tongue didn’t win her heart, I’m not sure what we can tell you.”
Mark clenched his hands at his sides as the brothers laughed. He should too, but Lucas’s teasing was as far from reality as Prince Edward Island was from the moon.
“So what’s happened?” Juan asked.
He explained how he’d asked Kirsten to go to the benefit. “She said no.”
“It sounds as if she has to be there early,” Juan said.
“I could have taken her early.”
Shaking his head, Lucas said, “If you want to walk out with Kirsten or any other woman, you’ve got to get her to notice you first. Have you made your interest clear?”
Had he? If he hadn’t before, asking her to go with him must have revealed he wanted to explore them being more than friends. “I think I have.”
“Then it’s time to go to Plan B.” Juan jumped off the bin. “Nothing gets a woman more intrigued about a man than discovering that other women consider him a gut catch.”
“I don’t want to play games.”
“It’s all a game.” Lucas chuckled. “It’s fun to flirt when they flirt back. Women are okay with it, ain’t so, Juan?”
His younger brother nodded. “As long as everyone understands it’s just for fun, everyone has a gut time. Find a few willing girls and flirt with them. Focus on one at the benefit. If Kirsten sees, she might rethink her decision about letting you take her home.”
“If she doesn’t,” Juan added, “then you’ll still have some fun. What do you have to lose?”
Mark nodded, but didn’t answer. Something felt wrong about their advice. Flirting, at least to him, felt like some sort of agreement that the two involved were considering a more serious relationship.
As long as everyone understands it’s just for fun. Juan’s words roiled through Mark’s mind while he walked back to his farm. They continued to tumble chaotically when he drove into Shushan to order lumber to support the bowing rafter because neither he nor Daryn had been able to find a piece the right size in the barn.
As long as everyone understands it’s just for fun. That, he decided as he drove into the parking lot at the hardware store, was the crux of the matter. Even if everyone understood at the beginning, what would happen if feelings changed?
Going into the hardware store, Mark placed his order and, picking up a small plastic basket, got nails and other small items for working on the house. He walked to the front to check out and found another customer in front of him.
The Englisch lady was buying a gallon of paint and insisted it be opened to make sure it was the color she wanted. The clerk, a woman with long, gray braids, complied. Both women were focused on checking the paint’s color, so he put his basket on the end of the counter.
As he began to pull out the boxes and smaller items from his basket, he heard someone behind him ask, “It’s awful, ain’t so?”
Mark paused and looked over his shoulder. He recognized the red-haired woman behind him as Kirsten’s friend, Aveline Lampel.
“What’s awful?” he asked, setting on the counter a slip with the number of boards and sheets of drywall he wanted to buy written on it.
“The graffiti painted on more boats,” Aveline said as the Englisch clerk hammered the top back onto the paint can.
His hand froze halfway between the basket and the counter. “More?”
Aveline nodded, her black bonnet bouncing on her head. She put her hand up to keep it from falling off as she said, “I heard three more boats were discovered this morning with the same words written on them.”
“It was five,” said the Englisch customer as she picked up her paint can. “Three in Shushan and two more in East Point.”
“That’s pretty far, ain’t so?” he asked.
“About sixty kilometers.” The Englischer turned toward the door. “Only an hour’s drive.”
An hour’s drive in a car would be, he guessed, between three and four hours by buggy. Also the culprits needed more time to sneak out to where the boats were and paint them.
“That trip is too long for a plain person to go without someone noticing he’s missing,” Aveline said behind him.
He smiled at her, glad to have her confirm his thoughts. Every night, he waited to sleep until he’d heard Daryn return. Last night, Daryn had been in before ten o’clock.
“I heard about the spray paint on the boats in Shushan,” the Englisch clerk said with a shake of her head that made her gray braids bounce on her shoulders. “I didn’t hear about damage in East Point.”
“These stories get bigger with each telling,” Aveline said.
“It’s a shame!” The clerk scanned each item and put it in a bag. “Those boats will have to be taken out of the water so the graffiti can be removed and the boats repainted. It won’t be cheap, but at least it’s almost winter.”
“Why would that make a difference?” asked Aveline before Mark could.
“Many of the fishermen have their boats hauled out before the bay ices over. Doing that protects the boats and makes it easier for the owners to do maintenance so they’re ready to get back to work as soon as the ice breaks up in the spring.” She looked at the register and told Mark the total. “Someone needs to do something about these kids. They’ve got too much time on their hands.”
“Are you sure kids are doing this?” Mark set his money on the counter and waited for change.
“Rumors—if you believe them—say that a trio of kids were seen not far from the marina last night. They were carrying something that looked like spray cans.”
“So why didn’t someone stop them?”
The Englisch woman chuckled as she handed him his receipt and change. “That’s why you can’t trust rumors. They tell a great story but fall apart when you look at the details. I’m sure if someone had seen kids with spray cans at the marina, there would have been a hue and cry to halt them.”
Mark took the bag and headed toward the door. The cold wind off the bay slapped him as he emerged, and he pulled up his scarf to protect the lower half of his face. He tugged his hat lower on his brow. His eyes, exposed to the wind, watered in protest.
He heard the door open behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see Aveline hurrying in his direction.
“Mark?” she called. “Do you have a minute to chat?”
His cousins’ advice had been to practice his flirting. Here was his opportunity. He pushed the idea aside, though the glimmer in Aveline’s eyes told him she wouldn’t mind.
But he wouldn’t use her, not even to get Kirsten’s attention. He sighed silently, hating the bitter taste of failure in his mouth. It looked as if he’d better get used to it.
The benefit supper had been a rousing success with every chair snapped up as soon as it was empty. Plain people came from the three local districts, even the one ten kilometers away beyond Montague. Englischers joined the crowd, raving about the delicious food served. Everyone’s favorites were the butter tarts flavored with maple syrup and Aenti Helga’s hot and spicy brownies.
As the clock over the garage doors at the front of the firehouse struck nine, the meal was over, and many of the people had left. About a dozen stood in small groups, chatting before heading out into the cold. The air was heavy with the scent of impending snow, and a few lazy snowflakes drifted by the windows. It truly was beginning to feel like Christmas was coming.
Kirsten wiped the syrup off one of the plastic cloths spread across the tables in a merry array of patterns. Several were Christmas tablecloths to add to the festive atmosphere created by a pair of decorated trees the firefighters had set up in the back corners of the firehouse. Others had images of ships or kites or summery flowers scattered across them.
She tried not to look at where Mark stood with Aveline. The two of them had come to the benefit together. She’d been kept busy on the other side of the room, so she didn’t have to devise something to say to them. Nobody had seemed to notice how choked her voice was as she struggled to swallow her tears. Knowing she had no one to blame but herself for turning down Mark’s invitation, it hurt that he’d so quickly found someone else to bring. Someone she’d introduced him to.
Just as she’d introduced Nolan to her friend Gwendolyn and then been pushed aside when the two of them fell in love. Would she never learn? How easy it had been to chide Mark for failing to figure out how to deal with his brother! What a hypocrite she was! She couldn’t even manage her traitorous heart which refused to listen to gut sense.
Aenti Helga came toward her, wiping her hands on a towel. “We’re set in the kitchen. How are you doing?”
“Nearly done.” She pointed with her chin to the other end of the long narrow space where a fire truck usually parked. A group of women were gathered there, sorting out dishes and trying to match them to their rightful owners. “Looks like Janelle is done, too.”
“Gut.” Her aenti looked around the space. “Where’s Theo?”
“I thought he was in the kitchen with you.”
Aenti Helga shook her head. “No, he never came in. He said something about having supper with his friends, so I assumed he was out here.”
“I never saw him.” Her eyes widened as she saw a few teens were near where Janelle was working. Theo wasn’t among them. “Do you think he left with his Englisch friends?”
“Without telling me?” Aenti Helga shook her head.
“He did tell you. He said he was going to eat with his friends.” Kirsten scanned the room again, hoping her cousin would pop out, but her sinking heart told her she was being foolish.
“Mark may know where Daryn went, and wherever Daryn is, we’ll find Theo.”
No! she wanted to shout. She didn’t want to have to talk to Mark when he was standing next to Aveline. She’d have to find something to say. No, she realized with a pulse of relief, she could ask him about Daryn’s whereabouts. That way, she wouldn’t have to reveal how hurt she was.
Kirsten pressed her dishcloth into her aenti’s trembling hands. “Check with the other boys and Janelle, Aenti, while I talk to Mark.”
“Not until I talk to you first.” Aveline strode toward her before Kirsten could take a single step. Her friend’s face was tight with emotion.
“What’s wrong?” asked Kirsten as her aenti rushed to check if Janelle had seen her brother or Daryn.
“Why did you tell me Mark Yutzy was just your friend?”
“Because he is,” she said so her heart wouldn’t lambaste her for not being honest.
“Does he know that?” Aveline grimaced. “Even though he flirted with me yesterday like he really liked me, he didn’t talk about anything but you through the whole meal. I might as well have been invisible.”
She fought conflicting emotions. She couldn’t help being thrilled that she was on Mark’s mind. On the other hand, he had flirted with Aveline and asked her to come to the supper with him.
“I’m sorry,” Kirsten said.
“It’s not your fault.” She sighed. “He’s just another guy who wishes he was with someone other than me.” Holding up her hand, she said, “You didn’t ask to get invited to my pity party. Go and find your cousin.”
Kirsten squeezed her friend’s hand and then hurried to where Mark was pulling on his coat and looking around. For Aveline? Dark crescents underlined his eyes, and she wondered if he’d had as much trouble sleeping as she had.
“Mark, where’s Daryn?” she asked without a greeting.
“Outside. Getting the buggy.”
“Are you sure?”
His eyes narrowed. “Ja. Why?”
“Is Theo with him?”
“I don’t know.”
Pushing past him, Kirsten grabbed a shawl off the pile of coats on a chair by the door. It wasn’t hers, but she flung it over her shoulders as she rushed outside. She saw Daryn on the other side of the parking lot.
“Is Theo with you?” she asked as soon as she reached him with Mark on her heels.
“No.” He gestured toward the building. “He’s right over there.”
In disbelief and relief, Kirsten whirled to see the unmistakable silhouette of her cousin reaching for the door. She was about to go to the firehouse when Mark spoke.
“Was Theo with you earlier, Daryn?” he asked.
Shaking his head, his brother said, “No, I didn’t see him all evening. I ate supper with Janelle and other kids. Theo wasn’t with us.” He frowned in concentration. “In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Theo.”
“You mean you don’t remember the last time you saw him tonight?” Kirsten asked.
“No, I mean I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen him at all. Maybe when we went to Shushan that day?” He shrugged, his motion stiff in the cold. “I figured we’d be playing hockey, but he seems to be busy all the time.”
Doing what? Where had he been? Thanking Daryn, she went inside, determined to get answers. If Theo hadn’t been with Daryn... She halted inside the doorway when she saw Aenti Helga talking with Theo. Slipping off the shawl, she put it on the chair. She looked around just in time to see Aveline heading out the front door.
She waited for Mark to step past her to catch up with her friend. When he didn’t, she asked, “Aren’t you going, too? Aveline’s leaving.”
“She told me she’s decided to go home with her mamm.” His voice held no emotion.
“But she came with you.”
“She did.” He sighed. “I shouldn’t have agreed when she asked if I’d like to ride with her.”
“She asked you to come with her tonight?” Kirsten was confused.
“Ja. I saw her yesterday at the hardware store. She knows I used to make furniture, so she asked me how to fix a table that’s been in her family for generations. I was giving her advice, and then she asked me. It shocked me.”
“But she said you were flirting with her.”
He shrugged. “She started flirting with me, and I...”
Putting her hands up to her ears, she said, “You don’t need to say anything else. This is none of my business.” She was proud of how serene her voice sounded. “Forget I asked.”
He stepped in front of her as she turned to go. “Kirsten, listen. I don’t know what Aveline told you about us.”
Her heart contracted painfully when he said us, and it didn’t include her. “She’s my friend. She wouldn’t be dishonest with me.”
“I know.” He ran his fingers backward through his hair, making it stand at weird angles. A motion she’d come to see signaled he was frustrated. “I didn’t think I was flirting with her at the hardware store. Maybe I was.”
She hesitated, recalling how Eldon had lambasted her for flirting with other men. She hadn’t been sure—and still wasn’t completely sure—what he’d meant when he’d chided her for talking with other men. If she was oblivious to what flirting was, couldn’t Mark be, too?
When she didn’t speak, Mark went on, “I’ll have to talk to Lucas and Juan.”
“Why?”
“They’re the ones who said I should practice flirting.”
“Why?” she asked again.
A flush rose up his face. “So I wouldn’t make a fool of myself again like I did when I asked you to come with me tonight.”
She threw up her hands. “Have you lost your mind, Mark Yutzy? Asking advice from your Kuepfer cousins about women?” She rolled her eyes as if she were no older than Janelle. “Don’t you know plain women warn each other not to take their flirting seriously?”
“No.” He looked abashed. “I didn’t know that.”
“You would if you weren’t so focused on your farm and your brother—”
“Important things.”
“I agree, but they shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of your life.” She tried to batten down her anger, but it burst out. “Aveline is my friend, and I don’t like how you treated her. It was no better than how Nolan treated me.”
“Nolan?” His eyebrows rose with his bafflement. “Who’s Nolan?”
She swallowed hard, now even more infuriated with herself than she was with him. Hadn’t she learned to guard her words when she was upset? She’d known better than to mention her ex who’d used her to meet her best friend.
Instead of answering, she said, “What you did was heartless. Aveline was upset. You hurt her by not focusing on her when you’d agreed to have supper with her.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets so hard she was astounded she didn’t hear fabric ripping as his finger went straight through the bottoms. “I made a mistake. I was wrong, but I was annoyed when you turned me down. I don’t like to fail at something.”
“At anything, according to Daryn.”
“I’m sorry. Is that what you want me to say?”
“No, what I want you to say is nothing.” She turned on her heel and walked away before she said something she’d regret more than when she’d told him “no” when he asked her to let him bring her to the benefit.