“I don’t know how you do it, working at that stall all day,” Jacob said to Mark.
“The market stall provides a good income for the whole family,” Mr. Schumacher explained before Mark responded again.
“I quite enjoy it. I like meeting new people, and taking care of the same customers who come back week after week. I’m good friends with many of them now.”
Mrs. Schumacher said, “Mark is a people person. He’s always been outgoing and friendly, even when he was a little bu.”
Rose quietly agreed. Everyone liked Mark.
Jacob grimaced and looked at Mark. “Doesn’t it get smelly working around goat cheese?” He waved his hand in front of his screwed-up nose.
Frowning at Jacob’s rudeness, Mark said, “Nee! Anyway, we sell nearly everything to do with goats. We have goats’ milk soap, yoghurt, and milk; not just cheese.”
“Jah, you’ll need that soap to get the goats’ smell off.” Jacob laughed but no one joined him.
“It’s no more smelly work than, say, buggy making,” Mark replied, now looking either serious or annoyed at his cousin.
“That’s not smelly at all.” Jacob glared at Mark.
Sensing the mounting tension in the air, Rose said, “I have the smelliest job of all.”
Everyone looked at Rose and laughed.
“I think the word you’re looking for, Rose, is ‘fragrant,’” Mr. Schumacher said.
“Jah, that sounds much better,” Rose commented.
“Dinner smells delicious, Aunt Sally,” Jacob said to Mrs. Schumacher.
“I hope you like it, it’s—”
“Goat stew?” Jacob asked.
Mr. Schumacher laughed, while Mark scowled at him.
“I’m sorry, Mark, I was just trying to be funny,” Jacob said. “Your vadder thought it was funny.”
“Our goats are for milking, not eating,” Mark said.
Jacob continued, “Surely you eat the older ones—”
“Nee, don’t talk about that, please.” Rose covered her ears.
“It’s lamb stew, a recipe I got from your onkel’s dear old mudder, your Grossmammi Schumacher, and Mark’s.” She looked at Rose. “She’s gone to be with Gott now.”
“I’m pretty sure I remember her,” Rose said.
“It’s Mark’s favorite food,” Mrs. Schumacher said, smiling at her son.
Rose kept talking, hoping Jacob wouldn’t say anything else to upset Mark. “I can’t wait to try it.”
“Well you can, in about five minutes, as soon as Matthew gets home.”
“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” Rose asked.
“Maybe we could leave the men alone for a few minutes. Will you help me in the kitchen, Rose?”
Rose stood and followed Mark’s mother into the kitchen while thinking that it might have been better if Mark had arranged some sort of outing with just a few young people, including her and Jacob. It was awkward having a family dinner at Mark’s house with Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher listening to everything that was said.
Halfway through dinner, Rose wished she had invited Tulip along after all. Rose wasn’t much of a talker and it had been difficult to keep the conversation flowing as well as stopping the tension between Mark and Jacob. Matthew had sat there and barely said a word.
It was after dessert that Mark’s younger brother excused himself and Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher left the other three young people alone in the kitchen to talk.
“Would you like coffee, Rosie?” Mark asked.
“Jah, I would. Do you want me to get it?”
“Nee, I can do it. What about you, Jacob?”
“Jah, I wouldn’t mind one.”
Mark went to the far end of the kitchen and put the pot on the stove to boil.
“Do you know what you’re doing, Mark?” Rose asked with a giggle.
“Don’t you worry about me, Rosie.”
“He knows what he’s doing in the kitchen. He’ll make someone a good fraa one day.” Jacob laughed hard at his own joke.
Rose smiled even though she didn’t find it very funny, and Mark ignored him as he got the cups ready for the coffee.
Jacob turned his attention back to Rose. “So, is it Rose, or Rosie?”
“It’s Rose, but Mark likes to call me Rosie for some reason.”
“I’ll call you Rose. I like the name Rose.”
“Okay.” It didn’t matter what he called her. She liked the deep rich tones of his voice.
“Rose, we’ve got the meeting on Sunday morning. What are you doing after that?” Jacob asked.
“Nothing that I know of.”
Jacob leaned closer and said quietly, “How about we do something together?”
The metal coffee container in Mark’s hands slipped from his grasp and clanged heavily on the floor, scattering the ground coffee everywhere. The container bounced across the room and stopped just near the doorway.
Rose jumped up to help Mark clean up the mess while Jacob laughed.
“Thanks, Rosie,” Mark said. “It looks like we won’t be having coffee after all. How about some hot tea instead?”
“Tea will be fine. You go ahead and make the tea and I’ll clean this up,” Rose said. “Just tell me where the broom and the dustpan are.”
“Through that door.”
Jacob hadn’t moved from his spot at the kitchen table. “I was looking forward to coffee.”
“You still can have it. I’ll scrape some off the floor for you,” Mark said.
Jacob shook his head. “I’ll take a pass on that one.”
Rose sat on one side of the table sipping hot tea, while looking at both Jacob and Mark. It was like being between two roosters that wanted to fight each other. Jacob had attempted to ask her out, but she didn’t know how to get the conversation back to where it had been before Mark’s coffee-spilling incident.
Perhaps if she jogged Jacob’s memory a little he’d ask her again, or would that appear too desperate? No, she would have to wait until Jacob mentioned something of his own accord.
“So, you have twins in your familye?” Jacob asked her.
“That’s right. Daisy and Lily. They’re younger than I am.”
“I’ve got two older brothers who are twins.”
Rose nodded politely, wondering why he didn’t remember that they’d already talked about that before dinner. “Jah, I think I heard something along those lines.”
Jacob turned to his cousin. “Mark, why don’t you be a good son and see if your parents would like some hot tea?”
It was a large hint for Mark to leave them alone in the kitchen and Rose hoped he’d take it.
“Nee, they wouldn’t. Denke for your concern. They never have hot tea after dinner. Sometimes they have coffee, but now they won’t be having that.”
Jacob turned back to look at Rose and from the way he looked at her, she knew that if Mark had not been there he would’ve asked her out. All hope wasn’t lost. Maybe at the meeting on Sunday he would ask her out again.
When the time came for her to go home, both Mark and Jacob insisted on driving her. It was Mark’s buggy so he won the argument, but Jacob insisted on going along for the ride.
When they reached the house, Jacob looked out at it. “So this is where you live, Rose?”
“It is.”
“It’s quite big,” Jacob said. “It looks so from the outside.”
“Jah, none of us has ever had to share a bedroom even when the boys lived at home. There was a bedroom for each of us. Now Mamm has a sewing room and Dat uses one as an office since the boys are married and gone.”
Through the windows, she could see warm light coming from both the kitchen and the dining room. Without walking inside, Rose knew that Tulip had been waiting up for her, wanting to hear what happened, and she couldn’t wait to tell her everything.
“Denke for driving me home, Mark.”
“Denke for coming to dinner.”
“It was good to get to know you better, Rose. I’m sure I’ll see a lot more of you soon,” Jacob said. “And I would’ve driven you home if my cousin hadn’t insisted on coming with us.”
“I’ve driven Rose home. You’ve come with me,” Mark pointed out to Jacob.
“Denke.” Rose gave him a nod.
When Rose got down from the buggy, she headed into the house and the moment she opened the door, she turned and gave a little wave. It was too dark to see if the two men were looking at her as Mark’s horse clip-clopped back down the driveway.
Rose closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She knew Mark liked her, but now there was Jacob, whom she hoped liked her. There had been tension between Jacob and Mark the whole night. Next time she’d have to get Jacob by himself somewhere away from Mark. If only Mark hadn’t spilled that coffee right when he had. It had been such an awkward night. No wonder Matthew excused himself and went to bed early. He probably sensed the tension too.
“How was it?”
On hearing Tulip’s voice, Rose looked up to see her sister rushing down the stairs toward her. Rose took off her shawl and hung it on the wooden peg by the door.
“Quickly tell me, or I’ll simply burst.”
Rose giggled and carefully looked around to ensure they were alone. “Let’s sit by the fireplace where it’s warm.”
The two girls sat by the fire, which had nearly burned to nothing.
“I’m sure he likes me,” Rose whispered.
“That’s so great. How do you know?”
“I can tell. He tried to ask me out, but Mark got in the way.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. What does he look like?”
“I’ve already told you that.”
“Tell me again. I have no boyfriend. I have to live through you and let your excitement be my excitement.”
“He’s not my boyfriend. Not yet anyway.”
Both girls giggled and then Rose told Tulip about the awkward evening.
“Rose, he was just about to ask you out. Do you think Mark dropped that coffee tin deliberately?”
“He wouldn’t have done that. At least, I don’t think so. He was the one who invited me there in the first place.”
“Jah, but it’s no secret he likes you; he always has.”
“I just wish that I could’ve been alone with Jacob and gotten to know him better.”
“At least you found out a lot, and the reason he’s here.”
“The worst thing was that he mentioned going somewhere together after the meeting tomorrow.”
“That’s fantastic!”
Rose shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Why is that bad?”
“Because he was interrupted when he was talking. I never got a chance to say yes and he never asked again.”
“So you’re not going anywhere with him tomorrow afternoon?”
“I don’t know.”
“It seems complicated. Tell me again what happened?”
“Haven’t you been listening?”
“Jah, but I’m tired. Tell me again.”
“That was when Mark had the accident with the coffee. I need you to do me a huge favor on Sunday.”
Tulip leaned forward. “What is it?”
“I’ll introduce you to Jacob and I want you to get friendly with him and then maybe mention that the four of us might go somewhere together.”
“The four of us? Meaning you, me, him, and Mark?”
“Exactly! That way, I’ll get to spend time with him and it won’t look like I’ve asked him.”
Tulip pouted. “Nee, it won’t look like you’ve asked him because I would’ve asked him. That’s not what I’d normally do.”
“Well, will you do it? Do it for me?” Rose put her hands together and pouted, trying to make her sister feel sorry for her.
Tulip smiled. “Okay. I’ll do it if you want me to, but only if you’ll do the same for me one day, or something similar if I need you to.”
Rose nodded. “Jah. We have a deal. Gut! When we’re all together, just the four of us, you keep Mark talking and right out of the way so I can have time with Jacob.”
Tulip giggled. “I hope that will work.”
“There’s no reason why it won’t.”
“Shall we have a cup of hot tea?”
Rose shook her head. “Nee. I had an early start this morning. I’ll go to bed.”
“And think about Jacob?”
“It’s been hard not to think about him. I can’t keep him out of my mind. I only hope that he feels the same.”
“He does. I’m sure of it.”
“I hope so.”
Rose switched off the main overhead gaslight and carried a small lantern up the stairs to light their way. Then each girl went to her own room.
After she’d pushed her bedroom door open with her foot, Rose placed the lantern on her dresser and got ready for bed. She hoped that everything would turn out as she planned.
Once she was between the sheets, she imagined what it might be like to be married to Jacob and have children with him. Just like the twins often said, she too would like three sets of twins so there would only be three childbirths. The children would all have the golden flecks in their eyes, as Jacob and she shared that in common. Would Jacob be happy to stay on in this small community? Or would he go home in a few weeks? If he wanted to go back home, Rose would go with him if he asked her.
Once she was married with her own home, everyone would stop looking over her shoulder and trying to run her life. She’d be happy and independent. Rose drifted sweetly off to sleep while imagining she was married to Jacob, living in a clean, tidy house with their three adorable sets of twins. Life would be perfect.