Rebekah limped across her bedroom floor to the simple doorway. A jagged ache gnawed at her heart, blocking out the pain in her discolored foot.
Why is Katie here?
An unfamiliar feeling twanged in her gut.
And why is Joseph talking to her like a beau?
She maneuvered herself out her room and to the stairs with more than a little difficulty. Her stomach lurched as she looked down the steep staircase. Her sweaty grip tightened on the banister. “Well, here goes.”
Placing her good foot down first, she leaned on the banister and hopped down the first step.
Whew, that wasn’t so bad. Only twelve more to go.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, Rebekah leaned on the bannister and hopped down the rest of the wooden stairs. A thin film of sweat covered her face like a veil as she neared the floor.
Almost there.
As she hopped off the last step, her hands fluttered to her head to straighten her covering. Instead, her fingers brushed her singed mane. “My covering!”
A brief moment of panic brought on with the prospect of ascending and descending the stairs again was interrupted by the thundering of feet. Thomas skipped past, his heart and eyes set on the partially opened front door. Rebekah saw Joseph’s back come in and out of view as the door swayed in the breeze.
“Thomas.” She swiped at the beads of perspiration that dotted her forehead. “Help!”
Her youngest brother stopped just before he reached the front door. Ever slow, he turned to face her. A hunk of bread, swiped from the kitchen no doubt, protruded from his mouth.
“Hi, th-ithy,” he mumbled through the crumbs.
“Thomas, come here please.”
He shrugged his tiny shoulders and forced down the bite of stolen bread as he ambled over.
“Hi, sissy,” he said more clearly. “Please don’t tell ’bout the bread. I was hungry.”
She ruffled his hair.
“Can you run upstairs for your favorite sister and bring down my covering? It’s in my room.”
He wrinkled his nose.
“Please?”
Thomas looked first at her, then at the door before he allowed his big blue eyes to settle back on Rebekah. “You’re my favorite sister because you’re my only sister.”
“Thanks a lot.”
Thomas sighed. “I guess we do need to cover up that hair. I’ll be right back.” He started up the stairs, slow as molasses in January. After a minute, he’d ascended three steps.
“Thomas?” Rebekah’s voice was gentle.
“Yeah, sissy?”
“Could you please go quickly? For me?”
A gap-toothed grin filled his freckled face. He scratched his nose. “Sure can.”
Thomas disappeared up the stairs as the front door creaked a tell-tale warning.
Someone’s coming in.
“Oh no.”
Rebekah glanced about for a suitable hiding place big enough for a twenty-year-old girl. In her haste, she hadn’t even bothered to dress and still wore her nightgown.
Her thoughts came in quick spurts.
Maybe whoever it is won’t see me if I don’t move.
She sat down on the bottom step and hugged her knees to her chest.
Joseph held open the door and Katie sashayed in. The pair sat down on the seat made for three with their backs to her.
Thank goodness the seat between them is open.
A hot knot formed in her throat.
“So sad about their barn. I heard that you went in and saved their new calf.” Katie’s sing-song voice trilled in the still air. Rebekah closed her eyes.
“Well, you’re half right.” Joseph stood and folded his arms. That was a sure sign that he was either completely comfortable or completely nervous.
“It is unfortunate about the barn, but it wasn’t me who went in for all the animals.” He turned to face Katie and in doing so, faced Rebekah, too. “It was Rebekah.”
“Here you go, sissy!” Thomas’s voice was a screech as he flew down the stairs. In his haste, he tripped.
Rebekah reached out and made an expert save before Thomas crashed to the ground. She patted her littlest brother and sat him down.
With butterflies flitting wildly in her stomach, she glanced at Joseph to see if he’d witnessed the display.
He stared back, grinning.
Rebekah shoved her headpiece over her sizzled locks. “Thank you, Thomas.”.
“You’re welcome, sissy,” he yelled as he dashed away past Joseph and Katie without so much as a glance in their direction. Rebekah guessed his five-year-old heart and mind were already out the door, off the porch, and playing in the surrounding woods.
Katie turned as Rebekah finished straightening the gauzy white covering. She smoothed her nightgown.
“There she is now. The hero of the day.” Joseph stepped to her side. “Rebekah, come sit with Katie and me.”
He took her hand and led her across the living room as she tried to hide her limp.
She spoke first and tried to keep her voice even despite the sour taste in her mouth. “Katie, thank you for my pouch of quilting squares.” Despite their mutual object of affection, Rebekah was serious in her appreciation. “Did you piece them together yourself?”
Katie nodded. “I did. ’Fraid I’m not much of a quilter, so they’re a little uneven. Nothing like your ma’s.”
Rebekah shifted her weight on the seat. “My squares aren’t anything like Ma’s, either.”
She shifted her attention to Joseph. “How was breakfast?”
“Well, everyone was fed. If there were any complaints, I didn’t hear them.” He brushed the end of his nose with his thumb. “But then again, I made it a point not to listen.”
Katie giggled.
“I’m surprised to find you two here.” Rebekah didn’t mean for her voice to come out as harsh as it did. “What I mean is,” she sputtered to clarify, “I thought everyone was going to gather at the Yoders today.”
Joseph extended his hand to her. “There was a change of plans.”
She accepted it, stood, and hobbled toward the door. Needles of pain pricked her foot. She bit her tongue and squeezed Joseph’s hand.
He pushed the door open and revealed the busy scurrying of all the Gasthof Village families.
Mr. Yoder and Mr. Knepp were pushing up the new wooden frame of their barn as Mr. Raber and Mr. Odon steadied them from the top. They called out orders and requests in German, giving the clearing around their house the old-world feel that Rebekah knew only from her mother’s stories.
Her Pa, Joseph’s Pa, and Simon Wagler unloaded goods from the row of parked wagons. Piles of hay, animal feed, and tack were stacked about in an orderly fashion.
Tears welled in her eyes. “Everyone came here?”
Joseph nodded.
“Instead of going to services?” Her hand fluttered to her chest and grasped at her nightgown.
His voice was soft and warm. “Sometimes, the best way to love God is through action, not through talking.”
“Anyway, where else would we go?” Joseph’s tender voice was a whisper through her covering.
Katie coughed.
As he turned back toward the sitting room, he bumped Rebekah’s tender toe.
Stars filled her vision and doubled her over.
Worried creases pinched his eyebrows together. “What’s this?” His sapphire-blue eyes searched her face with such scrutiny that a sudden sense of self-consciousness forced her to hug her arms to her chest.
Joseph’s breath was warm on her ear. “Why can’t you walk?”
You’re not alone, Rebekah. You’re on display.
Rebekah’s gaze flickered to the ever-silent Katie. “I, well, I sort of—”
The contender for Joseph’s affections sat stock still, her hands clasped neatly in her lap as she took in the scene unfolding before her.
The burgundy color of Katie’s dress is remarkably similar to one that is folded in my own drawer upstairs.
Joseph’s fingers fell lightly on the crook of her arm as she wrung her hands at her waist. The brief, deliberate touch brought knots to her stomach. Rebekah let her sheepish gaze meet his and the world around them melted down, down, down until nothing remained except the angular, dimpled face of the man who had stolen her heart.
In that moment, only the two of them remained, their eyes locked together and his fingers still resting on her arm. She drew in a shuddering breath as Joseph wet his full lips with the tip of his tongue.
The overwhelming urge to seize the unanticipated moment and pull him close surged through her and left her feeling weak inside. And guilty.
Stop it, Rebekah.
She swallowed hard.
Save these urges for your husband. When you’re married. Not for brief moments such as these.
“Rebekah.” His voice bubbled into her daydream.
“Hmmm?”
“What did you do to your leg?”
“Oh, that.” Rebekah lifted them hem of her gown and revealed her bare, swollen foot. “It’s nothing.”
Joseph’s blue eyes widened.
She shrugged. “When I heard something outside last night, I dashed to the window. I realized later my foot must’ve caught the dresser.”
“Rebekah, why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was hard. “You shouldn’t walk on that.”
As the front door swung open again, he bent and swooped her into his arms. Lean, muscled arms from all the heaving and hauling that came with being an Amish man.
Katie’s mouth formed a perfect ‘o.’ “Why, that’s not fittin’ at all.”
The heat that burned in Rebekah’s neck crept up to color her face, but the warmth from Joseph’s closeness and his fresh, woodsy scent made it hard to focus on anything else, even embarrassment.
The door slammed shut as Heloise Graber stopped inside the house. A tiny gasp escaped her lips as she stared at her only son as he stood in the middle of the room with the delicate Stoll daughter wrapped in his embrace.
“What’s all this?”
“I was about to ask the same question.” The hurt in Katie’s voice was almost tangible. “My ma says such behavior should be saved for marriage and no man should—” Her eyes flickered to Rebekah. “No man should go around touching just any old girl.”
Heloise raised a hand. “Katie, let Joseph speak.” She shifted her patient gaze to her son. “Joseph? You must know how this looks.”
He gave Rebekah a tiny squeeze. The embarrassment made her insides quake. “I understand how this might look inappropriate,” he began. “But I also know how this looks. Rebekah, show my mother your foot.”
With a tiny kick, she revealed her mottled and swollen ankle to the anxious onlookers.
“You don’t need to walk on that foot, Rebekah.” Joseph’s voice was stern as he turned his attention back to her. “I’m taking you up to bed.”
Happy crinkles creased the corners of Heloise’s eyes. “I knew there would be an explanation. Rest well Rebekah and do as Joseph tells you. He’s good at doctor’n.”
Rebekah soaked up his closeness and blotted out the rest of the room. She inhaled and closed her eyes. His scent was woodsy, like he’d traipsed through a pine forest.
“And you’re gonna rest.” His breezy voice, meant to reassure, stoked the gentle heat that smoldered in her chest.
She watched Joseph’s angular jaw flex as he ascended the stairs. Katie’s high-pitched words, like “inappropriate” and “shameless” caught her attention, but a genial laugh from Heloise quelled any anxiety before it had the chance to bloom.
***
“I’ll take care of things. You just get well.” Joseph laid the cool rag on her puffy foot. The purple mottling now creeped up her leg, and her entire foot was a deep-green hue.
“That toe is broke,” Joseph observed. “I’m sure Ma’ll be in here to check on you later. After she checks on Elnora, I reckon.”
Rebekah spread her hands over her quilt. A sudden tiredness tugged at her eyelids. “I’ll close my eyes a minute, then get up to start dinner.” A yawn interrupted her planning.
“Dinner, pshaw.” Joseph shook his head and waved both hands as if to dismiss her. “I’ll take care of dinner.”
“Are you sure?”
“You do trust me, don’t you?”
A note in his voice gave her pause. “Trust you?”
He offered her a sly wink that transformed her insides into hopeless mush. “You can trust me, Rebekah.”
Surely he doesn’t know, er, think, I went downstairs to check up on him and Katie?
Her mushy insides quivered. She hoped the flush that flamed in her face wasn’t as visible as it felt.
“Do you?”
She nodded. What she couldn’t trust was her own voice.
“So, I trust you won’t wander down the stairs for the rest of the day?”
“I won’t.”
He gestured to her nightstand. “Your quilting bag is sitting right there if you get the urge to stitch.” The end of his mouth tilted upward. Rebekah liked the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled. He was even more alluring than usual.
“I’ll be back to check on you later.” He reached for the handle of the closed door. Before he could pull it open, it flung inward and whacked him squarely on the nose.
Heloise’s thickly accented voice rang through the air. “Whoopsie! Sorry, son.”
With her green eyes a-sparkle, she breezed into the room. “Rebekah, I see you made it upstairs.” The elder Graber flounced across the room with a youthful gaiety that belied her forty years.
Rebekah flickered her gaze to Joseph.
“How’s everyone doing outside, Ma?”
“Ah, everyone is fine, fine.” There was a dismissive quality to her voice. “I come to see the hero of the day.”
She perched on the foot of Rebekah’s bed like a plump bird. Her smile was wide and bright beneath the fiery locks that peeked out from her black covering.
“The men are replacing the barn, Rebekah,” she reported. “And all the women brought supplies and food. Oh!”
Heloise hopped up and danced back across the room.
Joseph and Rebekah inhaled in unison when she reappeared with a full basket of home baked goods.
“Mmm, I smell apple strudel!” Rebekah licked her lips.
Heloise plopped the basket on the bed and folded her arms as Rebekah began to unpack it with zest.
His eyes bright, Joseph looked on from the doorway.
“Apple strudel,” she confirmed and took a big whiff of the first plate before she placed it to the side. “Apple butter. A loaf of buttermilk bread. Noodles and chow chow. And, oh my goodness, a rhubarb pie! Thank you, Heloise.”
“Don’t sank me, sank Katie.” Heloise’s German accent was as thick as the creamy strudel frosting. “’Twas her idea to fix you a basket.”
“I will thank her.” Rebekah’s voice was muted and humble. “Oh, what’s this?”
Slowly, she drew the heavy object from the bottom of the basket. “Sewing shears?”
Confused, she looked at Heloise.
The stout woman’s face softened. Laugh lines from years of smiling and happy laughter smoothed over her high cheek bones. “For your hair, my love.”
Rebekah stared at the gleaming shears a moment before unwelcome tears filled her eyes.
Joseph removed his hat and tossed it onto Rebekah’s bed. He slicked back his own thick, dark hair. “Cut it to look like mine, Ma.”
A wave of emotion surged from the depths of Rebekah’s soul. But instead of coming out in the form of tears, it came out as a belly laugh.
Her companions joined in the guffaw until the three of them were in stitches. A low moan from the hallway interrupted their jovial jag.
“Oww,” the voice moaned. “Help, please!”
“Elnora.”
“Ma.”
Rebekah and Heloise’s eyes met, and each spoke at the same time. “I’m coming!”
Heloise reached the door as Rebekah struggled to untangle her legs from her nest of blankets. “Hold on Ma, I’m coming.”
“Stay dere!” Heloise instructed from the hallway. “Yosef, make sure she stays put and eats.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Joseph pushed the door shut.
“You heard the lady.” Gently, he tucked the quilt back around her. “It’s time for the baby to come, is all.”
Rebekah nodded, but the image of her mother’s gaunt face was a hard one to shake from her mind.
Ma. Please be okay.
Joseph sat on the edge of the bed and studied the food. Finally, he selected the first plate. “Let’s eat some of this strudel first. My ma’s good at takin’ care of folks, so we can relax.”
Rebekah eased back against the pillow, but her spine stayed stiff in case she should need to jump up and assist. “I know she is. And she’s the best at bringing babies.”
They had finished the strudel and were opening the apple butter when the door creaked to reveal Heloise’s corpulent frame.
“Rebekah, darling, you will have a baby sibling soon. Your Ma’s been laboring for some time.” She rubbed her eyes. “I will help bring baby.”
Rebekah sighed as Heloise sat on the wooden chair next to her.
Thank you, God.
Somehow, the apple butter smelled even sweeter now.
“Having the village midwife to attend to her is a lot better than the eldest daughter. You soothed my fears, Heloise.”
Joseph tilted his chin. “Told you so.”
“Heloise.” Elnora’s voice, filled with pain, echoed in the silent hallway. “Helois-s-s-s-s-e!”
Heloise pushed herself out of the chair and charged through the door in one discombobulated motion. At once, Rebekah saw that something was off.
“Oh.” Heloise’s voice was an excited huff as she bounced out the door, her feet all a tangle.
“Joseph, she can’t get her balance.”
“Ma!” Joseph dashed after her.
But he was too late. The sickening thunk-thunk-thunk as Heloise tumbled down the stairs had already come to a stop.