“I'm so pleased to be spending the day with you, Jane.”
Jane wasn't so certain her feelings agreed. “Yes, it will be good. I haven't seen you since … yesterday.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Even though we live next door to one another, we don't really spend much time together.”
“That's true.”
“But before we go anywhere …”
Jane looked over at him wondering what he was going to say.
“I feel you should talk to the bishop's wife.”
“Debra?”
“Yes, Debra.”
“Why do you think I should talk with her?”
“Because I don't think you’ve really talked to her since you've been here, have you?”
Jane thought back. “I'm not sure. Is someone complaining that I haven't spoken to her? I saw her at the meeting only on Sunday.”
“But did you talk with her?”
“Yes, a little.”
“You might not know this, Jane, because you didn't visit many communities, but you should really speak to the bishops and their wives at all the different places, more than just saying hello.”
She stared at Isaac. “It’s a little different because I know them so well. I grew up here, remember? You hardly go anywhere, so where is this coming from?”
“Before I married and had the goat farm, I traveled around to different communities—that's how I met my fraa.”
“Sure, I'll go speak to Debra. But I'm sure she'll be busy with something more important.”
“And what could be more important than you?”
“I can think of a good many things that would be more important than me.”
He laughed at her, but Jane knew this was going to be awkward, and a huge waste of everyone’s time. She had no idea why he was forcing her to do this.
And then Jane wondered whether the bishop's wife had something she wanted to say to her. Had she behaved inappropriately at the meeting or had she done or said something that she shouldn't? She couldn't think of anything like that.
“Do you know if she’s home?” Jane asked.
“She was when I left. I didn't tell her that I was coming back with you. Such a worrier you are, Jane.”
“I never thought of myself as a worrier, but you're not the first person to say that.”
When they reached the bishop’s house, Isaac stayed with the horse and put the reins over the hitching post while Jane knocked on the door.
Debra opened the door and smiled when she saw Jane's face. “Jane, how lovely to see you.”
“Denke. I was about to spend some time with your haus guest, Matt… ooh, I mean… “
“Do you mean Isaac?”
“Jah, I was spending the day with Isaac and I realized I didn't say much to you on Sunday and I just came to have a little talk, if that's alright.”
“Certainly Jane, you can talk to me about anything you like. Will Isaac be joining us for this talk?”
“It's not really a talk I just called in to say hello … more or less.”
“Yes, that's quite alright. I thought you had something to talk to me about, maybe a confession.”
Jane giggled. “Nee, I don't have any confessions to make about anything. Maybe I do, but I can't remember what they are right now.”
Debra smiled. “Don't worry we all have our secrets and that's okay. Come through into the kitchen and I'll make tea for three.” Debra laughed. “That rhymes, tea for three.”
“Jah, it does.”
When they got to the kitchen, Debra directed her to sit on one of the four chairs at the small round table. “He likes my cooking too much.”
Jane looked up at her. “Who does?”
“Jeremiah.”
Jane shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.
Debra stopped still. “Oh dear. I was replaying our future conversation in my head. The conversation that I thought would come about in the next few seconds. When people visit, they ask me the same things and I thought that you were going to ask me too.”
Jane couldn’t help smiling. “Ask you what?”
“Why Jeremiah is still living at home. It’s so weird, me saying that just now. You must think I’m odd. Have you ever done what I did just now?”
“Nee. I don’t think I have, but it sounds like it would be an easy thing to do.”
“You’re kind, Jane. It was a mistake, and it might’ve been an easy mistake to make, but I have to separate what goes on in my head and what happens in the real world.”
That comment startled Jane. She too would have to do that.
“You see, I have Jeremiah, my oldest, living at home and it bothers me. That’s probably why I’m thinking about it all the time and it’s also what people ask me about when they’re looking to have a conversation. Because you’ve just come to say hello, you’ll get around to talking about my kinner, sooner or later.”
“You’re so right, Debra. That’s very true. So, he’s still living at home?”
Debra sighed deeply. “Jah, he is.”
“And you'd rather him not be here?”
“I'd rather him be married, Jane. Married and giving me grosskin.”
“He'll get there when the time is right.” Jane grinned. Everybody was always telling her that, so she took every opportunity to repeat it to as many people as she could. For her, the right time was always now. She would never share her inner thoughts with anyone, but sometimes it seemed that ‘Gott’s timing,’ never happened.
“Can I come in?” Isaac called out from the next room.
“Come in, Isaac. We’re in the kitchen.”
Isaac walked in and sat down.
“What would you like, Isaac, hot tea or kaffe?”
“I wouldn't mind a coffee. I like the way you make it.”
“Denke. And for you, Jane?”
“Just a black tea for me, weak and no sugar for a change.”
“That's easy enough. Isaac, we were just talking about Jeremiah.”
“Jah, I was having a good talk with Jeremiah last night.”
“Were you indeed?”
“Yes.”
“Did he happen to mention any young ladies?”
“Are you asking me whether he might be interested in someone?”
“That's exactly what I'm asking. All I wanted him to do is get married. He doesn't even have to leave this haus, he can get married and move his fraa right on in. We’ll make room. It's a big haus, plenty of space.”
“You'll be pleased to know that he does like someone. But don't ask me any more because I can't tell you.”
“That's all I wanted to know.”
Jane giggled. “You men and your secrets.”
“Don’t women have secrets?”
“They're nothing like men’s secrets,” said Debra.
“Women gossip, and men don’t,” Isaac stated.
“Certain men do, Isaac,” Debra said. “I can guarantee you that. I get to hear many things. Not that I eavesdrop, but my ears can’t stop hearing.”
Isaac and Jane exchanged a smile. Debra was certainly entertaining.
When she’d made the hot tea and the coffee, she sat down with them, placing a bowl of sugar cookies on the table. “Now, what have you two got planned today?”
Jane had no idea and she looked at Isaac, who said, “Jane can show me around. We didn’t get much time last time we went out.”
“Which was yesterday,” Jane commented.
“Yes. Jane couldn’t spare me much time. Now we have the whole day together.”
“That sounds lovely and what will you show him, Jane?”
“I’m not sure yet. We haven’t really talked about what he’d like to do.”
“It doesn’t really matter what we do. It’ll be nice to spend some uninterrupted time with her.”
Jane took a cookie and bit into it. Spending so much time with Isaac, she was certainly seeing a different side to him—a far more controlling side. He was different when he was at home.
Was this the man God had for her? It was hard to imagine it was, because she wasn’t looking forward to spending the entire day with him. And if spending a day with him seemed tiresome, how would she handle spending her entire life with him?
It was a whole hour later when they left the bishop’s house.
“That took a long time,” said Isaac as they traveled down the bishop’s driveway to get back onto the road.
“I know. She can talk.”
“You should’ve excused us sooner. You know I wanted to spend all day with you. I just thought we’d be there for fifteen minutes. I didn’t know you were going to accept hot tea which turned into a full blown morning tea with food.”
Jane pressed her lips together. She felt like a schoolgirl getting berated by her teacher. “I always accept the offer to eat when someone invites me.”
“That would be fine if you were alone, but you could’ve checked with me first.”
“Sorry, Isaac. I’ll do that in future.”
He glanced over at her. “I’m sorry, Jane. You must think I’m awful. I’m just so uptight.”
“What about?”
“About losing you. I know Matt is interested in you and that’s why you’re here.”
“I can tell you that I’m here for a very different reason.”
He held up his hand. “Don’t lie to me.”
Jane was taken aback by the comment. It was so abrupt. “I’m not. I wouldn’t. It’s true.”
“Is it?” Isaac stared at her.
She swallowed hard wondering if he would guess her reason for being there was that she was in love with Matt, even though Matt's reason was something else entirely. She didn’t want Isaac to know either of them.