When Mari climbed out of the van Friday afternoon, she was so excited that she didn’t mind splashing through the half thawed, half frozen muddy yard to reach Sara’s back door. She removed her coat and boots, left them in the utility room and hurried to find her son.
Ellie and Sara were in the kitchen making supper, and she gave them a hearty greeting. “Good news on the school situation,” Mari announced. “I can’t believe it. Zachary’s records finally arrived. The school called me at work. I can take him in Monday morning and enroll him.”
“I know you’re relieved.” Ellie’s enthusiasm was lackluster. “But I’ll miss him, and I know his friends at our school will miss having him there.” She went back to peeling potatoes.
Sara laid down her rolling pin, brushed flour off her apron and offered a polite smile. “Good news, indeed.”
“Where is Zachary?” Mari glanced around. The sound of hammering came from the other end of the house, and she knew the answer. “I suppose he’s trailing James around again?”
“Lots done today,” Sara observed. “The plumber hooked up the water in the bathrooms, and James’s crew is going to start on the drywall on Monday. It won’t be long before they’ll be moving on to a new job. I’ll be glad to have it done, but I have to admit, I’ll miss the crew.”
“I think we all will,” Ellie said, eyeing Mari, a certain sparkle in her eyes. “Some more than others.”
Mari looked at Sara and then back at Ellie. “You mean me?”
Now Ellie was grinning. “Guess who stopped by during lunch today to drop off a donation of spiral notebooks and pencils?”
Mari shook her head, but she could feel her cheeks getting warm. She had a feeling she knew what Ellie was going to say.
“Martha Coblenz.”
“That was nice of Martha to donate to the school,” Mari said.
“Sure was.” Ellie turned to her, a potato in one hand, a peeler in the other. “She told me a crazy story about running into a couple at Byler’s store. A couple who she felt should have had a chaperone. She took me to task for not being there.”
“Why would Martha—” Mari clasped her hands together. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I didn’t mean to get you into trouble. James and I, we just...” She stopped and started again. She knew her entire face must be bright red. She really didn’t feel as if she and James had done anything wrong. It wasn’t as if they had been holding hands. Then she remembered him helping her into his buggy and holding her hand as he’d whispered to her and her face got warmer. “He gave me a ride home and his sister needed sugar and—”
Ellie laughed. “It’s all right, Mari. I’m just teasing you. Actually, I’m pleased you and James caught Martha’s attention. She brought me so many new pencils that every student in the school got two.”
“Poor Martha.” Sara sighed. “Now that Addy’s happily married and out of the house, she’s looking for people to fuss with.”
Mari looked to Sara. “We didn’t do anything wrong, did we?”
Sara shook her head. “You’re not teenagers. So long as you behave yourselves and don’t do anything couples have been known to do, there’s nothing wrong with riding with James in his buggy or getting me half-and-half at Byler’s.” She took a sharp knife and began to cut the dough on the table into long strips. “We do like to keep an eye on young folks courting, just because... Well, as my grandmother used to say, little lambs will play. But both of you are nearly thirty. I think you know what’s acceptable and what’s not.”
Mari lowered her voice, afraid James or one of the other men might hear her. “But we’re not a couple.”
“Of course you’re not, dear.” Sara didn’t look up. “You should probably tell Zachary the good news and let him know it will soon be time to wash up for supper.”
“Tell Zach we’re having one of his favorites, chicken and slippery dumplings,” Ellie called after her.
Mari found her son halfway up the staircase of the new addition, holding a can of nails for James. “Hi there,” she said. She leaned down and kissed the crown of his head.
Zachary made a face, but his protest was only halfhearted. “Aw, Mom. Not in front of the guys.”
James turned his face away, but she caught the hint of a mischievous smile. “You look as though you had a good day,” he said. His words came out slightly garbled because he was holding several finishing nails between his lips. He set one in place and drove it home with several well-placed blows of his hammer. Above the step where he was working, unfinished planks had provided a way up and down for the workmen, but now that the addition was almost done, he was replacing them with furniture-grade oak.
“I did have a good day.” Mari looked up at him. “The stair treads are beautiful. Almost too pretty to walk on.”
“I was fortunate that Sara had some oak left over from her hospitality barn project. Wide boards. They’re hard to find anymore because most of the old growth timber was cut years ago. But the grain on this is beautiful.” He ran his fingertips lovingly across the surface of the stair tread he was nailing in place. Without being asked, Zachary held out three more nails. James nailed them in place, one after another. Then he stood and rubbed the small of his back. “We had a good day, too, didn’t we, Zachary? After he got home from school, he did some sweeping for me and now we’ve got this staircase project.”
“See what James is doing, Mom? He’s sinking the nails, and he’ll fill the holes with wooden pegs. And when you stain and varnish it, they’ll show up in a different shade and look cool.”
“I see,” she said. “I’m sure they will. And I have something cool to share with you, too. Your school records have arrived, so Monday morning you start at the new elementary school.”
Zachary frowned. “Mom, we need to talk.” He looked down. “I’ve thought about it and...I don’t want to go to that school.”
“Zachary, we talked about this. You have to go to school. You’re too young to join James’s work crew.”
He glanced at James. “Yeah, James and me, we talked about that. I understand I have to go to school. I just don’t want to go to that English school. I like Ellie’s school. I don’t want to leave my friends.”
“Zachary.” She exhaled in exasperation. He was wearing a blue hand-sewn Amish shirt and suspenders, much like the clothing that James and the other men were wearing. First he’d starting wearing Amish pants because they had better pockets. Then James had bought him a pair of work boots, just for on the job. Now Mari couldn’t remember the last time she saw him in one of his own sweatshirts. She wasn’t even sure where he’d gotten the pale green long-sleeved shirt he was wearing today. Sara, maybe. “I don’t know what to say.”
James began to hammer another nail down.
Zachary dropped down a step. “Mom, please? I really like Ellie’s school.”
She leaned on the rail. Never in a hundred years had she been expecting this conversation. A week ago, he hadn’t wanted to go with Ellie for the day. Now he was talking about attending full-time? “Honey, you can’t really go there. It’s just for Amish children. Parents pay for their children to attend.”
“But Ellie’s the best teacher I’ve ever had.” Zachary looked up at her with hopeful eyes. “I really like it there. Ellie explains stuff when I don’t understand it. And the fourth grade is doing harder math than I was doing at my old school. It’s fun. And I got a B on my test today.”
“You took a test?”
Zachary nodded. “Yeah, and I got a B and I even helped Dora. She’s in the fourth grade, but she’s only doing third-grade multiplication. Ellie says it’s okay if I help her with something if she needs it. Ellie says kids learn at different speeds.”
“So you haven’t just been helping Ellie?” she asked. “You’re actually doing the lessons?”
“You’re not mad, are you?” Zachary looked down at his dirty palms. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you’d be mad. It’s pretty neat, for school. At lunchtime we play games and do stuff together. And I get to carry in wood for the stove. They’ve got a woodstove right in the middle of the school. When you come in and your feet are cold, you prop them up on the railing and it’s really toasty. And Ellie has cocoa on the stove. Anybody can have it. But only one cup a day because too much chocolate is bad for your teeth.”
Mari sighed, glancing over her shoulder. “It sounds as if Ellie and I need to have a talk.”
“Maybe you could ask her if I could stay?” Zachary begged. “It’s so much fun there. The guys are neat, and nobody makes fun of anyone.”
Mari pushed back a lock of hair that had fallen from her scarf. This was one of the hardest things about being a single parent—trying to do what was right with no one to talk to. She glanced up at James, who was now sitting on a step looking down at her. “What do you think?” she asked.
“It sounds to me as though you and Ellie do need to talk,” James said. “And she would need to discuss it with the school board, but...Zach does seem to be doing well.”
“You don’t think I should send him to the school in Dover?”
“I think you should follow your instincts,” James said softly, holding her gaze.
For a moment, Mari felt as if it were just the two of them alone. Just her and James. They weren’t touching; he was four steps above her. But she felt as though he were resting his hand on her shoulder.
“My instincts,” she repeated softly.
Zachary looked at her, then at James and then at her again. “So, it’s okay? I can stay at Ellie’s school?” he asked.
“I’ll think about it. Maybe...” She lowered her gaze to her son again. “Maybe it might be the best thing, letting you finish out the year with Ellie. And then we can talk about starting at the public school in the fall. Especially if you can keep up with the fourth-grade work and be able to go on to the fifth in September. What do you think, James?” She looked up at him again.
“I think it might be a good solution,” he replied, gathering his hammer and the can of nails. “I guess I’d best be getting on home. Mattie will have supper started, and I’ve got the cow to milk before we eat.”
“Can I go tell Ellie?” Zachary asked her. “Not that I can definitely go to her school, but that you’re going to think about it? I know she’d be happy to talk to you.”
Mari sighed and smiled. He looked so happy. “Go talk to her, but the three of us are going to sit down together and have a talk, too.”
She and James watched Zachary bound down the stairs and out of the addition into the main house.
Mari turned back to James, who was still standing on the staircase above her. “Thank you, James.”
“No need to thank me,” he assured her, coming down the steps. “It’s always good when people who care about each other can talk things out.”
She headed down ahead of him.
“Are you going to the birthday supper for Hannah’s mother-in-law tomorrow?” James asked.
“Sure am. Anna stopped by the butcher shop and invited us all to come. I don’t think Sara can make it, but Zachary and I can walk.”
“Thomas said he’s taking Ellie. Mattie and I and the kids are going. We’d be glad to have you and Zachary ride with us.”
“Are you certain we’ll all fit in your buggy?”
He grinned. “The more the merrier. Besides, if you come along, I won’t have to drive with one of the twins in my lap. You can hold him.”
She laughed with him. “I’d be glad to come with you,” she said. And then she just stood there for a moment looking at him. He’s the best friend I’ve ever had, she thought. Better than any man I’ve ever known. I trust him to do what he says he’ll do. And he’s been so good to Zachary.
“Good,” James said.
She started to turn away, then looked back at him. “Oh, I almost forgot. Guess who paid Ellie a visit today to tell her about her trip to Byler’s Wednesday?”
“Martha.” James chuckled. “I knew it.”
“James, she thinks we’re dating. One of us is going to have to say something to her.”
He hung his hammer on his belt. “Why’s that?”
“Because she’s going to tell people we’re...you know. Courting. And—”
“And we’re not,” he said softly. Then he met her gaze and held it.
It was a strange moment, standing there in the addition, alone, her looking at him, him looking at her. As if there was something else to be said, but she couldn’t think what it could be.
“See you tomorrow, James,” she finally said, making herself walk away.
“See you tomorrow, Mari.”
* * *
Sara sat at the desk in her office off the living room going over the letter of a young woman from an Amish community in Wisconsin. Sara prided herself on making marriages in difficult cases, but this one in particular was going to be a challenge. The contact had come from the girl herself, which was unusual since she lived with her parents. Usually a close member of the family initiated the arrangements. In this case, there was a serious medical problem, one that might be inherited by future children.
The obvious solution would be to arrange a union with an older widower who already had children. But the writer stated plainly that she wanted to have a child and would only consider a husband who accepted the possibility of a child with health issues and was willing to leave the outcome to the Lord. Sara wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Was the young woman being selfish and irresponsible? It was an issue Sara felt she needed to pray on and maybe seek the advice of Bishop Atlee or possibly their preacher, Caleb Wittner.
A hesitant knock sounded at the door. Sara folded the letter, put it back into the envelope and slid it into her desk drawer. “Ya?”
The door opened slowly, and Sara saw Zachary standing there. “Ready, are you?” she asked.
The evening before, he’d asked her for an appointment. “It’s important,” the boy had whispered. “Don’t tell anybody. It’s confidential.”
“Well, come in,” she said, her curiosity piqued. “And close the door behind you.”
Zachary’s features were set in a serious expression, and for a moment she wondered if he’d gotten into some mischief and was trying to fess up. But as his attire registered, Sara realized that it was something else. Zachary had slicked back his unruly hair and put on the Sunday go-to-meeting white shirt and black coat she’d dug up for him. He was still wearing jeans, but she remembered that Mari had thrown Zachary’s good pants into the wash that morning on her way out the door to do her Saturday-morning shift. The boy was carrying a quart canning jar with what appeared to be dollar bills stuffed inside.
Sara sat up straight, swallowed her amusement at his attempt to appear manly and regarded him with as much dignity as she could muster. “This must be important,” she said. “Would you like to sit down?”
Zachary glanced around uneasily, then nodded and slid onto a straight-backed chair directly across from her desk. His lips were pinched tightly together; his eyes fixed on her.
After a moment of silence, she said, “So you have something you want to talk to me about?”
He nodded.
She waited.
“I want to hire you to...make a match,” he said, all in a rush.
“I see.” She nodded gravely. “Don’t you think you’re a little young yet to be thinking about finding a wife?” She liked Zachary and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but it was all she could do to hide her amusement.
He shook his head. “Not for me. For my mom.” He held out the canning jar. Cobwebs clung to the outside, and Sara guessed that he’d just retrieved his stash from the barn loft or the recesses of the cellar. “I can pay your fee. I’ve got money.” He pressed his lips together. “It’s mine. What I earned working for James. I wanted to help pay for a car, but...” He straightened his thin shoulders. “I don’t think we need a car. We get along just fine here without one.”
“So you’re here to discuss a business arrangement?”
“Yeah, I mean...ya.” Zachary nodded again. “I’m not sure how this is supposed to work.” He placed his money jar on the floor by his left shoe. “This Amish stuff is pretty new to me.”
“Well, when talking with a client, I usually start by having some refreshments. Would you like hot chocolate?”
“What are you drinking?” He glanced at her mug.
“Coffee.”
“Then I’ll have coffee, if it’s okay.”
“If you like.” She held out her cup. “There’s a pot on the stove in the kitchen. Refill mine and pour one for yourself. Lots of milk.”
In no time, Zachary was back with two cups of coffee on a little wooden tray they kept hanging on the wall in the kitchen for just that purpose. “I put lots of milk and sugar in mine,” he explained as he set the tray down on her desk and picked up his mug.
She motioned for him to sit. “Tell me about this match you’d like me to arrange.”
“Everybody says that you’re the best, and...and you’re the only matchmaker I know.” Zachary glanced down at the jar. “I don’t know how much it costs, but I’ve got twenty-one dollars and eleven cents. If it’s more than that, I can pay some every week.”
“Let’s set the finances aside for a moment.” She removed her glasses and used the corner of her apron to clean them, a ploy she often used to give herself a moment to think of what to say. “Who would you like me to find a match for?”
“My mom,” he blurted. “So we can stay here.”
“I see.” Sara reached for her coffee mug. “Have you thought this over carefully? You haven’t been here at Seven Poplars all that long. And you’re really just getting settled in our school. Are you certain you can be happy here?”
“Yeah. I think so. I mean...” He frowned. “I like Ellie and the school, and the kids are cool. Especially Jonah and ’Kota and J.J.”
“You told your mother that you wanted to go back to Wisconsin. Have you changed your mind about that?”
“Yeah.” He hesitated. “I like the stuff we do here. Working. And the horses. And we all play games at recess. Nobody pushes you around.”
“Did people push you around at your old school?”
Zachary grimaced. “I’m not as big as some kids my age. At our old school, some guys thought they were all that. They took my coat, the one I told Mom disappeared. One of the older kids ran away with it.”
“But you didn’t tell a teacher?”
He shook his head. “Being a squealer could get you hurt. Everybody would gang up on you on the playground. I was scared of getting beat up.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sara said. “But you should have told your mother.”
“I guess.”
“Does this happen at Ellie’s school?”
He shook his head again. “No way. The bigger guys help you out. Peter showed me how to hold a baseball bat, and I got a hit. We were all playing ball after school yesterday.” He wrinkled his nose. “It was a little slushy, but we didn’t care.”
She smiled. “I’m glad that this school is working out for you, Zachary. Amish don’t believe in fighting. We don’t believe in violence at all.”
“That’s what Mom said. She says Amish people are...gentle. It’s why I want you to get a husband for her. So we can stay here.”
Sara pursed her lips. She’d not expected this. But Zachary seemed serious, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “You understand that the matches I make are all for Old Order Amish couples,” she said carefully. “Do you think your mother would want to marry an Amish man?”
“Maybe she would. I think she would. If we found her a good one. She likes it here.”
Sara nodded thoughtfully. “And if I find her an Amish husband, she’d have to join the church herself. She’d be Amish. And so would you. How would you feel about that?”
“Me, too?”
Sara nodded again. “You wouldn’t be expected to join the church now. That’s for adults. But you would have to go to church regularly. Can you do that?”
Zachary slid forward on his chair and balanced his mug on one knee. “It was okay. I think I could.” He took a sip of the coffee and puckered his mouth.
“Maybe a little more milk,” Sara suggested, pointing to a small pitcher on the corner of her desk. “And another sugar lump. It’s a big cup.”
“Thanks.” Zachary carried his cup to the table and helped himself to both. He used the spoon to stir it and tasted the coffee.
“Better?” Sara asked. She’d never seen Zachary drink coffee before.
Zachary dropped in another cube of sugar. “This is good,” he said. And then he added more milk.
“So you’re okay with having an Amish father?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He grimaced. “I hate moving to new schools. In second grade we moved twice. It’s weird, you know. You don’t know anybody. If Mom gets married to an Amish man, I can just stay at Ellie’s school.”
“I imagine moving has been hard on you.”
He nodded. “Sometimes. But it’s tough for my mom, too. Getting up the rent and money for electric.” He offered a little smile. “No electricity bill if you’re Amish.”
Sara toyed with her glasses, rubbing a finger along the rim. “And how does your mom like the idea of an Amish husband? Do you think she’d agree if I found her a good match?”
“Oh, I’ve already picked out the guy for her. I just need you to convince her to marry him.”
Sara raised her eyebrows. She had liked Zachary the night he’d arrived, cranky and tired, but with every passing day, she liked him more. It was almost as if he was becoming the grandson she didn’t have. “So this is all your idea?”
He nodded.
“And you haven’t talked with your mother about a husband?”
He shook his head.
“I see.” She didn’t see at all. Lilly’s cousin’s mother had made an inquiry about Mari on behalf of her son Calvin, but the woman had quickly cooled when Sara had explained that Mari hadn’t been baptized yet. She’d mentioned it to Mari, who’d chuckled and said that it was just as well because she wasn’t certain she knew how to cook duck. It had seemed an odd reply, but Mari and Ellie had both laughed until tears rolled down their cheeks. So Mari definitely wasn’t interested in the duck farmer. Who, then, did Zachary have in mind?
“You can’t guess who I mean?” Zachary set his cup of coffee, barely touched, on a table beside his chair. “James, of course. He likes her. I know he does.”
Sara lifted her brows, pleasantly surprised, not so much by the statement but by the boy’s keen observation. Out of the mouths of babes... “James likes your mother?”
“Yeah.” Zachary eyed an oatmeal cookie on a plate on her desk. “I just don’t know if she knows. He looks at her all the time when she’s not looking at him. And he smiles a lot when she’s around.”
“And you think they’d be a good match? Your mother and James?” She handed him the cookie, left over from her midmorning snack.
Zachary took a big bite. “They like to be together, and she always asks him about stuff. James doesn’t have a wife. And he needs one.”
“He does?” Sara asked. “And why is that?”
“Because Mattie is moving into her own house and James will be all alone. He might be scared there by himself.” He stuffed the rest of the cookie into his mouth. “And he wouldn’t have anybody to eat with him and stuff.” Zachary folded his arms over his chest. “I could help him, too. With his carpentry stuff and taking care of Jericho. James is teaching me how to drive. And if I was his son, he wouldn’t have to pay me, and he’d have more money. So it would be better for both him and Mom.” He looked down at the floor and slid one foot back and forth. “So what do you think? Will you do it?”
Sara smiled. “I think something can be arranged.”