The next morning, when Mari passed the plywood partition that closed off the addition from the rest of the house, she noticed a crude window cut through the plywood. She couldn’t resist peering through and when she did, she spotted James, crouched on the floor. “Good morning,” she said, pleasantly surprised to see him.
He looked up from the measurements he was taking on a board and smiled at her. “Good morning.”
She didn’t hear the now-familiar sounds of the men working. “Here all alone today?”
“Just passing through. I sent the crew to do a quick repair on a roof for the day.” He stood up. “I came by because I wanted to tell you we won’t be working today. I’m going with Mattie up to Wilmington, so I can’t keep an eye on Zach. Hearing tests for the twins at A. I. duPont Children’s Hospital.”
“Oh, my. That sounds serious.”
“Probably not. Just a precaution. Their pediatrician thinks the boys are probably fine, but he suggested the testing just to be sure.”
“Your sister must be worried.”
“Ya, but Mattie worries a lot.” James approached the makeshift window. “I tried to tell her that there are enough things to worry about that you are certain of. It doesn’t seem right to worry about possibilities. With Roman, she was worried about his speech. That little chipmunk didn’t say a word until he was two. No mam, no daddi, not even ne. Mattie didn’t think he’d ever talk.”
Mari drew closer to James.
“Ne, not a word,” James continued. “And then one morning Mattie made oatmeal for breakfast and Roman said, ‘Ne, want pancakes. Booberry.’ Mattie was so tickled that she sent me to Byler’s store to buy blueberries.”
Mari chuckled. “So he started talking, just like that?”
James nodded. “Started jabbering and hasn’t stopped yet. Talk your ears off. Emanuel was the opposite. He talked really young. Shouts most of the time. I think the twins are used to hearing the older two make so much racket, they don’t pay attention to the little beeps and bells in the hearing test.”
“Let’s hope that’s what it is,” Mari said. She knew Zachary would be disappointed to hear that there wouldn’t be any working going on in the addition today. That meant he’d have to stay with Sara while she was at work.
James picked up a hammer. “Why don’t you stand back and I’ll open this up. Once the last plywood is on the exterior, we’ll have to start using this entrance.”
She moved back several steps.
In less time than she would have expected, James took down two pieces of plywood, opening up an entranceway that was the width of a double door. He stepped through with a flourish and a grin. “It won’t be long now and Sara can start bringing in brides-to-be by the dozen.”
“A dozen at a time? Goodness, that will be a full house!” Ellie came into the living room with three cups of coffee on a tray. As always, she was neat and pretty, blond hair peeking out from beneath her brilliant white kapp and blue eyes sparkling with energy. Ellie might have been a little person, but her personality was huge, and Mari liked her more every day.
“Big day,” Ellie said, taking in the addition with a gesture. “It’s actually starting to look like rooms.” She offered Mari and James each a mug, indicating whose was whose. “Just the way you like it.”
“Danki,” James said. “Just what I need. I only got one cup this morning.” He blew on the hot coffee and took a sip. “Where’s Sara? She knew I planned on opening this doorway this morning. I thought she might want to see.”
“She should be back soon. She had to make an early-morning phone call at the chair shop. Ruth’s husband came to fetch her.” She chuckled, looking at Mari. “A prospective client in Missouri with five unmarried daughters.”
“Five?” James laughed. “Sara will find someone for every one of them. I don’t know how she does it.”
“Tell the truth, James,” Ellie teased. “She’s looking for someone special for you, too, isn’t she? For all we know, Mattie could have hired Sara. I hear she’s desperate to see you married within the year.” Her eyes twinkled as she glanced at Mari. “Sara never tells a client’s business unless they want it told.”
Mari smiled at the two of them. She liked how comfortable they were with each other. James was definitely a different kind of Amish man than the taciturn uncle and male cousins with whom she’d grown up. Even the boys she’d known in school and the neighborhood had been much more formal with girls and women they weren’t related to. She found James’s kind, easy manner refreshing.
James motioned to them both. “Come on in. Take a look. There’s going to be a bedroom, a full bathroom and a big parlor downstairs, and three big bedrooms and another full bathroom upstairs. Plus some closets. Now that we have heat from the woodstove, the inside finishing will come together fast.”
“I love all the windows,” Mari said. “And the oak staircase will be lovely.” Although the Sheetrock hadn’t gone up yet, she could imagine what the space would look like once it was done. The wood-burning stove was a high-efficiency model made of soapstone from Sweden that was popular in Wisconsin and gave off a steady heat.
“I feel bad that I didn’t let you know about not being able to keep an eye on Zach,” James said to Mari. “There was a cancellation.” He set down his coffee cup and picked up a broom. “The doctor’s office left a message Friday on the chair shop’s answering machine, but Mattie didn’t get it until last night.” He began to sweep. “Any progress on getting Zachary in school?”
She sighed. “The new school won’t take him until they have his records, so that’s what we’re waiting on.”
James swept the sawdust into a pile. “How long will that take?”
“I’m not sure. Honestly, it’s my fault. It never occurred to me that they wouldn’t take him without them,” Mari said. She set down her coffee mug, picked up the dustpan and stooped to hold it for him.
“I’m sorry I can’t spend time with Zach today.”
“Oh, don’t be silly. He’ll be fine here with Sara.” She glanced up at him. “Although I’m sure he’d rather spend the day working with you. Sara’s liable to put him to work folding laundry or dusting furniture.”
“Why don’t I take him to school with me?” Ellie offered, sipping her coffee.
“I don’t know,” Mari said slowly.
“Can’t I just go with James? I don’t want to go to the Amish school.”
Mari turned to see Zachary standing in the new door opening to the living room. He was wearing jeans and his pajama top. “Please don’t be rude to Ellie,” she said quietly. It hadn’t been so much what he said as how he said it.
“Or to your mother,” James said quietly.
Zachary’s features lost their defiant expression, and he looked down at his feet. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He looked up again. “But I don’t want to go to school. I want to build stuff. Like James.”
Mari emptied the dustpan into a bucket of trash. She rested the dustpan against the wall and went to her son. “Not going to school was never an option, Zachary. You know that.”
He set his jaw. “It’s not fair.”
Ellie glanced at Mari, then at Zachary. “What I was wondering, Zach, was if you’d be willing to come give me a hand today at school? Not as a student. More of a helper.”
Interest sparked in Zachary’s eyes, but he averted his gaze. “Will I get paid?”
“Zachary!” Mari’s eyes widened. “You don’t ask people for money.”
“I’ll not give you a penny,” Ellie said with a smile, not in the least bit fazed. “Just a big thank-you from me. James has been telling me what a help you are to his crew, and I thought I could borrow you for the day.”
Zachary rubbed one stockinged foot against the other. “I don’t know...”
Mari turned to James. Ellie’s offer sounded like a great idea to her, but Zachary, realizing how she felt, might work against her. “What do you think, James? You think Zachary would be any help to Ellie at school?”
He nodded. “I do. He can be a big help, when he wants to be.” He looked to Zachary. “I have to leave in a minute, but I could actually use your help right now moving a piece of plywood.” He hooked his thumb in the direction of the far end of the addition. “You have time?”
Zachary looked to his mother, and she nodded. “Be right back,” he said and ran after James.
Mari watched as Zachary followed James. Her son, she noticed, had thrust his hands into his pockets just as James had. “He has the magic touch, doesn’t he?” she said to Ellie, watching them. “Zachary has taken to him. I’m constantly hearing ‘James says this’ or ‘James does that.’”
“He’s a good role model,” Ellie agreed. “None better. He’ll make a fine husband and a fine father.”
Mari looked at her, suddenly wondering if she’d been so caught up in her own life that she’d missed something going on between Ellie and James. “Wait...” She pointed to James and then Ellie. “You and James, you’re not—”
“Oh, no.” Ellie laughed. “We’re friends.” Her smile was so wide that her dimples showed. “Good friends but just friends. We wouldn’t be suited. I’m in no hurry to be wed, and I’ve made that clear to Sara. I’m a schoolteacher. It’s a job I’ve wanted since I was six years old. If I marry, I have to give up the school, and I have no intention of doing that anytime soon.”
Mari picked up her mug and took a sip of her coffee. “But all Amish women marry. At least most of them do. Don’t you want a husband, a family?”
Ellie’s features creased into a smile over the rim of her mug. “Sure I do. Someday but not yet. I’ll teach a while first, get it out of my system. Then I’ll let Sara find me a good man with broad shoulders and a gentle heart.” She looked up at Mari. “How about you?”
“Me?”
“Would you like to be married?” Ellie asked.
Mari felt far more comfortable talking about Ellie’s future than her own. “I...I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I’ve been so busy trying to put a roof over our heads that I haven’t thought much about it, I guess.” She sighed. “I think I would like to be married again. To have a husband, but...I’m not sure I trust myself to choose a man I’d want to spend the rest of my life with.” She pressed her lips together. “I made a pretty poor choice once.”
Ellie caught Mari’s hand and gave it a squeeze before letting it go. “That’s why you let family or friends help you choose. Or a matchmaker.” Her tone turned teasing. “Sara would make the perfect match for you—I know she would.”
“You mean an Amish match?”
Ellie lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “If that’s what you decide you want.”
Mari found herself gazing off in the direction James had gone with Zachary, her hands wrapped around the still-warm coffee mug. “The thing is, I don’t know what I want,” she said softly.
“That’s okay,” Ellie assured her. “You don’t have to know all the answers all the time. Sometimes we just need to sit back and see what God has planned for us. And relax.”
Mari thought about the previous day, about church and how good it had felt to be there. And how she had felt a nearness to God that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. So maybe Ellie was right. Maybe she did just need to relax and see what He had in store for her.
Ellie glanced down at the watch she wore attached to her apron. “Ach. Look at the time. I’d better get my lunch packed. And I think I’ll pack one for Zachary, too. Just in case he decides to take me up on my offer.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Mari said, on steadier ground talking about Zachary than herself.
“I want to. And he really would be a help. I know you probably don’t always see it, but your Zachary is a very sweet boy.”
“Who’s sweet?” Zachary asked, coming toward them.
Ellie put a hand on her hip. She might have been barely as tall as Zachary, but she appeared imposing just the same. “Are you coming with me or not?”
“Yeah, I’ll come,” he agreed.
“Goot. Now, if you want anything besides egg-salad sandwiches, you’d best come give me a hand packing our lunches.”
Zachary glanced at Mari and she nodded. “Go. Have a good day. And make sure you don’t cause trouble. And thank you, Ellie,” she called after her. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“Don’t worry about the boy,” James said quietly when Ellie and Zachary disappeared into the kitchen. “Ellie’s tough. She won’t let him get away with anything.”
Mari sighed. “Sometimes, I don’t think I’m tough enough. And other times I’m convinced that I expect too much of him.” She offered James a grateful look. “I don’t know what you said to convince him to go with Ellie, but thank you.”
“No problem. He reminds me a lot of myself at that age.”
She stood there for a minute in comfortable silence with James, then picked up his empty coffee mug to take it to the kitchen with her own. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to eat something before I go to work. I hope everything goes well today. Safe travels.”
“Mari?” he called after her as she turned away.
She turned back.
“I almost forgot,” James said. “Mattie wanted you and Zach to come to supper tomorrow night.”
“At your house?” She hesitated, wondering if she should. When she’d come to Seven Poplars, she thought it would be just a place to stop over on her way to a better life for her and Zachary. She hadn’t expected to become so...involved in everyone’s lives. She hadn’t expected to make so many friends. And she couldn’t help wondering if it was a mistake. If it would just make it harder when she left.
“Please come. I’ll be happy to ride over and get you. It would be a big favor to me. Lilly’s coming and bringing her cousin. Mattie is determined to throw Lilly and me together. And with her cousin, I’m afraid I’ll be outnumbered, three to one. I need a friend to back me up.”
Mari chuckled. “Well, when you put it that way.” She gave a nod. “I’ll be happy to have dinner with your family. I’ve been wanting to get to know your sister and the rest of your nephews.” She liked the idea of him needing a favor from her. It was what friends did, wasn’t it?
“Just be prepared for anything,” he said with a grin. “And never, ever turn your back on Emanuel. The last time Bishop Atlee came to supper, he put a cricket in his soup.”
* * *
As it turned out, Zachary didn’t go with her to James’s house for supper. Hannah Yoder was having some of her grandchildren over for an evening of homemade soup, corn muffins and apple pie. Zachary had explained after coming home his second day at the Amish school that they would make popcorn balls and hot cocoa the old-fashioned way at Hannah’s and he didn’t want to miss it. ’Kota, J.J. and Jonah would be there as well as a few boys from school. Anna’s twins, who were older, were coming over to walk with him to Hannah’s house and see him safely back to Sara’s. Mari tried to explain to Zachary that he was expected to dinner at James’s sister’s house, but he couldn’t be swayed. He really wanted to be with the other boys.
What could she do? She let him go.
“Don’t worry about him,” James said after she climbed into his buggy and explained why Zachary wasn’t accepting Mattie’s invitation. “Hannah will keep an eye on him. He won’t get into any trouble on her watch. You want him to make friends, don’t you?”
“I’m just amazed, I guess,” she confessed. “In the community where I grew up, we never played with English kids. And we certainly didn’t have English kids at school with us. Having worldly friends wasn’t encouraged.”
James snapped the leathers over his horse’s back. “Walk on,” he said to Jericho. And then to her, “But Zachary is a special case, isn’t he? You were raised in the faith. According to our tradition, that makes your boy one of us, whether he likes it or not. In our eyes, he’s no different than the other children in our community, because none of the children are baptized.”
Neither of them said anything after that, and for a few minutes there was only the comforting rhythm of Jericho’s ironclad hooves striking the blacktop. A few snowflakes were drifting down like confetti. The air was crisp and cold, and the quiet of the countryside surrounded them like a velvet cloak. It seemed nice to Mari to just be able to ride in silence with James. There was something comforting about their quiet companionship, something she didn’t quite understand.
“So how did the twins’ appointment go?” Mari asked.
“Great.” He grinned. “The boys are fine. Hearing is fine. No need to see the specialist again.”
“That must be a relief,” she said. Then, after a few minutes, “I was thinking this morning. Do you know that no one here has asked me about Zachary’s father?”
“They won’t.” He uttered a muffled grunt of amusement. “Well, Addy’s mother, Martha, might, but no one would expect you to answer her.” He cut his eyes at her. “Has anyone warned you about Martha?”
“Sort of. Gideon said if she came into the shop, let her have anything she wanted, free of charge. And not to do anything to ruffle her feathers.”
“Smart man, Gideon. It’s why he gets on so well with his in-laws. So long as Martha does nothing to upset Addy or cause trouble between him and his wife, Gideon lets Martha have her druthers.”
“So Martha’s something of a character, is she?”
She could see him grinning in the darkness. “You could say that. Gideon once told me that he suspects she eats unripe persimmons. Otherwise, she couldn’t come up with all the sour things she has to say about her relatives and neighbors. But he says she has a good heart—she just doesn’t realize that some of the things she says can be hurtful.”
“It’s hard for me to believe that there’s not more than a little whispering going on about me. I’m a woman alone with a son. I know Amish. They’re as human as anyone else, and, religious or not, they like to gossip.”
“Some do,” he admitted. “But we’ve all made mistakes. And Sara likes you. Gideon and Addy praise your work. And anyone who disagreed with them would have to face down Ellie. She’s quite an ally.”
“She is, isn’t she?” Mari smiled at the thought. Ellie was probably one of the best friends she’d ever had. It seemed to have happened overnight. And so easily. She glanced at James. “What about you? Have you wondered about Zachary’s father?”
James shrugged. “None of my business. I figured if you want me to know, you’ll tell me. I gather he’s not really part of Zachary’s life.”
“No. He died.” She let out a long breath, realizing that it felt good to confide in James. She waited for the old hurt to twist in the pit of her stomach, but all she felt was a twinge of sadness and regret for Ivan’s passing. “He was Amish,” she said. “We made a mistake and we ran away together, but he wasn’t prepared for the outside world. He had a harder time adjusting than I did, maybe because he’d been baptized and he knew there was no going back.”
“Mari, it’s okay,” James said quietly. “There’s no need for you to share this with me.”
She swallowed. “I don’t mind. I...I’d like to tell you.” He didn’t say anything, just waited patiently, so she went on, “We were both young. I thought I was in love. Things just went too fast. We made some impulsive decisions. Then we had a new life to be responsible for. That was too much for Ivan. He turned wild. Fell in with the wrong crowd and did things I couldn’t accept.”
“He ran out on you.”
She shook her head. “Not with other girls. He wasn’t like that. He had a good heart in spite of his immaturity. But the things he was doing, the people he brought to our place? I didn’t want them around our child.”
“So you took on the full responsibility for yourself and your baby?”
“He left when I was seven months along. I tried to contact him when Zachary was born, but I think he was in jail. I never saw him again.” She closed her eyes. “It was Sara who wrote to me and told me about the accident. Zachary was about four. Ivan and another ex-Amish boy were killed in a car accident. Ivan was driving.”
James turned the horse off the road and onto his lane. “I’m so sorry, Mari. It must have been terrible for you.”
“Terrible that I was so stupid, that I’d allowed such a thing to happen, that I’d left everything I knew and cared for behind. If Ivan and I had stayed, made confession and been forgiven, I’m afraid it would have been worse. I would have been married to a foolish boy who thought more about a good time than the fact that he was going to be a father.”
“You told me that you went back to your uncle’s that one time. Did you ever think about trying it again? Maybe going to some other member of the community?”
“I did.” She sighed. “A couple of times...maybe a lot of times. But I was stubborn and proud. And I could never have stood in the church and said I had sinned and regretted what I’d done. My son isn’t a mistake. He’s good and pure and the most decent thing in my life.”
“The faith can be hard to live by, but we really do believe in forgiveness. In God’s mercy. In His love. I don’t think anyone could expect you to deny your son’s worth.”
“My uncle did. He said the only way I could come back was to send him away, to let him be adopted by a married couple. Somewhere far away, where I’d never see him again. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it. So my aunt and uncle crossed my name out of the family Bible and said I was dead to them.” Lights from the house grew larger as the horse approached it. She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought all of this up.” She stared out at the gorgeous snowflakes, feeling a strange comfort in the sound of Jericho’s hoofbeats. “I’m not much of a supper guest, am I?”
“We’re friends, Mari, and this is what friends are for, right?” He reached over and patted her hand. “I’m honored that you’d share with me.”
His hand felt good, the warmth, the security of it. But she also took note of the fact that he used the term friends. “I just hope we’ll still be friends, now that you know what a wicked woman I am.”
He laughed and took his hand from hers. “Hardly wicked. And don’t worry. I don’t discuss my friends’ personal matters with other people, not even with my sister.” He stopped the buggy at the front of the house. The door opened, and a man and woman stepped out. “There she is. Mattie,” he said. “And her husband, Rupert. He surprised us by showing up this afternoon. You go in and get warm. I’m going to put Jericho in the barn.”
Mari climbed down, and Mattie rushed out to meet her. “Come in—come in,” she said cheerfully.
“Welcome,” Rupert said.
“Everyone else is here,” Mattie bubbled. “Lilly and her cousin can’t wait to meet you. And the children are so excited that their fadder is home, they’re worse than usual.”
In minutes, Mari was inside and Rupert had taken her coat. Mattie, a smaller, rounder, ditzy version of James, had led her through the front room and into the kitchen and shown her to a chair at the round table. Scooping up a crying baby, she deposited him into Mari’s arms and introduced Lilly Hershberger and her cousin Calvin, also a Hershberger. When James said Lilly was bringing her cousin, Mari had assumed he meant another girl. Calvin was a very tall, very slim man with yellow-blond hair.
Little William in Mari’s arms was crying so loudly that she could barely hear what Lilly said to her. Trying to settle him, she rested him on her shoulder and bounced him. It felt surprisingly good to have a baby in her arms again.
“Wait,” Mattie said laughing. “Let me trade you. You hold Timothy here. He never cries.” She took a swaddled infant from Lilly and looked down into his face. “Or is this William?” A puzzled expression came over her face. “Lilly, did I tell you this one was Timothy?”
Lilly, who Mari had met at church Sunday, was a very pretty young woman with dimples on each cheek and curly blond hair much lighter than Ellie’s. She laughed. “You said you thought he was Timothy, but you weren’t sure.”
Mattie met her husband’s gaze.
“Don’t look at me.” Rupert grinned, holding up both hands. “You know I can’t tell the twins apart except when you tie ribbons on their wrists.”
James came in through the kitchen door just then.
“Sit there,” Mattie instructed. “Next to Lilly.” She handed him the baby she’d taken from Lilly. “We’re not sure which one he is,” she told James. “I’m going to start putting the food on the table.”
“Can I help?” Lilly asked Mattie, while smiling at James.
“Ne, ne, you sit,” Mattie said. The toddler Emanuel crawled out from under the table and seized a hold of his mother’s skirts. “Emanuel. Up on your stool beside your fadder. Rupert, can you get him? Where did Roman get to? Roman? Come to the table.” She rushed to the stove and began dishing up bowls of vegetables.
The baby that James was holding opened his eyes and began to whimper. James put him up on his shoulder and began patting the little boy on his back. The baby gave a loud burp.
Everyone laughed.
“I can see you’re an old hand at that,” Lilly said, clearly smitten with James. “You’ll make some woman a goot husband.”
Rupert took the now-sleeping baby from Mari’s arms and laid him in a cradle near the stove and came back to retrieve the second twin from James and snuggle him in with his brother. Then Rupert put Roman on a stool beside James and went to help his wife bring the food to the table.
“Wait until you hear our news, James,” Rupert said after he and Mattie had taken their seats and they had shared grace. “My mother has agreed to come live with us.” He took two slices of ham and passed the platter to Calvin. “She’ll be selling her house and helping us with the cost of putting up our cabin. Which means,” he said, exchanging meaningful glances with his wife, “that you’ll have your home to yourself much sooner than you expected.”
Mari met James’s gaze across the table. See what I’m talking about, he seemed to be saying. She had to look away to keep from laughing out loud.