Chapter 18

18

Mary Elizabeth had to admit that Sam’s idea of sharing the news with her family that they were going to get married was a gut idea when she saw how Grossdaadi perked up.

“It’ll be nice to have another man in the house,” he told her one day when she was doing the dishes. He was having a cup of decaf coffee before retiring to the dawdi haus to read before bed. “My sohn and I have been outnumbered in this house for too many years.”

“And you’ve loved every minute of it,” Linda said as she walked into the room. “Every one of the women in this house has spoiled you. Don’t think I don’t know Mary Elizabeth slipped you another slice of pumpkin pie after I left the room.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he harrumphed.

Linda picked up a paper napkin from the basket on the table and wiped at the corner of his mouth, then showed him the whipped cream on it.

He looked at his second-oldest grossdochder and winked at her. “Guess I forgot to wipe my mouth after supper.”

“Ya.” Linda said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She gave Mary Elizabeth a stern look. “No more giving him double desserts.”

“I won’t.”

“Gut food’s one of God’s pleasures for us on earth,” Grossdaadi said. He sipped his coffee. “I was hoping Sam would stop by for supper.”

“Me, too,” Mary Elizabeth said, and she sighed as she dried the last dish and put it into the cupboard. “He had to work late.”

“Maybe tomorrow night?”

“He’s going to David and Lavina’s house. He hasn’t seen them or his parents in a long time.”

Lavina had said she’d tell David about the engagement and promised they’d keep the news to themselves until Sam shared it with his parents—if he did. Sam and his dat didn’t get along at all, and he might not want to tell him. Anyway, couples often didn’t share such private matters with their parents or other family until they were ready to have the announcement made in church, so it was a little out of the ordinary to have told her family last night.

“It’s nice to see you looking happy again.”

She stopped and stared at him, surprised. “I didn’t know I’d been looking unhappy.”

“Been looking more cheerful lately,” he allowed, taking a sip of his coffee. “But you lost your sparkle for a long time. Gut to see you got it back again.”

“Why Grossdaadi, I didn’t know I had any sparkle,” she teased.

“You remind me of my dear Miriam. Had such a kind heart, such a big smile. Able to talk to anyone about anything.”

“That’s so sweet,” she said. Tears welled up into her eyes. “People always said she could light up a room.” She walked over and hugged him. “We were very lucky to have her in our lives, weren’t we?”

He nodded and patted her hand. “Schur were. Well, guess I’ll be going off to read before bed. I don’t suppose—”

“I put some cookies in the dawdi haus earlier when I changed the sheets on your bed. Don’t you dare tell Mamm.”

“I won’t breathe a word,” he said, chuckling. “Did I ever tell you that you’re my favorite?”

“Because Lavina and Rose Anna don’t slip you sweets?”

His eyes twinkled behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “Well that, and because you look like my favorite fraa.”

His only fraa. She watched him shuffle off and close the door to the dawdi haus, thinking about how she hoped she’d have the kind of marriage he’d had with her grossmudder for so many long, happy years.

She climbed the stairs to her room and thought about sewing on her wedding dress, but her hands were tired. She’d spent many hours that day sewing on her latest quilt, then had helped with supper and the dishes. Rose Anna had been invited to a friend’s, so both chores had fallen on her tonight. She didn’t mind. There was nothing she liked better than cooking and keeping house. A maedel learned all about such so that she could be a gut fraa, but Mary Elizabeth just plain loved taking care of those she loved, feeding them and making schur home was comfortable. It was she who’d helped Grossmudder take care of the dawdi haus when housekeeping became difficult, so she’d simply continued after Grossmudder died.

Mamm didn’t need to know she kept the cookie jar filled on the kitchen counter there for Grossdaadi.

She got ready for bed and climbed in, tucking the quilt around her before reaching for the small notebook she and Rose Anna were keeping to write down plans for the wedding. Rose Anna had made a list of the things they needed to buy and when they had to be bought or ordered. Mamm had taken the list for the food items needed—a familiar one since Lavina’s wedding hadn’t been that long ago. Tomorrow, after quilt class, Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna would be visiting Stitches in Time to buy the fabric needed for the dresses her newehockers would wear to her wedding. It was all coming together.

It wasn’t a dream. Just weeks from now she’d be walking down the aisle with Sam to get married before all her family and friends and fellow church members right here in her home.

She fell asleep with a smile on her lips, dreaming of her wedding.

Leah kept smiling while she cut the fabric the next day. Their eyes met, and Mary Elizabeth knew that the older woman figured out why she was buying so much fabric—a dressy one at that—in one color. But the soul of discretion, she cut it quickly, rang it up, and had it in a shopping bag before anyone else in the store could remark on it.

“She knows,” Rose Anna said as they walked over to Sewn in Hope.

Mary Elizabeth grinned. “Of course she knows.”

Carrie jumped up from the stool behind the cash register. “Hello! It’s good to see you!”

“There’s no one here,” Rose Anna said, looking disappointed.

“First chance I’ve had to give my feet a break all day,” she was told. “The traffic is pretty much nonstop.”

“That’s good to know,” Mary Elizabeth said. “I think we’ll be bringing more things to you later in the week from the shelter.”

“So, did you hear the good news?”

Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna exchanged glances. “No, what?” Mary Elizabeth asked.

“I’m getting my own place. It’s just a little studio apartment. But it’ll be mine!”

“That’s wonderful!”

Carrie nodded. “I’ve been saving my salary. It comes furnished. Pearl at the shelter said she can give me some sheets and a bedspread for the bed and a few towels, so I’m all set.”

They chatted for several minutes, enjoying her excitement, and then a customer walked in and needed her attention so they said good-bye.

“Seems like everyone’s going through change,” Rose Anna said a little sulkily as she got into the buggy to go home. “Lavina, you, Carrie . . .”

“And what about you seeing Peter?”

“I haven’t seen much of him lately.” She folded her arms across her chest. “He’s been working too much.”

“He and Sam. But it’s gut that they found extra work. Sam said Peter hopes he’ll have his own business and work for himself.”

Rose Anna turned to look at her. “I thought Peter and Sam were going into business together.”

“Oh, ya, that’s what they said,” Mary Elizabeth said quickly. If Sam bought the farm she wasn’t schur if he’d still do construction. Sometimes farmers did part-time jobs part of the year.

Sam had said he was having supper at David’s tonight but he’d stop by later to see her. She wondered if he’d talked to Sarah about the farm and what her answer had been. The hours couldn’t pass quickly enough until she saw him.

* * *

“So the truck knew its way here, huh?” David joked when Sam arrived at his farm. He leaned in the window and looked over the interior. “You’ve been keeping it clean, I see.”

“Sorry I haven’t been able to get by lately.”

“No problem. I know you’ve been holding down two jobs.” He glanced at the house, then looked at Sam. “Congratulations. Lavina said we’re to keep your engagement quiet until you decide if you want to tell Mamm and Daed before the official announcement at church.”

“Danki. I’d like to tell Mamm, but with the way Daed and I get along who knows what he’d say.”

“He’s always liked Mary Elizabeth—all the Zook dochders—but ya, with the way the two of you are getting along, you do what you feel is best.” He sighed. “All I can say is things didn’t get better overnight between Daed and me. Give it some time.”

They went inside. Lavina was moving awkwardly around the kitchen, so big Sam was afraid she was going to deliver any moment.

“Sam! Gut to see you!” she cried the moment she saw him.

“You look wunderbaar,” he told her. “You’re schur having me over isn’t too much?”

“Lavina knows what’s best for her,” Amos said as he walked past him. “Do you need any help getting something out of the oven, Lavina?” he asked, ignoring Sam. “Smells like pot roast.”

“Your nose is right,” she told him, handing him the pot holders. She grinned at Sam and David.

Sam watched his dat pull the roaster from the oven and set it on top of the stove. His eyes nearly fell out. He couldn’t remember Amos ever helping his mudder in the kitchen in all the years he lived at home.

Lavina transferred the pot roast and the potatoes, carrots, and celery to a platter and again, Amos was there to carry it to the table.

Sam glanced at David and he shrugged as if to say that if it made Amos happy, he was fine with it.

His mudder came out of the dawdi haus with a basket of rolls. “Sam! I didn’t know you were here!” She set the basket on the table and reached up to hug him. “So gut to see you.”

Sam heard his dat mutter something, but he ignored him and took a seat at the table. He was glad to see his mudder looking so well, so animated. His dat’s battle had been hard on her in spite of all David had done to make things easier.

She wanted to know how his two jobs were going. He told her about the second job he was doing with Peter and heard his dat snort. “Should be helping David, not a friend,” he said as he scooped up another helping of pot roast.

“Sam’s helped me a lot,” David said calmly. “He needs the extra money from the work he and Peter are doing.”

“Wouldn’t if he wasn’t living in some expensive apartment.”

Sam started to say that the apartment was the cheapest he could find but what was the point? His dat was just trying to get a rise out of him. Besides, even if he disagreed with him he didn’t have to let the man draw him into an argument.

No, better to use his mouth to eat more of the excellent meal Lavina had prepared. It was miles above the ramen wonders John cooked and food that he himself made. He knew how to cook a bare half-dozen meals.

His mudder handed him the basket of rolls and he used one to mop up the meat juices on his plate. She patted his hand, clearly happy with his appetite.

“Take some supper home to John,” she said.

“He’s probably out at some Englisch party,” Amos grumbled. “Can’t be bothered with family.”

“He’s working with Peter this evening,” Sam told him, meeting the old man’s gaze levelly. John had actually asked Peter if he had any work for him.

“Sam, are you going by Mary Elizabeth’s on the way home?” Lavina asked.

“I hadn’t planned on it. Why?”

“I wanted to tell her I’d like to go with her and Rose Anna to the quilting class tomorrow.”

“Do you think you should?” David asked her. “You’ve been so tired lately.”

“I’m fine.”

“I could drop by and give her the message,” Sam said. The thought of seeing her, even for a few minutes, sounded pretty good.

“Some man’s going to come along and take her out from under your nose,” Amos said suddenly.

He’d tried to rile Sam with such talk before. Sam looked at Lavina. “Is that pumpkin pie I smell?”

“The Stoltzfus men schur have gut noses,” she said, laughing. “I made apple dumplings one day to take to a friend’s house, and David found where I’d hidden them.”

“A gut fraa never hides food from her mann,” he said.

“She does if she wants to take it to a friend and not have her mann eat it all.”

He got up, walked over to the bread box on the counter, and pulled out the pie. “Found your latest hiding place,” he told her smugly. He set the pie down in front of her on the table.

“David! You ate a piece!”

He grinned. “Anyone want ice cream on their pie?”

“You don’t,” she told him sternly. “You already had your pie.”

“Don’t listen to me,” Amos told Sam. “You’ll wake up one day, and Mary Elizabeth will be married to someone else.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Sam turned to Lavina. “I’m going to skip the pie if you don’t mind. I’ll stop by and give Mary Elizabeth your message. Danki for supper.” He got up, snatched his jacket from a peg by the back door, and walked out.

“Sam?”

He turned and saw his mudder had followed him out.

“Have you and Mary Elizabeth gotten back together?”

“Mamm, go back inside. It’s cold out here.”

“Answer me, Sam. Have you?”

“Such things are private.” He was still smarting from having his dat ride him about Mary Elizabeth during supper.

“It would mean so much to me to know you were,” she said quietly, shivering as she stood there. “I’ve prayed and prayed she’ll bring you home. Lavina got David to come home.”

Now it was he who shivered, remembering his nightmare. “I’ll never come back here, Mamm.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I know you’ll never come back to this house. I meant the community.”

So that was why his dat and mamm adored Lavina . . . they considered that she’d brought David back into the fold, so to speak. The Amish felt that those who left went to hell, and they shunned the person in an effort to get them to return to the church.

He couldn’t tell her. If he did she’d share the news with his dat, and he just wasn’t giving the old man the satisfaction.

“Gut nacht, Mamm.” He strode off to his truck.

Hopefully, John would be home and still awake when he got there after he gave Mary Elizabeth the message from Lavina. John deserved to know that he’d be marrying Mary Elizabeth in the next month. John would need to find a roommate or a smaller apartment—if there was such a thing.

He’d just have to swear him to secrecy. He snorted. There was no worry that John would tell their dat. John didn’t want to be near the old man either.

* * *

Sam came to the back door not long after supper was over.

Rose Anna was helping Mary Elizabeth clean up the kitchen and she let him in. Mary Elizabeth smiled as she wiped her hands on a dish towel. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight. Did you go to David’s for supper?”

He took off his hat and nodded. “Lavina asked me to come by and give you a message. She’d like to go with you and Rose Anna to the quilt class tomorrow.”

“Danki for stopping by to tell me. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Some pie?”

“No, danki. I have to get home.”

She searched his face, trying to read his expression. He looked stiff. Remote. “Sam? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

But something was wrong. She glanced at Rose Anna and saw her schweschder was frowning as she stared at Sam. So she, too, felt it. They looked at each other, and Rose Anna nodded and left the room.

“Is it your dat?”

He laughed but it wasn’t a sound of mirth. “When isn’t it?”

“He’s not ill again?”

“No. Just his usual irritating self.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s allrecht. I should have expected it.”

She wished the two men didn’t rub each other like two pieces of sandpaper.

“You’re schur you don’t want some coffee?”

He shook his head. “I want to talk to John before I go to bed. He deserves to know we’re getting married. He’s going to have to find a roommate or a smaller place.”

“Or he could come to live with us when we’re married.”

“That’s nice of you to offer, but I don’t think he wants to come back to the community. And if I can’t buy the farm or find someplace for us, then we’ll have to ask your parents if we can live here for a time.”

“And they would love to have us if we need to do it,” she said quickly. “You know that, don’t you, Sam?” She touched his arm. “They love you like a sohn.”

“I know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t tell them our news, Mary Elizabeth. I couldn’t.”

“Allrecht.”

“It’s not because I thought they wouldn’t like to hear it.”

“Sam, most of the couples we know don’t share such until the announcement in church.”

He stared at her, the expression in his eyes fierce. “Dat would be overjoyed!” he blurted out.

She blinked, shocked at his vehemence. “I—see.”

“No, you don’t.” He paced the room, his steps agitated. “I wondered why he was practically goading me about you, saying some man was going to snatch you up. Then Mamm told me why he’d be happy if we were together.” He stopped, stared at the window, then spun around to look at her. “It’s because if I marry you, I’ll return to the community.”

“If?” she managed to say.

“When,” he said, gentler now that he could see the word had bothered her. “When.”

She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I’m sure it’s because he loves you.”

“Is it that? Or is it that it made him look bad that his sohns left?”

She heard the bitterness in his voice and didn’t know what to say. They stood like that, the only sound the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Finally, he looked at the clock. “I should go.”

“Sam, don’t leave while you’re so upset. It’s not gut to drive like that.”

He sighed. “Fine. I’ll have some coffee.” He paused, remembered his manners. “Please.”

She smiled. “You schur you don’t want a piece of pie before Grossdaadi sneaks in here for some?”

“I didn’t stay for dessert,” he said, wavering.

“Then sit. Have some pie with your coffee.”

She fixed his coffee, set it before him and cut a piece of pie, adding a big scoop of ice cream. Then she joined him and sipped a cup of tea as she watched him relax.

In the quiet, the sun going down and sending its last rays in the kitchen window, she found her imagination wandering down a path she hadn’t dared to dream of . . . the day winding down, the two of them married and sitting together in their own kitchen, idly talking and enjoying a last cup of tea or coffee. Then they’d climb the stairs to their bedroom, and someday, if God willed, they’d have kinner and the house would be filled with joy and love and laughter.

“Where did you go?” he asked quietly, reaching across the table to touch her fingertips with his.

“I was just thinking how it will be when we’re married and we can sit together like this at the end of the day.”

“It won’t be much longer that we have to be apart.”

She swallowed and nodded. “I love you.”

“And I love you. But I have to go now. I have to work with Peter tomorrow evening, but the day after?”

“That would be nice. Drive careful.”

“Always. So I can come back to you.”

His kiss was brief, but her lips tingled as she walked him to the door and watched him get in his pickup truck.

He said he had to talk to John. She wondered what his bruder would think of them getting married. John seemed to like her, so she wasn’t worried about that. But Sam and his bruder David before him had been a mature influence on John, the boppli of the family. She knew Sam worried about John and loved him for that. She’d grown to love all the Stoltzfus men as bruders and hoped John would consider coming back to the Amish community and living with them. It wasn’t just because Sam had said it was expensive for a single man to live in the Englisch community. She wanted John to return to his family and friends, to his church, to his community.

“Is he gone?”

Mary Elizabeth turned and saw that Rose Anna had come downstairs. She’d been so lost in thought she hadn’t heard her. She nodded. “Danki for giving us some time alone.”

“He looked so upset. Did his dat say something to him? I know he went over there for supper tonight.”

She sighed as she cleared the table and put the dishes in the sink. The water had grown cold and the suds were gone. She let the water out then filled the sink again, squirting in dish soap. “I’m afraid so. I wonder if they’ll be able to heal the rift between them.”

“David and his dat did. So maybe there’s hope.” Rose Anna picked up a dish towel, waiting for Mary Elizabeth to hand her the cup she was washing.

“I’m worried about John.”

“Why?” Rose Anna grabbed her wrist. “Has something happened?”

“Nee, John’s fine,” she said quickly, squeezing her schweschder’s hand. “But it’ll be hard on John to afford the apartment on his own. I hope John will move in with us if we get our own place.”

“I don’t think John will do that. He likes his Englisch life a little too much.” Rose Anna frowned and set the mug she was drying down with a thump on the counter.

“Maybe. But I want Sam to ask him.”

Rose Anna nodded. “It’s the right thing to do.” She reached over and hugged Mary Elizabeth. “You have a kind heart, Schweschder. Some newly married couples want their privacy.”

She shrugged. “Well, I don’t even know if we’ll have our own place, so who knows.”

Sam had asked her to keep the fact that he was trying to buy the farm to herself and she had to honor that promise. She lifted the sink drainer and watched the water swirl down, her own thoughts spinning around and around. So much to think about, so much still uncertain. All she knew for certain was that soon she’d be making her vows before God and her family and her church and who knew what else He planned.

She looked out the window. Night had fallen. The day was done. No more thinking, no more planning or worrying. Time for sleep, to rest in His arms and let His will be done.