Leah shifted her weight on the wooden stepladder and rubbed hard at the schoolhouse windowpane with her cleaning cloth. On the other side of the glass, Ellie wiped away ammonia spray as she continued her amusing story. One of her first-graders had found a frog on his way to school that morning, had put it in his lunchbox and forgotten about it until he opened the box. The frog had leaped out onto the head of one of the Miller girls and continued on hopping from desk to desk, causing an uproar among the students.
Leah laughed along with Ellie. How she wished she’d been here to see the turmoil caused by one small frog. It was four thirty in the afternoon on Friday. The children had gone home for the day, and Leah had come to help Ellie wash the schoolhouse windows. It was odd being back at the school where she’d spent so many happy years as a child. Ellie’s stories reminded her so much of similar events when she was a girl, but she couldn’t believe how much smaller the building seemed now. For years her mother had been the teacher at the Seven Poplars school, and her sisters and many of her cousins had been here with her. Good days, she mused, carefree days.
Other than the addition of the back porch and a closed-in area for coats, boots and lunch boxes, not much had changed since she’d been a student here. The scarred hardwood floors, the plain white vertical wainscoting and the smell of chalk and Old English furniture polish hadn’t changed. The school consisted of a single room with an old-fashioned blackboard, rows of tall windows, and a potbellied stove that stood in the center and provided heat and a place to warm hot chocolate or soup on cold winter days.
“It was sweet of you to volunteer to help,” Ellie said from the other side of the glass. Her friend’s high voice pulled Leah out of the past and back to the present. “The school year ends next week and I want the building to look its best for parents’ night,” Ellie said.
“Glad to help.” Leah finished the last pane and descended the ladder. The adjoining window was the last on this side of the schoolhouse, and she wanted to complete this section before Thomas arrived to pick her up. “More hands make every task easier.”
Ellie pushed open the window and reached out to take hold of the top of the stepladder to steady it as Leah moved it into place. Practical Ellie had her sleeves rolled up and wore an oversize apron over her bright blue dress. She’d removed her kapp and tied a navy scarf over her neatly braided and pinned blond hair. As usual, Ellie was a delight to spend time with. Leah liked the woman more every day because when you were with her it was impossible to be gloomy. No wonder the students adored her. Ellie’s love of life was infectious.
“Where is Thomas taking you today?” Ellie asked.
“Nowhere in particular. Just for a drive.” Leah continued washing the windowpanes, taking care not to miss any spots. “I mentioned how much I missed traveling at the speed of a horse and buggy the last few years. And he offered to quit work early today and take me for a drive. He borrowed an open courting buggy so we wouldn’t need a chaperone.”
Ellie’s heart-shaped face lit up with mischief as she pushed up the window. “I guess that depends on where your ride takes you.”
Leah gave her a questioning look.
“If he goes by Tyler’s Woods Road, he might just stop to water his horse at the pond. You remember how young people like to go there. It’s off the road. Pretty with all the trees coming out in bud this time of year. But I warn you, if you agree to go there with him, don’t be surprised if Thomas tries to steal a few kisses.”
“Why would you say that?”
Ellie laughed. “Because he tried it with me.” She shrugged. “It didn’t work, but he made the attempt.”
Leah shook her head. “It’s not like that with us.”
Ellie stifled another sound of amusement. “Ne, of course not.”
“Really,” Leah protested. “He’s fun to be with, but—”
Ellie leaned on the windowsill and gave her a disbelieving look through the open window. “You like Thomas and you know you do. Admit it.”
Leah resisted the urge to toss her dirty sponge at her friend. “I do like him, but not in that way. Thomas and I are friends. I’m helping him find out more about organic farming. He thinks that’s what he wants to do, and I think it’s an excellent idea.”
“So is Thomas thinking about how he’ll provide for a wife and children?”
“Eventually.” Leah chuckled. “But even if he is, it doesn’t mean...” She didn’t finish the sentence. The other night on the porch at his house, Thomas had come very close to kissing her. She hadn’t let him, of course. She’d ended the evening before she had to tell him she didn’t want him to kiss her. Or maybe she’d ended the evening so quickly because she was afraid she might have let him kiss her.
Ellie giggled. “Ne, of course he’s not thinking of you. Just because you’re courting.”
“We’re not—” Leah cut herself off. She wasn’t going to have this conversation with Ellie again. Instead, she said, “I’m sure Thomas will make a fine husband for someone. He’s just not what I’m looking for.”
“Or me.” Ellie dropped her cleaning rag into a bucket. “But he isn’t hard on the eyes, you’ll have to admit that.”
“Looks aren’t everything,” Leah said. “I want an older husband, someone settled. I’ve had excitement in my life.” She unconsciously lowered her voice. “Now, I just want a peaceful life, a new baby to hold in my arms, someone to walk to worship with, a husband who will take care of us and make the decisions.”
Ellie’s blue eyes clouded with concern. “Are you certain that’s what you want, Leah? I haven’t known you all that long, but I know Hannah and your sisters. You don’t seem like the kind of woman who wants her husband to think for her.”
Leah didn’t answer. Instead, she climbed down the ladder, emptied her bucket of dirty water and joined Ellie inside the schoolhouse.
Ellie came to meet her and took Leah’s hands in her small ones. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I need to learn to hold my tongue. I shouldn’t have pressed you about your private business. You know better than me what will make you happy.”
“Ne, it’s all right,” Leah insisted. She could feel the emotion gathering in her chest. In another moment, she’d be bawling like a baby. “I do think that’s what I need, but...” She shrugged and forced a smile. “The truth is, sometimes I don’t know what I want. Thomas is wonderful but he’s so...so...lighthearted.”
“He just plays the part of the cutup because that’s the sort of person everyone expects him to be. He’s really quite sweet.”
“But he wasn’t right for you.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Ellie agreed. She released Leah’s hands and perched on one of the first-grader’s desks, her sneakered feet dangling over the edge. “I want to marry someday. I want a family. Children. But I’ve never met a man that suited me. And...” She gestured around the schoolroom. “I really love teaching the children. I can’t imagine giving this up.”
“Because you haven’t met the right man.” Leah felt relief that the conversation had moved on from her personal life to Ellie’s. “You know, I had supper with Thomas and his family the other night, and Jakob asked about you. He seems intrigued.”
“Don’t tell me that.”
“Why not?” Leah asked. “Jakob’s single. And he is a very attractive man.”
“For a little person, you mean?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth. That wasn’t what I was thinking.” Leah folded her arms. “What I was thinking was that Jakob Schwartz may be short, but he’s still a hottie.”
“Leah!” Ellie’s eyes widened in surprise and then together the two of them burst into giggles.
“Well, he is,” Leah said when she could talk again. “And he’s nice. I like him. You should give him a chance.”
“Absolutely not,” Ellie said with a shake of her head.
“What? You don’t like him because he’s little?”
“I don’t want anything to do with him because everyone—including your mother—is trying to shove us together. Just because we’re both little people. From the first time he came to Seven Poplars for a visit, Jakob this and Jakob that is all I’ve heard. And now that he’s living here, it will only be worse. I’m not picking a husband because of his height.” Ellie slid down off the desk, pulled her cleaning rag from a bucket and began washing the blackboard. “No more talk of Jakob. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Leah said. “But only for now, because—”
“Look!” Ellie pointed out the window. “Here comes your Thomas. And he’s driving that fancy sorrel horse of his.”
Leah glanced out the window and she couldn’t help the quiver of anticipation that ran through her. “It’s a beautiful horse, isn’t it?”
“Beautiful and fast...like his master,” Ellie teased.
Leah reached up to make certain that her kapp was in place and then untied the big work apron and hung it on one of the iron hooks along the back wall.
“Take a sweater,” Ellie advised. “Unless you are depending on Thomas to keep you warm.”
“Stop,” Leah protested. “I am not sweet on Thomas. There will be no hugging and certainly no kissing.”
“Ne, of course not,” Ellie replied. “Because you’re not sweet on him.” Her laughter echoed in Leah’s ears as she hurried out of the schoolhouse and walked across the grass toward Thomas.
* * *
“Can’t you get Irwin to weed this for you?” Leah asked her mother. Irwin was a boy her mother had taken in years ago, and was a member of the family now. She’d stopped by for morning coffee and found Hannah in the garden cleaning up her strawberry patch. The berries weren’t fully in bloom yet, but they soon would be. Here and there a white blossom peeked through the lush green leaves.
“Irwin has a part-time job with the Kings helping build lawn furniture. He’s there today. Besides, I like getting out in my own garden,” Hannah replied as she stooped to yank out an offending sprig of dandelions from under the edge of a strawberry plant. “These are Pocahontas,” she explained. “They ripen later than the Surecrop, but they’re sweeter. They make the best strawberry shortcake.”
Leah dropped to her knees on the opposite side of the row from her mother. In Brazil, she’d sometimes worn a light blouse and a split skirt, with knee-length trousers under it, for working in her garden. Since they had visitors only rarely and the St. Joes wore next to nothing in the hottest season, she hadn’t felt that she was too immodest. But she’d given away the skirt and the pants when she’d said goodbye to her jungle home. The Old Amish residents of Seven Poplars would never understand or accept such laxity in dress in one of their members. Fortunately, she’d worn her oldest dress today, and either the garden dirt would wash out or it wouldn’t.
Her mother raised her head and smiled at her. “It’s good to have you home, Leah. You’ll never know how much we missed you.”
“I missed you all, too,” she replied as she dug out the root of a stubborn chickweed. “Every day.” She’d left Seven Poplars for a different life, and she’d done her best to serve God and to be the wife that Daniel deserved. If he hadn’t died, she would be there now, working beside him. But coming home, being with her family, walking the fields and woods that she had while growing up had gone a long way to healing the unbearable pain of losing Daniel and her child.
“I prayed for you to come back to us.” Her mother’s gaze was full of compassion. “I just didn’t expect it to be this way.”
“Me, neither,” Leah replied. She and Hannah had so much in common—both had been widowed far too young. What she didn’t know was if she possessed the strength her mother had. “I just hope I’m making the right decision in asking Sara to find me a husband.”
Hannah looked up. “Have you prayed on it?”
“Ya. And I feel in my heart that this is what I should do. That it was right to become Mennonite, and now it’s right for me to join all of you and become Amish again.”
“And you have no doubts about taking on the responsibility of our faith?” her mother pressed.
Leah smiled. “None at all. I’m looking forward to it. I know it’s where I belong.”
“It eases my mind to hear you say it.” Hannah went back to weeding. “Now you need to stop worrying and let Sara do her job. It will all come out right. You’ll see.”
“I hope so.”
From the side yard, Leah heard her sister Susanna’s laughter as she and her husband David tossed a ball back and forth. It was a large plastic ball, nearly the size of a basketball and bright orange, but neither of them could manage to catch it on the first try. Instead, they giggled and squealed and chased the rolling ball across the grass. Susanna’s kapp hung askew, her face was smudged with dirt and her hands and dress were grubby, but she was clearly having a wonderful time. Susanna, like Ellie, had the gift of enjoying every moment of life.
When Ruth had written that their mother had given her permission for Susanna to marry David King, Leah had been surprised. Growing up, Leah had always thought Susanna the light of their home, one of God’s special people. But she’d never expected Susanna to wed. She was childlike in so many ways. Now, seeing how happy Susanna was, and getting to know David, who’d also been born with Down syndrome, Leah was beginning to understand her mother’s decision.
“Thomas is working this morning,” Leah explained to Hannah, “but he’ll be off by one. We were thinking of going to Rehoboth this afternoon to talk to some of the managers of local restaurants about possible markets for Thomas’s organic vegetables.”
Hannah dropped a handful of weeds into a pile and looked up with a serious expression. “Would you like me to come along as your chaperone?”
“Ne, Mam. I would not,” Leah replied firmly. “I thought that—”
Hannah laughed, and Leah broke off in midstatement. Realizing that she’d been had, she began to chuckle as well.
“How about Irwin?” her mother teased.
Leah shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“You have to have someone. You can’t go to Rehoboth for the day without a chaperone.”
“Actually, I thought maybe that Susanna would like to ride down with us,” Leah said. “I could take her to see the ocean and buy her cotton candy. You know how she loves to ride in the car.”
“I do. Maybe more than is good for her. But you’re right—she would enjoy it.” Hannah got up and dusted the dirt off her skirt. “I’ll tell her to wash up and change into her church dress and bonnet.”
“I can do it.” Leah glanced down at her own dress, streaked now with garden soil and grass stains. “I need to freshen up myself. I have another dress in the car. I’ll go and change before Thomas gets here.”
“You watch your sister close,” her mother warned. “You know how she is. And I wouldn’t want her to come to harm out among the English.”
“I’ll take good care of her,” Leah promised. “And I’ll have Thomas to help me.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel easier, with his reputation for mischief?”
“I think that was when he was younger,” Leah said. “He’s been very responsible around me.”
Hannah looked skeptical. “I hope he appreciates your help. And you. He couldn’t find a finer wife anywhere.”
Leah rolled her eyes. “Mam, I told you before. I don’t see this working out. I’m just giving it the six weeks because that’s what Sara and Thomas and I agreed to.”
Her mother studied the strawberry bed with its spreading rows and straw-laden aisles. “Better,” she pronounced. “Much better. Martha always thinks her strawberry bed is the best one in the county. Wait until she tastes my Pocahantases and Raritans.”
“If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were a little prideful,” Leah teased.
“Maybe a little,” her mother admitted. “It’s a fault I own to. And the good Lord knows I have more than a few to repent of.”
“You’re not alone.” Leah smiled and hugged her. “I’ve missed you more than I can ever say.”
Hannah’s lips were warm on her cheek. “Go and have fun. Just don’t let Susanna out of your sight.”
As she’d suspected, Susanna was delighted by the prospect of a holiday. Her round face glowed with excitement as she bounced from one foot to the other. “Cottoned candy! I like cottoned candy. Blue.”
“We’ll see if they have blue,” Leah agreed as she urged her into the house. “But we have to hurry. Thomas will be here soon, and we have to be dressed and ready.”
“Ready!” Susanna agreed. “Ready for cottoned candy.”
Twenty minutes later, Thomas came striding up her mother’s lane. Leah and Susanna were on the porch waiting. “We’re all set,” Leah said, getting eagerly to her feet. She was almost as excited as Susanna was—she was just better at hiding it. “Susanna’s coming with us. She was thrilled when I asked her to be our chaperone.”
“Goot, goot,” Thomas replied with an easy grin. “I’ll talk with a few of the restaurant managers and then we can take a stroll on the boardwalk. I’ll buy my girl some Thrasher’s French fries. Best anywhere.”
“Thomas’s girl.” Susanna clapped both hands over her mouth and giggled.
Leah let his comment pass without correcting him. The three of them were nearly to the car when her mother came across the yard. “Wait,” she said. Smiling, she took Susanna’s hands and looked into her face. “You do what Leah says, and stay with her. Do you understand?” Squeezing Susanna’s hands tenderly, she kissed her on the cheek.
Susanna nodded vigorously. “Leah said...said blue candy. Cottoned candy.”
“Try not to get it in your hair,” Hannah advised. She straightened Susanna’s bonnet and tied her kapp strings under her chin.
“She’ll be fine, Mam,” Leah assured her.
Her mother’s gaze turned to her, running up from her black leather shoes to her black tights and calf-length Lincoln-green skirt, topped by a white blouse and black cardigan. Leah’s cheeks grew warm as her mother inspected the lacy white scarf that she’d tied over her hair in place of her usual conservative Mennonite prayer kapp. “If you’re to be one of us, you’ll have to give up fancy clothing,” she advised gently.
“I will, Mam. But I don’t have to just yet.”
Hannah sniffed, reached behind Leah’s head, untied the scarf and retied it beneath her chin as she had Susanna’s. “So the ocean wind won’t blow it off,” she said.
Leah looked from her mother to Thomas. He grinned and shrugged.
“I might know you’d take her side,” Leah said. She brushed her mother’s cheek with a kiss and took Susanna’s hand. “Time to go.”
Thomas climbed into the front seat. Leah fastened Susanna’s seat belt in the back and then slid into the driver’s seat. She was just about to start the car when David trotted toward the vehicle, waving his arms.
“Me!” he cried. “Me, too. Going!”
“Wait for King David!” Susanna cried. “Come on, King David.”
Leah tried not to smile. David was dressed in his Sunday black coat and trousers, and wore a fast-food paper crown on his head. Leah looked at Thomas. “We can’t say no.” The backseat was small, barely large enough for two small passengers. And David was definitely not a small person, but there was no way she could leave him behind.
Thomas said, “Get in, David. We’ll make room for you. And be sure to fasten your seat belt.”
Susanna squealed with pleasure and clapped.
“Ya,” David agreed as he squeezed into the back. “Make room.”
Leah looked out the window to where her mother was standing by the gate.
“Naturally, your sister is bringing her husband along. They’re inseparable.” Hannah waved. “You young people have fun!”
Leah glanced over at Thomas. He shrugged, and they laughed together. “We will,” Leah called to her mother as they drove out of the lane.
But when she reached the end of the drive, she stopped the car long enough to untie her scarf and retie it as it had been when she’d come out of the house. She waited for Thomas to comment, but when he wisely held his peace, she said, “Now you know why I’m staying with Sara.”
Thomas laughed, and Susanna and David giggled. As they drove south toward the ocean resorts, Thomas turned on the radio and found a Christian station. When a familiar hymn that was popular at the social gatherings began, he started to sing along with it. Susanna and David, both loud and off-key, joined in enthusiastically.
We’re going to have fun today, Leah thought. She knew that she should admonish Thomas for the forbidden radio, but she didn’t have the heart. And by the time they reached Dover and turned onto Route 1, she’d shed her doubts and was singing along with the rest of them.