A Heart Made New (14 page)

Sweat trickled down her temple and tickled her cheek. She inhaled air heated by the many warm bodies crowded into the Glicks’ barn. Her stomach growled so loud it sounded like an angry cat. Mary giggled.

“Shhh,”
Leah hissed as she leaned over Lillie and gripped Mary’s arm so hard Annie could see her fingernails digging into the flesh. “No.”

Shaking her head, Annie plucked Leah’s hand from her sister’s arm. They exchanged glares.

To Annie’s relief, Deacon Altman began the final prayer. Leah’s focus shifted to the front of the barn again. When his voice stopped, everyone rose and began to file from the Glicks’ barn in an orderly,
quiet manner. Once outside, the chattering began. Annie loved the after-service fellowship. Good food, good conversation, a chance to catch up with what everyone had been doing during the week.

“If you two can’t behave yourself in the service, you’ll be making a trip to the woodshed.” Leah shook a finger at the girls, her tone deflating Annie’s joy like a cake taken out of the oven too soon. “I’ll have your brother take a whip to you. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Leah.” Lillie and Mary hung identical heads. “We’re sorry.”

“You should be sorry. You showed a lack of respect for the minister. You’re far too old to be misbehaving in the prayer service. It won’t be tolerated—”

“They weren’t the only ones wiggling, Leah.” Annie took Lillie and Mary’s hands in hers. “I saw more than one person nodding off. Between the heat and the extra-long sermon, I think everyone was a little sleepy.”

“And you! You’re one to talk.” Leah’s voice was a furious whisper but that didn’t keep her from spitting the words out. The spray hit Annie’s face, making her recoil. “You weren’t paying attention yourself. That’s what happens when you stay up late gabbing with a guest who has no concept of early rising, prayer, or hard work.”

Getting out of bed before dawn had been a challenge, but Annie refused to complain or criticize her guest. “Maybe that is something we can share with her. Maybe that’s what we’re supposed to do. Show her a better way for her and for Gracie.”

Leah opened her mouth, then shut it. She whirled and strode toward the house.

Annie turned to the twins. “Don’t worry about her. She’s just cranky because it’s hard to take care of babies.”

“We know.” Mary frowned. “The worse she feels, the worse we feel.”

Lilly scuffed at the grass with her shoe. I’m going to wait a long time to have babies.”

The twins would never romanticize the idea of having babies. Just as well. It was hard work, but worth it to have the blessing of a child. They would understand that when they were older. Annie’s heart ached at the thought. She scanned the clusters of men gathered in the yard.
Engaged in conversation, most were headed for the picnic tables and food. David was here somewhere. Purposely avoiding her. Trying to ignore the hurt that realization brought her, she put her arms around the girls. “Come on. Let’s go find Miriam and help bring out the food. After we eat, we can play volleyball.”

Together they started across the yard.

“Annie, wait!”

Emma’s sweet voice wafted across the yard. Delighted, Annie turned. Emma sat with Thomas’s mother and sisters during the service now. The Brennaman family had arrived just as it was beginning, so Annie had had no chance to greet them. She flew across the yard. “Emma, how was your week? I didn’t see you one time. I thought maybe you’d come by the bakery—”

“My week? How was your week? You were robbed? I couldn’t believe it. I thought Thomas was teasing me at first. And you brought home the man’s wife and child. Leah must’ve been fit to be tied.”

“Yes, yes, and yes.” Annie linked arms with Emma and they followed the twins, who were skipping across the yard to the Glick house. “We’re fine. Only Charisma is not Logan McKee’s wife. She’s his… girlfriend.”

“You do love a challenge, schweschder.” Emma laughed. She looked so happy. Annie took a second to savor that. Emma deserved to be happy after all she’d been through. Her sister tilted her head, the picture of inquisitiveness. “Where is she this morning?”

“Asleep, I reckon. She couldn’t sleep last night. She said it was too quiet.”

“So you stayed up with her. That is so like you.”

Annie shrugged. “We’re going to play volleyball after we eat. Want to play?”

“I don’t think so.” A strange, almost dreamy look passed over Emma’s face. Her free hand patted her stomach. “I’ve been feeling a little queasy lately.”

Annie studied the hand on Emma’s flat belly. “Emma Brennaman. Have you been holding out on me? Are you expecting?”

Emma beamed. “Yes.”

“You’re expecting!” Annie couldn’t contain a shriek. Her sister had waited so long, endured so much disappointment. Finally, God had answered Emma’s prayers. Annie threw her arms around her sister. “Wunderbar!”

Emma returned the hug. They danced around, laughing and crying at the same time, and ignoring the amused looks of their neighbors as they streamed past. “It’s a dream come true, really.” She clapped her hands. “A dream come true. Sometimes I’m afraid I’ll wake up and it will be just that—a dream.”

“You’re not dreaming. You’re wide awake.” Annie pinched her arm, but not too hard. “When? When do you think the little one will arrive?”

“I don’t know exactly. I haven’t been to a doctor yet.” Emma’s face colored. “I wish
Aenti
Louise could deliver this baby. Her poor gnarled hands can’t do it anymore.”

“Josephina Belnap is a good midwife, I’ve heard.” Only heard because she herself had no use for a midwife. At this rate, probably never would.
Oh, ye of little faith.
Surely, Emma had thought the same thing during those long years after Carl left her, then returned only to leave again, and Thomas’s on-again, off-again courtship. “You should go talk to her, make arrangements.”

“It’s a little early. I only just realized…”

Annie shared an embarrassed look with her sister. Time to change the topic. “We’d better get to the kitchen and start helping. The twins have left us behind.” She took the porch steps two at a time and opened the door for her sister. “Thomas must be so pleased.”

“You know Thomas. Not much with words, but the look on his face…” Emma’s smile grew even bigger. “It made me think of Daed when Mary and Lillie were born.”

“Emma Brennaman, I’ve missed that smile!”

Miriam’s cheerful voice interrupted their conversation. Annie turned to receive her friend’s warm hug. “I didn’t see you at the service.”

“I was late.” Miriam rolled her eyes and wrinkled her upturned nose. She glanced around the room. The din of dozens of women chattering as they made sandwiches and prepared dishes in the Glicks’ kitchen meant no one was listening to their conversation. “My daed chose this morning for a heart-to-heart talk. Which, you know, means I listened and he talked.”

“About what?”

Miriam twisted a towel in her hands. “What else?”

“Josiah?”

Her face miserable, she nodded. “He says I must move on or I’m going to end up alone. He expects me to marry and make my own home. There’s nothing I’d like to do more. I love teaching as much as you did, Emma, but I don’t want to end up in the school forever.”

“You won’t. You’re only twenty.” Emma squeezed her arm. “You’re still young. I was twenty-two when I got married. Now I’m expecting my first baby at twenty-three. You have plenty of time.”

Smiling again at the thought of Emma with a baby, Annie began to slap together sandwiches, placing thick slices of ham and roast beef on homemade bread. “I guess by Plain standards you were a little older, Emma, but not that much. Look at the Englischers. They marry so much later. My friend Melinda who works at the library—she’s twenty-four and her sister just married. She’s twenty-eight and her new husband is thirty. Can you imagine?”

“That’s way too late when you have a farm to run and chores to be done. Imagine not starting a family until you’re thirty. How would you work the land without sons to help?” A perplexed look on her face, Emma arranged the sandwiches on a platter. “Of course, they go to school so much longer, don’t they?”

Miriam stuck a knife in the mayonnaise. “Do you ever miss being at school?”

“Not really.” Annie tried to recall the days when she’d trudged to the schoolhouse to do arithmetic, learn English, and study basic science. “I used to beg Mudder to let me stay home and do the cooking
for her. I’d much rather be baking and sewing and gardening. It seems so much more useful.”

“Since I started teaching, I realized I sort of missed school. It’s fun teaching the little ones English and to read. I think I like it better than the tack shop.” Miriam flipped the knife too fast. Mayonnaise flew through the air and landed on Annie’s sleeve. “Whoops! Got carried away there.”

Peals of laughter drowned out the other women’s conversation for a second. One or two looked around, smiles on their faces. “You’ll have more opportunity to run into Plain men at the tack shop, though,” Emma pointed out.

“I know all the Plain men around here.” Miriam’s expression darkened. “And apparently the Shiracks have all the tack they need. Haven’t seen one of them in the shop since I came back to work.”

Annie sighed. There wasn’t a thing she could do to help Miriam. She could take a switch to Josiah for being so stubborn and so silly, but she knew he wouldn’t budge until he was good and ready. With Sarah in town, who knew when that would be? “Did you ever think it would take this long for us to marry?”

Miriam’s somber expression made Annie’s heart hurt. “Never. I thought…”

“You thought Josiah was the one.” Emma patted their friend’s back. “He is the one. I know he is. Just give him time. It takes men a lot longer to grow up, apparently.”

That observation lightened the mood as Emma surely intended. All three of them giggled. Annie slapped one last sandwich on the platter. “These are ready. We’d better get them out to the picnic tables before the men start eating the benches.”

With a quick nod, Miriam slid the platter from the table and Emma grabbed a bowl of pickled cabbage and a stack of napkins. Following their lead, Annie corralled an enormous basket of cookies—cookies she’d made for this occasion—and headed toward the door.

Annie waited until they were on the porch to continue. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”

“What?” Emma raised her eyebrows. “Is Leah giving you grief?”

“Not me.” Annie leaned toward her sister and her best friend. “Mary and Lillie.”

“She’s mistreating them?”

“Did you know Leah is expecting again?”

“Luke told Thomas who, of course, told me. What does that have to do with the twins?”

“I don’t know. She’s tired? Worried?” Annie lowered her voice, wary of others hearing her complain about her sister-in-law. She should be more compassionate, but somehow Leah’s attitude goaded her into irritation instead. “All I know is she expects them to take care of her twins and do chores that are beyond their years. I believe in children doing chores as much as the next person, but she has no patience and never a kind word.”

“Poor things, they’re only six and so little.” Miriam shook her head, her face a picture of sweet empathy. “I’m sure they try hard.”

The memory of how tiny and light Lillie had felt in her arms a few years ago assailed Annie. They’d been tiny mites, the two of them. “They’re old enough to weed the garden, and pick the vegetables, feed the chickens. But not hang men’s pants on the clothesline.”

“Not when the men are as tall as Luke or even Josiah.” Miriam’s face went dreamy—like she was imaging just how tall Josiah was. “Even if they stand on a stool.”

“I don’t know what to do to help them. I try to be home more, but the bakery takes so much of my time. Which is the problem. There’s no one at home to help Leah so she expects the girls to take up the slack.”

“Maybe I could…” Emma chewed her lower lip. “Do you think Luke would consider letting them come to stay with Thomas and me for a while? I am their sister.”

“But then who would help Leah?”

Annie trotted down the front steps and dodged Leah’s boys racing across the yard. The basket of cookies nearly went flying. Miriam held up the platter of sandwiches to keep it from spilling.

“Joseph! William! Slow down!” Miriam cried in her best teacher
voice. She sounded a lot like Emma when she was the teacher. “Slow down right now!”

“Sorry, teacher!” They didn’t slow at all or look the least bit sorry. “Food!”

“They mind you about as well as they minded me.” Emma shook her head. “Does Luke know the boys are running wild?”

“That’s the thing. Leah is so hard on the girls while her boys are turning into mischevious little rascals. She used to be so strict,” Annie said. “Now she seems overwhelmed. I want to help more, but we need the money I earn at the bakery.”

She closed her mouth as they approached the picnic tables crowded with men eating and talking about the price of wheat and the unusual heat wave so early in the summer. The question seemed to be how that would affect the upcoming harvest.

Josiah sat at one of the picnic tables, shoveling food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in days. His predicament over Sarah and the bishop’s orders to stay away from her certainly didn’t seem to have affected his appetite. At eighteen, he was still a growing boy—one with grownup problems nevertheless. His gaze encountered hers, then skipped to Miriam. Annie saw the instant that the girl’s presence registered. He ducked his head and dropped his fork on his plate.