A Home for Lydia (The Pebble Creek Amish Series) (11 page)

Sadie nodded her head and Lily sniffled, but at least she didn’t start bawling like the calf in the sad barn when it wanted its mom.

“Any lesson you miss will be made up at home. Hannah, see if you can find Lily some extra clothes from upstairs.”

Hannah winked at the girls from behind Miss Bena’s shoulders before she turned and hurried upstairs to the apartment over the schoolroom. It was where Miriam and Esther used to live, but now Miss Bena lived there alone. Hannah still lived with her parents because their farm was very close to the schoolhouse—or maybe because she would rather live at home than with Miss Bena. You would have to be awfully clean if you lived with their teacher.

The three girls turned around and walked back down the steps. When they did, the other children spread into two groups, making a wide path for them.

“Guess no one else wants to get muddy,” Lily said.

“You’d think we had the chicken pox or something,” Sadie muttered once they were through the small crowd.

“They just don’t want Miss Bena to be mad at them.” Grace put a little distance between Lily and herself, though she continued to hold the younger girl’s hand. She didn’t need any of the mud on her dress. They had enough extra washing at home with Rachel’s dirty clothes and their regular washing.

“She’s awfully mad.” Lily looked up at Grace as they all tried to fit inside the outhouse.

“She wasn’t happy, but it’s hard to tell with Miss Bena. I’m not sure she’s a happy kind of person.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to fit in there with you two,” Sadie said. She stood in the doorway as Grace studied Lily.

“I’ll get her out of these clothes and you can bag them up. We’ll need some water too, and the clean clothes from Hannah.”

“Sure. I can do that.”

Grace did her best to stay clean, but some of the mud found its way on to her clothes anyway. By the time they were finished, she had to use another rag to wipe off her own apron.

“
Danki
, Grace.” Lily looked exhausted but cleaner in clothes several sizes too large.

“
Gem gschehne
.” Grace hugged the younger girl and turned her toward the classroom. Sadie had slipped inside ahead of them and was already working.

Grace had missed almost half an hour of the afternoon lessons. She would need to make them up tonight after chores.

What she wanted to do, though, was go home and draw the three of them standing on the schoolhouse step, a puddle of muddy water growing around them. At the time she’d been terrified of being in trouble, but now that the crisis had passed, she thought it was kind of funny. How they must have looked had captured her imagination.

She even knew how she’d cut off the top of the drawing. She’d draw their backs and the tops of their heads covered by their prayer
kapps
. She’d also draw Miss Bena’s crossed arms, but not her expression. There was no need for anyone else to experience that.

At times, the woman was actually frightening.

Chapter 9

L
ydia had been working cleaning cabins all morning. They had three weekend reservations, and she wanted things to be in tip-top shape. She was in cabin six, dusting the furniture, when Aaron returned from visiting Elizabeth. If anything he appeared to be in a worse mood, though she hadn’t thought that was possible.

He didn’t pause to speak with her at all.

Instead, he’d unharnessed Tin Star and then banged around in the barn for thirty minutes. When she saw him next, he was attacking the shrubs and vines in front of the nearest cabin. “Attack” was certainly the best word for what he was doing with Ervin’s gardening tools. Aaron was apparently working his way away from the parking lot toward the back of the property, butchering anything that was green and touching a cabin wall.

After a while he climbed up on the old wooden ladder Ervin kept for repairs in order to brutalize the top limbs of a lovely white ash tree. Unfortunately, he set the ladder in the mud—everywhere the ground was slick with mud—and the bottom of the ladder slipped. It all happened quickly, leaving him hanging from the tree limb with both hands, his handsaw having fallen to the ground below him.

Lydia had almost gone to help, but before she’d made it out the
door of cabin five, he’d swung his leg over the limb and shimmied his way down the tree.

Humph.

Ervin wouldn’t have been able to do that, but then Ervin wouldn’t have been trimming ash trees in May when the ground was too soft from rain to properly hold the ladder.

Truth was, Ervin hadn’t trimmed a tree since Lydia had come to work for him, but that wasn’t the point. The giant white ash was beyond beautiful, especially in the fall when its leaves turned golden. Had Aaron Troyer thought of that when he took his saw to it?

Doubtful.

He was too busy taking his frustration out on every living thing in his path. He’d made it to cabin three when Lydia dropped her mop and marched over to where he stood with his garden shears.

“Don’t even think about cutting down that speckled alder.”

“It’s taken over the entire east wall. You can’t see out the window at all.”

“Birds nest there.”

“I’m more concerned that guests nest inside the cabin than whether birds nest in this bush. Guests won’t if they walk up to a cabin that looks like this because they can barely find the door with all the shrubs, vines, and tree branches covering the place.”

Lydia moved in front of the seven-foot shrub and shook her cleaning rag at him, forgetting for a moment he was her boss and she needed her job. “You chopped down almost all of the juniper in front of cabin two. There won’t be an eastern bluebird or cedar waxwing in it now.”

“Move out of my way, Lydia.”

“I won’t.”

Aaron shook his head, removed his hat, and wiped at the sweat beading on his forehead. When he replaced his hat he was smiling, but there was nothing pleasant about it. In fact, his expression was absolutely grim.

She’d last seen that sort of look on the baseball field, and it was indicative of a dare if she remembered correctly.

“I thought Amish women were submissive.”

“I thought Amish men were levelheaded.” She refused to look away from his dark brown eyes. So what if they reminded her of one of the pups her father used to raise? He apparently had no more sense than the beagles did.

“It’s only a bush.” He waved the garden shears at her.

“They’re all only bushes, but together they make up the riverbank and the area where the animals come.” Lydia took a step toward him, her hands coming out and encompassing the entire plot of land as if she could fold it into her apron and hold it to herself. As if she could protect it somehow.

“Together they make up this little haven Ervin loved. If you mow them all down we’re just another motel like the
Englischers
own.”

“But maybe a profitable one!” Aaron’s voice rose in some effort to overcome her reasoning. “Maybe one that has automobiles in the parking lot and paying customers!”

Lydia opened her mouth to answer him. She had the perfect retort ready, but she snapped it back just in time. She finally noticed Gabe, David, and Seth approaching. No doubt they had heard Aaron shouting.

How much had they seen and heard? She and Aaron remained less than a foot from each other. Aaron had been hollering and waving his garden shears. Lydia was still red faced with her hands on her hips.

“Sorry. We didn’t mean to interrupt.” David nodded at them both.

“Guess we didn’t hear you drive up,” Aaron muttered.

Gabe shrugged, combing his beard down with his fingers. To Lydia he looked as if he were trying to comb a smile off his face. She wondered if he somehow thought this was funny, because it wasn’t. Destroying an animal’s habitat was a serious offense.

“Aaron, this is David King, my wife’s
bruder
, and his son Seth.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Aaron’s face was still red, but Lydia noticed he’d loosened his grip on the garden shears.

“I suppose you both know Lydia?”

“
Ya
,” David nodded. “How are you?”

“
Gut
.” The word slipped from Lydia’s lips before she realized what a lie it was. She was actually horrible! Her apron was filthy from cleaning, and she could feel her hair slipping loose beneath her
kapp
. Young Seth was looking at her as if she had crawled out from under one of the cabins.

All of that didn’t matter as much as working around Aaron Troyer. He was making her
narrisch
! Maybe they could take him back to the bus stop, where he could catch a ride all the way back to Indiana.

Instead of asking if they would be willing to return her boss, she yanked her apron down straight, tugged her
kapp
into place, and folded her arms. Best to glare at the river. Better than meet Aaron’s gaze.

“We thought we’d stop by to see if we could lend a hand,” David said. “Gabe explained you’d come to see to Ervin’s things.”

“True, but I believe we have it under control.”

Lydia didn’t even try to keep the exasperated expression from crossing her face. Seth must have seen it because he snorted. When his father gave him a pointed look, he crammed his hands into his pockets. Gabe seemed to be the one person enjoying himself.

“
Ya
, I can see that.” David said, glancing back at the branches and leaves littering the walkway between the first three cabins.

Gabe stepped forward, reached up and pulled at a branch of the speckled alder that was caught in the roof’s eave. “Truth is, we can’t plant our crops yet. The ground’s still too muddy. I came to town looking for something to do.”

“And my
fraa
decided we were underfoot.” David hooked a thumb under his suspenders. “We were planning on offering to help anyway, but she sort of…”

“Sent us over today.” Seth finished up for his father, a smile crossing his face for the first time since they had arrived.

Aaron glanced from Gabe to David. “You’re saying I’d be doing you a favor to let you stay and work the rest of the day?”

“
Ya
. Pretty much, that’s true.” David actually sounded eager. “All the work around my place is done.”

“Same at mine,” Gabe admitted.

“How are you at trimming shrubs?”

Lydia didn’t wait to hear their answer. One stubborn Amish man she might be able to outlast, but three men and a boy with an attitude? Not a chance. She trudged back toward the cabin she’d been mopping and satisfied herself with saying a prayer for the birds who would need to find new lodgings once their habitat had been chopped to the ground.