A Home for Lydia (The Pebble Creek Amish Series) (31 page)

“Maybe she has cabin fever,” Gabe offered.

Miriam gave him what he’d taken to calling her teacher look. “We don’t live in a cabin.”

“True, but I imagine the same condition could claim a person regardless where they live or who they are—
boppli
or
mamm
.”

Jerking her gaze up, Miriam sat perfectly still for five seconds. Finally she shrugged. “I can’t go to my parents’.
Mamm
says I worry over her like a bird over newly hatched eggs. She’s practically banned me until I ride with them on Friday to Eau Claire. I don’t much feel like visiting with Esther or Lydia. I’m not exactly in a visiting mood.”

“Hmm…that is a predicament.” Gabe stood and walked around the table. He took Rachel from her arms and laughed when she smiled at him.

“You won’t laugh if she’s doing what I think she’s doing.”

“Did you hear that, Rachel? She says you’re making a mess.”

Rachel grunted and confirmed Miriam’s suspicion. The odor that followed overpowered even Gabe’s bad smell.

“Back into the house for us,” Miriam said wearily.

“How about you clean up this little one, and then you two come out into the fields with me?”

“Fields?”

“Sure. I seem to remember someone used to like sitting outside while I plowed, back last year before this bundle of joy was born.”

“The carefree days.” Miriam sighed.

“Clean her up,
mamm
. Pack a blanket, some toys, and a book you’ve been meaning to read. I’ll walk you two to the far side of the field and leave you under your favorite stand of trees.”

“Gabriel Miller. You’re suggesting I forget my housework and go sit under a tree while you plow?”

Gabe stepped closer and traced her face—brow to chin—with his fingertips, and then he slipped his hand to her shoulder and massaged the tight muscle there. “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. It wouldn’t hurt for you to take a few hours off, and I believe it would help me to plow a straighter row if I had two beautiful gals at the far end.”

Miriam shook her head at his teasing, but he noticed a light blush in her cheeks. She also glanced toward the far grove of trees, as if they were beckoning her.

“You’ve worked extra, helping at your
mamm
’s home, helping with the cabins, and the work here. A few hours watching Rachel and sitting in the shade isn’t a sin, Miriam. It will ease your mind. And I suspect your work in the house is done anyway.”

“I finished an hour ago.”

“
Wunderbaar
.”

“It would be nice to do some sewing outside.”

“It would.”

She took their daughter from his arms and started toward the house, but she stopped, turned back, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him on the lips. “
Danki
, Gabe.”

Before he could think how to respond, she went inside to change Rachel.

A few hours outside wouldn’t solve all her problems. He didn’t have the ability to do that, but he was glad the note of despair had left her voice. He was satisfied with that for the moment. Tomorrow they would deal with the problems that came with it—and they would deal with them together.

Miriam should have realized that some time outside would remedy the blues she had been feeling. Maybe she hadn’t understood how much the house had closed in on her lately. Maybe she didn’t appreciate how much a different perspective could help.

She was sitting under her favorite grove of trees—the same grove she’d sat under last October and watched as Gabe had harvested the crops, watched while she’d thought about the babe growing inside her. Somehow in her mind, this shady spot had become their special place. Even Rachel seemed to realize it. She played with the rattle from Rae—this one blue-and-yellow triangles with a cow’s head. It was the silliest-looking thing.

Rae was coming for lunch tomorrow. Miriam missed seeing her, and she couldn’t wait to hear all about the latest news story she was chasing—something about a string of robberies in the next district.

She spent an hour sewing, and Rachel soon fell asleep on the blanket. Miriam found the sense of peace she’d been chasing all week. She hadn’t found it while praying, and she certainly hadn’t found it while she’d done the chores inside. Perhaps she needed to be outside, out where God’s world had opened to summer’s bloom.

As she ran the needle and thread through an apron she was hemming for Grace, it occurred to her how silly she’d been. She could have gone outside and worked in her garden. In fact, she had worked there one afternoon when Grace had come home from school. And before that, last Saturday, she’d worked outside at the cabins.

The shaded spot under the trees was special, though—it was a balm to her heart. She would remember it next time she felt pressed down and out of sorts. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t walk out here anytime she wanted to come, though carrying Rachel and all their things so far might be a challenge. She’d need a wagon. Her baby girl was growing every day.

She did like watching the big horses and Gabe working behind them. One of the sorrels had a white stripe down his forehead. Grace had named him Gideon. The other two sorrels she’d named Big and Billy. The red might have been Miriam’s favorite. He was a velvety color, and Grace called him Prince. In the fall, Gabe hooked up the wagon behind the giant horses and they gathered the crops. She’d helped some, and it reminded her of when she was a child and in the fields with her father.

Remembering when she was a young girl, thinking back to the previous year, those things brought a lightness to her heart. When she’d first married Gabe, it had been so exciting just to walk by his side. Being in the fields with him again reminded her of who she had been. It helped her feel rooted, and it made her feel carefree once more.

She continued to sew, even found herself humming one of the hymns from Sunday’s service, and her worries slipped away with the light summer breeze.

The afternoon passed more quickly than she would have thought possible. She was surprised when Gabe pulled the horses to a stop and jumped down to join her.

“Rachel looks happy.”

“
Ya
. I guess the fresh air agrees with her.”

“Looks like it agrees with you too.”

Miriam tucked her sewing into the basket she’d brought, and then she gave her full attention to her husband. “
Danki
for sitting on the ground, Gabe.”

“Are you saying I’m too dirty to sit on your blanket?”

They both looked down at his pants, which had started out black
but were now a solid brown. He began laughing before she did, but soon Miriam found she couldn’t catch her breath. Their laughter felt good.

“You were right. I needed to get out of the house. The breeze, it feels nice. I think it blew some of my fears away.”

When he reached for her, he kissed her lightly at first, but it quickly grew in intensity until she found herself wishing they had more time and he wasn’t quite so dirty.

“It’s the sweat,” he said, jumping to his feet, reaching down, and pulling her up. “Makes me irresistible.”

“Is that so?”

“You watch. Tonight, you’ll fill Grace up with extra dessert so she’ll fall asleep early, and you won’t have any sewing because you finished it here. Rachel will sleep well, and then I’ll be proven correct.” He held Rachel as she folded the blanket. “You won’t be able to resist me.”

“So you’re promising to stay awake.”

“If you’ll make me a pot of strong
kaffi
with dinner—
ya
! I promise I can stay awake.”

He draped the blanket over his left arm and switched Rachel to that side. She squirmed but didn’t waken. “Mind if I walk you back?” he asked, snagging her hand.

“Mind?” Miriam picked up her sewing basket, feeling like the character in
Little Red Riding Hood
.

“We don’t even need to rush. We’ve several minutes before Grace comes, and the horses can use the rest. It will give us time to talk.”

So she told him about the thoughts she’d been chasing round and round in her mind, about how the radioactive iodine Abigail would be taking worked best with patients whose symptoms were mild. To her, Abigail’s symptoms seemed severe.

They spoke of his hopes for the summer crops, and how their donkey, Gus, had settled down—temporarily, at least.

Both expressed how happy they were that business at the cabins had picked up.

“Which reminds me.” Miriam stopped walking. “I meant to tell you about the
Englischer
who was there.”

“
Englischers
are supposed to be at the cabins. Hopefully more than one.”

She nudged him with her hip. He slipped an arm around her waist as they resumed walking up the back porch steps and sat looking out over the fields.

“It seems he’s bought some property nearby, and he wants to learn how to farm.”

“So?”

“He wants to learn how to farm the Amish way.”

“Huh.” Gabe leaned back against the porch post and closed his eyes.

“Don’t you think that’s rather odd?”

“What’s that?”

“Gabe?”

“
Ya?
”

Miriam nudged him with her foot. When he didn’t respond, she reached over and took Rachel from his arms.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because you were sleeping, and you were going to drop her.”

“I’d never drop her. What kind of
dat
do you think I am?”

Miriam stood and walked toward the back door. “A very tired one, and one who probably will not be able to keep his eyes open past dinner.”

“That’s why I need a small rest now.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Miriam?”

“Yes, Gabe?”

“Did the
Englischer
worry you?”

Now he was wide awake and studying her. Miriam realized that once again she’d misjudged her husband. When would she learn not to do that? It was a good thing he was a patient man. Even now, he watched her, waiting for an answer.

“It seemed odd, and when I walked up—at the same time that Lydia and Clara walked up—he stopped talking at all, which seemed even more suspicious. Clammed right up. Why do you suppose he would do that?”

“Could be he didn’t know what to say to three Amish women.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he was up to no good and actually has no intention of farming like Plain folk. Seemed an unlikely story to me.”

“I’ll speak with Aaron about it next time I see him.”

Miriam nodded and went into the house as Gabe stood and walked off to fetch his team and finish his day’s work in the fields.

She did feel better for her afternoon outside. The hours there had helped in more ways than one. They’d helped to uncover the little thing that had been bothering her memory—the strange visitor at the cabins and his odd request.

Farming the Amish way, indeed.

She wasn’t one to think badly of people, but she suspected that man was up to no good.

Chapter 27