Abram's Daughters 01 The Covenant (27 page)

It was on the day that Englishers celebrate love Valen< tine's Day that Sadie decided she could keep her secret no longer. She and Leah were putting on their flannel nighi gowns, and Sadie was straining to see the side view of herscll271

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} the small mirror at the dresser. "Leah, do you think I'm lining weight?" she asked.

"How could that be? You're as thin as a rail."

B "But, no, seriously, look at me," she insisted, wondering if Bjf sister would notice any difference in her shape. "Am I Rygcr . . . anywhere?"

B Leah shook her head, laughing softly. "What're you getHkg at, sister? You look the same as always." H Silting on the edge of the bed, Sadie breathed in deeply. Hj()W was the time. She simply must tell Leah about the preHgu.s babe inside her. What should she say, and how to say H? After all, Leah hadn't had nearly five months to become jCUNtomed to the idea of a baby as she herself had. So she HilHl be more guarded, careful to express the regret, even BMef, she'd felt at her first knowing, back in mid-October. But HfiW . . . now she was ever so eager to hold her tiny baby in Hpr arms, cradle him, rock him, whisper "I love you" in his Ktle ears. Yet she wondered how Leah would take such news. H Well, she'd never know if she didn't get the nerve to Beitk up, and in the next minute or so. Leah was heading for Be oil lamp flow, ready to snuff it out. . . .

"Sister," she said softly. "There's something I want to tell

leu."

B Leah turned, a frown on her face at first. Then when

H

idle motioned for her to sit beside her, she came quickly,

yen animated. "What is it?"

I ")ust listen, Leah. . . ."

I

p "Have you met a boy, someone who wants to court you?"

imkcd Leah.

Sadie wasn't taken aback at that remark. After all, it was ii itnfural thing for a younger sister to be thinking such things,

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really ... for Leah to feel awkward at being nearly engaged and here Sadie was almost nineteen and without a beau, 01 even the promise of one.

Reaching for Leah's hand, she clasped it tightly. "Whin I'm goin' to say will be so awful hard for you to take at firsi It was truly that for me." She paused, stroking Leah's inno cent hand. "I have done wickedness, sinned in the eyes of ilic Lord and this family. Oh, Leah, my sweet sister, how do I Irll you that I ... am with child?"

The room was still, the light from a winter moon on iltc snowy landscape bright enough to show clearly Leah':, stunned expression. "Ach, Sadie . . . what're you saying?"

"Do you remember that English boy I told you 'bout hi.si fall? Well, we ... he and I..." She could not make herscll speak the words.

"Oh, this is too awful!" Leah blurted.

Sadie shushed her sister gently. "Best not alert the wbolc family to this just yet," she said, but she understood Leah':, shock. She reached out and gathered Leah near. "I'm sorry you hafta know this . . . that you have such an immoral sisti'i as I am," she whispered.

For the longest time Leah seemed unable to speak, smirk dumb with anguish, weeping softly into the pillow. "How could you do such a thing, Sadie?" she said at last.

Then they curled up together in their childhood bed, beneath ancient quilts sewn by the honorable and ju.si women on both the Ebersol and Brenneman sides. Ami

Sadie, sapped of strength, said no more, realizing anew tlii:. evil thing she'd done to bring such shame on herself ... and her dear family.

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B Abram was awake and had just come back from the outpie, the light from the moon's reflection on the snow in ly blinding his tired eyes. Making his way up the stairs, I heard the sound of sniffling coming from the bedroom Bri'd by Sadie and Leah.

I Not pausing in the least, he headed straight to his and I'h room, settling into bed next to his wife. He was awful m It was Leah who was crying. Jah, it was Leah. But why? I He felt sudden wrenching guilt at what he'd gone and fcf just this afternoon, using a pay telephone in Strasburg

Id a life-changing deed in motion. Of course, there was I wny in the world Leah could know just yet, not this soon, t he'd placed a call to Fannie Mast's married cousin out in Bio, Seemed easy enough when all was said and done. Jonas Nl would be getting a letter, being offered a job as a carfclcr's apprentice in Holmes County.

11 Leah ever found out what Abram had done, she'd be

- >ir than angry, beside herself with grief, which is how she

iiluled just now. But Fannie's cousin had vowed that no one

mid be told of his and Abram's quiet conversation this day.

Hn Abram let* his thoughts drift toward sleep, knowing

M si uck his neck out, more certain than ever of his choice I .1 mate for his most precious Leah.

11 was pitch black in the haymow. Leah crept up the long

I'lilrr and hid herself away in the depths of the night while

Hhi' -expectant, unmarried mother slept back in the

iiisc. As sisters, they had held each other till Leah slipped

I'.iy, needing to be alone with her thoughts.

I'raught with worry, she sat there in the corner, where hay is wracked in even rectangular shapes, where only the sound

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of a mule's sighing broke the stillness. One of a half do/m barn cats found her and curled up in her lap.

It's all my fault this horrid mess Sadie's in. I should've inU on her while there was still time to save her purity. If only /M known. . . .

Leah knew for sure ... if she could simply turn back tinu, ach, she'd do it in a second promptly run and tell Dat ilini her sister was in danger of hellfire.

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March I, 1947

It's not so hard to believe that I've been writing in my new ilhiry for two full months now. Mamma sometimes will glance in/(i my bedroom through my open door, looking at me with a jnruliar grin and see me writing away so fast in my little book. Shi1 mustn't worry that I'm practicing my hand at being a writer, trying to develop individuality, so opposed by the bishop. I lull's best done, with my embroidery, if I must reach for creativity at all. Mamma doesn't have to worry over me, not like s/ir'([ have to with Mary Ruth after eighth grade, come next

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Won't be much longer and we'll see if Mamma's baby is our \istcr or brother. 1 must admit, 1 won't begin to know what to i In with a little brother. After four girls in the house . . . just In m1 would that be?

Mamma's constantly happy these days. Dat's the one out of '.oi in more than ever before. And Leah is, too. Honestly, I don't loui'W what's gotten into m/y older sisters. The eldest is so pleasiml lo me and to Mary Ruth. Sadie has made a change in

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herself, I should say, now that she's through with rumschpringe. It's Leah who's so awful glum. Just how could they switch places like that?

But I'm thinking that Jonas will make Leah a right nice husband. He's over here visiting on Saturday nights, and I'm sure he's the boy bringing Leah home from the singings every other Sunday. He loves her a lot. I can see it in his eyes, before we get shooed out of the kitchen come nightfall. Mary Ruth and I hope Leah won't go getting married next autumn, like we suspect she might. Why? Well, it would be nice to have our happy little house snug with all four sisters staying put for a while yet. Of course, with a new little sibling coming along soon, things might just be a bit topsy-turvy anyways.

That's all for now.

Hannah Ebersol

Mary Ruth waited after school to chat with the teacher mi the Georgetown School. "I'm wondering if I might get some extra assignments?" she asked. "I'm fascinated with mathematics."

"Well, let's see what I can do, Miss Ebersol." Flipping through her large math textbook, Miss Riehl found many pages of math problems. "Here . . . why don't you copy these down and work them at home?"

"Thank you ever so much!"

"I'll check your work when you're finished."

"I'll do them tonight," she promised.

"No need to hurry." The teacher sat down behind lu-i desk.

"Oh, but there is" And Mary Ruth began to explain lu-i goals for the future, pouring out her heart about her hope <>l becoming a schoolteacher someday. "But . . . please, will you keep this between us?"

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H Miss Riehl's face shone. She seemed to understand. "I'll H|]p you nil I can, Mary Ruth."

H Haying thank'you yet again, Mary Ruth hurried to the H}m where Hannah was waiting. Together they walked to the tWhII parking lot, watching for their ride.

"Well, didja do it?" Hannah asked, eyes smiling. "You'll never believe how much extra work Miss RiehlM'lv me!"

"I'm so happy for you."

The girls exchanged tender glances. "I don't know how I'll manage sometimes if I didn't have you to share with," Maty Ruth told her twin.

I lannah nodded. "Will we always have each other?" Mary Ruth heard her sister's sad desperation. The question came deep from Hannah's heart, from a girl who most llU'ly would settle into the community of the People, never Inquisitive about the outside world, while her twin sought to \u\In as much knowledge as her brain could hold.

The day the Ohio letter arrived in the Mast mailbox, |.iii,is was driving down their lane in the enclosed family ' '"KKSY. running an errand over to Bart. He'd thought of simply I \ passing the mail, letting one of his sisters come fetch it for i liiinina . . . but stopping, he hurried to see just what might I ! in store for the family on this snowy end-of-March day.

I'lipping through the mail, he noticed several from Willow Street and one from Ninepoints, notes from girl cousins iiiul friends of Rebekah and Katie, probably, since his sisters

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enjoyed writing letters the most. Except for Mamma, wliml been writing a lot here lately, she'd told him, to Ida Ebersol his future mother-in-law. Mamma had said just recently ikii the two families were getting much closer "just since the ln-.i get-together back in August." Well, he couldn't agree mon , especially if Mamma and Dat had any idea just how mum trips a month he made over to Gobbler's Knob to see In Leah.

The envelope that made him stand straighter, take notice, was one addressed to him, the postmark being from Miller?, burg, Ohio. "Who lives clear out there?" he muttered to him self, hurrying back to the carriage to get out of the cold.

Once inside, he closed the buggy door and scanned the contents, which revealed, to his great surprise, an invitation from his mother's cousin, David Mellinger, an expert carpeli ter. And ... of all things, Jonas was being asked to conskln coming there and working for David "till your pop's apjilt are ready for picking early next fall."

Six months away from home?

Instantly, his first thoughts were of Leah, how much hr\| miss her for that long a time. What might his leaving do to their plans to take the required baptism instruction before th< fall wedding season? He hated to think of telling Leah of the opportunity. Not that it wasn't one of the best kinds of offVi-. a young man his age could receive from a seasoned carpenter and all. The very thing he'd always dreamed of doing!

But this letter coming now . . . well, it was just so untimely. Still, he couldn't dismiss Cousin David's invitation. He mulled over the ins and outs of such an adventure all the rest of the day.

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Smithy Gid was well aware of the warm April morning

Infers' Day" frolic happening at the house. Mam had filed all the Ebersol women, as well as their aunt Lizzie, .-r for a Saturday of making rag rugs. Adah and Dorcas had

< 'Iked excitedly about the idea of doing such a thing for the i mi; week, then last evening at the supper table had gently Mi'niiruged both him and Dat to "make yourselves scarce," I"' (.[iris giggling too much at the remark for his liking.

l\ut he'd followed their wishes, taking great pains not to m-ar the house after breakfast, tending to Fritzi and her

oik! batch of pedigree pups, now three weeks old. He fed i,iln to the four Black Angus he and Dat were fattening for

'In* butcher here in the next few weeks, then offered to help in lather in the blacksmith shop. But Dat seemed preoccut i'-i |, saying he didn't need a hand. Not today, at least, which in downright peculiar, seeing as how Dat was always in need i something wjhen it came to shoeing so many driving horses n. i Ik- Plain community.

By Gid's calculations, his German shepherd pups were

11 we to being weaned, in which case he could start contact'

" i|( the folk who'd agreed to purchase at least five of the litter.

I I o other two, well, he hadn't decided if he ought to adveri i-.t; for them or not. He liked to amuse himself by thinking ' I nit Leah might do or say if he offered the gentlest one, with

I1 n; pettiest markings, to her as a present, for no particular i" .inon. He knew better than to step out of bounds with Leah I IhthoI, but with word that Jonas Mast might possibly be li'iiding out to Ohio for a time, working as a carpenter's

t '

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apprentice . . . well, now, this news had surely come out < il nowhere.

When he'd asked his father about it, the only thing snld was "Don't know much of this, son. But. . . let's just see wh.'i comes of it." So it sounded like maybe Dat did know soim thing, though Gid wasn't in the habit of questioning In father, even if only in his thoughts.

Leah felt ever so dismal. Her sister's words kept on ringini1 in her ears, even though now it had been nearly two monllr since Sadie's shocking revelation. She wished she'd ncvn promised to keep quiet about Sadie and her English be;m Never!

Although Leah and Jonas shared most everything, Lenli continued to keep her sister's secret from him. And from Pi n and Mamma, too. Only once had she come close to sharing it with Aunt Lizzie, but she'd thought better of it, feeling m was Sadie's place to do so. Besides, there was nothing anyon. could do.

Sadie would have to be the one to tell their parents, aiul perty soon, because she wouldn't be able to keep it from them forever. Leah had seen her sister's body slowly changing, espc cially in the soft glow of the oil lamp, when they dressed Im bed at night.