Huckleberry Hill (11 page)

Eva soon returned with a fresh-faced young man who didn’t look any older than Mary. He had a husky build with a good attempt at a beard growing from his chin. He took one look at his wife and rushed to her side. “Mary, I was praying the whole time.”

Sarah nudged Lia’s elbow and led her outside. “Always gute to let them have some time alone, if you can.” She pulled a small round watch from her pocket and studied it. “Just the time I expected. You did well today. I could tell you was nervous, but you kept your head. That’s the most important thing. The mothers mustn’t be frightened more than they already are.”

“Sarah, you are a wonderful-gute midwife. No mother would fear anything with you there.”

Sarah waved off the compliment. “I don’t get ruffled hardly. My kids’ll tell you that much. When Joe cut his finger clean off last fall, I packed his whole hand in ice and put his finger in a cooler and took him to the hospital. No use to panic. Panic only causes mistakes. And Joe would have been a whole sight more afraid if I was afraid. They sewed his finger back on, no harm done.”

Sarah pulled out her watch again as they saw Moses’s buggy bounce up the dirt road. “Ten minutes late.” She folded her arms. “Arlene Bontrager might deliver in two weeks. I’ll send for you.”

Lia felt as if she could float with the clouds. “Thank you, Sarah. I would be so thrilled.”

“Read the rest of that book. You still have much to learn.” She waved and moved toward the cabin. “I’ll let you cut the cord next time and listen to the heartbeat.”

“Do you want me to help you finish cleaning up?”

“Nae, not much left and you don’t want to keep Moses waiting. He’s spent enough of his day driving you places.” Sarah furrowed her brow. “Ask Mammi if I can come by on Saturday at dinnertime. Twelve thirty. I’ll bring sandwiches. And make sure that girl is away so we can talk about her.”

“That girl? You mean my sister?”

“Jah, that one. Can you arrange it?”

Lia stifled a smile at Sarah’s plain-spokenness. “I will do my best.”

Sarah pinned Lia with a stern eye. “It’s no use me coming all the way out there if that girl is to home. Make sure she ain’t.”

“I will.”

The cabin door gave an ear-piercing groan as Sarah opened it. “And tell Moses he owes me a visit. The boys have been asking for him.”

 

 

Lia stood at the front of the cabin waiting for Moses. His pounding heart rushed way out ahead of the buggy. After the morning spent with Rachel, he was astonished at how eager he felt to see Lia.

Her smile could have melted the ice on White Clay Lake in the dead of winter. Her cheeks glowed, and her brown eyes seemed to possess their own fire. Moses’s chest ached with the desire to see her this happy every day. She deserved to be happy.

He motioned for her to come, and she darted around the horse and hopped into the buggy. “Do you need to water the horse?” she said.

“Nae. We stopped a mile back. I thought I might be early. How did it go?”

Lia put her palm to her cheek. “Am I flushed? I feel flushed.”

Moses tore his gaze away from her to turn the horse. “You are glowing.”

She picked up her book that sat on the seat between them and clutched it to her chest. “It was a miracle, Moses. I felt confident enough to be a help to Sarah. And she said I was.”

Her excitement only succeeded in lending heightened color to her cheeks and brightness to her eyes. Moses couldn’t look away. “Well, Sarah doesn’t sugarcoat her praise, you can be sure of that.”

“Are we taking a different way home?”

Moses snapped his head around. In his distraction he’d barely noticed the reins, and the horse had taken it upon himself to trot down a side path that led deeper into the woods. “Oops, I wasn’t paying attention.” The woods grew thicker the farther they went. “I don’t see a place to turn around.”

“There is bound to be a wide spot sooner or later.”

Moses scanned the muddy lane ahead. “Either that or we will end up in Canada.”

“I hear Canada is lovely this time of year.”

“Okay, we will keep going while you tell me about your morning.”

Lia blushed and looked away. “You don’t have to hear my stories.”

“You’re my prisoner until you decide to get out of this buggy and walk. You might as well talk.”

She grinned, and Moses caught a glimpse of those white teeth. “Mary was very brave. My book says some mothers scream and holler and call the midwife all sorts of names.”

“It must be unbearable pain.”

“After seeing it, I can imagine it would be.”

“I don’t know them,” Moses said. “Are they Swartzentruber?”

“Jah.”

The Swartzentruber sect had broken off from the Old Order Amish almost a hundred years ago. Their lifestyle was primitive with no indoor plumbing, more conservative dress, and stricter rules for traveling. Most Swartzentrubers kept to themselves, but some made no bones about their contempt for less conservative Amish. Because of the strictness of their church, their youth tended to be extremely wild during rumschpringe. Or at least that was Moses’s observation. He didn’t know many Swartzentruber.

“The cabin was cozy, but they live so far from anyone,” Lia said. “I would miss not having neighbors.”

Moses trained his eyes out the front window. “We seem to be curving west. I don’t know that this path leads anywhere. It probably goes for another three miles and ends at a tall, thick pine in the middle of the road. I might have to get out and walk Sammy backward.”

Moses stopped the buggy where a stream crossed the overgrown path. “I think this is the stream I saw from the road coming in. I’ll have a look around while Sammy gets a sip of water.”

He jumped out of the buggy and Lia followed. Trees grew thick on either side of the narrow path. Birds and crickets and a thousand other creatures filled the woods with sound, a hum of life that Moses found comforting.

Moses hiked farther down the path to see if it promised to lead them home. No sign of a better road or even a place to turn around. He turned back.

Lia had taken the blanket out of his buggy and spread it on the ground next to the stream. She held out a brown paper sack. “I forgot that I brought my dinner and left it in your buggy. Do you want to share? It’s a nice spot for a picnic.”

“What did you bring?”

“Peanut butter and honey sandwich, apple, Anna’s ginger snaps.”

“Milk?” Moses asked. Couldn’t eat Mammi’s ginger snaps without soaking them first.

“No milk.”

Moses couldn’t suppress a smile. Lia looked so pretty standing there in the filtered sunlight of midday. “We might have to save the sandwich to leave a trail of bread crumbs in case we are lost for weeks in the wilderness.”

Lia laughed and sat down on the blanket. “I have a gute sense of direction. We won’t get lost.”

Sharing a meal with Lia without being pestered by her little sister was too tempting an offer to pass up. Lia didn’t expect a proposal. She didn’t even want a proposal.

Moses felt a catch in his breath. That thought didn’t make him happy today.

She gazed at him and cocked an eyebrow. “Annoyed?”

Moses wiped the frown from his face. He would have to stop betraying that particular emotion.

“Annoyed that I can’t find a way out of the woods.”

He sat next to her, and she handed him half the sandwich. “You’ll think better on a full stomach.”

“I feel bad eating half your lunch. It could be days before we eat again.”

Lia giggled. “If this is my last meal, I’m going to enjoy it.” She took a big bite of her sandwich.

“Delicious,” Moses said. “You are a very gute cook.”

Lia leaned back on her hand. “Even though we’re lost, I’m so happy. I have you to thank for a wonderful-gute day.”

“Don’t look at me. Sarah wouldn’t have agreed to it if she didn’t like you. I knew she would.” Moses couldn’t imagine anyone not liking Lia at first meeting.

Her piercing gaze made his heart do a little jig beneath his rib cage. “Do you have a pocketknife?” she said. “I will slice this apple.”

Moses handed her his knife. Warmth spread up his arm when her skin touched his. He squeezed his fingers into a fist. What a childish, teenage reaction!

Lia cut a wedge out of the apple and handed it to him. “Did you take Rachel back to Huckleberry Hill?”

Moses cringed. He didn’t want to talk about Rachel. He might say something he regretted right in front of her sister.

Lia studied his face. “Would you rather I not ask how things are going with Rachel?”

“Things are not going with Rachel.”

She lowered her eyes and concentrated on slicing the apple. “If you want a chance with her, make her believe she is chasing you. She likes that.”

Her words stung more than Moses cared to admit. “Are you saying you want me to court her?”

Lia would not meet his eyes. “Dat said it is my responsibility.”

“To marry me off to Rachel?”

“Anna and Felty want you to marry her.”

Moses wanted to protest, but after Mammi had insisted that Rachel come along today, he wasn’t so sure. He took the apple from Lia’s hand and laid it on the blanket. Then he placed both hands on Lia’s arms. She opened wide her eyes and pressed her lips together. He had her attention. “Lia, you have always been honest with me. Do you want me to marry Rachel?”

“If you want to marry Rachel, I won’t interfere.”

“That’s not what I asked. Do you want me to marry Rachel?”

She picked up one of Mammi’s ginger snaps and rolled it in her open hand like a pebble. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

“Apparently it doesn’t matter what I want either. And why won’t you answer my question?”

“Before I do, you must be honest with me. Do you want to marry Rachel?”

Moses took off his hat and shoved his fingers through his hair. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I have no interest in your sister.”

Lia sighed as if she had been holding her breath for an hour. “Really?”

“I told her so this morning.”

“What did she say?”

Moses growled under his breath. “She didn’t believe me.”

Lia’s face exploded into a grin and she laughed—deep, throaty laughs that soon produced tears.

In puzzled amusement, Moses watched her until she calmed down enough to speak. “Rachel has never been rejected in her life. She thought you were teasing.”

“Are you angry that I don’t want to marry her?”

Lia wiped her eyes and let out a leftover giggle. “No. Of course not.”

Moses thought that he had never heard better news in his life.

She knit her brows together. “But I am surprised. Rachel is pretty. I was certain you would be interested.”

Moses shook his head. “Jah, she is pretty. But do you think I am that foolish, to want a pretty wife and nothing else? The Lord doesn’t see as man sees. He looks on the heart.”

“Dat quotes that scripture often. It is his way of reminding me that since I am plain, I had better be nice.”

Moses felt the indignation rise up in him like a boiling saucepan of jelly. “You’re not plain.”

“Rachel is the pretty one.”

This time Moses took her hand and squeezed it so she would understand how wrong she was. He ignored the sensation of warmth pulsing through his veins. She lowered her eyes and stared at his fingers intertwined with hers. “Lia, you are like one of the angels of heaven the way you take care of my grandparents. I am very grateful. But don’t believe for one minute that you are not pretty.”

She started to protest, but he cut her off. “Prettier than Rachel.”

“You are just being silly now.”

“Nae,” Moses protested. “I’ve been places with you. I see how boys stare at you, wishing they were taller or wishing they knew who you were. You are lovely, and I won’t let go of your hand until you admit it.”

He shouldn’t have made such a threat. The sensation of her hand in his traveled up his arm and tingled at his lips. He couldn’t muster any rational thought as the desire to kiss her ambushed him and made his head spin.

Her irresistible lips curled slightly. “You’ll never make me believe it, even if you hold my hand until it falls off.”

He couldn’t stop staring at her mouth even as she pulled away from him. Moses quickly released her hand and began massaging the whiskers on his chin in hopes of rubbing away any thought of planting his lips on hers.

Lia turned her face away and fiddled with the hem of her apron. “Don’t tell Rachel what I said. She and Dat would never forgive me. Besides, you could still fall in love with her.”

Moses stood and brushed off his trousers and reached out his hand to pull Lia to her feet. “I am not looking to marry.” Clearing his throat, he walked to the buggy and mentally measured its width. “If I guide Sammy between those two trees, then go backward, the buggy will make it around those bushes. I’ll need to go forward and back about ten times, but I think we can get turned around by Christmas yet.”

“That is a very gute plan.”

Moses discovered that he couldn’t turn his gaze away. Good he was so loyal to Barbara or he would be in serious danger.

Chapter Eleven

“Why do I have to go? I hate smelly feed stores, and that wagon is torture to ride in.”

Ever since her excursion to Moses’s cheese factory on Wednesday, Rachel had resolved to stay close to Huckleberry Hill in case Moses decided to drop by and ask to take her for a ride. She was sure every minute of every day that Moses would come up the lane in a courting buggy and whisk her away from her dull and unnecessary chores. She spent hours sitting by the big window hoping for the first glimpse of the man destined to be her husband.

Unruffled by Rachel’s tantrum, Anna kneaded her bread dough and smiled her innocent smile. “I suppose Lia could go with Felty.”

“Yes, let Lia go. I can’t lift those feed bags.”

“You will need to scrub the toilet and bathtub while she’s gone.”

“I’m not good at toilets. The cleanser makes my hands chappy.”

Anna didn’t even look up as she handed Lia the loaf pans to be greased. “I’ve known Moses to visit the feed store on a Saturday morning. Lia, you should take a plate of cookies in case you run into him.”

Lia felt that familiar prick of rejection that Anna wanted Moses to marry Rachel instead of her, but today they really did need Rachel gone, so any method Anna wanted to use was acceptable.

Rachel tore her attention from the window. “Oh, Anna. Why didn’t you say so? Of course I’ll go. I haven’t seen Moses for three days. I’m surprised he doesn’t spend more time here.”

Anna deftly formed her dough into three loaves. “He’s very busy. Hardly has time to breathe.”

They heard Felty singing before he came into the house. “
Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eyes upon the rail.
” He stamped his boots on the rug inside the door. “Wagon’s hitched. You ready, Rachel?”

Rachel leaped from her perch by the window and retrieved a paper plate from the cupboard. She quickly loaded the plate with more than half the cookies Lia had baked that morning. “Moses will love these. I’ll see that he puts some meat on those bones yet.” She quickly covered them with plastic wrap. “Don’t have too much fun here without me,” she said as she followed Felty out the door.

Peering out the window, Anna sighed as she watched Rachel hop into Felty’s wagon as if she were going to a picnic. “Next time we will go to Sarah’s house. I had to do seventeen somersaults to get Rachel out of here.”

Lia twitched her lips downward. “At least maybe she will get to see Moses.”

Anna waved her hands in the air as if swatting a fly. “Oh, fiddle. Moses never goes to the feed store.”

“You told a fib?”

“Jah, a fib. It couldn’t be helped, and I can repent later.”

Lia couldn’t keep the smile from her face. “Anna, you are a wonder.”

“When I get to the other side, I’ll say, ‘Lord, I was too old to know any better.’”

They heard a sound outside, and Lia moved to the window. “Sarah’s here.” She drove an open-air buggy with room for two people—sometimes used as a courting buggy.

Anna glanced at her clock on the wall. “Right on time. Sarah is prompt as the sunrise.”

With the speed born of constant practice, Sarah unhitched the horse and led him to the small corral to the side of the barn. Lia stood at the door waiting for her when she made her way to the house.

Sarah placed a paper grocery sack on the table and gave Anna an enormous hug. “Mammi, you look very well.”

“Lia is taking good care of us,” Anna said.

“It is gute to have a youngster here looking after you.” Sarah motioned toward the window. “I passed that girl going down the hill with Dawdi. How long will they be gone?”

“At least an hour,” Anna said. “Probably longer. Felty’s been given strict instructions to dawdle.”

“Gute.” Sarah picked up her sack. “I thought I would make cucumber mayonnaise sandwiches.”

“My favorite,” Anna said.

Lia wondered if defective taste buds ran in the Helmuth family. Cucumber and mayonnaise sandwiches? It was a very good thing Rachel was not here.

Sarah refused to let Lia help her as she peeled and chopped cucumbers, sliced the bread, and spread mayonnaise. She put one sandwich on each of three plates plus a handful of potato chips and clusters of grapes from her grocery bag.

They sat at the table and said silent grace. Then Anna and Sarah both dug in to their sandwiches. Lia wasn’t so sure, so she popped a grape in her mouth to prepare herself.

Anna dabbed her lips with a napkin. “Lia, did you know that Sarah is my oldest grandchild? Born three years before my youngest daughter, Ruth Anne.”

“How many grandchildren do you have?”

“Sixty-four and ninety-six great-grandchildren. By the end of the year we will have ninety-nine greats.”

“And one great-great,” said Sarah. “My daughter Beth is expecting.”

Lia took a bite of cucumber sandwich. It tasted surprisingly refreshing and delicious. “That is a wonderful posterity.”

Sarah finished half of her sandwich and wiped her hands on her napkin. “Now, Mammi, I come today to set you straight.”

Anna flashed a wide smile. “I’m happy that you came at all.”

“Moses said you sent that girl to help me with Yoder’s baby.”

Anna’s smile did not fade. “I suppose I did.”

Sarah folded her arms across her chest. “You know how touchy I am about who I let sit in. I allow Lia to help because she’s got the temperament for it, and she’s done her reading. I won’t let that girl barge in and think she can interfere.”

Anna patted Sarah’s hand. “I had my reasons.”

When Anna didn’t elaborate, Sarah said, “Well, what are they?”

“I guessed you wouldn’t let Rachel go in. I wanted Moses to have some time to get to know her.”

Hearing the truth from Anna’s own mouth proved more painful than Lia could have imagined. She almost choked out her next words. “She wants Moses to marry my sister.”

Anna snapped her head around as her eyes grew big as saucers. “What are you saying, dear?”

Lia felt her face get warm. “I saw the letter you wrote Dat. You wanted me to come back to Huckleberry Hill so Moses and Rachel would have more time for courting.”

Alarm leaped into Anna’s eyes. “Oh, my dear. No wonder you have been moping about since you returned. I never meant for you to see that letter.”

“Don’t be troubled about it. I am glad I can help you and Felty even if you don’t think I am good enough for your grandson.”

Anna reached over and wrapped her hand around Lia’s wrist. “You are quite mistaken. I have never for one minute changed my mind about who I want Moses to marry. I knew your fater would not agree to send you back unless I gave him a gute reason. Rachel told me what his plans were, and I knew what I needed to write in my letter to convince him.”

Warmth spread through Lia’s entire body. “You told my dat a fib?”

Anna waved her arms in the air. “I’ll tell the Lord that my handwriting’s bad. How could Owen tell for sure what I wrote in that note?”

“But why did you insist Rachel come with us on Wednesday?”

Anna lowered her voice even though there were only the three of them within a mile. “I can’t find it in my heart to like your sister very much. Don’t be angry.”

“I am not angry.”

“I am putting pressure on that grandson of mine. I knew if he spent the day with Rachel, he would see how different she is from you—that he would realize what a wonderful-gute girl you are and ask you to marry him.”

Lia couldn’t smile wide enough. They’d never wanted Moses to marry Rachel. They still valued her even though she wasn’t as petite or as pretty as Rachel. Her spirit soared.

Anna pressed her lips together. “But he is fighting it harder than I thought he would.”

Lia scooted her chair closer and put her arm around Anna. “I do not expect him to like me. He told me on the day we met that he does not want to marry.”

“He only thinks he doesn’t want to marry,” Anna said.

Sarah crinkled her napkin in her fist. “When a man’s heart gets broke that bad, he ain’t likely to snap out of it fast.”

“It’s been three years,” said Anna, “and Lia is so much better than that one.”

In shock, Lia looked at Sarah. “What happened?”

“Moses and Barbara Gingerich were published. Published even. But she kept dabbling in the world and finally decided to leave the church. Moses tried to persuade her to stay. He even told her she could keep getting her magazines after they were married. But in the end, she didn’t love him enough to stay. That’s what stung the worst, I expect.”

“And Moses ain’t one to spend his love lightly,” Anna said. “If he commits to someone, they’ve got his whole heart, nothing held back. He doesn’t hand it over easy, and he’s more loyal than a bird dog. I expect he still feels beholden to Barbara after three years.”

Lia’s mouth went dry. Moses loved someone else?

“He used to get a letter from her every week,” Sarah said.

“She wanted to keep him hoping even though we all knew she would never come back. Adam hasn’t said anything about the letters for months. I think she finally quit writing.”

Sarah shook her head. “Mammi, I know you mean well for Moses, but what if Lia doesn’t want him? Are you setting him up to have his heart broken all over again?”

“Moses doesn’t want to marry me,” Lia said, her heart sinking even as she voiced it.

Annoyance flashed in Sarah’s eyes. “Stuff and nonsense. Your problem is that you sell yourself short at every turn. If you can’t make him change his mind, nobody will.”

“It’s all right,” Lia said. “Don’t worry about my feelings. I don’t think I will ever marry. I’m too tall.”

Sarah snorted. “Too tall for Moses? What are you thinking?”

The room got hot. “I told him I wouldn’t have him,” she whispered.

Anna and Sarah stared at her as words seemed to fail them.

Lia shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “He told me he’s not looking to marry, and I told him I wouldn’t have someone so arrogant to assume I wanted to marry him.”

“What did he say?”

“He was relieved.”

Anna seemed to consider this good news. The laugh lines around her mouth deepened as she turned to Sarah. “They’ve talked about marriage.”

Sarah leaned her elbows on the table. “Now, Mammi. Matchmaking is dangerous. What if Moses decides to marry that blond girl?”

“I think I wouldn’t allow him on my property again.”

“And what if Lia decides to marry one of your other grandsons? I count five of marriageable age.”

“Lia is meant for Moses.”

“I am here on Huckleberry Hill to help Anna and Felty, not find a husband. I never expected to.”

Sarah wrinkled her forehead. “Moses might break Lia’s heart. Or Lia will break his.”

Lia felt a little silly talking about something that couldn’t possibly happen. “I promise to never break Moses’s heart.”

Sarah pointed a finger at her. “I hold you to that promise.”

 

 

Lia stopped scrubbing and lifted her head. There was that strange tapping noise again. She looked around the bathroom. Was it coming from the sink? The drain sometimes gurgled when Anna turned on the water in the kitchen.

She poured more cleanser on her scrub brush and swished it back and forth until a louder tapping startled her and the scrub brush thudded to the bottom of the tub. She scanned the room again and saw a movement at the small window above the toilet. In puzzlement, she gingerly stood on the toilet seat, pushed open the hinged window, and stuck her head out.

Below the bathroom window, the foundation rose halfway aboveground. Moses stood in a thicket of alder shrubs and huckleberry bushes with his hand reaching to the sky.

Lia couldn’t help but smile every time she saw him. “Moses, what are you doing down there? Come through the front door like normal folks.”

He put his finger to his lips. “Shh. Sarah wants me to take you to Bontragers. Arlene is having her baby.”

Lia did her best to contain her laughter as Moses shushed her. “Is it a big secret?”

“Nae, but if Rachel finds out, she’ll want to come with us, and Mammi will make me take her. Can you sneak out of the house? My buggy is halfway down the lane.”

Maybe it wasn’t right, but Lia felt so giddy she could have giggled for three days. “I’ll be there before you are.”

She fastened the catch on the window and jumped down from the toilet. After quickly rinsing the cleanser from the tub, she stowed the cleaning supplies underneath the sink. Lia slipped into her room and packed a few things in her bag before scurrying down the hall. Rachel lay on her bed picking lint from a pair of her black stockings. “Who were you talking to?”

Lia didn’t have the time or the inclination to fabricate an explanation. “The clothes should be brought down from the line.”

“I will get to it. It’s too warm to go out right now.”

She found Anna in the kitchen studying her new recipe book. “Anna,” she whispered, “Sarah is asking for me, and Moses is here with his buggy. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Anna’s eyes lit up. She bustled to the closet and pulled out a tiny pair of knitted white booties. “For the new baby.”

Lia took them and laid them carefully in her bag. “Denki, Anna. The baby’s first gift.”

Both Anna and Lia jumped when they heard Rachel calling from her room. “You better be off,” said Anna. “I don’t have a strong enough grip to stop her if she gets it in her head to go.”

Lia slipped out the door so quietly she didn’t even hear herself. She ran until the bushes blocked the sight of her from the house. Then she skipped down the lane to where Moses stood patiently waiting for her.

His smile was like a bonfire on a frosty evening.