Huckleberry Hill (12 page)

Chapter Twelve

“Well, he’s here—come to set you straight, Lia. I hope you’re satisfied.”

Rachel sat at her usual place at the window while Lia put the finishing touches on the peach pie for dessert tonight. Lia didn’t even bat an eye. Why would Moses want to set her straight?

Rachel jumped from her seat and opened the door. A feather could have knocked Lia over as her dat walked into the kitchen. Rachel squealed and threw her arms around him. He patted her on the back and then took off his hat when she let go of him.

“Dat,” Lia said. “Rachel didn’t mention you were coming for a visit.”

Dat took a few steps into the kitchen and gazed around the room. “I came to check up on you, to see if you two were treating each other well. Where are Anna and Felty?”

Rachel sauntered to the sofa and sat down. “They’re out in the garden. Come sit down, Dat.”

Lia covered her pie with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. “Who brought you up here?”

“David Groen. He’ll be back at six to pick me up. I told Rachel I would be staying for supper. I’m sorry she didn’t tell you I was coming.”

“I wanted everyone to be surprised,” Rachel said, looking like a guilty child with an unpleasant secret. “Moses will be here too.”

Dat sat down next to Rachel. “Gute. I made a special effort to come today because you said he’s always here on Thursdays.”

Lia felt indignation bubble up inside her that Dat and Rachel were scheming against poor Moses. She hated to see how uncomfortable it made Moses to always be dodging Rachel’s advances.

Taking a deep breath, Lia let the anger pass through her like water through a sieve. They couldn’t help themselves. Who wouldn’t want to scheme for Moses Zimmerman? Besides, Moses could take care of himself. If Rachel succeeded in drawing him in, then he deserved what he got.

Dat leaned back on the sofa and draped his arm over the back of it. “Tell me all about Bonduel. What is the gmay like? Is the district small?”

“Thirteen families,” said Rachel, “but there are probably fifteen widows on top of that. Mostly old people.”

“No suitable boys?”

Lia dried her hands and hesitantly sat in Anna’s rocker. She knew she should be sociable, especially for Dat’s first visit to Huckleberry Hill, but if Rachel and Dat wanted to talk about boys, Lia had no interest. And she still needed to put together a meatloaf.

“Besides Moses, there isn’t much. Four or five boys of the right age, but one is fat and the others aren’t at all good-looking. Moses is really the only one, but he is the right one, so it doesn’t matter about the rest.”

Dat and Rachel shared a meaningful look that Lia was not up to interpreting. Then Dat patted Rachel on the leg, leaned forward, and propped his elbows on his knees. He pinned his gaze on Lia and frowned.

“Lia, I came because Rachel tells me you’ve been inconsiderate of her feelings.” He shook a finger at her. “This selfishness must stop.”

His accusations struck Lia quite mute. Inconsiderate? Selfish? Was she not doing enough of Rachel’s chores?

Dat kept wagging his finger as if Lia wouldn’t pay attention otherwise. “I sent you up here to make sure Moses falls in love with Rachel, and you’ve been sneaking off with Moses and leaving Rachel to do all the work. I won’t stand for it, Lia. If you can’t find some love in your heart for your sister, then you can come back home.”

Rachel settled back into the sofa and got that smug look on her face she had whenever Dat took her side of a disagreement—which was every time.

Lia’s mouth went dry. Moses had come knocking at the bathroom window almost two weeks ago. Lia had been gone most of the day, and she had never seen Rachel so livid as when she returned home. Rachel had stomped her feet and gnashed her teeth and screamed at the injustice of it all. It took Lia a full hour to calm her down and even then Lia knew this outburst would not be the last she heard about it. She had no inkling that Rachel would summon their dat. But it shouldn’t have surprised her. Dat came to Rachel’s rescue all the time at home, as if she were that five-year-old who had nearly died. Of course he would take the day off to set things right for his favorite child.

Would it do any good to defend herself? “It was not an outing. I helped the midwife deliver a baby. Rachel would not have wanted to help with the baby.”

Rachel folded her arms in stubborn denial. “Yes, I would have. I tried once, but that woman wouldn’t even let me in the house.”

“Sarah is very particular about who she lets help her. I am sorry, but she did not want you to come.”

Dat glared at Lia. “And you think you are better than your sister because the midwife lets you help?”

“Nae, not at all. I have read the books. I know a little of what to do.”

“And you think Rachel is not smart enough?”

Lia heaved a great sigh. “Rachel does not know how to be a midwife.”

“Neither do you,” Rachel snapped. “Just because you’ve read the books doesn’t mean you know anything.”

Lia felt the sweat trickle down the back of her neck. She was foolish to think Rachel would ever see reason. “If you are so set on being a midwife, why don’t you talk to Sarah and ask her to help you?”

Rachel stared at Lia as if she had said the stupidest thing in the world. “I don’t want to be a midwife. I want to be with Moses. Even Anna sees the sense in it. While you are delivering slimy babies, I should be with Moses. The first time you were away, he took me to his cheese factory. I helped him make cheese.” Rachel turned to Dat. “He told me I am delicate.”

Lia wanted to throw up her hands in surrender. There was no making sense of Rachel’s reasoning. “So you don’t want to come with me to deliver babies?”

“Yes, I want to come. Moses will be more than happy to drop you off so he can be alone with me. He told me so.”

He told her so?

“But, Dat,” Lia said. “Moses is doing me a favor when he comes to pick me up. How can I impose on his kindness like this? He might refuse to drive me if it becomes a burden.”

Dat knitted his brow. “A burden? Driving you all over the county might be a burden, but I don’t imagine he sees spending time with Rachel as a burden.”

“I don’t feel good about asking him. He is busy with his factory.”

Dat stood up and glared at Lia. “You will take Rachel with you whenever you leave this house or you will come back to Wautoma and forget about being a midwife. Do you understand? If I hear you’re leaving Rachel out or treating her unkindly, I will bring you back home so fast you won’t even remember how you got there.”

Lia felt as if she’d been shoved to the ground with the heel of Dat’s boot. “Dat, you are not listening. Moses is not at my beck and call and—”

He pointed an accusing finger in Lia’s direction. “You will not argue with me.”

Lia bowed her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She would be absolutely mortified to ask Moses if she could bring Rachel along. He had made it clear last time that he did not want to take her. But Lia couldn’t bear the thought of giving up on midwifing. What was she to do? “Yes, Dat.”

“And it wouldn’t hurt you to quit thinking of yourself and help Rachel make pies and goodies for Moses. Men like women who can cook.”

As if nothing were amiss between them, Rachel’s expression brightened considerably. “Oh, Lia. Wouldn’t it be fun to plan a picnic? If you helped me make the food, I could take Moses to the top of Huckleberry Hill and we could watch the sunset.”

That’s how it was between Rachel and Lia. Since Rachel’s illness fourteen years ago, Lia felt too guilty or too worn down to put up a fuss, and Rachel was accustomed to being everybody’s favorite. Once she got her way, all was right with the world.

“We are at the top,” Lia said. Huckleberry Hill wasn’t all that tall. Sunsets were viewed through the trees and only on cloudless evenings. Rachel liked the idea of a picnic at sunset, but Moses seemed too busy to wait around for a sunset.

Dat turned his attention to Rachel. “That is a gute idea. You could make something using cheese from his factory.”

They all turned when they heard the horse clomping up the lane.

Rachel ran to the window and began to breathe rapidly. “It’s him, Dat. It’s Moses. I knew he would come.”

Lia’s heart raced even as she scraped it off the floor. She didn’t even glance out the window as she went to the sink and turned on the water. Let Dat and Rachel make a fuss over Moses while she washed dishes and made a meatloaf for supper.

“Lia didn’t exaggerate,” Dat said. “He is tall as a tree. And very good-looking. He will do very well, I think.”

Rachel tapped rapidly on the window. “Yoo-hoo, Moses. Look over here.”

Her tapping must not have achieved the desired results, because she pounded louder and raised her voice in hopes of catching his attention. “Moses, come here! Moses.” She stopped tapping and looked at Dat. “I guess he’s going straight out back. He told Anna he’d help her in the garden.”

Dat wasted no time in putting on his hat. “Let’s go meet him, then.”

He and Rachel hurried out the door and left Lia in what should have been welcome silence, but the solitude only succeeded in making her feel utterly lonely.

No matter how she scolded herself or reminded herself of his indifference, Lia could not chase Moses from her head. Why, when she tried so studiously to be realistic, did Moses fill her thoughts every hour of every day? Why did a pang of jealousy squeeze her lungs every time Rachel talked about Moses? How could she be so foolish as to dream about him when he pined for a fiancée who was probably ten times more beautiful than Rachel and a hundred times less blunt than Lia?

It didn’t matter. Rachel would drive Moses away with her persistence, and he would spend less and less time on Huckleberry Hill. Lord willing, he would not be too annoyed to drive her to do midwifing.

With her hands submerged in dishwater, Lia prayed that Moses would take pity on her and keep coming back to pick her up. It was the most she could hope for.

 

 

“Mammi, I can do that for you. You’ll hurt your knees.” Moses tromped out of the barn with an armload of rebar and was greeted with the sight of Mammi kneeling on the ground pulling tiny weeds from around the tomatoes.

“I love playing in the dirt,” Mammi said.

“And how will you get back on your feet once you’re done?”

“That’s what I have a grandson for.”

Dawdi sprinkled fertilizer around the raspberry bushes. “I told her to use a hoe, but she won’t have any of it.”

“I slice up more tomatoes than weeds that way, even when I wear my glasses.”

Moses dropped the rebar, and it landed with a thud next to the neat row of sagging tomato plants. They should have been staked weeks ago—another reminder of how much help Mammi and Dawdi needed here. If he secured the rebar in the ground today, they still had time to salvage the tomatoes.

“Where is Lia?” Moses asked.

“She offered to make supper. And pie.”

Moses’s mouth began to water. He still hadn’t really tasted one of Lia’s pies. The anticipation tortured him.

Hoping he might catch a glimpse of Lia at the kitchen window, Moses looked to the house and saw Rachel shuffling quickly toward him followed by an older man who could only be her father. His hair and eyes were the same color as Lia’s, and he stood well over six feet tall. Moses knew it was Rachel’s father because they both wore that same self-satisfied smirk that always put Moses’s teeth on edge.

Mammi glanced up from the weeding. “Remember,” she whispered loudly, “we’ve all got to do our best to make sure Owen has no reason to take our Lia away from us.”

Moses nodded. Rachel staying at Huckleberry Hill without Lia was out of the question. She couldn’t be trusted with chores, and she’d probably burn down the house or ruin every meal with her sour disposition.

Rachel, in bare feet, tiptoed over the dirt clods and stood in the sifted soil where Anna had planted cucumbers. “Moses, this is my dat, Owen Shetler.”

Mammi winked at Moses with a twinkle in her eye and then twisted her body to get a quick look at Owen. “Good to see you again, Owen.”

Owen reached out to shake Moses’s hand. “Good to see you, Anna, Felty. And I’m glad to meet you, Moses.”

“I invited Dat to stay for supper,” Rachel said. “His driver won’t be by till six. Lia is making meatloaf.”

“Using Rachel’s recipe,” said Owen. “Rachel makes a meatloaf like nothing you’ve ever tasted.”

Mammi smoothed the dirt around one of her precious plants. “Is that so? I hope you will cook for us sometime, dear.”

Her father pressed his lips into a rigid line, and Rachel smiled sheepishly at him. “I get so busy with all the chores, and Lia insists on preparing the meals.”

Owen rubbed his hands together. “Well, she will have to be less selfish in the kitchen so you have a chance to show Moses how you can cook.”

Moses groaned inwardly. They both looked at him like a hungry wolf looks at a helpless little lamb with nowhere to run. He guessed their plan without even thinking hard. Owen would sing Rachel’s praises until the driver carted him away at six o’clock tonight, and Rachel would simper and blush and try to show Moses how delicate and charming she could be.

“Rachel told me she helped at your cheese factory,” Owen said.

Moses felt so hostile he didn’t know how else to respond but with a bald-faced lie. “She was a big help with the curd.”

“Have you your own house?”

“Jah, I bought it last year from my uncle plus three acres to go with it.”

“That’s a gute amount of land to manage without having the trouble of a big farm. Especially where you have the factory and all. Last year Rachel planted roses on the south side of our house and tended them until they bloomed to overflowing.”

Rachel pushed the dirt with her toes. “Mamm says I have a green thumb.”