Katie's Redemption (10 page)

She smiled sadly. “Yes. Hans saved my life that night. He carried me out wrapped in a blanket. I had Lucita in my arms. I suffered a few burns on my legs, but Hans was badly injured. Malachi told me he died a short time later.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

“How can you be sure it’s your doll?”

She gave a guilty grin and pulled back the doll’s bonnet to reveal a secret. “Hans used a marker to give her black hair like mine. I wanted someone who looked like me. All my family had blond hair. I always felt like I stuck out.”

“Now you can give the toy to your daughter.”

“I will, and I’ll tell her it’s a gift from her uncle Hans.” Katie’s smile was bright as the summer sun, and Elam basked in its warmth.

“You must tell her to take better care of Lucita than you did and not lose her.”

Katie’s smile faded. “Malachi took her away from me when I was seven. He said I was too old to play with dolls. He told me he threw her in the rubbish fire. Why would he hide her inside the wall?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps he meant to give her back to you one day.”

“I’d really like to believe that, but I don’t think I can. He used to make me sleep out here when I did something that upset him. I think he enjoyed knowing he’d hidden the one thing that could give me comfort just out of sight.”

“Why would your brother do something so cruel?”

“Because I caused the deaths of our whole family.”

He stared at her in shock. “How could you? You were only a child.”

“Malachi said I was the one who knocked over a kerosene lamp and set the house on fire. I don’t remember doing it, but I remember seeing flames everywhere and screaming for help. Besides my mother, I lost Hans and two sisters, Emma and Jane. I can barely remember their faces. Malachi had recently married and had moved into this place. If he hadn’t, he might have died, too.”

Elam was deeply affected to hear how much she had suffered. He wanted to comfort her, but wasn’t sure how. “Such things happen. It was a terrible tragedy, but it was God’s will. It was not your fault. Your brother was wrong to blame you.”

She straightened the bonnet on her doll’s head. “I know. I tried so hard to earn his forgiveness when I was little. As I grew older, I resented his coldness and pretended I didn’t care what he thought. The sad thing is…I really did care. I still do.”

“Forgiveness is our way, Katie. Even if your brother cannot forgive you, you must forgive him.”

“Easier said than done.”

How could he ask it of her if he had not been able to do it himself? He sighed and smiled gently. “I know that well. But it does not change what is right.”

Katie Lantz had brought turmoil into his orderly world, but she’d brought something else, too. She had a way of making him take a closer look at his own life, his own shortcomings. He strongly suspected that by the time she left, he would be a better man for having known her.

She drew a deep breath and looked up. “You were going to show me how to weave a basket.”

He allowed her to change the subject, but he would always remember the sadness in her voice. It touched a place deep inside him. A place that he’d kept closed off after the death of his father and Salome’s excommunication. He wasn’t the only one who had suffered a loss.

Katie moved about the room looking at the tools. She stopped at the stove. “What are these trays for?”

“For soaking the wooden strips so they can be bent easily.”

“Tell me everything I need to know.” She gestured toward the stacked poplar logs.

He focused on his work and pushed his need to comfort her to the back of his mind. “My baskets are unique. They’re handmade from strips of wood. I buy the plywood for the base, but I do all the cutting here. After a log is trimmed and the bark stripped off, I pound the log with a mallet to loosen the growth rings.”

“Will I be hammering logs?”

“No.”

“I’m stronger than I look.”

“I’ve seen baby barn swallows hanging out of their nests who look stronger than you.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but seemed to think better of it. Instead, she turned back to the wood on the sawhorse. “What do you do next?”

“Then I peel off splints, or strips. The splints are then shaved to get rid of the fuzzy layer between the growth rings. They are rolled up in coils and stacked here. I cut them to size when I’m ready to start a basket.”

Picking up a splint, she laid it on the workbench. “Now what?”

“This is one of the forms we use.” He began setting the strips in place to form the ribs of the basket. Katie moved to stand close beside him. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder. She tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned over his work to inspect it.

Among his people women never cut their hair. Out of modesty and reverence, they wore it in a bun under a
kapp.
Katie’s head was uncovered. She had cut her hair.

She was not Amish. He had to remember that. He had to harden his heart against the influence of this woman who chose to be an outsider.

Only the more he was near her, the more impossible that became. How was he going to work with her day after day?

T
wo days later, Katie found herself seated at the long table in Elam’s workshop. The air, already filled with the smell of fresh-cut wood and simmering dyes, was being flooded with giggles. Mary, Ruby and Sally sat at the same table watching Katie’s fledgling attempts to weave.

“I thought you were making a candy basket.” Ruby picked up Katie’s project to examine it.

“I am.”

“Aren’t you afraid the candy will fall though the gaps?” Ruby chuckled as she pushed her fingers through the loose slats and wiggled them at Katie.

Snatching her work away from Elam’s oldest sister, Katie said, “Very funny. It’s better than my last one.”

Sally rose to Katie’s defense. “I’m sure she’ll improve in time.”

“Before I run out of trees?” Elam came in carrying an armload of freshly cut wooden splints.

Katie rolled her eyes. “Another comedian in the family.”

After slipping the poplar pieces into a large vat of warm water, he came to stand at Katie’s elbow. “You aren’t doing so badly. You should have seen Ruby’s first piece. In fact, I think
Mamm
still has it in the attic. Shall I go get it?”

Ruby wove another band between the upright stakes of her heart-shaped basket. “Go. You can spend all day looking through that dusty place. I don’t care.”

“Because she burned it.” Mary’s honesty was rewarded with an elbow to the ribs. She promptly swatted her sister with a long wand of reed. Ruby grabbed it. The ensuing tug-of-war ended when the reed broke in two.

“Oops.” Ruby held out her broken half to Elam.

He sighed and grinned at Katie. “See what I’ve had to put up with all my life? It’s no wonder this venture isn’t making much money.”

“But it keeps you close as a family,” Sally said.

“
Jah.
It does that.” Mary snatched the reed from her sister and tossed both pieces in the trash.

Elam moved to the stove. “The poplar should be ready.”

The women all rose to select the plywood bases and molds for the unit they would be working on. Katie didn’t bother to get up. Working with the woods instead of the more pliable reeds required some skill. Looking at her poor example, she knew she wasn’t ready to tackle a complicated piece, but she was determined to learn.

She watched closely as Elam and Mary began to construct large hampers. Ruby and Sally both worked on picnic baskets. Their labors didn’t stem the flow of chatter. More than once Katie found herself chuckling at the women’s stories of family life.

“Just the other day, Thomas smeared mud all over Monroe so he could stick straw on him and make him look like a porcupine crawling across the floor.” Ruby added a double band of scarlet color to the middle of her piece.

Mary smothered a laugh. “Now where did he get such an idea?”

Ruby shot a look at her brother. “It seems
Onkel
Elam told the boys a story about finding a porcupine in the woodpile.”

“I didn’t tell Thomas to make Monroe into one.”

Pointing at him, Ruby said, “No, but you told me to drop an egg on
Dat’s
hat from the haymow. Do you remember that?”

“I remember scrubbing milk cans for a month because you hit Bishop Stulzman.”

Ruby held up her hands. “How was I to know the bishop had come to talk to Papa? Besides, from the hayloft door I could only see the hat, not the man. I shouldn’t have let you take the blame for that one.”

“It
was
my idea. You just had better aim.”

Mary began cutting the top of her basket ribs in preparation for setting the rim in place. “No wonder your boys are so ornery.”

Sally began looping strands of rattan over her rim. “
Jah,
Jesse says they get their high jinks from their mother.”

Ruby’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, he does, does he?”

Startled by her tone, Sally looked up to find her sister-in-law scowling at her. She opened her mouth, but closed it again.

A smile tugged at the corner of Elam’s lips. “I didn’t realize your husband was so smart, Ruby.”

Ruby’s jaw dropped. Mary snickered.

Katie, quietly turning and tucking the ribs of her basket, said, “He must be smart. He married Ruby.”

Ruby’s eyes lit up. “That’s right.” She poked her brother’s arm.

Elam’s face reflected his surprise. “I did not know you could be so sassy, Katie.”

Sitting back with satisfaction, Ruby grinned. “I like you, Katie Lantz. You’re a quick wit.”

“But not a quick basket weaver. I’m stumped. How do I attach the rim?” Katie was amazed at how easily she fit in with this family, and how accepting of her they were.

Sally moved her chair closer to Katie. “Use the thicker strips of flat, oval reed. One on the inside and one on the outside.”

“I don’t have enough hands to hold it all in place.”

From her pocket, Ruby pulled a half-dozen wooden clothespins and slid them across the table. “Use these to clip the reed in place. They’ll be your extra hands.”

Sally demonstrated and Katie leaned in to watch as the younger woman used dyed sea grass to lash the rim pieces to the top row of the basket. When Sally was done, she handed it to Katie. “It’s yours to sell now.”

Katie looked at Elam. “Speaking of selling, how does that work?”

“Once a month, I take our products to a shop in Millersburg. The owner sells them for us. He takes orders at his shop and from mail catalogs and also from their Internet site, then he gives them to me to be filled.”

“How many kinds of baskets do you make?” She looked at the variety in the bins.

“We have twenty different types, from laundry hampers to little trinket boxes.” Mary stood and placed her hand in the small of her back as she stretched.

“Our best sellers are these picnic baskets. What do you think?” Ruby held up her finished container. It was the fanciest piece on the table, with double bands of scarlet color in the middle and a strip of scarlet rattan lashed around the top.

Katie tipped her head to the side. “It’s very nice, but not plain.”

Ruby smiled. “It’s for the tourists.”

Elam took it from his sister. “They come to see us Plain folk, but they like bright colors in their quilts and souvenirs. I’ll put a lid and handles on this.”

As Elam went to work with his small hand drill at the adjacent workbench, Katie couldn’t help but admire the view of his broad shoulders, slim waist and trim hips. His homemade dark trousers and shirt accentuated his physique. She especially liked the way his hair curled in an unruly fashion, defying the typical “bowl style” haircut Amish men wore.

“He is a fine-looking man,” Sally said quietly.

Katie, feeling the heat of a blush in her cheeks, glanced at Sally. Both Mary and Ruby were busy teasing each other and hadn’t heard the remark. “He’s well enough, I guess.”

That produced a smothered giggle. “Far better than some I’ve met here. He will make a fine husband.”

Katie tried to sound nonchalant. “Is there someone special?”

“Elam doesn’t attend the singings on Sunday nights. Ruby and Mary fear he plans to remain single. They are
hoping he’ll be interested in Karen Imhoff, but I don’t think he will be,” Sally said.

“Why not?”

“She’s
en alt maedel,
an old maid. She’s twenty-five and never been married.”

At twenty-two, Katie didn’t consider twenty-five to be that old. Katie decided it was best to steer the subject away from Elam’s single status. “Do you attend the singings?”

“
Jah.
I’ll be seventeen next month. My mother says it’s time I started looking for a husband.”

“Don’t be in a big hurry to give up your freedom.”

Sally scooted her chair closer. “I’m not. I want to see and do things before I settle down. You’ve lived among the English. What was it like? Tell me about the music and dancing and movie stars.”

Katie glanced at Elam’s back. “I don’t think I should.”

“You’re the only one I know who has lived away from this place.”

It was hard to ignore the pleading in Sally’s eyes. Katie, too, had dreamed about a world beyond the farm and the endless work. “I understand how you feel. Believe me, I do.”

The door opened and Nettie came in, a bright smile on her face. “Rachel is awake and she wants her mama.”

“I’m coming.” Happy for any excuse to leave, Katie rose and left Sally’s questions unanswered.

While she wouldn’t mind satisfying Sally’s curiosity, she knew Elam would object. The last thing she wanted was to upset the man who was giving shelter to her and her child.

“How goes life on the Sutter farm?”

Katie smiled at Amber as she began undressing Rachel for her one month examination.

“It’s okay, I guess.”

Elam had insisted on bringing her and the baby into Hope Springs for Rachel’s visit with the doctor. Katie had enjoyed the ride seated beside him, but they had both remained silent. It seemed whenever they were together a kind of tension filled the air between them.

Amber glanced at Katie closely. “You don’t sound like it’s okay.”

“You mustn’t think I’m ungrateful. I can’t begin to repay the Sutters for all they have done for me.”

“So what’s the problem?” Amber placed Rachel, naked and kicking, on the infant scale. The baby promptly voiced her disapproval with a piercing cry.

Katie leaned forward. “How much does she weigh?”

“Eight pounds nine ounces.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Very good. She’s passed her birth weight. The doctor will be in in a few minutes.” After measuring the baby, Amber swaddled her in a blanket and handed her back to her mother.

Katie shouldered the baby and patted her until she stopped fussing. “Amber, did you learn of any work in the area?”

Picking up a spray bottle of antiseptic, Amber misted the scale and then wiped it down with a paper towel. “I thought you were working for Elam Sutter and his mother?”

“I am, but I thought maybe I could find something else.”

Amber regarded Katie closely. “Is Mr. Sutter working you too hard? Because if he is…”

Katie quickly shook her head and looked down. She couldn’t stop the soft smile that curved her lips. “No, it’s nothing like that. Elam has been very kind.”

“Is Nettie chafing to have you out of the house?”

“Not that I can tell. She spoils the baby every chance she gets.”

The puzzled expression on Amber’s face changed to a look of understanding. “Oh. I see how it is. You poor thing.”

Katie frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Elam’s very kind, but you don’t want to work for him. His mother adores your baby and spoils her, but you don’t want to live with her. I’m getting the picture.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know, it shows when you say his name.”

Katie dropped her gaze. “You’re talking nonsense.”

“I don’t think I am. Your eyes light up when you say Elam.”

“They do not. You’re being ridiculous.”

“No, I’m not. Say his name.”

“Stop it.”

Amber propped her hands on her hips. “You can’t do it without blushing.”

“Because you’re embarrassing me.”

Pulling over a chair, Amber sat beside Katie. “I’m sorry to tease you. Are you thinking of joining the Amish church?”

“I’ve considered it, but I’m not sure. Sometimes I think it would make things easier.”

“Don’t do it if you’re not certain that’s where your heart lies.”

“It’s hard to know what to do. I wanted to get away from here so badly, yet now that I’m back things are dif
ferent. No matter what I want, I have to think of what’s best for Rachel. It isn’t that I want material things for her. I want her to know she is loved and accepted. I want her to feel safe and secure.”

“She can have those things in the Amish world or in the English one.”

“I’m not sure that’s true. I couldn’t have given her any of that without Matt to help me in the city. Here, you’ve seen how Nettie dotes on Rachel. It’s the same with everyone in the Sutter family. Rachel will be taken care of in this community. She will belong.”

“Joining a church for your daughter’s sake isn’t the same as doing it because you feel God has called you to that life. Do you feel called?”

It was a question Katie couldn’t answer. Was she being called or was she just searching for something she’d never had?

The outer door opened. Katie looked up in relief as a white-haired man in a pale blue lab coat walked in. His smile was kindly and vaguely familiar. “Good afternoon. I’m Dr. Harold White. You must be Katie Lantz.”

Katie shook the hand he held out. “It’s nice to meet you, Dr. White.”

He sat down on a metal stool and rolled it close. “I remember you now. You were only three or four at the time, so I shouldn’t be surprised if you don’t remember me. I treated your burns after your family’s house fire. Terrible, sad business that was.”

Katie still bore the scars on her legs. “I think I remember you. Did you know my family well?”

“Not really. Your mother hadn’t been in the area very
long. I do remember hearing that she had immigrated to the United States from Belize.”

This was the first that Katie had heard of such a thing. “My family came from Central America?”

“I believe so. I know several colonies of Old Order Amish exist in Belize.”

Amber handed Dr. White Rachel’s chart, then grinned at Katie. “That’s the fun thing about working with Dr. White. You learn something new every day.”

He chuckled. “A day I don’t learn something new is a wasted day.”

Katie smiled, but her mind was reeling. Why hadn’t Malachi told her this? Was it possible she still had family in another country? She’d often wondered why she didn’t have grandparents and cousins when everyone else at school had such big extended families. All Malachi ever said was that all her family was gone. If they had come from Central America, her doll’s Spanish name made much more sense.

Dr. White placed his stethoscope in his ears and directed his attention to Rachel. “Let’s have a listen to this little one.”

After he had checked her over and pronounced her in excellent health, Katie asked, “Dr. White, is it possible to find out exactly where my family came from?”