The Beekeeper's Son (The Amish of Bee County Book 1) (30 page)

Trying to ignore the sunburn that had turned hot and made her skin feel as if it were about to peel off since their return to Bee County late the previous evening, she squinted against the early-morning sun and began to read Frannie’s fat block handwriting.

Dear
Deborah,

We’re settled in with Onkel Keith and Aenti Lois. They only have four kinner, so there’s plenty of room for us. Daed went right to work cutting hay, and Mudder is busy sewing baby clothes and making blankets for this winter. To think we might get to learn
to ice skate on the pond and build snowmen and have snowball fights. I’ve only dreamt of such things ’til now. Onkel got me a job cleaning house for an Englisch family in town. I’ll get paid next week. Can’t wait. You need to come up here. There’s more work. Lots of Englisch families wanting to hire Plain girls to clean. We’re cheap and we do a good job. Even your mudder could get a job cleaning at the motel on the highway. The Ordnung here allows us women to work as long as it doesn’t interfere with family. If Aenti Abigail isn’t set on marrying Stephen, she can start over here as easy as there. She’s moved once. What’s one more time?

Deborah snorted, then looked around. No one lurked in the shadows to hear her. Leave it to Frannie to oversimplify. Of course, Frannie didn’t know about Mordecai. No one did. Except Phineas. Who knew everything and saw everything—except how much she cared for him. Why did Mudder keep seeing Stephen if she had feelings for Mordecai? Why didn’t Mordecai step up? People would have to be blind not to see how Mordecai looked at her mother when she wasn’t looking. With this strange, mournful expression. How he looked away every time Mudder cast a glance toward him, her expression just as odd and bewildered. Did older folks somehow forget what all those feelings meant?

Deborah wanted to shake them both. Mordecai was a good father, a hard worker, he had a kind heart, and he told funny stories. His farm was neat and as clean as possible in the dust bowl of south Texas. It wasn’t much different from the others, but he did his best. He and Mudder were right for each other.

Gott’s will.

She wiped at the sweat on her forehead, sighed, and went back to reading.

We
went
down
to
the
Ozarks
for
three
days
right
after
we
arrived. Onkel Keith wanted to go before school started back up and before Mudder got too big. We caught some whopper trout and made fried pies and roasted marshmallows after dark.

Write me. I’m dying to know what’s going on between you and Phin. You can tell me. Who would I tell? I don’t know a soul here. My cousins are all too young to be any good to talk to. Come see us when you can. Drag Phin with you. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss his sourpuss face. I reckon he can tend bees anywhere. People do love their honey. Write me. Soon.

Hugs

Your
cousin
Frannie

Like she had a bunch of relatives named Frannie. Like Phineas would ever leave this place. Especially with her. She doubted her mother was interested in going anywhere either. Moving once had been enough. It cost money and uprooted the family. And she still seemed stuck with Stephen. Even if he had been stomping around with a peeved look on his face ever since Mudder decided to get that passport card and take a trip to Mexico. With Mordecai. Who came back looking as peeved as Stephen. These old folks had done this before. Why was it so hard for them to do it again? They had practice. They had years of experience. She had an excuse. She had almost none.

A squeaking noise made her jump.

“Deborah.”

She looked back. Mudder stood with the screen door propped open. “Come on, I need you to help me pack.”

“Pack?” Maybe she was wrong after all. The letter fluttered
to her feet. Her heart squeezed in a sudden painful hiccup. Did Mudder want to move back to Tennessee or to Missouri? What about Phineas? She couldn’t leave Phineas. She hopped up. Much as she wanted out of this place, she couldn’t leave Phineas. “We just got here. We can’t leave. What did Stephen say?”

“I thought you wanted to go home.” Mudder’s smile lacked merriment. “One minute you want one thing, one minute, something else. Don’t worry. We’re just moving up the road to Leroy’s house.”

“What about Mordecai?”

Mudder winced as if her tooth still hurt her. “What about Mordecai?”

“I thought—”

Mudder let the screen door slam. “Hurry up. We’ve taken advantage of his hospitality long enough.”

“Did something happen?”

“I asked Samuel to hitch the horses and bring up the wagon.”

“Now? We’re moving now?”

“Jah, now.”

Deborah trotted into the house behind Mudder, whose pace suggested a pack of coyotes chased her. What was the hurry? In the bedroom, Deborah found Leila and Rebekah stuffing clothes into trash bags while Hazel sat on the bed, arms wrapped around her favorite doll. They looked as surprised as she felt.

“Don’t just stand there. Help.” Mudder swept a pile of Hazel’s clothes into a worn suitcase that already held her own clothes. “I’d like to get this done before lunch. I want to help Naomi with the canning this afternoon.”

“When did all this get decided?” Deborah asked, but it was too late. Mudder headed out the door, suitcase in one hand, bag in the other.

Deborah glanced at Leila. Her sister shrugged and dumped clothes into another smaller bag. “She didn’t tell us either.”

“I’ll try to talk to her.”

“A lot of good it’ll do you.”

“Try.” Rebekah smoothed a hand over the faded patch quilt on the bed. “I like it here. Susan is nice, and Mordecai is funny and he tells good stories. Like Daed did.”

“I know. Me too.” Deborah hoisted a trash bag to her shoulder and made her way to the door. “I don’t think Leroy will tell stories and be a fountain of useless facts.”

And he wouldn’t tell her what Phineas’s favorite foods were either.

“And he won’t play in the rain or give us bread and honey in the middle of the afternoon.” Leila’s dispirited tone matched her grim expression. “Mostly, I’m just tired of moving from one house to another where we don’t belong.”

“Me too.” Rebekah plopped down on the end of the bed, her eyes bright with tears. “I’m so homesick.”

Deborah dropped the bag on the floor and went back to her sisters. “I know.” She hugged each one in succession. They returned the favor. Despite the fact that nothing had changed, she felt better. “We’ll be fine as long as we stick together.”

“Together,” Hazel sang as she held up her tattered doll and made it sing with her. “Fine, fine, fine.”

The other girls giggled. “Fine, fine, fine,” Rebekah sang.

“Fine, fine, fine.” Deborah joined in on the impromptu song. Nothing would ever be fine again, but her sisters needed her to believe. “Fine, fine, fine.”

They all laughed.

“What are you girls doing?” Mudder stood in the doorway, hands on her hips. “We’ll never get moved at this rate.”

“We’re fine.” Deborah picked up her bag and brushed past her mother. “Can’t you see how fine we are?”

Mudder followed after her. “I’m sorry this is hard for you girls. It’s not easy for me either, but it’s for the best.”

Ignoring the sweat that trickled down her temples, Deborah dumped the trash bag into the back of the wagon that now sat in front of the house. Samuel was nowhere in sight. She turned to face Mudder. “Why are we moving out of Mordecai’s house? All we’ve done in the last few months is move again and again. I thought we were staying here until you . . .”

She couldn’t bring herself to say the words aloud. Until Mudder married Stephen.

“Leroy offered to take us in until . . . November.”

Deborah waited for Mudder to elaborate. She didn’t. She’d been prickly as the cacti that lined the roads on the trip back yesterday and barely had a word to say after evening prayers before bedtime. Deborah thought it had something to do with work the dentist had done on her teeth. But her mood seemed even blacker now, if that was possible. “Why?”

“Once we get to Leroy’s, you’re to keep an eye on your sister.”

“Which one?”

“Don’t be dense.” Mudder dumped another bag of clothes into the wagon. Where was Samuel and why wasn’t he helping with the heavy lifting? “Leila. Because of Jesse.”

“How do you know about Jesse?”

“Mothers know everything.”

“Everything?”

Mudder’s grim smile spoke volumes. “Much more than you realize.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means it’s a good thing Phineas moved out on his own. It wasn’t proper for you two to live in the same house. We’ll be living in the bishop’s house now. I expect you to be on your best behavior.”

“I always am.”

Mudder stopped shoving bags and looked back. Her frown eased. “I know. This has been hard for everyone, but we’ll be settled by the end of the year.”

“Maybe we should move to Missouri. Frannie likes it there. She says it’s greener and it’s already starting to cool off. They might even get snow this winter.”

“You really want to move to Missouri?” Mudder blotted her forehead with her sleeve. Sweat darkened the bodice of her dress. Weary lines around her mouth and eyes made her look old. “Even though you have a reason to stay now?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. The decision is yours.” Deborah avoided addressing her mother’s oblique reference to Phineas. It was a private matter and much too big a mess to begin to explain. “We would all have to move, wouldn’t we?”

“You’re a grown woman. It’s time I started treating you like one.”

Since when? Mudder had sidestepped the underlying question. Deborah rubbed her forehead where the beginnings of a headache pulsed. “Do
you
not have a reason to stay anymore?”

“Truth be told, I’m not sure.”

“After everything I’ve said and done, you’re not sure?” Stephen’s voice, filled with disbelief, boomed. “Where are you going? Are you leaving?”

He strode around the end of the wagon, his face red—redder than usual. His big hands were fisted. “I knew it. It’s Mordecai, isn’t it? He’s declared himself to you, hasn’t he?”

“Mordecai?” Deborah looked from Stephen to her mother. “Did he finally—?”

“Go inside.” Mudder slapped her hands on her hips. “Now.”

Deborah went, but not without casting another quick look at the two faces. She saw no love in either. She saw trepidation. A fear of loss in one and a fear of the unknown in the other.

“I planned to come talk to you after we got moved.” Abigail edged toward the door. Stephen moved with her, the set of his broad shoulders rigid with anger. “We’re moving in with Leroy’s family.”

It would make Stephen happy if he’d take a minute or two to calm down. His expression eased from anger to bewilderment. “Why?”

“We’ve relied on Mordecai’s hospitality long enough.” Her words were true, but they didn’t encompass the entire truth. She wouldn’t tell Stephen of Mordecai’s declaration in Progreso. It was between him and her. “I don’t want to become a burden. Leroy agreed. It’s best to pass that burden around. He says to send Caleb over as well. He has room and he’ll put him to work.”

“What happened in Progreso?” Stephen followed her into the house, so close on her heels she could smell his man scent of sweat and hard work. “You haven’t told me about your trip.”

“Nothing happened. We went to the beach. I got the cavity in my tooth filled. We came home.”

And she realized something that couldn’t be denied. Mordecai
wasn’t the only one with feelings. She couldn’t stay in his house. It wasn’t proper. If he wanted to court her, he would have to do it the traditional way.

Abigail didn’t want to move again. She liked it here, but they couldn’t stay. It would only get harder. She didn’t want to burden the bishop and his family either.

She needed her own place.
Gott, help me find my place here.

Stephen grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop and turn. “I want to talk to Leroy about announcing the banns.”

She tugged her arm away. “I’m sorry, so sorry.” She would never be ready. How did she tell Stephen this? “I never meant to hurt you. I thought things would be different now, but they’re not.”

He crossed his arms, his face mottled red with anger. “I can’t believe this is happening again. It wasn’t enough that you threw away my affection for you the first time. You’re doing it again?”

“What’s going on?”

Abigail turned. Mordecai stood in the doorway. He let the screen door slam behind him.

Abigail hadn’t heard him come in, such had been her focus on Stephen. As usual, Butch accompanied his adopted owner. His tail wagged as he trotted into the room and made a beeline for her, his nose cold and wet on her hand. She focused on giving him a quick pet and trying to collect her thoughts at the same time. “I’m packing.”

“I saw your things in the wagon.”

“I asked Susan if we could borrow it.” Abigail backed away from the two men. Her hip bumped the desk. The kerosene lamp teetered. She snatched it back just as it would’ve tumbled to the floor. Her heart banged against her ribs. “I’ll have Leila bring it back if you’ll have Samuel give her a ride to Leroy’s after.”