Upon A Winter's Night (30 page)

“I overheard you talking,” Connor choked out. “About Lydia...my half sister...”

“Blame me if you want, but not her,” Bess insisted as she turned the car around and started fast down the hill. “She was trying to save you in there.”

Without even slowing down when the car neared the Christmas tree workers, Bess continued down the driveway and did a sharp, squealing turn onto the road. She pushed a button that put all four windows down to let the fresh, cold air in. They roared past Lydia’s house. She was not so dizzy now, not nauseous. Power poured into her body. She was with her family. She had to warn Josh.

But as they approached the Yoder barn, they saw the old milking wing was red with leaping flames.

“Stay in the car, Connor,” Bess ordered as Lydia opened her door and got out.

“You kidding?” Connor said, though his words were still slurred. “He’s gonna need help!”

Limping but ignoring the stabs of pain in her ankle, Lydia tore toward the closest gate. It had been padlocked since the intruder had scared Amos Baughman there. She hiked up her skirt and climbed it. To her amazement, Connor shoved himself underneath it. She saw he had a lot of dried blood in his hair and on the back of his jacket. He threw up on the ground, then just crawled on and hauled himself to his feet.

“Connor, go with Bess to the hospital!” Lydia shouted.

“Don’t start bossing me around just because you’re my sister!”

It looked to Lydia as if Josh had almost all the animals in the back holding area, but no one was fighting the fire. She grabbed a nearby pail and went to crack through the ice on the drinking trough, but saw he’d already done that. She dipped the pail into the icy water and threw it as high as she could, until Connor took it from her and filled the next bucket himself.

Despite her fear for Josh and the animals, her eyes teared up with thanks that Connor was helping. And that Bess—her beautiful coat and dress now a mess—had crawled under the gate, too.

Lydia ran to find Josh and saw him bringing the last of the braying mules outside. It was chaos with the entire menagerie crowded in the fenced animal yard, especially because, snorting, braying and baaing, they shied away from the flames racing along the roof of the milking wing, and crowded around Josh. Lydia counted the camel heads in the flickering light.
Ya,
Josh had them all out, and, no doubt, at the expense of time to fight the fire.

She worked her way toward him. Several sheep, evidently recognizing her, cuddled closer. “Gid Reich did this!” she shouted to him over the noise of animals and crackling flames. “He tried to kill Connor and me and said he was going to burn the barn! Bess is my mother, and
Daad
is my father.”

Josh looked doubly shocked as he took that all in, but he pushed a donkey away, and as he grabbed her hard, they heard the distant wail of sirens. They stood with their arms around each other while sheep bumped them, and Melly appeared from the crowd to snort a kiss on the top of Lydia’s head.

“It’s the sheriff and the fire truck,” Josh yelled as they looked down the road at the approaching, pulsating lights. “With these flames, they don’t need me to show them where the fire is. And I see the mayor and our state senator—your other family—throwing buckets of water. They’ll tell them where to park.”

Despite the danger and the din, the two of them stayed among the animals—their animals—that smoky winter’s night and held on tight. They would lose the milking wing of a barn, but, Lydia thought, it was the one Bess had given money to rebuild. Despite all that she’d been through, she felt inwardly calm, content and so in love. And that she had finally come home.

30

M
amm
had started weekly counseling sessions with a psychiatrist, whom she’d gifted with friendship bread. And Lydia had told her that she knew who her birth mother was. Still, she and Lydia managed to put a feast on the table for Christmas Eve: turkey with cranberry sauce, tomato pudding, candied sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie,
Mamm
’s
 
bread, as well as the traditional side dishes of fudge and peanut brittle. Lydia thought she would burst with the meal and with gratitude and joy.

Because Josh was sitting at the table with them. Because
Mamm
had accepted him as Lydia’s come-calling friend at last, mostly, so far, because he had saved her from the pond. Somehow nearly dying there had made
Mamm
accept Sammy’s death at last. After all,
Mamm
had slipped past
Daad
to get to the pond just the way Sammy had sneaked past her.

After dessert,
Mamm
said, “At least that Leo Lowe was released since you didn’t testify against him, Lydia, but I hope they are feeding Gid Reich on bread and water in jail today. After his trial for murdering your friend Sandra, he’ll have years of prison time, even though they still say Victoria Keller’s death was an accident. But to think he was taking money from the store, too. I am struggling to forgive him. Forgiving people and myself, that’s what I’m working on.”

Lydia and
Daad
exchanged glances. After the barn fire, which, thank the Lord, had burned only the wing of the barn that Josh was planning to redo anyway, she and
Daad
had finally had their talk. He’d agonized for years, he’d said, for not telling her the truth about her past, but his promise to the bishop, Bess and
Mamm,
kept him quiet. But, he confided, he’d intended to tell her anyway when he gave her the quilt, however afraid he was that
Mamm
would never forgive him. But now, perhaps that would change, too, especially because she’d accepted the lovely centerpiece on the table.

“Lydia,”
Mamm
said, “you be sure to thank Senator Stark for that decoration she sent over with Connor. I’m afraid it’s just for pretty, which we don’t do, but it smells good, and you tell her I put it on the table.”

Lydia glanced from the pine bough, cone and candle arrangement to
Mamm
’s
 
face. Not smiling but kind, almost sweet. And offering an olive branch in exchange for a pine bough to Bess as well as to
Daad.

“I’ll tell her,
Mamm.
Let me help you clear the table and wash up while
Daad
and Josh chat a bit.”

“Ya,” Daad
said. “I want him to see my quilting loom, but first he can help me bring in Liddy’s Christmas gift. I know the big day is tomorrow, but I can’t wait,” he said, and winked at Josh as if he was already in on this.

From
Daad
’s
 
quilting room, the two men carried in a stunning cedar hope chest and put it on the floor next to Lydia.

“Oh, it’s lovely!” she cried and fell to her knees to open it. The clean scent wafted out, and there lay the Christmas quilt.

“We’ll soon have more than that in there,”
Mamm
said, stepping closer to put one arm around Lydia’s waist. “You’ll need sheets and towels and more quilts in case someone asks to marry you real soon.”

Daad
had already announced at the table that he would train a new man to take Gid’s place so that, although Lydia would inherit the store someday, she would not have to work there anymore in case she found other interests. Right now,
Daad
just beamed,
Mamm
nodded, Josh grinned, but Lydia was so overcome with happiness she cried.

* * *

“I’m so glad you stopped in!” Bess greeted Lydia with open arms. Connor’s wife, Heather, stepped forward to hug Lydia, too, and Connor shook hands with Josh, though he only nodded at her. In the awkward welcome, Bess said, “Come in, come in, both of you.”

They sat in the living area where Aunt Victoria’s coffin had lain only a month ago. To think that her aunt had lived next door where she could have visited her, however ill she was, made Lydia sad. So much had happened, she thought.

She sat next to Josh on the white leather sofa while Connor sat on the floor with the twins where they’d evidently been playing a board game called Battleship. Heather hovered near Bess, who sat in the big chair across a coffee table from them.

“I know you said you were eating at home,” Bess said, “but can we offer you anything? Hot cider?”

“We’re fine,” Lydia said. “Too full. Oh, and
Mamm
thanks you for the pretty centerpiece.”

Bess didn’t take her eyes off Lydia but she tilted her head toward Connor. “Your brother picked the pine boughs and cones himself.”

Connor looked up. “Not spray painted, either. I’m paying a fine for that.”

“And—not because of that,” Bess said, slapping her hands on her knees, “I’m thinking of keeping the important job I have now in the Ohio senate and not reaching higher, not yet. And then I can spend more time here, at home—with my extended family.”

“Aw, Gran,” Blair put in, “Brad and me thought it would be way cool if you were the president, and we could visit the White House.”

“Perhaps I can arrange that, anyway. Enough of Battleship right now,” she told them. “Go ahead and ask Mr. Yoder your question.”

Both boys stood and came over to Josh. Wiping his hands nervously on his pants pockets, Blair said, “Mr. Yoder, we know you got the Beiler boys to help you, but we’d like to see your animals more and when we’re not in school, I mean in the summer—”

“Or,” Brad put in, “even after school if we get all our homework done.”

“—can we work for you—not even for money but just for fun?” Blair finished for them.

“That would be great,” Josh replied. “I could use the help and Lydia would be a good one to teach you about the camels especially.”

The boys beamed and glanced at their father as if for more support when he surely had given them his permission for this already.

“I know they’ll work hard to help,” Connor said, getting to his feet. “But in the holiday season, they’re going to have to split their time, or else you get one and the tree farm gets the other because they have to learn this business, too. Shake hands with Mr. Yoder, boys, to seal the deal. And,” he added, clearing his throat and coming closer to put a hand on Lydia’s shoulder, which she covered with her own hand, “it’s fine if they work with their aunt Lydia.”

She bit her lower lip, smiled up at Connor and fought tears again. His words were so sweet she might as well have heard the angels sing.

* * *

“It came upon a midnight clear,” Josh sang to Lydia as he helped her down from his buggy at the front door of the animal barn. It was nearly midnight, almost Christmas Day. They were going to check on the menagerie, he’d said, before he took her home. Hand in hand, they strolled past the pens where most of the animals slept, though their lantern occasionally caught the reflection of a watchful, liquid eye. Even the mules and camels kept quiet.

“Let’s look at the sky,” Josh said, and, leaving the lantern on his desk, they went out through the camel door together. His voice was a bit shaky, as if he, too, had been swept away by all the emotion they’d shared tonight.

It was cold outside, but the stars were brilliant and the quarter moon seemed to slant a smile down at them. They stood, arms around each other, gazing at the endless heavens above the Home Valley.

“Lydia,” he whispered so low the breeze almost blew his words away, “I hope you know how much I love you. We’ve been through a lot to get to this point, and I would be honored if you would consider being my wife.”

He’d never looked so serious, almost scared, she thought as she gazed up at his handsome face, bathed in starlight.

“I would love to share my life with you—and the Yoder zoo.”

“I can’t imagine my life without you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I even want you enough to have two mothers-in-law, both of them a challenge.”

Upon that winter’s night, Lydia laughed, threw her arms around him and kissed him hard.

* * * * *

Author’s Note

I love to write about Amish country and its people. I
guess that’s pretty evident since this is my ninth Amish romantic suspense
novel. The earlier ones include a stand-alone,
DOWN TO THE
BONE.
Then came the trilogy
DARK ROAD HOME, DARK
HARVEST
and
DARK ANGEL.
Most recently I
wrote the HOME VALLEY TRILOGY consisting of
FALL FROM
PRIDE, RETURN TO GRACE
and
FINDING MERCY
.
I also contributed a Home Valley novella for the anthology
DARK CROSSINGS,
entitled
THE COVERED
BRIDGE.
And here we are with this seasonal story,
UPON A WINTER’S NIGHT,
also set in the fictional—but
very real to me—Home Valley.

In these stories, it has been so fulfilling to follow the lives
of young Amish women who find danger but also the loves of their lives. And, in
the most recent books, to see Ray-Lynn’s trials and triumphs—and how she finally
married Sheriff Jack Freeman—has been great fun, too. Who of us wouldn’t like to
be friends with such interesting heroines and to get Ray-Lynn’s glimpse into the
fascinating world of the Plain People? I hope these books have given my readers
this look into their lives.

Special thanks to my talented and insightful MIRA Book editors,
Miranda Indrigo and Nicole Brebner, for traveling with me through these Amish
novels.

A quick note about cell phones. Most Old Order Amish are
holding the line against these devices despite the fact that cell phones work
without the forbidden phone lines coming into their homes. This intrusion by the
outside world has been a major problem in the past. Still, most Amish are
permitted to use them at their places of employment. Before committing to the
church, Amish young people sometimes have these phones, which they must give up
later. However, on our most recent trip to Ohio Amish country, my cell phone
would not work because there were no towers in the rural, hilly areas. I was
also told that I had the “wrong kind of phone,” because only one carrier works
“around here.” When we drove out of that immediate area, the phone worked fine
again.

Special thanks goes to Lance White, managing editor at the
Daily Record
newspaper in Wooster, Ohio, who
filled me in on how the paper stores its old clip files. The
Daily Record
helps to sponsor the excellent, longtime Buckeye Book
Fair every year in Wooster where I’ve been able to sign many books and meet many
readers. Some Amish also attend, and it’s been enlightening to talk to them.

Amish furniture, which is beautifully crafted, features
prominently in this story. I have visited such stores and purchased a lovely
dining room table and chairs set from a place much like the one the Brands own.
If you would like to see the vast array of Amish-built pieces, two websites I
found useful are
www.furnitureheartland.com
and
www.AmishFurnitureGuide.com
.
Now that farmland is so expensive and the Plain People continue to have large
families, more Amish men are turning to various crafts. Some work in the stores,
some work at home and buggy their pieces in.

Amish friendship bread is no doubt similar to other such “yeast
starter” recipes, but the best online site I found for the Amish recipe is
www.armchair.com/recipe/bake002.html
. I also have
the recipe on my website
www.KarenHarperAuthor.com
with some other Amish recipes that figure
in earlier books. You might have noted that
Mamm
did
not share the recipe and yeast starter, as is traditional, but preferred just to
give only the bread, perhaps since she felt it was all she had to offer and she
didn’t want others making her specialty. However, in the spirit of Christmas,
and since she is now dealing with her problems, I think she will give people the
recipe and the starter as well as the bread, so that they may “pass it on.”

As Sandra told
Daad
when she met
with him in the story, Christmas always puts us in a kind of time warp. The past
becomes the present again as we remember Christmases past and the dear ones who
have gone on before us. Like life, the holiday season for many is a mixture of
sadness and happiness. But I hope your celebrations and memories will be
joyous.

Karen Harper