by Jan Drexler
Nearly a week had passed since Andrew had heard the nighttime prowler, and even though Jenny had alerted him to strangers on the road during the day, she hadn’t barked once in the nights since he had gotten her from the Smiths. Tonight he intended to keep watch. It could be that she spent her nights wandering back to her old home rather than staying put like she was supposed to. He had no delusions that their nighttime visitor wouldn’t return.
Jenny came running to greet him as he let himself out the kitchen door. He patted her, then looked for a place to keep watch. The doghouse was next to the oak tree and sat in heavy shadow on this moonlit night. Andrew pulled on his boots and walked over to it, his footsteps crunching faintly on the driveway. Jenny followed him, thrusting her nose into his hand. He sat in the dark next to the doghouse and Jenny lay alongside him as he scratched her side.
The moon showed the time to be an hour or so after sunset. Andrew yawned and leaned against the doghouse wall. If a prowler came around, he and Jenny would take care of him.
He yawned again, watching the shadows move slowly across the yard as the moon climbed in the sky. Andrew blinked. The shadows had jumped ahead and were beginning to stretch toward the east. Stretching his stiff muscles, he stood. He hadn’t meant to sleep, but he must have. Jenny was nowhere around. He might as well go to bed.
Halfway across the drive, he saw a figure moving toward the road and froze. There was Jenny, walking beside the man as if she intended to follow him home. Andrew ran to the house and peered around the corner. The figure had stopped at the edge of the road and motioned back toward the house. Jenny turned around and trotted toward her doghouse as the figure disappeared into the shadowed road. Andrew couldn’t tell which direction he went.
Some watchdog. The prowler had made friends with her. Maybe Bethany had warned her friend of the dog and he had brought a treat of some kind to ingratiate himself to her. But how could Bethany have warned anyone? She hadn’t talked to any man but Jonah at church on Sunday. Unless Lovina or one of her other friends was in on the secret.
Andrew shook his head. It was the middle of the night and he wasn’t thinking straight. He’d figure this out in the morning. He let himself into the house and went up to bed.
Dawn came too quickly. Andrew sat up in bed, scrubbing his face with his hands. He had to get to the bottom of this soon because he couldn’t afford to lose any more sleep.
He had just finished milking Dinah when Bethany came to find him.
“You’re up early,” he said, spreading a clean piece of cheesecloth over the pail of milk. He took it out to the springhouse to cool and Bethany followed him.
“So are you. You left the house before I got up. I wanted to talk to you about something.” She drew closer to him and lowered her voice. “I think there was someone outside the house last night.”
He tried to keep the surprise off his face. If the prowler was visiting Bethany, then why was she bringing it up?
“Why do you say that?”
“I heard someone tossing pebbles at a window.”
Andrew scratched his beard. “I thought I heard that same sound a while ago, too. That’s why I thought we needed a dog.”
“I couldn’t figure out why she didn’t bark if there was really a person out there.”
“Did you see anyone?”
Bethany shook her head, clearly as puzzled as he was. “Who do you think it could have been? And what was he doing out there?”
“And why didn’t Jenny bark? She barks if a stranger drives past the farm during the day.”
“If I didn’t know better, I would think that someone is courting Rose. The noise sounded like it came from her window.” Bethany waited outside the springhouse as he put the pail of warm milk in the shallow trough. The water ran through the trough before leaving the springhouse, keeping anything they placed there cool, even on the hottest days.
“Rose?” Andrew laughed. “You know she wouldn’t put up with that, and we’d certainly hear about it if anyone came snooping around her window at night.” He followed her out of the dairy and picked up the manure fork. “You could ask her about it during breakfast.”
Bethany shook her head. “I’m not going to bring it up. You can if you want to.” She started up the steps. “Breakfast will be ready in a while.”
“All right.” Andrew started cleaning the milking parlor.
If Bethany did have someone visiting her at night, it would be very clever of her to make him think the man was visiting Rose. Was she that clever? Did she know he had been keeping watch last night?
But the biggest question was, why didn’t Jenny bark?
By the time he finished the barn chores, it was time for breakfast. When he walked in the kitchen, Rose was standing by the table helping Mari onto her stool, and she was humming.
“You must have slept well last night, Rose,” he said as he sat in his chair.
“Wasn’t the moon bright?” Rose said, smiling at him. “I could have worked in the garden by moonlight, like I did when I was a girl.”
“Did it keep you awake?”
“Not for long. And then I had a beautiful dream.”
Andrew exchanged glances with Bethany. This didn’t sound like Rose at all.
After their silent prayer, Rose went on. “I don’t think I’ll be going back to Iowa after all. I like it here too much, and Mari is so happy.”
Bethany pressed her lips together in a tight line as she caught Andrew’s eye and shook her head slightly.
Andrew cleared his throat. “I never did want you to try to go back to Iowa. I hear the drought is worse this year than it’s ever been.”
He felt Bethany’s foot push his leg under the table.
“What are your plans, then?” Andrew poured syrup over his hotcakes. The logical place for Rose to live was here with them, but Bethany wouldn’t be happy with that. “Jonah still has the empty Dawdi Haus on his farm.”
Rose blushed. “I might look at it. Jonah was right when he said that I shouldn’t impose on the two of you, being newly married. And Jonah’s place is right across the road, so I would be able to see Mari almost as much as I do now.” She cut Mari’s hotcakes into bite-sized pieces.
Bethany smiled at that. “I’m certain that would work out well for you. No one has lived in the Dawdi Haus since my grandfather passed away, so it will need to be cleaned.”
Andrew folded a piece of his hotcake on his fork and shoved it in his mouth as the turning in his stomach settled down. For the first time since Rose’s arrival, he felt like things were going his way.
Now, if he could solve the mystery of the night prowler, life could start being normal again.
* * *
Buoyed by Rose’s talk of moving out of the house, Bethany felt the burden she had been carrying since the wedding lift. Even though her relationship with Rose had been better since the older woman had taken on caring for Bethany’s brothers a few days a week, she knew that once Rose moved out, then she and Andrew could make their marriage work better.
Mari helped Bethany clean the upstairs after breakfast on Thursday morning. Rose had closed herself in her room, saying she wanted to write some letters, so Bethany felt like she had the house to herself. This was the way her marriage was supposed to be, she thought as she and Mari climbed up the stairs. She and Mari working together through the day, taking care of their own home without Rose’s unwelcome interference.
“I use the dust mop,” Mari said as they reached the top step.
Bethany handed it to her. “For sure, you can. And you can take the sheets off your bed. We’ll start with my bed and I’ll show you how to do it, then you can do yours.”
Bethany took extra time dusting, since she had done the chore so quickly last week. Mari pushed the dust mop around, banging it into the corners, while Bethany thought about her conversation with Elisabeth last
week. So far, she didn’t feel like she had made any progress with Andrew. In fact, their friendship might have even cooled a little bit. During the past week, their conversations had been shallow, dwelling only on the weather or Mari. And when she had told him about the noises she had heard last night, his face had grown tight and closed, as if he knew something he didn’t want to share with her.
Mari helped her strip the sheets off the beds, and then Bethany made the beds with clean sheets while Mari dusted the hallway. For sure, Mari missed the corners, but she improved every week. When they got to Andrew’s room, Bethany remade his bed with clean sheets, too. Since Rose had been doing laundry for Daed and the boys on Mondays, there was no reason to try to hide the fact that she and Andrew weren’t sharing a bedroom. By the time Rose returned home after dinner on Mondays, the sheets were washed, dried, ironed and put away in the cupboard.
The upstairs rooms were getting hot when they had finished their cleaning. Bethany made sure the windows sashes were raised and the doors propped open so the air could circulate through the house. Years ago, Mamm had shown her how the air blowing across the upper floor of the house would act like a chimney, pulling fresh air into the rooms downstairs and up the stairway. That, and lowering the window shades to keep out the strongest rays of the sun, kept the house cooler on these hot summer days.
When Bethany and Mari came downstairs, Rose’s bedroom door was still closed, and it was too early to start preparing dinner. Elisabeth had told Bethany to work with Andrew, to show him she was willing to be his partner, but how?
Mari tugged at her skirt. “I’m thirsty.”
As Bethany got her a drink of water, she thought of a way she could help Andrew.
“Should we take some water out to your daed?”
Mari nodded. “We can take water for Whiskers and Dandy, too.”
“Daed will take care of the horses’ water.”
Bethany got an empty jug out of the cupboard and washed it out. She put some ginger and vinegar into the jar, then filled it with fresh, cold water. Stopping up the opening with a clean rag, she and Mari went out to the field, with Jenny running ahead of them.
Andrew saw them coming and stopped the horses in the shade of a tree at the edge of the field. “What brings you out here? Is anything wrong?”
Mari ran to him. “We brought you water.”
Bethany handed him the jug. He nodded his thanks and took a drink while Mari searched for worms in the newly turned earth.
When he lowered the jug, he grinned at her. “You made ginger water.”
“Your mamm was the one who taught me how to do it.”
He took another drink. “I’m glad you remembered.” He wiped the sweat from his face. “It’s going to be a hot one today.”
“How much more do you need to plow?”
Andrew waved his arm over the field. “Another few acres, and then I’ll be ready to plant this field.” He gestured toward another field. “I’ve already planted the corn there, and if we get rain, it should be sprouting soon.”
Bethany looked at the blue sky. “There’s no sign of rain?”
Andrew shook his head, then took another drink. “I’m not sure what we’ll do if it doesn’t rain soon.”
“Is it that bad?”
“I spent every dime I had bringing this farm back, but I don’t want to worry you with my problems.”
“We’re married, Andrew.” He looked at her. “Your problems are my problems, too. We’re partners, aren’t we?”
Andrew sighed. “Are we?”
“For sure we are.”
He pushed the cloth back into the mouth of the jug. “I need to get back to work. The water was good.”
Elisabeth had said that Bethany needed to show Andrew that they were partners, not just tell him. But how?
“I’ll take the jug back and refill it so you can have fresh water after dinner.”
As she took the heavy stoneware jug from him, their hands touched, and she looked into his face. Worry lines framed his eyes. Where was the happy, energetic boy she had grown up with?
“You’re worried about more than just the rain, aren’t you?”
“Ja, for sure I am.”
“Is it anything I can help you with?”
She couldn’t read the expression on his face after her question. It was as if it had surprised him.
He nodded. “I need you to stick by me, Bethany. I know you want things for the house. A buggy horse, and material to make new clothes for us...”
“Those things don’t matter.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t want a new dress.”
“Not if a new dress means the farm doesn’t do as well.” Bethany set down the jug at her feet. “You and Mari come first, and the farm. A new dress isn’t important, but other things are.”
Andrew rubbed his right shoulder, frowning as if he was bothered by something he couldn’t quite identify. This was her Andrew. Lily may have his heart, but the rest of him was Bethany’s. His life, his work and his family. They were partners, whether he admitted it or not.
On an impulse, she laid her hand over his, bracing herself on his shoulder as she rose on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek.
She was sorry immediately. His face turned dark red as he turned away from her, just as he had when she had been foolish enough to kiss him so many years ago. How could she had been so stupid? So naive to think that he would welcome her kiss, even as one friend to another?
Her eyes blinded with tears, she dusted off Mari’s skirt and started the long walk back to the house.
Chapter Ten
The horses had rested while he talked with Bethany, so Andrew lined them up for another pass across the field. The ground had been well-worked four years ago, and it was still easier to plow than the clay soil on his farm in Iowa. Still, the horses could only plow about an acre each day. By Saturday night, this field would be done.
As he walked behind the plow, he thought back to Bethany’s kiss. She didn’t mean anything by it, he was sure. She had done the same thing a year or so before he moved to Iowa. Just a kiss on the cheek, like girls did. He had laughed it off then, thinking that she had turned girlish and was trying to start something romantic. But after she got over being mad, they went back to being friends.
At least he thought they had.
But now, after being married before and understanding women a little better than he had then, he was sure this kiss from Bethany had only been to thank him. Romance took two people, a give-and-take. If she was going to be romantic with anyone, it would be her mysterious visitor. Maybe she had only been happy because she didn’t think he knew.
Andrew swiped at a deerfly, only to have it come back at him again. He had to stop thinking this way. Bethany was his wife and took her commitment to their marriage as seriously as he did. Her worry about their nighttime prowler should be enough to prove to him that whoever it was wasn’t coming around to visit her. He had to trust her, and that was final.
Where was this jealousy coming from, anyway? It couldn’t be because he was in love with her.
It was only because they were married, and she was his responsibility. That was all. She didn’t mean anything by that kiss.
Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he would forget how her scent had wrapped around him as she had leaned in to brush her lips against his cheek.
The plow got caught in a tangle of dead weeds and stopped.
“Whoa, horses. Back up some.”
Whiskers flicked his ears around and took a step back. Dandy shook his head but moved back to match his teammate.
“Ready?” The horses leaned into their collars. “Pull!”
They strained together, and the plow pulled through the web of roots and stems. In a few more steps they were at the edge of the field. Andrew measured the sun’s position an
d judged it was nearly noon and time for dinner. He left the plow at the edge of the field and drove the horses to the barn, following behind on foot. After he removed the harness, he made sure there was fresh water in their trough and hay in the basket on the pasture fence. He’d let them rest for an hour, then feed them a bit of grain before going back to work.
Andrew pulled off his hat and fanned his face. The sky was brassy yellow in the noonday sun, and the temperature was rising. He should take more than an hour to rest. No reason to wear out the horses and risk heatstroke. He could finish the acre this evening, after an early supper. It would be cooler then and better for the horses and him.
When he reached the house, Bethany had a full dinner waiting for him, in spite of the heat. When she took the chicken casserole out of the oven, she stirred the embers to separate them and closed the dampers.
“We’ll have a cold supper tonight, if that’s all right,” she said as she put the casserole on the table. Her face was bright red from the heat. “It’s just too hot to keep a fire going.”
“If the heat doesn’t let up, you should plan on cold meals tomorrow, too.” Andrew had washed up at the pump in the barnyard, and his hair dripped water into his eyes. He wiped his face on his shirt. “I’m going to wait until this evening to finish plowing. It’s going to be too hot to work the horses this afternoon.”
Rose’s bedroom door opened. She was fanning herself as she came out.
“Did you get the letters written that you wanted to?” asked Bethany.
The older woman nodded. “I fell asleep, too. I can’t understand that, but I was so tired.”
“This heat will do that to you.” Bethany helped Mari onto her stool. The little girl’s face was flushed, and she yawned. “It looks like someone else will be ready for a nap soon, too.”