Besides, as it turned out, she couldn’t imagine having a better time playing games with anyone in Florida than she had with Jonathan, even if he did end up winning at both checkers and cards, just like he said he would.
Chapter Four
Jonathan and Leah had had so much fun on Friday they decided to play cards again on Saturday evening. This time, Jonathan enjoyed it even more because Leah baked a spice cake for the occasion and Rebekah had actually gone to sleep in her crib, so it was just the two of them, which made it easier to converse.
They talked about their childhoods and their families and what subjects they’d liked in school. Jonathan learned that Leah had wanted to be a teacher, but her plans changed after her parents died, and he confided how much he’d loved being a carpenter when he lived among the Englisch.
Jonathan hadn’t had such a pleasant time since he was dating Lisa. No, it was even more pleasant than that, because as much as he’d enjoyed Lisa’s company, it was always tinged with guilt because she wasn’t Amish. The past two evenings had reminded him of an even earlier time, before he’d left to live among the Englisch. The exuberance he felt when he was around Leah took him back to when he was a teenager and he’d go to singings. Afterwards all the youth would play games and socialize and it seemed they had their entire lives in front of them. At that time, Jonathan still had hope he could talk his father into letting him become a carpenter.
I’m not a youth any longer and from now on, I’ll always be a farmer, he reminded himself. But he felt young at heart. While he knew he couldn’t let his feelings get out of hand, he couldn’t deny them, either. Not to himself, anyway. And why should he? If the Lord had provided a warm, sunny day during an otherwise bleak, frigid winter, Jonathan would have thanked Him for it and made the most of how it boosted his spirits. Well, Leah’s presence there was like a bright ray of sunshine breaking through the snow clouds, too.
So even though the pair had stayed up till eleven thirty the night before, Jonathan practically danced across the yard to his brother’s house on Sunday morning. Leah was wearing a forest green dress that enhanced her smooth, creamy complexion and made her dark eyes appear even more striking.
“I just finished feeding Rebekah and I still need to get her dressed,” she said as she tried to wipe in between the folds of the baby’s neck with a washcloth. The baby kept arching her back and pushing Leah’s hand away. “Would you mind asking if there’s anything Esther or Gabriel need before we leave?”
“Sure thing.” Jonathan bounded up the stairs and knocked on the door. Esther was in the bathroom, but Gabriel was sitting on a chair, sipping tea.
When Jonathan asked if he could bring him anything, Gabriel said, “Denki, but Leah’s taken care of all our needs. She told us this morning she’s not leaving till next week. Did you know that?”
“Jah.” Although Leah had rearranged her itinerary on Saturday, she had put off telling Esther about the change in plans, for fear Esther would try to persuade her to go enjoy her vacation. “I made sure Leah knew I could handle things here myself, but she truly wants to stay.”
“I can’t say I’m not relieved. And Esther is, too. Although she feels baremlich that Leah is missing more time in Pinecraft, she doesn’t want to overburden you with caring for us and the bobbel on your own,” Gabriel said. Then he gave Jonathan a once-over and remarked, “Leah must be taking gut care of you, too, because you actually look better than you’ve looked all winter.”
“Compared to you, anyone looks gut,” Jonathan razzed him.
“I don’t,” Esther said from the doorway. Instead of wearing her usual bathrobe and slippers, she had changed into a dress and she’d clearly made an attempt to gather her hair into a bun, but Jonathan couldn’t deny she looked unusually pale and frazzled.
As he assisted her to the chair by the window where she wanted to sit for a spell in the sunshine, he joked, “If you think you look bad, you should see your dochder. Leah fed her applesauce for breakfast and she got it everywhere, even up her nose.”
“Rebekah’s or Leah’s?” Gabriel questioned facetiously, but Esther burst into tears.
“That’s the first time Rebekah has tried applesauce and I didn’t get to see how she liked it,” she cried.
Jonathan looked out the window, trying to think of an encouraging response. He knew Leah had brought Rebekah to Gabriel and Esther’s doorway a couple of times so they could at least get a glimpse of their daughter, but Leah said Rebekah had cried so hard when she couldn’t go to her mother that Esther had gotten very upset, too. So now Leah only stopped in the doorway with Rebekah if the baby was sound asleep, but she never entered the room, for fear of Rebekah catching the flu.
Handing Esther a box of tissues, Jonathan said, “It won’t be long until your arms are sore from lugging Rebekah around again.”
“I know. And I’m so grateful we have you and Leah here to help us, so I have no right to complain. I’m just tired, that’s all.” Esther blew her nose before remarking, “Speaking of being tired, I would have thought you’d look bleary-eyed this morning. Leah told us how late you were up last night. From the sound of your laughter, you two were having a blast.”
Jonathan knew his sister-in-law well enough to sense she was fishing for information about how he felt about her friend. Esther often tried to match him up, even though he’d made it crystal clear he had no interest in courting anyone. He didn’t want his sister-in-law to think he had changed his mind just because he was enjoying Leah’s company. He avoided her unspoken question, apologizing, “Sorry if we woke you.”
“You didn’t wake me. When I heard you in the background I actually thought I was dreaming until Leah told me this morning how frustrating it was she couldn’t beat you at checkers.”
“Gut strategy if you can keep it up, bruder,” Gabriel needled him.
“What do you mean by that?” Esther asked her husband, who explained that as long as Jonathan kept winning, Leah would keep challenging him to a rematch, which meant he’d have a valid excuse to stick around the house after the chores were done and the baby was in bed.
“Is that true?” Esther pressed Jonathan.
“Of course it’s true,” Gabriel answered before Jonathan could deny it. “Why do you think he’s been so chipper these past couple of mornings?”
“You’d better get some more sleep. Your fever is making you delirious,” Jonathan heckled his brother. Yet as he shuffled toward the door, his face was aflame because Gabriel had hit the nail square on the head.
* * *
Leah had been looking forward to meeting new people when she went to Pinecraft, but instead, she got to have that experience by attending church with Jonathan. The church members were extraordinarily friendly and although she initially felt awkward wearing a mask, Leah noticed several others wearing them, too. Everyone Jonathan introduced her to expressed dismay when they heard Gabriel and Esther had been stricken with the flu.
“Ach! You must be itching to get to Florida,” Nancy Ebersole, the deacon’s wife, said after Leah explained how she happened to be in Holmes County for an extended period.
“Neh, there’s still plenty of time for that,” Leah replied as she rinsed a platter they’d used for serving lunch.
“Well, if they’re not better by next Muundaag, my husband, Peter, and I can kumme and give Jonathan a hand. There are others who can help, too. Many of us have had the flu already. You needn’t delay your trip any longer, dear,” Nancy insisted. “A vacation like that is a rare opportunity.”
“Denki, but I’m sure they’ll be on the mend by then,” Leah replied.
As much as she appreciated Nancy’s support, Leah found herself wishing she hadn’t mentioned her vacation in Florida. If Esther and Gabriel are still sick, I want to be the one to help them—and Jonathan, she thought.
But on Monday morning, neither Gabriel nor Esther had a fever,
so by Tuesday afternoon, they were able to come downstairs and join the others for lunch without worrying they’d spread the flu. Their appetites still hadn’t returned and they both felt haggard physically, but they were delighted to be able to embrace their daughter again. She, in turn, was over the moon at being held by them and she laughed and burbled and waved her arms with joy.
Leah sat back and watched. She was so thankful that Esther and Gabriel’s health was improving and yet it felt almost crowded to have them at the table with her, Jonathan and the baby. She’d grown so accustomed to it being just the three of them. Jonathan was quieter than usual and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing or if there was something else on his mind.
By the time lunch was over, both Esther and Gabriel were bushed and they had to return to their room. Rebekah began to cry, which made Esther tear up, too. “If you or Jonathan can carry her upstairs for us, Leah, she can kumme nap in our bed.”
Recognizing the baby was too wound up to sleep or to let her parents sleep yet, Leah suggested she should take Rebekah for a stroll outside first. “It’s fairly warm and she needs the fresh air. Especially since I heard we’re going to have foul weather for the next couple of days. I’ll tire her out and then bring her upstairs to you.”
Jonathan went outside, too, since he had to hitch the horse to go into town and purchase a part for a piece of farm equipment he was repairing. While he was in the barn, Leah stomped a path through the ice-encrusted snow in a big circle around the house, pointing out a squirrel and various birds to the baby, whose expression was full of wonder.
As she rounded the yard toward the stable, she slipped and almost landed on her backside but she righted her stance at the last moment.
Jonathan strode over and asked, “Do you think you ought to walk up and down the driveway instead?”
“There’s not as much to see on that side of the haus and it’s so close to the main road that the Englisch traffic startles the bobbel.”
“Jah, but her eldre are watching us from their window,” Jonathan said out of the corner of his mouth, as if he was afraid they could hear him. He reached to accept Rebekah when Leah held her out to him. “I wouldn’t want them to worry about the bobbel’s safety.”
Leah pretended to be indignant. “What about my safety?”
“You’re absolutely right. Where are my manners?” Jonathan repositioned Rebekah so he could offer his arm to Leah, much to her chagrin. She hadn’t been asking for help—she’d been pointing out that Esther and Gabriel might worry about her on the ice, too. Leah stole a furtive glance toward the window, where she glimpsed Esther, standing with her hand clasping the end of her other arm beneath her chin.
I’ll never hear the end of this if I take his arm, she thought. But it would have been rude to refuse, so Leah allowed Jonathan to escort her to the porch, arm in arm.
Once inside, she took the baby upstairs. Fortunately, Gabriel had decided to take a bath instead of a nap, so Leah didn’t have to be embarrassed in front of him when Esther hinted, “You and Jonathan looked awfully cozy holding hands out there. Does this mean you don’t find him to be quite so schtill anymore?”
“I’ve gotten to know him better, jah,” Leah allowed. “But we weren’t holding hands. He was keeping me and your dochder safe, that’s all.”
“I might be sick but I’m not stupid,” Esther taunted playfully. Leah was glad her humor was returning but she wished she wouldn’t speak so loudly—Gabriel might hear her. “A man doesn’t help a perfectly capable woman across the yard like that unless he’s interested in her. You two are probably playing checkers again tonight, aren’t you?”
“Neh, I don’t think so.”
It had, indeed, become a nightly ritual for Jonathan and Leah to play games and have dessert after the evening chores were done and the baby was in bed. But because of Esther’s remark about Jonathan being interested in her, Leah feared she’d been giving him the wrong impression. She certainly valued his help and enjoyed his company, but she didn’t want to encourage him if he thought they had any kind of romantic future together.
So that night she told Jonathan she wanted to go to bed early and he left shortly after supper. But once Esther, Gabriel and Rebekah were tucked into their beds, instead of reading, as Leah claimed she wanted to do, she paced her room pondering Esther’s comments. It occurred to her that she wasn’t half as unnerved by the possibility that Jonathan had developed a crush on her as she was by the notion she’d developed a crush on him.
These feelings are temporary and so is this situation. Taking care of a bobbel for a week is nothing like raising a kind until she becomes an adult. And that’s the last thing I want to do at this point in my life! So I need to put any feelings of infatuation out of my heart entirely, she warned herself.
The next morning, Leah got up and dressed herself and the baby, careful not to wake Esther and Gabriel. When she carried Rebekah downstairs, she found Jonathan was already in the kitchen. His nose and cheeks were so cold they stayed pink throughout breakfast. He explained that he’d been outside longer than usual, but he wouldn’t tell Leah why. Instead, he suggested she and the baby should meet him out on the porch in a few minutes.
“I’ve got a surprise out there, so don’t look out the window or you’ll spoil it,” he cautioned before leaving to get something.
“What is it? A snowman?” Leah guessed, but he wouldn’t tell her so she followed his instructions. When she stepped out onto the porch, he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a wheelbarrow. It was piled with a soft bed of hay, which was topped with a folded quilt.
“What’s that for?”
“Esther doesn’t have a stroller suitable for the bobbel right now and I couldn’t find the sled Gabriel and I used to use as kinner, so I improvised.”
Jonathan pointed out the path he’d shoveled through the snow, down to the frozen ground. From what she could see, it appeared to loop all the way around the yard.
“You’re narrish!” she exclaimed. Then she held Rebekah up as if to allow her to survey the yard. “Look what your onkel did for you.”
“I did it for you, too,” Jonathan said. “So you won’t slip or tire out your arms holding the baby. I made a path to the clothesline, too, although you’d pretty much already worn a groove down to the grass.”
“Denki.” Leah securely propped Rebekah in the wheelbarrow. She looked like a princess on a throne and once Jonathan started pushing her, she made a contented “ahhh” sound, drawing out the vowel, her voice vibrating with the movement of the wheelbarrow over the hard, bumpy earth.
This man is worth his weight in gold. If I had a husband, I’d want him to be just like Jonathan, Leah caught herself thinking as she walked alongside him. He sure wasn’t making it easy for her to stifle her feelings of attraction to him.
A few errant snowflakes drifted from the sky and landed on Rebekah’s fleshy cheeks. Thinking the icy wetness would bother the baby, Leah was about to remove her own scarf so she could shield Rebekah’s face with it, when Rebekah giggled and held her mittens to the sky, delighted.
As they passed beneath Esther and Gabriel’s window, Esther tapped on the glass pane. Still dressed in her nightgown, she clapped and pointed to her daughter as Gabriel appeared behind Esther, watching over her shoulder. Leah could practically hear their laughter right through the glass window. The merriment was contagious and Jonathan insisted for the second lap, he give both Leah and Rebekah a ride around the yard. He tipped the wheelbarrow upward so Leah could gently position herself and the baby in it. They faced forward, so Leah’s legs dangled over the side opposite from Jonathan, who worked his speed into a slow jog.
Feeling freer than she’d felt since she was a child, Leah sang the same “ah” sound the baby did, laughing at the way the pulsation tickled her throat as they bounced around the yard. By the time they’d circled completely around, the snow
was falling steadily. Leah tried to convince Jonathan to come inside for hot cocoa, but he said he needed to return to town because the clerk had given him the wrong part. He wanted to get to town and back as soon as possible, in case the weather worsened.
When she went inside, Leah was surprised to find Gabriel in the kitchen, filling a pot to boil water for eggs.
“I can finish making those,” she offered.
“Denki,” he said, setting the pot in the sink and holding out his arms for the baby. “Let’s trade.”
“Do you think Esther will join you for breakfast?”
“Jah, she’ll be down in a minute. She sure loved seeing Rebekah riding in the wheelbarrow. It was as amusing for us to watch as it was for the bobbel to experience.”
“It was schpass for me, too. Jonathan came up with the idea and he cleared the path all by himself, because he saw what a hard time I was having navigating the terrain yesterday.”
Gabriel gave a wry chuckle. “When I asked him to show you special hospitality, I never imagined he’d shovel the backyard!”
Leah’s breath caught. Her chest hurt, as if she’d swallowed an icicle whole. So that was why Jonathan had been doing so many thoughtful things for her; his brother had requested it and Esther probably had, too. Leah should have known. They were still kind gestures, of course, but they weren’t reflective of anything other than familial obligation and hospitality.
It serves me right to have the rug pulled from beneath my feet like that. Knowing I have no desire to get married, I never should have allowed myself to entertain feelings of attraction in the first place, she chastised herself.
Leah was relieved Jonathan was gone through lunchtime. She felt like he would have been able to see the humiliation written all over her face. At supper, she could hardly speak to him. Everything Jonathan said or did felt somehow deceptive, even though he probably intended to be helpful.
An Amish Winter (Love Inspired) Page 14