Moses picked up a screwdriver from Dawdi’s box. He had promised Lia he’d help her stack those limbs, and he didn’t want her to think he’d forgotten, even over the long six days she’d been gone. If Mammi thought there was any other reason for him to show up at exactly the time they expected Lia, well, she could go on believing what she wanted.
It had been a week since Moses had momentarily lost his reason and kissed Lia right on the mouth. His brain ached for trying to figure out why he’d done such a thing. He’d never even kissed Barbara before.
The best he could come up with was that curiosity got the better of him. Her lips looked like full, blushing pink rose petals, and he had wanted to see how soft they were. But that he would lose his mind in a blaze of curiosity made absolutely no sense. She had looked so pretty that day, with unruly chestnut curls peeking out from under her kapp and the aftereffects of hot sauce tinting her cheeks. It had seemed so natural, so easy, and he had wanted to kiss her in the worst way. So he did.
Either that or his overdose of hot sauce made him woozy. Could he really be held responsible for his actions?
Moses wondered if Lia had already forgotten it happened or if he should apologize for his behavior. She didn’t seem embarrassed or angry. She’d probably laughed herself to sleep that night.
One thing was certain. He wouldn’t do that again. Hot sauce or no hot sauce, he would keep his head. Lia didn’t deserve false hope, and Moses had resolved to stay loyal to Barbara.
All three of them heard the van as it rattled up the lane. It needed a new muffler.
Mammi pointed out the door. “Lead the way, Moses. I want you to be the first to see her.”
Moses merely grinned and shook his head. “And you think I am the tease?”
They walked out of the barn together, Moses with his arm wrapped protectively around Mammi’s shoulders.
Roy Polter hopped out of his van and gave Felty a curt wave of his hand. Moses’s mamm would call Roy portly. He’d confessed to Moses that he had a weakness for cheese fries and donuts, and sitting in a van all day didn’t help his waistline. At age sixty-five, Roy had retired from his day job and now he drove Amish folks to weddings, funerals, and auctions all over Wisconsin. Roy sometimes delivered cheese to La Crosse for Moses when it was on his way.
“I brought her safe and sound,” Roy said as he slid the door open.
A short blonde hopped out of the van. She looked at Moses and put her hand to the nape of her neck to smooth an imaginary strand of hair. “Hi,” she said, studying him from top to bottom. Her eyes lit up, and she fluttered her long eyelashes. “Hel-lo,” she said, drawing the word out so long she had to take a deep breath afterward.
Why did the girls have to look at him like he was the next thing up for bid on the auction block? Moses stuck his head inside the van. Mattie and Noah Schrock and their daughter, Nan, sat in the backseat.
“Gute maiya, Moses,” Nan said. “How are you?”
“Fine,” Moses replied. He looked at the short girl standing next to him. “Where’s Lia?”
The girl sidled too close. “She’s not coming.”
By this time, Mammi and Dawdi had made their way around the side of the van. “Not coming?” Mammi said, the wrinkles around her mouth deepening to a frown.
The girl beamed from ear to ear. “I’m here instead,” she said, as if this were the best news they could have heard all day.
Moses stared at her in puzzlement. “Who are you?”
“I’m Rachel, Lia’s sister.”
“Where’s Lia?” Mammi asked.
“Dat thought it would be better if I came to Bonduel in Lia’s place.”
Mammi pasted a sweet, mildly concerned expression on her face, but Moses wasn’t fooled. Mammi was hopping mad. A vein in her temple pulsed wildly, she wrung her hands, and her voice cracked in about five different places when she spoke. “Your dat thought it would be better?”
Rachel leaned close to Mammi’s ear and lowered her voice, but Moses still heard every word. “He thinks I would be a more fitting choice,” she inclined her head toward Moses, “for a certain person. How could you have known that when you asked Lia to stay with you over the summer instead of me? Dat says we’ve got to make hay, and all that.”
Moses couldn’t conceal his astonishment. He stared at Rachel as his jaw fell to the ground. Mammi’s harmless scheming was nothing compared to Lia’s dat’s rudeness. Had he actually switched daughters because he thought Lia was an unlikely match and her sister a sure thing? The sheer audacity of such a suggestion left Moses breathless.
It seemed her dat moved his daughters around like pieces on a chessboard. Lia was the expendable one, and Rachel played the queen.
Well, Moses refused to be the pawn.
Mammi looked at Moses, and even with that sugary-sweet smile still hanging on her lips, her eyes flickered with fire. “What does Lia think about making hay?”
Rachel waved her hand around as if swatting a fly. “Oh, I don’t know, but she was in one of her moods when I left. She wouldn’t even come out to see me off. She can be so petty sometimes.”
Roy handed Rachel her bag from the back of the van. Moses promptly took it from her. He might not be happy about her being here, but he remembered his manners. Rachel gave him an approving look. “I must say, I had my doubts, but you are just as Lia described.”
Moses couldn’t say the same about Rachel. Lia had told him that her sister was pretty, that she had broken dozens of hearts over the years. She possessed stunningly beautiful features with round blue eyes and rosebud lips, and her silky golden hair surely attracted many suitors. But she was a puny thing who carried a self-satisfied air about her that Moses found unappealing. Any girl who took pleasure in hurting boys’ feelings was not worth his time.
“You’re even taller than Lia. I bet she liked that. She usually towers over everybody, like a sycamore.”
Roy said his good-byes to Mammi and Dawdi and drove away with his three remaining passengers.
Rachel watched the van disappear down the hill, breathed in the moist summer air, and clasped her hands together. “Will you show me to my room? I’ll sleep wherever Lia did. I don’t mind if it’s terribly small. My room at home ain’t much bigger than the washroom.”
Mammi still had that smile painted on her face. If she kept it in place much longer, it would dry like that, and she might never be able to wipe it off. “Rebecca—”
“Rachel.”
“Rachel, would you mind very much waiting for us in the house?” When Rachel paused, no doubt trying to guess what they were up to, Mammi motioned toward the front porch as if Rachel might not know the way.
“Um, I don’t mind. If Moses could carry my bag and show me to my room—”
Mammi yanked the bag from Moses’s fingers faster than he could say “ouch” and handed it to Rachel, who cradled it with both arms as if it weighed a hundred pounds. “I would appreciate it if you would take it in yourself.”
Rachel pursed her lips and batted her baby blue eyes. “Which room?”
“Wait for us in the kitchen,” Mammi said. Moses admired the way Mammi could pepper her sweet tone with the hint of a scolding.
Rachel lifted her nose slightly in the air, gifted them with a momentary smile, and shuffled to the house, dragging her bag behind her.
Mammi took Dawdi’s arm. “Let’s walk behind the barn where no one will hear me howl in frustration.”
Dawdi and Mammi led the way. When they got out of sight of the house, Mammi didn’t waste her breath. “If Owen Shetler thinks he can pull that with me, he’s got another thing coming.”
“As sure as rain, I’m going to miss that girl,” Dawdi said. “A sweeter thing never come up our hill.”
Mammi turned on Dawdi as if he had let his dentures fall down the well. “Felty, how can you say that? As if we’ll never see Lia again! I refuse to give her up that easy.”
Moses had to admire how fast Dawdi could change his tune. He
squared his shoulders and wrapped an arm around Mammi. “Of course we’re going to do something about it. How could Lia’s dat send us a daughter we didn’t ask for? What do you think, Moses?”
Secure that Dawdi was on her side, Mammi quit pacing and sat on the bench near the garden plot. “If I didn’t care about sparing that girl’s feelings, I’d send her packing back to Wautoma in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. I mean for Moses to marry Lia, not her sister.”
This would not be a good time to object to Mammi’s interfering in his life. Moses wanted Lia back too, and not because he enjoyed her company. He simply felt better knowing that Mammi and Dawdi weren’t on Huckleberry Hill all by themselves. Besides, Sarah planned on Lia’s help delivering babies.
“They’ve convinced the poor girl that she is unworthy of any young man’s love,” Mammi said.
“What do you think, Moses?” Dawdi said. “Lia don’t seem unhappy.”
“Not our Lia,” Mammi said. “She’s been blessed with a sunshiny disposition. Happiness springs from her like water from a brook. But we can’t let Lia believe for one moment that we don’t want her back or that we don’t care who we get. She’s our girl. She needs to know where she stands with us.”
Moses suddenly comprehended the full weight of what Mammi said. She was more perceptive than he gave her credit for. If Mammi and Dawdi let Rachel stay, Lia would feel the sting of it forever. He wouldn’t want to see her hurt like that.
“What do you think, Moses?” Dawdi said.
Mammi waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, what young man knows his own heart?”
Felty thumbed his suspenders. “Annie, I’m asking Moses. Lia is his bride, not yours.”
Moses coughed. He had to put a stop to this. “Lia is not my bride. I barely know her.”
Mammi nodded. “We brought her here so you could become acquainted.”
Moses affectionately placed his palm on Mammi’s cheek. “I’m not looking to marry. I don’t fit into your neatly arranged rows, Mammi. You can’t plan my future as if you were knitting a sweater.”
Mammi raised her eyebrows and looked shocked at the very thought. “Of course I can.”
Moses was forced to chuckle at Mammi’s determination. He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. Giving in, he sank to the bench next to Mammi. “If we shame Rachel by sending her back, her dat might take offense and refuse to let Lia return.”
Mammi stood and paced again. “Sometimes I wish I’d never given up cussing.”
“I never heard you cuss ever,” Felty said.
“On days like today, I wish I did.”
Moses rubbed his chin. “What if we asked for Lia back and let Rachel stay? It wouldn’t hurt to have two girls helping here.”
Mammi perked up and clapped her hands. “Moses, you are so smart. When Rachel sees that your heart is set on Lia, maybe she will get bored and go back to Wautoma without being asked.”
Moses groaned inwardly while his lips twitched a fraction of an inch southward. “We can only hope.”
Rachel had already helped herself to the food. She sat at the kitchen table eating a slice of Mammi’s bread slathered in strawberry jam. When Moses and his grandparents entered the room, she stuffed the last bite into her mouth and shot from her seat. She smiled at Moses and tilted her head just so. He marveled that she could manage to flirt with him with her mouth full. She chewed and swallowed quickly. “Moses can show me to my room now.”
The minute Mammi walked into the kitchen, her sweet façade reappeared, and she showed nothing but delight at Rachel’s presence. “Rachel, we have been talking, and we have grown quite fond of Lia. Do you think she would come back and join you for the summer?”
Rachel cocked an eyebrow and gazed pointedly at Moses. “I don’t see that you’d need both of us.”
“Lia knows how I like my dishes washed, and she scrubs the stove till it shines. And the toilets. The toilets have got to be swabbed at least once a day. All that work doesn’t leave much time for anything else, like gatherings and buggy rides.” Mammi looked at Moses as if he were the topic of conversation.
He was the topic of conversation, but neither Rachel nor Mammi would come right out and say it. They must have forgotten he had ears.
A small line appeared between Rachel’s brows. She regarded Mammi, then Moses before a smile played at her lips. “Lia was always better with the chores. She’s sturdy, while Dat says I’m delicate.”
“Can your mamm spare both of you for the summer?” Mammi asked.
Rachel’s excitement seemed to grow the more she considered Mammi’s proposal. “Oh, Mamm and Dat won’t mind a bit once they understand the circumstances. I can always count on Lia to help me out.”
Mammi nodded in satisfaction. “Gute. Moses can show you where your room is, and I will write to your dat without delay.” She winked at Moses.
Rachel saw the gesture, and her face practically exploded into a smile.
Moses winked back at Mammi as they shared a private laugh. Moses could only imagine what his mammi would write in her letter.
Chapter Eight
Lia fed the wet clothes through the wringer, being careful not to pinch her fingers in the process. She could get going so fast that if she wasn’t careful, she’d end up with smashed fingers and blackish-blue fingernails. It had happened enough times to make her cautious. She worked with extra care today because she was trying to read her book and feed clothes at the same time.
The midwife book Sarah had given her sat open on the narrow counter with two cans of French-cut green beans holding the pages down so Lia could read. She wasn’t being very efficient with either the reading or the laundry, but she had to steal time to read when she could. She had already finished Sarah’s book twice and marked it thoroughly with penciled notes and questions in the margins.
Not that it mattered. Sarah Beachy and Moses Zimmerman lived in Bonduel, and Lia would probably be stuck in Wautoma for the rest of her life. Dat thought the book was a waste of time. Wautoma didn’t need a midwife, he said. There was one only twenty minutes away in Coloma.
Rachel had been gone four days. Were the Helmuths glad to have a petite, delicate girl for their grandson instead of a ridiculously tall girl of twenty-three? Had Moses fallen in love with Rachel yet? Lia didn’t expect to hear from Rachel for the rest of the summer unless she and Moses got engaged.
Ouch! She snatched back her hand before the wringer pulled her index finger in and flattened it like a pancake.
Lia didn’t much like the thought of Moses as her brother-in-law. But one advantage of being stuck in Wautoma was she wouldn’t have to see Rachel and Moses often. Bonduel wasn’t far, but it was far enough that Lia could avoid seeing her sister most of the year. Lia’s relationship with the Helmuths was lost too. Moses would be at their house too often for Lia’s liking.
Finding it impossible to concentrate, Lia lifted the cans holding her pages and closed the book. She was usually such a cheerful person. Why did she stew over this?
Dat strolled into the washroom holding a torn envelope and a piece of stationery. “I have news from Bonduel.”
Lia’s heart fluttered irrationally. An engagement already?
She willed herself to remain calm.
Of course not. Not even Rachel could make a man lose his senses in less than a week—at least not a sensible man like Moses.
“It seems the Helmuths want you to go back to Bonduel.”
Lia felt as if she could bounce around the house like a ball. She didn’t even try to contain her smile. “They do?”
Dat’s eyes scanned the letter. “Anna says, ‘Lia is a wonderful-gute worker and cook. She can help with the chores to give Moses and Rachel more time for courting.’”
Lia’s bouncy ball crashed to the floor like a mushy potato. “Oh, I see.”
Dat stroked his beard. “I suppose they still need the help, even with Rachel there.”
From the beginning, Lia had known that Rachel would
be of no real service to the Helmuths. Her value was measured in what she could do for their grandson. Lia wanted to know if they were scheming with or without Moses’s approval.
It stung that the Helmuths had abandoned their plans for Lia and Moses and were encouraging Rachel instead. Lia couldn’t blame them for their choice. Dat always said, “Youth is beauty.”
Did she even want to go back?
The first time she went to Huckleberry Hill, Lia had expected to work hard, and she had never dreamed of meeting any interested boys. This time would be no different. She would work hard and not expect attention from any boy. If Sarah was obliging, Lia could still learn to be a midwife too, Lord willing.
Of course she wanted to go back.
She and Anna and Felty could take care of each other. The three of them could play Scrabble and Life on the Farm and knit pot holders while Moses and Rachel rode around Bonduel in Moses’s new buggy visiting auctions and stealing kisses at sunset.
Dat folded the letter and stuffed it back in the envelope. “I can see the wisdom in sending you back. You have always been more levelheaded than your sister. Make sure that Moses sees all her best qualities, not only that she is pretty, but that she loves children and is a gute cook. And see to it that she is wise and doesn’t make any marriage plans before consulting with your mother and me.”
Lia nodded. Like Mamm and Dat, Rachel depended on her, but this time, Lia didn’t think she could do what Dat asked. Moses was perfectly capable of falling in love with Rachel without Lia’s interference. “I’ll do my best, Dat.”
Dat did not waste any time. The Helmuths’ letter came on Saturday, and by Monday morning Lia caught her first glimpse of Huckleberry Hill in over a week. The trees were full to brimming with luxurious green leaves, and monarch butterflies floated lazily in the air everywhere she looked. Even the sky had the clear blue look of summer to it.
The gravel crunched under the tires of the car as it crept up the hill.
Huckleberry Hill Page 7