The Proving

by Beverly Lewis

  “I like ya, Mandy . . . you’ve prob’ly guessed it.” He paused a moment. “And I’d be interested in courting, though we couldn’t move forward till . . . well, you know.”

  Till I join church, she thought, turning to look at him, impressed by his gentle yet forthright demeanor and his heartfelt remarks. “I’m fond of you, too, Karl,” she said, knowing it was true. “Will you give me some time to think about it?”

  “I’d be glad to wait for your answer, jah,” he said.

  From where she stood, Mandy could see Mamma’s arbor flourishing with roses, brilliant dots of red and yellow in the heat of the day. The inn stood beyond that, its red brick warm in the light, its windows thrown wide to the breezes. Summer appeared to be in full bloom, and somehow, this place seemed that much more beautiful, too . . . at this moment.

  Chapter

  40

  Before we go over the books, there’s something I’d like to ask you,” Mandy said to Jerome as she brought over his perfectly fried eggs and not-too-crisp bacon and toast.

  “Well, look at this,” he said, taking a seat at the table with a big smile on his ruddy face. “We’ve come full circle, ain’t?”

  “Just for you, Bruder,” she said, putting the plate in front of him. “I’ve been practicing these past months.” She could hear Kate coming up the basement steps with more washing to hang outside, and Betsy outdoors mowing.

  Jerome bowed his head for the silent blessing, and when he said amen and picked up his fork, Mandy wasted no time sharing her idea to create one large suite from the existing two empty bedrooms. “I think there’d be a lot of interest.”

  Jerome considered this. “Well, turning two rooms into one isn’t normally a wise idea, but in this case . . .” He appeared to ponder it a bit more as he took a bite and looked about the kitchen. “Ain’t a bad idea, really.”

  “I’d use it for a bridal suite for Trina Sutton—remember her? She’s getting married in September.”

  Jerome’s head flew back when he guffawed. “How does one forget such a woman?”

  Smiling at that, Mandy asked if he could recommend a contractor.

  “Well, Karl Lantz is the best man for the job,” Jerome said.

  She liked the sound of it and thanked him. “Will you ask him ’bout it, then?”

  Jerome said he would, then gave her a scrutinizing look. “Are ya still thinkin’ of selling the place in November?” He took a few more bites of egg, then ate some bacon, too. “The family hopes you’ll stay and settle down here.”

  Mandy appreciated his saying so. “I do have plenty of gut reasons to lean in that direction, true.” She thought of her and Arie’s renewed relationship and baby Amanda Mae . . . and Karl’s interest.

  “Glad to hear it.” He reached for his coffee and took a drink before continuing. “But since there’s been no word from you ’bout taking baptismal instruction, I’m a bit befuddled, really.”

  Mandy let his words sit there as she served herself two fried eggs and bacon, wishing she’d done so earlier, since the food was no longer hot. I never imagined making a permanent home here again. Surely Jerome has always suspected that. Truth was, she’d had her plans for so long now.

  When her brother was finished drinking his coffee, Mandy went to get the receipts and financial statements for him.

  ———

  The minute Jerome left the house, Mandy headed to her room to give Trina a call, letting her know there was availability at the inn on the days she’d requested.

  “That’s terrific,” Trina said. “We were really hoping so.”

  Mandy kept the creation of a bridal suite a secret from her former employee, also not revealing that Trina’s wedding could be the last big event to be held there before the B and B was sold.

  Trina was bursting with excitement over her wedding, which would be “small but special,” with only one attendant each. “Wait till my sister hears that she finally has a reason to visit Amish country!”

  Mandy smiled at that, then said that she and her helpers would do everything they could to tailor the wedding day to Gavin and Trina’s wishes. “Let me know what food you’d like for the brunch. I promise not to make corn bread!”

  At Trina’s giggle, Mandy joined in, the two of them laughing till they nearly cried.

  When they hung up, Mandy went back out to the kitchen, where she found Cousin Kate finishing up the guests’ breakfast. “I’ll go an’ help Betsy outside,” Mandy told her, excited about the prospect of doing something wonderful with Mamma’s and Arie’s vacant rooms, still little museums to the past.

  At the tail end of the inn’s breakfast hour, Josiah brought Arie Mae over in their family carriage. The day was already warm and sticky, so little Amanda Mae was wrapped only in a light blanket and wearing a small white bonnet. Mandy quickly opened the screen door and welcomed them inside. “Cousin Kate and Betsy are eager to see ya.”

  “Mostly the baby, right?” Arie’s cheeks looked rosy.

  Mandy gave her a hug. “The guests will be thrilled, as well,” Mandy said as she led the way into the breakfast room and announced that someone very special had just stopped by to say hullo.

  As June became July, Mandy and her helpers spent precious hours each day tending the vegetable and perennial gardens. In time, Arie Mae joined them while Amanda Mae slept just inside the kitchen door in the cradle Mandy had found in the attic—made by Dat more than thirty years ago for Jerome.

  The coming of the garden and orchard crops also meant Mandy needed to set aside time to put up sweet corn, tomatoes, apricots, and peaches. Some afternoons, at the end of a hectic day working with Cousin Kate and Betsy, Mandy would slip over to Arie’s to see her darling little namesake.

  It was while taking care of baby Amanda Mae the last Saturday in July that Mandy called to talk briefly with Eilene Bradley. Right away, Eilene asked if she was considering the possibility of ever returning to Scott City. “I just thought I’d ask, because Don’s thinking of selling the house and moving north to look after his parents in Rapid City, South Dakota.”

  “Well, if you’re not there, why would I want to return?”

  Eilene laughed merrily. “As long as we keep in touch, dear . . . isn’t that what matters?”

  “I agree,” Mandy replied, and after they talked awhile longer, they said good-bye. Then, as sweet little Amanda Mae slept soundly in her Pack ’n Play, Mandy got busy baking snickerdoodles for the arrival of the guests that afternoon.

  All the while, she pondered what Eilene had said about Don’s and her plans to move away to assist his parents. I don’t want to be too far from family, either. In fact, once the inn was sold, Mandy wished she might live close enough to make regular visits to her family in Gordonville. I’ll have financial options. . . . I’ll just wait to see what God has planned for me, she thought, opening her heart fully.

  While the cookies baked, she watched her sleeping niece’s tummy rise and fall, and Mandy realized that Jerome had never really doubted that she would stick it out at the B and B for the full year. Like Mamma before him, Jerome had counted on her becoming knit together with the People again to the point that she would want to return to the fold.

  Mamma must have assumed that natural consequences would fall into place, thought Mandy. If I behaved Amish, I’d eventually become Amish.

  This realization was still somewhat of a roadblock, though. Why didn’t Mamma simply split the sale of the inn between all of my siblings and me? That would’ve been more fair. Or why didn’t she leave me out altogether?

  Even so, Mandy knew that if the Lord was, in fact, leading her to a future away from the People, He would make it ever so plain. And this time, she could leave with a clear conscience.

  The days of Mandy’s final months in Gordonville seemed to pass with snowballing speed. She’d come to think of it as a proving, of sorts. When I’m believed worthy of the inheritance, Mandy thought. There was an irony there, and despite her hesitation to tell Karl of her p
lans, she found herself spending more time with him nearly every day, especially now that he was around longer hours to put the finishing touches on the bridal suite. Karl and Jerome, and sometimes Mandy’s brother Joseph, had joined together to work in the afternoons on the remodeling, respectful of Mandy’s time, as well as the peace of the inn’s guests.

  Having forgotten how quickly and meticulously Amish carpenters worked, she was surprised at the remarkable results as the sleeping area, with a cozy sitting area off to one side, and the spacious new bathroom neared completion.

  As his father worked, Yonnie, who was growing as fast as a weed, sought Mandy out all the more. Being with the expressive little boy brought her joy, but it came with a sense of impending loss. In the space of a year, she’d come to love him dearly.

  One mid-August Saturday, she went with Arie Mae to look for a bed and a new mattress, as well as bedding, bath towels, and some plain off-white curtains to go over the new green shades. I must keep some Amish trappings in there, she thought of the shades, wanting something that would complement the multicolored Double Wedding Ring quilt she had already purchased for the space.

  With Arie’s input, Mandy found just the right bed, cherrywood with a substantial headboard and footboard. After looking in on Amanda Mae, left in the care of Josiah’s mother, the sisters returned to the inn and stood in the middle of the large bridal suite, the sunshine making a long gleaming rectangular shape on the hardwood floor.

  Stepping off the area, Mandy asked her sister, “Where should the bed go?”

  Arie stood with her back to the windows, her arms folded. “You want it someplace different than where Mamma’s was?”

  “Maybe.” Mandy noted the shift in tone from Arie’s usually bright and cheerful manner. “I want your opinion. Does the bed have to be in the same spot?”

  Arie stared at the space where Mamma’s bed had been for as long as they could remember. “S’pose not.”

  “Sometimes change is gut, don’t you agree?” Mandy forced more enthusiasm into her voice and leaned against the wall.

  Arie gazed at her sorrowfully. “Mandy . . . if you’re so set on leavin’, why does it matter where the bed goes?”

  Stunned into silence, Mandy could only shake her head. How does Arie know?

  “I wormed it out of Jerome,” Arie admitted, as if reading Mandy’s expression.

  “Jerome had no right,” Mandy murmured.

  Arie moved closer, her eyes glistening now. “I’m really hopin’ you’ll stay, Mandy Sue. I honestly am.” She paused. “Haven’t things changed for the better between us?”

  Mandy wholeheartedly agreed. “Absolutely.”

  “So then, why not stay?” Arie pleaded. “I’d love to have you nearby as Amanda Mae grows up.”

  Mandy delighted in holding her adorable namesake . . . and in how close she felt again to Arie Mae, too. “It would be wunnerbaar. . . . Believe me, I’m praying ’bout this. I don’t want to make a mistake.”

  The room was thick with emotion. “How could stayin’ be a mistake?” Arie asked, her brow furrowed.

  “For one thing, I’m not the same person,” Mandy said hesitantly. “Years away changed me, I think.”

  “You’ve still got plenty of Plain in you, though.” Her sister sighed. “I changed, too, after ya left. Mamma did, too. I remember how hard we worked, as if we were paying some kind of penance. Mamma threw her heart into this place, into the guests. She started prayin’ beforehand for the people who would walk through her front door . . . she wanted this inn to mean something more than just an income. She wanted it to be a blessing.” Arie stopped to wipe her tears. “But there was always a hole in our hearts. And we never stopped hopin’ you’d come home.”

  Mandy tried not to tear up. “Mamma should’ve given the house to you, though. Not me—I didn’t deserve it. Aren’t you upset about that?”

  Mandy met Arie’s eyes, and for a moment, they just stood there. At last, Arie spoke. “There’s more to it.”

  Mandy opened her mouth to inquire, but Arie was already moving away, heading for the doorway, and Mandy felt confused as she walked out of the room to the bedroom next door. There, she sat on the hard cane-back chair.

  I should just let Arie and our brothers divide up the proceeds from the sale of the inn, she thought, miserable now.

  She remembered Jerome’s refusal to tell her exactly what would happen if she declined the inheritance. Why is that? Mandy wondered again.

  She stepped out for a walk under the shade of the trees in the pasture, yearning for peace, the kind that Gavin O’Connor had said he’d always experienced there. She made herself breathe more slowly, missing Dat, who would know how to calm her with his favorite psalms.

  Across the way, Mandy could see Ol’ Tulip and Gertie lying in a patch of shade on the far side. Yonnie was there, too, walking near them, and somewhere or other he’d gotten himself a fine-looking walking stick. Spotting her, he came scampering through the grassy paddock, running so fast his little straw hat flew off and was airborne for a moment. Laughing, he stopped and caught it and pressed it down on his head, giving it a pat on the crown and wearing that adorable grin.

  He commenced running again to her. “’Tis a gut Daag for ice cream, jah?” he said, and his smile stretched over his little sunburnt face.

  “Any day’s a gut one for ice cream,” she agreed as he fell into step with her beneath the canopy of trees.

  Yonnie swatted at his ear.

  “A mosquito?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I got bit on my ankle.” He pushed his walking stick into the ground with each step he took. “They must like me, jah?”

  “Rub salt and water on the bites when ya get home,” she suggested absently, her thoughts still on the earlier conversation.

  “Your Mamma always said to spit on the bites.” He grinned at her, as though hoping for a reaction.

  Something about the thought of Yonnie talking with Mamma touched Mandy. “My brothers did that, too, growin’ up.”

  He tilted his head as he looked up at her. “You have four big brothers, ain’t?”

  She nodded. “And one sister.”

  “She says you’re twins.”

  “That’s right.”

  Yonnie was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “It’s hot today. Dat says we could prob’ly cook an egg on cement.” He wrinkled up his little nose at the thought.

  “Here in the shade it’s not so bad,” she said, not herself at all. Usually, when Yonnie was around, she felt like smiling . . . all chatty and cheerful. “Won’t be many more weeks of such muggy weather like this. Soon, it’ll be fall and the days will get shorter again.”

  Yonnie nodded his head, dragging his stick now. “Dat asked me a funny question at breakfast. He asked if I could live anywhere, where would it be.”

  She smiled down at him, paying closer attention. “Is that so?”

  “Want to know what I said?”

  “I sure do.”

  Yonnie grinned up at her. “Butterfly Meadows, I told him.”

  She thought this was sweet. “Where I live?”

  “Jah. What do ya think ’bout that?”

  “Well, wouldn’t your Dat be awful lonely?”

  Yonnie shook his head. “Maybe he could sleep out in the stable with Ol’ Tulip and Gertie.”

  She laughed, finding the boy simply adorable. “You’d put your Dat out there with the horses?”

  Yonnie seemed to think on this, frowning and scratching his blond bangs beneath his straw hat. “I wouldn’t want to, really.”

  Mandy wondered about the mind of a young child and changed the subject. “If there could only be one season all year long, which would ya choose?”

  “Winter,” Yonnie was quick to say.

  “Ah . . . so you could have my rich hot cocoa every day?”

  He bobbed his head quickly. “How’d ya know?”

  She glanced up at a nearby tree branch and pointed. “See the little birdie up ther
e?”

  Yonnie nodded, eyes fixed on the branch. “That birdie told ya?”

  She smiled and tapped the crown of his hat. “I think I just pulled your leg.”

  Yonnie looked at her for the longest time, like he was awestruck. “What’s your favorite season, Mandy?”

  “Oh, that’s easy. It’s springtime, when the butterflies come.”

  “Jah, I like that, too.”

  They walked and talked till they ran out of shade trees, then turned back again and strolled leisurely toward the stable, where Mandy noticed that some of the horse fencing needed repairing. Always something to mend, she mused.

  Chapter

  41

  That evening, Josiah knocked on the back screen door while Mandy was washing her supper dishes. Surprised, she dried her hands on her apron and went to greet him. “Jah?”

  “Arie Mae wants you to come over, if possible” was the first thing out of Josiah’s mouth. “Would ya mind too awful much?”

  Mandy hesitated, not sure she was the best company for anyone this evening. Not the way she felt. “Did she ask ya to fetch me?”

  “Nee,” he said, shaking his head and glancing back toward his house. “She doesn’t know I’m here.”

  Mandy had no reason to mention their earlier conversation. “Are ya sure Arie wants to see me?”

  “She’s been tellin’ me how the two of yous have grown closer again, here lately.” She could hear the tension in Josiah’s voice. “I daresay somethin’s weighing heavily on her mind.”

  “Jah,” Mandy said, opening the screen door and stepping outside. “I’ll go an’ see about her.”

  The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Denki.”

  She set out walking with him, and he suggested they take the narrow field lane around the cornfield, where they’d once walked as young teens, talking about nature and their favorite Bible stories—just whatever popped into their heads.

  Black crows flew high over the field, and the sun cast long shadows over the dusty road as they walked in silence. A slight wind whooshed through the tall cornstalks on their left as Mandy’s bare feet pushed against the flattened dirt.