“Anna’s family has six milk cows,” she said, indicating a neat white clapboard house nestled among a stand of trees. “And since she is the only girl and her brothers hate to milk, she must help her Mutter milk all six cows every morning and every evening.”
As she talked, Diedrich nodded and offered an occasional comment, but mostly he simply enjoyed watching her smiling face and the light in her eyes as she spoke about the area. Clearly, she loved this place.
After passing acres of neatly tilled fields, the wagon turned down the narrow. path that marked the boundary between Herr Seitz’s cornfield, which Diedrich had recently helped to plant, and a neighboring forest. At last, Herr Seitz reined in the team of horses, bringing the wagon to a stop.
“We are here.” He turned a beaming face to Diedrich and Regina.
Perplexed, Diedrich sat mute, unsure what “here” meant.
Regina’s tongue loosened quicker. “Papa, why have you brought us to the back end of the cornfield and Herr Driehaus’s woods?”
Herr Seitz’s smile turned smug, as if he knew a great secret. “These are not Herr Driehaus’s woods any longer. He sold them to me last week, all twenty acres. It is on this land we will build a home for you and Diedrich and Georg.”
Chapter 10
S tunned to silence, Regina could only look helplessly at Papa. She turned to Diedrich, but his blanched face reflected the same shocked surprise that had struck her mute.
A sick feeling settled in her stomach. She had completely forgotten that Papa had talked of purchasing this land back when Elsie was courting Ludwig Schmersal, before she became betrothed to her husband, William.
“Well, have you nothing to say?” Papa eyed her and Diedrich with a look of expectation. The whiskers on his cheeks bristled with his wide grin.
Mama saved them both. Turning to Papa, she clasped her hand to her chest and said in a breathless whisper, “Twenty acres? Can we afford this, Ernst?”
Papa waved off her concern. “Do not worry, wife. With Georg and Diedrich helping with the farm this summer, I expect the profits from the corn and wheat crop to more than cover the cost of the land.” He shrugged. “Besides, since the land has not been improved and adjoins our farm, Herr Driehaus gave me and Georg a very good price: one dollar and seventy-five cents an acre.”
Diedrich swiveled in his seat and gaped at his father. “You knew of this, Vater?”
Herr Rothhaus nodded, and the same smile Regina had seen so many times on Diedrich’s face appeared on the older man’s—except on Herr Rothhaus’s face, graying whiskers wreathed the smile. “Of course. It is a fine surprise, is it not, Sohn?”
“Ja, a fine surprise, Vater.” Diedrich gazed at the woods as if in doing so he could make them vanish. “But you should not have agreed to such an extravagant gift.”
Herr Rothhaus shook his head. “Of course I did not agree to accept the land as a gift. I have promised Ernst that we will pay him back for the land as soon as our first crop is sold. But we cannot take advantage of the Seitzes’ hospitality forever. We need a house built and ready for us when you and Regina wed this autumn.”
What blood was left in Diedrich’s face seemed to drain away. Regina had to fight the urge to confess all to their parents. But what good would that do? The deal had been made. The money had been spent.
To his credit, Diedrich turned back and sent a heroic if somewhat taut smile in Papa’s direction. Some of the color returned to his face, and he said in a voice that belied the tumult Regina knew must be raging within him, “Danke, Herr Seitz. This will be a gut spot for a home. And as my Vater said, you will be paid back in full. I promise.”
Was he thinking that he would find enough gold in California to pay Papa back? Regina could imagine Papa’s face in the fall when Diedrich revealed his plans to head to the goldfields. She was glad she hadn’t eaten anything this morning, for if she had she would have lost it for sure.
The ride home was accomplished in silence except for Papa and Herr Rothhaus carrying on a rather lively conversation across the length of the wagon, discussing plans about how the new house should be built.
Panic gripped Regina. Struggling for breath, she looked helplessly at Diedrich. Oddly, his expression had turned placid. Smiling, he patted her hand as if to assure her all would be well.
Regina tried to return his smile, but her lips refused to form one. She had learned enough about Diedrich to know he would pay Papa back or die trying. And that terrified her.
The next day, as she worked with her mother in the kitchen, Regina’s mind continued to wrestle with the thorny problem Papa had presented to her and Diedrich.
Smiling, Mama glanced up from peeling potatoes. “You are very quiet today, Tochter. I wonder, are you thinking of your new home the men will be building soon?” As she talked, she worked the knife around a wrinkled potato covered in white sprouts, divesting it of its skin in one spiral paring. The vegetable was among the few remaining edible potatoes from last year’s crop Regina had managed to find in the root cellar. She was eager to harvest the first batch of new potatoes from the crop she and Diedrich had planted, but that wouldn’t be until at least July. It saddened her to think that shortly after the first potato harvest, Diedrich would be leaving for Arkansas to be outfitted for his journey to California.
“Ja, Mama. I was thinking of the house.” At the stove, she offered her mother a tepid smile and lifted the lid on the pot of dandelion greens to check if it needed more water. If only she could share her concerns with Mama. But she couldn’t, so better to steer the conversation in another direction. “I was thinking, too, about Pastor Sauer’s message yesterday.” That wasn’t a complete lie. The pastor’s message was one of the many thoughts swirling around in Regina’s head as if caught up in a cyclone.
Mama dipped water from the bucket beside the sink and poured it into the pot of peeled potatoes, which she then carried to the stove. “And what about the pastor’s sermon were you thinking?”
Regina gave the steaming greens a quick stir with a long wooden spoon. Assured they had sufficient water, she returned the lid to the pot. “I was thinking of the verse Pastor read from Colossians.” Surely sometime in her life she had read the verse before, but it had obviously never struck her as it did yesterday.
Mama nodded. “‘Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them,’” she recited. Turning from the stove, she cocked her head at Regina and crossed her arms over her chest. “So what about the verse do you not understand?”
In an effort to hide her expression, Regina walked to the sink and began dumping the potato peelings by handfuls into the slop bucket, careful to keep her back to her mother. “Pastor said it meant that a husband should always treat his wife with kindness.” She couldn’t help thinking of Eli’s angry outburst in the barn and how he had torn her dress when she tried to pull away from him. And how his demeanor and actions had frightened her. “But surely husbands get angry at their wives sometimes.”
Mama’s laugh surprised Regina. “Of course they get angry. Just as wives get angry at their husbands. But husbands and wives can be angry at one another and still be kind.” She crossed the kitchen to Regina and gently took her arm, turning her around. “Regina, you have seen your Vater angry with me many times, but did you ever see him raise his voice to me or his hand against me?”
Regina shook her head. “Nein, never.” Such a thing was unimaginable. And neither had Papa treated her or her sisters in that manner. So why did I allow Eli to treat me so roughly? The question that popped into Regina’s mind begged an answer or at least some justification. Regina and Eli were not married. Surely he would treat her differently if she were his wife.
Mama walked to the table where the two skinned squirrels Father had shot this morning lay soaking in brine. Taking up the butcher knife, she began cutting the meat into pieces for frying. “It is only natural for you to be thinking of these things with your wedding day coming in September. Your sisters, too, were fu
ll of questions before they wed.” She sent Regina an indulgent smile. “But I am confident you will have no concerns with how Diedrich will treat you. Besides being a good Christian young man, he does not seem to be one who is quick to anger. And I have seen nothing but consideration and kindness from him.”
Regina agreed. Her heart throbbed with a dull ache. Everything Mama said about Diedrich was true. One day he would make someone a kind and sweet husband. But not Regina. Suddenly, the image of Diedrich exchanging wedding vows with some anonymous, faceless woman drove the ache deeper into Regina’s chest.
Mama held out a crockery bowl. “Here, fetch some flour for coating the meat.” She glanced out the window as Regina took the bowl. “In an hour the men will be in from the fields and expecting their dinner. So we must get this Eiken browned and into the oven.”
In the pantry, Regina scooped flour into the bowl from one of the sacks on the floor. Her mind flew back to the day when she had fetched the flour from the mill. So much had changed in her life—and her heart—since that day. Was it only a month ago? It seemed so much longer. That day, her mind and heart had brimmed with thoughts of Eli. She remembered how her heart had pranced with Gypsy’s feet as the pony bore her ever nearer to the gristmill and her sweetheart. She thought of how she had reveled in Eli’s every touch and how her heart had hung on his every word. But lately, thoughts of him no longer caused joy to bubble up in her or sent pleasant tingles over her skin.
Yet she still experienced those feelings. But now the man who sparked them spoke German and had not green but gray eyes. Had Diedrich indeed replaced Eli in Regina’s heart? It was true that Diedrich was kind and sweet. But he was also leaving Sauers in the fall. To allow her heart to nurture affection for him would be beyond foolish. Most likely, her waning interest in Eli was caused by her seeing him so infrequently. And that wasn’t Eli’s fault. Yesterday she had asked Papa to drive by the mill, hoping to catch a glance of Eli. She needed to know if the sight of him still made her heart leap when he wasn’t surprising her by coming up behind her unexpectedly. And though mildly disappointed she didn’t get the chance to test her reaction at seeing Eli, missing an opportunity to see him hadn’t made her especially sad.
An hour later with the squirrel golden-brown in the frying pan, Mama took the corn bread from the oven and plopped it on top of the stove. She glanced out the kitchen window and gave a frustrated huff. “The meal is cooked and ready for the table. I hope the men come in soon.” Shaking her head, she clucked her tongue. “With the planting done, they may have time to dawdle, but we have a day’s work to do before the sun goes down.”
Regina looked up from the table where she worked placing the stoneware plates and eating utensils. She agreed. Not only would she and Mama need time to clean up the kitchen after the meal, but this was washday. Outside, they had two lines of laundry drying in the sun and wind that would need to be taken down before time to begin preparing supper. “Do you want me to go call them in?”
Mama shook her head. “Your Vater and Herr Rothhaus have gone to look at the new piece of land. You would have to hitch Gypsy to the cart or ride one of the horses, and that would take too long. I am sure they are already on their way home. But Diedrich is here on the farm, fixing the lean-to behind the barn that was damaged in the storm. It would be gut if he came on in and washed up before the others arrive.”
Nodding her acquiescence, Regina headed out of the house. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Diedrich in private since they learned about Papa buying the land. This would give her the perfect opportunity to find out his thoughts on the situation. The placid look that had come over his face after the initial shock of Papa’s announcement still puzzled her. She couldn’t imagine him heading to California in the fall and leaving his father alone with the debt. A tiny glimmer of hope flickered in her chest. Was it possible he might actually give up his dream of California gold and stay in Sauers? She wished her heart didn’t skip so at the thought. Diedrich was a friend, nothing more. But her rebellious heart paid no attention to the reprimand, dancing ever quicker as she neared the barn.
Skirting the barn lot, she approached the end of the barn where the lean-to that sheltered the plow, cultivator, and other farming tools jutted out from the back of the building. As she rounded the corner of the barn, a sudden, deafening crash shattered the calm. Her heart catapulted to her throat, and she jumped back. Stunned, she stood frozen in place as her mind tried to grasp what had just happened. Slowly, a sick feeling began to settle in the pit of her stomach. Then panic, like a burst of heat, thawed her frozen limbs. As if her feet had grown wings, she rushed toward the source of the din, now quiet.
When she reached the back of the barn, her mind refused to accept what her eyes saw. The entire roof of the lean-to lay in a heap of hewn logs and lumber.
Chapter 11
R egina felt as if someone had squeezed all the breath out of her lungs. Heaving, she managed to pull in enough air to scream one word. “Diedrich!”
Scrambling to the debris pile, she began frantically pitching pieces of wood from the rubble. Splinters became imbedded in her hands. She didn’t care. “Diedrich, where are you? Can you hear me? Are you hurt?” Sobs tore from her throat and tears flooded down her cheeks. She had to get to him. She had to! Scratching and clawing, she worked her way through the seemingly endless mountain of rubble, all the while calling his name over and over. Somewhere under the pile of wood he lay injured and unconscious … or worse. No! Her mind wouldn’t accept that. Her heart wouldn’t accept that.
“Diedrich! Tell me where you are.” Somehow she lifted beams she never would have imagined she could move. Her arms burned, and her chest felt as if Papa’s forge burned inside it, her heaving lungs the bellows feeding the flames.
Her mind told her she could not do this. She needed to get Papa and Herr Rothhaus to help. But her heart kept her tethered to the spot. She couldn’t leave Diedrich alone. “Hold on, Diedrich. I will get you out. I will. I will!” Squeezing her words between labored breaths and ragged sobs, she tugged on a giant beam, but it wouldn’t budge. The rough wood tore at her palms. She didn’t care. “Dear Lord, help me to get him out. Just let him be alive.” Grunting, she shoved her desperate prayer through gritted teeth as she wrapped her bruised arms around the enormous log. Clutching it in a death grip, she gave a mighty pull. But the timber refused to move more than a few inches. Her burning muscles trembled and convulsed with the effort. At last, her strength depleted, she could hold it no more and the beam settled back onto the pile of wood with a thud, taking her down with it. Gasping for breath and praying for strength, she tried again, but her muscles refused to respond. The dark shadow of defeat enveloped her, leaving her body limp and her eyes blinded with tears.
An agony Regina had never known rent her heart like a jagged knife. She would never see Diedrich’s smile again or hear his voice or feel his touch. She sank to her knees on the heap of wood. Somewhere from deep within her, a tortured wail tore free. She raised her face to the sky and screamed the name of the man she realized, too late, owned her heart. “Died-rich!”
“Regina.”
For a moment Regina thought she had imagined his voice. In an instant, her spirits shot from the pits of grief to the heights of joy. Diedrich was alive! But how could his voice sound so strong, so calm and unaffected from beneath the pile of wood? “Diedrich.” Her heart thumping out a tattoo of hope, she peered breathlessly into a gap between the planks that she’d opened with her digging, but she could see nothing in the dark abyss.
“Regina. What has happened? What are you doing?” Suddenly, she realized the voice did not come from within the mountain of lumber but from a spot beyond her left shoulder. Jerking her head around, she saw what she’d thought to never see again—Diedrich alive and safe striding toward her.
“Diedrich.” Since she’d found the dilapidated lean-to, she’d called his name with nearly every breath she’d drawn into her lungs. She’d uttered it through h
er sobs and screamed till her throat was raw. But this time it came out in a breathless whisper. She pushed to her feet as disbelief gave way to unmitigated elation that surged through her, renewing her limbs with strength. With fresh tears cascading down her cheeks, she ran to him. Blindly she ran, sobbing her joy, sobbing her relief. “Diedrich. Dank sei Gott.” This time she breathed his name with her prayer of thanks like a benediction an instant before he caught her to him.
His strong arms engulfed her, holding her close to his heart. Clinging to him as if he might vanish were she to let go, she wept her relief against his shirtfront until it was sodden with her tears. “I thought—you were under—there. I—I thought—you were—dead.” Her words limped out through halting hiccups.
“Oh Regina.” His voice sounded thick with emotion. His breath felt warm against her head. She reveled in the sensation of … Diedrich. Still holding her securely, he pushed away from her enough to look in her face. His unshaven jaw prickled against her chin as he gently nudged her head back. For the space of a heartbeat, his soft gray eyes gazed lovingly into hers. Then slowly, as if in a dream, his eyes closed, his face lowered, and his lips found hers.
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