Now Herr Rothhaus focused his glare on Diedrich alone. “But you told me the two of you were no longer engaged. Have you then been lying to me all this time?”
Diedrich’s back stiffened. “I have never lied to you, Vater. Regina did break our engagement. And it was for your sake she broke it. As I have told you, my love for her has not changed.” He looked down at Regina, and the barest hint of a smile touched his lips. His voice softened with his tender gaze. “It never has, and it never will.”
Confusion relaxed the older man’s rage-crumpled face. “You call her your future wife. How can that be if you are no longer betrothed?”
Diedrich’s arm tightened around Regina’s waist, pulling her closer. “She has finally agreed with me that reinstating our engagement may be the only way to bring you to your senses.”
Herr Rothhaus’s face contorted, turning myriad shades of red and purple. Regina feared he might collapse in a fit of apoplexy. He glared at Diedrich, his gray eyes bulging nearly out of his head. “My senses? My senses?” His voice climbed in a crescendo of anger. “You go behind my back and defy my wishes and now have the audacity to suggest I am not in my right mind? It is you, I think, who have lost your senses!” His murderous glare shifted to Regina. “She is a Zichwolff! I told you what they did to our family. And still you are content to let this Jezebel Zichwolff lure you into a marriage that would mingle our family’s blood with that of her reprobate Vater and Großvater?”
Diedrich let go of Regina and strode toward his father. “Enough, Vater!”
True terror gripped Regina. Dear Lord, stop this! Please, Lord, intercede . She clutched at Diedrich’s arm, but he shook off her hand and focused his fury on his father.
Diedrich’s arms stiffened at his sides, and his fists clenched. His face came within inches of his father’s. “From my earliest days, you and Mama taught me the scriptures. Whenever my brothers and I argued or were unkind to each other, you quoted the words of our Lord, teaching us forgiveness.” His arms shot out to the sides, his fingers splayed, while his body visibly shook with emotion. “How, Vater? How could you teach us Christ’s words concerning forgiveness when your heart was filled with hate and unforgiveness?”
A look of shame flashed across Herr Rothhaus’s face, but his defiant stance did not budge. He rose on the balls of his feet until he stood almost as tall as his son. His eyes blazed with anger. “You dare to call me a hypocrite? You insolent pup!”
In one sudden movement, Diedrich spun on his heel and bounded to the porch then disappeared in the house. For a second, the fear that had gripped Regina eased. Had Diedrich left to cool his temper? But her ebbing trepidation flooded back as she found herself alone to face Herr Rothhaus’s angry glare. The thought struck that she should climb into the pony cart and head for home. But before she could move, Diedrich shot out the front door, his Bible in hand.
He stomped to his father and waved the book in his face. “Matthew 5:44. ‘But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’ Matthew 6:14 and 15. ‘For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’ Mark 11:25. ‘And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.’” He smacked the book’s leather cover, and Regina jumped at the sharp report that split the air like a rifle shot. “I memorized them just as you taught me to do, Vater. I have tried all my life to live by these words, and I thought you tried to live by them, too. Now I find I am wrong. These words mean nothing to you.”
In a flash, Herr Rothhaus reached out and struck Diedrich’s cheek with the flat of his hand. Regina gasped. Diedrich’s whole body seemed to shudder, but he held his ground. She was glad she stood behind him and could not see his face. But she could see Herr Rothhaus’s. And for a fraction of a second, the older man’s expression registered shock at his own impulsive action.
For a moment, Herr Rothhaus’s eyes glistened but quickly dried and turned stone-hard again. “I am your Vater! I never allowed you to disrespect me when you were growing up, and I will not allow it now.” He shook his fist in Diedrich’s face. “I will not tolerate being judged or called a hypocrite by my own Sohn!”
“I call you nothing but Vater.” Diedrich’s voice cracked, and his shoulders slumped. “I have bent over backward to remain respectful while you shattered my life and Regina’s life with a laugh and a shrug. I do not stand in judgment of you. I will let Gott and your own heart do that.” His voice sagged with his posture as his anger seemed to seep away, replaced by sadness. Pressing the Bible into his father’s hands, he turned, and Regina’s heart broke. His gray eyes held a vacant look, and three angry red streaks brightened his left cheek.
As Diedrich walked toward Regina and the pony cart, Herr Rothhaus stomped after him. “Do not call me Vater,” he hollered. “You are not my Sohn! Now get out of my sight and take the Zichwolff whelp with you!”
Diedrich did not reply as he helped Regina up to the cart’s seat then climbed up beside her and took the reins. They rode halfway home in silence.
At last, feeling the need to say something, Regina put her hand on Diedrich’s arm. “I am sorry.” Even to her own ears, the words sounded inadequate. “I should not have come. I—”
“Nein.” Diedrich reined Gypsy to a halt. “You did only what I asked.” As if unwilling to meet her gaze, he stared at the road ahead. “I am sorry you had to see that. And for the unkind things my Vater called you.” He winced. “What you saw is not the man who raised me. I have never seen this man, and I pray I will never see him again.”
Regina’s heart writhed for her beloved. She prayed God would give her words to comfort him. “I know, my Liebling. Today, I did not see the Herr Rothhaus who came to our home in April. That man is kind, gentle, and caring. Today, I saw only hate. Hate is ugly, and it can make even those we love ugly.” Turning to him, she reached out and pressed her palm against his wounded face. “I pray God will root out the hate from your Vater’s heart so we can again see the gut man we know and love.” Her words made her think of Sophie’s treachery, and her heart experienced a double sting.
Diedrich’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He didn’t reply, making her wonder if he didn’t trust his voice. Instead, he touched her hand still on his cheek then turned his face against her palm and kissed it. Taking the reins back in hand, he clicked his tongue and flicked the line on Gypsy’s back, setting the pony clopping along the road again.
As they turned into the lane that led to the house, he glanced over at her. “What made you change your mind?”
The memory of Sophie’s hateful words rushed back to sting anew. Regina felt a deepening kinship with the man she loved. Today they had both experienced painful disappointment in people close to them. She fidgeted, reluctant to repeat what she had heard while eavesdropping. But since it affected Diedrich as well as her, she decided he had a right to know what Sophie was plotting. After recounting the conversation she’d heard this morning between Sophie and Ezra, Regina twisted the fistful of apron she’d been wadding in her hands. “I always knew Sophie wasn’t especially fond of me, but I never imagined she disliked me so much.” Rogue tears stung her nose, forcing her to sniff them back. “How could she act so sweet to me, when all the time she hated me?”
Diedrich shook his head and patted her hand. “I do not know, my Liebchen, just as I do not know how my Vater could let hate turn him into a man I do not recognize. But nothing is impossible with Gott. We must pray for Him to soften Sophie’s heart as well as Vater’s.”
As they neared the house, Papa emerged from the big, yawning doors at the end of the barn. At the sight of Regina and Diedrich together, a look of pleased surprise registered on his face. He quickened his steps and met them between the barn and the house. Standing eye-level with
Regina and Diedrich on the cart’s low seat, he glanced between the two, his smile widening. “Has Herr Rothhaus changed his mind, then? Praise be to Gott!”
“Nein, Papa.” Shaking her head, Regina reached out and gripped her father’s arm to stifle his celebration. At Papa’s puzzled look, Diedrich supplied the gist of what had just taken place outside the new log house.
Papa scowled and shook his head. “It is sorry I am to hear it.” He pressed his hand on Diedrich’s shoulder. “But you did the right thing, Sohn.” A wry grin lifted the corner of his mouth. “It is never wrong to remind even a parent of Christ’s commandments. Whatever your Vater may have said in anger, I know he loves you. In his letters to me, I could tell he was desperate to get you to America and out of reach of conscription. We must pray your words take root in his heart and that Gott will change him here and here.” He tapped his chest and then his head. Turning to Regina, he patted her cheek. “It is happy I am that you have decided to trust Gott, Tochter. It is not always an easy thing to do.” He glanced upward. “But Gott will reward your faith.”
Regina smiled and hugged Papa. Though she had shared with Diedrich Sophie’s selfish and deceitful plans, she prayed she could spare Papa and Mama ever learning of them.
Papa helped Regina down from the cart, and the three of them walked to the house together. “Your Mutter will be interested to hear of your news,” he said as he opened the door for Regina. But when they trooped into the kitchen, Mama was not in sight. Instead, it was Sophie who turned from mixing corn bread batter in the large crockery bowl.
Upon seeing Diedrich with his arm around Regina, Sophie’s eyes widened. To her shame, Regina experienced a flash of satisfaction at the dismay on her sister’s face.
Papa crossed to Sophie. “Where is your Mutter? We have news to tell her.”
Sophie blanched and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She glanced toward the doorway that led to the interior of the house just as Mama emerged with Henry in her arms.
“What news?” Mama took in the three of them and gave a little gasp. With trembling arms, she lowered her squirming grandson to the floor. Her dark eyes swam with unshed tears, and she clutched at her chest. “Herr Rothhaus has repented. Praise be to—”
“Nein, Catharine.” Papa stepped to her side and gently explained what had transpired.
The joy left Mama’s face, and Regina was struck by the stark contrast between Mama’s crestfallen expression and Sophie’s hopeful one.
The starch returned to Mama’s frame, and she lifted her chin. “But it is a beginning. Gott is working, I think.”
“Ja.” Papa nodded then turned to Regina and Diedrich. “When Georg sees you are determined to wed, he will relent and bless your union.” He smiled, his countenance brightening. “And soon I shall have a gut German son-in-law to inherit my farm.”
Everyone chuckled but Sophie. Whirling on the group, she stomped her foot, and her face turned stormy. “It is not fair!” She glowered at Papa. “Regina is not even of your blood, yet she gets the farm simply because she is willing to marry the man you handpicked for her?” Casting a scathing glance at Diedrich, she snorted. “Why, you scarcely know him.” She stomped her foot again. “It is not fair, I say! I am the oldest and your blood daughter. I should inherit with my son—your blood grandson.” With a flourish of her wrist, she gave Regina a supercilious wave. “Not that spineless little pretender.” She wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something bad. “She’s not even my sister!”
Though Sophie’s sentiments came as no surprise to Regina, her sister’s outburst and subsequent venomous diatribe stunned her. Regina and her sisters, including Sophie, had never before disrespected their parents in such a blatant manner. Diedrich stiffened at Regina’s side. With his arm protectively around her back, he slid his hand up and down her left arm in a comforting motion. Regina was sure he understood little of Sophie’s words, and wondered if Sophie had chosen to deliver her tirade in English for that very reason. Yet Sophie’s angry demeanor and disdainful looks left little doubt as to the subject of her ire.
“Sophie.” Mama uttered her eldest daughter’s name with a disappointed sigh.
Papa stiffened, and his brow lowered in a dark scowl. “Enough, Sophie! Regina is my Tochter, the same as you are.” He strode to Sophie, and for an instant, fear glinted in her eyes. But when he spoke, his voice was calm, and his words measured. “It is sad I am, Tochter, that you are so bitter toward the Schwester Gott has given you. Your Mutter and I have always tried to deal fairly with you and your Schwestern.” He shook his head and held out his hands in a helpless gesture. “You knew when you married Ezra I wanted to give the land one day to a farmer—a farmer with ties to the Old Country.”
Sophie’s eyes welled with tears, and Regina’s heart went out to her. She could see how Sophie must feel much like Esau of old when his mother and brother contrived to deprive him of his birthright. But as Papa pointed out, Sophie, like Esau, had willingly forfeited any claim to the land when she married Ezra.
Sophie lifted a defiant yet trembling chin. “But I fell in love with Ezra.”
Papa put his hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “And so it was right for you to marry him. But he is not a farmer. And Henry, too, may well decide to follow his Vater and become a wheelwright or practice another trade altogether.” He gave Sophie a fond, indulgent smile. “Because your Mutter and I give the farm to Regina does not mean we love you and Elsie any less. Like now, you, Ezra, and Henry, as well as Elsie and William, will always have a home here if you need one. But Ezra and William are not farmers. It is sorry I am that you think your Mutter and I are unfair to want the land we bought and worked on all these years to go to a daughter and Schwiegersohn who will farm it as we have.”
Papa’s eye twinkled, and he quirked a grin at Regina. “I do not know what I would have done if Regina, too, had settled her heart on a merchant or a wheelwright or … a miller.”
At the word “miller,” Regina’s heart jumped, and heat flooded her face. Had Papa suspected her earlier infatuation with Eli? She ventured a glance up at Diedrich’s face. His lips were pressed in a firm line, and his gaze skittered to the floor.
“But praise be to Gott,” Papa continued, “Regina has settled her heart on Diedrich.”
Sophie sniffed and folded her arms over her chest. Her rigid demeanor suggested she was not yet ready to surrender the argument. “But Herr Rothhaus may never grant them permission to marry. And Henry may grow up and decide to be a farmer. At least he is your own blood.”
Mama, who had remained quiet but attentive to the exchange between Papa and Sophie, now glanced around the room, her attention clearly detached from the ongoing conversation. “Henry. Where is Henry?”
Chapter 27
E veryone stopped and looked around the kitchen, but Henry was not there.
Sophie shrugged. “He has probably crawled into Regina’s bed again to take a nap. You know how he loves to do that. I’m sure I will find him there.” She headed for the house’s interior with Mama on her heels.
Papa checked the washroom without success, and fear flickered in Regina’s chest. Though she suspected Sophie was right and Henry was fast asleep in her bed, she wouldn’t be easy until she knew he was safe. She held her breath, expecting any second to hear her sister or mother announce they had found him.
Instead, Sophie’s voice from inside the house turned increasingly frantic as she called her son’s name. The next moment she burst into the kitchen, her face white and her eyes wild. “He is nowhere. I can find him nowhere.” Her voice cracked, and she began to tremble.
Mama appeared behind her, looking as pale and shaken as her daughter. She turned desperate eyes to Papa. “Ernst, he is not in the house.”
The flicker of fear in Regina’s chest flared. It was not unusual to occasionally lose sight of the active toddler, but until this moment, they had always quickly discovered his whereabouts.
Sophie clutched her heaving chest. “My bab
y! My kleines Kind. Where could he be?” Her words came out in breathless puffs, and Regina feared her sister might swoon.
As Mama and Sophie embraced, Papa slowly pumped his flattened hands up and down. “Now, now, we must stay calm. He cannot have gone far. We will find him in a bit.”
Despite Papa’s assurances, Sophie began to sob in Mama’s arms. At that moment, Ezra came in from cutting hay. His face full of alarm, he rushed to Sophie and Mama. “What is wrong?”
Turning from Mama, Sophie gripped her husband and sobbed against his neck. “He–Henry. We cannot find Henry … anywhere.”
The alarm on Ezra’s face grew as he patted his wife’s back. “Has anybody looked upstairs?” The tightness in his voice revealed his concern. “I caught him climbing up there yesterday.”
At his suggestion, Regina flew up the stairs, wondering why no one had thought of it sooner. But a quick perusal of the room revealed no Henry. She checked under the bed and in the wardrobe—every nook and cranny where a two-year-old could hide. As each spot revealed no Henry, Regina’s heart began to pound, and rising panic threatened to swamp her. Downstairs, she could hear the others scurrying around. Soon the whole house rang with a discordant chorus of people calling the little boy’s name.
A Bride's Sweet Surprise in Sauers, Indiana Page 24