Regina hurried downstairs, and Diedrich met her at the bottom step. Fear stole her breath, and she could only shake her head at his hopeful look. Now true terror gripped her, and her whole body began to shake. Both the front and back doors were propped open to allow a cooling cross-breeze. While everyone was focused on the argument between Sophie and Papa, Henry had obviously exited the house through one of the open doors. But which one? She thought of Papa’s bull, Stark. The well. Even her gentle pony, Gypsy, tethered beside the lane, could be lethal to a two-year-old if the child crawled between the pony’s hooves and the animal impulsively kicked out. A shudder shook Regina’s frame.
Diedrich grasped her shoulders and fixed her with a calm and steady gaze. “We will find him, Regina. Gott will help us find him. You must believe that.”
Unable to speak, she nodded. Fear paralyzed her brain until she couldn’t even fashion a coherent prayer.
“Everyone outside!” At Papa’s booming voice, everyone jerked to attention then scrambled for the back door. Regina was glad for Diedrich’s strong arm around her waist, lending support to her quavering limbs.
Sophie and Ezra stood fixed, their gazes darting around. They looked as if they would like to go in all directions at once, but their inability to do so kept them rooted in place.
Papa began suggesting places Henry might hide. Diedrich held up a hand. “Wait.” At his quiet but firm voice, everyone turned to him. “I think we should first pray for guidance. Gott knows where Henry is. If we ask, He will keep the kleinen Jungen safe and lead us to him.”
Papa nodded. “Ja. You are right, Sohn. We must first go to Gott in prayer.”
Forming a circle, everyone joined hands, and Papa began in a strong voice, thickened by emotion. “Vater Gott, You know where our little Henry is hiding. We ask You to keep him safe and direct us as we go in search of our precious Kleinen.” When he referred to Henry as their precious little one, Papa’s voice cracked, and Diedrich stepped in to utter a hearty “Amen.”
Even before the word had faded away, everyone scattered. Over the next few minutes, they checked the well, the chicken coop, and the outhouse. When they all gathered empty-handed at the back door again, Sophie looked pale, shaken, and on the verge of collapse. Regina suspected she looked much the same as the terror in her chest grew to a growling monster.
Diedrich glanced toward the barn. “We have not yet checked the barn.”
Mama sank, a trembling mass, to the built-up flat stones that edged the base of the well. At Diedrich’s suggestion, she gasped and gripped her chest, rekindled fright shining from her worry-lined face. Her voice turned breathless. “The horses. The cow. Stark is in there.” She lifted her terror-stricken eyes to Papa as if pleading for him to contradict Diedrich. “Not the barn, Ernst. Henry is only a baby. He surely could not have gone as far as the barn, do you think?”
Papa pressed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and shook his head. “Nein. I’m sure he is playing with us and hiding, or has fallen asleep in a place we have not yet thought of.”
Despite Mama and Papa’s denials, Diedrich continued to glance toward the barn, a look of urgency animating his features. “Still, it is worth looking, I think. Once when my little niece Maria was about Henry’s age, she hid in the barn for two hours before we found her.”
Regina sensed something was tugging Diedrich toward the barn. They had prayed for God to guide them. To ignore what could well be divine nudges seemed beyond foolish. She trusted Diedrich’s instincts. “I agree with Diedrich, Papa. I think we should look in the barn.”
Deliberation played over Papa’s anguished face. He obviously questioned wasting time on a fruitless search in what he considered an unlikely spot. At the same time, she suspected that Papa also was wondering if God had planted the hunch in Diedrich’s mind. At last he nodded. “Ja. We shall look in the barn.” At his pronouncement, he and the others followed Regina and Diedrich to the large, weathered structure across the lane.
As they stepped into the building, Regina blinked, trying to force her eyes to more quickly adjust to the dim light. With trepidation, she turned her attention to the big bull’s stall. To her relief, the large animal stood sedately munching hay and flicking away flies with the brushy end of his tail. The cow, too, was all alone in her stall, as were the two huge Clydesdales.
As she walked beneath the hayloft, a shower of hay dust filtered down, accompanied by what sounded like a faint giggle. She looked up and gasped as her heart catapulted to her throat. Perched on the edge of the loft with his bare legs dangling over the side beneath his gown, Henry looked down on them, his angelic expression keen with interest.
Afraid to speak or even breathe, Regina gripped Diedrich’s arm. He followed her gaze and tensed. Mama, Papa, Sophie, and Ezra all gave a collective gasp.
“How on earth …” Ezra uttered the words Regina was sure filled everyone’s minds.
The answer stood propped against the loft. Evidently, Henry had somehow managed to climb the long ladder either Papa or Ezra had left there. Regina cringed, imagining the toddler’s precarious climb, his unsteady feet at times stepping on the hem of his gown in the course of his ascent. Her heart nearly stopped at the thought. But somehow God had helped the little boy to safely scale the ladder and reach the summit.
Sophie gripped Ezra’s arm. “Do not just stand there, Ezra. Go up and get him!”
Ezra hesitated. “I don’t know, Sophie. I don’t want to scare him. He might …” Leaving the thought to dangle like Henry’s legs, Ezra dragged his hand over his mouth. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.
Papa turned from Mama, who clung to his arm, and cupped his hands around Sophie’s shoulders. He kept his voice low and calm, though it sounded brittle enough to break. “Ezra is right, Sophie. We must be careful not to frighten him.”
Sophie huffed. “Oh, for goodness’ sake! If no one else will go, I will.” She headed toward the ladder. “Mama is coming, Henry.”
“Mama.” Henry leaned forward, evoking another collective gasp from the adults below. Sophie froze with her foot on the ladder’s bottom rung.
Regina’s heart stuck in her throat. She gripped Diedrich’s arm and prayed. God, please help us find a way to get him safely down .
Ezra grasped Sophie’s shoulders, gently moving her aside. “I’ll go up.”
With both hands pressed against her mouth, Mama leaned against Papa, who held her tight—ready, Regina was sure, to shield her eyes should the unthinkable happen. Regina clung to Diedrich as well, but he disentangled himself from her grasp. “Go to your Schwester.” Confused and a little hurt that, unlike Papa with Mama, Diedrich had chosen to withdraw his support from Regina, she nevertheless went to embrace Sophie. With both her husband and son in peril, Sophie would need someone to support and comfort her.
As Ezra began to scale the ladder, Sophie’s body shook even harder than Regina’s. “Stay still, Henry,” she called up in a tremulous voice. “Papa is coming to get you.”
“Papa, Papa.” Henry turned and drew his feet up under him, eliciting more sharp intakes of air.
Ezra quickened his steps. “No, Henry. Stay still.”
Laughing, Henry pushed up to a standing position and toddled toward his father, his bare feet treading treacherously close to the loft’s edge. Regina clung to Sophie, afraid to watch the proceedings and yet unable not to.
Now at the top of the ladder, Ezra reached out toward his son, curling his fingers toward him in a beckoning gesture. “Come here, Henry. Come to Papa.”
Henry came within a fingertip’s length of Ezra’s reach. For a moment, the fear gripping Regina eased its stranglehold on her throat. But instead of walking into his father’s arms, Henry laughed and turned as if he thought Ezra was playing a game with him. He lifted a chubby foot. Time froze with Regina’s heart as the little boy teetered on the loft’s edge. A look of terror contorted Ezra’s face. Lunging, he reached out and swiped at his son’s gown. He missed. Collective gasps pun
ctured the air. A strangled scream tore from Sophie’s throat as Henry’s little body tumbled over the edge.
Chapter 28
R egina’s mind went numb. Turning Sophie from the sight, she pressed her hand against the back of her sister’s head and drew Sophie’s face against her shoulder. If she could do nothing else, she could save Sophie the memory of witnessing the death of her child. At the same time, Regina buried her own face in Sophie’s shoulder. Weeping quietly, she held tightly to her sister’s body, now racked with sobs. Then with sudden awareness, she realized the only sound in the barn was that of her and Sophie’s weeping. She hadn’t heard the dreaded thud of Henry’s little body hitting the barn’s dirt floor or a rush of footsteps toward the site of the tragedy. No one else was weeping or wailing with grief.
Pushing away from Sophie, Regina opened her eyes. Dread filling her, she peered hesitantly over Sophie’s shoulder at the spot where she expected to find Henry’s lifeless form. But to her amazement, instead of the gruesome sight she’d imagined, she saw Diedrich grinning with Henry cradled safely in his arms. She nearly collapsed with relief. Now she understood why Diedrich had pushed her away. He’d hoped to position himself to catch her nephew should Henry fall. Regina’s heart swelled. Every time she thought she couldn’t love this man more, he proved her wrong.
Ezra scrambled down the ladder. And as if in one motion, he, Mama, and Papa all rushed to Diedrich and Henry. Only Sophie remained with her back to the group, doubled over and sobbing into her hands.
Regina gripped Sophie’s forearms. “Sophie, look. Henry is safe. Diedrich caught him.”
Sophie opened her eyes and blinked, disbelief replacing despondency on her face. She turned slowly as if afraid to believe Regina’s words. Then, seeing they were true, she ran and snatched her baby son from Diedrich’s arms.
“Henry,” she mumbled against his curly head as she clutched her son’s squirming form to her breast and rocked back and forth. “Don’t you ever scare Mama like that again!” Her chide warbled through her sobs.
Ezra rushed to his family and enveloped them in his arms. Mama wept softly and caressed Henry’s head, cooing comforting hushes to her grandson, who had also begun crying.
Papa gripped Diedrich’s hand. “Danke, Sohn.” His voice quivered, and his eyes watered. Regina couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Papa weep.
With red eyes and a soppy face, Ezra disengaged from Sophie and Henry then strode to Diedrich and grasped his hand. Sniffing, he ran his shirtsleeve under his nose. “I’m not good with words, but ‘thank you’ doesn’t seem enough for what you did.”
Papa translated, and Diedrich gripped Ezra’s shoulder and grinned. “Bitte sehr, mein Freund. But it was Gott who dropped Henry into my arms. I am just the vessel He used.”
Sophie finally relented to Mama’s petitions and handed Henry to his grandmother, who smothered the little boy with kisses. Henry, who had stopped crying but still looked confused about all the commotion, fussed to get down. But Mama shook her head and held tightly to him. Papa guffawed and tousled the boy’s mop of brown curls as the three of them headed out of the barn.
With her head down and her shoulders slumped, Sophie scuffed over the straw-strewn floor to join her husband. Wringing her hands, she finally looked up to face Diedrich and Regina. Shame dragged down her features, making her appear old. “Herzlichen Dank , Herr Rothhaus, for what you did for our Henry.” A flood of tears streamed down her face, but she paid them no mind. “If not for you, Ezra and I might be preparing to bury our son.” The last word snagged on the ragged edge of a sob. Ezra put a comforting arm around her shoulders, but she shrugged it off. Straightening, she sniffed back tears and lifted her quavering chin. “There is something I must say to you both, and I must say it now,” she said in German, her voice breaking. “I am so ashamed. I have been mean and greedy.” A new deluge of tears washed down her face.
Regina’s heart turned over at Sophie’s agony, but it also warmed in anticipation of her sister’s repentance. Her impulse was to tell Sophie an apology was not necessary. But she knew it was—not only for her and Diedrich’s sakes, but more importantly for Sophie’s.
Sophie’s throat moved with her swallow. Apologizing had never come easily to Regina’s eldest sister. “Earlier, I said some unkind things to you. I ask you to forgive me.” Now she focused her gaze squarely on Regina’s face. A fresh tear welled in her left eye and perched on her lower lid for an instant before trailing down her cheek. “Regina, please forgive me for saying you are not my sister. You are my sister. I was so awful to you. And you have been so sweet and kind to me. I realize now that blood is not important. Family is important, and we are family. I hope you can forgive me. I will try to be a better sister to you in the future.”
At Sophie’s penitent words and demeanor, Regina’s heart melted. She knew what the admission must have cost her naturally unyielding sibling. She gathered Sophie in her arms. “Mein liebe Schwester. Of course I forgive you.”
After a moment, Sophie pushed away from Regina and turned to Diedrich. “Herr Rothhaus, I said some very unkind things about you, too. I am sorry for them. Will you please forgive my unkindness?” Regina noticed Sophie’s use of the courtesy title Herr in addressing Diedrich, an unmistakable token of regard.
Smiling, Diedrich took Sophie’s hands in his. “Of course I forgive you, just as our Lord taught us to forgive.”
Regina wondered if Diedrich was thinking of the scriptures he had quoted earlier to his father.
Wiping away her tears, Sophie stepped back into Ezra’s embrace. “Danke, Herr Rothhaus.” She glanced between Regina and Diedrich. “Ezra and I have not yet congratulated you on your engagement. We would like to do that now.” She turned to Diedrich. “I look forward to having you as a brother. Please believe me when I tell you I will be praying that happens soon.”
As Regina and Diedrich thanked Sophie for her kind sentiments, Regina was reminded of the scripture from the book of Hebrews that Mama liked to quote. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” Mama often warned, “When Gott wants our attention, He will get it one way or another. Those who ignore His whispered chide may have to feel the sting of His willow switch across their knuckles.” God had obviously gotten Sophie’s attention. And to Regina’s mind, the fear of losing a child was quite a sting across the knuckles.
Over the next week, Regina and Sophie grew closer than Regina had ever imagined they could. And if she had harbored any doubt that her sister’s repentance was genuine, Sophie squelched it as the two worked together in the upstairs bedroom, packing away the Barneses’ things for their trip to Salem. Regina stopped her work to impulsively hug her sister. “I will miss you all so much.”
At that, Sophie sank to the feather mattress and dissolved into tears. When Regina tried to comfort her, she confessed her scheme to convince Papa to will the land to her and Ezra instead of Regina and Diedrich.
“I don’t know what came over me,” Sophie said before blowing her nose into the handkerchief Regina handed her. “You and Diedrich are far more suited to farm life than Ezra and I. I would much rather live in town.” She sniffed and mopped at her eyes. “I just wanted some security—a home no one could take away from me.” With her head hung low, she twisted the handkerchief in her lap. “I know it doesn’t excuse what I did, and I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me.”
Her heart crimping, Regina rubbed her sister’s back. “Of course I don’t hate you. You are my Schwester. I love you.” Though cheered by Sophie’s confession, Regina decided it might be best not to reveal her prior knowledge of the plan. “Everyone wants security, Sophie. But nothing in life is secure. That is why we must have faith in Gott. I had to learn that, too. Diedrich and I have no assurance Herr Rothhaus will ever give us his blessing to marry, but we have faith that he will.”
Sophie hugged Regina and promised to pray fervently for God to convict Herr Rothhaus as He had convicted her.
But two days after Sophie,
Ezra, and Henry left for Salem, Regina’s own faith began to flag. Though she, Diedrich, Mama, and Papa prayed daily for God to soften Herr Rothhaus’s heart, they still heard nothing from him. And he had not appeared at church yesterday.
Sighing, she bundled up the sheets she’d stripped from her bed and headed downstairs, where Mama had begun heating water for the wash. Regina had preached to Sophie about faith, and now she must listen to her own counsel. Even when it seemed impossible, God, in one stroke, had protected Henry and changed Sophie’s heart toward Diedrich and Regina. If God could do that, He could also change Herr Rothhaus’s heart. She remembered the scripture Pastor Sauer read yesterday from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Just as Monday washday followed Sunday’s day of rest, God surely appointed a specific time for each of His tasks as well. Still, she prayed He might hurry up and deal with Herr Rothhaus soon.
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