by Marta Perry
Becky giggled. “Rhoda’s eyes got all round. I’ll bet the woman knew it was the first quilt she’d ever sold.”
“I thought you were supposed to be watching my shop.” Caleb flicked her cheek with his finger, smiling.
“I was, honest, Onkel Caleb. I just stepped over to see what Rhoda was doing. I’d have been back the minute the bell rang, honest.”
“I know. I’m teasing, that’s all.”
“When the woman handed over the money, all in tens, my hands were shaking,” Rhoda confessed. “Two hundred dollars, just like that.”
Katie stared at her, feeling the color drain from her face. “Two hundred? Rhoda, that quilt was priced at six hundred.”
“Six—no. No! The price tag was right on it. I peeled it off myself.” Rhoda whirled, running to the counter where the quilt book was kept. “Look, here, here is the tag. I took it off just like you showed me, and I stuck it to the cover because I thought you’d want to enter it yourself.”
Katie could only stare numbly at the tag stuck to the front cover of the notebook in which she kept careful notes, a page for each quilt, who made it, a description of the quilt, and any other information she had about it. The tag said two hundred dollars, but that wasn’t the price she’d put on the quilt.
“Maybe . . .” Becky’s voice was very small. “Maybe you were thinking six hundred, but you wrote two by mistake.”
“No.” Katie tried to soften that with a smile at the girl. “It’s a gut thought, Becky, but I know it was correctly marked.”
“Was there anything else in the shop that was marked two hundred?” Caleb asked, in the tone of one determined to get to the bottom of the situation.
“Ja. Some of the bigger wall hangings, and the crib quilts.”
“But . . . but how could they get mixed up?” Rhoda was on the verge of tears, all her earlier happiness wiped away, and Katie realized she minded that even more than the loss of the money.
“I doubt it was a mix-up.” Caleb’s expression was grim. “I think the woman probably switched the tags herself. Komm, let’s see if we can find a piece without a tag.” He gave the two girls a gentle push.
Gratitude pierced Katie’s hurt. Caleb was helping the girls by giving them something to do. While they were busy playing detective, they wouldn’t be grieving about what had happened while they were in charge. She went quickly to join the search.
“It has to be one of those two things.” She knew exactly what the price was on every item in the shop, but she could hardly expect Rhoda to be that well-informed, could she? “A baby quilt or a wall hanging.”
The two girls started on the baby quilts, while she went through the wall hangings. But each one seemed to have the original tag she’d put on it. “Nothing here,” she said. “These are all right.”
“The baby quilts all have their tags, too,” Becky said. “I don’t understand.”
“I do.” Rhoda fairly flew across the shop to the archway, where Naomi’s baby quilt hung on the quilt rack. She shook the quilt out, looking in every corner. “The tag is gone from this one. I saw her looking at it. She must have taken the tag off.”
Katie found she didn’t want to believe it. “Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe the tag just fell . . .”
“And then it ran across the room and attached itself to the quilt?” Caleb was bending over the bed where the quilts were displayed. He straightened, something in his hand. He held it up. “Here’s the proof, I think. The price tag from the quilt, stuck to the back of the bed post.”
Katie stared at the tag, accepting the truth. “She planned it. She deliberately switched the tags.”
“She wouldn’t have gotten away with it if you’d been here,” Rhoda said, her eyes filling with tears again. “She probably figured I was just a dumb kid who wouldn’t know the difference. And she was right!” The tears spilled over.
“Hush, now.” Katie put her arms around her sister. “It’s not your fault.”
“You’d have known,” Rhoda said, her voice choking.
“I would have, ja.” Katie put her palms on Rhoda’s cheeks, so that Rhoda was forced to look into her face. “But I never expected you to know that much. How could you? I was the one who priced everything. It’s not your fault.”
“She was a bad woman.” The words, coming from sweet Becky, startled all of them. “She ought to . . . to go to jail.”
Katie’s gaze met Caleb’s, and she knew he was thinking what she was. This was one of those moments an Amish parent used to teach the difference between the world’s ways and the Amish way.
“I will not go to the law over this,” Katie said gently. “It is only money, and at least the quilt was one of mine, not one on commission. No one is hurt.” Except Rhoda, but the law wouldn’t fix a sixteen-year-old’s feelings.
“We don’t go to the law,” Caleb said. “We live separate, remember?”
“Ja.” Becky still looked a little rebellious. “But the woman was Englisch. So the Englisch law . . .”
“The Englisch law will catch up with her sooner or later,” Caleb said. “And if not, God still knows what she has done.”
“We forgive.” With one arm still around Rhoda, Katie drew Becky close with the other. “God forgives us, and we forgive others. That’s what God offers us, ain’t so?”
“Ja,” Becky said, perhaps a little reluctant still. Rhoda nodded, wiping tears away with the back of her hand.
“Gut. Now why don’t you two go upstairs and have a snack. There are some Whoopie Pies that Molly made waiting to be eaten.”
The two girls started toward the stairs, but Rhoda turned back and seized Katie’s hands. “I will learn the price of every single thing in the shop,” she said fiercely. “I promise.”
Katie nodded, her throat tight, and watched as they ran up the stairs. Then she glanced at Caleb. His face was filled with sympathy.
“That was the best way to handle it, I think.” His forehead furrowed. “But I do wonder ...”
“Wonder what?” Katie asked, when it appeared he wouldn’t finish.
“I wonder if the quilt will eventually show up in one of Bennett Hargrove’s shops.”
“Surely he wouldn’t do that.” She hated to think anyone would stoop so low.
“There are people who think the Amish are easy to cheat,” he said. “Either because they think we are dumb or because they know we are reluctant to go to the police.”
“Ja, I know.” It would be foolish not to be aware of that. Even the Amish could not be isolated from the wrong that some would do. “But I still wouldn’t like to think that about someone I’ve met.” She shrugged. “Anyway, there is nothing to be done about it. Except forgive.”
“Ja. But sometimes forgiveness is hard, especially when the one hurt is someone you care about.”
Katie could only stare at him. Did that mean that he cared about her? Or was he thinking of the two young girls, their happiness shattered by a mean act?
Caleb didn’t explain. He just nodded and headed back to his shop.
Caleb and William started on the new shelves in the cellar first thing on Saturday morning.
“I thought we’d get going on these shelves before this.” Caleb measured the upright, and then measured it again just to be sure before cutting.
“B-b-best to know the cellar was d-dry first.” William bent over the board with the saw. He glanced up and grinned before making the cut. “S-sure this is right?”
“I’m sure.” It was a joke between them, with William teasing Caleb a little, maybe, for his caution with measurement.
He watched William making the cut at a precise angle. He could trust William to do things right or admit he couldn’t . . . a valuable trait in a woodworker. Or in any worker, for that matter.
This was going well, having William help him in the shop. Good for William, too, maybe, to be out from under his brother’s wing a bit.
And with William, Caleb didn’t have to talk. They worked together in com
panionable silence. Caleb was in a mood to appreciate that.
Not like with Katie. Her words challenged him to consider how he’d chosen to live his life. Her enthusiasm got him volunteering to do something he didn’t enjoy. And seeing her hurt made him long to protect her. Worse, he’d come close to letting her see that.
William cleared his throat, and Caleb realized he’d been standing there staring at nothing. “R-ready to d-do the other one?”
“Ja, sure.” Caleb bent to measure the second upright, annoyed with himself for letting thoughts of Katie distract him from the job at hand. Well, no more.
They worked without any but necessary words for the next hour, by which time the uprights and top were finished, and they were ready to start on the shelves.
Caleb stood back for a moment, looking at the unit to be sure everything was true. He bent, checking the angle once more.
William grinned. “M-m-must be important to g-get it r-right for K-Katie.”
“I don’t build anything that’s not my best work.” Caleb frowned at William. Was he that obvious? He hadn’t figured anyone, least of all William, would be connecting his name with Katie’s.
“S-sure thing,” William said, his tone saying he thought the opposite.
It didn’t help that Katie came down the stairs just then, carrying a jug of lemonade and a couple of glasses. “I thought you two might be ready for a drink about now.” She set the things on the bottom step, along with a paper bag. “And here are fresh-made donuts, too.”
“Denke.” Caleb couldn’t help but take a step closer to her, even though he knew William was watching and wondering. “We should have the shelves up before it’s time for the girls to leave for the mall.”
Becky had talked Rhoda into going to the mall this afternoon, insisting that she couldn’t let what a couple of girls said make her hide. That, he thought, was pretty mature thinking for his little niece.
He’d arranged a ride for them himself, not wanting to make them depend on others. Ben was an old friend who often drove the Amish, and he’d see the girls safely there and back.
“That’s fine, but it doesn’t have to be finished today,” Katie said. She glanced from him to William. “Denke. Let me know if you want anything.” She went lightly back up the stairs.
He turned back to the work, knowing William was watching. Caleb wondered how long it would take him to bring it up.
“K-K-Katie’s plenty n-nice.”
Not long, it seemed. “Ja. She’s a nice woman.”
“You l-like her.”
“We’re friends, that’s all.” So much for thinking that with William, he didn’t have to feel any pressure. “Nothing more.”
“There c-c-could be.” William, it seemed, was not easily discouraged.
“What are you—a matchmaker? Find a girl of your own, why don’t you? There are plenty around.” He bent to his work.
“They d-don’t want s-s-somebody who t-talks like me.”
“That’s foolish,” he said sharply, looking up at William. “There are plenty of girls who would like you if you gave them a chance.”
“Isaac s-says—”
“Ach, don’t bother with what Isaac says.” Caleb clapped William’s shoulder. “Isaac doesn’t know everything. Just give the girls a chance. There is someone out there who is just right for you.”
William flushed a little. “D-denke. B-but shouldn’t you g-give yourself a chance, t-too?”
“That’s different.” Wasn’t it? “What folks think I did is a lot worse than stammering. Nobody wants to see their daughter settle for me.”
“K-Katie’s different.”
William might not say much, but he had a way of getting to the heart of the matter. “Ja,” Caleb said slowly. “Katie is different.”
With Katie, he didn’t have to pretend. She’d known the truth because she’d really looked at him, not letting her view be colored by the past.
Maybe William had it right. If the past didn’t matter to Katie, then it might be he could risk making a fresh start.
Or, at least, risk taking a first step.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Katie stood at the shop door, waving as Rhoda and Becky got into Ben’s car. The geraniums she’d planted in pots on either side of the door seemed to smile up at her, lifting her heart with the beauty of the spring day. To her surprise, Caleb came and stood next to her.
“They are so excited that Ben will wish he had earmuffs on by the time he gets them to the mall,” Caleb said, a slight chuckle in his voice.
“Rhoda has some money in her pocket, and it will be burning a hole until she finds something to spend it on.”
Caleb’s brown eyes twinkled as he turned to look at Katie instead of at the departing car. “I think I can guess. You paid Rhoda for her work this week, and maybe you didn’t save out quite so much as your mamm and daad would have.”
“True,” Katie admitted. She’d felt a bit guilty, knowing perfectly well Daad would not have let Rhoda have so large a share of what she’d earned. “But how do you know that?”
He grinned, and his engaging look made him seem younger and gave her heart a little bump. “Because I did the same with Becky.”
She couldn’t help laughing. “Ach, you don’t think we’re spoiling them, do you?”
“If we are, that is what onkels and big sisters are for,” Caleb said. “I’m not going to worry over it.” He paused. “Although I do wonder what they will buy. Not something that will get us in trouble, I hope.”
Get us, he’d said, as if they were a pair. “I can tell you that exactly. I was a sixteen-year-old girl myself, a long time ago.”
“Not quite that long ago.” Caleb’s voice seemed to soften.
Her heart skipped a step, but she rallied quickly. It wouldn’t do to let Caleb think he had an effect on her when his voice went low like that.
“Long ago,” she said firmly. “But I’m sure some things haven’t changed. They will look at a dozen different items at the cosmetics counter, and they will end by each buying a tube of pink lip gloss.”
Caleb leaned his broad shoulders against the door frame, appearing ready to stand there all afternoon talking to her. “Whatever is pink lip gloss? I don’t know.”
“I should hope not,” Katie said with mock severity. “It’s pink sticky stuff that a girl smoothes on her lips to make them look pinker. They will do the same thing I did—hide them away and try the effect when no one is around to see.” She couldn’t help a chuckle, remembering. “Once Mamm and Daadi came home earlier than I expected, and I went running downstairs, forgetting I had it on.”
“Did you get a scolding for that?”
She shook her head. “Mamm saw it first, and she motioned for me to wipe it off before Daadi turned. And she never said a word about it afterward, so I imagine she’d done the same herself once or twice.”
She expected Caleb to laugh at that, but he seemed to be staring at her lips.
“I don’t think you need any such thing to make you look any prettier.”
Her heart gave a little thump. Caleb, paying her a compliment? For a moment she thought her hearing had misled her. Glancing at him, she thought by his expression that he had disconcerted himself.
“And, so what things do boys spend money on during rumspringa?” It took an effort to keep her voice steady. “I don’t have brothers, so I don’t know.”
“Not lip gloss, for sure,” he said. “Silly gadgets. I remember a plane that had an engine. I hid it in the barn and scared the horses when I tried to fly it. And then there was the rocket Andy and I went in on together.” He shook his head ruefully. “That didn’t work out so well.”
“What happened?” Katie was enjoying this look into the person he’d been before Mattie hurt him so.
“Andy was sure he’d found the perfect place to set the rocket off, out in the field behind the barn. We decided to try it one Saturday when Mamm and Daad had gone to market.”
“I tak
e it something went wrong.”
Caleb smiled, his expression rueful. “Andy was so sure he knew how the rocket worked, but he couldn’t get it to go off. So he got mad and lit the fuse without stepping far away, and didn’t the thing catch that time. Caught his pants on fire as well. I was so busy trying to get the fire out that neither of us even saw the rocket. We were just lucky it didn’t hit the barn.”
“Did your parents find out?”
“Ja, for sure. We never did succeed in putting anything over on them. Andy got the worst of it, because he was older and supposed to be responsible, but I had my share as well. We both ate our meals standing up for a few days.”
Caleb was smiling, obviously enjoying the memory of the whole misadventure. Boys were different creatures, for sure.
“Andy will be watching those boys of his extra careful, ain’t so?”
“Ja, and they’re up to plenty already. He’ll have his hands full.”
Was there a trace of regret in Caleb’s voice? Maybe grief that his brother had such a large family while he had none? But it wasn’t too late for Caleb, if only he could move past his feelings about what had happened with Mattie.
He took a step back, seeming to shake off the memories. “Ach, I’m forgetting to tell you something. William and I finished the shelves. Maybe, since it’s pretty quiet right now, we can get your things carried down and stowed away.”
“Denke, Caleb. It was wonderful kind of you and William. But I can take things down myself. There’s no need to put you to any more trouble.” And she surely didn’t need to spend any more time alone with him in the cellar, remembering that kiss.
“It’s no trouble. And two can do it twice as fast.” He turned toward the back of the shop. “Komm. We’ll leave the cellar door open so we’ll hear if anyone comes in the front.”
Katie tagged along after him, giving in to the inevitable. She could hardly prevent him from picking up the plastic bins she had stacked in the back hallway.