by Kelly Long
“Perhaps you should speak in Englisch, children, as you know you should be doing.”
Jacob glanced up to see Lilly’s slender form come across the schnee-dusted school yard. The children shushed themselves with haste.
“Mr. Wyse? Was there something you needed?” Lilly’s tone was pleasant, almost distant, but then he met her eyes and saw the hesitant sparkle in the blue depths.
“Nee. I mean, no, Miss Lapp, thank you. I was just showing Mrs. Castleberry—”
“Victoria,” the woman gushed, patting bonnets and hats, despite the odd looks from the students.
Jacob exhaled. “Victoria, the area. She’s interested in purchasing Jim here.”
“Ah,” Lilly said and extended a hand to the woman. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Children, can you say good morning to the lady?” There was a dutiful chorus of greetings.
“Would you both like to come inside? We’re practicing for our Christmas program.”
“Oh, wonderful! I know Jacob will love that too; he’s been absolutely the most perfect host,” Victoria confided, sliding her arm through his once he’d tied Jim to the hitching post.
He avoided Lilly’s gaze and the eyes of the kinner.
“Of course. I’m told Mr. Wyse, er, Jacob is always a perfect host,” Lilly said.
Jacob felt amusement bubble along his spine. Lilly Lapp was full of surprises, like being in possession of a quick wit. He tipped his hat. “Why, thank you, Miss Lapp. I know, coming from you, that is high praise.”
He ignored Victoria’s speculative look from him to Lilly as they followed the troop of children onto the back porch of the one-room school.
They all stomped their feet and Victoria giggled, giving her own high-heeled boots a tap or two, then wobbling so that Jacob was forced once more to offer his arm. The class followed Lilly inside to hang up their outer things on nails inside the doorways, while Jacob kept his coat on as did Victoria. Once inside the warm room, the students found their desks with a subdued quiet, due no doubt to the Englisch visitor. Although Jacob knew that teachers usually drew students inside the school at the arrival of an overly interested tourist, he imagined Lilly allowed the guest because he accompanied her. He swallowed at the thought and wondered if she was the jealous type of girl, although what engaged woman wouldn’t be jealous? He sighed to himself and let the thought drift away.
Lilly pulled two wooden folding chairs from behind her desk and started dragging them to the back of the room.
“Here, I’ll do that.” Jacob took the chairs from her and set them up, ignoring the draw of pain in his upper arm. He waited until Victoria had arranged her furs before taking a seat himself. The wooden chair creaked under his long form but held firm as he removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair.
Lilly moved about the room, passing out a stack of papers to the students and then coming back to offer the sheets to the visitors. Victoria accepted with a smile but Jacob shook his head.
“I’m fine.”
“You won’t be able to follow along,” Lilly pointed out. She shrugged her shoulders when he frowned.
“Very well. Children, let’s begin.” She moved gracefully between the desks, returning to the front of the class.
Victoria leaned over to him and talked behind the program in a whisper. “She’s quite a lovely girl. I’ve never seen such blue eyes against such fair skin.”
Jacob grunted in response. He let his gaze trail over his betrothed’s face in an objective manner. He was surprised to find that she was beautiful in a distant sort of way. He crushed the sudden image of Sarah that flared in his mind and shifted on his chair with an audible sigh.
Lilly looked in his direction. “Now, Mr. Wyse, if you’re going to be in my class, you need to be quiet. No sighing over activities.” Her tone was teasing, and a few of the girls giggled.
His first impulse was to return her light banter but as he felt some of the students’ eyes upon him, he had a flashback to younger days when he’d always gotten in trouble in school for one thing or another.
His daed had always been against more than the bare minimum of schooling anyway, believing instead that his sons might learn better from experience than books. He’d kept both boys at home whenever possible to help with the horses or to go on day trips. His feelings had transmitted to Jacob who’d always acted up in school whenever he had the opportunity, and he’d made plenty of opportunities. Still, the law was the law, and Jacob had completed the eighth grade by the skin of his teeth and had gone on to do apprenticeship work under his father until he’d turned fifteen. By the time he was eighteen, he’d become an integral part of the horse breeding farm. And, at twenty-one, he’d set up his own breeding business with Seth as a partner.
Now he found himself annoyed with Lilly as a teacher for inadvertently reminding him of his difficult time in school. He smiled darkly. “Truth be told, Miss Lapp, I’m not very good at being quiet and following the rules.”
Lilly looked up from her handout and flashed an engaging grin. “Somehow I sensed that about you.”
“Did you now?” His tone was level.
“Yes, but I’m willing to accommodate all kinds of learners, Mr. Wyse. Even the most difficult ones,” she said sweetly.
He was aware that Victoria rustled next to him and that he and the teacher had caught the interest of the class, but her use of the word “difficult” rubbed at an old wound, and he stared at her in blatant challenge.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ve seen difficult yet, Miss Lapp. In fact, regarding difficult men, you might find that you actually have something to learn.”
He watched her flush at his insinuation. The class looked back to her, awaiting her response. She tapped her slender finger against her lips and he saw the confusion in her eyes, but then she rallied.
“A good teacher is always willing to learn, Mr. Wyse.”
“Yes, but is she willing to be taught?”
He watched her temper snap, as he instinctively knew it would. Her blue eyes flashed like a lightning strike against the gray of the mountains, and he felt a moment of curious sensation like static electricity grabbing at his hair. She strode to her desk, her face set.
“I’m just taking a moment, Jacob Wyse, to write a note home to your mother, explaining that you’ve been excused from class today due to—impudence.” She wrote fast, then marched back to him, licking the envelope as she went. She thrust the note at him, and he almost laughed, his humor restored. He took the envelope and tucked it into his coat pocket, then rose to his full height, his long legs brushing her skirts when she didn’t back off.
He lowered his voice. “Miss Lapp, a pleasure as always. Although I will have to admit that sassing the teacher has never been so—interesting.”
She flushed and he grinned as he replaced his hat and offered his arm to a bewildered Victoria.
Lilly nodded to the other woman. “Mrs. Castleberry, please come again anytime.” She turned her back on them and walked to the head of the class. Jacob sauntered to the door, winking at the students and then tipping his hat at the teacher. Maybe a day at school wasn’t as bad as he remembered it after all.
It took nearly an hour for Lilly to regain her internal composure. In truth, she had very nearly given in to the tears that welled behind her eyes but held on to the knowledge that her crying would only upset the students. So she listened to initial recitations of the various poems and readings she’d handed out without really hearing them until she found herself correcting John Zook on a certain pronunciation. As his face took on an embarrassed hue, she recalled with sudden vividness a similar expression on a young Jacob Wyse’s face. He’d been a year ahead of her in school and she now remembered with surprising detail all of the times the teacher had snapped at him or called him out for his work or attempts to recite. He’d usually come back with some smart-mouthed answer that got him sent to sit alone outside while the teacher acted relieved that he’d gone.
Lilly sat up straig
ht at her desk as she realized that she’d treated him the same way in her classroom, and she felt ashamed. She should have remembered how he must feel in a classroom setting. She smiled gently at John Zook.
“You’re doing a great job with your recitations, John, really you are. It’s perfectly fine to need help with one word here or there.”
She’d said the right thing because the boy flushed with pleasure and took his seat. She only wished that she might have another opportunity to say kinder words to Jacob in the classroom, no matter what his attitude was about school. She decided then and there that she’d apologize to him as soon as she could and went back to listening with a proper ear to her students.
CHAPTER 10
B y sunset, Seth still wasn’t talking to him, and neither was his mother for that matter. Word had spread throughout the community that he’d brought an Englisch woman to school and then had tried to get the best of Miss Lapp, his intended, in some kind of argument. But then he’d been sent home with a note to his mamm instead. He still had to suppress a laugh when he thought about it. Truth to tell, it was the first time he’d had any fun in months. And even though his conscience pricked him that it had been at Lilly’s expense, he still didn’t really want to change a thing. Lilly had gotten him laughing again and that was priceless. Except, of course, there was the fact that Victoria Castleberry hadn’t been all that pleased to not be in on the joke and had left without buying so much as a bridle. And, he knew that his mother was embarrassed and thought he’d truly lost his wits.
He knocked on Seth’s door after supper.
“If it’s you, go away,” his brother called.
“Come on, Seth—it’s been hours. Let me in. I said I was sorry.”
“Not to her you haven’t.”
Jacob frowned at the wooden door. “Ach, all right. Let me in and we’ll talk about it.’
“Come in then.”
Jacob entered to find Seth painting in the slant of the sun’s late-falling rays. His suspenders hung around his waist, and a loose, paint-stained shirt was half-buttoned up his chest. He turned with a palette and brush and raised an eyebrow.
“I’m listening.”
“I’ll apologize to her, of course.”
“What possessed you in the first place? Not to mention losing the sale of Jim and that woman probably telling all of Boston that the Wyse Brothers are fractious Amish men. Why would you want to hurt Lilly?”
Jacob sank down on the foot of Seth’s bed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I just wanted to let off some steam. She did make me mad but I didn’t want to hurt her. And I found out she’s just—well, she’s fun when she’s thinking.”
Seth turned back to his painting. “Uh-huh.”
“Now what does that mean?”
“It means that you don’t know the first thing about yourself, big bruder . . . or women, for that matter.”
“What are you talking about?”
Seth set the painting materials down and wiped his hands on a rag. “Where’s the note?”
“What?”
“The note she wrote you to give to Mamm. Where is it?”
Jacob reached into his pants pocket. “Here.”
Seth took the envelope. “It’s not even opened.”
“Really?”
“Just carrying it around with you as a souvenir?”
“No, I just . . . never took it out.”
Seth sighed, turned up a lamp, and opened the note. He scanned the words on the page then shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”
“What?” Jacob rose to his feet and stared at his brother.
“ ‘Dear Jacob, Truly, for whatever I’ve done to make you angry at me, please forgive me. Lilly Lapp.’ ”
Jacob sucked in a breath, then hung his head. “I didn’t think she’d write something like that.”
Seth folded the note and slid it into his brother’s shirt pocket, then he clapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, now you know.”
Jacob lifted his gaze. “You know how I hate classrooms. But I’ve been a fool to hurt her so. It’s my own problem—not hers.”
Seth gave him a brief smile. “Well, you’d better get over your problem fast since you’re marrying a teacher.”
“I’m going over to the Lapps’ now to apologize.”
“Now?”
“Jah. Right now. I don’t have to court in secret anymore since the engagement is known, remember?”
Seth turned back to his painting but shot him a wry grin over one shoulder. “Gut luck then, bruder—on your first courting attempt.”
Jacob paused on his way out the door. “Seth—danki.”
Lilly washed the few dishes from supper and sighed at the large remainder of the ham and bean casserole she’d made. Her mother had barely touched the supper, requesting tea and toast instead. Lilly wondered if she should encourage her mamm to see someone other than the local midwife for her ailments but knew she’d probably refuse as she’d done in the past. And tonight she’d gone to bed even earlier than usual, leaving Lilly with the whole of a Friday night to face alone.
She had just settled down with some papers to grade at the kitchen table when a quiet knock at the back door startled her. She rose and went to peer out the upper window of the door, seeing Jacob with his hat in his hands.
Her heart began to pound, and she knew that this was her opportunity to apologize to him for her behavior. She opened the door wide and a blast of chilly air bit across her shoulders.
“Jacob, sei so gut, come in.”
“Jah, Lilly, danki. Uh, would you mind if Kate Zook comes too?” He stepped aside to reveal the pretty girl, her cheeks flushed from the cold, and her lips berry red.
Lilly nodded in confusion and felt a stab of jealousy. “Nee, please . . .” She widened the door.
They entered and she glanced at the back staircase. “My mamm’s gone to bed early.”
“We’ll be quiet,” he whispered. “Kate was out walking and—”
“I just lost track of the time,” the girl confided. She let her dark eyes drift up to Jacob’s face with a languid smile that did little to make Lilly want to welcome her. “Jacob saw me alone in the dark. He was kind enough to bring me—well, here first.”
First, before what? Lilly wanted to snap, forgetting her desire to apologize to her intended.
“May I take your coats?”
Somehow, she managed to seat them both at the kitchen table, trying to ignore the way Kate sidled next to Jacob on the bench.
“I’m still cold,” she shivered.
If he puts his arm around her, I’ll rap him. Lilly had to swallow her absurd thought. If anything, Jacob looked stern and not interested in Kate’s overtures.
“I could make hot chocolate,” Lilly offered with reluctance.
It sounded rather tame to her ears, especially for someone who had been as socially sought after as Jacob Wyse, but he readily agreed while Kate pouted. Lilly concentrated on pulling out a saucepan from beneath the cupboard with the minimum of noise.
“I would have thought that your mamm would still be up,” Jacob said, obviously trying to make conversation. Lilly’s temper melted a bit; he sounded desperate.
“My mamm usually goes to bed very early.”
“It must be lonely,” he observed.
She felt a lurch in her heart as if they were the only two in the room. “Always,” she said, then turned to add cocoa powder and milk to the pan.
As she stirred, she thought about his courting comment, concentrating on ignoring Kate’s ill-contained murmured hints to leave.
Typically, a courting couple met alone, in secret, at the girl’s house once everyone else had gone to sleep, but after the engagement announcement, they could meet anytime with anyone present. She thought how different things would be if her father were still alive, but then, perhaps she’d never have come to be engaged to Jacob. It occurred to her that her heavenly Father was the one who’d have to approve
her marriage now.
She brought three blue mugs to the table and ladled in the steaming chocolate drink. She sat opposite them and stared down at her cup, unsure of what someone was supposed to do as part of a courting couple—or trio.
“Why are you uncomfortable around horses?” Jacob asked.
“What?” She looked at him in confusion as Kate yawned.
“You told me that you were uncomfortable around horses—I wondered why.”
“I really don’t think now is a good time . . .”
“Oh, come on,” Kate snapped. “Even I know that story. I’m just surprised that you two—being engaged and all—wouldn’t have talked about it.”
Jacob gave her a quelling glance. “What story?”
Lilly played with the rim of her cup. “It’s silly, really,” she said after a moment.
“Yes, it is silly to tell old tales,” Kate said.
“I want to hear it anyway.” Jacob sipped his hot chocolate, his look encouraging Lilly to speak.
She took a deep breath and avoided Kate’s bored expression. “I guess you don’t remember it, but when I was seven years old the community prayed for my healing because of a horse.”
“May I have more chocolate?” Kate interrupted. “It will help me to concentrate. I’m so easily distracted around a handsome man.”
Lilly kept her voice even. “You needn’t concentrate, Kate. Besides, you really must learn not to be swayed by every handsome man who picks you up—alone—at night.”
“I would’ve been eight,” Jacob interrupted, seemingly oblivious to the byplay of the two women. “What happened?”
Lilly sighed in faint exasperation. “My mamm allowed me the rare privilege of accompanying my daed on a veterinary call. It was a colicky horse over at the Millers’. The horse was down by the time we got there and thrashing its hooves in pain. I foolishly thought it would help my father if I tied up the horse’s legs while he turned to retrieve something from his bag. I got a blow to the head that left me unconscious for more than a week. I guess no one knew if I’d recover, but Derr Herr was merciful.”