The Patch of Heaven Collection

by Kelly Long

  Jacob drew up alongside the buggy. His face was angry and flushed.

  “What is it?” Seth asked.

  “I was coming into town to find you. You’d better follow me. There’s been a break-in at the house. Your house.”

  Seth didn’t waste time with talking. “We’re behind you, let’s go.”

  Abel was half drowsy but he perked up at Jacob’s words. “What’s wrong, Mamm?”

  Seth caught Grace’s hand and then spoke to Abel. “It’ll be all right, sohn.”

  “It’s likely some teenagers fooling around,” Alice muttered.

  Seth nodded, hoping what they were saying proved true in some regard. The look on Jacob’s face was ominous, and he knew his brother too well to not understand what was left unsaid. They’d never had a break-in, or trouble of any sort. One face came to Seth’s mind: the leering countenance of Tobias Beiler.

  Grace turned to Alice and Violet as the buggy approached the farm. “Please,” she whispered. “Take Abel down to see the horses or for a little walk while we see what’s to be done.”

  She saw her son off with a quick hug, then followed Jacob and Seth up the steps to the porch. Mary and Samuel Wyse stood in the light of a lantern and looked hard at Seth.

  “Sohn,” Samuel said. “Maybe Grace might wait here with us—”

  “Nee, danki,” Grace replied before Seth could answer. “I would see, sei so gut.”

  Samuel nodded and held the screen door wide. Grace entered with Seth’s hand on her waist. Everything in the living room and kitchen seemed in order.

  “It’s the master bedroom,” Jacob said in a grim voice as he entered close behind them.

  Grace swallowed, and they moved as a group to survey the normally pristine master bedroom. There was chaos everywhere. Furniture splintered, glass shattered, and Seth’s clothes and personal possessions strewn everywhere. Grace’s clothes hung untouched.

  “Well,” Seth said. “I suppose my stuff needed a good airing. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed, Grace.”

  She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “You know it was him, Seth. Maybe we should call the police.”

  “Nee,” Seth said. “Jacob and I will talk with the bishop. We will handle this.”

  Grace felt a sick knot forming in the pit of her stomach. But she nodded in agreement and set about helping the others put the room to rights.

  Tobias looked down at the page in his journal:

  She dances and I pull the string

  Bald choruses while the wolf waits

  Again the feast, for one

  And love garners richer hate

  After today, she knew he was close. Close enough to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to do it. All he had to do now was keep up the tension, tighten the circle, and wait for her to come to him.

  CHAPTER 36

  What we need around here is some cheerfulness of the spirit,” Alice announced one morning, a few days after the break-in. She sat at the kitchen table sniffing Pink Lady cologne samples while Abel lay on the couch next to the dog and Grace puttered at the quilt frame. Violet sat staring at nothing in particular.

  “How can we be cheerful?” Abel asked suddenly. “Somebody bad came here.”

  Alice considered. “True, but we were not at home, and that’s a blessing. We’re all fine, Abel. God is good.”

  “Jah,” Grace sighed. “Alice is right, Abel. Listen well.”

  “I’m going out,” the child replied.

  “You may,” Grace said, a gentle reproach. “But play near the house, all right?”

  “Why?”

  “Because your mama says so,” Alice said.

  The screen door banged behind the boy, and Pretty followed him to the door. Alice watched Grace go and let the dog out, then turned from her fragrant samples.

  “Grace, it may not be my business, but your husband’s been looking glummer than a kid who has to celebrate a birthday and Christmas at the same time. All right, Seth isn’t saying it, but we know that crazy Tobias is probably somehow involved. He always made me feel weird when I worked at your old home. And now you’re starting to fret and worry—and you and Seth are newlyweds, for heaven’s sake! Act like it! Pull your man up a bit, why don’t you? It’s what I did with Bud when he’d come home late from the railroad. I’d have a nice dinner waiting for him, maybe some kissing—”

  She stopped and shook her head. “I’m being foolish, I suppose, but I don’t want to see you waste any time that you have together—none of it.”

  Grace stood up and came over to give her a big hug. “You’re right, Alice. God doesn’t want us to live in fear.”

  “Amen to that.” Alice smiled. “Now, how about testing some of this honeysuckle piña colada cologne?”

  Grace decided that Alice might have a point. She made an especially good lunch for Seth: mayonnaise cake, potato salad, grilled pork chops, and fresh chopped broccoli, with a mason jar of wild roses in water, all waiting for him on the table.

  “Well.” He smiled. “What’s the special occasion? And where are Alice and Violet and Abel?”

  “They ate earlier,” Grace said. “Alice offered to go on a hunt for baby frogs with Abel. I wanted some time for us to talk.”

  “Okay,” Seth said, washing his hands at the sink. “Are we talking about something serious?”

  “Well, I wanted to thank you again for doing all of that paperwork to set up adopting Abel.” Grace paused, remembering the day at the courthouse in Lockport. “I thought perhaps it would do us both good to have some time . . .” She paused. “Alone.”

  Grace saw a genuine smile on his face for the first time in days.

  Seth finished his meal and pushed aside his plate. “Let’s talk about kissing,” he said.

  She ducked her head. “I’d rather not.”

  “I know,” he said. “But sooner or later we’re going to do it again. And trust me, we’re going to want to do it again. God designed our bodies and minds to want to kiss, to show affection, tenderness . . . maybe to heal.”

  She put a hand to her lips, her eyes far away, as if seeing something dark and hopeless.

  Seth steeled himself to go on. “Did Silas Beiler kiss you?”

  She dropped her hand and met his gaze squarely. “He did not kiss me—not the way you mean. Not with any tenderness or love.”

  Seth remembered the dream of his wedding night, the sinister shadow coming between him and his bride.

  “I used to kiss the rose petals when I was a girl.” She made the confession in a rush, and he felt tenderness and a tightening in his chest at her words. It was the first time she’d mentioned her life before Beiler.

  He picked a full red rose from the jar on the table, stripped off the tiny thorns, and handed it across to her. “Take it,” he said in a whisper. “Remember how it felt. And know that, like this rose without its thorns, I will do my best to bring you joy and never pain.”

  Grace looked into the earnest, expectant eyes of her husband and took the rose from him. She leaned into its petals and inhaled its fragrance, breathing in the rich aromas of summer and delight and possibility. She felt the velvety petals against her skin and brushed her lips across the petals.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  And she closed her eyes, trying to remember the girl she had been once, a lifetime ago, when she had loved to kiss the flowers.

  CHAPTER 37

  Jacob stopped by that evening, obviously in a hurry. “Hiya,” he said. “Would you do me a favor and check on Lilly in a bit? Her mamm’s not home, and I’m going to be gone late. I’ve heard of an abused gelding down in Boalsville, and I want to see if I can get ahold of him.”

  “Sure thing,” Seth promised.

  As Jacob left, everyone followed him out onto the porch to wish him well. Seth sniffed the air. “It’s going to be a doozy of a storm.”

  “How do you know?” Alice asked.

  Seth gestured with his hand. “You can see it gathering over
the mountains. See that gray line in those clouds? You can almost feel it.”

  “I can smell it,” Abel said. “I smell rain in the air. It smells good.”

  “I love a thunderstorm,” Grace said.

  “You are full of surprises,” Seth said. “I thought most women were afraid of lightning and thunder. It gets really loud here in the valley.”

  “Good,” she said. “The louder, the better.” Grace smiled. “When there was a storm in Middle Hollow, I used to go out on the porch and watch it roll in.”

  “I went with you,” Abel said.

  “Yes, you did. We would stand and watch the power of the storm, and marvel at what God is like.”

  “Well, in that case, do you want to come with me to stop in on Lilly?”

  “Yes, you two go on. Abel and I will watch from the front porch,” Alice said. “I don’t know where Violet’s gotten off to.”

  Grace smiled. “She’ll come home like a jackrabbit soon enough. She doesn’t like storms one bit. Don’t worry about her, Alice.”

  Violet drew rein on the small buggy as the first ominous raindrops began to strike. She had pulled up right outside the Kings’ large barns, but no one seemed to be about.

  “All right, Amy,” she said to Grace’s horse. “Looks like it’s you and me.” She tried to keep her voice level, to keep the nervous horse calm until she could get inside. But before she could slide down from the buggy seat, someone grasped her around the waist.

  “It’s foolish to drive about when this kind of a storm is coming.”

  She turned to face Luke, ignoring the flash of lightning that normally would have had her running for cover. The flash in his eyes was much more worth her attention. He caught the reins and began to pull both her and the horse toward the barn.

  “We need shelter for the horse,” he called over the thunder. “Now!”

  She nodded and followed him inside.

  Luke had thought endlessly of the kiss he’d shared with Violet behind the feed store; it had kept him awake at night. And now, being alone in the sheltered intimacy of the barn, all he wanted to do was kiss her again. But he felt at odds with himself when he was around her, unable to resolve the conflicting feelings when she looked at him with her sea-blue eyes.

  He unhitched the mare and led her into an empty stall. He took his time, not looking at Violet, but vividly aware of her presence. He wished he had someone to talk things over with. His bruders, unfortunately, would tease him mercilessly, and he wasn’t prepared for that.

  Then he lifted his head and gave a speculative glance at the object of his dilemma. Maybe . . . maybe he could talk with her.

  As the clouds gathered and the thunder began to rumble from beyond the mountains, Seth and Grace headed to the buggy.

  Grace relished the storm as they drove. The wildness and the freedom of it were a bit different here in the mountain. The lightning strikes were more pronounced, the thunder deeper. And she loved it all.

  Within a few minutes they arrived at Jacob’s house. They knocked on the door, but no one answered.

  “That’s odd,” Seth said. He turned the doorknob and it gave. Inside, the house was dark, with only one kerosene lamp burning on the kitchen sink.

  “Lilly?” Seth called.

  “In here,” a fragile voice responded.

  They went into the living room to find Lilly lying on the couch. “Seth, Grace. Thank God.”

  “Are you all right?” Seth asked.

  “Can I talk to Grace for a minute—in private?”

  Seth nodded and backed away into the kitchen with a worried look on his face.

  Lilly held out a hand and Grace took it. “Grace, something’s wrong,” Lilly said. “I’m bleeding. A lot.”

  “Do you need an ambulance?”

  She shook her head. “No. Have Seth go for the midwife.”

  “I’ll get him.” She ran to the kitchen, where Seth paced anxiously. “Lilly needs the midwife. Now!”

  Seth looked at her in alarm and nodded. “I’ll go.” He was out the door in a second, running through sheets of rain to the buggy.

  Grace grabbed the lamp and went back to the couch. “Are you in pain?”

  Lilly nodded. “It started about half an hour after Jacob left. I went to the bathroom, and I knew something was wrong.” Her voice broke.

  “How far along are you?”

  “Three months . . . only three months.”

  “Just hang on, Lilly. We’re getting help.”

  Grace held her hand and stroked her hair and listened to the rain beat down. Finally she heard the sound of hoofbeats above the storm. Seth came in with Fraa Knepp, both of them drenched to the skin. The midwife called for more light, then did a brief examination of Lilly while Seth and Grace waited anxiously in the kitchen.

  She soon called them back.

  “She’s definitely miscarrying, but we’ll have to wait. These things can take some time. The best we can do is make her comfortable and be here for her.” She turned back to Lilly. “I’m going to stay with you and give you something for the pain.”

  Grace went to sit by Lilly. She did not know what it was like to have a miscarriage, but she could imagine.

  “Rachel,” Lilly said. “I wanted to name her Rachel. I was sure it was a girl. Rachel Wyse, that would have been so pretty.” She looked over Grace’s shoulder at Seth. “I wish Jacob were here.”

  “I can go try to find him,” Seth said. “He went to Boalsville, that’s all I know.”

  But before he could say another word, the kitchen door banged open.

  Jacob had arrived.

  Jacob stood for a minute looking around the room. He was soaking wet and dripping on the floor.

  “What’s going on?” he asked. “Why is everybody here?”

  Seth started toward him, but Jacob caught sight of Lilly and pushed past his brother to kneel beside the couch.

  “Jacob, I lost the baby. I thought it was going to be a girl—I’m so sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry? Don’t be—” The words caught in his throat, and he began to cry.

  Jacob laid his head down against Lilly’s breast, and Seth looked away. He caught Grace’s eye and nodded toward the kitchen.

  They went out onto the porch. Thunder shook the hills and lightning flashed, and the rain continued to fall. Grace touched his arm. He looked down at her and didn’t even try to hide the tears. “I wanted to be an uncle,” he said.

  “I know,” she said. “And I know how much you hurt for Jacob and Lilly. I know how much Jacob means to you.”

  She put her arms around him and he hugged her tightly, letting his tears fall on her shoulder. He wanted to stay there forever, in the warmth of her arms, while the storm raged around them.

  But the moment passed. The door opened behind them, and Grace stepped back. Jacob appeared, his face ashen and strained. “Please, both of you, come back inside for a while. We want you.”

  By the time Fraa Knepp’s duties were completed, Lilly had fallen into an exhausted sleep and Jacob sat holding her hand. Seth came and put his arm around his brother.

  “She was so happy about this baby.” Jacob stared into the burning lamp. “There will be other pregnancies, right?” he asked Fraa Knepp.

  The midwife nodded. “There’s absolutely no reason she can’t have another child.”

  He rose suddenly. “I’m going to go put up the horse.”

  Seth followed him, walking slowly through the lessening storm. He helped with the chores in the warm comfort of the barn, and when everything was done, he turned and extended his arms to his brother. Jacob came into the hug without resistance and rested his head on Seth’s shoulder. It was a rare moment between them. Seth felt some part of himself grow up, as if for the first time he understood that loss could mean growth.

  “I wanted this baby,” Jacob said.

  “I know,” Seth whispered. “Me too.”

  Jacob breathed a huge sigh, then stepped back from his brother. He
gave Seth a weak smile. “But we’ll try again, as the Lord wills, and have some joy in the trying.”

  When Seth finally felt comfortable enough to leave, he got the buggy out of the barn, took the midwife home, and rode back to the farm in silence with Grace close at his side.

  The days ahead would be hard for Lilly and Jacob. But he and Grace would visit often and do what they could to ease the pain of loss.

  It was what families did for one another.

  Violet watched as Luke moved from her to sit on a hay bale, leaning his back against a barn beam.

  “So,” he began in a conversational tone, “the truth of the matter is that I understand farming. Not women.”

  Violet went to stand opposite him. “Women aren’t so much difficult, not if you’re careful.”

  He shook his head. “I’m at a loss,” he whispered against the roll of the thunder. “That kiss the other day. The buggy ride. You—someone as beautiful as you—wanting me.”

  “It was the caterpillar.”

  He arched a dark brow. “You’re telling me that all of this, this goings-on, is because of a baby caterpillar?”

  Violet nodded and came forward to sit beside him on the hay bale. “You see, women want to be seen, noticed, and nurtured—like you did with the baby caterpillar.”

  “I’m confused.”

  She reached a hand up to touch his face. “Don’t be. Maybe . . . maybe I shouldn’t have started this.”

  He shook his head and turned his face so that his lips touched her palm. “Nee,” he muttered. “Maybe not.”

  They returned home late, but Grace couldn’t unwind to go to sleep. Instead she stood on the porch watching the storm dissipate. The trees ceased to bend and the rustling corn stilled.

  Seth came and stood beside her. “The storm is passing,” she said.

  “I know,” Seth replied.

  “And it will pass for Lilly and Jacob.”