A Bride's Agreement

by Elaine Bonner

  “Are you?” Sidestepping the question, Diedrich ignored his father’s teasing tone and use of the word “intended.” Turning to hide his fading smile, he forked more hay into the horse’s manger.

  Father chuckled and stepped nearer, his footfalls whispering through the straw strewn over the barn’s dirt floor. “Herr Seitz assures me that this morning’s breakfast must have been a mishap and that his Tochter is usually as good a cook as her Mutter.”

  “I’m sure it is so,” Diedrich said, careful to keep his face averted. Though she’d made no such admission, Diedrich suspected that Regina had ruined the meal on purpose to discourage him from marrying her. But he could not share that suspicion with Father without betraying the secret agreement he and Regina had made.

  “Spoken like a loyal husband-to-be.” A smile lifted Father’s voice. He clapped his hand on Diedrich’s shoulder, sending a wave of guilt rippling through him. “You will see. By this time next year when she is no longer Fräulein Seitz, but Frau Rothhaus, das Mädchen will be making köstlich meals for us in our own home.”

  Diedrich tried to smile, but his lips would not hold it. He had no doubt that Regina would be making delicious meals for someone, but they would not be for him. It scraped his conscience raw to allow his father to fashion dreams of the three of them sharing a home in domestic tranquility, when Diedrich knew it was never to be.

  Father slung his arm across Diedrich’s shoulder. “Come, mein Sohn. The horse has had his feed. It is our turn now.” He smacked his lips. “I can almost taste that wunderbares Brot Frau Seitz makes from cornmeal.”

  As they stepped from the barn, Father stopped. Turning, he faced Diedrich and grasped his shoulders. He shook his head, and his eyes glistened with moisture. “Mein lieber Sohn. Still sometimes I cannot believe it is true, that we are really here.” He ran the cuff of his sleeve beneath his nose. “Since you were a kleines Kind, I have dreamed of coming to live in America. I gave up thinking it would ever happen. And now in the autumn of my life, Gott has resurrected my withered dream and made it bloom like the spring flowers.” He waved toward a lilac bush laden with fragrant purple blossoms growing just outside the barn.

  Diedrich groaned inwardly. He did not need any more guilt rubbed like salt into his sore conscience. He forced a tiny smile. “I am glad you are happy here, Vater.” He tried to turn back toward the barn’s open doors, but Father held fast.

  Father’s throat moved with his swallow. “I am more than happy. Mein heart is full to overflowing. Soon I will have a new daughter-in-law, and in time, Gott willing, Enkelkinder to bounce on my knee. And it is you that I have to thank for making my dream come true.” He gave Diedrich a quick hug and pat on the back. His voice thickened with emotion. “I do not know how I can ever thank you.”

  Later at the dinner table, Father’s words still echoed in Diedrich’s ears, smiting him with remorse. His appetite gone, he stared down at his untouched bowl of venison stew. Time and again on their walk to the house, he had been tempted to blurt out the truth. But doing so would not only humiliate Father and break his heart; it could render them both homeless as well.

  He glanced across the table at Regina. In contrast to his sullenness, her mood had improved greatly. In fact, she looked happier than he had seen her. Her hair was neatly plaited and wound around her head like a halo of spun gold. Pink tinted her creamy cheeks, reminding him of the blossoms that now decorated the apple trees. Her lips, an even deeper rose color than her cheeks, looked soft as the petals of the flower they resembled. They parted slightly in laughter at a humorous comment by Frau Seitz. An unfamiliar ache throbbed deep in Diedrich’s chest, and he experienced a sudden desire to know how Regina’s lips would feel against his. Immediately, the memory of the miller’s son trying to learn that very thing elbowed its way into his mind, filling him at once with rage and envy.

  “Such a face, Diedrich. You do not like the stew?” Frau Seitz’s voice invaded Diedrich’s thoughts, bringing his head up with a jerk. “Regina made it herself.”

  He blinked at his hostess and reddened at Regina’s giggle. “Yes. I mean no. Es schmeckt sehr gut.” A blast of heat suffused his face. As if to demonstrate his sincerity, he spooned some of the meat and vegetables swimming in dark gravy into his mouth. The stew was surprisingly tasty, but with Diedrich’s worries twisting his gut into knots, it might as well have been sawdust.

  “Danke.” Regina gave him a sly smile as if to acknowledge their shared secret, sending his heart tumbling in his chest.

  At the sensation, Diedrich sucked in air and almost choked on the chunk of venison in his mouth. If he’d found having Regina as an enemy uncomfortable, having her as an ally was proving no less disconcerting. He stifled a groan that bubbled up from his chest and threatened to push through his lips. Was there ever a more wretched soul than he? For the length of the spring and summer, he’d have to pretend to Father as well as Herr and Frau Seitz that he was happily betrothed to a girl whom he had secretly agreed not to marry. At the same time, he had to keep from Father his plans to leave for California until he earned enough money to pay back Herr Seitz for his passage to America. But most importantly, he needed to somehow find a way to convince Father and Herr Seitz that he and Regina should not marry while convincing Regina that she should not marry Eli. The last thing he needed was to lose his heart to this pretty Fräulein.

  CHAPTER 7

  Regina stood at the edge of the plowed and harrowed garden and inhaled the rich scent of the earth. How she loved the smell of newly turned sod in the spring. Each April for the past ten years, she, Mama, Sophie, and Elsie worked together to plant this little patch of ground behind the house with potatoes, cabbage, and string beans. What fun the three of them had as they talked, laughed, and sometimes even sang together while planting the garden.

  Her heart wilted as she reached down to pick up her hoe and burlap sack of seed potatoes. With Sophie and Elsie miles away in their own homes and Mama busy ironing yesterday’s laundry, Regina would plant the potatoes alone this year. She stepped from the thick grass into the soft, tilled ground, her wooden shoes sinking into the sandy soil. Instead of looking forward to spending a pleasant hour with her mother and sisters, today Regina saw nothing before her but a morning filled with lonely, monotonous, back-aching work.

  Heaving a sigh, she looked toward the fields beyond the barn where Papa worked with the Rothhaus men tilling the fields for planting corn. A flash of resentment flared in her chest. While the arrival of Diedrich and Herr Rothhaus had greatly lightened Papa’s work, it had increased hers and Mama’s. With two extra people to feed and clothe, mother and daughter no longer had the luxury of working together on many of the daily household chores. Now they often needed to work separately in order to accomplish more in the same amount of time.

  Continuing to gaze at the distant field, she could make out one man behind the cultivator and another with a strapped canvas sack slung across his shoulder, obviously planting corn. Was it Diedrich? She peered through squinted eyes, but at the extreme distance, she could not tell for sure. At the thought of him, an odd sensation of pulsating warmth filled her chest—a sensation for which she had no certain name. Relief? Yes, it must be relief. Learning last week that he, too, did not want the marriage their fathers had arranged for them allowed her to relax in his presence. Now she no longer avoided him. Indeed, she found it easier to converse with Diedrich than with Eli, who was usually more interested in trying to steal a kiss than talking.

  Wielding the hoe, she gouged an indention in the soft dirt. Then, taking a piece of potato from the bag, she dropped it into the hole. Careful to keep the sprouting “eye” up, she covered it again with dirt, which she tamped down using the flat of the hoe blade. After repeating the process for the length of one row, boredom set in. With only the occasional chirping of birds for company, Regina began singing one of her favorite hymns to fill the silence. “Now thank we all our Gott, with heart and hands and voices—”

  “
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices.” A deep, rich baritone voice responded, hushing Regina and yanking her upright.

  Grinning, Diedrich strode toward her carrying what looked like a rolled-up newspaper. “Please do not stop singing. That is one of my favorite hymns.”

  The odd fluttering sensation in her chest returned. “I will if you will sing it with me.”

  “Who from our mothers’ arms hath blessed us on our way,” he sang. Regina lifted her soprano voice to join his baritone in singing, “With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”

  After jabbing a stick in the ground to mark the place where she’d planted her last potato, she trudged through the uneven dirt of the garden to where he stood.

  Laughing, he clapped his hands together. “Well done, if I say so myself.” His expression turned apologetic. “Forgive my intrusion on your work, but I would like to ask a favor.”

  Curious, Regina focused on the paper in his hand as she neared. From what she could tell, it looked to be the Madison Courier newspaper. “I was about to take a rest anyway.” Though not entirely true, she liked that her reply erased the concerned lines from his handsome face.

  Diedrich unrolled the paper. With a look of little-boy shyness that melted her heart, he held it out to her. “Will you read this to me, please? I cannot ask your parents or my Vater. And Vater knows less English than I do.” He narrowed his gaze at a spot near the top right side of the paper. “I recognize only the word California.”

  Taking the paper from his hands, Regina followed his gaze and focused on an article beneath a heading that read HO fOR CALIFORNIA. Scanning the article, she saw it advertised a fort in Arkansas as a place for California gold seekers to gather. A feeling of apprehension gripped her, and for an instant, she was tempted to tell him the paper was simply reporting about gold having been found in California. But he’d be sure to find out the truth eventually. And besides, wasn’t Pastor Sauer’s sermon last Sunday on the evil of telling untruths?

  “So what does it say?” Eagerness shone in Diedrich’s gray eyes.

  “It says gold seekers should go to a place called Fort Smith in Arkansas.” Her drying throat tightened, forcing her to swallow. “It lists all the items someone going to the goldfields will need and claims they have those things for sale. It also says the government is building a road called the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail to the goldfields.”

  “Then this Fort Smith, Arkansas, is where I should go?” His eyes sparking with interest, he took the paper from her limp hands.

  Regina fought the urge to tell him no, that he shouldn’t go there. Instead, she mustered a tepid smile and with a weak voice said, “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  Anticipation bloomed on his face, and he rolled the paper back up and stuffed it inside the waistband of his trousers at the hip. He took her hands into his, and his flannel-soft eyes filled with gratitude. “Danke, Regina.” His calloused thumbs caressed the backs of her hands, and her heart took flight like a gaggle of geese. He dropped her hands, and she experienced a sense of loss.

  She turned and faced the garden again. “Well, I must get back to my planting, or we will not have potatoes this year.” Despite an effort to lighten her voice, it sounded strained.

  “I am done with the plowing, and Vater and Herr Seitz are finishing the corn planting.” He looked over the little garden patch. “I would be happy to help you finish planting the potatoes.”

  With her heart slamming against her ribs, her first inclination was to decline his offer. What was the matter with her? Eli was her sweetheart, not Diedrich. Besides, by the end of harvest, Diedrich would be heading for California. She looked at the hoe and the nearly full sack of seed potatoes lying in the dirt. Diedrich and his father caused her enough extra work, so why not accept his help? She nodded and smiled. “Danke. I would much appreciate that.”

  For the next hour, they worked together with him digging the holes and her dropping in the pieces of cut potato. As they worked, they sang hymns, and Regina marveled at how well their voices blended. When not singing, they swapped anecdotes about tending gardens as children with their siblings.

  “Do you miss your brothers?” Regina asked as she placed the last piece of potato in the little gully Diedrich had just dug.

  His face took on a pensive expression, and he rested his chin on the back of his hands, which covered the knob of the hoe’s handle. “Ja. I do miss them.”

  Regina stood and brushed her palms together, dusting the soil from them. “Your brothers did not want to come here?” Herr Rothhaus had mentioned his older sons and their families on several occasions but had never said if they, too, would like to come to America.

  Diedrich shook his head. “Johann, no. He is the oldest and is attached to the farm in Venne. Frederic, I think, would come, but his wife, Hilde, is with child again. Even if they had money for the passage—which they do not—she was not willing to risk it.”

  His comment struck home for Regina. “I was born on ship during Mama and Papa’s voyage here.” Her gaze panned the surrounding farm. “I am glad Mama was courageous.” For a moment they shared a smile, and warmth that had nothing to do with the midday sun rushed through her.

  Diedrich jammed a maple stick into the ground at the end of their last row of potatoes to mark it, then glanced up at the sky. “Now all we have to do is pray for Gott to send the sun and the rain.” Grinning, he nodded toward the split log bench near the house. “I think we have earned a rest.”

  “So do I.” Regina followed him out of the patch of tilled ground, unable to remember a more enjoyable experience planting potatoes. As she stepped from the loose soil of the garden, one of her wooden shoes sank deep into a furrow, and when she lifted her foot, the shoe stayed behind. Not wanting to get her sock dirty, she balanced on one foot and bent the shoeless one back beneath her.

  At her grunt of dismay, Diedrich turned around. Seeing her plight, he hurried to her. “Here, hold on to me.” He reached down to retrieve her shoe. Obeying, she slipped her arm around his waist and felt the hard muscles of his torso stretch with his movement. Her heart quickened at their nearness as he held her against him with one hand while placing the Holzschuh on her stockinged foot.

  With her shoe back in place, she mumbled her thanks and stepped away from him as quickly as possible, hurrying to the bench in an effort to hide her blazing face. She tried to think of an instance when Eli had kindled an equally pleasant yet unsettling reaction in her but couldn’t.

  They perched at opposite ends of the bench, leaving a good foot of space between them. For a long moment, they sat in silence. The gusting breeze, laden with the perfume of lilac blossoms, dried the perspiration beading on Regina’s brow.

  At length, Diedrich reached behind him and pulled the newspaper from the waistband of his trousers. He looked at it for a moment then turned to Regina. “I have another favor to ask. I would like for you to teach me to read the English. I will never make it to California if I cannot speak or read the language of America.”

  Like all the local young people of German heritage, Regina was fluent in both German and English, having learned English in school. Switching between the two languages felt as natural to her as breathing. With German spoken exclusively at home, it hadn’t occurred to her that Diedrich lacked that advantage.

  She smiled. “I’m not sure how good a teacher I will be, but I will try.”

  She scooted closer and, bending toward him until their shoulders touched, began to point out some of the simpler words on the pages of the open newspaper. “And.” Dragging out the enunciation, she pronounced the word above her index finger then had him repeat it.

  An obviously quick learner, he mastered the one-, two-, and three-letter words by the first or second try. So Regina moved on to some larger words but with decidedly less success, making for humorous results.

  After butchering the word prospectors for the third time, he began guessing at its pronunciation, making the word so
und sillier with each try and sending Regina into fits of laughter so hard that tears rolled down her cheeks. “Nein, nein, nein!” she gasped between guffaws, her head lolling against his shoulder.

  “Regina.”

  At the sound of her name, she looked up to see Eli standing a few feet away and eyeing her and Diedrich with an angry glare.

  CHAPTER 8

  I thought you said you weren’t interested in him.” Despite his earlier fierce look, Eli’s voice sounded more hurt than angry as he cast a narrowed glance over Regina’s shoulder toward the bench she’d sprung from seconds ago.

  “Diedrich asked me to teach him English, that is all.” She shrugged, trying to force a light tone.

  “Diedrich, huh?” Eli shot another glare past her, his voice hardening and his brow slipping into an angry V.

  Despite the dozen or so feet between them, Regina could feel Diedrich’s eyes on her back. Thankfully, he had not followed her across the yard to where she and Eli now stood beneath the white-blossomed dogwood tree. She desperately wished he would discreetly leave her and Eli alone, but after the two men’s confrontation in the barn last week, she doubted he would. Why did Eli have to come at this very moment?

  Sighing, she put her hand on Eli’s arm. His tensed muscles reminded her of a cat about to pounce. Though admittedly flattering, Eli’s jealousy was growing tiresome. As much as she tried to make her voice sound conciliatory, she couldn’t keep a frustrated tone from creeping in. “What I told you is true.” The temptation to tell him about the agreement she and Diedrich had made tugged hard. But she couldn’t risk him blurting it out in an unguarded moment. “You will just have to believe me.”

  Eli groped for her hand, but for reasons she couldn’t explain, she drew it back and crossed her arms over her middle, tucking her hands protectively beneath them. “Why are you here?”