Anna nodded, and a look of disappointment pulled her lips into a frown. “Ja. Papa and my brothers will stay for a while, but Mama and I need to get home and start the milking.” Swiping at a strand of blond hair blown across her face by a passing breeze, she cast a longing glance toward the skeletal framework of the new barn. “I was hoping to spend more time with August, but Papa won’t let him bring me home until we are formally promised.”
Regina had known for months that Anna and August Entebrock were keeping company. August’s name was one Papa had mentioned last fall as a possible suitor for Regina. She remembered being happy to report to Papa that the twenty-year-old farmer was courting her best friend and thus unavailable.
Anna’s narrow shoulders rose and fell with a deep sigh. “You are so fortunate that your intended lives with your family. You get to see him every day.”
Regina wished she could confide in Anna that seeing Diedrich every day felt at times more like a curse than a blessing. Best friends since childhood, she and Anna had long dreamed of marrying the same year and raising their families next to one another. Except for Papa, no one had been more excited than Anna to learn of Regina and Diedrich’s pending engagement. It had taken all of Regina’s fortitude not to share with Anna her earlier feelings for Eli and the deal she had made with Diedrich. And while she could trust her sister Elsie to keep her secret, Anna’s exuberance sometimes caused her to blurt things without thinking. Regina couldn’t risk the truth getting back to Papa.
Scanning the building site, Anna gave a little gasp. “Oh, there is your handsome Verlobter. Perhaps I should tell him you are not feeling well. He may want to take you home.” She turned as if to go fetch Diedrich, but Regina clutched her arm, restraining her.
“Nein!” The word exploded from Regina’s lips. At the stunned expression on Anna’s face, Regina tempered her voice. “Of course Diedrich cannot take me home, Anna. That would not be korrekt unless Mama and Papa came, too.”
Anna reddened, and she shook her head. “Nein, nein. Of course I did not mean that the two of you should go home alone. I was thinking that his Vater would go, too.”
“There you are, Regina. I have been looking everywhere for you.” Mama strode toward them, a less-than-pleased expression on her face. Despite the stern look and the censure in her voice, Regina couldn’t remember being happier to see her mother. But before she could say anything, Anna piped up.
“Frau Seitz, Regina is not feeling well.”
“Oh?” Mama’s perturbed expression melted into one of concern. She pressed the back of her hand against Regina’s forehead and then her cheeks. “You do look flushed. Perhaps you should lie down in the back of the wagon for a while.”
Regina cast a hopeful look at Anna then back to Mama. “Anna and her Mutter are leaving soon. I was thinking maybe they could take me home.” She turned imploring eyes back to Anna.
Anna smiled. “I will go ask Mama, but I know she would be happy to take you home.”
Mama nodded, and Regina felt some of the tension drain from her body. “That would be gut, I think.” Mama smiled and patted Regina’s cheek. “You probably ate something that did not sit well. You should go home and rest now, and tomorrow I will give you a good dose of castor oil.”
Regina shivered at the thought of the castor oil but managed a weak smile. She would drink a whole bottle of the stuff if it kept her from having to face Diedrich.
A half hour later, feeling at once foolish and deceptive, Regina stood in her own yard and waved good-bye to Anna and her mother. Eventually she would have to face Diedrich, but at least their confrontation would not be witnessed by dozens of curious onlookers.
Turning, she stepped toward the house then stopped. Though still a bit shaky from this afternoon’s occurrences, the last thing she felt like doing was taking a nap. She needed to keep both her mind and body busy. Tipping her head up, she shaded her eyes with her flattened hand and squinted at the sun riding high in the sky. It was still early afternoon. She should be able to get most of her chores done before everyone came home in an hour or so.
She slipped into the washroom and exchanged her leather shoes for her Holzschuhe then grabbed the egg basket. Over the course of the next hour, she gathered the eggs, hoed the garden, and picked a mess of dandelion greens for supper. But as she headed to the barn to feed the horses and milk the cow, the tension knotting her stomach had not loosened, and she knew why. Though she’d rolled the question around in her head all afternoon, she still hadn’t decided what she would say when Diedrich confronted her about her feelings for him. Clearly, she had two choices—tell him the truth and burden him with guilt or deny her feelings and lie. Her conscience recoiled from both options.
Inside the barn, she was met by the familiar and somehow calming smells of hay, manure, leather, and animals. As she approached the stall, Ingwer greeted her with a friendly moo. Bobbing her head, the cow eyed her with a quizzical look as if to ask why she was being milked so early. Grinning, Regina pulled the three-legged stool from the corner of the stall and situated it at the cow’s right side. She positioned the bucket beneath the udders and settled herself on the stool. “I know it is early, meine Alte,” she said as she patted the cow’s ginger-colored side, “but milking you calms me, and I need to think clearly.”
The first splat of milk had scarcely hit the bucket when Regina heard the distant jangling of a wagon and team coming down the lane. For an instant, her chest constricted then eased. Even if Diedrich wanted to talk with her alone, finding a private moment would be difficult. She went back to milking, confident she could avoid spending any time alone with him at least for the rest of the day.
“Regina.” Though quiet, the sound of Diedrich’s voice brought Regina upright. She slowly turned on the stool, her face blazing and her heart pounding so hard she feared it might burst from her chest. She glanced behind him, praying she would see either Papa or Herr Rothhaus. She didn’t.
No smile touched his lips as he walked toward her. His soft gray eyes held an intense look she had never seen in them before. Rising on wobbly legs, she leaned her shoulder against Ingwer for support. She had no idea what to say, so she was glad when he spoke first.
“Frau Seitz said you were feeling sick. Are you better, then?”
“Ja,” Regina managed to croak, her back pressed against Ingwer’s warm side.
He stepped closer, his gaze never veering from her face. “I do not know much English.” As he neared, he reached out and took her hands in his. At the touch of his strong, calloused hands on hers, her throat dried and her insides turned to jelly. “But I know the word yes, and I know the word love.” His thumbs gently caressed the backs of her hands. “I need to know if what you told Tanner is true. Do you love me?”
Regina swallowed hard. Her mind raced with her heart. What should she say? She knew Diedrich. The memory of the words he had spoken to her weeks ago came flooding back. “I prayed I would not break your heart.” If he even suspected he would break her heart by going to California, he would forfeit his dream. And in September, as their fathers had agreed, she would marry the man standing before her—the man she now loved. But she would not have his heart. No. She would not wake each morning with the fear of finding regret in her husband’s eyes and have her heart broken anew every day for the rest of her life.
“Regina.” His gentle grip on her hands tightened, and his throat moved with his swallow. “Tell me. Did you mean the words you said to Tanner?”
Her heart felt as if it was being squeezed by an iron fist, and she winced with the pain. Hot tears stung the back of her nose and flooded her eyes. Unable to hold his gaze, hers dropped to the pointy toes of her wooden shoes. Dear Lord, forgive my lie. She shook her head. “I just told Eli that so he would leave me alone.”
He let go of her hands, and she fought to suppress the sob rising up from the center of her being. But then she felt his hands slowly, gently slip around her waist, drawing her to him. His head lowered, and hi
s lips found hers. Reason unhitched. Her heart took control, and she welcomed his kiss. She felt as if she were floating. Were her feet still on the ground? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the sweet sensation of Diedrich’s lips caressing hers. She slid her arms around his neck and clung to him, returning the tender pressure of his kiss with matching urgency. Then suddenly it was over. He raised his head, freeing her lips.
With all her senses still firing, Regina slammed back to reality with a jarring jolt. Feeling as limp as a rag doll, she stepped back out of his embrace and leaned against the cow, which shifted and mooed.
A smile crawled across Diedrich’s lips until it stretched his face wide. “You can lie to me with your words, mein Liebchen, but your kiss, I think, tells me the truth.” Still smiling, he turned and walked out of the barn.
Somehow Regina managed to finish the milking. Her mind and heart still spinning, she said little as she later helped Mama with supper. Occasionally Mama would press the back of her hand to Regina’s forehead and cheeks, then, clucking her tongue, vowed to dose her with any number of herbal concoctions. Supper passed in a fog with Regina tasting nothing she ate. Diedrich, on the other hand, seemed especially cheerful and animated. She tried not to look at him during the meal, but several times he caught her eye and gave her a sweet, knowing smile that sent her heart bounding like a rabbit chased by a fox.
When everyone had finished and the older men pushed back from the table, Mama glanced at Regina’s half-eaten plate of food. “I think for sure you are not well, liebes Mädchen. It is best, I think, that you go on up to bed.”
Desiring time alone to ponder the many emotions raging inside her, Regina was about to agree. But before she could speak, Diedrich piped up.
“Please, Frau Seitz, if Regina feels well enough at all, I would especially like for her to join us in our evening Bible reading.” The glint in his eye told Regina he knew she was not really sick—at least not sick in the way Mama thought.
Regina offered a tepid smile. “Ja. I feel well enough.” She couldn’t begin to guess why he might want her present for the Bible reading. Earlier in the barn, he had seen through her lie. Was he or his father planning to read scripture admonishing liars? As strange as this day had been, she was prepared to believe anything might happen.
A few minutes later, as they did each evening after supper, everyone gathered in the front room. Regina sat in her normal place on a short bench beside the hearth. Mama, as usual, settled in her sewing rocker situated on the opposite side of the fireplace. The three men pulled up chairs in a half circle facing the fireplace. Usually, either Papa or Herr Rothhaus would read a scripture, followed by a few minutes of discussion about the verses, after which one of the men would offer prayer. Then for an hour or so, everyone would discuss the day’s events until daylight slipped away and yawning broke out around the group. As soon as the prayer was finished, Regina planned to make her excuses and head upstairs.
Diedrich took a chair facing Regina. Her disconcertment growing, she studiously kept her gaze focused on her hands folded in her lap. Was he, too, thinking of the sweet kiss they had shared in the barn? And why was his mood so cheerful if he thought she was in love with him?
“Vater.” Diedrich turned to his father seated to his left between him and Papa. “If you and Herr Seitz do not mind, I would like to read the scripture this evening.”
“Sehr gut, Sohn.” Herr Rothhaus looked a bit surprised but handed Diedrich the Bible. Sensing something momentous was about to occur, Regina held her breath and braced for whatever might happen.
Diedrich opened the Bible at a spot marked by a small slip of paper. Regina noticed two other such markers protruding from the book’s pages. The sight did nothing to ease her building trepidation.
Diedrich cleared his throat, and everyone became quiet. Then in a clear voice he read—or more accurately recited—from the fourth chapter of Lamentations. All the while, his eyes never left Regina. “‘How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!’”
Regina’s heart began to pound in her ears and tears misted her eyes.
He turned to another marked page. “Proverbs 18:22,” he announced then read, “‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.’” His voice softened as his gaze melted into hers. Now tears began to course in earnest down Regina’s cheeks. But he was not finished. He flipped the pages to yet another marker and said, “Proverbs 31:10.” Then, closing the book he rose, set the Bible on the chair, and walked to Regina. With his eyes firmly fixed on hers, he recited, “‘Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.’ Or gold.”
Herr Rothhaus shook his head, bewildered. “Sohn, I do not think it says the part about gold.”
“I know, Vater, but I am saying what is in my heart.” Diedrich took Regina’s hands in his and knelt before her. Her tears became a torrent. “Regina, mein Liebchen,” he murmured. “You are mein Liebling, mein Schätzchen.”
Regina could hardly believe her ears. Her heart sang as he declared her his sweetheart, his darling… his treasure.
From her seat on the other side of the hearth, Mama sniffed and dabbed her eyes with the hem of her apron. Papa and Herr Rothhaus exchanged grins while nodding their approval.
“Ich liebe dich, Regina,” Diedrich said, his eyes shining with unvarnished adoration. “I know we have been promised for many months, but my heart needs to ask you here, in front of our parents, do you love me, too? And if we were not promised, would you still want to be my wife?”
Her heart full to bursting, Regina nodded. “Ja.” The word came out on a happy sob. Still holding her hands, Diedrich stood, bringing her up with him. Taking her in his arms, he placed a chaste kiss on her cheek; then, lifting his lips to her ear, he whispered softly so only she could hear. “I love you, my darling. You are worth more to me than all the world’s gold.”
Mama wept openly, the sound blending with the creaking of her rocking chair. Papa cleared his throat and in a voice thick with emotion said, “I think we should hurry to finish that new house, hey, Georg?” Herr Rothhaus agreed with a hearty laugh.
All of this filtered vaguely into Regina’s brain. The amazing miracle unfolding before her dominated her mind, heart, and senses, as did the man she loved—the man in whose arms she rested.
For Regina, the next four weeks would pass in a blissful blur. The men hurried to finish the house before threshing time began in early July. Mama and Regina spent their days planning the coming wedding, making strawberry and cherry preserves, and tending the garden. The moments Regina and Diedrich enjoyed alone were few and precious—a tender glance or touch of their hands in passing, a stolen kiss in the washroom or behind a piece of laundry drying on the line when Regina hung out the wash. As the idyllic summer days drifted by, Regina lived for the day she would become Frau Rothhaus.
By mid-June, Mama decided it was time to begin piecing together the squares of cloth that would become Regina’s and Diedrich’s wedding quilt. Over the years, Mama had kept in a cedar box precious squares of cloth that held sentimental significance to the family.
This morning with the men gone again to work on the house, Regina and her mother sat together in the front room, the basket of quilting squares on the floor between them.
A gentle breeze wafted through the open front door, bringing with it the fragrance of roses and honeysuckle as well as the lulling hum of the bees that hovered around the blossoms. Working her needle along a square of cloth, Mama pressed her foot to the puncheon floor, setting the rocker creaking as it moved in a gentle motion. “I am hoping we can find a day soon when your sisters can come and we can all work together on this quilt as we did for each of theirs.”
Regina looked up from the needlework in her own hands. “That might be hard to do. Elsie is always busy helping William with the store. And with baby Henry walking now, Sophie has her hands full, especially since she and Ezra moved into that big house in Vernon.”
Mama frowned. “Sometimes I wish your sister did not have such grand tastes. I worry how they can afford such a nice home. The smaller house they had before would have served them well until Ezra and his brother built up their wheelwright shop, I think.”
Regina agreed. She’d never understood Sophie’s appetite for extravagance. To Regina, the notion of having her own home, however humble, was in itself heady. In truth, she would happily live in a mud hut as long as she was with Diedrich. But she was genuinely proud of the two-story log home he and his father were building for her. And eventually, as they gradually built on to it, her house would rival this home she had grown up in. Yet she knew her eldest sister would likely scoff at it. She remembered how Sophie had gasped in horror when she learned Elsie and William would be living in three small rooms attached to the back of their store.
Not wanting to hear another of Mama’s rants about Sophie’s spendthrift ways, Regina decided to steer the conversation to the quilt pieces.
She reached into the basket and brought up a bright blue square of cloth. “This was from your wedding dress, am I correct?”
Smiling, Mama nodded. “Ja, you remember well from when we made your sisters’ quilts, I think.”
Next, Regina held up a scrap of faded yellow material. This one, she couldn’t guess. It didn’t look like material from any of the dresses she or her sisters had worn as youngsters. “And what is this from, Mama? I do not recognize it.”
Mama looked up, and the smile on her face vanished. Her complexion blanched, frightening Regina. She looked as if she had seen a ghost. Her shoulders sagged, and before Regina’s eyes, her mother seemed to age ten years. Her brown eyes, welling with tears, held both sorrow and resignation. “I had completely forgotten I’d saved that.” She exhaled a deep breath as if gathering strength. “Regina, there is something you need to know. Something your Vater and I should have told you long ago.”
A Bride's Agreement Page 29