A Bride's Agreement

by Elaine Bonner

  With both hands pressed against her mouth, Mama leaned against Papa, who held her tight—ready, Regina was sure, to shield her eyes should the unthinkable happen. Regina clung to Diedrich as well, but he disentangled himself from her grasp. “Go to your Schwester.” Confused and a little hurt that, unlike Papa with Mama, Diedrich had chosen to withdraw his support from Regina, she nevertheless went to embrace Sophie. With both her husband and son in peril, Sophie would need someone to support and comfort her.

  As Ezra began to scale the ladder, Sophie’s body shook even harder than Regina’s. “Stay still, Henry,” she called up in a tremulous voice. “Papa is coming to get you.”

  “Papa, Papa.” Henry turned and drew his feet up under him, eliciting more sharp intakes of air.

  Ezra quickened his steps. “No, Henry. Stay still.”

  Laughing, Henry pushed up to a standing position and toddled toward his father, his bare feet treading treacherously close to the loft’s edge. Regina clung to Sophie, afraid to watch the proceedings and yet unable not to.

  Now at the top of the ladder, Ezra reached out toward his son, curling his fingers toward him in a beckoning gesture. “Come here, Henry. Come to Papa.”

  Henry came within a fingertip’s length of Ezra’s reach. For a moment, the fear gripping Regina eased its stranglehold on her throat. But instead of walking into his father’s arms, Henry laughed and turned as if he thought Ezra was playing a game with him. He lifted a chubby foot. Time froze with Regina’s heart as the little boy teetered on the loft’s edge. A look of terror contorted Ezra’s face. Lunging, he reached out and swiped at his son’s gown. He missed. Collective gasps punctured the air. A strangled scream tore from Sophie’s throat as Henry’s little body tumbled over the edge.

  CHAPTER 28

  Regina’s mind went numb. Turning Sophie from the sight, she pressed her hand against the back of her sister’s head and drew Sophie’s face against her shoulder. If she could do nothing else, she could save Sophie the memory of witnessing the death of her child. At the same time, Regina buried her own face in Sophie’s shoulder. Weeping quietly, she held tightly to her sister’s body, now racked with sobs. Then with sudden awareness, she realized the only sound in the barn was that of her and Sophie’s weeping. She hadn’t heard the dreaded thud of Henry’s little body hitting the barn’s dirt floor or a rush of footsteps toward the site of the tragedy. No one else was weeping or wailing with grief.

  Pushing away from Sophie, Regina opened her eyes. Dread filling her, she peered hesitantly over Sophie’s shoulder at the spot where she expected to find Henry’s lifeless form. But to her amazement, instead of the gruesome sight she’d imagined, she saw Diedrich grinning with Henry cradled safely in his arms. She nearly collapsed with relief. Now she understood why Diedrich had pushed her away. He’d hoped to position himself to catch her nephew should Henry fall. Regina’s heart swelled. Every time she thought she couldn’t love this man more, he proved her wrong.

  Ezra scrambled down the ladder. And as if in one motion, he, Mama, and Papa all rushed to Diedrich and Henry. Only Sophie remained with her back to the group, doubled over and sobbing into her hands.

  Regina gripped Sophie’s forearms. “Sophie, look. Henry is safe. Diedrich caught him.”

  Sophie opened her eyes and blinked, disbelief replacing despondency on her face. She turned slowly as if afraid to believe Regina’s words. Then, seeing they were true, she ran and snatched her baby son from Diedrich’s arms.

  “Henry,” she mumbled against his curly head as she clutched her son’s squirming form to her breast and rocked back and forth. “Don’t you ever scare Mama like that again!” Her chide warbled through her sobs.

  Ezra rushed to his family and enveloped them in his arms. Mama wept softly and caressed Henry’s head, cooing comforting hushes to her grandson, who had also begun crying.

  Papa gripped Diedrich’s hand. “Danke, Sohn.” His voice quivered, and his eyes watered. Regina couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Papa weep.

  With red eyes and a soppy face, Ezra disengaged from Sophie and Henry then strode to Diedrich and grasped his hand. Sniffing, he ran his shirtsleeve under his nose. “I’m not good with words, but ‘thank you’ doesn’t seem enough for what you did.”

  Papa translated, and Diedrich gripped Ezra’s shoulder and grinned. “Bitte sehr, mein Freund. But it was Gott who dropped Henry into my arms. I am just the vessel He used.”

  Sophie finally relented to Mama’s petitions and handed Henry to his grandmother, who smothered the little boy with kisses. Henry, who had stopped crying but still looked confused about all the commotion, fussed to get down. But Mama shook her head and held tightly to him. Papa guffawed and tousled the boy’s mop of brown curls as the three of them headed out of the barn.

  With her head down and her shoulders slumped, Sophie scuffed over the straw-strewn floor to join her husband. Wringing her hands, she finally looked up to face Diedrich and Regina. Shame dragged down her features, making her appear old. “Herzlichen Dank, Herr Rothhaus, for what you did for our Henry.” A flood of tears streamed down her face, but she paid them no mind. “If not for you, Ezra and I might be preparing to bury our son.” The last word snagged on the ragged edge of a sob. Ezra put a comforting arm around her shoulders, but she shrugged it off. Straightening, she sniffed back tears and lifted her quavering chin. “There is something I must say to you both, and I must say it now,” she said in German, her voice breaking. “I am so ashamed. I have been mean and greedy.” A new deluge of tears washed down her face.

  Regina’s heart turned over at Sophie’s agony, but it also warmed in anticipation of her sister’s repentance. Her impulse was to tell Sophie an apology was not necessary. But she knew it was—not only for her and Diedrich’s sakes, but more importantly for Sophie’s.

  Sophie’s throat moved with her swallow. Apologizing had never come easily to Regina’s eldest sister. “Earlier, I said some unkind things to you. I ask you to forgive me.” Now she focused her gaze squarely on Regina’s face. A fresh tear welled in her left eye and perched on her lower lid for an instant before trailing down her cheek. “Regina, please forgive me for saying you are not my sister. You are my sister. I was so awful to you. And you have been so sweet and kind to me. I realize now that blood is not important. Family is important, and we are family. I hope you can forgive me. I will try to be a better sister to you in the future.”

  At Sophie’s penitent words and demeanor, Regina’s heart melted. She knew what the admission must have cost her naturally unyielding sibling. She gathered Sophie in her arms. “Mein liebe Schwester. Of course I forgive you.”

  After a moment, Sophie pushed away from Regina and turned to Diedrich. “Herr Rothhaus, I said some very unkind things about you, too. I am sorry for them. Will you please forgive my unkindness?” Regina noticed Sophie’s use of the courtesy title Herr in addressing Diedrich, an unmistakable token of regard.

  Smiling, Diedrich took Sophie’s hands in his. “Of course I forgive you, just as our Lord taught us to forgive.”

  Regina wondered if Diedrich was thinking of the scriptures he had quoted earlier to his father.

  Wiping away her tears, Sophie stepped back into Ezra’s embrace. “Danke, Herr Rothhaus.” She glanced between Regina and Diedrich. “Ezra and I have not yet congratulated you on your engagement. We would like to do that now.” She turned to Diedrich. “I look forward to having you as a brother. Please believe me when I tell you I will be praying that happens soon.”

  As Regina and Diedrich thanked Sophie for her kind sentiments, Regina was reminded of the scripture from the book of Hebrews that Mama liked to quote. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” Mama often warned, “When Gott wants our attention, He will get it one way or another. Those who ignore His whispered chide may have to feel the sting of His willow switch across their knuckles.” God had obviously gotten Sophie’s attention. And to Regina’s mind, the fear of losing a child was quite a sting acro
ss the knuckles.

  Over the next week, Regina and Sophie grew closer than Regina had ever imagined they could. And if she had harbored any doubt that her sister’s repentance was genuine, Sophie squelched it as the two worked together in the upstairs bedroom, packing away the Barneses’ things for their trip to Salem. Regina stopped her work to impulsively hug her sister. “I will miss you all so much.”

  At that, Sophie sank to the feather mattress and dissolved into tears. When Regina tried to comfort her, she confessed her scheme to convince Papa to will the land to her and Ezra instead of Regina and Diedrich.

  “I don’t know what came over me,” Sophie said before blowing her nose into the handkerchief Regina handed her. “You and Diedrich are far more suited to farm life than Ezra and I. I would much rather live in town.” She sniffed and mopped at her eyes. “I just wanted some security—a home no one could take away from me.” With her head hung low, she twisted the handkerchief in her lap. “I know it doesn’t excuse what I did, and I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me.”

  Her heart crimping, Regina rubbed her sister’s back. “Of course I don’t hate you. You are my Schwester. I love you.” Though cheered by Sophie’s confession, Regina decided it might be best not to reveal her prior knowledge of the plan. “Everyone wants security, Sophie. But nothing in life is secure. That is why we must have faith in Gott. I had to learn that, too. Diedrich and I have no assurance Herr Rothhaus will ever give us his blessing to marry, but we have faith that he will.”

  Sophie hugged Regina and promised to pray fervently for God to convict Herr Rothhaus as He had convicted her.

  But two days after Sophie, Ezra, and Henry left for Salem, Regina’s own faith began to flag. Though she, Diedrich, Mama, and Papa prayed daily for God to soften Herr Rothhaus’s heart, they still heard nothing from him. And he had not appeared at church yesterday.

  Sighing, she bundled up the sheets she’d stripped from her bed and headed downstairs, where Mama had begun heating water for the wash. Regina had preached to Sophie about faith, and now she must listen to her own counsel. Even when it seemed impossible, God, in one stroke, had protected Henry and changed Sophie’s heart toward Diedrich and Regina. If God could do that, He could also change Herr Rothhaus’s heart. She remembered the scripture Pastor Sauer read yesterday from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Just as Monday washday followed Sunday’s day of rest, God surely appointed a specific time for each of His tasks as well. Still, she prayed He might hurry up and deal with Herr Rothhaus soon.

  As she stepped into the washroom, a knock sounded at the back door. A man’s shadow stretched across the open doorway. Papa and Diedrich were out cutting hay, but of course, neither of them would feel obliged to knock.

  She dropped the sheets at the bottom of the stairs and stepped to the door. When the figure of the man came into view, dismay dragged down her shoulders. “Eli, I told you not to come around again. Diedrich and I are engaged—”

  “I’m not here about that.” His somber features held no hint of his usual cocky demeanor. “I’m here about Diedrich’s pa—old man Rothhaus.” He jerked his head toward the lane where Sam Tanner sat on the seat of a buckboard. “There’s been an accident.” Grimacing, he twisted his hat in his hands. “He’s hurt bad. Real bad.”

  CHAPTER 29

  Diedrich paused in his work with the scythe. Resting the curved blade on a mound of timothy hay he had cut a moment before, he leaned against the tool’s long handle. Only one more half acre to cut. And if the weather stayed dry, he and Herr Seitz should be able to get all the hay put up in the mow by the end of the week.

  Sighing, he lifted his sweaty face to the cool breeze and gazed at the fluffy white clouds the wind chased across the azure sky. He couldn’t imagine a more idyllic scene. And indeed, to a casual observer, his life would undoubtedly seem ideal. He’d won the love of his life, and her entire family—even including Sophie—all wanted him to be part of their family. In the space of two months he could possibly claim Regina for his wife and at the same time become co-owner of the best farmland he’d ever had the privilege to work.

  But the regret twisting his insides reminded him of the threatening cloud of uncertainty that still overshadowed his hopes for a happy future. Without Father’s blessing, his dreams of a life with Regina on this land he had come to love could very well evaporate like the shifting clouds above him. Although Regina had agreed to reinstate their engagement, he couldn’t expect her to wait forever. What was more, he knew his father’s stubbornness. Father had never tolerated even a whiff of disrespect from any of his sons. And Father had undoubtedly seen Diedrich’s outburst eleven days ago as a rank display of disrespect. Not since Diedrich was a child and received a disciplinary swat on the backside had Father struck him—and never before on the face.

  He instinctively rubbed his unshaven cheek. The initial sting had long faded, but the memory of the blow still reverberated to his core. Diedrich’s heart felt as if it were being ripped asunder. Thoughts of giving up either Regina or Father were equally abhorrent. Dear Lord, don’t make me choose. Please, God, don’t make me choose.

  “Diedrich! Papa!”

  At the sound of Regina’s voice, Diedrich whipped his head around. The sight of her bounding toward him over the hay field lifted his glum mood while piquing his curiosity. It was too soon for dinner, so he couldn’t guess what might have brought her all the way out here to summon him and Herr Seitz. And at the moment, he didn’t care. He was just glad to see her. Though the distance between them still made it hard to discern her mood, he imagined her smiling face and his own lips tipped up in anticipation.

  But the next moment her face came into clear view, wiping the smile from his face. Her blue eyes were wide and wild with fear. No hint of a smile brightened her terrified expression.

  Dropping the scythe, he trotted toward her. He caught her around the waist, and her torso moved beneath his hands with the exertion of her lungs. “Regina, what is the matter?” He knew she and her mother were washing laundry today. Could Frau Seitz have been scalded by hot water? “Has something happened to your Mutter?”

  She shook her head then pulled in a huge breath and exhaled. “Nein. It is your Vater. Eli Tanner came to tell us there has been an accident at the mill.” Her chin quivered, and her eyes glistened with welling tears, causing Diedrich to fear the worst. His insides crumpled at the thought of losing his father before they had the chance to reconcile.

  He let go of Regina so she wouldn’t feel his hands trembling. Though he longed to ask the dreaded question pulsating in his mind, her words had snatched the breath from his lungs. His chest felt as if he’d been kicked by one of the Clydesdales.

  Herr Seitz loped up in time to hear Regina’s news. “Tell us, Tochter. What has happened?” He grasped her shoulders, and she drew in another ragged breath.

  “Eli said Herr Rothhaus was chasing a raccoon from the mill and slipped on some grain on the floor. He fell and hit his head on the millstone.” A large teardrop appeared on her lower lashes and sparkled in the sun like a liquid diamond perched on threads of spun gold. At any other time the sight would have melted Diedrich’s heart, and he would have pulled her into his arms to comfort her. But not now. Instead, an icy chill shot through him, and his arms hung helplessly at his sides.

  “Regina, you must tell us.” Herr Seitz’s voice, though firm, turned tender—coaxing. “Does Herr Rothhaus still live?”

  She nodded, and Diedrich’s knees almost buckled with his relief. The plethora of questions crowding his mind tumbled from his lips as from an overturned apple cart. “Where is he? How badly is he hurt? Can he speak? Has anyone gone to fetch a doctor?” He hated the harsh, interrogating tone his voice had taken, but he couldn’t keep it out. If Father died before he could reach him and reconcile, Diedrich would never forgive himself.

  Regina blinked, and Diedrich glimpsed a flicker of fear in h
er eyes. It seared his conscience. Her forehead puckered as if in confusion, or was it pain? She narrowed a harder, unflinching look at him. “He is at the house. He is alive but not fully conscious. Eli has gone to Dudleytown for the doctor, and his Vater is helping Mama settle Herr Rothhaus onto the downstairs bed.” Her voice sounded rigid—formal. It was as if they were suddenly strangers.

  No one spoke as the three strode to the house together. Regina didn’t look at Diedrich, and her father walked between them. In more ways than one, Diedrich could feel the distance between him and the woman he loved lengthening by the minute.

  When they reached the house, Diedrich didn’t stop to wash up but rushed to the downstairs bedroom he and Father had shared when they first arrived at the Seitz home. Father lay on the bed with the quilt pulled up to his chest. The clean white cloth encircling his head bore a crimson stain at the forehead above his left eye. Was it just the light, or had Father’s salt-and-pepper hair turned even grayer in the week and a half since Diedrich last saw him? His eyes were closed, and his face chalk white. Frau Seitz sat at his bedside. Her expression anxious, she patted his hand while continually calling his name. If not for the tiny rise and fall of Father’s chest, Diedrich might have thought his spirit had already left his body.

  Diedrich rushed to his father’s side and took his hand. A parade of memories flashed through his mind—his father’s smiling face as he swung Diedrich up on a horse for the first time; his tender expression, compassionate voice, and gentle touch as he picked Diedrich up and brushed him off when he fell. The rancor in Diedrich’s heart from his recent dispute with his parent faded. Father had always taken care of him. He would now take care of his father.

  With tears blurring his vision, he knelt by the bed and rubbed his father’s weathered hand. “Can you hear me, Papa?”

  Father moaned and rolled his head on the pillow, igniting a flicker of hope in Diedrich’s chest. But no amount of prompting evoked a more coherent response. For what seemed like days but was probably less than an hour, Diedrich stayed at his father’s side alternately praying and trying to rouse him. Little conversation occurred. Regina and her parents and Sam Tanner hovered nearby, quietly praying. At last, Eli appeared with a middle-aged man in dress clothes carrying a black leather satchel.