by Sarah Price
Samuel seemed impressed with her statement. “A good thought, that!”
Henry slapped his hand on the edge of the table in agreement. “I shall talk to him the very next time I see him! Brilliant, Emma! Always thinking, you are!”
With a slight shake of his head, Francis inquired further about what she had said. “And who is this Gideon?”
It was Henry who answered. “Gideon King. My daughter Irene’s brother-in-law. He builds storage buildings for the Englische. A good sort of fellow.”
“And a rather established young man,” Samuel added.
“Well, not so young . . . ” Emma blurted out then blushed when her daed scowled at her. Once again Emma had spoken before she thought. Silently she reprimanded herself, knowing that her daed would certainly correct her later.
“While at your age, we must all seem ancient,” Samuel said lightly, not having taken offense to her comment, “at our age, Emma, everyone seems young!”
Samuel’s comment caused a brief stir of laughter, and even Emma had to smile. So it was decided that an introduction would be made between Francis and Gideon, although Emma immediately noticed a change in the exuberance that Francis had displayed earlier. While the men continued their discussion, once again focusing on Francis’s family in Ohio, Emma watched the young man, noticing that he had the ability to make himself amiable in all conversation that was agreeable to himself. However, when a topic arose that seemed to displease him, a dark shadow of a wall seemed to cloud his eyes.
The clock had barely chimed three times when Samuel rose to leave. “I best get going,” he said. “Regrettably I’ve other errands to run.”
Francis stood as well. “I’d be happy to accompany you, Daed.” Then, with a slight pause, his eyes drifted to the window as if he had just thought of something. “Although I know that I should stop by to visit with the Blanks. Hetty was always so close to Maem when they were younger and most supportive after she passed.”
“That she was,” Samuel agreed.
All of this was news to Emma. She did not recall any such memories for, shortly after Francis’s maem had died, her own mother passed away. While the Waglers were known among the Weavers’ g’may, they worshipped in a different district, and Francis had gone to a different school. Henry and Samuel had been able to commiserate their loss together, but they had decidedly kept their kinner apart. It wasn’t until Samuel had moved just that year into their g’may that Emma had become acquainted with him.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Francis sighed. “I’d hate for her to feel slighted if I didn’t visit with her right away.”
Placing his large hand upon his son’s shoulder, Samuel beamed at the goodness that exuded from Francis with that one statement. “I’d be happy to drop you off,” he offered. “It’s not out of the way and I can pick you up on my return.”
Trying to lighten the mood, Emma shifted the conversation back to one that was more enjoyable for parting guests, for she’d hate to have the Waglers leave on such a solemn note. “Such a shame you weren’t there just an hour or so ago! You’d have delighted the group of women that were there. You were, after all, one of the main subjects of discussion,” she said. “Although Jane said very little. She’s not very talkative, I noticed.” This last bit was added on purpose, and she paid extra attention to his reaction which, as expected, was devoid of any emotion.
He nodded his head. “I’m sure such a subject was weary on her nerves,” he said.
Despite the flatness of his words, there was something about his tone that caused Emma to think twice. He was rigid and forced, the casual nature from their previous conversations suddenly vanished. “I’m sure you became familiar, having learned much about each other during that long ride from Ohio,” she ventured to add, carefully monitoring his reaction. “Or had you previously known each other?”
“What?” He seemed startled by Emma’s question. “Oh, not really. She lived in another g’may.”
“I’m sure you found her most agreeable,” Henry added as he stood to see his guests to the door. “From all that Hetty tells us about her, she is the most godly of young women!” “So it seemed, indeed,” Francis said with a smile.
Emma stood at the kitchen counter, her eyes on the three men as they walked out to the driveway together. Slowly she unpacked the box of food that she had bought earlier that day but abandoned when she arrived home. She was curious about this new young man who had returned home at long last. While his natural mannerism was magnetic, to say the least, there was something else about him that remained to be discovered: a mysteriousness that caught Emma’s curiosity.
With a new sense of purpose Emma decided that Francis Wagler was going to be a most welcomed and interesting addition to the community, even if Hetty’s niece, Jane, most certainly was not!
Chapter Twelve
BY THE TIME the following Saturday rolled around, Emma felt as though she was ready to collapse from exhaustion, and justifiably so.
Earlier in the week John King had stopped by their house to inform Henry and Emma that Irene had fallen ill. While Henry immediately began fretting, worried that she must have eaten something that was spoiled or not organic, Emma was quick to volunteer to go to her schwester’s aid. For the beginning part of the week, she stayed at the King’s house so that she could tend to the kinner while Irene recovered. Taking care of Irene, five very active kinner, and a house full of people was something that Emma was not used to doing. Still, she did it without one complaint and was pleased to see that Irene was quick to mend.
By the time Emma returned home on Wednesday afternoon, she was looking forward to going to bed early that night and having a peaceful morning. She needed the sleep, and there was quite a lot of work to catch up on at her haus, that was for sure and certain: laundry needed to be washed, floors needed to be scrubbed, food needed to be stored for the winter, and meals needed to be prepared. However, within one hour of her return, her daed walked through the door from his afternoon stroll with news that changed her plans.
He was quick to welcome her back, commenting that the three days she had been gone felt like three weeks.
“And Irene? She is better now?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Of course! I wouldn’t have left otherwise!”
“She is using Englische food!” He said it as if that was the worst thing a person could do. “I’ve told her time and time again to eat only homemade food or food grown by our people. But I heard she was at that Sharp Shopper!”
At this, Emma frowned. “I highly doubt that, Daed. It’s too far from their farm.”
“I know what I heard,” he said. “Poisoning those kinner, I tell you.”
She laughed at the stern look on his face. “I can assure you that she is not poisoning the kinner and she was not shopping at Sharp Shopper!” Then, with a teasing gleam in her eyes, she added, “Mayhaps Giant Foods but definitely not Sharp Shopper.”
And then he told her the news: during Emma’s absence, Jenny Glick stopped by to inquire if Emma might go to market on her behalf that Thursday and Friday. Hiding her displeasure when she learned that her daed had committed her to standing in for Jenny, Emma reluctantly went to bed even earlier than she had planned. After all, Jenny’s market
was in Maryland and required that she arise at four o’clock in the morning in order to catch the commuter van.
To her further dismay, when Saturday final arrived, respite was not in order for Emma, as the ever diligent Henry Weaver had arranged a working bee at their house. Wielding his previously prepared list of “Must-dos” to prepare for the winter, he had convinced the Waglers, Blanks, and Gideon to come help check those tasks off of his list.
“I do wish you had waited another week,” she lamented to her daed as she finished washing the breakfast dishes. She knew that she had dark circles under her eyes and her bones felt weary. The tranquility of tending her own home and spending quiet days quilting were much more appealing to her than the constant labor of mothering five children, tending a sick sibling, and then rising so early to travel so far to wait on Englische tourists, all for a meager eighty dollars a day at that!
“What is it that the Scripture says? ‘Do all things without murmurings and disputings.’”
Emma scowled at him. “I am well aware of what Paul says in Philippians. And I am not disputing anything.” She lifted her chin and pressed her lips together, defending herself with a touch of defiance in her voice. “I was merely stating my personal opinion.”
Henry chuckled. “You do have a way of doing just that frequently, I dare say.”
In response she tossed a dishcloth at him, which he caught and broke into laughter. Despite her fatigue, she couldn’t resist joining him.
Gideon was the first to arrive, as always prompt, if not early, when scheduled to visit or help. He sat at the table while Emma prepared him a cup of coffee. If she noticed that he watched her with a curious expression on his face, she chose not to say anything. However, as the minutes passed, she became increasingly aware that his eyes repeatedly traveled to her person, and on more than one occasion, he deliberately drew her into the discussion. She was not vain about her looks, far from it. Nonetheless, Gideon’s frequent glimpses in her direction made her more self-conscious about her drawn face and the dark circles under her eyes. And she was not comfortable with that.
Thirty minutes later the Waglers arrived. As Francis entered the room, his clothes more suited for visiting than working, Emma noticed a new energy and light come into the group. He had apparently already made the acquaintance of Gideon, for they greeted each other without introduction. Emma soon learned that Samuel had taken Francis to Gideon’s place of work for an employment application, and as a result, Francis had started working there just a few days after that meeting.
With great curiosity Emma watched the interaction between the two men, noting that Gideon suddenly became more quiet and reserved as Francis took over the direction of the conversation, lighting up the room with joyful stories and jokes. When the rest of the group laughed, Gideon seemed to begrudgingly spare a forced smile and nothing more.
By the time Jane, Hetty, and her maem arrived, the men were already outside, working to plow over the garden from last spring in order to spread some cow manure over it. To Emma’s dismay, she also learned that her daed insisted upon expanding it, for he wanted to plant rows of corn and other vegetables for canning. Inwardly she groaned at the realization that it would be up to her, and her alone, to tend to that garden, which meant more work and less quilting.
Inside the house Anna and Emma cleaned out the pantry, doing an inventory of what food would need to be purchased in order to stock up for the cold winter months. While she had plenty of canned peaches, chow-chow, relish, and, thanks to the canning at the Blanks the previous week, an ample supply of applesauce, it was clear that she was low on other essentials: beets, meat, and tomatoes. Luckily Henry had purchased ground meat from a local Amish butcher so that the women could work on preparing meat and meatballs for canning. Already the stove in the workroom had a black enameled pressure canner heating up the water that was required to seal the canning jars.
“I’m so sorry we’re late,” Hetty gushed when they breezed in through the door. She hung her wrap on the hook by the door and helped her maem do the same. “We had an unexpected visitor that delayed us,” she continued, a delighted look on her face. “And you will never believe who it was and what we were told!”
Emma peeked around the corner of the pantry where she was reorganizing the shelves after having wiped them down before returning the inventory to their proper places. She noticed that Jane wore a freshly washed and pressed apron, not typical for a working bee.
When neither Anna nor Emma inquired as to this grand news that Hetty was clearly so eager to share, Hetty proceeded to share it anyway. “Sarah Esh stopped by,” she began, washing her hands at the sink so that she could begin helping with the meat canning process that Anna was already working on. “She came with the most amazing news!” Hurrying over to where Anna was working, Hetty immediately began to help, knowing exactly what needed to be done without either waiting for or requiring instructions.
With the freshly washed mason jars now lined up on the table and the box of ground meat on the floor, she scooped up raw meat, squishing it between her hands to make small meatballs which she pushed into the jars. “You know she stops by, or at least has been since Paul’s travels to Ohio.” Hetty looked up and seemed to ponder something. “Isn’t that something? Francis and Jane arrived from Ohio at the same time as Paul left! It’s almost as if we swapped our youth!” She seemed delighted with her rather judicious observation.
“The news, aendi,” Jane urged, but quietly, trying to refocus Hetty on what information she had started sharing before getting sidetracked.
“Ach ja, ja! The news!” Quickly Hetty dipped her hand into the salt box and sprinkled some into the jar of meat before wiping the lip with a ratty-looking cloth. “Why, she had only just received a phone call that very morning!” She quickly tightened a lid on the jar and handed it to Jane to put into the pressure cooker to seal it. “The bishop has a phone shanty next to his house for emergencies, you know.”
Everyone nodded, for this was a well-known fact, and it had been for quite some years. Emma fought the urge to roll her eyes and felt Anna nudge her with her elbow, a reminder to behave.
“So, she received this phone call from Paul! He is out in Ohio, remember?”
“How could we forget?” Emma said sweetly, hoping that she had masked her bored sarcasm.
Another giggle of delight. “It seems he is returning! And, can you believe it, with a brand new fraa!”
A silence fell over the room and Emma almost knocked over the clean jars that she was arranging for Hetty to fill with ground meat.
“They were married on Thursday! Lydia was quite upset that Paul did not wait for his family to return and partake of the services,” she added solemnly.
Even Anna expressed her surprise at this news. “I can only imagine! My word!”
“He’s only been in Ohio less than two weeks!” Emma exclaimed, unable to hold her tongue any longer.
“Sarah said that the woman, Alice Hertzler, is an old family friend. Apparently Paul and this woman had been writing to each other for months!” No one noticed Emma’s gasp of disbelief. “They’ll be returning this week.”
Emma was still reeling from the shock of Hetty’s announcement. Paul had been writing to this Alice woman all along? Being denied by Emma had caused
him to flee to Ohio and return with a bride? The turnabout stunned her.
“I’m sure Sarah and the bishop were disappointed, indeed,” Anna added. “No wedding here?”
Hetty shoved meat into the jar, her fingers pressing it down before reaching for the salt. “Apparently he said that it would have been a hardship on her family to travel here.” She pushed the jar toward Emma. “I think it’s a nice surprise.”
Anna shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Samuel would be just devastated if Francis pulled a surprise like that.”
Emma finally managed to respond. “I would expect something like this from Francis who seems to delight in surprising people,” she reminded Anna. “But Paul? It’s most out of character!”
Jane finally spoke up. “But practical, wouldn’t you agree? Rather than trouble his daed during wedding season with having to travel to Ohio, which would have severely limited the weddings in his own g’may, this Paul seems to have removed that burden and expense, sacrificing having his own family there for the benefit of the local couples about to wed during the upcoming season.”
Her words seemed odd to Emma. What did Jane know about the g’may and who was rumored to be courting whom? “Why, I only suspect two couples in our g’may of marrying this season,” she said out loud, thinking of Rachel and Elmer as well as another younger woman who was rather vocal about her large garden of celery, a clear and very public indication of an upcoming wedding in November.
“One never knows,” Jane said softly.
The one thing Emma did know was that she would have to alert Hannah to this news as soon as she could. While Emma was beside herself at Paul’s two-timing behavior, she could only imagine the emotional wounding that Hannah would feel to learn that not only had he never been interested in her, but also that Hetty’s words from the previous week at the applesauce canning had proven prophetic. If Hannah had been upset at the suggestion that this might happen, she would be devastated at the news that a wedding had actually occurred!