The outside door opened and his mother came in. “I wanted to see this project before you hauled it away. It’s beautiful. You have done a fine job on it.”
“Danki.” He looked over her shoulder. “Where is Willa?”
“I sent her to take a nap with the girls. She has been cooking and cleaning all morning. How are you getting along?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“How are you and Willa getting along?”
He thought that was what she meant. “Fine.”
“Fine as in you like her and she likes you, or fine as in it’s none of my business?”
“You aren’t very subtle.”
She waved one hand. “I’m old. I don’t have time to be subtle.”
He sighed. She was like a dog with a bone. “Willa isn’t a member of the Amish faith. I am. She still mourns her husband. Even if I were ready to consider remarrying, which I’m not, it wouldn’t be possible.”
“She is considering baptism. She wrote to the bishop and he has agreed to see her next week.”
John put down his hammer. “She is not considering marriage.”
“So she says. I wish she could see you for the goot man you are.”
“She sees me as a friend.”
“Many a marriage has started with friendship and grown into love.”
“Don’t hold your breath, Mother. You’re old. You might not be able to hold it long enough.”
“You make jokes, but I see your unhappiness.”
He wished she wasn’t so observant. “All things are as God wills. I leave it in His hands.”
* * *
Willa watched John leave with the sleigh when it was finished with mixed emotions. She wasn’t sure what news she wanted him to bring back. Was she to leave this place, or was she to stay? She kept busy during the day, but her eyes were frequently drawn to the window and the view of the lane. Near sundown she saw the truck turn in and went out to meet him. He waved to the truck driver as the man pulled away, and then he turned to her. A smile lit his tired face. Her heart grew light at the sight of it. How had she come to care so much for him in such a short time?
“Have you news for me?”
“I have plenty to share.”
The front door of the house opened and his mother stepped out. The twins came charging around her and attached themselves to his legs, forcing him to walk forward swinging each of them along as they giggled and shouted their welcome.
His mother wiped her hands on her apron. “You made good time. I have beef stew on the stove that is ready when you are.”
“Sounds wunderbar. I will be in as soon as I have finished my chores.”
She spoke to the children. “Kinder, leave the man alone and let him finish his work. Come inside and we will show him all the Christmas cards you have made after he has something to eat.”
Willa stayed outside after the others went in. Her smile quickly turned to a worried frown. “Did you see my grandfather?”
“I did. Come into the barn while I finish my chores.”
“Is my grandfather willing to take us in?” Willa asked.
“He has not changed his mind.” John looked down. “To my way of thinking, it is for the best. I can’t see the twins growing up in Ezekiel Lapp’s dour household.”
Willa sighed and followed him to the barn. “I thought he might change his mind after he learned that his sister is gone. Has anyone been there to ask about me?”
John stopped inside the door to face her. “Melvin said an Englisch fellow visited all of the farms in the neighborhood. Melvin knew I gave you a lift to your grandfather’s place.”
Her eyes widened with fear. “Then he will come here looking for you.”
“He won’t. Melvin didn’t care for the man’s attitude and decided not to tell him anything. He said the man was pushy and rude to Mrs. Taylor. Melvin was happy to hear you are safe with my family.”
“I remember Melvin as a kind man.”
“Is Chase your real name?”
“It was my married name. I went back to using Lapp after Glen died. Maybe that wasn’t very smart, but it’s a common enough name among the non-Amish, too. Did the Englisch man speak to my grandfather?”
“He tried, but your grandfather wouldn’t talk to him. According to Melvin, that was the reception the man got at most of the Amish farms he visited.”
“What did my grandfather say when you told him about Ada?”
“Sheriff Bradley and his wife had already been there to inform your grandfather of his sister’s death. Your grandfather did ask Miriam about you. When she said she had not seen or heard from you, he assumed you had gone back to your Englisch life. He didn’t tell her that he had sent you to Ada.”
“When you told him I hadn’t returned to my old life, was he happy about that? Did you tell him that I’m considering baptism?”
“I did. He said he no longer has a granddaughter, and he asked me to leave.”
She turned and leaned against Clover’s stall. So that way was closed to her forever.
John moved to stand behind her. “You know what this means?”
“It means I have no family.”
He laid his hands on her shoulders. “It means you may stay among us without fear of discovery. No one knows you are here.”
She turned around and wiped the tears from her cheeks with both hands. “I will always fear discovery. Glen’s parents won’t stop looking. The sheriff is a friend of yours. We will run into him somewhere someday. He’ll overhear the girls talking and realize they aren’t Amish children. It’s a short leap from that to wondering if I’m the missing woman with twins that he’s been looking for.”
“Have faith, Willa. God is with you and your children. He led you here for a reason.”
Willa wanted to believe John. She wanted to believe God brought her to these people to find sanctuary among them, but she couldn’t let go of her fears.
Her baby would be born in a few weeks. She had nowhere else to go. She needed somewhere to live and someone to protect her children. “Is the invitation to stay with you and your mother still open?”
“You know it is. You have a home with us for as long as you want it.”
“I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry.”
“My mother will be over the moon.”
“And you?”
He placed one finger under her chin and raised her face to look at him. His lopsided grin tugged at her heartstrings. “I’m getting used to having you and the children underfoot.”
She looked away from the affection shining in his eyes. “I need to make an appointment with the local midwife, and I need to find a job.”
She would need money if she had to run again, but she had no idea where she would go.
If the midwife couldn’t shelter her, then John and Vera would have to know her secret. She prayed that would never happen.
* * *
Vera was delighted with the news. The following morning found her busy taking inventory of her baking supplies for the upcoming cookie exchange. “I must make plans for Christmas. It will be wunderbar to have kinder in the house on Christmas morning. There is so much to do. I’m sorry your grandfather has rejected you, Willa. I may write him a letter and tell him what I think of his coldheartedness, but I will wait until after Christmas to do so.”
“I have forgiven him. He has suffered much in his life, and it has made him bitter.”
“You put me to shame for my un-Christian thoughts of the man, but I may write anyway. Would you mind cleaning my good dishes in the hutch?”
Willa hid a smile. “Not at all.”
Megan tugged on Willa’s dress. “Mamm, can we play outside?”
“Ja, but stay on the porch.”
>
Willa finished wiping off the good dishes displayed in Vera’s hutch and paused to listen. The girls had been playing outside on the porch after their nap, but the sounds of laughter and chatter had stopped. She glanced out the window. They were nowhere in sight, the pail and spoons she had given them to play with lay on the steps. Pulling a black shawl from a peg by the door, she wrapped it around her shoulders and stepped outside. She couldn’t see them.
“Megan, Lucy, where are you?” They didn’t answer.
She walked around the side of the building to check the garden. They weren’t there, either. A seed of worry sprouted in her chest. Where were they? She scanned the snowy landscape. All she saw was a yellow barn cat hunting along the garden fence.
She called again. The cat stopped and glanced her way before leaping over the fence and running off. Willa started to turn back to the house but noticed two sets of twin-size footprints in the undisturbed snow beside the fence. They led through a side gate in the garden.
Perhaps they had gone down to John’s workshop. She hoped that they weren’t annoying him. He had been surprisingly patient with their questions and pestering.
The snow between the house and the barn had been churned by numerous horses and boots during the past two days. Willa couldn’t distinguish the children’s footprints, but she suspected they were heading to the barn to look for the kittens. They liked to feed them milk when John did his chores. Gray clouds drifted across the face of the sun, blocking much of the warmth. She pulled her shawl tighter around her, wishing she had chosen her heavy coat instead.
John’s workshop was empty; however, the glow of coals in the forge proved he had been working there recently. Both buggy horses were still in their stalls, so he had to be nearby. She started to call out to him but paused when she caught the distant sound of childish laughter.
She moved through the dark barn toward the far door. It was open and she stepped through. The sun came out from behind the clouds. The dazzling brightness momentarily blinded her. She cupped a hand across her brows to block some of the light.
Her girls were both with John. He didn’t look annoyed in the least. He stood with her daughters on top of a low earthen dam at the head of a small pond in his pasture. Each of her daughters was seated in a shiny aluminum grain shovel. They squealed with delight as John pushed first one and then the other down the snow-packed incline and out onto the ice, where they whirled around a time or two before falling over.
“Again,” Megan shouted as she jumped to her feet.
Lucy tried to stand but slipped and sat abruptly, giggling all the while.
Laughing, John walked out onto the ice to set Lucy upright and onto her shovel. Then he pulled both girls back up to the top of the dam.
Willa leaned her shoulder against the doorjamb to watch them. The shovels were the same kind of makeshift sled her father had used when she was small. Spinning across the ice in one was among her fondest winter memories. When she was older, her father had given her a real sled. It might have gone farther and faster, but it never twirled her around until she was too dizzy to stay upright the way her father had done.
“There you are. You’ll catch your death out here in nothing but a shawl.” Vera draped a coat across Willa’s shoulders.
Willa snuggled into the warmth. “I just stepped out to check on the girls. I didn’t intend to be out here long.”
“Did you find them?”
“They are with John. They seem to be having a very good time.” She nodded toward the pond.
Vera stepped to the barn door and stood beside Willa. “Gott be praised. I was beginning to think I would never see that again.”
“A child on a scoop shovel?” Willa grinned as John folded his large bulk onto one shovel and let Megan and Lucy try to pull him across the ice. They didn’t make any progress until he helped by pushing with one hand.
“Nee.”
Willa heard the catch in Vera’s voice and glanced at her. “Then what?”
“My son happy and laughing the way he was before Katie died.” Vera pressed a hand to her trembling lips as tears glinted in her eyes. “I’m so glad you and your kinder came to us.”
Not knowing what to say, Willa slipped her arm around Vera’s shoulders and hugged her close. The two women stood watching the merrymakers for another few minutes, then Vera pulled away. “You should get back to the house before you freeze.”
“I will in a minute.” Willa didn’t want to go in. She wanted to watch her little girls being carefree and happy. They were probably too young to remember this day when they were her age, but maybe God would allow this happiness to stay with them and outweigh the sadness they had known.
Vera leveled a stern look at Willa. “If you aren’t back in the house in ten minutes, I’ll send you to bed without your supper.”
“I’ll come in, I promise.”
“See that you do.” Vera’s expression grew serious. “Don’t hurt my son. He’s grown fond of you and your girls.”
Willa looked at her in surprise. “Vera, I would never knowingly hurt either of you.”
“I reckon it’s the unknowing hurt that I’m most worried about.”
She walked away, leaving Willa to stare after her wondering what she had meant by her cryptic remark.
Chapter Twelve
It snowed heavily during the night, and the following morning arrived overcast and cold. Willa knew she had put off calling the midwife long enough. After breakfast she bundled up the twins and trudged with John to the end of the lane and down the highway to where a small red building sat back from the road in front of a stand of cedar trees. A solar panel extended out from the south side of the roof. Through the window in the side of the building she could see it was unoccupied. She opened the door and stepped inside.
The shack held a phone, a small stool and a ledge for writing materials along with an answering machine blinking with one message. She looked at John. “Shall I listen to it?”
“Sure. I use it for my business, as do my neighbors. Just don’t erase it if it isn’t for me.”
It was for him. Melvin Taylor had referred a man to John for an estimate on restoring a wooden bobsled. John wrote down the man’s number. “I’ll call him when you’re done.”
A local phone directory hung from a small chain at the side of the ledge, but Willa didn’t use it. She had the number for the midwife on the piece of paper Vera had given her. The woman answered on the second ring. Willa answered a few questions, made an appointment and hung up. Afterward, she and the girls threw snowballs at the cedar trees while John conducted his business. When he came out, they all started home together.
The girls ran ahead of them, stopping occasionally to throw a snowball at unsuspecting objects. Lucy threw one and a rabbit darted out from beneath a clump of grass at the base of the fence post. She squealed in delight. “Mama, see bunny run? Johnjohn, what’s bunny called?”
“The bunny es der haas.”
“I see der haas,” Megan said, looking to him for confirmation.
He took his hat off and plopped it on her head. “Ja, der schnickelfritz saw der haas.”
Willa laughed. “Schnickelfritz is the perfect description. A mischievous child is exactly what she is. They’re both mischievous children.”
His smile was warm as he looked down at her. “I think they must take after their mother in that way.”
“Perhaps a little,” she said as Megan ran down the road with his large hat wobbling on her head.
“Perhaps a lot. When do you see the midwife?”
“She can see me Saturday at noon.”
“I can drive you if you’d like.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she said quickly.
“I don’t mind. You shouldn’t go alone.”
She
hated to point out the obvious problem with his offer. “I appreciate that, but it wouldn’t be wise. I don’t want to start any talk about us.”
He looked taken aback, then blushed a deep shade of red. “I see your point. My mother will drive you.”
“I will drive myself. End of discussion.”
The girls came running back to them as Lucy tried to snatch John’s hat from Megan. “Help me, John,” Megan shouted.
“I want hat, Johnjohn.” Lucy pouted when she couldn’t catch her sister.
John stood up straight and raised his hands like claws. “The big bad beah wants his hut. Grrr.” He charged toward them, sending them shrieking as they dodged away from his swinging arms. Finally, the make-believe bear snatched them both up, whirled around once and toppled backward into a snowbank.
Willa chuckled as she picked up his hat from the roadway where Megan had dropped it. John had an amazing way of lifting her spirits and making her want to laugh aloud. He could make her grin without even trying. What was it about this man? She tried to put her finger on it, but she couldn’t. Happiness had been such a foreign emotion since Glen’s death that she almost didn’t recognize it.
Looking away from his infectious grin, her gaze traveled to Megan and Lucy. Not only could John make her smile, but her daughters appeared to be falling in love with him.
Willa bowed as she handed his hat to him. “Your hut, sir beah. Please don’t eat my schnickelfritz.”
“Oh, that sounds delicious. I will have schnickelfritz for lunch.” He snapped his teeth at first one twin and then the other.
The girls scrambled out of reach and ran toward the house, calling for Vera to save them. Willa extended her hand to help John to his feet. He got up without assistance and began to brush the snow from his clothes.
Willa folded her arms and watched him. “I want to thank you, John.”
Amish Christmas Twins Page 13