by Jan Drexler
Samuel pushed a blackened board in the cellar with his foot. “We could fill in this cellar with the debris from the house and dirt from digging the new one.”
“We should let the rest of the house burn down to ashes, then,” Conrad said, pushing on a beam. “Some of this is still pretty solid, but not good enough to reuse it.”
More buggies pulled in, and soon the yard was filled with as much activity as it had been the day before. Several of the men got together with ropes and maneuvered the larger pieces of the house into a pile and set it on fire. Smoke billowed into the air once more as others gathered loose boards and pieces to throw on the burning pile, but Samuel saved the rocking chair.
He was carrying the chair to Sadie’s barn when he met Mary and the girls on their way to the farm. Each had a covered pan in their hands.
“That smells like breakfast,” Samuel said.
“We thought you would all be getting hungry about now,” Judith said.
“And we had plenty of eggs to use.” Ida Mae grinned at Mary, who was bringing up the rear. “So we made scrambled eggs and sausage.”
“What did you find?” Esther asked. “Is that Mamm’s chair?”
Samuel nodded. “I think I might be able to fix it.”
Tears stood in Esther’s eyes, and Samuel suddenly realized that he hadn’t been the only one to lose everything. He might be glad some of the reminders of Daed were gone, but Esther and Judith had so few memories to hold on to.
“When I do repair it, it will be yours.”
Esther’s face brightened. “That would be wonderful. Denki, Samuel.”
They went on their way, but Mary stopped him before she passed by. “That is very thoughtful. Esther will cherish that chair.”
The glow from Mary’s praise lasted until he rejoined the workers at the farm. Several of the men had brought tools, including picks and shovels, and had started in digging the new cellar.
“Samuel,” Preacher Jonas called. “Come help me mark out the walls.”
When Samuel reached the work site, Martin was there.
“You finally showed up to help?” Martin’s face was twisted in a sneer.
Samuel glanced at Jonas and chose to ignore Martin. The preacher had already put one stake into the ground, but waited for Samuel to place the other corners. Once the stakes were in, they threaded a string around them, forming a square.
Martin’s sour stare made Samuel doubt what he was doing. Should he make the house so big? He paced off the area he had marked out. The cellar would be under the kitchen. It didn’t need to be large to store the vegetables and canned goods, but if it was bigger, Esther and Judith could do laundry down there in the winter months. He could see it in his imagination, clean and bright with whitewashed walls and windows to let light in. New shelves lining the walls, filled with jars of canned goods. The washtub set in the center of the room with clotheslines strung from the ceiling.
He glanced at Esther and Judith, serving plates of eggs and sausage to the hungry workers. How many times had they apologized to him because the laundry was still hanging in the kitchen at dinnertime on rainy days? And Mary... He looked at the size of the cellar he planned. He couldn’t ask her to work in a dark, cramped hole in the ground.
Samuel felt the corners of his mouth ease into a smile. The idea had crept up on him until he couldn’t think of anything else. This new house would be Mary’s. And his. This house would be for their family...if she would agree.
* * *
All through church, Mary struggled to keep her mind on the worship service. After dinner was the council meeting, and she had heard rumors that Martin Troyer was planning to bring something before the church. But he couldn’t request for a wedding to be announced without her permission, could he?
She shivered, even though the day was warm. No one could force her to marry against her will, she reminded herself. No one.
Finally, the sermons were over and Bishop started the low tones of the final hymn. Mary closed her eyes as she sang, knowing the words by heart. They spoke to her anxious thoughts. God was her salvation, her protection, the rock of her faith. He never changes, never wavers. When the hymn ended, she was at peace.
After a hurried dinner, the members of the church met again in the house. The usual business of the council meeting was finished, including Peter Troyer’s repentance for the rumors he had spread, and folks were shifting restlessly on their benches when Martin stood up to speak. He glanced in Mary’s direction, but she averted her eyes, dreading what he might say.
“I have approached Preacher Jonas about this, and the bishop, but neither of them seem to think what I have to say merits any discussion by the members of the church.”
Preacher William stood. The old man swayed a bit, and his voice was raspy, but the congregation respected his age and wisdom. “If Bishop and Preacher Jonas have heard what you have to say, then why do you bring it up in the council meeting?”
Martin shifted from one foot to the other, but pressed on. “I want the church to place Samuel Lapp under the bann.”
At first, Mary sighed with relief. He wasn’t going to bring up any pending marriage. But then his words sunk in. Place Samuel under the bann?
“The bann is a very serious matter,” Preacher William said, raising his hand to call for silence. “What do you accuse Samuel of doing?”
“Samuel Lapp, like his father before him, has repeatedly taken advantage of the goodwill of this congregation. I think he set the fire that destroyed his house and barn last Friday morning to have us build a new one for him.”
Bishop Kaufman stood and raised his hands, quieting the murmuring that had broken out at Martin’s words.
“This is not the time to discuss this, Martin.”
“Then when is the time?” Martin’s face reddened as he faced the bishop. “I’ve tried to bring this up the right way, by going to Preacher Jonas and you, but you won’t do anything about it.” He took a step toward the bishop and pointed an accusatory finger at Samuel. “This man is taking advantage of the congregation just as his father did before him, and you won’t do anything about it.”
Bishop laced his fingers together and bent his head. “Sit down, Martin.”
Martin looked around the congregation. “Who agrees with me? Shouldn’t we look into this travesty? Will we endure more years of bowing to the whims of the Lapp family, bailing them out of trouble wherever their foolish choices lead them?”
Esther, sitting next to Mary, buried her face in her hands. Sadie put her arm around Judith and held her close.
Bishop, his voice as mild as ever, repeated his request. “Martin, sit down and we will discuss this matter.” He turned toward Samuel. “You may stay and face your accuser, or you may leave. It’s up to you, but I recommend that you stay.”
Samuel sat with his head bowed. “I’ll stay.”
“Before we open our discussion,” said Bishop, his head still bowed, “I ask that we enter into a time of silent prayer.”
Mary closed her eyes, but couldn’t pray. Martin’s accusation couldn’t be true...but she remembered Samuel on the morning of the fire. His seeming joy in the face of tragedy. Could it be that he did set the fire on purpose? And just as quickly, her thoughts rebelled against the idea. She hadn’t known Samuel very long, but he had never given her any reason to doubt that he was completely truthful. He wouldn’t destroy his farm. He couldn’t.
After the prayer, Bishop Kaufman opened the discussion. Martin made his accusation again, and a couple men added their opinion to support him.
Then men started speaking in support of Samuel, including Preacher Jonas.
“I’ve gotten to know Samuel quite well over the years,” Jonas said, “and I’ve seen the changes he has made since he lost his father in the accident two years ago. I have never kn
own him to lie, or to twist the truth to his advantage. I think we can trust his version of the cause of the fire.”
Other men rose to speak of his willingness to work on their windmills over the past few weeks, volunteering his time to repair or service them before the summer heat came. Samuel fidgeted in his seat when Conrad Hopplestadt rose to tell how Samuel had helped him repair his pasture fence, and had even supplied the fence wire to do the job right.
Then Sadie rose from her seat and Bishop gave her a nod of acknowledgment.
“I know it isn’t the custom for women to speak in council meetings, but I’ve never been much for custom.” She smiled as the congregation laughed at this, then became serious once more. “I’ve known Samuel his entire life, and I knew his father before him. I’ve never known Samuel to be anything but caring and honest. He has done his best to fulfill his grandfather’s desire to care for me into my old age, and he has been a good neighbor and a good friend.” She nodded in Samuel’s direction, then addressed Bishop Kaufman again. “I don’t believe he could set fire to his farm on purpose. He respects his legacy too much to destroy it.”
She sat back down while the congregation’s voices murmured all around them.
Bishop held up his hand for quiet and turned to Martin. “Do you still want us to vote on whether to place Samuel under the bann?”
Martin looked at the faces of the congregation. The men who had supported him during the discussion averted their gazes, then he looked at Mary. She turned her face away, unable to look at him any longer.
“I withdraw my accusation.” His voice was quiet. Defeated.
Bishop raised his hands over the congregation once more. “Let us pray.”
As the bishop led the people in a prayer of repentance and reconciliation, Mary glanced at Samuel. His head was bowed, fingers steepled in front of his face, and tears flowed freely. How could she have ever doubted that she loved this man?
Chapter Seventeen
By the beginning of July, the new house was finished. After pouring the cement walls for the cellar, the framing had gone up in a single day. Samuel had chosen to make it a larger version of Sadie’s house, with two bedrooms upstairs and two on the main floor. The downstairs rooms had removable partitions to open the space for Sunday meeting when it was their turn to host. He and Bram spent most of their time during June plastering the walls and putting down floors. They had been joined by Matthew, when he could come.
Samuel had spent most evenings building furniture in Sadie’s barn after working on the house all day. The first thing he did was repair Mamm’s rocking chair, making new pieces to replace the charred arm and rocker, and staining the wood a dark brown. Esther was delighted when it was finished, and insisted on putting it in the bedroom she shared with Judith immediately.
“You don’t want to wait until we can put it in the new house?” Samuel had asked.
She had shaken her head. “I want it with me. When I sit in it, it’s like Mamm is with me.”
Samuel had built a table with two chairs and two long benches, and two more chairs for the living room. He had also built two bedsteads for Esther and Judith, and a large one for himself. He had smiled as he had measured the wood for the headboard. Large enough for two people, husband and wife.
One or two evenings a week, he took Mary for a buggy ride. Sadie had thought it was scandalous that they would take her closed buggy to court in, and arranged to borrow a proper courting buggy with an open top for them to use. Mary had agreed, so Samuel drove her down the back roads and up the main roads between Shipshewana and Topeka in the open courting buggy. They went all the way west to Goshen, and as far north as Pretty Prairie, near the Michigan state line. Every evening ride was filled with conversation and laughter as he got to know her better.
And as the month wore on, Mary lost that strained look in her face that had been with her since she had come to Indiana. She was happier than he had ever seen her.
When the house was done and the furniture in place, Samuel took Mary to see it for the first time.
“Why have you kept it a secret?” Mary slipped her hand into his as they ambled down the path through the fence row.
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“You let your sisters go over already, and even Ida Mae.”
He shrugged. “I wanted to hear their opinions about certain things.”
“But not mine?”
Samuel stopped in the yard where they had the best view of the new house. It stood on a bit of a rise in the afternoon sunlight next to the shady maple tree. The siding was white, and white shades hung in every window, each of them pulled halfway down to keep the house cool in the afternoon heat.
“It looks just right,” Mary said. “And look! You already have a garden planted where the old house was.”
“I thought that would be the best way to use that space. It’s already level, and the ashes in the soil will make everything grow well.”
She hugged his arm. “New life out of ruin,” she said. “How appropriate.”
“Do you want to go inside?”
Mary let go of him and ran to the back steps and into the back porch.
“This is a wonderful washing porch.”
“For summer.”
“Esther and Judith will be able to use it in the winter, too, if you cover the screens with boards to keep the weather out.”
He grinned. He couldn’t wait for her to see the cellar.
Mary led the way into the kitchen, running her hand along the new shelf with the modern cabinets above it. “You built the cabinets yourself?”
“What did you think I’ve been doing all month?”
She opened the oven door and lifted the stove lids. “Where did you find such a beautiful stove?”
“At an auction. It was a bit rusty, but nothing that couldn’t be polished off.”
She continued through the kitchen to the bedroom off it, in the same spot as Sadie’s room was in her house. When she saw the big bed he had placed there, her face grew red and she drew back into the hall.
Samuel laughed. “What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t know you needed such a big bed. I thought you would have built a smaller one for yourself.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her close. Looking around them as they stood at the bottom of the stairs, with the kitchen to one side and the bedroom behind them, he grinned. This was how he imagined his home would be. He only needed one more thing...
“I don’t plan on living here alone.”
“For sure you won’t. Esther and Judith will be here with you.”
“They won’t live here forever. They’ll get married and have their own homes before long.”
“So who do you plan to share this house with?” She smiled, looking into his eyes.
“I think I know someone who would enjoy making this house into a home.”
She lowered her gaze, suddenly shy.
“We’ve talked about it quite a bit, and you know we agree on so many things when it comes to having a family and running a household and farm.”
Mary nodded.
“And I’ve seen the longing in your eyes.”
She looked up. “Are you sure? After what happened...” She bit her lip and turned her head away.
Samuel put his hands on her shoulders. “What happened was in the past. Gone. Dead. Forgiven.”
He swallowed. Forgiving the man who had attacked Mary was the hardest thing he had ever done. He smiled as she stepped closer, into his arms where she belonged.
“Mary,” he whispered into her ear. “I love you so much. Will you be my wife? Will you help me make this house into our home? Will you trust me with our future?”
With her face buried in his chest, he felt her head nod, then she looked up
at him.
“With all my heart.”
Epilogue
“Isn’t a fall wedding the best?” Judith tied Mary’s white apron around her new blue dress. “I hope I can get married in the fall.”
Esther tied her freshly cleaned shoe. “If you can find anyone who will marry you.” She grinned at her sister.
Mary glanced at Ida Mae, fastening her own apron on the other side of the room. The four girls had decided to help each other get dressed for Mary and Samuel’s wedding day in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the new house, but Mary had seen expressions flit across Ida Mae’s face that made her think she would rather be alone. Her wedding had to make her sister relive the anticipation of her own planned wedding last year.
“Your dress is a beautiful shade of green, Ida Mae,” she said. She was rewarded with a smile.
“Denki. And it goes well with your blue.”
Esther patted her kapp to make sure it was in place. “Did you know that Thomas Weaver’s favorite color is green?”
Ida Mae blushed bright pink. “I didn’t know that.”
Mary grinned as a smile turned up the corners of Ida Mae’s mouth.
“Who are you going to visit first on your wedding trip?” Judith asked.
Mary ticked the planned visits off on her fingers. “First we’ll stay with Bram and Ellie, and then Annie and Matthew.” She looked at her audience. “We want to get those visits done before the new babies arrive.” The girls grinned at each other. New nieces or nephews were such fun.
“And then you’re going to Ohio, aren’t you?” Ida Mae asked.
Mary nodded. Mamm, Daed and the rest of the family had arrived yesterday, and the reunion had been wonderful. But she was looking forward to traveling back to Ohio again. She couldn’t imagine spending the first few weeks of her marriage among strangers, the way the Englischers did on their honeymoons. Visiting each other’s family was the best way to form the family bonds that would last a lifetime. Her trip with Samuel would last for two months.