****
Late in the afternoon three days later, Diana was assisting, or holding the unromantic hammer, while Adler put up the ruffled, embroidered curtains in what would be Elizabeth’s new room. The bed was in place, nicely made up, and the doll Mary Ann wore her pink party dress in expectation of the little girl’s arrival. Adler had spent part of each day bringing things from his house to Lotte’s, hoping to make the transition easier for the newlyweds. Diana suspected the time they spent together was part, perhaps the major part, of the reason for his industry.
“I think she’ll like it.” Diana smoothed the crisp white cover and tucked a ribbon-trimmed pillow against the padded window seat. “It’s exactly the kind of room I’d want if I were a little girl.” She lifted one corner of the curtain to look down at the garden below. Katje hunched in the afternoon sun, her crouched posture and twitching tail suggesting she’d seen an interloper in her kingdom and would shortly terminate the visit.
Diana sensed Adler’s presence behind her before she felt his hand on her arm. “What did you want when you were a little girl? A pony or a magic carpet?”
She leaned back against him, absorbing the intimacy of the moment. “No, I wanted a pink dress with a million tucks and a ribbon sash and a parasol to match.”
“Did you get one?”
Diana shook her head, thinking of how impossible such a dress would have been in her parents’ circumstances. “No, it was out of the question. First of all, I wore Pam’s hand-me-downs. She’s two years older, and what she outgrew came to me. No one would have put Pam in a pink dress, not with her red hair. I had to wait until I made my own money to have that pink dress. As it happens, I’m still wearing her hand-me-downs. Pam loves to shop, but I don’t. When she’s tired of something, or decides it doesn’t look as well on her as it did in the store, I’m usually the beneficiary. It’s the way sisters are, I guess.”
“A woman who can’t cook and doesn’t like to shop. What’s the world coming to?”
“I’m not sure about the world, Adler, but I believe Pfeiffer’s newest married couple is about to see what’s been going on here while they’ve been away. I see your papa’s Packard just coming down the street.”
Adler leaned over her shoulder. “We may as well go down and welcome them home.” He dropped an impulsive kiss on her neck. “Are we ready to face the inquisition?”
“You think they already know…about us, I mean?”
“Looks like they have Elizabeth with them. That means they stopped at the farm before coming here. What odds would you give that someone, Trinka comes to mind, has heard gossip of some kind in the last few days?”
She turned and put her arms around him. “No reprieve, then? No escape?”
“No, Miss Woods, I fear we are up against it now. We may as well go down and declare our intentions. They’ll want all the details.”
A quick flash of some of the more intimate details made Diana blush. “Not all, I hope.”
Adler held her a moment longer. “Definitely not all.”
Chapter 20
Erlich and Lotte Behr were on the porch, led by an impatiently dancing Elizabeth and all but surrounded by bags and bundles, when Diana opened the door.
“Welcome, Herr Behr and Frau Behr! Welcome home.”
Lotte gathered Diana to her, laughing and pink. “So good to be back! Good to travel but better to come home. Erlich tried to drive every road and see every building so he could tell everybody how much better it is to stay in Pfeiffer. He’s right this time. Once in a while he is.”
“Is Unkler here? We went by the other house, but no one was home. Did he come here?” Elizabeth gave the room an apprehensive look. “I want to see Unkler. I need to tell him about the kidden.”
“He’s here, pet. He’s been hanging curtains in your room and went to wash up before he came to say hello. He was a bit untidy.”
“No, he was hot and more than a little grimy, to be truthful.” Adler came into the parlor, his hair still damp, but his sleeves were rolled down and his jacket was over his arm.
From the porch, Erlich entered, carrying a suitcase. He set it down with a thud on the polished oak floor. “Eh, you’re here. Good.” He nodded toward Lotte. “My wife,” he said, and Diana caught a note of pride in the word, “my wife thought it a good time to replace half the furnishings in the house. Such a mountain of bundles and boxes. A younger back might haul them in? Save the older one from heat stroke?”
“Sit down, Papa, and I’ll do the honors. Would the ladies like to take a look at Elizabeth’s room while I sort things out? I hope we got everything in the right place.”
“I want to see! I want to see!” Elizabeth dashed for the stairs. “Is Mary Ann here? I bet she’s missed me. Come on, Oma Lotte. Let’s look.”
Diana, hoping everything would be to Lotte’s liking, followed them up the stairs to the back corner room Elizabeth had chosen for her own. Adler had done his best to bring Elizabeth’s treasures from the old house into the new one without losing any of the hominess of the original.
“Look, Oma Lotte, Mary Ann is here. She’s wearing her party dress!” Elizabeth scooped up the doll and climbed into the rocking chair in the corner. “I have to tell her all about the farm, and Trinka, and the kidden, too.”
Lotte turned to Diana, her blue eyes bright and a deeper pink dusting her cheeks. “Elizabeth, you might like to tell Mary Ann everything you’ve been doing here in your own room where you and she can share secrets. Miss Diana and your Uncle Adler have some things to tell Papa and me, too, so you can have all the time you need to share stories with Mary Ann. I’ll call you when we’re ready to have a little cake on the back porch.”
Elizabeth glanced up from her doll. “Yes, Mary Ann and I want to know about the cake.”
“I was certain you would.” Lotte nodded, turned, and waited outside the bedroom door for Diana to join her. She closed the door and then, with her arms crossed over her matronly bosom, gave Diana a stern stare.
“Now what is this tittle-tattle I hear in Bindler’s? You and Adler have been kanoodling on the porch, giving poor Frau Gephardt sleepless nights? Come downstairs. You and Adler have explanations to make to Papa.”
Meekly, but with a silent chuckle, Diana followed the older woman down the stairs. Erlich and Adler were standing in the parlor, one on each side of the mantel, both grinning like schoolboys.
“It seems it is true, Lottchen. The boy has admitted everything. He asked, she said yes, and so there will be yet another wedding in the Behr family.”
“As I said some time ago, Erlich, the two of them would find something they both wanted together more than anything they wanted alone.” She was beaming. “It’s good, Diana, that you sensibly realized it before you were my age.” Surveying the wealth of baggage heaped on the floor, she made coaxing gestures to the two men. “Now, my daughter-in-law and I will go out to the kitchen and put that big cream cake on plates and get something cool to drink while you foolish boys take this mischle upstairs where it will not be under our feet.”
Adler grinned. “Not your daughter yet, Frau Behr. There are a few things to work out. Like where and when and how.”
She made a shooing gesture. “Details, details. Now go, take these things upstairs, while Diana and I decide how to manage those trifles.”
Laughing, Diana followed Lotte to the kitchen. With her usual efficiency, the older woman had plates out and the cake ready to cut by the time Diana found an apron and took forks from their box.
“Now, you tell me what is this nonsense I hear from my good neighbors? Some wild story of Adler making a horse’s hindquarters of himself on my porch for the whole town to see? And in the middle of the night?”
Turning away to shield her hot cheeks, Diana put forks on the plates. “Fred and Otto finished the typewriting instruction I was giving, and I went by Adler’s house to tell him they were done and could take on anything he required. I’d been fussing all day about what I’d do when
my job here was finished. I guess, it was just the right time. He…made it easier to stay here and marry him than to keep on like I have been. And…you know…I do love him. Have ever since, well, since I saw him playing tea party with Elizabeth. I couldn’t see how to make it work, but he insists we can.” She stopped aligning plates and silverware. “I guess I just came to believe he’s right.”
“And that silliness my good friend said she saw? On the porch?”
Diana laughed aloud. “I never knew Adler had such a streak of nonsense in him. He walked me home, and I said something about Frau Gephardt peeking out the window. He decided to give her something to look at. We got a little…carried away, I guess.”
“Adler! Such a cut-up he was as a boy. Full of pranks as a pond is full of tadpoles.”
Diana realized she’d heard that before, from Adler’s college friend Trey. She hadn’t given much weight to the idea then. Adler had been such a stern, aloof presence when she met him, she’d never thought he had another side. Somehow the idea of him playing pranks fit in rather well with the man who took part wholeheartedly in Elizabeth’s fantasy tea party and gave impromptu melodramas on the porch. The same man who firmly assured her ways could be found to meld their two worlds. She was lost in the thought for a moment before she realized Lotte was still talking to her.
“I suppose the wedding, well, we can’t have it at the church, such a pity, because Adler is definite about having it while his friends are here. There isn’t time to get all the requirements out of the way, and you have to be Catholic for the church. What do you think? A civil ceremony is legal, just not as…usual. But where will you have it? With room for everyone to come. The whole town will. Have you thought about that?”
“I haven’t thought of anything. I’ve just been living one minute to the next since Adler convinced me to say yes.”
“Hummph. Stars in your eyes, and not thinking, not making plans or being practical about anything. Time you were making some decisions, the two of you. I’ll make the dress, if you like. Maybe we will go down to Anna Gold’s shop tomorrow and look at what she can order. If she must order, you will need to decide now. It takes time.” Lotte put her cake knife to one side and regarded Diana with a professional eye. “You’ll want silk? With embroidery, perhaps? Yes, I think something sheer. Cooler this time of year. Pretty for a bride anytime.”
“I hadn’t thought…”
“I was thinking to take her to Schneider’s to look at rings,” Adler interjected as he and his father came through the low kitchen door.
“That too,” Lotte agreed. “Now, we will take the cake out to the back porch and talk of other things. Elizabeth will want to tell us the wonders of the kitten who will shortly be making life for poor Katje miserable. Erlich, you take the lemonade out, and Adler will bring the glasses. Carefully, both of you. Those are my good cake plates and glasses. Diana, you run upstairs and ask the little one to come down. Mind you, no more talk of weddings and such until later. Small ears hear and little tongues wag.”
“Lemonade?” Papa Behr looked aghast at the word.
“Lemonade,” Lotte answered in a no-nonsense tone. “Elizabeth should not feel as if she’s excluded. A beer before bed, later, if you like. For now, cake and lemonade and talk of kittens and gathering eggs and other things of interest to small people.”
Diana was glad to have the quiet family evening. Elizabeth’s chatter of all things “kidden” as well as her days spent on the farm with Trinka filled the hour before her bedtime. The others enjoyed the cool breeze playing across the grass and the heady promise of honeysuckle in the air while they visited. No more mention of the wedding came into the conversation, but Diana was certain both she and Adler thought of little else. She was safe here; she felt a security in the little town she’d never known before. Life with Adler held assurance of something she’d not had since she was a young girl—the pledge of a close and loving family, friends who would share news and gossip, a town of people who knew what went on in the homes around them. Even a peering busybody like Frau Gephardt had value. Diana knew if she’d needed someone in the middle of the night, the sharp-eyed widow across the street would have been first to sense an emergency.
At last, with Elizabeth bundled into her bed, Katje safely inside for the night, and Papa and Lotte tidying up the kitchen and turning off lights, Adler said goodnight and started for the door.
“I’ll see him out and lock the front door,” Diana told Lotte.
“No kanoodling on the porch and shocking our good neighbors,” Lotte cautioned, but there was a twinkle in her eye.
“Not a single kanoodle,” Adler answered.
Diana went with him through the house, waited while he collected his hat and his hammer, then took his hand as they reached the door.
“What will we do about this getting married? Lotte is already making her own arrangements. If we want to have any say in the matter, we’d better make our thoughts heard.” She took a step back so his kiss didn’t stop her words. “Lotte says we can’t be married in your church because I’m not Catholic. But if not there, where? A civil ceremony is fine with me, if you and your family agree, but the location? She says there will be a lot of people; it sounds like everyone in town will want to come. And will we need to plan on a huge feast like they did for Lotte and your papa? Lotte said we have to decide things and make plans right away. Trey and the owls won’t be here long; we need to have things ready when they get here. I still don’t know what to do about Pam.”
“You and Lotte are worrying too much.” He drew her close again. “Civil ceremony. See if Bindler will let us do it in his place. We can have everyone who wants to come. Bindler feeds a hungry horde almost every day anyway.” He kissed her. “Now, wasn’t that easy?”
She leaned against him. “It was. I should have known you’d already thought of the problems and solved everything.” She reconsidered. “Almost everything. What about Pam? What will she do?”
“You and your sister will figure out what she’s doing, I’m sure. From the brief time I spent with her, I suspect that young lady will have ideas of her own. She doesn’t seem to spend a lot of time fretting over things.”
“No, Pam leaps first, looks later, and figures out where she’s going while she’s on the way.”
“I thought so.” Words stopped for a long private moment, then Adler drew back, put on his hat, and stepped out on the front porch. “I did mention we needed to make a trip over to the jewelry store, didn’t I? Tomorrow morning? Is that a good time?”
“If I can escape Lotte’s dressmaking plans, yes.” She froze in place for a moment, a bit dazed at what he was telling her. “Jewelry store? Wedding ring?”
“That’s the usual thing, isn’t it? I didn’t think you’d want me to pick something without you there.”
She shook her head. “No, of course not. I never thought, not for myself anyway, of choosing a wedding ring. Really, I hadn’t, I mean I don’t even know what I like.” She held up her left hand and stared at her small, slim fingers.
“You’ll know when you see it.” He gave her another quick kiss. “That will have to do for tonight, but if we didn’t have half the town watching…”
“But we do; you’ll go on home like a good boy, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
Though the next day had been planned for looking at wedding rings and thinking of the dress Lotte would make, none of that came to pass. Early in the morning, barely past sunup, Diana looked out her window to see a long, red touring car rolling slowly up the street, its passengers a disorderly group of older men, a younger one driving, and one red-haired young woman standing up, leaning over the seat, trying to see each house along the way.
Diana caught sight of them before they located the house, and she ran down the stairs, all but tripping herself, to get to the front door. She opened it and dashed onto the porch, waving at the car, then racing down the steps when it failed to stop.
“Pam! Pamina Woods! Trey! H
ere!” She called out as the car was about to pass the house. Seeing her at last, Pam grabbed Trey’s arm and made frantic signals to stop. Diana barely jumped back from the street in time to avoid being hit as the ReVere rocked to a halt.
“We found you! Look, just look, you’re still in your pajamas.” Pam tumbled out of the car, not waiting for Trey to open the door. Diana threw her arms around her sister and immediately found herself surrounded by her beloved owls as well.
“How did you get here? You didn’t let me know you were coming. I’ve been so worried.” Diana spun from face to face, questions bubbling out as she tried to cover the weeks of separation in the first minutes.
“I could find the bank, of course. Someone told me where you were living. Now here we are.” Trey slammed the door on the driver’s side and immediately curtains across the street twitched. “Maybe we should take ourselves out of the street before we start answering and asking questions,” he suggested, catching sight of the interest their arrival had aroused.
“Of course, come in. Have you had breakfast?” Diana led them into the house, glad to see Lotte, dressed and waiting in the parlor, was better prepared for company than she was. “My sister and our guests are here, Lotte.”
“I see they are. Trey, when you were here the last time, you were thinner and didn’t need the eyeglasses. Now you are a distinguished professor, but I think there is still a bit of the boy I knew there.”
“This is my sister Pamina.”
“We have heard much about the sister with the red hair. Glad you made the trip safely.”
Amid the general introductions, Diana realized she did indeed still have her pajamas and kimono on. “Come up to my room, Pam, while I put on something a little more suitable. I know you have a lot to tell me, but then I have some things to tell you, too.”
Pam followed her up the stairs and into her sun-filled room. “We left in the middle of the night—well, no, about four in the morning. We thought the torpedoes might have been on our trail, and so we headed for the hills, literally. Stopped somewhere in the wilds to eat, someplace where they think steak is for breakfast. Then we got turned around when we left and spent an hour trying to find the right road. Nobody spoke English, not a single one of the people we ran into, few as they were. We didn’t know where we were until Trey found a man about ten miles back who could tell us what road to take. And…we just came on, not knowing how to reach you. If it hadn’t been for that fellow with the mop at the bank, we’d still be driving up and down streets. Trey couldn’t remember anything from being here before.”
Diana and the Three Behrs Page 25