by Sarah Price
His brother Dan, the only one without a beard, nodded his head, a lopsided grin on his face, but said nothing.
“And Stevie and Ben collect firewood for the cottage and to sell to folk in town,” David added. “As for the rest of us, we fish when we can and sell that to town folk, too.”
Sadie wondered how they got their products to town. But she didn’t want to appear too inquisitive. If what they said was true, they could, indeed, live off the land. There wasn’t much they needed beside food and firewood.
“Now, tell us your story,” David said. “Why were you sleeping alone in the woods?”
Sadie sighed and moved over to the fireplace. She reached for the iron poker, pausing long enough to nudge some of the logs. Only when she had replaced the poker on the hearth did she respond.
“My stepmother wants me to marry a man that I . . .” She paused. How could she explain without sounding impertinent? “Well, I just don’t find favor in him.”
For a moment, seven pairs of eyes stared at her from seven faces that wore blank expressions. Sadie could only imagine how silly she sounded. Petty, juvenile, disobedient. She knew that she needed to explain the situation further so her rescuers could understand. Taking a deep breath, she continued with her story.
“She . . . she just wants me out of the haus. She wants my daed to herself. She thinks that I’m the reason that she can’t . . .” Sadie stopped herself mid-sentence. Even though she had heard about the Grimm brothers, she didn’t know these men. “Well, suffice it to say she is blaming me for something that isn’t right in her life. And she’s intent on my marrying John Rabor—”
At the mention of John Rabor’s name, the seven men cringed.
David held up his hand to stop her from continuing further. “Say no more. You are welcome to stay here as long as you need. You won’t be bothered here.”
“You know John Rabor, then?”
The smile faded from Hank’s face, and the other brothers looked just as serious.
However, it was David, the apparent spokesman for the others, who responded. “Ja, we know him. He hunts these woods and kills the animals.” He frowned. “Sometimes he leaves the carcasses behind, taking just what he needs, leaving the rest to rot on the ground.”
“The deer,” Ben said in a sad voice. “How can he kill the deer?”
Sadie understood just how he felt.
David shook his head. “But even worse, he was married to our half schwester’s dochder. He didn’t treat her kindly.”
“And he made fun of us at their wedding!” Gideon added.
Sadie gasped. John Rabor’s deceased wife had been their cousin, too!
“So you will find yourself safe here,” David said. “But only on one condition.”
Startled, Sadie blinked. A condition? “And what would that be?”
David leaned forward and, with a twinkle in his eye, he whispered, “If you tell us your name.”
Chapter Twenty-One
For the next few days, Sadie found herself in a state of unexpected bliss. Living in the Grimm brothers’ cottage, so deep in the woods, and surrounded by nature, was like a dream come true for her. Sadie felt she could finally be herself amidst nature and she relished in the songs of the wild birds, the scents of the many plants, and the peace and quiet of the forest.
Every morning when she awoke, the Grimm brothers were already gone from the house. She didn’t know where they went each day, but in the evenings, they returned with baskets full of things they had collected from the woods. Some nights there were wild mushrooms and herbs, and she would sauté them in lard for their supper. Other nights they would return with trout or catfish from the stream, which she would pan-fry in a cast-iron skillet and sprinkle with herbs. And yet other times they would return with their arms laden with kindling and firewood, which they would stack at the side of the cottage in anticipation of the long winter ahead.
She learned that, like her, they loved nature and refused to hunt any of the wild animals. It wasn’t that they were vegetarians, but, rather, that they had come to think of the deer and rabbits and even the pheasants as members of their household.
On her second morning there, it surprised Sadie to see that the deer would wander up to the house, grazing on whatever they could forage from the clearing by the side of the cottage. They showed no fear of her presence and would often approach her, coming within several feet of her before dipping their heads to eat the tender dandelion shoots.
Even the rabbits showed no fear. Sadie set out some old carrot tops and celery leaves that she saved after she made a vegetable stew and watched as the rabbits hopped right up to her to nibble at them from her outstretched hand.
For Sadie, being around so many wild animals that considered her a friend and not a foe was magical. She found herself often lost in time, watching them throughout the day.
The Grimm brothers usually left before she even woke and, more times than not, would arrive home just as the afternoon sun was setting. During their absence, when she wasn’t cleaning the house and doing their laundry, she would sit among the animals and spend time with them as they foraged for food. In the solitude of the cottage, Sadie found a new sense of inner peace. She sang her songs, often peering out the open door to see the birds eating the bread crumbs she would scatter on the ground. And in the evening, she looked forward to sharing a meal with the Grimm brothers.
The biggest problem she encountered was when she washed their bedding. The seven small beds in the loft had not been tended to in a long time, so with the first washing of their dirty, tattered quilts, she found that they practically disintegrated from being handled.
When she hung them to dry in the early October sun, she stood back and knew that most would not survive another washing.
“Oh help,” she muttered.
Fingering one of the quilts, an idea struck her. The Grimm brothers had been very caring and understanding of her situation. Suddenly she knew exactly what she could do to return the brothers’ kindness: she would make them each a new quilt.
The morning after she had made that decision, she searched the small house for fabric and found a closet full of old clothing. There would be more than enough material to make seven small quilts. Smiling to herself, she took the torn and worn-out shirts and pants outside to wash. By the afternoon, she was able to start cutting them into four-inch-by-four-inch squares. When the brothers came home from their day of foraging and hunting, Sadie had hidden her secret beneath her makeshift bed on the first floor.
The following Friday, in the early afternoon, she sat under the shade of a large tree and went about piecing together the first of the seven quilts. She had decided that she would make tie quilts, using large quilt blocks and sewing them together. Then she would use the old quilts as batting. With new backing, she’d be able to place simple tie-knots in the center of each block. While it wasn’t exactly what she would have liked to do, it was certainly an improvement over what they had previously had. And the quilts would keep them warm in the loft during the cold winter months.
While she sewed, she listened to the songs of the birds, often setting down her work to stare into the sky as the lilting tunes graced her ears. It was beautiful, truly, to listen to the many sweet sounds of nature.
Returning her attention to the quilts, Sadie began to hum a hymn in a soft voice. Within a few minutes, she noticed that several birds were perched on a nearby tree limb, their heads cocked to the side as if listening to her.
Sadie gave a soft laugh. “You probably haven’t heard anyone make music like you do,” she said out loud. And then, feeling silly for having talked to the birds, she bent her head down and focused on her work.
Her mind wandered to Frederick. She wondered what he was doing. Had he heard that she had run away? Was he worried? She wished there was a way to contact him, to let him know that she was okay.
Another thought struck her. What if he didn’t know?
A moment of panic washed o
ver her. What had her father and Rachel told people? Had they told the truth? Perhaps no one knew that she had run away? Family problems were not often shared with others in the community. They were considered private matters, and most Amish people liked to keep them that way. And because she was older and lived outside of the town proper, it wasn’t as if people would immediately miss her presence. She didn’t visit the stores in Echo Creek but once a week, if that. And her attendance at social gatherings was infrequent, or, rather, it had been irregular until she had met Frederick. No one would think anything of not having seen her, at least not right away.
That thought resonated with her, for if people didn’t know where she was, she wondered what Frederick would think had happened to her. Perhaps he would assume that she was avoiding him or, worse, was not interested in courting him. Would he take her absence to mean just that? Or would he go to her house to seek her out? And if he did, what would Rachel tell him?
Knowing what she now knew about her stepmother, Sadie suspected that Rachel would not confess the truth. She couldn’t imagine Rachel admitting that she had tried to force her stepdaughter to marry John Rabor against her will. Instead, Rachel would most likely make up a story to send Frederick away with a heavy heart.
“What ho!” David called out as he approached the cottage.
Sadie stuffed the quilt top into the basket by her feet, hiding it from view, and jumped up, then raced ahead into the cottage to check on the fire she had started earlier. She wanted to make sure the house was pleasantly warm when the rest of the brothers arrived home. After she stoked the fire and threw on another log, she looked out the window and saw the line of brothers walking down the trail toward the house. The image made her smile. She almost felt as if they were her own brothers returning home after a long day of work.
“Do I smell fresh bread?” Ben asked shyly.
Stevie sniffed at the air as he stepped through the front door. “I can’t smell anything,” he said in a muffled voice before he sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
“Take your allergy medicine!” Gideon snapped.
Sadie reached onto the kitchen shelf for the bottle of allergy medicine. “It’s almost empty,” she said as she handed it to Stevie. “You’ll need to get more.”
He took it, shook it, and sneezed.
“Bah!” Gideon gave his brother a look of disdain. “Might as well buy a carton of it! The worst of the autumn allergy season hasn’t even hit yet and already he’s sneezing up a storm! We should call you Sneezy instead of Stevie,” Gideon joked as he sat down and pulled off his work boots.
Sadie watched as Stevie drank the rest of the medicine. “There must be some other treatment, ja?” She tried to think of some natural remedy that she could make for him. “Perhaps some wild honey would help. I’ve often heard that from some of the older women down in Echo Creek.”
Hank snapped his fingers, a broad smile breaking out on his face. “That’s a right gut idea, Sadie. I know just the place to get some honey.”
But David, ever the wise one of the brothers, shook his head. “Too late in the season, I’m afraid. Those bees are all hunkering down for winter.”
Sadie felt sorry for Stevie. His constant sneezing and sniffling was a source of many arguments among the brothers. Without his medicine, she imagined it would only get worse.
“Let me make you some hot tea, then. At least the steam and warmth might help,” she offered and hurried to put on a kettle of water.
That evening, the brothers sat around the table, eager to sample Sadie’s vegetable soup and fresh bread. She had made two loaves, and by the time the evening meal was over, the only thing left of it was the lingering scent of yeast in the large downstairs room.
“You’ll make more bread tomorrow, ja?” Ben asked in a soft, shy voice.
His request startled her. Ben always avoided making eye contact with her and, whenever she did speak to him, he blushed and smiled shyly to himself. She had never met anyone as bashful as Ben and made a mental note to be extra kind to him. Perhaps if she treated him a little more specially than the others, she could bring him out of his shell. His soft eyes mirrored his kind heart, but the shroud of silence that engulfed him hid both, it seemed.
“I’d be happy to make more bread tomorrow,” she told him with a smile, happy to be so appreciated. “And cookies.”
“Cookies?” Hank lit up at the suggestion. “Why, I can’t remember the last time we had homemade cookies.” He rubbed his hands together and grinned. “What kind will you make?”
Sadie pursed her lips. From her exploration of the kitchen in preparing the meal, she knew that the pantry held limited ingredients. Clearly the Grimm brothers lived mostly off of the gifts from the forest. But she had seen basic supplies such as oats and cinnamon. And, of course, she knew they had flour, sugar, and baking powder from having made bread earlier.
“If you have molasses, I could make oatmeal cookies,” she suggested.
“Oh joyous day! I can hardly wait for tomorrow!”
David pushed his plate away and leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his stomach as his eyes scanned the room. “I must say,” he began, “I can’t remember ever seeing the cottage so clean.”
“It stinks,” Gideon mumbled.
David ignored him.
“I like having a clean haus,” Ben said, his voice soft and high.
“Me, too,” Hank added, laughing. “Why, the floor’s almost a completely different color!”
Clearing his throat, David stood up. His eyes swept across the eager faces of his brothers—all but Gideon, who still scowled, his nose wrinkled as if bothered by the scent of the soap. Then, with a stoic expression on his face, David faced Sadie as if he had an important announcement to make. “We’ve been talking, Sadie, my bruders and I.” The other brothers, except for Gideon, all nodded in unison. “We’ve decided that you’re welcome to stay for as long as you’d like.”
While his announcement warmed her heart, it also tore apart her soul. How on earth was such a solution possible? As much as she loved the thought of accepting their offer, Sadie knew it wasn’t workable for the long run. How could she possibly stay in the middle of the forest, living with seven bachelors? When people found out, tongues would be wagging. Why, if the townspeople had stooped so low as to gossip about her and John Rabor, Sadie couldn’t begin to imagine what they would have to say about this living arrangement!
“David, that’s a very kind offer,” she began slowly, not wanting to hurt their feelings, for the invitation was not just generous, but also truly Christian in spirit. However, she had to tell them the truth. “But I fear my reputation would be in tatters if I were to stay much longer.”
Gideon surprised her by making a noise of disapproval and scowling. “Oh, stuff and bother!” He waved his hand as if swatting away her words. “Those gossipmongers. Who gives a care about what they think?”
David seemed to agree with him. “Sadie, we’re old buwes. No one would ever think that something inappropriate was going on here.”
Even Dan nodded his head emphatically.
But Sadie wasn’t so sure. She knew far too well how gossip started.
“Besides,” David continued, breaking her train of thought, “where else would you go?”
It was true. She knew that she couldn’t return to her father’s house, not with Rachel in her current state. Surely nothing good would come from Sadie’s returning home. Not now anyway. Rachel’s increasingly irrational and unpredictable behavior supported Sadie’s fears.
“Perhaps just for a few more days,” Sadie relented, knowing that her options were, indeed, limited.
While her acceptance of their offer appeased the Grimm brothers for the moment, it left Sadie in a quandary. How long could she stay hidden in the woods with them? Surely someone would come looking for her eventually. And then what? She’d have no choice but to return to her father’s farm. Surely Rachel would not greet her with open arms. Instead,
her anger would have increased because of Sadie’s disobedience. What would Rachel do to her?
The reality of the situation sank in. Her options were limited. Unless she chose to return to her father’s house, what else could she do but agree to stay with the Grimms? Despite the joyous way in which the Grimm brothers greeted her acceptance of their offer, her heart felt heavy. Not for the first time since she had fled from John Rabor, Sadie felt the weight of an invisible chain hanging from her neck. No amount of good cheer and Christian generosity from the seven brothers could remove that burden from her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What ho!” David called out late one afternoon during the second week of Sadie’s stay. He had been feeling poorly that morning so had decided not to join his brothers in the forest that day. At a sound coming from outside, he shuffled to the front door and peered down the lane. “Someone’s here to visit.”
From the table where she sat folding clean laundry, Sadie looked up and tilted her head, listening. She heard nothing unusual. Just the rustle of leaves and the song of the birds. Earlier that morning, she had sprinkled some bread crumbs near the big log where the brothers cut wood. All day, the birds had lingered in that area, pecking at the ground and gracing Sadie with their songs of gratitude.
“I think you are imagining things, David,” Sadie said.
He gave her a knowing smile. “Oh ja?”
Concerned, Sadie stood up and walked to the door. She knew that the Grimm brothers had lived among the woods for so long that she probably should not doubt them. As she stood beside him, she listened for anything unusual. As far as she could tell, there was no noise to indicate that anyone had approached the small house. But that didn’t lessen Sadie’s sudden wave of concern.
The Grimm brothers’ house was so deep in the forest that she had felt protected there. Now, however, she realized that she might have reason to be worried. Over the past week, there had been no news from Echo Creek, which had lulled her into a sense of security. She had taken the silence to mean that her sanctuary was safe. However, just because they hadn’t heard anything didn’t mean that her father wasn’t searching for her. She hadn’t given much thought to that possibility.