by Sarah Price
“Now, now, bruders!” Ever the pragmatic one, he positioned himself next to Sadie. He raised his hand to silence their grumblings. “We knew that this arrangement with Sadie was temporary. We offered her safe haven, but we always knew it would not be permanent.”
Stevie sniffled. “But I certainly hoped it might be.” His voice sounded congested. “Her tea makes my allergies feel better.”
“And my clothes smell so fresh after she washes them,” Samuel chimed in.
For the first time, even Hank did not appear happy. “And her cookies! Who will make us cookies?”
David gave his brothers a look of reproach. “Ach! You all sound like children, not grown men! Regardless, those are not reasons for Sadie to stay here in the forest with us. She is young and has her whole life ahead of her. We should be thankful for the time we’ve had with her.”
Frederick tapped his fingers against the table. “I agree with David. Sadie does have her life to live, and that life is not taking caring of you old buwes.”
“Personally I can’t wait until the house doesn’t smell so”—Gideon looked around the room—“clean!”
Sadie couldn’t help but laugh at the miserable scowl he wore. “Somehow I don’t believe that, Gideon.”
When the color rose to his cheeks, Sadie knew that she was correct: he hadn’t meant it.
“Jacob is thrilled to have his dochder coming home.” Frederick smiled. “We should be elated to learn that news, ja?”
Reluctantly, six heads nodded in unison. Only David abstained. “While I am pleased to learn of this, I do have one concern. What of Rachel? You said she looked none too pleased when you arrived. Surely she isn’t happy her stepdochter will be returning.”
Frederick held up his hand as if to silence his eldest cousin. “Don’t be so certain of that, David. When Jacob told her the news that Sadie would return, she appeared very relieved to me.”
Sadie, however, wasn’t convinced.
As if sensing her doubt, Frederick stood up and walked over to the counter where he had left his bag. Reaching inside, he withdrew a large covered pie pan. “I believe her, Sadie. Why, before she left, she approached me and begged me to give this chicken pot pie to you,” he told her before she could form the words to say how she was feeling. “She insisted that I deliver it to you at once, as a token of her love for you and her desire for your quick return.”
“A chicken pot pie?” That was Sadie’s favorite dish; however, she eyed it suspiciously. Was Rachel trying to bribe Sadie into forgiving her?
Frederick must have noticed her apprehension. Setting it on the table, he gave Sadie a look of gentle reproach. “Sadie, sometimes things aren’t how they seem. She told me that she had feared your becoming an old maedel like she was when she married your daed. She didn’t want you to miss out on having bopplin of your own. She knew you did not care for any young man in Echo Creek and, obviously, she knew nothing of our special friendship.”
She wondered about Frederick’s last statement. Hadn’t Frederick gone to the house looking for her that one day? The day when she had fallen into the stream? And Rachel had surely seen Frederick bring her home after the youth gathering. “I’m not so sure about that, Frederick.”
“Well, regardless, I believe she’s genuinely happy for you, for us,” Frederick continued. “She commented that nothing was the same since you left and she couldn’t wait for things to return to normal.” He pointed to the pie. “She made this for you while Jacob and I talked in the barn. When we came inside, she made me promise to give it to you and to tell you that it was sent with much love.”
Reluctantly, Sadie picked up the pie and lifted it so that she could smell the delicious aroma of the creamy mixture beneath the flaky crust.
The Grimm brothers stared at her as she held the pie, their faces bright and eager.
“Oh, a chicken pot pie!” Samuel said. “I haven’t had one of those in years!”
“Might we eat it tonight?” Daniel asked as he licked his lips in anticipation.
Sadie sighed. God told his children to forgive their enemies. Perhaps she needed to trust Frederick and her father, and as part of that trust, she must forgive Rachel as well. After all, she would soon be married and leave her father’s farm for good. Her interactions with Rachel would be limited, and Sadie didn’t want her feelings toward her stepmother to come between Rachel and Jacob.
“I suppose I can heat it up, ja,” she agreed. She looked at Frederick. “Will you stay for supper?”
But Frederick stood up, shaking his head. “Now, if you don’t mind, I must hurry home. I need to speak to my parents and tell them the gut news. You can pack up your things this evening and I will fetch you tomorrow morning,” Frederick said. “After I speak to my bishop, that is. And then we shall go speak to your bishop, in Echo Creek. But we shall visit him together.”
She set down the pie and walked with him toward the door. While she knew that it was only a matter of hours until she saw him again, it felt as if a lifetime would pass before then.
“Tomorrow shall never arrive soon enough,” she whispered as she leaned against the doorframe, hoping that the Grimm brothers couldn’t hear her.
Frederick reached out and brushed his thumb along her cheek. “Only days separate us from forever, Sadie. And then, as long as one of us breathes, we shall never leave the other’s side.”
He glanced over her shoulder before he bent down to brush his lips across her forehead, a chaste but tender kiss. And then he turned and hurried down the dirt path that led through the forest and toward the main road where he had tied his horse.
Behind her, Sadie could hear the clamoring of the brothers, eager for her to begin cooking the pie. But she couldn’t tear her eyes from the place where Frederick had just disappeared. How was it possible that hours could feel like days and days feel like years? And yet she suspected that there would come a day in her life when she would look back on the joyous years she would spend with Frederick Keim and realize that, in reality, time spent with a loved one was only but a few seconds.
Chapter Twenty-Five
An hour after Frederick left, the room smelled delicious; the fresh scent of buttery pastry and the enticing smell of chicken filled every corner of the little house.
The Grimm brothers milled about the small room, eagerly awaiting the presentation of Rachel’s famous chicken pot pie. Despite the fact that Sadie would be going home in the morning, their sadness had been replaced with joy when they had learned that she would soon be marrying Frederick.
And, once married, she had promised she would come visit twice a month to clean and do their laundry. It was a suggestion that was met with cheers from all seven of the brothers Grimm.
“Mayhaps you could bake us some bread each week, too,” Hank said and laughed. “We’ll be cousins by then, you know.”
“And those cookies,” Ben suggested, a blush covering his cheeks. “The chewy ones with oats and chocolate?”
Laughing, Sadie heartily agreed. “Of course. The cookies, too.”
Sadie made her way over to the iron stove to check on the pie. She opened the oven door and peered inside. “Just a few more minutes,” she announced as she took a knife and poked at the crust.
“Now, while we’re waiting,” Sadie said, “I have a going-away gift for each of you.”
“A gift?” Ben’s eyes widened.
“For us?” Hank grinned, his eyes alit with joy. “Oh, I love gifts!”
Gideon scowled at him. “When was the last time you had a gift?”
Hank gave him a sly look. “Whenever it was, I can assure you that I enjoyed it tremendously!”
“Bah!”
Sadie ignored their bickering and hurried over to her little cot in the back corner of the room. She dug under her blankets and withdrew an armful of quilts. Carefully, she carried them to the table. For a moment, she stood there and stared at each one of the brothers. Despite their short time spent together, Sadie felt as if they w
ere, indeed, her own kin. She’d never had siblings, but if she had, she imagined that she would have felt as much love for them as she felt for the Grimm brothers.
“I can never repay you for your kindness in taking me in and keeping me safe.” She gave them each a small smile, hoping she didn’t get too emotional and start to cry. “You will never know the way your acceptance and care has warmed my heart. During a time of great turmoil in my life, you showed me that, even in the darkest part of the forest, a light shines bright.”
Ben blushed, and Hank gave a little laugh.
“To thank you, I made each of you your own brand-new quilt.” She set down the stack of quilts and held one up. The different colored squares, each pieced together by hand, created a lively pattern. In the center of each square was a piece of yarn, knotted to hold the backing in place.
“During the cold winter months, you will be wrapped in these blankets, which were made with my appreciation as well as my love, and I hope you will think of me.”
She had dreaded the thought of giving the Grimm brothers the quilts, afraid she might cry. While she was eager to return home and prepare for her wedding to Frederick, she would miss each and every one of the Grimm brothers, even grumpy Gideon.
For a moment, the brothers simply stared at the quilts, their eyes wide and their expressions blank. Sadie watched them, wondering at their reaction. Didn’t they like the quilts?
And then, to her surprise, she saw Gideon turn his head, but not before he swiped at his eye, the quilt clutched in his hands.
David cleared his throat and looked at Sadie, his own eyes watery. “Sadie,” he began. “That night when I found you, exhausted and asleep in a pile of leaves, you truly surprised me. And my bruders were just as surprised when I returned home, reporting that I had found a young woman in the woods. We carried you here in our arms.” He extended his short arms and stared at them as if remembering that moment.
“But nothing surprised any of us more than the way you have accepted us for what we are: men,” he continued. Several of his brothers nodded their heads. “You never once treated us any differently than people normally treat each other. Being smaller than other men has not been easy for any of us.”
His words touched her heart. For a moment, she thought of Adam; the Amish community had not been kind to him, either. What is it about the way a person looks on the outside that makes people judge the inside? she thought.
It was a shame, too, because the Grimm brothers were some of the kindest Amish men she had ever known. They would have made excellent husbands and attentive fathers. By judging them so severely, the world had missed out on knowing these wonderful men.
She felt humbled by David’s words and wasn’t certain how to respond. “I reckon I did what others should have done,” she said at last. “It’s not the size of the man, but the size of the heart in the man that counts.”
Ben blushed.
David took a moment to wipe his eyeglasses on the edge of his shirt. When he put them back on the bridge of his nose, he met her gaze once more. “Thanks to you and your kindness, we are not only looking forward to welcoming you into our family, but we are looking forward to visiting you and Frederick in your new home.”
Gideon spoke up. “I may or may not join them. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
Sadie tried not to smile.
“To thank you for your attentiveness while you were here,” David continued, “we, too, have a small gift for you. Just something for you to remember us by.” He reached down, and from his brother Samuel’s outstretched hand, he took a wooden figurine. He looked at it for a moment and then, with great pride in his eyes, he handed it over to her. “We all took turns carving this for you.”
It was a small figurine of a bird.
“Your songs delighted us each morning and night,” David said. “You will always be the ‘little songbird’ to us.”
“Our little songbird,” Stevie added, then sneezed twice.
“Didn’t you take your allergy medicine?” Gideon snapped.
He shook his head. “Not yet.” Another sneeze. “I’ll look for the new bottle after supper.”
Sadie turned the figurine over in her hands, inspecting it from every angle. Oh, how she would treasure this beautiful gift!
“I don’t think I can ever tell you how very special this is to me,” she whispered, still studying the intricate carvings of the wooden figurine in her hands. “My time spent with you has been some of the happiest I can remember.”
“Even when Gideon tracked mud everywhere?”
She laughed. “I could’ve done without that mess, but yes, I treasure that memory, too.” She narrowed her eyes in a teasing way as she looked at Gideon. “Mayhaps you might remember to remove your boots before you enter the haus, ja?”
“Bah!” But hidden in his scowl was the hint of a smile.
A moment of silence fell among them. It was as though no one quite knew what to say next. Sadie took the opportunity to fetch the pie from the oven and set it down on the counter to cool a bit. She was suddenly famished and couldn’t wait to dig in to the chicken pot pie.
“Now,” Sadie said, changing the subject because she wasn’t used to such sentimental displays of affection, “I suggest we bow our heads in prayer, then enjoy this savory pot pie before it gets cold, don’t you think?”
No one argued with her as the Grimm brothers took their seats at the long wooden table. Sadie stood up and carried the pie from the counter to a trivet in the center of the table, where she dished a serving onto everyone’s plate, saving herself for last.
David bowed his head for the silent prayer and Sadie said a special thank-you to God for having brought the Grimm brothers into her life. They were just one more of God’s indescribable gifts.
When the prayer ended, the men began to eat while Sadie poked at the food with her spoon. She was feeling melancholy and didn’t really have much of an appetite. In a way, she knew that a small part of her would miss living with the Grimm brothers. Each of the men had such a unique personality, and in some ways, they behaved more like naughty children than adults. Perhaps it was because they lived alone, deep in the woods, far removed from the rest of the Amish community.
Still, she found comfort in the fact that she would soon be their true cousin and thus would surely be seeing them often.
“It’s gut!” Hank announced, a broad smile on his face as he chewed his first bite.
“Is it now?” Sadie lifted her fork and scooped up a large forkful. “I shouldn’t be surprised. For all of Rachel’s flaws, she has always been a wunderbarr cook.”
She lifted the fork to her mouth and tasted it. She couldn’t remember the last time Rachel had made a pot pie. As she savored the taste of the rich, creamy filling, Sadie wondered why. It was one of the best chicken pot pies she had ever tasted. The chicken was moist and the carrots so sweet they practically melted in her mouth, and the pastry was so flaky and golden brown; obviously it had been brushed with an egg wash.
“I have to agree with you,” she said between bites. “It is wunderbarr.”
“Mayhaps she’ll make a few more of these pies for your wedding feast!” Samuel said before suppressing a yawn. “Although I’m so sleepy, I’m not certain I can finish it.” He stared at his plate and sighed. “Perhaps I will save the rest for lunch tomorrow.”
Gideon eyed him—and the leftovers on his plate. Clearly he was not pleased and let his thoughts be known. “Don’t waste food, Samuel. Remember what Mother always told us!”
Hank laughed.
Apparently Samuel didn’t need much encouragement to awaken and shovel another forkful of pie into his mouth. He could tell Gideon was ready to eat the rest of his food, and it was too good to give up, despite how tired he was.
When Sadie had finished her last bite and set her plate to the side, she felt a rumbling in her stomach. It twisted and turned in a way that made her realize something wasn’t quite right. And her throat began to fe
el odd, as if she had eaten cotton. It was soon followed by a strange prickling sensation. Setting down her fork, she reached for her glass of water. As she started to take a sip, she felt her throat constrict. She swallowed, hoping that the cool water would quell the feeling of dryness that made it suddenly difficult to breathe, but that didn’t help.
The itchiness she felt didn’t go away.
She noticed that David was watching her, his eyes wide behind his glasses. “Sadie?”
She cleared her throat, not once but twice. It felt scratchy and tingly. The constriction made it difficult to breathe. Perhaps she, too, was suffering from allergies. She reached up and placed her hands around her neck, applying gentle pressure. Beneath her fingertips, she could feel her pulse. It quickened, throbbing as if her veins were also gasping for air.
If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was having an allergic reaction. But Sadie knew that there were no apples in the cottage, and certainly nothing that they had eaten would have contained that forbidden fruit.
“Are you feeling okay?” Ben questioned, his eyes wide with concern. The other brothers were on their feet, crowding around the chair where she sat.
“You don’t look so good,” Ben whispered.
“That’s a terrible thing to say to a woman!” Gideon scowled. “Even I know not to say such things to a woman!”
But even Samuel agreed with Ben. “Maybe she just needs a good night’s rest. Too much excitement?”
Stevie added his own observation. “Her face. It’s swelling.”
Sadie started to drink the water, but she found that she was so weak, she could hardly raise the glass to her lips. It fell from her hand, shattering on the floor.
David reached for her arm, just as she started to fall over. “Get her to bed!” Without hesitation, six more pairs of hands took hold of her and gently lifted her off the chair, then carried her over to the makeshift bed near the fireplace. Ben smoothed out the blankets and fluffed the pillow while the others laid her down on the heap of quilts.