Leah stepped back quickly. “We must return to the house.”
“I’d rather stay out here with you.”
She turned and raced away, leaving him standing alone in the darkness.
He curled his cold fingers deep in his pockets. Something told him that Leah was the woman he’d been waiting his whole life to find. Did she feel the same? He longed to know.
Yet even if she did, how could they make a life together?
Chapter Eleven
“I’m so excited. Were you excited on your first day of school, Daddy?”
Joy swung her red-and-white lunchbox from one hand as she walked beside Caleb on Monday morning. She wasn’t exactly walking, more like bouncing. She wore a simple blue dress and a black kapp beneath her black coat and bonnet. She had gray snow pants on under her dress to keep her legs warm on the walk to school. The pants would come off once she was at school and would be put back on for recess outside and the walk home.
“I was about as excited as you are.”
Almost as excited as he was now at the thought of seeing Leah again. Their moments together on Friday night replayed in his mind. If his mother hadn’t called to them, he would have kissed Leah.
He was almost sure she would’ve let him.
He intended to test his theory at the first opportunity. Better to know than to spend another sleepless night wondering. She had been on his mind constantly even though he knew nothing could come of their relationship. He wasn’t going to stay in Hope Springs and Leah would never leave the Amish. Or would she? Was it wrong to hope she might consider a life outside the Amish?
A small voice at the back of his mind reminded him there was another choice. He could stay and resume his Amish life.
Was that really a possibility? Two weeks ago he would have said no. Now the idea didn’t seem so farfetched. Wasn’t he happier now than he’d ever been in the English world?
“I know my ABCs, Daddy. Do you want to hear them?” Joy looked at him hopefully.
“Sure.”
“A. B. C.” She smiled brightly.
“So far so good. Can you say the rest of them?” He scanned the woods, hoping to see a glimpse of Leah. She was probably already at the school.
“A. B. C. That’s the ABCs.”
“What if I asked you to say the alphabet? Could you do that?”
Her happiness faded. “I don’t think so.”
“I happen to know the entire alphabet. I’ll help you learn it.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
“What will I do in school?”
“Oh, lots of things. Leah is going to help you learn to read and write and to do your sums. You’re going to learn history and geography. You’ll learn things like how to drive a buggy and share the road with cars.”
“It’s gonna be so fun.”
“I hope so,” Leah said. She was sitting on a fallen log off to the side of the trail. In her dark coat and bonnet, she had blended into the pines behind her. If she hadn’t spoken, he might’ve walked past her. She was waiting for them.
“Good morning. I was afraid we had missed you.” A surge of pleasure filled him when he saw her shy smile.
She rose to her feet and joined them. “I didn’t want to miss walking to school with Joy on her very first day at Walnut Valley.”
“Am I really going to learn to drive a buggy?” Joy asked.
“Not today, but you will learn many practical things at school.”
“How is Pickles? Has her daddy come to see her?”
“No, Duncan hasn’t been over.”
“He’s not a very nice daddy,” Joy declared.
“I’m sure he’s just been busy taking care of all Woolly Joe’s sheep.”
“I miss Pickles.”
Leah glanced at Caleb. “You must ask your father to bring you over to see her again. She’s becoming a little butterball. She is bigger than both her brothers.”
Joy said, “I wish I had a brother. Dad, can I have a brother one of these days?”
The light mood of the morning vanished. Caleb knew exactly what Leah was thinking. She was thinking that David was Joy’s half brother. What would it take to convince her it wasn’t true?
He said, “I think you should stick to wishing for a dog.”
Joy continued talking nonstop, but the adults walked in silence. When they finally reached the school building, Leah set about her work and got the fire going. Caleb brought in two buckets full of coal and then took a broom to clear the snow from the front steps.
Joy spent the time exploring the room and chatting away. Leah showed Joy her desk in the first row and helped her unpack her supplies and stow them. When it was warm enough, Leah had her put her coat and bonnet in the cloak room. Together, they made a sign with Joy’s name on it and hung it over the hook so that she would be able to find her things later.
The other students began arriving in family groups thirty minutes later. They were noisy as they filed in, calling greetings to each other and to Leah. Joy, overcome with shyness, moved to stand beside Caleb.
Some of the children brought out potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil and placed them on a ledge to roast inside the furnace door. Two brothers brought out soup in a glass jar and set it on top of the stove. Leah filled a kettle with water and placed it on top of the stove, as well, to provide moisture in the air.
One excited little girl with blond pigtails ran up to Leah. “Teetshah, Mamm has a nei boppli.”
“That’s wonderful, Ammia, but you must remember to speak English when you are at school.”
Ammia concentrated a moment and then said, “Teacher, my mama has a new boppli.”
“A new baby.”
“Ja, and it’s a girl. Her name is Mary. I have a shveshtah.”
“You have a sister. I’m so glad for your family. Your mother and father must be very happy. Now, you should take your seat. We have a lot to do today.”
Caleb moved to a wooden bench at the back of the room. Joy followed him. He sat down and pulled her to him. “Are you okay?”
“There are a lot of kids here.” She chewed her thumbnail.
“I know, but soon they will all be your friends.”
“I don’t know.” Uncertainty colored her shaky voice.
Anna Imhoff came in the door. She spied Joy and waved. Joy waved back. Caleb said, “See, you have one friend here already. Go and take your seat like the other children are doing and listen to Leah. If you have a question, be sure and raise your hand. I’ll be right here if you need me.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Joy walked reluctantly to her desk and sat down. Leah went out and rang the school bell. The last students to come in were the older boys who had been having a snowball fight outside. Tagging along behind them was David. He cast a curious look at Caleb and then raced to his seat.
When the clock at the front of the room reached eight-thirty, Leah tapped her desk bell with a pencil. The room instantly became quiet.
* * *
Leah scanned the room and recorded each of her students in her attendance book. Everyone was present.
She moved to the front of the classroom and smiled at all their bright and shining faces. “Good morning, boys and girls.”
“Good morning, Leah,” they replied in unison.
Walking to the blackboard, she wrote out the date followed by the arithmetic assignments for each of the classes as she did every morning. When she was finished, she returned to her desk and picked up her Bible.
Each day the teacher in an Amish school chose a passage to read. This morning Leah chose Matthew 5. When she finished reading the Sermon on the Mount, the students all rose, clasped their hands together and repeated the Lord’s Prayer in unison. Joy, looking uncertain, stood, too, but she didn’t know the words. It was another thing she would have to help her learn.
The Bible reading and prayer would be the only religious part of the day. The Amish b
elieved that the instruction of faith was a sacred duty. Religion was taught at home and in their church services, not at school.
After everyone took their seats again, Leah glanced toward Caleb and gave him a tentative smile. She could see he was nervous about Joy’s behavior. Neither one of them wanted to see Joy upset enough to have a tantrum.
She said, “Children, we have a new student joining us. This is Joy Perry. She is the granddaughter of Maggie and Ike Mast. Her father, Caleb Mast, is also with us today. I want everyone to say good-morning to him.”
The class turned in their seat and a chorus of greetings filled the schoolroom. He nodded to them. “Thank you.”
Leah beckoned Joy to come forward. She rushed eagerly to Leah’s side. It was a blessing that Joy had taken such a liking to her. It would make her transition into the community that much easier.
Leah said, “Joy comes to us from Houston, Texas. She grew up in an Englisch home. She doesn’t speak our language, so please remember to speak English when you talk to her. I know everyone will make her feel welcome.”
Joy smiled shyly at her new classroom and raised her hand in a quick wave. “Hi.”
“Welcome, Joy.” Anna Imhoff waved from her seat in the middle of the girls.
Leah leaned forward to see Joy’s face. “Why don’t you tell the children something about yourself?”
Joy looked up and whispered, “Like what?”
“Anything. You could tell them about Pickles.”
Beaming, Joy said, “I have a puppy and her name is Pickles. She lives with her mommy at Leah’s house, but when she is big enough, she will come live with me and she’ll never, ever go away. Oh, and Dr. White says I have Up sindome, not Down sindome.”
Leah nodded. “Very good. Anything else?”
Joy shook her head quickly, making the black ribbons of her kapp wiggle. She looked very Amish in her blue dress cut in the same style as the other girls. The Amish were all about uniformity and not standing out. The only difference between Joy and the other girls was that Joy’s hair wasn’t long enough yet to put into a braid or bun.
Leah picked up a copy of Unpartheyisches Gesang-Buch, their German songbook, from the corner of her desk. When she realized that Joy wouldn’t know any of the hymns, she laid it aside and picked up a collection of Christmas songs.
Singing was a normal part of each school day. Without being told, the children filed to the front of the room and lined up in their assigned places.
Joy stood to one side, not knowing where to go. Leah came to stand by her. She slipped her arm across Joy’s shoulders. “It’s Monday, and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday we normally sing German songs. The children take turns picking which songs we sing. Because it’s your first day, how would you like to choose some Christmas songs to sing? Do you have a favorite?”
“‘Up on the Rooftop.’”
“I’m afraid we don’t have that one. What else do you like?”
“‘Jingle Bells.’”
“We sing a song to that tune, but the words are different. I’m afraid you wouldn’t know it.” Leah realized it wasn’t going as well as she had hoped.
“You pick a song.” Joy was beginning to get frustrated.
“How about ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’? You were helping us sing it at your grandmother’s house last Friday.” Leah glanced toward Caleb and saw his tender smile. He remembered the evening, too.
Singing without accompaniment, the children blended their voices together in a spirited rendition of the chosen work. When the song was done, Leah helped Joy select two more. After they finished singing, she said, “Now I would like to run through the songs we have planned for the Christmas program. We will have a full rehearsal on Thursday after school, so everyone practice your parts for the plays and skits at home and be ready.”
The songs included traditional Christmas hymns and popular secular songs that expressed the true meaning of Christmas. There was nothing about Santa or reindeer. Only the first-and second-grade children had trouble with their song and had to repeat it several times. Joy listened but didn’t join in. When they were done, Leah sent all her students back to their seats. They began working on their mathematics without urging from her.
With the upper grades working quietly, Leah gathered the first graders and Joy in a small group beside her desk where she could work with them on oral reading skills.
Like all Amish children, these first graders came to school speaking only Pennsylvania Deitsh, a German dialect outsiders called Pennsylvania Dutch.
English was the language of business and life outside the Amish home. It was essential that children learned to speak and write it. While the Amish strived to live separate from the world, they had to live in it. To that end, only English was spoken at school. Leah spoke Pennsylvania Dutch only when one of her young pupils didn’t understand the meaning of what she was trying to express.
As Leah had suspected from Joy’s sketchy records, the child couldn’t read or write, but she seemed eager to learn. If she noticed that she was older than the other children, she didn’t mention it. After they were finished, Leah had the first graders return to their seats and take out their workbooks to do the pages that corresponded with their reading lesson.
All the older students were working quietly, so she returned to help Joy copy the alphabet in her tablet. When the hour for arithmetic was up, the older students exchanged papers and graded each other’s work. When each student had a chance to see their mistakes, the papers were passed to the front, where Leah collected them.
At ten o’clock, she said, “All right, children, it’s time for recess. Go to the bathroom, get drinks of water and sharpen your pencils now so that you don’t have to do it later.”
The room dissolved into a beehive of activity as the children put away their work and grabbed their coats to play outside.
Anna brought Emmy Chupp to Joy’s desk. “This is Emmy. She wants to play Bear with us. Do you want to play?”
Joy looked eager to join them, but she held back. “I don’t know that game.”
“It’s easy,” Emmy said. “One of us is the bear and we try to catch someone else. Then they are the bear. It’s fun, come on.”
Caleb came forward. He said, “Don’t forget to put on your coat.”
“Will you watch me play Bear, Daddy?”
“That was my intention. Go on outside. I need to speak to Leah for a minute.”
He waited until the last child was out the door before he spoke. “It seems to be going well, don’t you think?”
“Did you expect it to go badly?”
“I had visions of screaming and temper tantrums. I’m happy to see I was wrong.”
“The day isn’t over yet.” She walked to her desk and he joined her.
“What is your assessment of her learning readiness?”
She looked at him in surprise. “Don’t you sound like a teacher?”
He flushed with embarrassment. “I’m doing my best to be an informed parent.”
“I’m happy to see that. By this age, she should be in the second grade, but she is below the first-grade level in reading and comprehension. I don’t believe her grandmother devoted much time to actual instructions. Joy is eager to learn, but she has a lot of catching up to do.”
“What can I do to help her?”
“Work on reading. Read to her every night. Let her follow along with the words and repeat them after you. You may want to teach her some of our German songs. That way she won’t feel so left out during our morning singing. I’ll give you a list of the ones that are easy.”
“Good.” He gestured toward the door. “I’d better get outside before recess is over. I don’t want to miss seeing her be the bear.”
Leah called to him before he reached the door. “Caleb, you are doing a good job with her. I see a lot of improvement in her behavior.”
A wry smile pulled the corner of his mouth up. “You weren’t with us when she jumped out of a movin
g buggy on the highway. She has a long way to go.”
Leah hesitated to ask, but she wanted to know. “Does that mean you’ll be staying longer than you thought?”
His smile widened. “I’ve found more than one reason to stick around.”
He went out the door and Leah drew a sharp breath. Did he mean her? Had she given him the impression she would welcome his attentions? Her head told her no, but her heart disagreed.
At ten-fifteen, Leah rang the bell to bring the children back to class. Her grades four to eight had reading classes. Each student came and stood beside her, then read from their assignment and answered her questions to determine their comprehension of what they had read. All the time she was listening to her students, she was aware of Caleb sitting at the back of the room, watching her every move. She hadn’t been this flustered since her first day as a teacher.
Eleven-thirty finally rolled around. She stood in front of her desk. “Children, you may go wash your hands, get your lunch boxes and return to your desks. Please go by rows. If any of the younger children need help, older brothers or sisters may go with them.”
Joy fetched her lunch box and carried it to her father. “Can we go home now? I’m tired.”
“School isn’t over, Joy.”
“But I want to go home now.”
Caleb glanced at Leah. She came to sit beside him on the bench and spoke to Joy. “Are you feeling okay?”
Her lower lip stuck out. “I want to go home.”
Leah met Caleb’s gaze and raised her eyebrows. There wasn’t any point in pushing the child to remain. He nodded in resignation.
Emmy ran up to Joy. “Don’t go home yet. We’re going to have another recess after we eat, and we can play on the swings. After that, we’ll have story time and then we can color something. I’ll let you use my crayons.”
“You will?”
“Ja, I have lots of colors.”
“Okay.”
“What did you bring for lunch? My mamm sent me a roast beef sandwich and a big slice of carrot cake.”
“Mammi gave me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I named Leah’s puppies Pickles, Peanut Butter and Jelly.” The two little girls walked back toward their seats.
Amish Christmas Joy (Mills & Boon Love Inspired) (Brides of Amish Country - Book 10) Page 13