Guardian, the

by Beverly Lewis

  He was heading back to the house when it hit him. A broad smile erupted on his face. Maryanna said yes!

  But just as quickly, he realized his terrible blunder. He had two dates with two women on the selfsame evening!

  Chapter 32

  Jodi was greeted by Sarah in a pale blue dress with a sheer white apron on top. The little girl came running to see Jodi on the side of the road, Benny and Toby close behind in look-alike black pants and white shirts with black vests. Leda hung back slightly, a white apron over her deep purple dress, too.

  Maryanna smiled from where she stood farther back with her sister Mollie. Both seemed surprised to see Jodi as Sarah threw her arms around her knees, jabbering in Deitsch.

  “We didn’t know you were comin’ by today,” Leda said, grinning.

  “Nice ya did, though,” Toby said, inching closer.

  “I wanted to see you again.” Jodi also mentioned she’d gone running last night on one of the roads near the route for the Bird-in-Hand Half Marathon. “I met your former schoolteacher, Rosaleen Yoder, and another girl you probably know—her cousin Barbara Yoder.”

  Benny nodded. “Rosaleen’s right over there.” He pointed toward the group of women near his mother who were standing and staring at Jodi and the children.

  Am I interrupting their Sunday?

  It did look like church had already disbanded, although many people were still lingering about the side and front yards. Jodi was most interested in knowing if the man talking earlier to Maryanna and the children was their neighbor Joshua. And if so, how remarkable that he was so youthful and good-looking—not at all like she’d pictured him.

  “I hope you’ll come home with us,” Leda said softly, her eyes shining.

  “We still have ice cream from yesterday,” Toby said with a glance back at his mother. “Will ya come?”

  Jodi didn’t quite know how to respond. “I really should run some more,” she said, thinking that might suffice.

  But now Fannie and Bertie, along with Ellie and Darla, had spotted her, too, and were calling her name as they hurried down the driveway, all dressed alike in maroon dresses and white aprons.

  “You’re back,” Bertie said, blinking. “We didn’t think we’d see you again.”

  Thrilled, Jodi smiled and greeted each of Mollie’s four girls by name.

  “You remembered us!” Darla said, wiggling in between Sarah and Toby toward Jodi.

  “We’ve been practicing our arithmetic,” Ellie said, her light brown hair slicked back on both sides.

  “You’ll be all set when school starts,” Jodi replied.

  “’Cept there’s no teacher yet,” Bertie told her, and the children’s faces drooped as they nodded their heads.

  It was Leda who spoke next. “If the school board can’t find someone soon, we might have to start late.”

  “Ain’t never happened before.” Toby frowned.

  “How do you know this?” asked Jodi.

  “Well, ’cause Uncle Jeremiah’s on the school board,” Benny volunteered.

  Toby looked over his shoulder at Rosaleen. “Least we won’t have to worry ’bout the teacher this year.”

  “Ach, Toby,” his cousin Fannie said, stepping even closer.

  With eight children pressing in around her, Jodi wondered if they shouldn’t move closer to the front yard.

  When Jodi suggested it, Leda said there was rarely any traffic on the road. “Just horses and buggies, mostly.”

  This made Bertie giggle for some reason. And then all the children began laughing, Sarah still with her arms around Jodi’s knees. “Mei Engel,” she said again.

  Despite the fact that the Amish folk were milling about, talking with each other, Jodi felt their collective eyes on her.

  ———

  Maryanna watched Jodi with the children—the young woman seemed so comfortable with them. Why didn’t such a delightful woman want children of her own when it was apparent to everyone watching that the Englischer was a magnet for them?

  “Just look at her,” Mollie said softly next to Maryanna.

  “Jah,” Rosaleen agreed. “Barbara and I ran with her last evening, and she’s not like some of the English folk we know. Both of us remarked ’bout it.”

  “Oh?”

  Rosaleen continued. “She fit right in, and we had a gut time together. Odd, though . . . she never once had to stop to drink water, and goodness, we ran a long ways.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Barbara interjected. “She has one of those water carriers on her back to drink from. Look, she’s wearing it now.”

  Maryanna smiled. So Jodi’s human, after all!

  “Jeremiah’s over talkin’ to Bishop John—wants to call a school board meeting at first light,” Mollie said, seemingly anxious to impart the news she’d heard just a bit ago from her husband. “Even the bishop noticed Jodi out there with the children.”

  “Does he know she’s the one who found Sarah?” asked Maryanna.

  “Oh, he seems to know all about it.”

  “So what do you think’ll happen tomorrow morning?” Maryanna asked.

  “I heard something but best not say.” Mollie glanced at her husband and the bishop, deep in discussion with the two other fathers who were decision makers in appointing the next schoolteacher.

  “Bishop must think Jodi’s a godsend, then.” Maryanna could see why, despite Jodi’s spiritual wavering since losing her only sister.

  The children were still pressing in around Jodi on the lawn, some of them sitting on the grass as they pleaded for her to sit with them, too.

  “You don’t think they’d ask an outsider to teach, do ya?” Rosaleen asked.

  “It’s never been done,” Barbara Yoder spoke up.

  “’Tis true,” said Mollie. “Not ever.”

  “I do know she’s lookin’ for a teaching job,” Maryanna revealed. “She said so herself.”

  “Ach, that’s right . . . she mentioned it last night.” Rosaleen seemed excited suddenly.

  “Of course, that doesn’t mean she’d ever consider what you’re thinkin’,” Maryanna added.

  “Well, the pay’s not what she’d get as a public schoolteacher, I’d guess,” Rosaleen said. “It’s all right for a single Amishwoman, still living at home, of course.”

  “You’re forgetting she has a place somewhere up in New England,” Mollie said.

  “Vermont,” Maryanna was quick to say.

  “Does she own a house there?” Barbara asked.

  Mollie stroked her Kapp strings. “Ain’t for us to be talkin’ this way.”

  “Isn’t,” Rosaleen corrected.

  They all tittered, trying to keep their voices at the appropriate level for the Lord’s Day.

  Maryanna saw little Sarah reach for Jodi’s hand and begin to head up Hickory Lane, all seven children following close behind. “Where are they goin’?” she whispered.

  “To your place, must be,” Mollie replied with a gentle poke on her arm. “Better follow an’ see.”

  “A Pied Piper’s come to Hickory Hollow,” Maryanna heard Jeremiah say from back amidst the menfolk.

  “And just in time, too,” the bishop stated.

  “Well, mercy’s sake,” Maryanna’s own mother said.

  What have we prayed into our community? Maryanna wondered as she followed behind the children with Mollie, scurrying to keep up.

  “What if Jodi refuses?” Mollie whispered.

  “Don’t get your heart set on this, sister. She’s not Amish, remember.”

  “Well, but look at us . . . we, too, are steppin’ to the Pied Piper’s music.”

  This brought another chortle, but Maryanna was more concerned about Sarah, who looked to be leading the entire procession.

  Chapter 33

  Jodi had asked the children if it was all right to head over to the Esh farmhouse without getting permission from their mother. Both Benny and Leda had insisted it was fine, so off they’d gone. And now Joshua Peachey’s German
shepherd was following them, panting in the heat of the day.

  “Will the dog find its way back home?” she asked Benny.

  But it was Toby who interjected that the big dog knew his way all around the neighborhood. “Buster’s our watchdog at school, too,” he said.

  “Really? You take him along to school?”

  “Joshua brings him every day when we all walk together,” Benny explained. “And he comes back for Buster when the bell rings at the end of the day.”

  Jodi wondered why but didn’t have to ask.

  “Joshua says it’s a gut idea,” Benny added. “Buster keeps an eye out for tourists. And to be extra careful on the road, we all wear our new yellow safety vests—even Joshua.”

  “There are so many picture-takin’ folk in their cars,” Toby offered, his face serious. “It bothers the brethren no end.”

  The brethren . . .

  Smiling at the idea of Joshua walking with the schoolchildren, Jodi followed Sarah into Maryanna’s driveway. So much for getting a jog in today. And poor Trent must think I’ve disappeared.

  She’d left her phone in the glove box of her car, still parked at the eastern end of Hickory Lane. For now at least, there was no way to check if he’d sent her a text or tried to call. Regrettably, she was out of reach.

  By the time they’d all sat down at the table in the very warm kitchen, Maryanna and Mollie were coming indoors, smiling and talking cheerfully. They went to the cupboard and lifted down a stack of bowls for the ice cream that Leda and Sarah had already gotten from the freezer.

  “Hullo there,” Maryanna said as she placed the bowls around the table. “It’s nice to see you again, Jodi.”

  “You too,” she replied. “I hadn’t planned to drop by unannounced.”

  “Well, you’re always welcome.”

  Jodi was quite aware of it. “I can’t seem to stay away from this lovely little hollow.”

  “We invited her for ice cream,” Benny said with a glance at Jodi, seeming to speak in her defense. “And I think Mammi Emmie and Dawdi Zeke might come, too.”

  “That’s fine,” Maryanna said, hoping her parents would indeed do so.

  Little Sarah held up her new cloth doll, making it bend and bob its head on the table until Leda gently pushed her arm down, and Sarah made the doll disappear.

  Mollie came over and distributed spoons and paper napkins. “We heard you were out runnin’ by moonlight last evening.”

  Removing her hydration pack, Jodi nodded. “It was really quite pleasant and much cooler.”

  “Well, Rosaleen and Barbara surely enjoyed meeting you,” Maryanna said as she came to sit next to Jodi.

  Mollie added, “Word has it you kept up real gut with all the rest.”

  Jodi smiled. “There were about twenty-five of us. Actually, it was perfect. Incredibly peaceful, too.”

  Leda brought over the big tub of vanilla ice cream, Sarah behind her carrying the chocolate syrup. “Will ya go runnin’ with them again?” asked Leda.

  “I might. But my fiancé’s here in town.”

  Maryanna’s eyebrows rose. “Was that a surprise?”

  She nodded.

  “Hope things are goin’ well,” Maryanna said more softly as she leaned in closer.

  Shrugging, Jodi indicated not so much.

  “So sorry,” Maryanna whispered.

  Jodi thanked her and looked around the table at the many sets of beautiful eyes on her.

  “Time to say the blessing. Pattie nunner—hands down,” Maryanna said and bowed her head.

  All of them did the same, including Jodi, who managed to be grateful for the blessing of these friends. She hoped above all that Trent might understand her heart.

  Joshua closed the door on the parrot’s cage and hurried upstairs to rescue Honey Lou and Shadow from the warm room. Below him, just outside the window, the bishop and the three school board members were putting their heads together about a replacement for Rosaleen Yoder. On the Lord’s Day, yet!

  “Even if the Englischer did agree to fill in as teacher for a number of weeks, we still have Druwwel—trouble—on our hands,” Jeremiah was telling Bishop John, Ned Peachey, and Noah Mast. “Who will we get for a permanent replacement?”

  Pausing at the window, Joshua felt peculiar eavesdropping.

  “And this outsider knows nothin’ about our curriculum or expectations,” Jeremiah continued. “Rosaleen would have to instruct her as to how things are done.”

  “Which is a mighty big undertaking in just a few weeks’ time,” Ned said.

  “It’d be a gut idea to have her attend a seasoned Amish teacher’s schoolhouse once the school year begins. Could that be done, maybe?” This was Noah’s idea, and a mighty fine one, Joshua thought.

  “Well, if you’re in favor of that, school might need to open late,” the bishop suggested.

  “Honestly, I’m not sure we’re in agreement on any of this,” Ned declared.

  “Keep in mind this would only be for a short while—if the young woman’s even willing,” Noah said. “We haven’t proposed the idea.”

  “Let’s meet again in the morning,” Jeremiah said. “Bishop, are you free to join us?”

  Joshua leaned closer to the window, wondering what on earth Bishop John might say to that, known as he was for being a stickler. Of course, there was nothing in the church ordinance about teaching appointments, although this was such rare territory Joshua doubted it had a precedent. Not here in Lancaster County, at least.

  Yet, come to think of it, he had read somewhere about an Englischer woman who was a substitute at a one-room Amish schoolhouse somewhere in Kentucky, if he remembered correctly. The school board of four Amish fathers had asked her to wear Mennonite-looking dresses and comb her hair back in a bun, though they hadn’t required a prayer veiling, as far as the story went.

  Just then Honey Lou began to chase her tail, as if bored. And Shadow was clearly frightened, still as he was in his cage. Joshua had rescued the poor thing earlier from under the dresser, glad to see there wasn’t a scratch on him.

  Gathering up the cage and the cat, Joshua headed back down to the kitchen to the sound of Malachi cawing, having another tizzy. Such a day it’s been, Joshua thought as he poured cat food into Honey Lou’s dish and gave the parrot something to nibble on.

  He considered his terrible error in judgment, making plans with both widows for dates on the same evening. When Maryanna had agreed and suggested the day, he’d been so ferhoodled it hadn’t occurred to him he’d just agreed to meet Ida on the exact same Saturday.

  I have to make it work, he thought, nervous all the same.

  Walking out toward the barn, Joshua noticed the school board members still in a huddle, though there was no further sign of the bishop.

  But it was the subject of the men’s former conversation that intrigued him most—Jodi, the lovely young woman in their midst earlier. He could see why the children were impressed with her. The vivid memory of the Englischer dressed in white came back quickly, standing with all the People’s children gathered near, fancy woman that she was. She seemed to have an uncanny sense of what to say and do around Amish. He considered again how Jodi had, for some reason, not involved the police when she found Sarah—was it out of respect for their Plain culture? If so, no wonder the bishop was talking of setting an extraordinary precedent for a teacher!

  Maryanna’s parents joined them in her kitchen while they were having their ice cream, all busy eating and talking around the table. It was only a short time later that Ella Mae Zook came into the driveway in her son-in-law’s family carriage. She halted the horse, still holding the reins.

  Leda whispered, “Mamma, the Wise Woman’s here.”

  Secretly pleased, Maryanna had hoped Jodi might have occasion to talk with the kindly sage. “Excuse me,” she said as she left the table to help the elderly lady out of her carriage.

  As soon as Maryanna slipped out of the kitchen, the table erupted into a rush of even louder
prattle, and she found it both curious and comical, wondering what was being said in her absence. Her father loved to get the children laughing at his own long-ago childhood antics, especially the tale about the time he’d used his suspenders to shoot kernels of Indian corn at his father’s scarecrow. At least Jodi hasn’t heard this story yet. . . .

  “How are ya, Ella Mae?” Maryanna asked, extending her hand as they walked across the driveway.

  “Doin’ fine,” Ella Mae said. She was without her cane. “Even though I feel like a hundred years old today.”

  “We all do, some days.” She smiled at the dear woman.

  “Isn’t that the truth!” Ella Mae chuckled. “I appreciate your help, I daresay.”

  Maryanna kept an eye out in case her friend should stumble as she sometimes did, despite having surprisingly good balance for her age.

  “We have an English visitor,” Maryanna told her as she reached for the back screen door.

  “Hoped so. Spotted her over at Joshua’s a bit ago.”

  “Did ya see her with the children?”

  “’Twas somethin’ to behold.” Ella Mae sounded breathless as she stepped into the utility room and reached to steady herself against the wall where wooden hooks held the family’s sweaters and jackets.

  “You all right?”

  “I will be in just a second—a mite dizzy.” Ella Mae lowered her head, taking her time to regain her balance. “Denki kindly.”

  Maryanna waited right beside her until at last, Ella Mae slowly proceeded into the kitchen, waving hello to Maryanna’s parents, who were sitting across from each other.

  Maryanna took the liberty of introducing her to Jodi and made a place at the table. Ella Mae seemed not only pleased to have the opportunity to eat some ice cream, but she showed an immediate interest in Jodi, asking her how long she’d been in the area.

  Jodi said she was house-sitting nearby for her cousin and his wife, which brought a smile to Ella Mae’s face.

  It was odd seeing the older woman on a Sunday afternoon, since she typically slept for a couple hours on the Lord’s Day, all tuckered out from Preaching service or going visiting.