by Marta Perry
Leah’s fingers tightened on Naomi’s. “Ugly talk has started, and no one seems to know with whom. But they are saying something is improper in your relationship with Nathan.”
“Improper—” Naomi could hardly take it in. “But that’s ridiculous.” Impossible, that her friends and neighbors could be saying such a thing about her. “Surely no one believes such a foolish rumor could be true.”
Leah and Paula exchanged a look.
“This is more than an idle rumor, I’m afraid.” Leah’s blue eyes were dark with worry.
“The talk is about a particular night. They are saying that someone saw that you didn’t come home from Nathan’s until nearly morning.” Paula rushed the words out, as if she were giving nasty medicine and eager to get it over with as quickly as possible.
“We have both heard it from different sources,” Leah said. “We each had the same reaction—that it was foolish and wicked to say such a thing.”
“We both tried to stamp it out right away.” Paula looked as if she wanted to trample someone or something underfoot. “But it was like a wildfire. As soon as I’d scold one person for saying it, the story would pop up someplace else, even worse.”
“But I didn’t. I wouldn’t.” Naomi’s hand twisted in Leah’s. “You know that about me.”
“Of course we do. We know you well enough, and plenty of others do, as well. But still, there is the talk. Was there something…anything…that might have led to folks misunderstanding?” Leah leaned toward her, face intent.
“It must have been the night Sadie was sick.” Naomi pressed her fingers to her forehead, trying to make sense of it all when her stomach was churning so badly she wanted to throw up. “She came down with the croup just when I was getting ready to leave for the day. Nathan didn’t know what to do. I had to stay and take care of her.”
“There, I knew there was an answer,” Paula said, relief in her voice. “No one could expect you to leave a sick child.”
“We were sure there would be some explanation,” Leah said, echoing the thought. “But you can understand how it looks. What time was it when you came back to the house?”
“It must have been close to three in the morning. I know it was about two when I got her to sleep after the final attack.” And then she’d stayed still longer, listening to Nathan, holding him while he wept. But she couldn’t say that, not to anyone. “I suppose it looks bad, but there was nothing improper. I had to stay until I felt sure Sadie was well.”
“Nathan will back you up, for sure, but people with nasty minds will say that he would anyway. What about Isaiah and Libby? Did they come over?” Leah asked, her mind obviously lining up a defense for Naomi.
“Isaiah came to the farmhouse to check when he didn’t see lights here.” She gestured around the kitchen. “He knows that Sadie had the croup.”
“If he stayed to bring you home…” Paula began, but Naomi was already shaking her head.
“I knew it would be a long siege, and I didn’t want both he and Nathan losing a night’s sleep when they had to be up for the milking so early. I sent him home.”
“That’s too bad. If he’d stayed, he could have scotched the rumors in a hurry.” Paula shook her head. “So there’s no one to say when you came home.”
The kettle whistled, and Paula rose with a light touch on Naomi’s shoulder. The clink of cups was a soothing and somehow incongruous background to the turmoil in Naomi’s thoughts and the pain in her heart.
“But that is exactly what someone is saying,” Leah said, frowning at Paula. “You’re forgetting how exact the story was. Someone seems to know what time it was when you came back to the house. Someone knows about that night. How? Who could possibly know about it and feel enough ill will toward Naomi to spread a rumor?”
Memory came back, sharp and clear. “There was something,” she said slowly. “When I was walking back here in the darkness, I heard something unexpected.”
“What?” Leah shot the word at her.
She shook her head helplessly. “I’m not sure. I’d been looking up at the stars, thinking how beautiful the sky was, maybe not paying a lot of attention. I just knew that there was some sound that I didn’t expect.”
“A car going by on the road?” Leah asked. “Maybe someone saw you.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t that, because I’d have noticed the lights of a car.” She shrugged. “The nearest I can come is that it might have been the creak of a buggy or wagon, but I just don’t know. And anyway, sound carries a long way at night. It could have been something at a distance.”
It was Leah’s turn to shake her head. “Maybe, but I’m not ready to dismiss it as a coincidence.”
Paula cleared her throat, as if preparing to say something unpleasant. “I hate to say it, Naomi, but do you think it’s possible your daad would spy on you? Or that he would say such a thing if he thought it would make you do as he wants?” She set a cup of tea in front of Naomi and pushed the sugar bowl nearer.
“I can’t believe that of him.” She got the words out quickly, but a shadow of doubt lingered. She would not have expected Daad to do a lot of things he’d done lately.
“Well, who else?” Paula asked, her tone practical. “I don’t see anyone else with a grudge against Naomi.”
“I can think of one.” Leah’s gaze sought hers. “Jessie Miller has been downright nasty about Naomi taking over with her sister’s kinder.”
“But how would she know about that night? How could anyone know?” The more they talked, the more impossible it seemed to Naomi. “I can’t seriously believe anybody would be out in the cold watching on the chance of catching me doing something wrong.”
“Maybe Isaiah said something in all innocence, and it got repeated in the wrong quarters,” Leah said. “After all, he wouldn’t think it necessary to keep your being at the farmhouse a secret. You were just doing what you’ve always done in taking care of a child.”
“Ja, or even Nathan or his daad might have said something,” Paula added. “Things get out, one way or another, it seems. Well, at least now that we know what really happened, we can fight the rumor with the truth.”
“Some people would rather believe the rumor.” Little though Naomi wanted to say it, she knew it was true. Rumors were easy to start but not so easy to stop. Her cheeks burned at the thought of what people were saying and thinking about her.
“One thing is certain-sure. You must talk to Nathan about it.” Leah was using her schoolteacher voice, the one that assumed obedience.
“How can I?” Naomi wanted to weep in pain and frustration. “How can I possibly say something like that to Nathan?”
“If you don’t tell him, he’ll find out from someone else. It’s better that he hears it from you.” Paula hesitated. “Do you want us to be with you when you talk to him?”
“No.” She fought to smile. “You are right. This is for me to do.”
No matter how much Naomi dreaded it, Leah was right. It was better for Nathan to hear it from her, so he was forewarned. But how he was going to take it, she couldn’t begin to imagine.
As they finished the midday meal, Nathan took a second look at Naomi. Her eyes seemed heavy and shadowed, and there had been a tension about her since she’d arrived this morning, although she’d been as patient as she always was with the children.
He hoped she wasn’t getting sick, with Christmas just a few days away. It might be selfish, but he didn’t want anything to disrupt the joy of this holy season.
There was no doubt about it, he decided. His thought was definitely selfish. Of course he wanted Naomi to be well for her own sake, not just for theirs.
The children were scrambling down from their chairs when Naomi turned to his daad. “I’m sure the kinder would like to take an apple to the pony. Would you go with them?”
“I will,” Nathan said. “Let…” He stopped, realizing he was getting a distinct, if wordless, message from Naomi.
Daad had already headed for
the hall and his coat, shooing the kinder ahead of him. “Komm, let’s go and see what Coalie is doing, ja?”
“I’ll get the apples,” Joshua said, darting for the basket they kept in the cool back hall.
“Me, too,” Sadie said.
The door closed on their chatter, and Nathan turned to Naomi. “You have something upsetting you to talk to me about, ain’t so?”
Naomi nodded. The pain in her eyes shocked him, and he realized she must have been hiding it all day. A bad feeling sank into him. Naomi might be going to tell him that she’d decided she must do what her father wanted. He knew how much the breach with her daad had grieved her.
It had always been a possibility she’d give in to her father to keep peace in the family. He should have been prepared. Instead, all he could do was wonder what life would be like here without her. How had she become so indispensable to his happiness in such a short time?
Not his, he corrected himself quickly. The children’s happiness.
“Naomi, what is wrong? Has your father been making you unhappy?” Please don’t say you’re moving out.
But that question simply generated a surprised expression. “No, no. It’s nothing about Daad.” She sucked in a breath and took hold of the nearest chair back with both hands. “Last night Paula came to see me. With Leah Glick.”
“Ja?” It must have been more than just a friendly visit if it had left Naomi this upset.
She nodded, obviously having difficulty getting the words out. “They said—they told me—” She closed her eyes for an instant. “They said that people are talking about us. About you and me and that night I stayed late when Sadie was ill. Saying that something went on.”
“Something went on?” His mind was blank. “What went on was that Sadie had croup and you took care of her.”
“No.” Color mounted in her cheeks. “They are saying that something improper went on between you and me that night.”
He could only stare at her. “Leah and Paula think that about us?”
“No, of course not. But they both heard the same rumors yesterday.”
Anger flicked its tail in him like an upset animal. “So they rushed out here to tell you and make you feel bad? They’d do better to mind their own business.”
“Ach, Nathan, Paula and Leah had only my well-being at heart. How could they not tell me that folks were saying such things? I had to be prepared to deal with it.”
He could only be surprised that Naomi had allowed a few rumors to upset her so much. “I don’t see what you—we—can do. If people are determined to talk, they’ll talk. Don’t worry. Those who know us won’t believe it, and the others will soon go on to some other gossip.”
“Don’t you see how serious it is?” A flash of something that might have been anger lit her eyes. “People are accusing us of sin.”
“Wait.” He held up a hand. “No one is accusing us, ain’t so? People are passing around a rumor, that’s all. They should be ashamed of themselves. We have done nothing wrong.”
She shook her head as if impatient with his dullness. “Nathan, don’t you understand? Someone started this story, and they knew about the night I stayed so late. How did they know? Who told them? And how can we defend ourselves? It is true that I was here until nearly daybreak.”
“Taking care of a sick child,” he reminded her, still unable to take this seriously. People were always talking. That was part of living in a small community where everyone knew everyone else’s business. “Just because a few blabbermauls chose to make the worst of that fact doesn’t mean that people we know will believe it. As for how they knew about it…”
He hesitated, the unpalatable truth sinking in. How would anyone know? It was not as if they had any near neighbors. The only house in sight was Isaiah’s place and the grossdaadi house.
“You walked across the field to go home, ja?” he asked abruptly.
She nodded.
“I suppose someone passing could have seen your flashlight from the road.” He knew even as he said it how unlikely it was that anyone had passed by at that hour. And even if they had, the logical assumption would have been that it was Isaiah.
Naomi rubbed her arms as if she were cold. “I would have noticed if someone had been passing on the road. This feeling that someone wishes me ill…it’s not very nice.”
“No.” He could point out that he was a target as well, but that would hardly make Naomi feel any better, and at this moment, that was the most important thing. “Maybe we should talk to Bishop Mose about it.” Before someone else does. That was the thought in his mind.
She glanced at him. “Talk to the bishop?” The color came up in her cheeks again and then drained away almost as quickly, leaving her white and strained. “Nathan, do you think that Jessie could be the one spreading rumors about us?”
“Jessie?” His first instinct was to scoff, but he controlled himself. “Jessie is troubled, I know. And she has some funny ideas about you taking care of the kinder. But how could she possibly know anything about the night Sadie was sick?”
“I don’t know,” Naomi admitted. “Could Isaiah or your daad have mentioned it someplace that she got to hear about it? Or did you talk about it to Emma when you went to see her?”
“I did tell her about Sadie having the croup, but nothing about how long it lasted or how late you stayed.” He shook his head. “Jessie has a reckless tongue, I grant you, but I don’t see how she could have known enough to spread such a rumor.”
He moved closer to Naomi, wanting to put a comforting hand on her shoulder but not quite daring to. This ridiculous rumor had made it impossible to behave naturally, and his anger welled up again.
“Naomi, I still think—”
The back door opened, and there was Isaiah, wiping his boots on the mat.
Nathan’s frustration mounted. “Isaiah, can you leave us alone for a bit? We’re talking.”
“I can’t.” Isaiah looked scared and determined, and he was nearly as white in the face as Naomi was. “I bring a message from Bishop Mose. He wants to see you this afternoon at four at our house. He’s bringing one of the ministers with him.”
The words fell into a shocked silence. Nathan had been wrong. Naomi was right to be concerned. They were being called before the bishop and the minister to account for themselves.
The ticking of the clock was Naomi’s only company as she waited for it to be time to go across the lane to Isaiah’s house. She had paced around the little house for a while, but now she simply sat in the rocking chair, her hands loose in her lap.
She had wept. She had prayed. But she had no answers. All she could hope now was that whatever happened, it was God’s will.
Pushing gently with her feet, she was soothed by the creaking of the old rocking chair and the rhythm of the movement. She could almost imagine she was a child again, sitting on Mammi’s lap in this same chair.
But Mammi wouldn’t be there when she faced the bishop. Daad and Betty were coming, as well as Elijah. Nathan’s sister had taken Joshua and Sadie to her house.
Naomi felt a wave of gratitude for Sarah’s calm good sense. She’d talked to the children cheerfully about having a holiday sleepover at her house with their cousins, planning on the popcorn balls they’d make even as she eased them into their coats.
It was a good thing someone could act normal with them. Naomi had felt too frozen, even though she’d tried, and Nathan hadn’t bothered to disguise his expression that resembled a thundercloud. Surely the kinder had known something was wrong, but they’d gone off with Aunt Sarah cheerfully enough in the end.
Naomi heard the clop of hooves in the lane. A quick glance told her it was Daad’s buggy, followed closely by Elijah’s. Since she had no desire to face Daad’s inquisition first, she’d decided that she would not go over until the bishop arrived. That would be time enough to confront all of them.
How had matters come to this pass? She still didn’t quite know. If she had it all to do over again,
she couldn’t say that she’d do things any differently.
Please, God…
Her prayer seemed to end there. She couldn’t think what else to say, any more than she could imagine how she was going to defend herself.
Another buggy, Bishop Mose’s this time. Ready or not, she must go.
By the time she’d put her coat and bonnet on and crossed the lane, the others were already seated in Isaiah and Libby’s small living room. Daad, Betty, Elijah, and Lovina sat in a row, while Isaiah and Libby hovered in the background. Nathan and his father sat opposite them, faces stoic, while Bishop Mose and John Fisher, one of the ministers, had two chairs brought in from the kitchen and placed at the end of the room.
Libby came quickly to greet Naomi, her voice as hushed as if it was a funeral. She took Naomi’s coat and bonnet, squeezed her hand, and then vanished toward the hall to hang them up.
One chair was left, next to Betty. Naomi slipped into it, eyes downcast. Daad leaned forward, looking past Betty at her, his mouth opening to say something, but Bishop Mose got in first.
“We are all here, so I will begin.” The bishop’s voice could have a note of command when he wished, and it did now. “I am sorry this call is necessary. However, when I heard the rumors that some people have been spreading in our community, it seemed important to deal with the situation right away, before the talk becomes any worse. Truly the unbridled tongue can be an instrument of destruction.”
The room was completely silent; not even the ticking of a clock sounded. Naomi imagined that she felt Bishop Mose’s gaze resting on her, and for an instant she couldn’t breathe.
“No formal charge of improper behavior has been brought against Nathan and Naomi. I would rather dismiss this story as unfounded rumor, but a specific night has been mentioned repeatedly. Naomi, is it correct that on last Wednesday night you did not leave Nathan’s house until nearly dawn?”
“Ja, that is true.” She heard a quick, indrawn breath from someone, but that was all. She prayed to keep her voice steady. “Sadie became ill with croup just when I was ready to leave at about seven thirty. She has never had it before, and it was a bad attack. I could not leave Nathan alone to deal with it, so I stayed until I felt sure she could sleep through the rest of the night. It was nearly three by the time I walked back here to my house.”