by Sarah Price
“A deal is a deal, right, Deacon?” he asked his uncle. “Why, Linda and Daed worked awfully hard on the paperwork this morning, going over numbers and drawing up a contract. Doesn’t seem right to just toss away all of that hard work—and opportunity—without finishing my end of the bargain. That would be akin to lying, and we all know how lying is a sin, right?”
All eyes watched as Ella made her way to the oven and opened the door. Delicious cinnamon and apple smells filled the room. She reached for a hot pad and bent down to remove the pie. As she lifted it, she waved her free hand over the top.
“Be careful. It’s hot,” she said as she set the pie upon a pot holder before Hannes. “And not from cayenne,” she whispered to him.
His lips twitched as if stifling a laugh.
Carefully, Ella cut into the pie. Compared to the other two pies, hers was a vision of pie perfection. The top was golden brown, and not one drop of the filling had burned the pan.
Ella glanced at the deacon, who, once again, looked mystified. She followed his gaze as he looked at Drusilla and Anna, both of whom had backed away from the table and appeared miserable. And then John King looked at Linda, and his scowl deepened. She, too, looked miserable, as if she wanted to escape her own house.
Only it wasn’t her house any longer, Ella remembered. She had signed it over to Johannes, along with the store, earlier that very morning.
Hannes cleared his throat, and she returned her attention to him.
“I’m eager to try your apple crisp pie,” he said softly, as if he had read her mind and wanted to bring her back to the task at hand.
Carefully, she cut a piece and, once again, took a moment to wave her hand over the top. When she finally handed the plate to Hannes, she saw him smile. A real smile. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be swept into his blue eyes, as if diving into the crystal clear waters of a pond on a hot summer’s day. It dawned on her that Hannes Clemens knew exactly what he was doing, and she suddenly began to realize that she never should have doubted him.
Lifting the pie to his nose, he made a great show of inhaling the apple scent. “Ah. Perfection. Just like the one last week.” He cut into the pie and took a short piece. Before he brought it to his lips, he blew on it, heeding Ella’s warning about the temperature.
At last, he pursed his lips and made eye contact with Ella as he took the first bite. The room was quiet as he chewed, and everyone waited to see what would happen.
Setting down the plate, Hannes nodded his head. “It’s perfect. Just like the pie I bought at the auction. Exactly as I suspected,” he whispered to her. “Nee, as I knew.” He winked at her. “And now they know, too.”
“Well?”
Hannes turned around and looked directly at his uncle. “It is the same pie as last weekend.”
John King scratched the back of his neck. “Surely that can’t be! Ella wasn’t even there!”
“Nee, she wasn’t.” Miriam spoke up and walked over to Ella’s side. She slipped her arm around Ella’s shoulders and turned a stern eye to Linda. “And I suspect I know why. But perhaps we ought to hear from Linda exactly why Ella was not at the charity auction.”
The color drained from Linda’s face. “She . . . she didn’t want to go.”
Miriam’s eyes narrowed. “Then why would she have made a pie, Linda? And why would your dochders claim to have made it when my nephew bought it?”
Hannes pursed his lips. “I seem to recall that Linda herself claimed the same thing.”
The deacon frowned. “I must say that I’m a bit confused by whatever is happening here.” John King was a fair man—one of the reasons he had been nominated for the deacon position. “I am, however, curious to learn more.” He turned around to look at Linda. “Perhaps you’d care to enlighten me?”
“I . . . I have no idea what happened,” Linda stammered. She glanced at her daughters. Their faces were almost as pale as her own. “Surely there must be some trickery here.”
Hannes moved over to stand beside Ella and for the first time spoke rather sharply. “If there is trickery here, it was made by your hand.”
Linda’s mouth opened as if she was about to argue with him, and then she shut it tight. After what had just transpired, even Linda must know that there was no way to avoid disclosing her role in the deception played upon Hannes and his father.
“Henry?” John King gave him a warning look. “That’s quite an accusation.”
Quickly, Miriam intervened. She walked forward and placed her arm on her husband’s arm. “John, mayhaps we should move outside, where Linda and her dochders can explain exactly what has happened.” She gave a stern look of warning to Linda. “And I’d be happy to fill in some details, should anything be omitted.”
Johannes cleared his throat. “Ja, that might be a right gut idea. Especially since the store and this very haus are now my property, I’d like to find out what duplicity there may have been in Linda’s business dealings.” He gestured with his head toward Hannes and Ella. “However, from what my son has told me, I suspect these two young folk might want a private moment to discuss a few things.”
Stunned by the turn of events, Ella could only watch as, reluctantly, everyone cleared out of the kitchen, Linda and her daughters with their heads hanging down and Miriam with hers held high. She could hardly believe that she had just witnessed the ruination of her stepmother, but as the door shut behind them, she knew that Linda and her daughters had only themselves to blame for their undoing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Only when the door shut and she was standing alone in the kitchen with Hannes did Ella find the courage to turn and face him.
“How . . . how did you know that I had baked that particular pie for the auction?” she whispered as he reached for her hands. Gently he held them, his thumb caressing her skin, as he stood before her. She felt a shiver run along her arms. No one had ever held her hand before, and while it felt strange at first, she also realized that it felt wonderful at the same time.
Hannes gave her a warm smile, his blue eyes meeting hers. He stared at her with so much emotion that she felt her insides warm. “How did I know?” he repeated in a soft, tender tone. “Perhaps the question should be ‘How couldn’t I have known?’”
She gave him a questioning look.
“Oh, Ella, it wasn’t that hard.”
But she persisted.
“Ja, vell, then . . .” Gently, he released her hands and ran his fingers through his hair. His dark curls drooped over his forehead. “Remember that I saw the basket you were carrying that day to the charity event.”
“You carried it yourself,” she pointed out.
“Ja, I did, didn’t I?” Another smile. “Obviously, I knew that one of the items inside must be yours. And when I told Miriam that I saw you carrying a basket to deliver the baked goods for the event, she asked me to describe the basket. It wasn’t hard, for yours was the only one that contained three baked goods for the auction. She set aside your basket and made certain that those items were the last to be auctioned off.”
Ella placed her hands over her eyes, embarrassed that she hadn’t figured that out. “Of course! She was the one giving the pies to John for auctioning.” What didn’t make sense, however, was why Miriam would do such a thing in the first place.
Once again, Hannes reached up to take hold of her hands and remove them from her eyes. There was a glow on his face. Clearly he was delighted with the unraveling of this mystery, which had finally exposed the perpetual wrongdoing of Linda and her daughters.
“But there’s more,” he said. “You know that I bought all three items. I figured that I would rather buy all three than miss out on yours. It was clear from your sisters’ reactions which item each had donated. Drusilla claimed her lazy-daisy oatmeal cake, and Anna claimed her poor man’s cake. Appropriate naming of them; I must commend you. But the third item . . . At first, no one claimed the apple crisp pie, but both of your sisters—”
> “Stepsisters,” she corrected gently.
“Ja, stepsisters. They both claimed that pie.”
“So you knew?”
He nodded. “I suspected, ja. And when I didn’t see you at the auction, I had a hunch that something had gone awry at home with Linda. I suspected that she had kept you at home so that you would have no chance to compete with her own daughters.”
Ella bit her lip, wanting to tell him about what had actually happened that night. Instead, she chose to remain respectful of her stepmother. After all, Hannes already knew the most important thing: she had wanted to go to the auction, but hadn’t been permitted to attend.
“That’s when I suspected that her dochders would do something dishonorable and claim that they, not you, had baked that last pie.” He raised an eyebrow and gave her a sideways glance. “Although, after tonight’s baking contest, I can only surmise that you baked all three desserts. Is that true?”
Reluctantly, Ella nodded.
“Your kindness certainly knows no boundaries, Ella Troyer,” he said sternly but kindly. “But in the future, I will hope that you will know that doing good and being kind should never come at such a high price that you sacrifice so much of yourself.” He gave her a look of reproach. “Especially when it benefits those who are not only unappreciative but too selfish and lazy to help themselves.”
“I never thought of it that way,” she whispered. “My mother told me to always do good and be kind.” She gazed at him, fighting the tears that threatened to fill her eyes. “It was the last thing she told me, her dying wish, and, ever since then, I’ve done everything in my power to honor it.”
Hannes digested her words and then, as if coming to a realization, he raised his eyebrows. “Now it makes sense,” he said softly. “No wonder they took such advantage of you.” Slowly, he pulled her into his arms, embracing her tightly. “Oh, my dear Ella, such a life you have lived with those women. How unkind and unfair they have been to you.”
With her cheek pressed against his shoulder, Ella shut her eyes. She wished this moment would never end. When was the last time anyone had comforted her? For the first time in years, she felt a sense of joy that filled her entire body.
When he finally loosened his hold on her, he pulled back and looked into her face. “Ella, I wasn’t surprised that Drusilla and Anna claimed the pie, nor was I surprised when Linda supported their deception. In fact, I had hoped they would do just that.”
Startled by his confession, Ella couldn’t help asking, “Why is that?”
“Because they did it in front of the entire congregation and the church leaders.” Hannes’s expression sobered. “Lying to everyone is one thing, bad enough in its own right. But to mislead and cheat makes the first sin even worse. If I had called them out on it, spoken up to defend your efforts and expose their dishonesty, it would have given Linda a chance to shield herself and her dochders from answering to the church leaders. Miriam and I came up with this plan to expose them in a way that could not be denied or argued.”
Ella frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t you?” He took a step away from her and put his hands behind his back. Slowly he began pacing the floor. “When you didn’t show up, I spoke quietly to Miriam. We suspected that something like this would happen . . . I wasn’t certain to what extent they would go to lie to everyone. But I had to pretend interest in the two dochders. Oh, Ella, that evening when my daed and I visited and I had to focus on Drusilla and Anna, how my heart ached. I could only pray that you would remember my words.” Abruptly, he stopped and turned toward her. “Did you?”
“Your words?”
“Ja, the ones that I said to you before I left Echo Creek that one day. Did you remember that I had told you that sometimes things weren’t what they seemed?”
Ella’s mouth opened, just a little, as she remembered. Earlier that very evening she had recalled those words, but she had not thought of them when Hannes and his father had visited earlier in the week.
As if he realized that she had, indeed, remembered, Hannes nodded. “That’s right. I could only pray that you knew that everything would sort itself out. Paying attention to them was increasingly hard to do, especially with all that I knew and when I only wanted to take you in my arms and tell you the truth.” He paused and looked toward the ceiling. “Perhaps that, too, was deceitful, and I will pray to God for forgiveness.”
“I’m sure he will pardon you for such a slight,” Ella whispered.
“But I couldn’t tell you the truth, not then. For we had to wait and expose your stepmother and her dochders here, in your own kitchen, in front of the deacon, where they could not manipulate or lie their way out of it.” Hannes took a small intake of breath. “I had to wait until given the opportunity for their actions to contribute to their own demise in front of the deacon himself.”
Suddenly, it dawned on Ella that, right now, as she was speaking in private with Hannes, Deacon King was learning the truth . . . the awful reality of what had been going on in the Troyers’ home. The Amish church did not take kindly to such sinful behavior. “What will happen to them?” she asked.
“Surely they will face the Meidung.”
Shunning? Ella found herself breathing hard as she began to panic. How could she live in the house of a shunned family? She wouldn’t be able to talk to them, eat with them, have any interactions with them. And how would Linda react? Certainly she would blame her rather than reflect on her own role in her fall from grace.
Hannes seemed to read her mind. “Never you mind, Ella. It was her own doing. With the store already sold to my daed, and the house along with it, you will never have to deal with Linda Troyer and her awful dochders again.”
“Where will they go?” Ella suddenly exclaimed. “They’ll be homeless!”
“Nee, Ella.” Solemnly, he shook his head. “That is not our way. But, once again, I’m impressed by your willingness to overlook the abuse you have suffered at their hands and show concern for their well-being. My daed will permit them to remain in the house. He will give them a week, maybe two, to find alternate housing. Hopefully in another town, far away from Echo Creek, so that you will not have to be reminded of their mistreatment of you.”
Ella could hardly believe what she was hearing. “And your daed knows about all of this?”
“Indeed he does. I shared your story with him. It didn’t take much to convince him to go along with our plans to liberate you. Besides, when I found the secret message you gave to me . . .”
His voice trailed off, and Ella stared at him, bewildered. “What secret message?”
“The one you put into the pie.”
She had no idea what he was talking about.
Chuckling, Hannes reached into his pocket and withdrew something that he promptly placed into her hand. “I found this in the pie.”
Ella frowned and looked down at her hand. The glass figurine! She caught her breath and looked up at him. “What on earth . . . ?”
A laugh escaped his lips. “When I went home with the pies, I found it baked inside, near one of the edges.”
Horrified, Ella covered her face with her hands. “I’m so terribly sorry,” she whispered, wondering what he must think of her carelessness. He had been so thoughtful to purchase such a pretty gift for her, and she had lost it! And in such a foolish way. “I’m so embarrassed.”
He sounded genuinely bewildered by her statement. “Whatever for?”
Removing her hands, she gave him an apologetic look. “It must have fallen off the window ledge! How irresponsible of me. And here I thought that, mayhaps, one of my stepsisters had taken it.”
Hannes sighed in an overly dramatic way, a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes. “And here I thought you were sending me a secret message! Or perhaps it was the secret ingredient.”
“The secret ingredient?”
“You mentioned that you baked your mother’s recipe, one that had a secret ingredient.”
“Oh
, Hannes, I’m terribly sorry. It was truly an accident.”
With a look of seriousness, he tilted his head and studied her. Despite his somber expression, there was something soft and compassionate about the way he looked into her face. “Mayhaps I was mistaken and you aren’t interested in running that general store with me after all.”
Speechless, Ella could only stand before him, her mouth slightly open in surprise. Run the store? What, exactly, was he trying to say?
“Ella,” he said as he reached out for her hands. He held them as he gazed into her face, his blue eyes moving ever so slightly as he spoke. “Surely you don’t think that all of this was orchestrated for any other reason than getting the store back into the hands of its rightful owner?”
“Orchestrated?”
He nodded his head. “My aendi . . . she helped me plan this whole thing.”
At this news, Ella frowned. What could Miriam have to do with all of this? While she had known Miriam all of her life, she had very infrequent interactions with the deacon’s wife, except on church Sundays. “Miriam?”
Hannes gave a little laugh. “Ja, isn’t that amazing? A month or so ago, she told me about the problems at the store. She had known that Daed and I were looking for such an opportunity. At first, we arranged for our vendor, the clock maker, to come to talk with Linda. But you and I both know how that went.”
Oh, Ella remembered that. The whole consignment issue and Linda’s fussing over the product placement in a strange aisle and then arguing with Hannes when he made the suggestion to move them near the other household goods.
“When the clock maker first came, he, too, encountered difficulties with Linda. When he reported the situation to me, Daed sent me right away to find out what type of Amish person was running such an operation. On my first trip to Echo Creek, I stayed with the Kings and went to worship with them. I heard the most beautiful voice singing ‘Das Loblieb,’ and when I looked over and saw this beautiful young woman singing with all of her heart, lifting her voice to God, I knew that she was the woman for me.”