Elsa-May added, “I hope Nell won’t mind us not being there today.”
“There'll be so many people there she likely won't even notice.” Ettie handed Elsa-May a large jar of peanut butter, trying not to think about Abraham’s funeral.
“I think she will, and you'll have to make up an excuse why we weren’t there.”
“I will make an excuse. I’ll blame you. It was your fault. I was all set to go, but when you said you didn’t want to, I decided neither did I.”
“I mean, an excuse in case Nell inquires why we weren’t there.”
“Hmm. Maybe you could say you came down with a cold or something.” Ettie chortled.
Elsa-May’s mouth fell open. “I'll say no such thing and neither will you.”
“Well, what will we say to her? We didn't feel like going because one day we’ll be at our own funerals and we’ll be dead and we prefer not to think about death until then?”
“Certainly not! I intend to go to others, I just wanted … I didn’t want to go to one today. The truth is better than making up a lie. Once you start lying, it sets you on the path of a slippery slope. Then you have to keep making up other lies to cover up the first lie. Remember what Dat used to say?”
“Jah, 'if you’re going to tell a lie, you have to have a good memory.' Or, something or other like that.”
“That's right.” Elsa-May shook her head vigorously, causing her prayer kapp to slip to one side. Ettie straightened it for her. Elsa-May gave a little smile. “It’s a burden I’m not willing to carry.”
“You’re right.”
“I usually am.”
Ettie giggled, glad they were baking together and spending the rainy day indoors. Funerals in the rain were so depressing. Besides that, their boots would have gotten muddy, and then they’d have had to clean them when they got home. Out of all the routine chores, that was the one Ettie disliked the most. And Elsa-May didn't like it either, so Ettie couldn't even work out a swap.
Chapter 3
The next day, Ettie pulled a chair closer to the window. From there, she could better see what the Charmers were doing. Greville had left for work at his usual time of ten minutes past eight and Stacey had been out to water the flowers she’d planted three days before. It made no sense to water them now, since the soil would’ve received a thorough soaking from yesterday's rain. Ettie wondered if either of the two knew anything about gardening.
Even though Stacey had seemed okay when they'd spoken with her, Ettie and Elsa-May kept away from her because Greville was so unpleasant.
As Ettie was trying to work out what kind of flowers Stacey had planted, out of the corner of her eye she noticed an unfamiliar buggy approaching. Her head swiveled as it turned into their driveway, and she looked to see who it was. It wasn't one of their frequent visitors or she'd recognize the buggy as well as the horse. “Elsa-May, someone’s here.”
“Who is it?”
“I can't tell yet.” Ettie jumped when she saw who it was. Her stomach lurched and her heart pumped hard, and she felt almost as though she was going to become ill.
“Why do you look so bothered? Go to the door. You don’t have to wait for them to knock if you’ve already seen them. And, they’ve probably seen you too, staring out the window like you have been doing.” Elsa-May shook her head in disgust.
“It’s Nell, Elsa-May.”
Elsa-May’s knitting fell to the floor as she jumped out of her seat with the gusto of a woman many years younger. “Nell?”
“Jah. What will we do?” Ettie hurried over to Elsa-May. “Should we hide and pretend we’re not home?” Now Ettie wished they’d made the effort to go to Nell’s husband’s funeral. She could have convinced Elsa-May to go. Nell was no doubt there to express her disappointment, or to inquire if one of them was ill. So ill it prevented both of them from traveling the short distance to the funeral. Given the age difference of twenty years or so, they hadn't been close friends with Abraham and Nell, but they were close enough they really ought to have attended his funeral.
Snowy, disturbed by the panicked humans, got out of his bed, barked, and ran around in circles.
Elsa-May sighed. “We can’t hide, Ettie, even if we wanted to.”
“What will we say?” Ettie nibbled on the ends of her fingernails.
“I don't know. I feel dreadful. Now I know we should've— “
“It was your idea not to,” Ettie said, even though she'd been first to say she just didn't feel like going out in the rain.
Elsa-May frowned, and opened her mouth to reply just as there was a loud knock on the door.
Ettie clutched at her throat. “Sounds like she's angry for sure.”
Elsa-May took a deep breath and stepped toward the door. Ettie snatched Snowy just as he went to follow Elsa May, and put him out in the backyard. By the time she had closed the back door and clipped Snowy's dog door closed, Nell was already inside the house and Elsa-May was apologizing for not coming to the funeral.
Ettie stepped forward and looked into Nell’s light blue eyes, made bluer by the same hues picked up in the dark dress she wore. Even though Nell was now in her early sixties, she still had the same dark hair she’d had in her youth, but now it was lightly salted with white strands. “Jah, we're sorry we didn't make it. We should've been there.” Ettie hoped that was enough and no further explanation would be necessary.
“It went well. There were so many folks there. They came from all over the country. I came here today because I have a question to ask you both.”
Ettie realized Nell wasn't going to ask them a question related to Abraham’s funeral, and she could feel the tension in her body as it melted away. She must’ve let out a huge sigh because Elsa-May turned to her and pressed her lips tightly together. Ettie had to stifle a giggle at the “Mamm look” on her elder-sister's face.
Then Elsa-May’s face switched to a pleasant expression as she turned back to Nell. “What is it you want to ask us?”
“Can we sit down?”
“Of course,” Elsa-May said. “I forgot my manners for a moment.”
“Come through to the kitchen and you can try our peanut butter cookies we made yesterday,” Ettie said.
“That sounds nice. I am a bit peckish. I don't much like to eat alone, so I didn't have a real breakfast.”
“And would you like a cup of hot tea?” Elsa-May asked Nell.
Nell nodded, and while Elsa-May and Nell were walking to the kitchen, Ettie couldn't resist another quick look out the window. When she had walked the few steps to the window, she was disappointed. There was nothing interesting to see. Stacey must’ve finished her watering and gone inside. Ettie quickly caught up with Nell and managed to sit down at the table at the same time. “What can we help you with, Nell?” Ettie asked.
“I was married for many wonderful years to Abraham.”
“He was a good man,” Elsa-May said while she noisily filled the teakettle with fresh water.
“Jah, he was. A very good man, but do you remember before I married Abraham I was set to marry Jedidiah Shoneberger?”
“Jah. That's right.” Visions of the tall and handsome Jedidiah came to Ettie’s mind. He’d been strong looking with broad shoulders.
“Did anyone ever find out what happened to him?” Elsa-May placed the teakettle on the stove and lit the burner beneath it, and then proceeded to place some cookies onto a plate. “Last thing I heard he was still missing.” Elsa-May sat down with them and pushed the plate of cookies toward Nell.
“Denke,” Nell said, as she took one.
Now it all came back to Ettie. No one had talked about it recently, but it had been the talk of the community for years. Jedidiah had disappeared without a trace right before he was due to marry Nell. “What happened to him?” Ettie asked while reaching for a cookie.
“That's just it. He was never heard from. At first, I thought he’d been killed, but his body never turned up anywhere. And who would have wanted to kill him?” She shrugge
d. “It didn't make sense. I knew in my heart he’d never willingly leave me. We were set to marry and he bought me Rose Cottage. He worked hard on it for weeks to make it a nice home.” She sighed.
Elsa-May bit into a cookie and chomped loudly. “And you want Ettie to find out what happened to him?”
Ettie looked at Elsa-May, wide-eyed and totally surprised. How would she possibly find out what had happened to Jedidiah after all these years?
“That's exactly why I'm here.” Nell grabbed Ettie’s arm and Ettie jumped in fright at the suddenness of the movement. “Would you find out what happened to him for me, Ettie?”
“I'd love to help you, Nell, but I wouldn't know where to start. So many years have gone by.”
“It won’t be easy, of course, but Ettie will help you,” Elsa-May said calmly. “Tell us everything you can remember. Think about what happened in the last days before he disappeared.” Elsa-May raised her eyebrows and leaned forward to take another cookie while Ettie narrowed her eyes in frustration at Elsa-May for giving the poor woman false hope. And, for volunteering her help.
“I gave up on him coming back. Some old ladies from the community suggested that Gott took him up to heaven without him dying, just as he did Enoch and Elijah in the bible.” Nell sighed. “It would be nice if that were true. He was special to me, but he was just an ordinary man.”
“Jah, that would be a good way for all of us to go,” Elsa-May chuckled.
Nell didn’t even smile at Elsa-May’s comment. “After I married Abraham, I didn't want him to know I was still wondering what happened to Jedidiah, although, he’d have known how I felt about him. Everyone knew we were to be married. You can’t just forget about someone you loved so much.” She stared at Ettie, and Ettie nodded.
“It would’ve been so hard not knowing,” Elsa-May said.
“It’s always been at the back of my mind. It’s been something that never left me. I thought I’d never know, but then yesterday it struck me. Who would I be hurting now if I resumed my search for Jedidiah? Do you understand what I mean?”
“Undoubtedly,” Elsa-May said with cookie crumbs spilling out of her mouth.
Ettie grimaced and passed Elsa-May a napkin. “Jah, that would have put you in a difficult position, if you had looked for him while you were married. Where did you see Jedidiah last?”
“It was at Rose Cottage. It was the last place he was seen by anyone. He was working on it every day. He’d go to his regular job, then come home and do more work on the cottage, and then start again early the next morning. It was like he had two jobs.”
Ettie cast her mind back to the old stone cottage. In her mind, she was sure Jedidiah bought the old place for them to live in after they married. Then Nell had ended up living in the place after he’d disappeared. “When did he buy Rose Cottage?”
“You’re going to stay on there?” Elsa-May asked, talking over Ettie's question.
“Jah, they’ll be carrying me out in a box.” She smiled sweetly. “I’ll never leave the place willingly.”
Ettie and Elsa-May had been to the house many times.
“It’s a lovely place and the rose garden is one of the best I’ve seen,” Elsa-May said.
“It’s not an easy climate to grow them in. I was fortunate that Abraham loved the roses too, and he loved the haus. Even in the last months when he was frail he’d never let anyone inside the rose garden, not even the grosskinner.” Nell chuckled. “Especially not the grosskinner when they were younger. He insisted on doing all the work himself even when he became ill. To answer your question, Ettie,” Nell continued, “Jedidiah bought the cottage a few months before our wedding date. I’d say it might have been ten or twelve weeks before.”
“How did you come to own the place after he disappeared?”
“He bought it for me, and it was officially put in my name before he was gone. As I said, I was fortunate that Abraham loved the place as much as I did, and he never resented the fact that it had come from Jedidiah. Abraham moved in after we married and, as you know, we raised our family there. It’s a special place to me.”
Since her sister had volunteered their help, Ettie gathered some background information. Knowing he'd been last seen at Rose Cottage, that was where she began. “Why did he buy the place?”
“He knew I loved it.”
Elsa-May said, “Forgive me for asking, but how did Jedidiah have so much money to buy Rose Cottage? I mean, he would’ve been so young, and you would’ve only been around eighteen I’m guessing?”
“Nineteen. He said he had all the money and bought it outright, but my best guess is he borrowed money from an unscrupulous man. Because someone came looking for him twice when I was there watching the progress of the renovations. Jedidiah talked to him away from me, so I couldn’t hear what was said, but the man had an angry face and was using threatening hand gestures.”
Ettie and Elsa-May stared at each other. This might be the quickest mystery they’d ever had to solve.
“Jedidiah told me he had plenty of money, but looking back now I think he’d been trying to impress me. Nee, not impress, that’s the wrong word.”
“Make you feel secure?” Elsa-May asked.
“That’s it.” Nell’s lips turned upward at the corners. The relevance of what Nell had just said about Jedidiah borrowing money apparently sailed right over her own head, and she continued, “Jah, he knew I loved the old place. Not long after he bought it he signed it over to me.” Nell repeated, and then sighed. “He was fixing it up for us to live in, and one of the first things he did was to start replanting the old rose garden to make it look like it had when we were growing up.” She drew a quick breath. “The haus was very old and needed a lot of work, though, so he left off the garden project and focused on just getting the haus ready to live in.”
Ettie didn't think it would be likely that the man would run away after investing so much time and money into a house for them to live in after their nuptials. “Tell me this, Nell, who was the last person to see him?”
“The murderer, of course, Ettie!” Elsa-May said. The kettle whistled, and Elsa-May stood up to make the tea.
Ettie clapped her hands to the sides of her face in shock. “We don't know that he was murdered yet, Elsa-May. We have to deal in the facts, and all we know for certain is he disappeared.” Ettie reached out and patted Nell’s hand when she noticed she had been taken aback when Elsa-May mentioned murder.
Nell put her hand over her heart. “It’s okay, Ettie. I feel, deep down, he was killed. It seems the only explanation, and that was the reason that I stopped looking for him. Otherwise I could never have married Abraham.”
Elsa-May sat down. “His disappearance was talked about for many years. It’s been the greatest mystery of our community.”
“Even his family never had any word from him.” Nell sighed. “Back then, I wrote to all his relatives. There was no one close, just second cousins and an aunt and an onkel. I’ve got a vague idea they weren’t truly related, he just called them aunt and onkel. I wrote to them and everyone else I could think of. And every few weeks I put notices in the Amish newspapers.”
Elsa-May leaned forward. “No one came looking for him after he died? These unscrupulous men?”
“Nee. But there was only ever the one man. I never heard anything from him, and never saw him again.”
“This man, how do you know he was unscrupulous?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’ve already told you.”
Ettie asked, “You don’t remember his name?”
“Nee, but over the years I’ve been trying to figure things out and this is my best guess. Jedidiah didn't know how fast he’d have to pay the money back that he’d borrowed to buy Rose Cottage. I know he didn’t think much of banks because he’d made a few comments about them. I think he borrowed money from a private lender and thought we could pay the money back over twenty or thirty years.” She shook her head. “I guess he wasn't good with that kind of thing. His parents, w
hen they were alive, were very protective of him.”
“I can understand why they were, under the circumstances,” Ettie said, knowing about the miscarriages his mother had suffered. He was the only child who’d survived. “You need to tell us more, Nell. We need to know everything.”
“I'm not holding back anything, Ettie. You ask anything you need to know.”
“Do you have a loan on the cottage?”
“Nee. I own it free and clear.”
That told Ettie the man wasn’t there to have a loan paid off. Not a loan on the house at least. “What was happening around him the last day before he disappeared?” Ettie leaned forward to better hear Nell’s answer.
Loud knocking on their door interrupted them. Elsa-May opened it to see Jennifer, Nell’s older sister. “Jennifer, hello. Nell’s here.”
“I know. I figured she’d be here, by what she said yesterday.” Jennifer barged into the house, nearly stepping on Elsa-May’s toes as she went right through to the kitchen. Elsa-May had managed to move out of the way just in time, and followed Jennifer into the kitchen. Looking over at Nell, Jennifer said, “So. There you are.”
“Jah, I’m just talking to Ettie and Elsa-May—”
“About Jedidiah?”
“Jah.”
Elsa-May said, “Do sit down and join us, Jennifer.”
Jennifer pressed her lips together, gave Elsa-May a nod and sat down next to her sister. “If you’d told me you were coming out here, Nell, I could’ve come with you.”
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Anyway, continue what you were saying.” She stared at Nell almost as though she were daring her to continue. Jennifer wasn’t happy and everyone in the room knew it. Her presence had come with an atmosphere like a dark and threatening thundercloud.
“I was talking about Jedidiah, asking Ettie to help find him.”
“You think he’s alive, then?” Jennifer asked.
“I don’t. I should have said, 'to find out what happened to him.'“
“Continue, Nell,” Elsa-May said with a smile of encouragement.
Amish Mystery at Rose Cottage Page 2