A Hope Springs Christmas

Turning around, she noticed the back of the shop held various pieces of wood waiting to be assembled into buggy tops and doors. In the far corner of the building, an area had been partitioned off and enclosed to make a room for cutting and sewing upholstery. The old sewing machine was operated with a foot pedal. She knew it well.

Although almost all the buggies they made were black, as required by their church, a person could order anything from red velvet to black leather for the buggy’s interior and seats. Jonas’s courting buggy had dark blue velvet upholstery. When he sold it two years after their wedding she cried like a baby.

She smiled at the memory, but she wasn’t here to relive the past. She went looking for Levi. Would he have something to say about her usurping his authority in dealing with customers? She found him working on the undercarriage of a buggy at the very back of the building. Or rather, she found his feet.

The sole of his left shoe was worn through. He had used a piece of cardboard inside to keep his socks dry. Did his socks have holes in them, too? She imagined they did for the hems of his pant legs were worn and frayed. Grace was wrong. Levi didn’t need a wife. He desperately needed a wife.

Someone with housewifely skills to mend and darn for him and to make sure he was properly clothed. Someone to insist he get new shoes for the winter instead of making do with cardboard insoles. She’d paid no attention to the business books after Jonas died, preferring to leave all that in Levi’s hands. Was the business doing poorly? Or was Levi frugal to the extreme?

Clearly, it was time she got her head back into the business. “Levi, may I speak with you?”

A grunt was her answer. Was it a yes grunt or a no grunt? Only his feet moved as he struggled with some hidden problem. She decided to be optimistic. “I’d like to take a look at the ledgers.”

His feet stilled. “Why?”

She crouched down trying to see his face. “I realize that I’ve left the running of the business to you alone for far too long. We are partners in this, are we not?”

He wiggled backward out from under the carriage and sat up to glare at her. “I don’t cheat you.”

She pressed a hand to her chest. “Goodness, I never thought you did. I simply want to begin doing my share again. Jonas and I used to do the books together. I know what I’m looking at.”

“Jonas is gone. I do the books now.” He lay down and started to inch back under the buggy.

Sarah was sorely tempted to kick the sole of his miserable excuse for a shoe, but she didn’t. More flies were caught with honey than with vinegar. “I don’t mean to step on your toes, Levi, but I am the owner of this shop, and I have a right to see the books. I’m sure you understand my position.”

“Help yourself,” came his muffled reply.

“Fine.” She left him to his work and headed for the small enclosed place that was used as an office. A wooden stool sat in front of a cluttered desk. Off to one side, a stack of ledgers and catalogs were piled together. She started by searching through them, but soon realized they weren’t what she needed.

She went back to his feet. “Where are the current ledgers, Levi?”

“Ask Grace.”

She blew out a huff of frustration. “I can’t very well ask Grace. She’s on her way to Pennsylvania.”

He came out from under the frame and rose to his feet. “Ja, she is. I wonder why my sister chose to go running off during our busiest season with inventory to do and four carriages to finish. No, wait. I know why she left. You told her to go.”

It was the longest speech he’d ever spoken to her. Sarah curbed her ire at his tone. “Grace didn’t tell you why she went to visit her grandmother?”

“All she said was that it was your idea.”

“Oh.” No wonder he seemed upset. Where should she start?

He folded his arms and stared at his shoes. “Is Grace in...trouble?” he asked, his voice low and worried.

“Trouble? You mean... Oh! No, no, it’s nothing like that. I hope she would confide in me if that were the case. No, she and Henry have gotten serious so quickly that I thought a short cooling-off time would give her a chance to decide if she really wanted to marry him or not.”

“Marry? Grace?”

Levi looked astonished by the idea. It was almost comical. Sarah struggled to hold back a smile. “That’s what young people do when they’ve been courting.”

“She’s too young to marry.” He turned to his tool chest and grabbed a second wrench.

“She’s the same age I was when Jonas and I married. I was twenty and he was twenty-seven.”

“That was different.” Levi didn’t look at her.

“How?”

“It just was. Grace Ann is a child.” He returned to his position under the buggy.

“Nee, Levi, your shveshtah is a grown woman. You must be prepared for her to marry and start a family of her own.”

A second grunt was her reply.

If Levi hadn’t considered where his sister’s courtship was leading, then Sarah really had her work cut out for her. Not only did she need to find a woman who could put up with his stoic ways, she needed to help him see that Grace was an adult. This could certainly make the coming winter months more interesting.

Sarah stared at Levi’s worn-out footwear. First things first, who did she know that might be ready for a husband?

Several women came to mind. There was the current schoolteacher, Leah Belier, a sweet-tempered woman in her late twenties. But having had the twins in school until two years ago, would she be willing to take them on a permanent basis? It would take a brave woman to do that.

It was too bad Susan Lapp had married Daniel Hershberger last month. While it was an excellent match for both of them, Susan would have been perfect for Levi. Big-boned and strong with a no-nonsense attitude, Susan was a woman who could keep Levi and the twins in line with one hand tied behind her back. Yes, it was too bad she was already taken.

There was Joann Yoder, but she was a year older than Levi. Sarah couldn’t see them together. Joann was nearly as shy as he was.

Mary Beth Zook was also a possibility. Sarah wondered how the bishop and his wife would feel about two of their children marrying into the Beachy family. Perhaps Mary Beth wasn’t the best choice, but Sarah didn’t rule her out.

Another woman who came to mind was Fannie Nissley, the niece of David and Martha Nissley. She had come to Hope Springs to help the family when Martha had been injured by an overturned wagon a few years before. Martha was fully recovered, but Fannie stayed on because she liked the area.

Sarah guessed her age to be twenty-five or -six. As far as she knew, Fannie wasn’t seeing anyone. This coming Sunday after the prayer service would be a good time to find out for sure. Aunt Emma would know if any of the single women in the area had already made a commitment.

Sarah suddenly thought of Sally Yoder. Sally currently worked for Elam Sutter in his basket-weaving business. Sally was only in her early twenties, but she might be ready to settle down. She had a good head on her shoulders and could help Levi manage the business.

Sarah looked around the building and remembered the many hours she and Jonas had spent poring over the company books and inventory, trying to stretch a nickel into a dollar to make ends meet. They hadn’t seemed like good times back then, but now she cherished every moment she and her husband had spent working and struggling together.

God took him too soon.

Memories, both good and not so good, filled her mind. As she looked around, it was easy to see traces of Jonas everywhere. The chair where he sat as he ordered supplies was still waiting at the counter, as though he might return at any minute. Of course, Levi used it now.

The workbench Jonas made from scrap lumber had stood the test of time, but it had been shifted from its original position. So had the boxes of parts that once lined the wall above it. Now, they stood along the west wall, closer to where the bulk of the woodwork for the buggies took place. It was a better spot, and she could see why Levi had done it.

She said, “You have made many changes in here. I see you moved the workbench to beneath the south windows. Was that for better light?”

He didn’t answer. Sarah crossed to the workbench Jonas had fashioned and laid her hand on the worn wood. She could almost feel him here beside her. Looking out the window, she realized that Levi had an unobstructed view of the narrow street outside and of her kitchen window across the way.

How many times had she sat at that table and cried, worried and prayed since Jonas’s passing. Had Levi seen it all?

She glanced toward the buggy frame. He was no longer underneath it. He stood, wrenches in each hand, watching her with a guarded expression on his face.

* * *

Levi wondered if she realized how pretty she was with the early morning sunshine streaming through the window, bathing her face in golden light. Her features were as delicate as the frost that etched the corners of the glass behind her.

Her white kapp glowed brightly, almost like a halo around her heart-shaped face. Her blond hair, carefully parted in the middle and all but hidden beneath her bonnet gave only a hint of the luxurious beauty her uncut tresses must hold. Only a husband and God should view a woman’s crowing glory. For a second, Levi envied Jonas’s right to behold Sarah’s hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back.

The ribbons of her kapp were untied and drew Levi’s attention to the curve of her jaw and the slenderness of her neck. To his eyes, she grew more beautiful with each passing year. It was no wonder Jonas had fallen in love with her.

Levi dropped his gaze to his feet, afraid what he was thinking would somehow show in his eyes. She was his best friend’s wife. It was wrong of him to think of her as beautiful.

“Do you mind?” he asked.

When she didn’t answer, he looked up. She glanced out the window and then at him.

“Do I mind what?” she asked with an odd inflection in her tone.

He waved his arm to indicate the shop. “The changes?”

“Nee, it is your workspace,” she said quickly.

“Goot.” He returned his tools to the wooden tray and carried it to the workbench, sliding it into its place on the end of the counter where Jonas had kept it.

Levi hadn’t been much younger than the twins were now when the local sheriff brought word that their parents were dead. They had both drowned when their buggy was overturned and swept away while they had been trying to cross a flooded roadway.

Jonas had come to the house and offered Levi a job when he was ready. Levi never forgot Jonas’s kindness in treating him like an adult, like a man with responsibilities instead of like a boy who needed someone to look after him and his siblings.

As Jonas taught Levi the buggy-building trade, Levi had quickly realized Jonas would have been smarter to hire someone who already knew the business rather than an untried teenager.

When he mentioned his thoughts on the subject, Jonas had laid a hand on Levi’s shoulder and said, “I want to work with someone I respect and enjoy being around. You and I are a good fit. Besides, if I teach you how to do a thing, I know it will be done right.”

Levi never forgot that moment. He became determined to learn everything Jonas had to teach so that his respect was not misplaced. In that, Levi believed he had succeeded.

Sarah had followed Levi to the counter. She asked, “Do you mind my helping out until Grace returns?”

“Not much choice,” he conceded gruffly.

“I’m sorry that my advice to Grace sent her racing off so quickly. I honestly thought she would talk it over with you and the two of you could decide when a good time for her visit would be. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Grace can be impulsive.” To his surprise, it wasn’t all that difficult to talk to Sarah. His throat didn’t close around the words and keep them prisoner as it usually did.

She laughed aloud at his comment. “That’s an understatement.”

Levi cringed and felt the heat rush to his face. Was she laughing at him or with him? Did it matter?

Sarah said, “I’m at your beck and call, so put me to work. What needs doing in here today that Grace would normally do?”

What he wanted was for her to go home. The workshop was his sanctuary. How could it be a place of peace with Sarah in it? She disrupted everything, including his thinking.

He said, “Nothing I can’t handle.” Now maybe she would leave.

“I can at least clean up.” She turned around, grabbed a red rag from the box he kept them in and began straightening his workbench, moving his tools around and brushing at the bits of loose wood on the countertop.

He didn’t like people touching his stuff. “Don’t mess with my tools.”

She paid him no mind. “I’m not messing with them, I’m cleaning off your workspace.”

“Stop,” he pleaded.

She held up a lone drill bit. “Where does this go?”

“Take it home with you,” he snapped abruptly.

He shut his mouth in horror. He’d never spoken harshly to anyone.

Sarah stared at him for the longest moment and then chuckled with delight. “You are so amusing, Levi. And Grace told me you don’t have a sense of humor. Take it home with me, how funny. I’ll find where it goes. You get back to work and pretend I’m not even here.”

Like that was possible. He turned away before he said something he would surely regret.

She kept dusting. “I’ll have this cleaned up in no time. I remember how to do inventory, too. It won’t be long before the end of the year. Might as well get a jump on it. I’ll start on that when I’m done with this.”

“No need.” Inventory would take days. Days with Sarah underfoot wasn’t something he wanted to endure. He needed to be able to concentrate. She didn’t take the hint.

“I don’t mind. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy being out here. Don’t you love the smell of leather and wood? It’s comforting knowing that each piece on the walls around me has a place and a function. I’m glad I told Grace I would help. This place could use some sprucing up, though.”

Jonas had often said that Sarah had a one-track mind when she wanted to do something. Levi didn’t know how true that statement was until three hours later when she was using a long-handled broom and an overturned bucket to reach cobwebs that had hung from the rafters longer than she had been alive.

Unless he took her by the arm, led her to the door and locked it behind her, he was going to be stuck with Sarah until Grace returned.

Please, Lord, let Grace’s visit be a short one.

Levi drew a deep breath. It was almost lunchtime, and he hadn’t gotten nearly enough done. His eyes were constantly drawn to where Sarah was working.

He had orders to fill and much to do in the coming weeks. When there was snow on the ground, many Amish families brought their farm wagons and buggies in to be repaired while they used their sleighs. With Christmas less than a month away, he was sure to get swamped with work soon.

Moving to the carriage body he was working on, he studied the list of accessories Grace had written out for him to add. The buggy was for Daniel Hershberger’s new bride. The well-to-do businessman was sparing no expense for his wife’s buggy. As Levi marked out the wood for the extra-sturdy seats to be added, Sarah began humming a hymn. After a few bars, she began singing softly. She had a lovely voice, soothing and sweet.

Levi gripped his handsaw and drew it back and forth across the board. The sound blocked Sarah’s voice and he stopped.

She must have noticed because she asked, “Does my singing bother you?”

He looked toward her and found her watching him intently. “Nee, it’s nice.”

She gave him a sweet smile and went back to work, humming as she did so. Maybe having her around for a few weeks wouldn’t be so bad after all.

The outside door opened and Henry Zook walked in. He nodded to Sarah and crossed the room to stand in front of Levi. “I must speak with Grace. Is she about?”

Levi could feel his throat growing tight. This was not a conversation he wanted to have. He cast a speaking glance at Sarah. This was her doing. She would have to make it right.

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