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Since her arrival from northern Indiana, Sarah had been working as a nanny for the Summerhays family, who lived almost two miles east along the road toward Rupert, Vermont. There were four kinder, two preteens and two much younger kinder. Sarah told them it was what Englischers called a blended family. The parents had been married before. Miriam didn’t know if death or divorce had led to the daed and mamm remarrying, and she didn’t ask. She assumed Sarah knew, but her friend wouldn’t carry tales about the family’s private business.
Leanna opened a textbook and turned the pages. “Here’s the address for the publisher. If Mrs. Summerhays doesn’t have a suggestion, I can write to the publisher and ask how to order more books. In the meantime, the scholars may have to share.”
“A gut lesson for them,” Annie said. “And the lesson for us is that the men working on the schoolhouse are going to be grouchy if there isn’t food waiting for them for dinner.”
They laughed and got to work unpacking food from the baskets. Squeezing cold casseroles into the small refrigerator along with the dishes Miriam had prepared, they set the hot selections on the table atop towels so the wood wasn’t scorched. More food would be arriving soon.
“Mercy promised to make nachos,” Miriam said as she handed several more glasses to Annie.
“Your neighbor is Hispanic, ain’t so?” Annie asked.
“Ja, but she told me she learned to make nachos from her adoptive mamm. Her adoptive Mennonite mamm.”
That brought more laughter as they worked together.
“Before the others get here,” Annie said, “we need to plan another event for the Harmony Creek Spinsters’ Club.” She giggled. “I love getting to spend time with you. What does your brother think of it, Miriam?”
“I haven’t said anything to him about our club.” Her embarrassment faded when she saw the uneasy expressions on the twins’ faces. “I guess you haven’t, either.”
“It sounds as if we’re desperate to be married,” Annie murmured.
“Or have given up.” Leanna clasped her hands in front of her. “I believe there’s a man out there who will fall in love with me.”
“All you have to do is not be looking for him, ain’t so?” teased her twin. “Isn’t that what you say the heroines in your romance novels do?”
Color burnished Leanna’s cheeks. “I know those are just stories, Annie. I like reading them.”
“I do, too.” Annie’s face became almost the same shade as Leanna’s. “But if the right man comes along...” She sighed. “I don’t want to lose this friendship.”
“Once a member of the Harmony Creek Spinsters’ Club, always a member, ain’t so?” Miriam laughed, so glad she could let her worries slide away at least for a short while. Between the kinder coming for lessons and having Eli across the road day after day, in addition to teaching him to read lips, not thinking about those hurdles was a blessing. “We could rename it—”
“No! Don’t change its name.” Annie leaned forward with clasped hands. “Please!”
“But if none of us has told anyone—”
“The next one we come up with could be worse.” Annie shuddered.
Again, they shared a big chuckle.
“If you’d let me finish...” Miriam waited until they were listening again. “I suggest we rename our older girls’ group the Harmony Creek Spinsters’ and Newlyweds’ Club.”
Leanna brightened. “That’s perfect.”
“Do you have something to share, little sister?” asked Annie as she winked at Miriam. “Big plans for the fall?”
Taking pity on the younger woman, Miriam put her arm around Leanna’s shoulder. “I thought brothers were awful about picking on their sisters, but I think Annie takes the cake.”
“Did I hear someone say cake?” called a deep voice from the door.
Miriam started to turn to motion to her brother to come in, but her eyes were caught by how pale Leanna’s face became.
The young woman clamped her lips closed, but her gaze followed every motion Caleb made as he sauntered into the room and greeted them. When he spoke to Leanna, color erupted anew into her cheeks.
Could Leanna have a crush on Caleb? And did he look and smile at Leanna a bit longer than he did Annie? Caleb had been gone in the evening a lot lately. Was he walking out with Leanna?
Coming to her feet, Miriam knew she shouldn’t be speculating on such private matters. A couple who was seeing each other didn’t make that fact public until their intentions to marry were published two weeks before their wedding.
“You don’t have an oven here, do you?” asked Annie.
He shook his head. “And I miss baked goodies.” He winked at Miriam.
Her brother didn’t like anyone outside the family to know he was a far better baker than she was. She could make tasty food, but he managed to create treats that were delicious and spectacular-looking. She understood his reluctance to share his skills with others. Few plain men spent time in the kitchen unless necessary.
“I wanted to give you a head’s up,” Caleb continued as he snatched a cookie off the tray the twins had brought. “We’ll be ready for dinner in about a half hour. Will that work for you?”
“Certainly.” Miriam smiled. “Do you want to eat at the school or here?”
“We’re going to set planks on sawhorses out in the yard. That way you can serve from here. Does that work for you?”
“Perfectly.”
The other women nodded.
As her brother hurried out to continue working, Miriam noticed Leanna wasn’t the only one watching. Her twin was, as well. Were they both interested in her gut-looking brother, or was something else going on?
Miriam didn’t have time to puzzle out an answer as two more women came into the barn, carrying additional food for the midday meal. As they worked together to have the meal ready for the laborers across the road, she didn’t have a chance to think of much of anything but the tasks at hand.
* * *
It was an excellent beginning.
Eli straddled the ridge board at the roof’s peak as if it were a horse. Looking at the level stretched out before him, he smiled. The bubble in the center glass of the lengthy tool was exactly in the middle. He held his right thumb up. Those who’d been working on the school cheered.
Handing the level to LaVon Schmelley, who’d moved into the hollow from Pennsylvania a month or so before Eli and his nephew arrived, Eli reached for his hammer as he waited for the first sheet of plywood to be slid toward him.
LaVon squinted through his gold-rimmed glasses as he handed off the level to someone standing on the ground and guided the large sheet into place. Eli nailed the top into place with an air-powered nail gun. LaVon used a regular hammer on the bottom.
The other man grinned and said something Eli didn’t catch; LaVon pointed to the ground. Eli looked down.
Caleb and Jeremiah Stoltzfus, whose farms shared a common border, motioned toward them. Eli couldn’t guess what they were trying to communicate. When LaVon edged to the ladder while the other men put aside their tools and walked across the road, Eli guessed it was time to eat.
His stomach rumbled at the thought and tightened with anxiety. He hesitated while the men began lifting plywood on top of sawhorses. From where he sat, he could see Miriam working with a half dozen other women to arrange chairs around the makeshift tables.
He groaned, wishing he had some excuse not to join the communal meal. Unlike on church Sundays, he couldn’t slip away. He was needed to oversee the afternoon’s work. A quick glance at the ground warned he couldn’t use needing to get more supplies as an excuse for why he couldn’t sit with the rest of the workers while they ate.
Taking a deep breath, he climbed down. He took his time switching off the nail gun and the air compressor. Without its low rumble, he caught staccato hints of voices and laughter. No specific words, but he guessed the atmosphere was casual and cordial. He wished he could feel that way, too.
Pausing to wash his hands at the hand pump set between the barn and the dilapidated house, Eli walked to where a generous assortment of food was arranged on planks that would be used on the school’s roof and walls. Drawing in a deep breath of the aromas, he helped himself to a variety of casseroles, a couple rolls and apple butter. Conversation buzzed like a swarm of maddened bees, and he picked out a few words. Enough to let him know most of the discussion was about the progress on the school.
He smiled. That he could talk about, though he wished Kyle was there. His nephew was gut about clueing him in to the specifics of anyone’s comment.
Taking a seat at the end of one makeshift table, he said silent grace before digging into his food. It was as tasty as it smelled. He’d learned that bending over his plate and appearing completely focused on his meal kept others from trying to draw him into the conversation.
He couldn’t keep himself from looking at where Miriam sat at a nearby “table.” She was chatting with her friends, and they laughed with an ease that suggested they’d known each other their whole lives. He remembered when it’d been simple to be around people and enjoy their company, but that seemed as if it were part of someone else’s life.
Suddenly, she looked in his direction.
And caught him watching her.
A piece of roll stuck in his throat, and he fought not to cough. It would draw everyone’s attention.
Miriam will help you learn to understand others better.
He couldn’t deny the truth, but spending time with her might only increase how often she invaded his thoughts. A bad idea. He couldn’t see any outcome other than her dumping him as Betty Ann had or her trying to shower him with compassion. He didn’t want either, especially the latter because he’d come to equate compassion with pity.
When Caleb called out what must have been a jesting comment because everyone laughed, Eli chuckled, too, though he had no idea what Caleb had said. He relaxed when he realized the topic was how he was looking to establish himself as a carpenter. Questions were fired at him, and he kept nodding, hoping he wasn’t committing himself to something he didn’t have the skills to do.
“...more pie?” asked Miriam as she held a plate out in front of him.
The aroma of baked apples flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg made his mouth water. He took the plate. “Danki.”
“You...doing well.”
“Ja, you’ll be moving the scholars into the school before you end your summer term.”
Her smile wavered as it did whenever he mentioned her teaching the kinder. Curiosity tugged at his tongue, urging him to ask the obvious questions.
He didn’t.
If he started probing into why she acted as she did, she might do the same to him. He didn’t want to talk about the tragedy...again and again as he’d had to in Delaware.
“You...rest doing a gut job,” she said before she put another piece of pie in front of a man who’d been cutting two-by-fours.
In spite of himself, Eli’s hand paused between the plate and his mouth while he watched the other men’s gazes following Miriam. That wasn’t any surprise, because she was lovely. What was a surprise was the swell of something distasteful when she wore a brilliant smile as she answered a man on the other side of the table.
Jealousy.
For the time she was spending with the others? Or for how easy it was for them to talk with her?
Or both?
Lord, help me focus on what’s important for me and for Kyle.
It was a prayer he needed to keep in his heart every hour of every day.
Yet, it was impossible to look away when Miriam set a plate in front of LaVon, who was sitting across from him. She said something to the other man, but her gaze locked again with Eli’s.
This time she didn’t look away like a frightened rabbit. She met his eyes. The bits of voices he could discern faded as he became lost in the connection between them. Every instinct told him to tear his gaze away. He didn’t.
Was it confusion he saw on her face? Was she as baffled and uncertain about this invisible bridge that spanned the distance between them?
Eli had no time to puzzle that out because she looked toward the other end of the tables. Just as everyone else did. Belatedly, he copied the others’ motions.
Caleb had risen to his feet. He was smiling as he spoke, but Eli caught only two words.
“Fire department...”
He didn’t know what else Caleb had said. Whatever it was must have been important because the other men were sitting back, considering Caleb’s words. Eli waited for one or more of them to ask questions so he could discover why Caleb had mentioned a fire department.
“Volunteers...?” asked LaVon.
“Ja.” Caleb smiled as he sat again and folded his arms on the table. When Eli strained, he picked out the words, “With more houses...Harmony Creek...more volunteers. We’re here during the day. That...gut for the department.”
Eli understood. Or hoped he did. The local fire department was looking for more volunteers, especially those who were at home during the day. From what he’d learned about Salem, most people worked in other towns, some driving more than thirty miles each way. A fire during the day would get out of control without enough volunteers to fight it. The arrival of the Amish who worked on their farms was the perfect solution to the quandary.
“Interested?” asked Caleb as he looked in Eli’s direction.
“Ja. I volunteered in Delaware.” He wished he hadn’t jumped on the chance when he saw Miriam frown in his direction.
He understood what she didn’t say. Kyle had told him about the sirens that had sped past on the main road, the ones Eli hadn’t heard when he went to talk to Miriam about the schoolhouse plans. No wonder she looked puzzled that he was volunteering to be a firefighter.
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