The Bridesmaid Page 6

  May this supper go well, prayed Joanna.

  She could hardly wait to share her meal with Eben. But then the back door opened once again, and Cora Jane stepped inside, as if she’d never gone anywhere at all.

  Suddenly realizing that Mamma had set the table with only four plates, Joanna scrambled quickly to the cupboard and pulled out another for Cora Jane. It would never do for her sister to think she wasn’t wanted, not after spending all day with Mammi Sadie next door, undoubtedly stewing.

  But Cora Jane caught her eye just then and saw what Joanna was doing. She raised an eyebrow as Joanna placed the plate and an extra set of utensils on the table. This is sure to set her off again!

  By the time Dat came into the kitchen after washing up, Joanna didn’t know whom to introduce to Eben first. But it was her sister who looked the most interested, standing in the middle of the room and trying not to be conspicuous in her scrutiny of Joanna’s beau.

  “Cora Jane, I’d like you to meet Eben Troyer from Shipshewana,” Joanna said, finding her voice. “Eben, this is my sister Cora Jane.”

  “Hullo.” Eben offered to shake her hand, which she did with a pleasant enough smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you and your family . . . put faces to names, ya know.”

  “Willkumm to Hickory Hollow,” Cora Jane said, eyeing the table again. She went to her regular spot to the left of Dat, who’d dried his hands and was moseying around Eben’s duffel bag to the head of the table now without stopping to speak.

  “Dat, this is my friend . . . Eben Troyer,” Joanna said, holding her breath for what he might say.

  Her father said hullo agreeably, then stuck out his hand to shake Eben’s.

  “Gut to meet ya.”

  “Please call me Nate,” Dat said as he took his seat. “That’ll be just fine.”

  Cora Jane attempted to squelch the smirk that appeared at this but failed. Joanna was on pins and needles as she went around the table to the right of Mamma, where she sat with Eben on her opposite side.

  So the suppertime setting was lopsided, instead of the way Joanna had envisioned things earlier, without her sister present. At least Cora Jane had shown some respect and come home to meet Eben. Yet Joanna still wasn’t convinced that was such a good thing.

  ———

  Eben found the unspoken interplay between Joanna and her younger sister curious. There was certainly an undercurrent of tension between them, yet Joanna hadn’t referred much in her letters to Cora Jane or to her older, married siblings, all of whom had two or more children of their own. She had written mostly about the sister named Salina and her three S’s, as Joanna liked to call her young nephew and two nieces. And Joanna had also told of an English friend named Amelia, who played the fiddle, as well as an elderly woman nicknamed the Wise Woman and other folk who lived there in the hollow.

  Eben listened as Rhoda Kurtz praised Joanna’s cooking skills, finding it somewhat humorous. After all, his taste buds were definitely in the know, and right this very minute, too.

  “Joanna cooks and bakes near everything from scratch,” Rhoda added.

  “ ’Cept for her pizzas,” Cora Jane said, leaping into the conversation, her eyes sparkling mischief.

  Eben felt Joanna stiffen on the wooden bench next to him.

  “Oh jah, the store-bought tomato sauce,” Rhoda defended Joanna. “Well, all the womenfolk use it.”

  Eben glanced at Nate Kurtz, a seeming caricature with a healthy appetite. His graying beard had somehow managed to grow in the shape of a V, something Eben hadn’t seen before. It almost looked as though someone had taken a scissors and trimmed it, and in a droll way, it complemented the man’s reserved demeanor.

  “Is this your first visit to Lancaster County?” asked Joanna’s mother, obviously changing the subject, and abruptly at that.

  “Sure is,” Eben said as he turned to smile at Joanna.

  “Had ya thought of comin’ sooner . . . to meet us, I mean?” Cora Jane said, her eyes fixed on her sister.

  Eben had to laugh. “Oh, many times.”

  Dear Joanna fidgeted next to him.

  “Couldn’t get away before now,” he explained. “Bein’ my father’s right hand, so to speak.” He thought now was as good a time as any to let Joanna and her family know about his dilemma. “You see, my younger brother’s away from the fold . . . left us two years ago. My father had him pegged to be his partner in running the farm, which hasn’t happened. Not just yet.”

  Cora Jane’s eyes widened, as did Nate’s. Eben didn’t look at Joanna or her mother just now.

  “Is that why you didn’t come to court my sister right away?” Cora Jane asked.

  Her father looked at her, face vexed. “Daughter . . .” he said softly, though the warning in his tone was clear enough. Then, turning toward Eben, he said, “You do plan to move here in time, ain’t?”

  Eben nodded. “That’s my intention.” He drew a long breath. “Once my brother returns home.”

  Cora Jane was looking at Joanna now, no doubt sending messages with her big eyes. It reminded Eben of Leroy, who’d always sat across from him at the table, pulling faces.

  “Well, you must know by now that Joanna’s already made her baptismal vow to God and the church here,” Rhoda remarked. “In accordance with our bishop.”

  “So how’s this ever goin’ to work, then?” Cora Jane blurted.

  “Sister, please!” Joanna said, nearly coming up off the bench.

  Cora Jane’s head went down and Nate’s shot up. Rhoda quickly rose and hurried to the stove, where she reached for the coffeepot. She returned to the table and began to pour it rather shakily into everyone’s cups, whether they’d asked for more or not.

  Eben felt it was on him to say something to calm things down. “All of my family, and many others in our community, are prayin’ for my brother Leroy to return to his senses, to join church.”

  “The Lord God is sovereign,” Rhoda said firmly, turning to carry the coffeepot back to the stove.

  “He certainly is,” agreed Eben.

  “In all His ways,” Nate Kurtz added.

  Eben made a mental note to privately ask Joanna’s father his permission to court her on Hickory Hollow soil. Given the concerned reaction at the table just now, that seemed like the wisest approach. Best to stick with my original plan.

  Chapter 10

  Joanna was surprised when Mamma let Cora Jane know that she alone was to be responsible for clearing the table and redding up the supper dishes.

  Meanwhile, Joanna managed to keep her composure until Dat took Eben outside to the barn. “You had no right to speak up like that, Cora Jane! What were ya thinkin’, for pity’s sake?”

  Cora Jane still sat at the table, leaning her head into her hands.

  “Now, girls,” Mamma said, getting up to look outside. “This’ll never do. Let’s make this a pleasant time.”

  “Well, Eben’s trouble.” Cora Jane rose from her seat. “He is . . . you’ll see.”

  “Listen here, I’d never think of talkin’ up to your beau like that.”

  “Well, don’t ya think it’s a gut thing I did?”

  Joanna left the kitchen to go and sit where she and Eben had enjoyed a quiet and relaxed moment, prior to supper. Before Cora Jane came home! She sat there, not knowing what to do. Would Eben take the next van out of here tonight yet? She wouldn’t blame him if he called for a driver immediately. What sort of hornet’s nest had he walked into? Ach, I hope he isn’t thinking the selfsame thing!

  She folded her hands, trying to soothe herself by taking deep breaths. Sometimes it was a good idea to just breathe, especially when feeling fit to be tied. Joanna looked out the window at the rising moon. Eben never told me about Leroy’s role in all of this, she thought, feeling sad.

  Even so, Eben was here now, and she believed he’d meant business about courting her. He had also been honest enough to share his quandary. So shouldn’t she simply make the best of their time together? Surely thing
s would work out eventually.

  Sighing, Joanna wished Cora Jane had just stayed put next door with Dawdi and Mammi for the day.

  Eben came inside to warm his hands by the heater stove and urged Joanna to dress “extra warm tonight.” Joanna layered up quickly, happy at the thought of going out. And then, with a word of good-bye to Mamma and Cora Jane, Eben picked up his duffel bag and they headed out together. Joanna was surprised to see the sleigh waiting and ready. Evidently, Dat and Eben had hitched Krissy up to the one-horse open sleigh as a treat.

  “Thought it’d be fun to see the area while it’s snowing,” Eben said, guiding her by the elbow as they made their way over the slippery sidewalk and across the driveway.

  Even though she was fully capable of getting into the sleigh on her own, Joanna accepted his help, a feeling of relief settling on her. At least he’s not ready to rush right home, she thought.

  Nightfall was approaching as they set out for the evening, turning west on Hickory Lane. Snow was falling more gently now.

  She smiled at Eben and was surprised to see he was looking at her, his soft brown eyes seeking her out. “I want to apologize for my sister’s impertinence at supper,” she said, then paused. “I’m awful sorry.”

  “I didn’t mind, really,” he said kindly. “Maybe it’s all for the best . . . getting things out in the open right away, ya know?”

  “Well, I’m sure her outspokenness bothered my parents. And me.”

  Eben reached for her hand. He held it close against his chest. “I don’t mind a plainspoken woman at all, ’specially when she’s speakin’ what she believes in.”

  Joanna couldn’t imagine her father saying something like that. Most men she knew felt just the opposite—they wanted their women to be passive and obedient. And even though her own father was a man of little speech, he was most definitely the family patriarch. He made all of the big decisions. Mamma was fairly placid when it came to Dat.

  They were coming up now on Samuel and Rebecca Lapp’s sandstone house. Seeing the downstairs windows glowing with old-fashioned amber light made her think of the Lapps’ adopted daughter, Katie, who lived in the English world, not far from Hickory Hollow. Since she was shunned, Katie was still very much out of arm’s reach of the People.

  “There’s a nice big pond out behind the Lapps’ barn,” she told Eben. “I’ve skated on it many times.”

  “Maybe we could go before my ride leaves tomorrow afternoon. Would ya like that?”

  She smiled, delighted he was so accommodating. “That’d be wonderful-gut.”

  Riding a little ways beyond Samuel and Rebecca’s home, Joanna pointed out their bishop’s farmhouse. “John Beiler was a young widower, but eventually he remarried a much younger woman,” Joanna mentioned. “You’ll be stayin’ at his wife’s parents’ house tonight—Abe and Rachel Stoltzfus are just across the field from us.”

  “Then I guess it might not be a gut idea to be out all hours, jah?” He winked and playfully pulled her closer.

  “I didn’t mean that,” she chuckled, explaining that Rachel had said the back door would be unlocked. “You can sleep in the downstairs guest bedroom, just to the right of the kitchen. She’ll keep a lantern lit for ya.”

  “So we do have all night, then.” Eben kissed her gloved hand.

  “If we don’t mind getting frostbit.”

  His laughter filled the sky. “I won’t let you get too cold, believe me,” he said, pointing to the woolen lap blankets. “Your father saw to it that I was well supplied.”

  Which means Dat approves of Eben. “The two of you conspired, then?”

  “In so many words.”

  Joanna caught his meaning and had to smile. He must not mind Dat’s reticence, she decided.

  “He wasn’t reluctant to give his blessing when I asked,” Eben surprised her by saying. “But I made it clear where the courting will take place. And now we must pray fervently for Leroy’s return.”

  She wished things didn’t depend upon his brother’s actions. But she was hesitant to say so.

  “Where to now?” he asked when they came to a crossroads.

  “I know! The one-room schoolhouse is comin’ up soon,” she said, pointing with her free hand. “You’ll see it in the moonlight.”

  “Did you ever teach school after eighth-grade graduation?” he said.

  “I was never asked, but my sister Salina did for three years before she was engaged.”

  “What about Cora Jane?” he asked. “Did she?”

  “There was some talk of it, but she was passed over for one of our cousins.”

  “And why was that?”

  Joanna didn’t want to shed more negative light on her sister. “Cora Jane just wasn’t ready.”

  “Too blunt . . . is that it?”

  “Maybe so.”

  Eben slowed the horse a bit. “If your school board’s anything like ours, I understand. They tend to have rather inflexible expectations.”

  She agreed as they pulled into the school yard. Eben helped Joanna down from the sleigh, keeping her hand in his even after she was safely down.

  ———

  Eben slipped his arm around Joanna while they peered into the windows of the little schoolhouse. She pointed to the large plaque on the wall, just over the chalkboard: Trust in the Lord.

  “It’s been there for as long as I can remember,” she said. Joanna was talkative, even expressive, and he liked the way she strung her phrases together—made him think she was well read, although she never mentioned books. Certainly her letters were exceptional. She wrote in a manner he’d never encountered before, as if she were sharing her very heart on the page.

  “Come, Eben, I want to show you where I used to sit and eat my snack during afternoon recess.” She tugged on his hand, and he loved that she seemed so comfortable with him.

  He followed her around to the front of the school, near the steps. “Were you a shy girl?”

  “Well, I still am . . . sometimes.” She smiled up at him, blinking her eyes.

  “Most of the time, right?”

  “S’pose so.” She led him to the swing on the far left. “Right here. This was always my spot,” she told him. “I liked to swing as hard as I could, sometimes leaning back and lookin’ down at the ground almost upside down, just a-yearnin’ for that giddy feeling in my stomach. Know what I mean?”

  Did he ever! “I did that hundreds of times.” He paused. “So you took your snacks to the swing?”

  “I put my lunchbox on the ground until I got tired of swinging fast; then I dillydallied and ate my snacks later, dragging my feet in the dirt.”

  “Ah, but only after you tired yourself out.”

  “My classmates didn’t call me schpassich for nothin’.” Her laugh was delicate in the cold air.

  “I don’t find you peculiar at all, Joanna.”

  “Well, you’re still getting to know me, jah?”

  Eben stepped near, reaching for her again and catching the scent of her perfume. “I can’t wait till we have more time for that. And . . . I’m thinkin’ our courtship shouldn’t last too long.” Looking into Joanna’s eyes, he was incredibly drawn to her. He wanted to take her in his arms right then and there. He had to purposely force away the thought of kissing her parted lips.

  “We best be goin’,” she said, apparently sensing what he was feeling. “There’s so much more to see.”

  Sighing inwardly, he agreed. There was plenty of time to demonstrate his affection for her—a whole lifetime ahead. Lord willing.

  Snow was falling harder now, and it made him remember the woolen blankets, which he unfolded and placed over her once Joanna was settled back in the sleigh. “Let me know if you’re still chilly. All right?” he said, loving the sweet, reserved way she had about her.

  Joanna nodded without speaking, and he wondered if she, too, had yearned for him to hold her close back at the schoolhouse.

  They made a complete circle of Hickory Hollow, and Joanna point
ed out one fond landmark after another. She told interesting stories, too, about her many kinfolk, her interactions with Englischers at market . . . and a beautifully secluded spot called Weaver’s Creek, set back from the road. She said she hoped they’d have time to at least drive by there before he left tomorrow. The way she talked, there was no doubt in his mind she was extremely attached to this small speck on the map. No, a girl like Joanna wouldn’t think of leaving her home. She shouldn’t have to.

  Our very future lies in my brother’s hands. . . .

  Chapter 11

  Along about eleven o’clock that night, Joanna realized she had very little sensation in her fingers and toes. She and Eben had gotten caught up in conversation about his hope to move to Hickory Hollow to live and work. He had a real interest in becoming an apprentice for a smithy, and he wanted to meet the local blacksmith tomorrow. Of course, farming was definitely in Eben’s blood, so that was also an option, if they could just find a parcel of land. But considering the lack of available farmland, it was unlikely.

  Just then he leaned his face against hers. “Time to get you home,” he said. “I’ll unhitch while you get warmed up.”

  “Don’t ya want to go directly to Abe Stoltzfus’s place? It’s on the way back to Dat’s.” She was thinking of him.

  “But then you’ll be stuck unhitching by yourself,” he said, clearly unhappy about that.

  “Won’t take much, really. Maybe I’ll get Cora Jane to help me.”

  He chuckled. “You wouldn’t.”

  “No,” she said, smiling. “I’m not that brave.”

  “I really hate to leave ya with that chore on such a cold night.” He paused. “Why don’t we just head back to your house?” he suggested. “And I’ll unhitch while you warm up indoors. Then, once the horse is stabled, I’ll come inside for a while.”

  She touched his arm. “And I’ll make ya some hot cocoa.”

  “We’ll sit in your mother’s kitchen and talk a bit longer, jah?”

  Joanna could tell he liked this idea. “Gut, then.”

  Eben unhitched the mare faster than Joanna expected—surely his fingers were as stiff and numb as her own, and gloves made it even harder to maneuver. Yet presently she could see him leading Krissy back to the barn.