Abram's Daughters 05 The Revelation (16 page)

"Truth is, Lydiann declares up and down she's my aunt, and 'cause of that, we can't court anymore."

Jonas glanced at Jake again. Why would she say such a thing? The thought disturbed him, but he forced himself to set the question aside for the time being. "The whole notion's absurd," he said.

"And a right dumm way to end our courtship if there's another boy she'd rather be seein'." Jake said this in such a fiery manner, the cows swooshed their tails and bellowed.

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Jonas scarcely knew what to offer as consolation. "What are ya goin' to do?"

There was an awkward silence, and it seemed Jake might not answer. At last he replied, "I'm honestly thinking 'bout paying a visit to I lie doctor . . . just to show her up and make her give me the realimson."

"Ya really want to go 'n' do that?"

"I need to put all this to rest and quick." He rose and walked i<> 11 ic- barn door but looked back at Jonas. "Best not be sayin' a word i il i liis to Dat and Mamma."

Jonas nodded, watching him leave. It can't be true, he thought.

Yet in the back of his mind, he recalled how Leah had shared her tu hing heart over her sister's sin and Sadie herself had confided in him, as well, out in Millersburg the summer after she'd given birth to .1 supposedly stillborn baby. Come to think of it, he realized Jake hus the age Sadie's son would have been, had he survived.

O Lord God in heaven, may this all blow over!

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I Ik' Irosty weather printed roses on Abe's and Lydiann's cheeks as i I if (wo headed briskly toward the house, leaving afternoon milking (lx>rrs behind. Sadie watched them from the window of the back door, smiling as they fell into step, their breath wafting up from their heads as they talked. The wind puffed Lyddie's long skirts out behind her, and Abe leaned his black felt hat into the wind, steadying i with his hand.

While she couldn't hear what was being said, she observed the lively exchange and fondly wondered what her own stillborn babies might've grown up to look like, had they lived. The memory of I Heeling her sole living child at market, the one and only time they had spoken, had emblazoned itself in her mind, though at the time .she had been unaware of their relationship. What would happen if /like knew I was the mother who birthed him? What if he knew how much he was loved by a silent stranger?

She opened the door for her younger sister and brother as they i-ame up the back steps. Once inside, they began to remove their work boots and hang up coats and scarves, and she headed into the kitchen to make some hot cocoa. "Anybody need warmin' up?"

"I do!" Abe said, hurrying to the cookstove to thaw out. "It's too curly for weather this cold, ain't?"

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Lydiann, on his heels, responded with merely a nod of her head, though when Sadie served up two large coffee mugs of hot chocolate, Lydiann wasted no time in reaching for hers and blowing gently. She was so quiet Sadie wondered if she wasn't feeling well, but the brightness of her eyes and the flush of health on her cheeks told another tale.

Abe brightened when a second mug was offered, asking for whipped cream this time, to which Sadie happily obliged.

Sitting with them in her regular place at the table, she was taken with Abe's animated talk. "I'm goin' on a pest hunt here in a few days," he said, face alight. "We're gonna see who can catch the most rats and prove it."

"Ew!" Lydiann said suddenly, shaking her head. "You and your friends oughta find something better to do with your time than choppin' off rat tails."

"Why should you care?" he shot back. "I don't complain 'bout the quiltin' frolics and whatnot you hurry off to."

Lydiann scrunched up her face. "But pest hunts are disgusting."

Sadie spoke up, enjoying the banter between them. "Dead rats do mean less work for barn cats."

"So there!" Abe said, glowering in jest at Lydiann. "Wouldn't want them cats to have too many rodents runnin' loose, now, would we?"

"I don't care in the least," Lydiann whispered.

Abe continued, oblivious to his sister's solemn demeanor. "I daresay some of the fellas from Ohio are goin' with us now, ain't that right fine?" He started rattling their names, and Sadie's ears perked up when Abe mentioned Eli Yoder. Evidently it was he who'd asked for some help from the young folk with the barn pests.

Abe leaned over and grinned right in Lydiann's face. "We'll make short work of 'em."

Lydiann simply slid her cocoa away from her and rose to her feet, leaving the room without saying a word.

Sadie wanted to get up and follow her in the worst way, but Lyddie probably needed some time alone upstairs, which was where she was headed, and mighty fast, too, by the sound of her feet on the steps.

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Abe was quick to verbalize concern. "What's gotten into her?" Sadie raised her eyebrows. "You know her best, jah?" "I'd have to say she's crazy in love," he spouted off. "But don't ask me how I know."

Sadie rose and began rinsing the mugs at the sink. "I'm serious," Abe insisted, coming over to her. "Lyddie's a Wiilkin', breathin' mess over the youngest Mast boy, if ya ask me."

"Nobody's askin' you, Abe." Just then she remembered Abe and )akc were acquaintances no wonder Abe was so adamant about Lydiaiin's emotions. Turning, she placed a gentle hand on her brother's shoulder. "Don't be too hard on your sister, all right?" He nodded, more serious now. "Jah, I s'pose." Sadie sighed. "Ain't nothin' easy 'bout love sometimes."

Seeing the envelope with her name printed in Hannah's hand, Mary Ruth sliced it open with a table knife. She was pleased to discover a supper invitation from Gid and Hannah. "Well, this is interesting," she said, placing the note on the kitchen table for Robert to see when he returned from the church.

Just then a knock came at the back door, and she hurried to see who was there. "Dottie! Come in, won't you?" She took her friend's wrap and hungMt on the row of wooden wall pegs. "So good to see you again."

"I can't seem to keep myself away from your baby," Dottie said, following her into the kitchen, where Ruthie's cradle was pulled close to the table. "Oh, just look at her." She stooped low and made over the sleeping infant.

"She got herself a clean bill of health from her grandfather at her checkup," volunteered Mary Ruth. "She's as healthy as the day is long."

"I'm not one bit surprised." Dottie eyed the little one longingly.

"She's still at that stage where she sleeps through most anything," Mary Ruth said. "Go ahead and pick her up if you wish."

Dottie sat in the rocker with Ruthie and began to hum softly.

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"Babies bring out the hum in all of us." Mary Ruth laughed. "You should hear Robert sing to her while he rocks. It's the dearest thing."

Dottie nodded, yet it was as if she was paying Mary Ruth little or no mind, her gaze was focused so wholly on Ruthie's peaceful face.

"How's your family?" Mary Ruth asked.

"Oh, Dan's keeping real busy; you know how he is. Ami Carl . . . well, he's some perkier here lately."

"Oh?"

Dottie looked up at her. "Between you and me, I think he had a nice, long walk with your little sis."

"When was this?"

Dottie told about the Georgetown Saturday market. "I just so happened to show up there with Carl."

"You didn't!"

Dottie smiled mischievously. "What can it hurt? The two of them were good friends until Carl went on to high school, you know."

"I wonder if Leah has any idea they talked."

"I say we leave things be. In time who knows what might come of their renewed friendship."

"True." Suddenly Mary Ruth remembered the note from Hannah and picked it up to show Dottie. "I honestly think my twin and I are about to renew our close relationship, as well."

Dottie took the note and read it. "Oh, how wonderful!"

"It's an answer to prayer, to be sure. The old bishop must have changed his mind either that or Gid is simply doing what he believes is best for Hannah . . . and for me."

"Well, it's good news whatever the reason." Dottie rose from the rocker and began walking the length of the kitchen as Ruthie began to stir.

"Here, I'll take her. It's time she nurses again."

Smiling, Dottie handed Ruthie to her. "You're a fine mother, Mary Ruth. I hope you have a half dozen more wee ones."

"That's nice of you to say." She settled into the rocker while Dottie sat at the table, picking up the note from Hannah. "Isn't it interesting how the Lord works?"

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"I'.specially when we don't try to rush things." I )ottie agreed. "Patience is more than a virtue, I'd have to say." Mary Ruth thought of Leah. "For some, it's a way of life." ' I he breathy sound of Ruthie's suckle rose and fell in the quicl uilc of the house, and Mary Ruth smiled, thinking of Hannah yet tityiiin, eager to write an answer to her twin's kind supper invitation.

Henry saw Jake Mast coming up the drive, his feet pounding hard against the pavement in the way Derek had always run. He moved away from the window and walked to the door of the clinic, opening it for his grandson.

"Dr. Schwartz, I must talk to ya!" Jake announced as he came lushing inside.

It was virtually closing time, and Henry noticed Leah was pushing a dry mop over the hallway. By the intense look on Jake's handsome face, Henry was relieved the lad hadn't burst in thirty minutes before, when a patient or two might still have been in the waiting room. "Let's step into my office," he suggested as calmly as possible.

He closed the door and motioned for Jake to have a seat. Then, sitting at his desk, he noted again the intense concern registered on lake's face and guessed what had precipitated this visit.

"I had to corn? here, Doctor . . . and I'm awful sorry, not makin' an appointment 'n' all."

"Quite all right." Henry felt his entire body go stiff.

"I'm having trouble believing what someone told me Sunday, so downright ridiculous it is." Jake's face was red. "I was told I should hear what you have to say about it, which is why I'm here."

"Go on, son." He felt the fire in his bones as he anticipated what was coming. He had lived this moment in his mind, projecting forward in time to this inevitable day. It was ground he had already walked with Leah, presently down the hall as she completed her cleaning duties.

Carefully he observed Jake, whose upper torso remained rigid as lie sat inert but for his callused, restless fingers, which seemed unable

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to be still. Henry was caught by the sight, finding it curious thai Derek's son should be so similar to Derek himself in this small way superbly composed in one area, yet obviously out of control in another.

Jake got right to the matter. "Am I a Mast or an Ebersol?"

"I beg your pardon?" Henry asked. He'd expected to face that very question, but hearing Jake voice it here in his office still took him off guard.

"Who am I, sir? Someone told me I ain't who I think I am."

"Why, you're Jake Mast. . . you know that." But no, he must backtrack and start over, lest he cower and fall into his old, devious pattern. "What I mean to say is . . ." He stopped. This was not going well. "Jake, I have been terribly deceitful," he tried again. "For too long I have kept from you . . . and those who love you . . . the most vital information."

He paused to breathe deeply before continuing. "You are both an Ebersol and a Schwartz." His jaw was so tight he had trouble forming the words. "Let's begin with the night you were born, not so far from here."

Jake listened, eyes flickering open and shut, as Henry confessed the truth about everything, including Jake's connections to Sadie, Derek, and even Henry himself. He did not spare a single detail, describing the apparent stillbirth and the astonishing miracle that had occurred during the drive to the clinic, as well as his wrenching decision to give Jake to the Masts instead of to his rightful mother.

When he finished, Jake was frowning harder than when he had first arrived. "But. . . this how can it be?" He stood abruptly, shaking his head. "My parents are Peter and Fannie Mast. Mandie's my twin." He paused a moment, looking around the room as if trying to get his bearings. "You must've gotten this wrong -ach, awful mixedup. I'm not that boy. Surely you must have someone else in mind."

Henry rose to go to him. "You are my flesh-and-blood grandson, Jake that's why I've kept you within arm's reach. But I also needed to know you were being nurtured by good Amish folk Sadie's people." His throat locked up, leaving him with only his compassionate expression to attempt to atone for his sins.

"What proof is there of this?" ; '

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I Icnry reached for a framed picture of young Derek, turning it wound. "This is your natural father. You're the spitting image of him at this age."

| ;ike held the picture and stared at it for a long time before speaking. "And . . . my parents don't know this?" His voice was ill irk with emotion.

I lenry sighed. "No."

lake shook his head sorrowfully. "What'll they say ... or think? I Ic returned his gaze to Henry. "They must be told . . . soon as I get lioine."

It's unraveling, just as I feared, he realized. / have no one to blame but myself. He wanted to apologize again, to say he'd had no right to play God, but he couldn't utter the words at the look of distrust in lake's eyes.

"No wonder Lyddie says I can never marry her," the boy said. "I limmel, no wonder!"

Henry continued, "If I could change what I did that night, I would. I should have returned you to your mother. Instead, I cruelly allowed her to believe her baby had died."

Jake's eyes gleamed with angry tears. "I met her once, did ya know? And I thought she was Abe Ebersol's sister, nothin' more." I le shook his head, eying Henry with disdain before hurrying to open the office door. "Ach, my poor parents!"