Katie's Redemption (7 page)

Instantly he’d sensed her withdrawal. At the time, he put it down to her modesty and promptly withdrew his arm. It wasn’t until much later that he understood she didn’t return his regard. If only she’d been able to confide
in him that night, a great deal of heartbreak could have been avoided.

He glanced down at Katie. She and Salome were nothing alike. Where Katie was small, slender and dark-haired, Salome had been tall, blonde and sturdy. A hardworking farm girl, she and Elam had known each other their entire lives, attending the same church and sitting on opposite sides of the one-room schoolhouse until they’d finished the eighth grade.

As with all Amish children the eighth grade was the end of their formal education. Salome had cried inconsolably the final day of school. A year later, he took her home after Sunday singing. He had only been sixteen, but he knew then that he was going to ask her to marry him someday.

Joey turned off the highway into Elam’s lane and picked up the pace without urging. Katie moaned softly when the wagon wheels hit a deep rut in the dirt road.

Pushing the painful memories of Salome to the back of his mind, he again pondered Katie’s situation. Why had Malachi cut her out of his life? Had it been because he felt the censure of the community over Katie’s rejection of her Amish heritage? Elam found that hard to believe.

The community of Hope Springs had been welcoming and supportive. A few Amish families in the area had children who didn’t follow the faith. His uncle Isaac had two children out of ten that had never been baptized. They maintained cordial relations with their parents and visited back and forth often. Uncle Isaac referred to them as his English sons. He loved and enjoyed seeing his English grandchildren.

Not all Amish felt that way. Many families simply
couldn’t come to terms with children who jumped the fence and never reconciled with them. Yet, for Malachi to move to another state without leaving a way for his sister to contact him spoke of a very serious breach. There had to be more to the story than Katie had told them. Perhaps his letter to Malachi would bring some answers in the return mail.

Would Katie be angry that Elam had written to her brother without her consent? He suspected she might, and that made him smile down at her. If he had learned anything about Katie Lantz, it was that she had a large measure of pride. Perhaps today’s troubles had shown her the error of such thinking. Perhaps—but he doubted it.

As the wagon rolled into the farmyard, his mother rushed out of the house. “You found them. Thanks be to God. Are they all right? Where is the baby?”

“She’s sleeping in her bed under the seat. Can you get her? I’m afraid to let go of Katie.”

Looking up at him, Nettie seemed to notice for the first time that he had his arm around Katie. A quick frown put a crease between her brows. “Is she ill?”

“I think she’s just exhausted.”

Nettie stepped up to the side of the wagon and extracted the baby and her bed. “Come here, precious one. I’ve missed you.”

Elam shook his passenger. “Katie, wake up. We’re home.”

“We are?” she muttered against his shoulder. Sitting up straighter, she wavered back and forth, but didn’t open her eyes.

“We are. If I let go of you, will you fall off the wagon?”

It took her a long moment to reply. She pushed her
hair out of her eyes and blinked hard. “I’m fine. Where’s Rachel?”

“I have her,” Nettie said.

Elam stepped down and held up his arms to Katie. At first he thought she intended to refuse his help, but she changed her mind. Leaning toward him, she braced her hands on his shoulders as he lifted her out of the cart.

Her knees buckled when her feet hit the ground. He scooped her up into his arms to keep her from falling.

“Put me down. I’m fine.” Her slurred words and drooping eyelids said otherwise.

He shifted her higher. The feel of her slight body in his arms made him catch his breath. She was a woman who made him all too aware that he was a flesh-and-blood man. The last thing he wanted was to become involved with a woman outside his faith.

She put her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. “I said I’m fine, Elam.”

She wasn’t, but neither was he. Without replying, he turned and carried her into his home.

K
atie woke in a familiar room. Her own room. The room she’d slept in all through her childhood. The same white-painted, unadorned walls surrounded her. The ceiling over the bed sloped low because of the roof’s pitch. The series of cracks that had developed in the plaster over her head hadn’t changed. When she was little, they had reminded her of stair steps leading to heaven, the place where her parents had gone.

It had been a comfort to a lonely little girl to believe that she might be able to follow them up those steps someday. Now Katie knew they were only cracks in the plaster.

She turned her head. Sunlight was streaming through the tall, narrow window because the green shade was up. It must be late.

She sat up. The room was chilly but not unbearable. The heat from the stove in the kitchen below had always kept this room warmer than any of the other upstairs bedrooms.

She winced as she threw off the covers. Rubbing her aching arms, she quickly realized almost every part of her body throbbed with dull pain. She felt as if she’d been run over by a bus.

The bus! She’d missed the bus.

And Elam had found her weeping in the terminal parking lot.

Embarrassment flooded every fiber of her being as she recalled being carried up the narrow stairs in his arms, followed by Nettie’s gentle scolding as she had readied Katie for bed.

Where was Rachel? Where was her baby?

Katie quickly checked the room, but her daughter was nowhere in sight. She noticed her suitcase beside a dark bureau along the opposite wall. Rising, she dressed quickly in a red cable-knit sweater and dark skirt, then ran her fingers through her tousled hair.

At the top of the stairs she heard women’s voices. As she descended the steps, she heard laughter and banter exchanged in German. Stepping into the kitchen, she saw Nettie and three other Amish women all hard at work cleaning the room.

Nettie was the first to catch sight of Katie. “You’re up. How are you feeling?” she asked in English.

Instantly, Katie found herself the focus of the other women’s attention. “I’m feeling much better. Where is Rachel?”

“Elam is keeping the little ones entertained in the living room while we get our work done. Katie, these are my daughters, Ruby and Mary, and this is Ruby’s sister-in-law, Sally. All of them work with Elam in his basket business.”

Although farming was considered the best work, Katie knew many Amish families needed more than one income and small, home-based businesses were the norm.

Katie glanced around the room. The two women in their late twenties to early thirties were carbon copies of their mother, with blond hair, apple-red cheeks and bright blue eyes. Katie thought the youngest woman must be fifteen or sixteen. She had ginger red hair parted in the middle beneath her white
kapp
and a generous sprinkling of freckles over her upturned nose.

One of the older women stepped forward. Katie saw she was pregnant. “I’m Mary. My mother has told us about your daughter’s unexpected and exciting arrival.”

Mary glanced over her shoulder toward her mother then leaned closer. “I shouldn’t say this, but I’m grateful you’ve given her something to do besides hover over me and fuss.”

“I don’t hover or fuss,” Nettie declared.

The two sisters looked at each other and burst into giggles.

“When one of us is pregnant that’s exactly what you do,” Mary countered.

“
Ach,
pay them no mind, Katie. Would you like something to eat? You must be starving. You’ve nearly slept the clock around.” Without waiting for a reply, Nettie began gathering a plate and silverware to place on the table.

Katie frowned. “I’m okay, but Rachel must be starving.”

“No need to worry,” Nettie answered. “I gave her some infant formula the nurse left with us. Rachel took it fine.”

“I could use a bite to eat. I’m as hungry as a horse,” Mary interjected.

“And as big as one,” Ruby added, then ducked away from her sister’s outrage.

“You just wait. Your turn will come round again, sister.”

“Everyone sit down,” Nettie commanded. “I have cinnamon rolls, and I can fix coffee in a jiffy.”

Mary eased into a kitchen chair at the table. She looked at Katie and patted the seat beside her. “
Mamm
tells us you used to live here.”

“I did. My mother died in a fire when I was just a toddler. My brother Malachi and his wife took me in. This was his house.”

Before Katie sat down to eat she had to check on Rachel. She moved to the living room doorway. Looking in, she saw Elam with the baby in his arms and three little boys playing with blocks around his feet. Elam hadn’t noticed her as he was trying to keep the oldest boys from squabbling over the ownership of a carved wooden horse.

Her daughter looked so tiny balanced against his broad chest. For Katie, it was odd to see a man who wasn’t intimidated by a newborn baby. Elam firmly but kindly settled the brewing quarrel and sat back in his chair to keep a watchful eye on the bunch. Rachel looked quite content where she was, so Katie returned to the table and sat down.

She was hungry so she made short work of the delicious cinnamon bun and the glass of milk Nettie placed in front of her.

While Mary and Ruby seemed at ease with their mother’s houseguest, Sally remained quiet. She had a hard time meeting Katie’s eyes. The young Amish girl obviously hadn’t had much exposure to the English or an ex-Amish who was trying to be English.

Finally, Sally worked up the nerve to speak. “Did you really live in Cincinnati? What was it like in such a big city?”

How do I answer that question? My experience was colored by so many different things,
Katie thought.

She smiled at Sally. “When I first moved there it was very exciting. Especially at night. You can’t imagine the lights. They glow from every tall building and many stay on all night long.”

“It sounds so exciting.” Sally’s tone was wistful.

Katie knew just how it felt to wonder about forbidden things so far away. “Although it can be pretty, it was also terrifying. It was far, far different than I imagined.”

Sally leaned forward eagerly. “Are you going back there?”

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

“I would like to see the city. My
dat
sometimes travels there for his furniture business, but he’s never taken me. Are the buildings really so tall that they block out the sun?”

“It’s a place filled with wickedness ready to ensnare the unwary.” Elam spoke from the doorway to the living room. He still held Rachel in his arms.

Katie felt the heat rising in her cheeks. He was talking about her. She raised her chin, refusing to give in to the need to keep her head down. Amazed at her own daring, she replied, “Wickedness can ensnare the unwary no matter where they are. Even on the family farm.”

He met her gaze, then nodded slightly. “That is true.”

An awkward silence ensued until Sally asked, “Elam, my
dat
wants to know when you need me to start weaving again.”

“I’ll be ready to start the middle of next week, if that’s okay with everyone.”

All the women nodded. One of the boys, the littlest one, who looked to be about a year old, crawled over to Elam’s leg and pulled himself upright and babbled away. Elam reached down to steady the child. “Monroe thinks he is hungry, Ruby.”

Nettie came and took the boy from him. His older brother wriggled between Elam’s leg and the doorjamb. “I’m starving,
Mamm
.”

“You don’t fool me, Thomas. You heard the words
cinnamon roll.
”

A wide grin split his cheeks, and he bobbed his blond head.

Elam rubbed his stomach. “I’m hungry, too. It’s hard work watching the children. I’ve worked up an appetite.”

Ruby threw up her hands. “That’s what I tell my Jesse, but he doesn’t believe me.”

A shout from outside drew everyone’s attention. Elam looked out the window. “The bench wagon is here.”

Nettie, dishing out rolls to each of the women at the table and their assorted children, said, “Oh, my, and I’m not done with the cleaning.”

Katie realized the arrival of the bench wagon meant that the family was making preparations for the
Gemeesunndaag
, the church Sunday, to be held in their home.

The Amish had no formal house of worship. Instead, a preaching service was held every other Sunday in the home of one church family. Up to a hundred and twenty people had attended services in the house when Katie was growing up. In fact, the wall between the kitchen and the
living room was constructed so that it could be moved aside to make more space for the benches that were lined up for the men on one side and the women on the other.

In their district, the church owned the benches required to seat so many people and transported them from home to home for each service as they were needed. In the summertime, church was occasionally held in the cool interiors of large barns in the area.

“I’ll have the men stack the benches on the porch.” Elam approached Katie and handed over the baby. She took care not to touch him, as her heart skipped a beat and then raced ahead of her good sense at his nearness. When he was close, the memory of his strong arms around her brought the heat of a blush rushing to her face. She glanced around covertly, hoping no one noticed her reaction.

There was something about Elam that stirred feelings she didn’t want to acknowledge. What a fickle woman she must be. Once she’d imagined herself in love with Matt. Now she was wrestling with those same emotions when Elam was near.

No. These were not the same emotions.

Elam was kindness and charity. He was strength and faith. He was as different from Matt as day was from night.

How had she been fooled into thinking that what she felt for Matt was love? It had been a shallow substitute. She understood that now. Why hadn’t she been smart enough to see it before she’d made such a mess of her life?

With her daughter in her arms, Katie rose, wanting to escape the turmoil of her own thoughts. “I’ll feed Rachel and then I’ll be back to help you get ready for church.”

Nettie shook her head. “We can do this. You need to rest.”

“I’ve already slept the clock around. How much more rest do I need?” Katie countered.

“A lot. You go take it easy,” Ruby said, gathering up the plates.

What Katie really wanted to do was race up to her room and hide under the warm quilt on her bed. It would have been easy to withdraw and hide, but she couldn’t do it. She wanted to earn the respect this family was showing her. And she wanted to show Elam that she was more than a helpless, sobbing woman in need of rescue.

Elam escaped outside and drew a deep breath—one filled with the smell of a muddy farmyard, not with the sweet, womanly scent that was so uniquely Katie’s.

What was wrong with him? Why did his thoughts continually turn to her? The memory of carrying her in his arms had haunted him long into the night and came rushing back the moment he’d seen her today.

Was he so weak in his faith that he was only attracted to the forbidden fruit? Katie had chosen to be an outsider. He should have nothing to do with her.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

The Plain people were to live apart from the world. He must harden his heart against Katie’s dark eyes so full of pain and loneliness. He had to resist the need to make her smile. To touch her soft skin, to kiss her full lips. She was not for him.

Eli Imhoff stepped down from the bench wagon.
“
Goot
day, Elam. Jacob and I have brought the benches for your house.”

“
Danki,
Mr. Imhoff, and my thanks to you, as well, Jacob.” Elam nodded to the teenage boy sitting on the back of the wagon.

The boy nodded and held out a bundle of letters and the newspaper. “The mailman was dropping this off as we came by. I thought I’d save you a trip down the lane.”

“
Danki,
Jacob.” Elam took the mail and laid it on his mother’s rocker near the front door.

Walking to the back of the wagon, Mr. Imhoff lowered the tailgate. “Shall we get started?”

Elam hurried to join them. “
Jah,
and then you must stay for a cup of coffee. My mother has just made some.”

Mr. Imhoff, a widower, glanced toward the house. “How is your mother getting along? Is she liking Hope Springs?”

Perhaps it was his awareness of Katie’s effect on him that made Elam notice the odd quality in Mr. Imhoff’s simple questions.

“Mother is well. She misses her friends back home, but I think she likes the area well enough.”

“
Goot.
Very
goot.
” Mr. Imhoff grinned and began pulling off the first seat. After unloading the sturdy wooden benches and stacking them together on the porch, Elam invited Mr. Imhoff and his son into the house.

Elam picked up the mail as he followed them inside. He laid the letters on the counter, more interested in the looks and shy smiles that passed between his neighbor and his mother. How long had this been going on? His mother had been a widow for three years now, but he’d never considered that she might be interested in another man.

After accepting a cup of coffee, Mr. Imhoff said, “I was just asking your son if you’re adjusting to our community.”

“I find it much to my liking, especially since two of my daughters and my son are here.”

“It’s a blessing to have your family close by.” Mr. Imhoff blew on his coffee to cool it.

Jacob was drawn into the other room by Elam’s nephews. The next time Elam glanced that way, the strapping boy was down on the floor with them. Mr. Imhoff followed Elam’s gaze. “He’s used to having little ones underfoot.”

The sound of someone descending the stairs made Elam tense. He hadn’t thought of how he would introduce Katie to the members of his church.

She came through the door holding Rachel on her shoulder. Her English clothing and uncovered head made her stand out in the room filled with Plain women. She nodded politely at the visitors.