Winter of Wishes (7 page)

Miriam Lantz radiated a passion for love and life—and for Ben Hooley. And why wouldn’t
she? Ben was a wonderful man, not to mention attractive. In the months since the blacksmith’s
arrival, he’d contributed a lot to the Willow Ridge community.

“If you think your website needs to come down, Mamma, that’s the way it’ll be,” Rebecca
said. “It’s wonderful, seeing you this happy! You’re a good example for me to follow,
when I finally meet a guy I’d consider marrying.”

Her mother shrugged. “That’s what
mamms
are for.”

Wasn’t it just the best thing, that after she had lost one mother, she’d found Miriam?
God’s hand, leadin’ ya where you’re supposed to go . . .

Rebecca went warm inside. She’d spent the last couple of years wishing, figuring out
what to do with her life . . . trying out dreams she wanted to make a reality. And
today at the Sweet Seasons, a major chunk of her future had magically, effortlessly,
fallen into place.

Ben sat in the church service Sunday morning smiling, trying not to be obvious about
peering between the heads of the older fellows seated in front of him. When Miriam’s
eyes found his from across the crowded room, his heart fluttered. Maybe their game
of peekaboo wasn’t appropriate for Sunday worship, yet who could fault him for loving
the woman he intended to marry?

Meanwhile their deacon, Reuben Riehl, stood up to read from the large Bible. “From
the thirteenth chapter of Romans, the day’s Scripture lesson,” the burly redhead announced.
“‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God:
the powers that be are ordained of God,’” he said in his clear voice. “‘Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works but
to the evil . . .’”

As the reading ended and Jeremiah Shetler rose to preach, Ben sensed the Morning Star
bishop’s words would be aimed partly at Hiram Knepp: because of his shunning, Hiram
sat in the front row of the men’s side with his head bowed as a sign of humility and
repentance. From what Ben had heard from his aunt Jerusalem, however, Hiram was champing
at the bit and more than ready to get his final two weeks of separation behind him
so he could resume his role as the bishop of Willow Ridge. He wasn’t a man known for
letting anyone else take the lead or take control.

And sure enough, after a three-hour service focused mostly on the theme of obeying
a higher power—be it God, or those chosen by God—Hiram abruptly stood up and stalked
out. Miriam’s kitchen door slammed in his wake, raising the eyebrows of those in the
huge room. After a moment, the men rose to rearrange the room, as usual, while the
women got the food ready to serve.

“Well, there you have it,” Seth Brenneman murmured. “Hiram’s not allowed to stay for
today’s common meal, nor to talk much to members while he’s shunned, but he’s sure
enough been chattin’ up those of us who haven’t yet joined the church.”

Ben turned to face the two brothers who, with Rachel’s Micah, had completed Willow
Ridge’s new mill in record time so they could build his house for Miriam by year’s
end. “
Jah?
How so?” he asked.

Naomi’s brawny blond sons looked at each other as they shifted the long wooden pew
benches into place for the meal. “Oh, he seems real interested in what-all species
of wood ya chose for your cabinets and stairs,” Seth remarked. “And he’s askin’ about
what the place is costin’ to build—”

“And if it’s bein’ financed by Derek Shotwell’s bank,” Aaron joined in with a shake
of his head. “I was glad Micah was there with us when Hiram came along to quiz us,
on account of how I didn’t know much about those particulars.”

“Nor did we think—even though Hiram’s the bishop—he had any call to be keepin’ account
of your new house,” Seth added.

“Now why am I not surprised?” Ben murmured as he looked around the crowd of men who
were setting up tables. “When was this goin’ on? Just lately?”

“
Jah
, he was there yesterday morning. After we left the café.”

“
Denki
for lettin’ me know. Something tells me he might’ve been chattin’ up my brothers,
as well, if he was over at the house.” Ben spotted Luke and Ira near the kitchen door,
where Annie Mae Knepp and Millie Glick stood ready with plates and silverware. Now
there
was fuel for Bishop Knepp’s fire, as Luke had been spending plenty of his evenings
with the bishop’s eldest daughter.

Ben made his way toward them, considering how to speak to his brothers without involving
the girls. He reminded himself that as their bishop, Hiram had the authority to warn
them about becoming too worldly or so heavily indebted they couldn’t keep up with
their bills. But this latest visit to his future home—talking with the carpenters
rather than with him—raised a red flag.

“Say, fellas,” he said as he clapped his brothers on the shoulders, “I’m wonderin’
if I can pull ya away from these perty girls to help me for a few.”

Ira looked ready to smart off, but Luke smiled gallantly at Annie Mae and then followed
Ben through the kitchen to Miriam’s front porch. “What’s goin’ on, Bennie?” he asked
as they stepped outside into the brisk wind. “Have Aunt Jerusalem and Aunt Nazareth
been waggin’ your tail—waggin’ their tongues—about my keepin’ company with Annie Mae?”

Ben gestured toward some boxes of food to be carried into the kitchen, pies and salads
that wouldn’t fit in Miriam’s fridge but had stayed plenty cold enough out here on
this late November day. “
Should
they be tellin’ me things?” he countered playfully. “Like, about how Hiram thinks
you’re leadin’ his daughter astray, keepin’ her from bein’ baptized into the church?”

“Oh, that subject’s come up, for sure and for certain!” Ira replied with a laugh.
“And Hiram was bendin’ our ears about that—amongst other things—the other day when
we were settlin’ into our rooms above the mill.”

Again, Ben noted that the bishop had made his visit while he wasn’t there. “Funny
you should say so,” he remarked in a lowered voice. “He didn’t by chance ask ya how
much the mill was costin’? Or tell ya he thought the Brenneman boys made the place
fancier than it needed to be?”

Luke’s and Ira’s exchanged glance told Ben these subjects had indeed been discussed.

“Truth be told, Hiram did seem to be snoopin’,” Luke said. “Didn’t want to bother
ya with this, knowin’ how he’s been keepin’ such close tabs on you and Miriam.”

Ben smiled to himself. Luke was adept at selling prospective farmers and storekeepers
on the idea of raising specialty grains and carrying the milled flours in their stores:
his head for business had earned him enough money to fund the Mill at Willow Ridge
without needing a loan—no small accomplishment for a man who’d recently turned thirty.
“So ya handled the bishop’s questions all right? Didn’t get riled up about him nosin’
into your business?”

Luke shrugged. “First time we met Hiram, his feathers were ruffled about us buildin’
the mill on Miriam’s land, maybe cheatin’ her out of property that had been her husband’s,”
he recalled. “So from the get-go, I figured him for a fella who’d make it his business
to watch my business.”

Ben nodded. “Which, most likely, is why you’re seein’ Annie Mae. Keeps things more
interesting than if she was an ordinary man’s daughter, ain’t so?”

His brothers snickered. They both had a bit of the daredevil in them, like Dat, and
they refused to be intimidated by bishops or other men who told them how to behave.
“That’s partly it,” Ira admitted as he grabbed a picnic hamper with each hand. “But
there’s also the way Annie Mae’s been known for galavantin’ around with a certain
Yonnie Stoltzfus, who’s supposedly up to no
gut
, as well.”

“So I haven’t left her any time to see Stoltzfus these past few weeks,” Luke continued.
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Once upon a time Ben, too, had talked with such a swagger in his attitude. That was
the way of it while Amish fellows were still in their
rumspringa
, or running-around years. “Next time Hiram comes around askin’ questions, feel free
to refer him to me. I’d just as soon squelch whatever schemin’ Hiram might be doin’.”
He glanced down the long lane lined with carriages, toward the skeleton of a new house
across the county road. “That place is my gift to Miriam, and I don’t want her happiness
spoiled by a fella who’s peeved that she’s marryin’ me instead of him.”

“See there?” Ira teased. “We’re not the only ones stirrin’ the pot! You’re way ahead
of us at doin’ that, Bennie-boy.”

As they stepped back into the heavenly warm kitchen, which was bustling with women,
Aunt Jerusalem met them. “
Denki
, boys, for bringin’ this stuff inside,” she said. She took a triple pie carrier from
Ben and set it on the nearest table. “Seems Hiram’s gone off in a snit again, despite
my talkin’ to him about showin’ more humility during his shunning. But it is what
it is, his attitude,” she added with a touch of starch in her voice. “Miriam’s invited
us all for Sunday dinner next week, bless her heart. If he refuses to sit at his own
little table, as he’s supposed to during the ban, he’ll miss out on a wonderful-
gut
meal.”

“
Jah
, he wasn’t keen on his separate seating at Thanksgiving,” Ira recalled.

“None too thankful, for sure.” Luke glanced toward the bustling front room, where
the younger girls were setting out plates and silverware. “But enough about Hiram.
Any time Miriam invites us over to eat is a day to be thankful that Ira’s not cookin’.”

Their steely-haired aunt laughed heartily as she cut the three pies. “Miriam’s mighty
excited about havin’ everybody. Her Rebecca’ll be joinin’ us—and she’s soon to move
upstairs with Rhoda, above the smithy. She’s ready to start some sort of computer
business, and meanwhile she’s helpin’ at the Sweet Seasons,” Aunt Jerusalem went on
with a rise in her voice. “
That
’ll be somethin’, havin’ her English daughter livin’ with them after all those years
they’d figured she was gone forever.”

Ben nodded. Miriam was indeed ecstatic that her lost-and-found daughter wanted to
live with her Plain family. Meanwhile his two younger brothers exchanged a purposeful
look, as though they had their own ideas about what Rebecca’s presence in Willow Ridge
might mean.

As he carried two pies out to the tables, Ben smiled. It seemed
stirring the pot
was becoming everyday behavior among the Hooleys and the Lantzes. But then, from
the first time he’d laid eyes on Miriam, he’d known his life would never be dull again.

 

 

Rhoda was placing silverware alongside the plates Annie Mae had set on the long tables,
when she heard thundering footsteps and loud laughter upstairs, a sure sign that some
of the kids had slipped away to play. Not that playing was a bad thing, but there
was a time and a place for it. As she headed for the stairway, she couldn’t help thinking
that Brett and Taylor Leitner would never make so much racket indoors—

She smiled as she pictured Taylor’s mop of flyaway curls and Brett wearing those glasses
with the dangling fake eyeballs. Had they gone to church today? Was Andy home with
them, or did he have to work a shift at the hospital? While it wasn’t the Plain way
to labor on the Lord’s day, hospital patients depended on Andy and their doctors every
day of the week.

Rhoda stopped at the top of the stairs, crossing her arms. Sure enough, Josh and Joey
Knepp were positioning themselves to race down the long hall while Levi and Cyrus
Zook egged them on. “There’s plenty of room outside to be runnin’ your races, boys.
Snow or not, you’ve got no business horsin’ around in other people’s homes,” she stated.

“Better get outta our way,” one of the twins challenged, “or we might just run ya
down, Rhoda Lantz!”

“
Jah
, you can save your orders for those English kids you’re watchin’,” his brother joined
in. “Dat says you oughtn’t be workin’ for that fella in New Haven.”

Rhoda set aside the bishop’s opinion. If anyone had boys who needed a firmer hand,
it was Hiram Knepp. “That’s neither here nor there. You boys can take your game outside
with the other kids—”

“And I’m just the man to escort ya there.” Ben ascended the last two steps and stood
beside Rhoda in the hall. “Let’s go, boys. When I tell Jerusalem you were runnin’
races down the hallway,
she’ll
make sure ya know better than to do it again, ain’t so? The four of ya can gather
up the dirty dishes and carry them to the kitchen after we eat, instead of makin’
the girls do it.”

The five-year-old twins rolled their eyes, but they knew not to sass Ben or to test
Jerusalem Hooley’s patience. The Zook boys, who were plenty old enough to behave better,
followed Josh and Joey down the stairs.

“Thanks, Ben,” Rhoda murmured. “Rachel and Micah have brought home a lot of nice wedding
gifts from their weekend visits to family, and I saw no need for those four monkeys
to break anything.”

“I wasn’t so different at their age,” he recalled, “but my
dat
would’ve smacked my backside had I been racin’ down the hallway or snoopin’ around
somebody else’s house.”

As Rhoda returned to the expanded front room, where the tables were nearly ready for
folks to be seated, she again wondered about the Leitner family. Did Andy discipline
his kids? If she corrected them, would he support her or take the kids’ side? No doubt
that situation would arise one of these days . . .

As she took her place at a table between Annie Mae and Nellie Knepp, Rhoda wondered
how much their
dat
had discussed her new job at the Leitners’. These two girls, Hiram’s oldest, had
been raised with a firm hand while their mother was alive. They’d taken over most
of the baby tending when Hiram’s second wife, Linda, had borne the twins, Sara, and
Timmy in rapid succession before she died—which probably explained why Annie Mae showed
no inclination to join the church so she could marry and start a family of her own.

After Bishop Shetler called for the silent grace, Annie Mae caught sight of Luke Hooley
across the crowded room. She wiggled her fingers at him.

“So what’s your
dat
say about ya goin’ on dates with Luke?” Rhoda asked.

Annie Mae, who was nearly eighteen, let out a short laugh. “What
can
he say?
Rumspringa
is for tryin’ wild and crazy things before ya settle down—and Luke Hooley is one
wild and crazy thing!”