Huckleberry Hill (8 page)

Chapter Nine

Lia ran into her new bedroom, glad for once that there was only a tiny window that faced the back of the house. She didn’t know if she wanted to jump up and down with excitement or burst into despondent tears. The minute she saw Moses’s buggy rolling up the lane, she had abandoned her bread dough and disappeared into her room to gather her wits.

To her dismay, she found she had missed Moses more than she wanted to. When he came into a room, it was as if someone turned on a bright electric light that banished the shadows to another county. He didn’t mind her height or her scolding, and she felt like she didn’t have to behave herself around him. She was overjoyed to see him.

But she knew she could not let her excitement gallop away from her. Moses was meant for Rachel. Dat, Mamm, even Anna and Felty wanted them to be together, and the sooner Lia got that notion into her head, the less the actual engagement would sting.

Lia felt a twinge of jealousy, but quickly smothered it. She should not bear ill will for Rachel. It was not Rachel’s fault that everyone preferred her. Lia had reconciled herself to the fact that Rachel would always be the favored one. Lia wanted the best for her sister. How could she let her feelings for a man she barely knew come between her and Rachel?

She smoothed her apron and secured the pins in her kapp before squaring her shoulders and going back into the kitchen. By this time, Moses had unhitched his buggy and already worked out back with Felty. She told her heart to resume its normal pace. She wouldn’t see Moses until suppertime.

Anna sat in her rocker examining her cookbook.

Rachel emerged from her room, her lips shiny with Vaseline. “I’m going out to help in the garden,” she said, checking the hair tucked into her kapp. She glided out the door as if Moses would be watching for her the moment she stepped outside.

Holding on to her precious cookbook, Anna stood and came to Lia. “Sure as you’re born, she’ll get a sunburn on those lips.”

“The dough is ready to rise,” Lia said, without cracking a smile. “What next?”

“The book says we let it rise for an hour, then roll it out and spread the sausage and cheese over the top.”

“Sounds delicious.”

“Another special meal for Moses. Are you going to make a pie?”

Lia kept her eyes on the dough as she formed it into a ball. “Do you want me to?”

“Only if you do, my dear.”

“I can’t find any happiness in it today.”

Anna reached up and took Lia’s face in her hands. “You’ve been extra quiet since you came back from Wautoma. You are usually full of pep. Is all well at home?”

“Oh, jah, certainly. My dat bought a new cow.”

“I hope he got a good milker.”

“It’s a Jersey.”

“And how is the expectant mother?”

“My sister-in-law is doing well. Two months to go and no swelling yet.”

Anna studied Lia’s face as if expecting her to say more, but Lia simply turned away to rinse her hands in the sink. Anna would be unhappy if she knew Lia had read the contents of the letter meant for Dat.

Lia took a plastic spatula from the drawer and scraped the globs of sticky dough off the counter. “Has Felty found any new states?”

A movement out the window caught her eye. Lia looked up to see Moses hurrying toward the house with Rachel in his arms. Rachel’s hands were locked securely around his neck, and she rested her head against his chest. They looked quite the romantic pair.

“Anna, look.” Lia dropped her spatula and raced to open the door.

Moses maneuvered through the doorway, strode across the kitchen, and deposited Rachel on the cushy sofa. Lia’s rebellious heart galloped away from her, and she couldn’t help remembering the feel of his lips on hers.

“What happened?” said Anna.

Rachel fell back into the sofa, wrinkled her nose, and grimaced in pain. “I was weeding cucumbers. My grip slipped, and I banged my toe with the hoe.”

She sounded excessively breathless, considering Moses had done all the work getting her to the house.

“Take off my shoe, Lia. I’m certain I’ll lose a nail. I don’t know how I would have made it back to the house if Moses hadn’t been there. He saved me.”

Lia glanced at Moses to see how he would soak up such generous praise. She had to stifle a laugh when she saw that familiar look of annoyance on his face. It seemed the Shetler girls were destined to irritate Moses Zimmerman instead of charm him. Though she wasn’t sure why, that thought gave Lia a great deal of comfort. Perhaps Moses didn’t think any worse of her than he did of Rachel.

Moses caught her staring and twitched his mouth downward before turning his attention to Rachel. “You’re in good hands. I’ll get back to weeding tomatoes.”

As he shut the front door, Lia noticed his hat where he must have deposited it on the kitchen table. She picked it up and followed him outside. “You forgot your hat.”

Still behaving as if he had a burr under his saddle, he reached out and practically snatched it from her hand. “Denki.”

In spite of the fact that his presence made her legs feel all shaky, she wouldn’t let him get away with such behavior. “You are annoyed again, Moses Zimmerman.”

Halting mid-stride, he raised an eyebrow and quit frowning. “Do you always say what you think?”

“What I think about you? Hardly ever.”

He tapped his hat against his thigh. “You haven’t asked for an apology yet, but I should probably give you one. I am very sorry for kissing you.”

Lia ignored the thump that was her heart dropping to her toes. “You are?”

“Did I embarrass you?”

“Nae.”

“I’m sure it took you by surprise. I surprised myself. Whatever the reason, it was inappropriate. I don’t want to give either you or your sister the wrong impression about my feelings.”

“You don’t want Rachel to think you are interested in me.”

“Jah.”

“Because you would rather kiss Rachel.”

He looked up at the sky and pressed his lips into a hard line. “Oh, jah, that is the reason,” he said, clearly irritated beyond endurance.

He turned away, leaving Lia to puzzle over his reaction. He couldn’t be teasing her. His irritation was plain enough. Was he irritated that she would ask what was obvious to everyone else? Or annoyed that she pried into his private business?

Was he poking fun at her? Maybe he didn’t want to kiss either one of them. Nae, if he felt that way, he would have told her. They were unfailingly blunt with one another.

Lia’s head began to throb. She was tempted to tell Anna she didn’t feel well and go lie down on her bed. But then Anna would have to tend to Rachel all by herself. Lia hadn’t the time to nurse a trifling headache. Or a heavy heart.

 

 

Rachel reclined on the davenport with her gray scarf wrapped around her foot. Though she insisted her entire foot would be black-and-blue by tomorrow morning, Lia hadn’t been able to see so much as a pink mark or a swollen toe. Anna had wrapped Rachel’s foot in a bandage and then they had padded the injured foot with Rachel’s scarf.

When Moses and Felty tromped in for supper, Rachel sank deeper into the sofa and gave a little sigh of pain.

Poor Rachel never had a high tolerance for discomfort.

Lia smiled to herself as Felty sang his pre-supper melody.
“On the mountain is a railroad, the conductor is our friend, He will make the run successful, till our train reaches the end.”

Rachel pushed herself up to a sitting position. “Felty, I’ve told you every day for four days. That’s the wrong words. I already sang the right words to you twice.”

Felty’s eyes twinkled, and he disregarded Rachel’s criticism with a wave of his arm. Moses, on the other hand, furrowed his brow and stared at Rachel for several seconds. He didn’t seem very happy with the girl he wanted to kiss.

Lia set a pitcher of milk on the table. “Felty is a poet. I can’t believe how many new rhymes he comes up with.”

Anna pulled her golden brown creation out of the cookstove. Melty, gooey cheese crackled and bubbled from the seams of the bread as Anna held it out for her husband to inspect.

Felty bent over the baking sheet and took a whiff. “Annie, that smells delicious. There ain’t no better cook. I don’t think even Lia can match you.”

Lia grinned. “Never. Anna is a wonderful cook.”

Anna blushed like a schoolgirl. “Now, Felty.”

Lia took the baking sheet from Anna and cut the sausage-cheese bread into slices. She arranged the savory pinwheels on a platter and put the platter on the table. Moses plopped himself in a chair and smiled as if he’d never told her he didn’t like kissing her. She didn’t want it to, but her heart did its usual flip-flops. She could almost pretend she’d never been away—except now she knew what they really thought of her.

In her distracted state, Lia forgot Rachel sat by herself on the sofa.

“Would you like me to bring you a plate of food?” Anna asked.

Rachel sat up eagerly. “Oh, I would much rather eat at the table if Moses wouldn’t mind carrying me over there. I don’t think I can manage to walk anywhere just yet.”

Moses seemed unimpressed. He probably didn’t want to appear too eager in case Rachel rejected him in the end. “Jah, of course.”

He went to the sofa and bent over so Rachel could get her arms all the way around his neck and then lifted her with ease and carried her to the table.

Rachel pointed to the chair next to Moses where Lia sat. “Can I take that chair, Lia? It is closer to the cookstove and I am feeling a slight chill.”

Lia jumped up and ignored the pile of stones pressing down on her chest. If Moses would rather sit next to Rachel, Lia had been selfish to sit there in the first place.

“No need to move. My seat is closer to the stove,” Anna said, with an affected sweetness that surprised Lia. Why was Anna bent out of shape?

Moses stood with Rachel in his arms as if it were no trouble to hold her there for another three hours.

“Your seat is too close to the stove. I will be too hot,” Rachel said.

Moses stared at Lia before shrugging his shoulders and depositing Rachel in Lia’s place.

Lia rubbed a spot on her forehead above her eyebrow. If she couldn’t snap out of her dull mood, she might as well go back to Wautoma. She stopped massaging her forehead, shook her head, and decided to laugh at herself for being so touchy and at Rachel for the way she could maneuver any situation to her advantage. “Perhaps we should make a seating chart next time,” Lia said.

Moses chuckled. “Jah, it’s like rearranging furniture. Let’s decide where to put everybody so I don’t have to keep moving Rachel.”

Rachel spread her napkin on her lap. “I don’t mind.”

After silent grace, Anna served everyone a piece of her sausage bread.

“This is a clever meal,” said Felty. “The bread and meat and cheese rolled into one.”

Lia’s first bite was the perfect blend of crusty bread, sausage, and swiss cheese. And not spicy, thank goodness. This meal she would be able to eat without Moses’s assistance. But her second bite molded to her teeth like putty, and she found herself chewing a mouthful of nearly raw bread dough. The crust of the loaf was a beautiful wheat-brown, but the bread on the inside hadn’t baked properly.

She poured herself a glass of apple juice and forced the thick dough down her throat. She glanced at Moses, who concentrated very hard on chewing and swallowing. Felty, as usual, ate as if this meal were the finest of his life.

Lia caught Moses’s eye, and he flashed that boyish grin. “Has anyone heard any more jokes about Delaware?”

Lia stifled a laugh by covering her mouth with her hand.

Moses noticed the gesture and said, “I think Lia knows a funny joke.”

Before Lia could come up with a reply, Rachel grimaced. “Is anybody else’s bread doughy?” She put down her fork and huffed to indicate that she was put out. “I can’t eat it. It’s raw in the center.”

Lia’s mirth evaporated. She glanced at Anna in concern. All her worst fears were realized. The distress was evident on Anna’s face, and her voice shook when she spoke. “Oh dear. I must have read the recipe wrong. I wanted it to be so special.”

Moses stopped eating and stared pointedly at Rachel, as if willing her to repair the damage she had done. Lia’s mind raced for something to smooth things over with Anna.

Felty patted Anna’s hand. “Nae, Annie Banannie, it is delicious. I never tasted better.”

Lia tried to find Rachel a way out of the corner she’d painted herself into. “Rachel, I think you’ve mistaken the melted cheese for bread dough. They both have the same consistency.”

“No, I haven’t. This bread is raw.”

“Well, don’t eat it,” Anna said, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from pooling in her eyes. She stood and picked up the platter of pinwheels. “Don’t anybody eat it. I will whip up a batch of pancakes.” She smiled weakly. “That’s why we try new recipes, to see which ones are good and which ones aren’t.”

Moses cleared his throat, took the platter from Mammi, and laid it back on the table. “There is no reason to make pancakes when this food is so tasty, Mammi. Lia and Dawdi and I love it. But remember what Lia told us about Rachel? She is delicate.” Moses reached over and brushed the back of his index finger along Rachel’s cheek.

Lia tried not to flinch as Rachel seemed to melt like butter. She half closed her eyes and leaned a few inches closer to Moses.

Moses pulled his hand away from her face. “Some people are extra sensitive to food textures. Rachel probably has very ticklish taste buds.”

Rachel gazed at Moses as if he were the only person in the room. “I do. When I was little I would gag if Mamm made me eat broccoli.”

Anna nodded doubtfully at Moses and sat down. She scooted in her chair and picked up her napkin. “I am glad to know that most of you like it. Lia worked hard rolling out the dough.”