Love Still Stands (12 page)

Apparently the twins had decided they enjoyed mowing. Bethel hadn’t minded the chore
either. Compared to cleaning the chicken coop, it could be considered quite fun.

“She’d see just fine if you were out there mowing the lawn instead of her, Bethel.”
Leah bustled into the room, ice and towel in hand. “She’s really not tall enough to
be handling that push mower.”

“I like mowing,” Lillie protested. “I mow for Emma, don’t I, Thomas?”

“You do, and a fine job you do too.”

“Don’t back talk.” Leah thrust the towel at her. “Keep this on your eye. Mary can
finish the job while I get the laundry on the line. Can you at least take care of
the ham and beans and the cookies, Bethel? All you have to do is make sure neither
of them burn.”

“I can.” The words stung like a slap to the face. Bethel tried to ignore the burning
heat that spread across her neck and cheeks. “I will. Can I watch the babies for you?”

“Rebecca is putting them down for a nap. She can run up and down the stairs. You can’t.
When she’s done, tell her to go to the cellar and bring up some canned peaches. You
can’t handle those stairs either.”

No need to rub it in. Bethel bit back the words. Even the sound of Leah’s skirt swishing
back and forth sounded angry as she disappeared into the kitchen.

“It’s not my place to interfere.” Thomas pushed his hat back on his head and offered
Bethel a small smile. “It’s just an observation. Whatever it is, it’s getting worse.”

“I know.”

“Was the doctor’s appointment helpful to you?”

“What’s this about a soldier calling you darling?” Luke’s frame filled the doorway.
His stern gaze held hers. “What’s this about some sort of group therapy thing? And
sweatpants?”

“What did Elijah tell you?”

“He told me I should ask you.”

“I’ll drive the wagon out to the road and unload the lumber.” Thomas made it to the
front door in two easy strides. Apparently he thought that would be safer than passing
Luke to go to the back door. “Lillie, come with me. Bring your ice pack. You can help
Leah hang the clothes.”

“Leah doesn’t like the way I do it. I’m too short.”

“Then you can take down the dry clothes, fold them, and put them away. Let’s go.”

A second later Bethel stood alone in the room with her brother-in-law, who also served
as her new bishop. Which would he be first?

Luke sank onto the drop-cloth covered couch and leaned back, his face lined with exhaustion.
He looked older than his thirty years. “Tell me what happened.”

She settled into a chair across from him and recounted the morning’s events, leaving
nothing out. Luke didn’t interrupt, but his expression darkened. He leaned forward.
His hands gripped his knees when she arrived at the part about Shawn calling her
darling
. She didn’t mention his declaration of love at first sight. Why enflame the situation?
Shawn didn’t mean it. He couldn’t have meant it. Love at first sight didn’t exist.
Certainly not between a Plain woman and an Englisch soldier.

Luke tapped the sofa’s arm, an absent look on his face. He sniffed. “You will do the
therapy. I trust you to make good choices.” He frowned. “But no swimming suit. Nothing
in the pool. We have a bathtub and a pond. Make do.”

“I will.”

“Just get better.”

“I will.” For the look on his face, her brother-in-law needed that reassurance. “As
soon as I can. I promise.”

Chapter 12

E
lijah thrust his spoon into the bowl of ham and beans and tried to look content to
be seated at the Shirack table, enjoying good food. In all honesty, if he could’ve
found a way to politely refuse Luke’s invitation to eat supper with his family, Elijah
would’ve done it. He stuck the heaping spoon of beans in his mouth. It burned. Hot.
Very hot. He opened his mouth wide and tried to suck air in and out. “Ouch, ouch!”
he dropped the spoon into the beans and waved his hand in front of his face. Finally,
he had no choice but to swallow. The beans burned all the way down his throat. “Hot!”

“Do you like cold beans better?” Joseph giggled. William immediately aped his older
brother. The little girls, Esther and Martha, banged their spoons on the table. In
their booster seats they barely reached it. “Ham and beans should be hot, shouldn’t
they, Daed?”

“It’s not nice to make fun of other people,” Luke admonished his sons. “Be quiet and
eat your supper.”

“It’s okay. Joseph’s right.” Elijah smiled at the children to let them know he didn’t
hold a grudge. “I got in a big hurry because it smelled so good. Your mudder makes
a good bowl of ham and beans.”

Leah, busy buckling Jebediah into his high chair, actually smiled. He tried to remember
if he’d ever seen her smile before. Not in recent memory. It transformed her rather
plain face, softening its sharp edges and lightening her dark eyes. She slid into
her seat, the last to do so. “It’s nice to have someone notice. Have some more cornbread.
It’s fresh.”

She handed the basket to Bethel. “Pass this to Elijah.”

Bethel barely looked his way as she shoved the basket at him and let go before he
could get a firm grasp on it. The basket toppled onto the table, spilling its contents.

“What’s wrong with you?” Leah stood and leaned over the table. She swept the contents
back into the basket, mangling some of the squares. “I know your legs don’t work,
but there’s nothing wrong with your hands, is there?”

Bethel’s face went white and her eyes reddened. She lifted her napkin to her lips
as if to hide her face. “It’s my fault.” Fingers shaking with his embarrassment, Elijah
took the basket from Leah. “I have terrible table manners. My mudder always said so.”

“No need to defend me.” Bethel dropped the napkin in her lap. She was the only one
he knew who could mix that kind of defiance with a quivering voice. “I don’t need
your help.”

“You’ve mentioned that.” He managed to keep his discomfort from his voice. “I’m not
trying to help you. A Plain woman who can go into a discount store and pick out a
pair of sweatpants that fit without trying them on is a woman to be reckoned with.”

“Sweatpants?” Leah’s lips twisted in distaste. “What’s this about?”

“Nothing.” Bethel glared at Elijah. “Nothing that a person should bring up at the
supper table.”

“Are you gonna wear pants?” William elbowed his brother. “Bethel’s gonna wear pants.”

“Can I see you in them,
Aenti
?” Joseph aimed a spoonful of beans at his mouth and missed. The juice spattered on
his chin. “You’d look funny.”

“Hush and eat your supper.” Leah slapped her glass of water on the table harder than
necessary. “And wipe your chin. Little boys should be seen and not heard.”

That brought another round of giggles from the boys. They certainly had their father’s
sense of humor.

“What do sweatpants have to do with making your legs better?” Leah asked, her gaze
on her sister’s face. “You haven’t told me anything about what the doctor said. It
sounds like you need to find a different doctor, one who understands our ways.”

“Bethel had an interesting session with her new doctor today.” Luke looked unperturbed.
He spooned more beans into his bowl and crumbled cornbread into them. “Right now,
I’d like to eat in peace. Quietly.”

Amen
. Elijah remembered just in time to blow on the beans before he stuck the spoon in
his mouth. Better he keep it full than get himself in trouble again.

“Jah.” Bethel pushed her bowl away. She’d hardly touched her food. “It’s no one else’s
business. No one else should be spreading rumors about it.”

So that’s what this was about. She was mad that he’d said something to Luke. “It’s
not a rumor when it’s true and it’s for the person’s own good.”

“You’re not my brother. Or my father.”

For that he was thankful. “I don’t want to be either.” The words came out without
thought of how they would sound. Heat burned his ears and neck. He fumbled for a way
to smooth away the words. “But I’m not just your driver. I’m a friend.”

“He’s right.” Luke chewed and swallowed. “What he told me needed to be said.”

“Told you what?” Leah threw both her hands in the air. “What are you talking about?”

“I would have told you.” Bethel paused, her gaze fixed on the table. “Not that you’re
my father, either. I have a father. Begging your pardon, Luke.”

“He’s not here and you live in my house.” Luke’s easygoing tone had disappeared. He
threw his napkin on top of his bowl. “I’m also your bishop.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t invite the attention.”

“What attention?” Leah stood. “Someone tell me what’s going on here.”

“Nothing’s going on. Nothing happened.”

Bethel rose also, grabbed her crutches, and hopped from the room. Leah picked up her
bowl and glass and followed her sister into the kitchen.

“Can I have sweatpants too?” William asked. Joseph burped and giggled. “We both want
them.”

Luke fixed them with a stern stare. They went back to stuffing cornbread in their
mouths.

“You know, if you wait too long, you’ll miss your chance.” Luke sighed and leaned
back in his chair. “Especially if you keep making her mad like this.”

Elijah squirmed in his chair. Courting involved only two people. More constituted
a crowd. Bethel had been right about one thing. The caregiver in him needed a rest.
He’d done his share of taking care of folks. The question of children also hung out
there. He watched the two boys feed pieces of cornbread to the twins while Jebediah
smeared chopped peaches all over his high chair tray. Elijah wanted it all—fraa, kinner,
a complete life. “I did what I thought was right.”

“You were right to tell me.” Luke picked up Jebediah’s plastic bowl and set it on
the table beyond the boy’s reach. “She’s right too. She would’ve told me. That’s the
way she is. She’s a strong believer. She doesn’t waver from the Ordnung. She wants
to get better, but not at the expense of doing what’s right or proper.”

“I’m just her driver.” Bethel had made that abundantly clear. “I’m happy to do that
much for her.”

“You’re not just her driver. But you need to keep driving her.”

“I plan to.”

“I need you to watch over her.”

“Because of the Englisch man?”

“I trust Bethel to make the right decisions, but the Englischers around here don’t
know our ways. She’s a kind person. She might not know how to handle his attention.”

“I won’t have a problem doing that.”

“Remember, we’re new here. We’d like to get off on the right foot.”

Luke’s sentiment reminded Elijah of the incident on the road into town and the old
man on the street who’d been so rude. He told Luke about the truck nearly running
their wagon off the highway.

“They’ll get used to our slow-moving wagons and buggies.” Luke picked at crumbs on
the table and tossed them into his bowl. “It’s best to let those things go. Like I
said, we need to get off on the right foot.”

“Had the wagon tipped over into the ditch, Bethel could’ve been hurt or killed.”

“But she wasn’t, I imagine because of your driving.” Luke met Elijah’s gaze. “I appreciate
that.”

“I did the best I could.”

“I know. Do the best you can with Bethel and these visits to the clinic too.”

“So she’s to do the physical therapy, then?”

“And the other therapy too. The support group thing.”

“Is that for the best?” He didn’t mean to question Luke’s authority as the head of
his household or as the new bishop. “I mean…”

“She has to get better. Leah needs her help.”

“It’s that bad?”

Luke didn’t respond. Again, Elijah regretted putting the fear to words. Luke wouldn’t
want to admit he couldn’t get his own wife to settle into her new situation.

“She said something about being there by seven in the morning. I’ll be here at dawn
to help with the chores before I take her in.”

“Good.” Luke stood. “Speaking of chores.”

Elijah slid back his chair. At least chores he knew how to do. Handling a woman remained
a mystery.