The Bridge of Peace (39 page)

Thirty-Three

Lena knew today, the Monday following the auction, would be tough to get through. At least yesterday had been a between Sunday, so she hadn’t had to face anyone.

Too broken to sleep last night or to think well today, she did her best to keep the tears at bay and teach her scholars. She’d had to walk to school again today. Her once-spirited horse had crossed the line into flat-out unruly. While walking from her home to here, she’d seen people in buggies or working in their gardens and such. The whispers were endless, and her embarrassment complete. Although some waved, asking how she was doing, most kept their distance.

But she’d get beyond this. She’d read in the Bible one time that her life was hidden with Christ, so what people saw wasn’t really her.

Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself.

Besides, good teachers always had to set aside personal issues and keep reaching out. But after tonight’s board meeting, she probably wouldn’t be able to teach anywhere. With only three and a half weeks of school left, they’d let her finish out this year. But with Dwayne making the issues so public, she wouldn’t be able to find a district that would hire her for next year. If the school board could only see how the counselor had helped Peter, they might not hold what she’d done against her. Samantha had helped release him from his anger and his thoughts of suicide.

She watched Peter. Between Saturday and today, he’d located that deep-seated anger she’d spent most of the year trying to remove. Whatever happened tonight at the board meeting, she knew she’d gambled and lost. Peter had talked to the counselor at her home twice a week for two months. To keep her Daed out of trouble, she’d timed the meetings to take place while he was away delivering furniture, most often to Ada’s house. She’d seen progress in Peter, but it’d been destroyed somehow. Probably from the browbeating he’d taken from his brother and parents once he got home on Saturday.

With dread of tonight’s meeting and such grief over playing a fool for Grey, she thought today might never end. Deborah had moved on after Mahlon left, and Lena kept promising her heart that she would too. But Deborah had men lined up wanting to court her. Lena? Well, she might have a chance at finding one good man if she could have the birthmark removed.

The clock struck three, and she dismissed the class for the day. Wishing she could remain at her desk, she went outside and greeted parents, trying to respond to them as if nothing were wrong. She helped the young ones get in buggies, but most of her scholars walked home in this type of weather. Before their excited voices faded in the distance, she saw a buggy carrying three men pull into the school’s turnaround. The open carriage held the members of the school board—Michael, Enos, and Jake. All except Grey.

Michael brought the rig to a halt. “Lena, we’d like a word with you.”

This couldn’t be good news, not if the meeting was supposed to be tonight and they’d all come here now. While they got out of the carriage, she closed the school door. They could say whatever they came here for without her sitting in front of them like a frightened field mouse trapped by a cat.

She walked down the three steps and halfway to the rig and waited.

Michael stared behind the school at the pasture where his daughter had died six months ago. “Because of things we learned Saturday and after talking with folks today, we’ve canceled the meeting tonight. We think it best to say what needs to be said now. I see no need in having a meeting where Grey will try to defend your actions. He’s done that for too many years, and the two of you should be ashamed.”

Offense burned through her, and tears clouded her vision. “Do you dare hint that Grey and I had some sort of inappropriate relationship—that he was not faithful to Elsie nor I to God? That isn’t true. Not even a flirtatious smile or a wink passed between us. He had no interest in anyone but your daughter. And I have never had an interest in someone God has given to another.”

Michael stared at her for several moments. “Your reaction gives me hope.”

“And I respectfully have grave concerns over yours.”

Michael’s face turned red. “You are far too opinionated, Lena Kauffman.”

Lena’s palms sweated, and her heart palpitated as she dared speak so boldly. “You’ve let a liar deceive you.”

“Dwayne hasn’t deceived us concerning your disobedience to the board’s instructions. You overstepped your boundary and disobeyed our ruling.” He held out an envelope. “You are dismissed from your position starting today.”

His words struck her with the force of a roof collapsing, and her legs threatened to give way. “What?” She looked from one man to the next. “But I … I haven’t sat before my accusers or been given a chance to speak.”

“Mollie Bender will fill in for the rest of this year, and we’ll find a new teacher for next year.”

They’d chosen Dwayne and Peter’s Mamm to fill in for her? The unfairness of it shook her, and she fought against tears. Unwilling to let them see even mist in her eyes, she gritted her teeth and gained control over her tear ducts. “Fine.” Her heart pounding until she felt sick, she turned her back to them and began to walk off.

“You did this, Lena,” Jake called after her. “In months to come, perhaps years, you will see that this is not our doing but yours.”

The gravel under her feet crunched as she spun around and took several steps toward them. “And I’d do it again. Peter asked for help. He’s old enough to graduate school in three weeks, old enough to go to work full-time, and old enough to begin the freedoms of his rumschpringe, where he’ll dabble in the world’s ways, but he’s not old enough to know if he needs to talk to someone outside of our faith?”

Michael’s face showed confusion as he listened to her reasoning. “That issue aside, you disobeyed us. We are your authority. We decide what’s best.”

“Or you refuse to hear reason and Dwayne decided for you.”

“You dare stand here and mock us?”

“I dare to question you. There should have been a meeting where I could have answered the charges against me and lodged my own against Dwayne.”

Michael studied the field, and she thought he might give in to her. The hurt and confusion on his face reminded her of the constant pain that tore at him. “We’ve made our decision, and it is final.”

As she tried to absorb the loss, her mind swam with warm memories of the battles fought and won inside that classroom—just as battles were fought and won on every farm and in every home. Good seed was sown out of love and an abundant harvest prayed for, but even among the Amish the lines of right and wrong were not always clear. Should she have done nothing after Elsie’s death and let the seeds of shock, grief, and guilt grow a crop unhindered and unchecked?

She didn’t know, and she might not ever know. “I’ll empty my desk.”

After taking the few remaining gloves and sweaters out of the lost-and-found box, she set the container beside her desk. Word of her dismissal would spread quickly. By nightfall everyone would know she’d been released as the teacher. They’d think her a fool, if they didn’t already. A silly, ugly, rebellious fool.

What most people thought was one thing, but knowing how Grey felt about her made it unbearable.

The smell of wood stain and the sounds of sawing and hammering inside the cabinetry shop were the most constant things in Grey’s life. Since he’d been a teen, he’d worked here, first for Ephraim’s Daed and then for Ephraim. He didn’t seem to be much good at creating anything of substance outside of work, but inside these walls he built fine, sturdy items that would serve a purpose long after he’d left this earth.

When most of the young men had been out drinking and carousing, he’d stayed faithful to the Amish ways and honed his skills as a craftsman. He’d never been a girl chaser. It never interested him. So how was he now caught in forbidden circumstances and silently living outside the Old Ways?

He couldn’t stop thinking about Lennie. The hurt she was experiencing tormented him. He’d spent most of yesterday writing her a letter. It seemed the only way to reach her without causing trouble. There was a chance it wouldn’t get to her, but only a small one. Since her teen years, she was the one who took the mail inside most days. As far as he knew, she still did. Even if her Daed found the letter, Grey believed he’d give it to her. He might not approve, but Israel treated Lennie as a respected adult. He’d always let her make up her own mind, just like allowing her to go to public school.

“Grey,” Ephraim called to him.

Michael, Jake, and Enos stood in the doorway of the shop. He went to them. If Cara wasn’t in the office visiting Ephraim, he would have taken the men in there for privacy.

“We came to tell you there’s not a school board meeting tonight,” Jake said. “We decided it’s best for everyone if you are not put in a situation where you feel the need to defend Lena.”

“Am I being replaced?”

Jake shook his head. “No, but we met with Lena already … and we let her go.”

“You what?”

“We voted, and we handled it, Grey,” Michael said. “It didn’t matter what was said at the meeting. She was on probation before she brought a psychologist into the school after Elsie died. We’d already told her she wouldn’t be hired again for next year, and we’d hoped she could finish out the year. We’d—”

“Wait.” Grey held up his hand. “You had reasons before this Saturday to let her know you wouldn’t hire her again for next year? Why? And why wasn’t I told?”

“You know that she was already on probation.”

“I know she was the Detweilers’ scapegoat, and all of you allowed it. That boy drove a rig back and forth to school half of that year. She let him go midday, and he was surely daydreaming while Lena’s horse instinctively headed for her place. That accident caused no more than bumps and bruises. It certainly was not her fault. And what about his Mamm’s fault for sending those four children to school time and time again without a lunch?”

“You defend her too heartily and too loudly,” Enos said.

Michael straightened his straw hat. “Aside from the issue with the Detweilers, she was allowing more and more things to take place that should not have. The board had not approved the counselor who spoke to the class. And Elmer broke his arm while she was nowhere around. The parents had lost confidence in her, but we were going to let her finish the year. However, sneaking Peter in to see a counselor behind our backs and his parents’ was too much. His parents thought he was staying after school to study. We didn’t need your vote to have enough to dismiss her. We’d warned her not to allow that counselor into the school again, so she had the woman meet with Peter at her home right after school.”

“She had a right to—”

“No,” Michael interrupted. “She had a right to obey us, and she didn’t. And she showed us no sign of remorse for her actions. I do not regret our decision. Mollie Bender will fill in until school is over.”

“Mollie? Lena is let go without a hearing, based on trouble Dwayne stirred, and then you hire his Mamm?”

“Jake, Enos, will you wait for me in the carriage?” Michael asked and then waited until they were out of earshot. “I don’t like what I see in you lately,” he said softly. “You stand up for her as heartily as she does for you. You need to mind your step.”

“I have minded my step. And I grow weary of it, Michael.”

Without another word Michael left. Grey began pacing, trying to think what to do and how to do it. He didn’t know exactly, but he had to see Lennie. Through the plate glass of the office, he saw Ephraim and Cara chatting.

He crossed the large room, tapped on the door, and went in. “They came to tell me that they’ve fired Lena. I’ve got to see her, but that could make everything worse.”

Cara frowned. “Why would that make it worse for her?”

“It’s like Israel said. It’s too soon for me to be standing on the porch at any woman’s house.”

“You and Lena?” Lines creased Ephraim’s face as Grey’s words sank in.

“I thought you knew that already,” Cara said. “You were there on Saturday when Israel wouldn’t let Grey see Lena.”

Ephraim studied her for a moment. “Ya, but I just thought Lena was too upset to see anyone because Grey had tried to get other men to date. Oh, now I see what’s going on.” He studied Grey for a minute. “I hope it works out for you two.”

Grey nodded, glad Ephraim had no judgment against him—not that he had expected it.

Cara tapped her fingers on the arms of her chair. “I still don’t get why Grey going to see her is a problem.”

Ephraim quickly explained the ways of the Amish concerning remarriage.

Cara tucked a wisp of rogue hair under her prayer Kapp. “So it’s unacceptable to become involved with someone any sooner than a year. Two years are appreciated?”

“Ya.”

“Isn’t there a verse somewhere in the New Testament that says once a spouse dies, the one left behind is free to remarry?” Cara asked.

“Free to, yes,” Ephraim added. “But it’s wisdom to wait, and it’s the Amish way to push for that. Waiting honors the life of the person who died. It shows inner character and strength to remain alone, and it gives everyone who is grieving time to adjust to that loss before new people are brought into their lives as a family member.”