Wonderful Lonesome (27 page)

The wind flapped the hem of Abbie’s skirt and caused her to reach for her prayer
kapp
and make sure it was secure. She kept singing, but she saw the glances around the circle. The wind abruptly became fierce and dumped its chill over the gathering. The temperature plummeted in an instant. Women dashed to keep food from blowing over and reached for hands of small children. Men hastily loaded benches.

Abbie had hoped for more than one hymn. The plain had stolen the moment. Next time, she thought, she would arrange for the shared meal to be held inside someone’s barn. Rudy’s was the largest. There
would
be a next time.

As soon as Rudy milked his last cow in the morning, he harnessed a horse to the buggy and trotted toward Martin Samuels’s farm. Over a plate of roasted potatoes and boiled green beans with a chunk of salted pork at the Millers’ gathering, Martin had asked Rudy to come look at a cow that was behaving poorly. Rudy liked to evaluate cows early in the day, after the night had dissipated body heat and before the animals had time to take on a new day’s fever.

Wind had howled overnight, drowning out even the coyotes, and Rudy saw the effects. Loose thistle huddled against every fence he passed. Even weeds that withstood summer’s blasts now bent in disarray. As soon as he finished with Martin’s cow, Rudy planned to climb on his own roof and make sure his shingles remained secure.

Rudy turned on the road that would take him to Martin’s land and began to watch for the collection of outbuildings. The house itself was small, but Martin had a good-sized barn and a shed he had built only last year out of odds and ends of lumber. Rudy slowed as he approached the compound, confused at the absence of the shed. Where it should have stood, he saw an exposed pile of lignite beside an open wagon.

Then Martin charged out of his barn with a shovel, not bothering to lift his eyes, and attacked the pile. With the shovel’s point, he alternated between transferring coal to the wagon and knocking aside the splinters that had been his shed only the night before.

Rudy slowed his horse and narrowed his eyes. When he was close enough, he spoke.

“Martin.”

Widower Samuels snapped his head up.

“I’m sorry about your shed.” Rudy surveyed the scattered remnants. “That wind was mighty fierce.”

“Yes, it was.” Martin threw another shovelful of coal into the wagon.

And then the inconsistency rolling around in Rudy’s mind fell into place. “Where did the coal come from, Martin?”

“The ravine, of course.”

“Directly?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Rudy tightened the reins to keep his horse from drifting. “I thought you had not dug any coal yet.”

“How else would I get it?” Martin stopped shoveling, but neither would he meet Rudy’s eye.

“Thirty men a day dig in the ravine. Even the
English
remarked they have not seen you. We have been concerned you might not be prepared for the winter.”

“As you can see, I have a good start on what I need.” Martin adjusted the hat on his head.

Rudy moistened his lips, wishing a conclusion made sense other than the one foremost in his mind. “Martin, is that Willem Peters’s missing coal?”

Martin dropped the shovel. “I appreciate that you came to see my cow. I’ll show you where she is.”

There were no elders to consult, no bishop to report to. Rudy had his doubts about whether Willem was doing right by Abbie, but he deserved to know what happened to a day’s hard labor.

“I’d better come back another time.” Rudy started to turn his rig around.

“My cow could go down if you don’t help.”

“I suspect I’ll be back soon enough. In the meantime, make sure she’s taking enough water.”

Martin kicked his boot at the coal. Rudy did not look back.

Willem nodded his thanks as Abbie set a plate of hearty breakfast in front of him. Three biscuits, four scrambled eggs, and chopped fried potatoes mirrored the plate in front of Reuben. When she asked, Willem said he already had his breakfast, as Reuben did when the family had breakfast together, but neither declined her offer of another plate of food before they left the farm together to dig coal. Though she would pack food for them to take, she doubted either would stop to eat again until supper. Willem and Reuben paused for silent prayer, and Abbie held still as well. When Willem opened his eyes, he smiled at her.

“
Kaffi?
” she said.

“Please.”

She had a hard time not meeting his green eyes. A few weeks ago they would have had an entire conversation in a room full of people just with chaste glances and turns of the head. Now she guarded her hope, and it was all because of Jake Heatwole. In her mind, Abbie turned the question in every direction but refused to be the one to give voice to the heaviness between them. If she asked about Jake and Willem’s intention, and he said only what he had said in the past, her heart would sink yet again. And if he leaned more distinctly toward Jake, she would have to run from the room. When Willem made up his mind, he would tell her, and she would either shed her tears or let her heart burst in rejoicing.

She poured coffee for both Willem and Reuben and nudged a small pitcher of cream toward Willem, knowing he would pour generously from it.

The knock on the front door startled her. She paced through the house and returned a moment later with Rudy behind her.

“I believe I have found your coal,” Rudy said.

Willem took the time to unhitch his wagon only because he wanted to cut across the network of Amish farms in a direct route to Martin Samuels’s house as close to a gallop as possible. The wagon would only slow him down.

“Wait.” Abbie pulled at his elbow as he unfastened the hitch.“Maybe there is an explanation. Give Martin a chance.”

Willem sighed and stared into her dark eyes. At times her perpetual optimism was beyond his words. “Abigail, you heard what Rudy just said.”

“Don’t go in anger. Cool down first.”

“And by that time will there be any evidence on the widower Samuels’s farm of that coal?” He pulled out of her grasp and saddled his stallion. By now the entire Weaver family stood with Rudy in the yard. Willem did not look back at any of them as he pressed his heels into the stallion’s sides.

Martin Samuels was stacking broken slats of wood along the side of the barn when Willem reined up beside him.

“I see Rudy wasted no time.” Martin dropped another slat onto the pile.

“I see Rudy was right,” Willem countered. A load of coal, a quantity that would have fit nicely in his wagon, was divided between a pile on the ground and the bed of Martin’s wagon. “No one ever saw you digging, Martin. Not a single time.”

“We still have long hours of light. No one could be at the ravine every moment of every day.” Martin closed the gap between the barn and the coal.

Still on his horse, Willem followed Martin. “You have been a subject of much conversation. We were all concerned. Even Eber tried to dig before he fell ill again. But no one ever saw you.”

“Perhaps I bought it from someone digging for profit. You are not the only one who does so.”

Willem shook his head. “A man digging for you would have mentioned it amid our concern. And you led Rudy to believe you had been digging yourself.”

“I will run my business, and you will run yours.”

“Martin,” Willem said, his jaw tight, “if you needed help, all you had to do was ask. You know that. You did not have to steal my coal.”

“All coal looks alike.” Martin turned his back to Willem. “You cannot possibly prove that this coal is yours.”

“Why should I have to?” Willem’s tone took on an edge. “Confession and forgiveness would be a more peaceable way to resolve matters.”

“I do not owe you an explanation.”

“It is no coincidence that the collapse of your shed in a windstorm is the first anyone knows of your coal supply.”

“Can’t you go any faster?” Abbie gripped the bench of Rudy’s buggy.

“This gelding is as old as the hills,” Rudy said, “and I’ve already pushed the poor animal to race from Martin’s place to yours. I thought I was just going to look at a sick cow or I would have brought a team.”

Abbie exhaled and let her shoulders slump.

“Don’t worry,” Rudy said. “Willem is not going to hurt Martin.”

Abbie remembered the look in Willem’s face the day he dragged Reuben home after the coal went missing. If he had been that angry with Reuben, he would be much more angry with the culprit of the crime.
Crime
. She hated to even think of using that word in connection with any of the Amish settlers.

“Don’t you know a shortcut?” Abbie kept her eyes straight ahead, watching for any turnoff that might speed their journey.

“I said I would take you.” Rudy glanced at her. “But if you want to do something helpful, I suggest prayer for a demonstration of love and forgiveness.”

Abbie nodded. “In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.” She murmured the words of Psalm 120.

When they finally pulled into the widower Samuels’s yard, Abbie was relieved to see both Willem and Martin standing upright, though Martin had his feet spread and his hands on his hips as he glared at Willem. The buggy swayed to a stop beside them.

Rudy closed a hand gently around her wrist. “Stay here.”

Abbie did not protest as Rudy slid his hand down and encircled her fingers, but she did not take her eyes off of Willem.

“Can you stand before God and declare that you did not take my coal?” Willem said.

Abbie sucked in her breath.

Martin crossed his wrists behind his back. “A few minutes ago you were suggesting confession and forgiveness. Now you sound like an
English
court.”

Willem stepped toward Martin. “The way of confession is always open. This has been a difficult year for all of us. We must try to understand and encourage each other.”

Martin picked up a piece of coal and threw it into his wagon. “I will drive the coal to your farm. You can follow me to make sure I don’t take off with it.”

Abbie looked from Willem to Martin, who still had not admitted wrongdoing.