A Time for Peace (24 page)

BOOK: A Time for Peace

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The little bell over the door tinkled as Mary Katherine entered the shop. She hurried to hang up her bonnet and coat."I'm sorry I was gone so long."

"You weren't," her
grossmudder
assured her. "And it's been slow."

"Did you have a good time with Jacob?" Naomi asked, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

Mary Katherine stopped. "How do you know I bumped into Jacob?" She narrowed her eyes. "Or wasn't it an accident that I bumped into him?"

Shrugging, Naomi pushed a needle through the quilt she was working on.

"Naomi?"

She looked up, the picture of innocence. "Yes,
Grossmudder?"

"Are you matchmaking?"

Naomi blinked. "No,
Grossmudder."

Mary Katherine moved to stand near Naomi. She put her hands on her hips and gave her a stern look. "So our running into each other was a coincidence?"

"No." She knotted the thread and resumed sewing. "He asked what time we ate dinner each day and I told him we ate at the shop but you liked to take a walk about noon each day."

"I see."

Naomi's lips twitched and then she started giggling. "I'm sorry. But I saw the two of you talking last Sunday and you seemed interested in him."

"Mary Katherine's interested in someone?" Anna asked as she walked out of the supply room. "Here, can you help me with these bolts of fabric?"

Taking several of the bolts that were threatening to slip from Anna's grasp, Mary Katherine took them to the cutting table. Anna began unfolding a bolt and pulled a pair of scissors from a drawer.

"I'm not interested in Jacob," Mary Katherine told Naomi. "I was polite. Nothing more."

"You were gone a long time." Naomi glanced up and batted her eyelashes. "That must have been some walk."

Mary Katherine walked over to the window and looked out. "We ran into Daniel—" she stopped and looked at Naomi.

"I haven't talked to Daniel," Naomi said quickly.

Nodding, Mary Katherine glanced out the window again."Daniel and Jacob hadn't eaten so I sat with them and had some tea."

Frowning, she walked over to her loom, sat down, and picked up the stick shuttle. She ran her fingers over the smooth wood and felt peace settling over her as she sat in her favorite place in the world. Reaching out, she stroked the fibers that were the color of the ocean.

"You were with
two
handsome men?"

"Naomi, enough teasing!" Leah said sternly.

"Yes,
Grossmudder."

Mary Katherine felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up.

"Are you
allrecht, liebschen?"
her
grossmudder
asked, her blue eyes filled with concern.

"I'm fine." She looked over her design for a moment.

"Did Jacob say something to upset you?"

She shook her head.

"Daniel?"

She shook her head.

"Then—?"

"I'm sure they'll be very happy together," Mary Katherine muttered.

Anna's scissors clattered to the table. "Are you saying that Jacob and Daniel are—um, not liking women?" she stammered and her face went as scarlet as a
rotrieb.

Mary Katherine laughed and then she sighed. "
Nee.
I doubt they think about women much.
Farming
holds too much of their hearts."

The bell over the door jingled merrily as someone opened it.Mary Katherine glanced over and was surprised to see Daniel and Jacob entering the shop.

Anna greeted Daniel with a smile and after speaking with him a moment, led him to a display of yarns. Mary Elizabeth remembered that he'd said he wanted to get a gift for his mother.

Jacob stood by the front counter and looked over at Mary Katherine with that intense look of his. "He seems very interested in you," Leah murmured.

"It doesn't matter," Mary Katherine said, pulling her gaze from him and returning to her weaving. "I told you. He's in love with farming."

Leah stared at her, perplexed. "There's something wrong with farming? Your father is a farmer."

Then she paused. "Oh, I see the problem," she said slowly.

"Do you?" asked Mary Katherine. She stopped and stared at the multicolored pattern on the loom before her, wishing she could find one for her own life. Lifting her gaze, she looked into her
grossmudder's
eyes. "Do you?"