[Kentucky Brothers 01] - The Journey (49 page)

Roused from her sleep by loud voices, Suzanne forced herself out of bed. Was someone in the yard hollering, or had she been dreaming?

She padded across the room, lifted the shade at her window, and looked down. Her breath caught in her throat, and she grabbed the windowsill for support. Titus stood beside his buggy, and a young woman was next to him—a woman Suzanne didn’t recognize but who looked familiar.

Despite the weakness she felt, Suzanne forced herself to get dressed and make her way downstairs. When she peered out the kitchen window, she could see the woman’s face.
Oh my … she looks a lot like me
.

Suzanne went to the utility room and slipped into a jacket; then she stepped outside. She barely took notice of Grandpa, who stood on the porch, slowly shaking his head. All Suzanne could think about was getting to Titus’s buggy and finding out who the woman beside him was.

“Wh-what’s going on here?” Suzanne asked when she stepped up to Titus.

His cheeks turned red, and he looked at Suzanne with a kind of desperation. “Uh, Suzanne, this is Phoebe Stoltzfus. She arrived from California last night.”

Phoebe nodded. “That’s right. I spent the night at your friend Esther’s.”

Suzanne’s vision blurred, and she swayed unsteadily. Then everything faded, and she toppled to the ground.

T
itus stood with Isaac, staring down at Suzanne as she reclined on the living room sofa. After she’d fainted, Titus had carried her into the house; then Isaac had put a cold washcloth on her forehead and patted her cheeks. She’d come to fairly quickly but hadn’t said a word to either of them since she’d regained consciousness.

“Are you okay?” Titus asked, taking a seat on one end of the sofa near Suzanne’s feet. “It gave us a scare when you fainted like that.”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled.

“Here, drink some of this.” Isaac offered Suzanne some water.

She reached for the glass, sat up, and took a sip.

“Would someone bring me some more ginger ale?” a young voice called from upstairs. Titus realized it was Effie.

“Jah, sure. I’ll be right up.” Isaac excused himself and left the room.

Titus was on the verge of saying something to Suzanne, when she spoke.

“Why didn’t you tell me that Phoebe was coming to see you?”

“I didn’t know. She just showed up unexpectedly.”

“How’d she know where you live?”

“She got my address from a letter I’d written her.”

Tears welled in Suzanne’s eyes, and she blinked several times, as though trying to keep them from spilling over. “I didn’t realize you’d been writing to her all this time. If I’d known I never would have—”

“I haven’t stayed in touch with Phoebe,” Titus interrupted, his frustration mounting. “It was just one letter, to let her know that—”

“To let her know that you’re still in love with her and want her back?”

Titus shook his head determinedly. “No, no. It wasn’t like that. I wrote Phoebe to say I’d forgiven her for what she’d done and that I wanted her to know I wished her God’s best.”

“But you must have given her some encouragement or she wouldn’t have come to Kentucky.”

He shook his head again. “I didn’t offer any encouragement, and I never mentioned the idea of her coming here.”

Suzanne lifted both hands in the air. “Well, she must have gotten the idea from somewhere. In all the time you’ve been living here, she never came to see you before, so why now?”

Titus ground his teeth together. This wasn’t going well. “I just told you, when Phoebe got my letter, she decided to come.”

“Do you still love her?”

Suzanne’s direct question and her furrowed brows made Titus begin to sweat. “No. I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I figured as much.” Suzanne looked away. “She’s waiting outside for you, so you’d better go.”

“Please look at me, Suzanne.” Titus reached over and touched her chin, turning her head to face him. “I’m worried about you. You fainted when you found out who Phoebe was, and I know you were very upset.”

“I fainted because I’m weak and sick from the wasserpareble.”

“Maybe that was part of it, but I think the shock of seeing Phoebe was too much for you.”

She dropped her gaze and stared at the glass, clasped firmly in her hands.

Titus shifted on the sofa, feeling the tension between them. Tension that hadn’t been there until Phoebe came on the scene and interrupted his life. “I’d like to stay so we can talk about this some more.”

“What’s there to talk about? You’re not sure whether you’re still in love with Phoebe, which means you’re obviously not sure about us. Until you are sure, I don’t think there’s anything left to say.” Tears slipped out of Suzanne’s eyes and splashed onto her pale cheeks.

Titus wanted to hold Suzanne and reassure her that nothing had changed between them, but she was obviously too upset to talk about this, and right now, he was too confused. He sat for a moment, then rose from his seat and headed across the room. He was almost to the door when he turned and said, “I need some time to think and pray about this. When things become clear, and I come here to talk to you again, I hope you’ll listen.”

She didn’t look at him and gave no reply.

Titus whirled around and went out the door. He hoped he would find the answers he sought before it was too late.

Paradise, Pennsylvania

As Fannie and Abraham sat in their living room that evening, drinking hot cider, Fannie told him about the news Arie had shared.

“I wonder if Phoebe really did go to Kentucky,” she said. “And if so, has she found Titus by now?”

Abraham set his mug down and drew his fingers through the end of his beard. “Guess we won’t know that until we hear something from him. I’m sure if she showed up, he’d tell us. Don’t you agree?”

“I don’t know. He knows we never approved of Phoebe, so if they are back together, he might try to hide it as long as he can.”

“It won’t do any good to worry about it tonight,” Abraham said. “We’ll just have to wait until we hear from Titus.”

“I’m not going to wait on Titus.” Fannie pursed her lips. “Tomorrow morning, I’m going out to the phone shanty and call him. When his voice mail picks up, I’ll leave a message and set a time for tomorrow evening that he can call when I’ll be waiting in the shanty by the phone.”

“Do whatever you want, but if you say too much on the subject of Phoebe, you could push Titus away.” Abraham drank the remainder of his cider, set his empty mug on the table beside his chair, and stood. “I’m tired. Think I’ll go to bed. Are you coming, Fannie?”

“In a bit. I want to sit here by the fire awhile.”

When Abraham left the room, Fannie picked up her Bible, which had been lying on the coffee table. She turned to a place she’d marked with a ribbon and read James 1:5, which she’d underlined some time ago: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Fannie shut the Bible and closed her eyes.
Heavenly Father: Give me wisdom to say the right words when I speak to Titus, and may Your will be done concerning our son’s future
.

Pembroke, Kentucky

“I don’t see why I have to go back to the Beilers’ place right now,” Phoebe said as Titus directed his horse and buggy in that direction. “I think we need to talk.”

“What good is talking when you don’t listen? You’ve always wanted to have everything your own way.”

“That’s not true,” she said, hoping he would see the sincerity on her face.

“Jah, it is, and you know it.”

“Is it wrong because I want you? Is that what you’re saying?”

“You say you want me now, but you’ve said that before—when we were courting. Then you changed your mind and took off for California. Now you’re here, and I think it might be only because you have no money and believe you have no other place to go. I’m not convinced you came here because you love me.”

“I did come because I love you. Why won’t you believe me?” Phoebe’s voice sounded desperate even to her own ears. Well, she couldn’t help it; she was desperate. Desperate to make Titus understand, and desperate to win him back.

“It’s hard to believe someone who’s told so many lies,” he said, turning his head away from her.

“I wasn’t really lying before. I was just confused.”

“So you broke up with me and left Pennsylvania because you were confused?”

“That’s right. I’ve been confused and angry with my folks for a long time—ever since they first tried to come between us.”

He glanced back at her and slowly shook his head. “If that’s your only excuse, then it’s a poor one at best. My folks weren’t in favor of me courting you either—not even after you’d turned sixteen. But do you see me staying angry at them?”

“I don’t know how you feel toward your folks. I only know that I’ve always felt like I could do nothing right as far as Mom and Dad were concerned, and it makes me angry that they’ve never wanted me to have any fun.”

Titus shook the reins to get his horse moving faster.

She clasped his arm “Are you going to give me another chance or not?”

“I don’t know. I need time to think and pray about it.”

“How much time?”

“Don’t know that either.”

“Until you decide, I’ll stay at the Beilers’ and wait. Dinah said I could stay there for as long as I like.”

“You can do whatever you want, but it may be a while before I make a decision.” Titus paused and turned to look at her again. “When I do decide, it might not be what you’re hoping to hear.”

Her heart sank with a feeling of dread. If only she could say or do something to get through to him.

He guided his horse and buggy off the road and onto the Beilers’ driveway. “Here we are.”

“Are you coming in?” Phoebe asked when he pulled up in front of the house instead of by the hitching rail.

He shook his head. “Good-bye, Phoebe.”

She sat a few seconds. Unable to speak around the lump in her throat, she stepped out of the buggy and sprinted for the house. She was fearful that she might lose Titus to Suzanne and didn’t know what she could do about it. Should she keep trying to win him back, or should she go home and face Mom and Dad? But if she went home, how would she get there? She’d used the money she’d borrowed from Charlene and didn’t even have enough left for a bus ticket.

I just can’t go home
, she told herself.
I have to stay here and make Titus see that he loves me, and that we’re meant to be together
.

O
n Monday evening, Titus went out to the phone shanty to check for messages. He found one from Mom, asking him to call her at seven o’clock that night. He pulled out his pocket watch. It was five minutes to seven now, so if he stayed in the shanty, he could make the call soon.