Patchwork Dreams (2 page)

Would he be able to get past the homesickness—and this streak of bitterness toward Daed—to embrace this as an adventure? A chance to learn about another part of the country, to expand his boundaries, and, more important, to minister to this needy relative and his family?

Too bad his pep talk wasn’t convincing. He didn’t like his bad attitude, but it seemed impossible to get rid of it.

All too soon, the van arrived in the gravel driveway of a large, two-story farmhouse. The trees surrounding the house would provide plenty of shade during the hot summer months, though now they were decorated with dripping icicles. Jacob imagined the wide front porch would be a good place for the womenfolk to shell peas or shuck corn during the harvest. A porch swing hung at one end, possibly a silent testament to a courtship from days gone by.

A whitewashed barn stood sentry several yards away. With a casual glance around, Jacob noted cows, horses, chickens, goats, and pigs, plus the usual array of dogs and cats.

The driver pulled to a stop in front of the house. Almost immediately, the front door opened, and a woman appeared, her honey-blonde hair pulled back into a bun and tucked under a prayer kapp.

She peered out at the van, then disappeared behind the door before reappearing with a wrap tossed over her slim shoulders.

Jacob opened the sliding door and clambered out of the vehicle as the driver went around to the back to get his luggage.

“Hello, Tony.” The woman stopped on the porch. She spoke to the driver, but her blue eyes were fixed on Jacob.

“Miz Becky.” The driver bumped his hat in what Jacob took as a greeting. “Brought your cousin by.”

Becky nodded. “Jah. That I see. Welkum, Jacob.”

She didn’t smile, and her eyes remained somber. Distant. As cold as the wind that howled around the corner of the house.

Jacob hoped the rest of the family wasn’t as distant. Maybe she wanted him here as much he wanted to be here.

Not so much.

Jacob straightened his shoulders. Like it or not, he was here. He pulled in a deep breath, trying to get the nausea under control. “Hello, Becky.” He hoped that the smile he aimed in her direction would convey excitement about this new venture. Might as well turn on the charm and start making the best of a bad situation.

***

Becky Troyer didn’t want to look at this Jacob. She didn’t want him here. Not now. Not ever. Besides, she thought the bishop had said that they were sending several boys—not just one—down from Pennsylvania to settle in this area, bringing new blood to the small district. And not the middle of February. In the spring, sometime. Or maybe early summer.

Maybe the rest were coming later. Or maybe not. All Becky knew was that Mamm had gotten letters from her family in Pennsylvania saying that they were sending Jacob out. Now. In February. Made her wonder what this man had done to make his family send him away so soon. And did they really want him here, potentially defiling the community?

Ach, her attitude. Becky had thought she’d gotten it all worked through, but seeing this stranger brought it all back.

Still, she couldn’t keep her eyes off this man. He was tall, even standing next to Tony, and she’d thought Tony was big. Jacob stood at least half a head higher. And he was very handsome, with sandy blond hair and eyes that were so blue, he might have fallen straight from heaven and soaked up the color from the skies as he passed through on his way to earth. He was clean shaven, too, a sign he wasn’t married. Broad shoulders. A dimple in the left cheek.

Her stomach flipped.

There was a spark of something in his eyes, a glint that reminded Becky of the mischievous boy who used to sit across from her at the one-room schoolhouse when she was young enough to go, right before he reached forward and stabbed Lindy Beuler’s braid to the wood desk with his pocketknife.

Jah, this one was trouble. Too cute for his own good, and dangerous underneath.

Becky straightened, realizing she was being rude, staring like she was. The driver had unloaded the van of luggage, along with a blue bicycle, and now he and Jacob stood there next to the vehicle, both of them staring up at her. Behind her, her younger sisters jockeyed for position, trying to move her out of the doorway so they could see.

Becky forced herself to move and felt the hem of her skirt brushing against her bare ankles. “Ach, sorry. Please, welkum, welkum. Won’t you kum in? Daed is in the barn, and Mamm has gone to a quilting, but she should be home soon.” She gripped the shoulder of whichever sister was pressed up against her and looked down. “Abbie, run to the barn and tell Daed that Jacob has kum.”

Abbie twirled a lock of hair around her finger, stared at Jacob for a second longer, then took off at a run toward the barn.

Jacob reached down and picked up some of his bags with one hand while removing his felt hat with the other. “Nice to meet you, Becky.” His accent was different from those around here. As he climbed the steps, Becky moved further from the door, allowing him access to the house. He’d be sleeping in the dawdi-haus next door, in the spare room upstairs across from Grossmammi and Grossdaedi’s room, but Grossmammi had gone to the quilting bee with Mamm, and Grossdaedi had taken the buggy to the store an hour ago. She didn’t feel comfortable sending him over there for the first time when no one was home.

It was getting hard to breathe with Jacob standing so close to her. She backed up another step and noticed that her fourteen-year-old sister, Katie, held the front door open. “Go on in. I’ll make you some tea. Or coffee. Whichever you’d like.” She looked back at Tony, who had followed Jacob with another bag. “Can you stay for lunch?” she asked him.

“Oh, no, no. Have to get back to the missus. Thanks for the offer. We’ll be seeing you, Miz Becky.” He placed the rest of Jacob’s luggage inside the door.

Following Abbie, Daed approached from the barn, so Tony turned away to speak to him. Becky followed Abbie, Katie, and Jacob inside to the warm kitchen. The scent of bread baking filled the air. Pans of cookies waited to go into the oven as soon as the bread was done. Daed’s sweet tooth always expected a couple of cookies when he came in from the fields, and their supply had run low.

Katie had already seated Jacob at the long table and had filled the kettle with water, putting it on the stove to heat. Becky grabbed some potholders, peeked inside the oven, and checked the bread. It was nicely browned, so she opened the door and removed the five pans, one at a time.

“Care for a crust, Jacob?” Katie lifted a knife.

“Jah, sounds good.”

Becky glanced around in time to see his nod. But his eyes weren’t on Katie. Instead, they were locked on her.

Her heart pounded. Could he feel the strong attraction that made her almost forget to breathe? She told herself to concentrate on the cookies so that she wouldn’t drop them or burn herself on the hot oven rack. But she couldn’t look away. Instead, she wished she could pull up a chair, plunge into his friendship, and delay the inevitable.

The door banged open. Cold wind swirled in with her father.

“So, Jacob. You have arrived. You had a gut trip, jah?”

“Jah.” Jacob’s jaw lifted, his gaze still holding Becky’s. Then, he glanced away. She looked at the open oven door and silently slid the tray of cookies inside the oven. She knew Daed had seen the whole exchange. And she knew what he thought.

She didn’t turn to check. After all, he’d be wrong. No man would want her. Not when he learned the truth.

Cousin Daniel pulled off his leather work gloves, laying them on a counter. He washed his hands, then sat down at the table. Instantly, a young teenage girl put a slice of buttered bread in front of him. “Cookies are in the oven, Daed.”

Jacob took advantage of his distant cousin’s preoccupation to glance toward the woman busy at the stove. Becky seemed the exact opposite of his sweet Susie in every way. Pale blue eyes instead of dancing brown. Light blonde hair instead of strawberry blonde. Quiet instead of talkative—although that might be a good thing. And apparently unhappy rather than cheerful.

It seemed odd that she didn’t act happier about his arrival. After all, Jacob’s backbreaking labor would be helping them out. Or maybe his arrival put her beau out of work.

Didn’t matter much, though. He was here, and here he’d stay—for a while. He straightened his spine. He would be home in time for wedding season in November, if he had anything to do with it.

And in the meantime, he’d work on seeing a real smile on Becky’s face. She’d be pretty if she smiled. Well, prettier. She had a delicate beauty that appealed to him. He squared his shoulders. He liked a challenge, and he sensed that erasing that gray cloud of doom that hovered over Becky would take a significant amount of effort.

Her daed, his cousin Daniel, reached for another slice of buttered bread, drawing Jacob’s attention. He was sure that each person had been introduced by name, but he couldn’t remember any of them. For some reason, the only name that stuck was Becky’s.

One of the girls, she looked to be about seven years of age, placed a cup of coffee in front of Jacob, along with a pitcher of cream and a bowl of sugar cubes. He dropped two cubes into his mug and was starting to pour the cream when the older man cleared his throat“So, Jacob. You are looking forward to settling in this area, jah?”

Jacob’s hand wobbled. A drop of cream landed on the table. He set the pitcher down with a thud. “Excuse me?”

“No special woman back home, is there? Is that why you agreed to kum out here to marry?”

“Marry?” Jacob was certain his eyes were wider than a newborn calf’s. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I’m here to help you out with the farm work.” He reared back in the chair, his jaw tightening. “At least, that’s what Daed told me.”

Daniel frowned and glanced away, and then his gaze returned to Jacob. “So, you have someone at home, jah?”

“Jah. Plan to marry during wedding season.”

“You are here to help out.” Daniel’s eyes narrowed.

“Jah.” Something wasn’t right. Jacob’s stomach cramped.

Daniel leaned forward. “Our bishop put out a request for young men to be sent to our area to marry and settle down. Your name is on that list. Your daed told us that you were coming out early to get a start looking for property. To get first pick of the women.”

That made Jacob sound selfish. Prideful. Both sins.

Jacob’s stomach churned. He wanted to rake his hand through his hair or, even better, get up and expel his anger through some sort of physical labor. But sensing that all the eyes in the room centered on him, and not knowing where or how to escape, he bowed his head to hide his emotions. Daed had sent him down here to marry him off? And he’d lied about it? What else had he lied about?

Jacob rubbed his sweaty hands across the rough material of his pant legs.

Would Daed be telling lies to Susie, too?

***

All the color had faded from Jacob’s face. Becky’s hands tightened around a potholder. She’d never figured that this distant cousin would pick her to be his bride, although she had harbored some faint hopes of being chosen by one of the incoming men. Whisper-thin hopes. Mostly, she’d decided she’d keep her distance from him. From all of them. After all, the local men didn’t want her for a frau. Why should she expect anyone else to?

She shouldn’t.

Couldn’t.

Wouldn’t.

Still, she certainly hadn’t expected Jacob to be taken already.

And she hadn’t expected that his daed would lie to Jacob about why he was being sent here. What was so wrong with the woman he planned to marry that his family would go to such lengths to separate them? Could it be that she wasn’t Amish? Was a family feud to blame?

The silence stretched awkwardly as Jacob stared down at his hands, a muscle working in his jaw. And Daed, after sending Becky a confused glance, gazed into his cup of coffee, as if expecting answers to this dilemma to float to the surface.

She was fairly positive they wouldn’t.

How many full cups of coffee had he studied when she’d entered her rumschpringe? Hundreds, for sure.

Daed’s hand landed on the table with a loud slap, and Becky jumped. Jacob glanced up, but the muscle still worked in his jaw.

“Well then, Jacob. We’ll make the best of this situation. You are here. You will help me. And if you happen to have your eye caught by one of our local girls, you’ll stay. But if not, then I’ll make sure you catch a bus back to Pennsylvania whenever you want to go.”

“Danki, sir. Appreciate that.” Jacob poured some cream into his coffee. His gaze locked on Becky. “The cookies smell gut.”

Becky blinked.
The cookies!
She spun around and opened the oven. Heat billowed out of the open door. She gripped the pan with the potholder and lifted it out before sliding the next pan in. Thankfully, the chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies weren’t burned.

“As soon as you finish that coffee, Jacob, I’ll take you on a tour of the farm and show you where you’ll be sleeping,” Daed said. “You want a cookie first, though, ain’t so?” Daed’s gaze swung from Jacob to her. “Becky, as soon as the cookies cool, Jacob and I would both like one or two.”

“Of course.” Becky turned back around and picked up a spatula. “Just a minute, Daed.” She lifted a cookie off the tray and laid it on a cooling rack. But as she slid the spatula under the next cookie, a wail filled the room, and the cradle in the corner began to rock.

Daed stood, going quickly over to the cradle and lifting the three-month-old baby. He cradled her in his arms and walked back over to the table, cooing softly. “And this, Jacob, is Emma.”

“Nice to meet you, Emma.”

“Jah, she’s a sweetheart,” Daed said. “No boys in this family. Yet. But I thank the gut Lord for the girls.”

Jacob smiled. “And that would be why you need help with the farm, jah?”

Daed shrugged. Smiled. “It would appear that way, jah. But then, things are not always as they appear.”

The next morning, Jacob woke up to strange surroundings, from the scent of rosewater that filled the room to the look and feel of the colorful quilt as he tugged the bed back together after his restless night’s sleep. A strange house. A strange town. A strange state. And the sickening knowledge that Daed had lied to him. Funny how that changed everything now.