Plain Peace (A Daughters of the Promise Novel) (30 page)

“
Mammi
? Are you feeling okay?” Anna couldn’t stop looking around the kitchen. Each time she noticed something new. Daadi
is going to go crazy when he sees all this
.

“I’ve never felt better, dear—except it’s really too warm in here for a wrap.” She pulled the pink sweater from her shoulders and draped it over the back of her chair at the table. “
Ach
, and I went to see Dr. Noah this afternoon so I can get a refill on my prescription.” Her smile faded. “I do feel just awful about putting poor little Benjamin in danger. I’m sure Lucy will never ask me to babysit again. The doctor said that usually low blood sugar makes you pass out. In my case, my blood sugar was so
high
that I was near a diabetic coma. He said I was very lucky.” She shook her head. “Blessed. I’m very blessed.”

“
Mammi
, is all this stuff from your basement collection? What do you think
Daadi
is going to say?”

Marianne lifted her head, seeming to snap out of her thoughts about Benjamin and her health. “
Ach
, I suspect he’ll make me get rid of most of it.” She chuckled. “But I’m going to enjoy it for now and try to sway him into letting me keep a few of these things out.”

Anna eased out a chair and slid into it, fearful she might actually fall down. “Uh, okay,” she mumbled as she watched her grandmother pull the oven door open, take a peek, and shut it again. Her grandfather had never cared for Italian food, not even pizza.

She squeezed her eyes closed when she heard her grandfather’s heavy footsteps coming up the porch steps. The screen door opened and closed and the steps continued, then stopped suddenly.
Daadi
was surely taking inventory of the new decor. Anna wished she could sneak out of the house before he made his way to
the kitchen. But her grandmother just scuttled around the room with a smile on her face, seemingly unworried.

“Marianne?”

Anna slowly opened one eye and barely turned to face her grandfather as her heart thumped in her chest. He walked closer until he was standing between Anna and her grandmother. He repeated himself. “Marianne?”

“Hello, Isaac. Sit down. Supper will be ready shortly.”
Mammi
placed a tray of sliced garlic bread on the table. Anna wasn’t sure, but it looked like maybe it was the frozen kind you buy in the grocery store.

Her grandfather didn’t move. He looked like a statue, frozen in a state of shock with his jaw hanging low, his eyes bulging. But then, to Anna’s surprise, he slowly pulled out his chair at the end of the table and sat down. He met Anna’s stare, closed his mouth, and frowned.

Mammi
put the lasagna on the table, then filled the fancy serving bowl with salad. “Now, Isaac, I know that you aren’t fond of Italian food, but this is something special. You try it. If you really don’t like it, I won’t make it again.”

Daadi’s
face turned red as his eyes scanned the kitchen, his gaze landing on the cuckoo clock before he focused on
Mammi
. “Woman, have you completely lost your mind? What is all this?” He recklessly waved a hand around the kitchen, then stared at the pink sweater draped over
Mammi’s
chair. “And what is . . . that?”

Anna held her breath as her grandmother walked over to her chair, slowly picked up the sweater, and draped it over her shoulders again. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a
thin-lipped smile before she spoke. “We are changing a few things around here, Isaac.”

Daadi
turned even redder, and Anna thought he might self-combust. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack? You have spent your entire life being a
gut
example of how a good Amish
fraa
should behave. Why would you disobey me after all these years and turn to the ways of the
Englisch
?”

Anna pushed back her chair. “I’ll come back later.”

“Sit.” Her grandmother pointed a finger at her. “Everyone is going to eat this fine meal that I have prepared.”

Anna did as she was told, but she’d lost her appetite.
Mammi
squinted her eyes as she peered at
Daadi
.

“You listen to me, Isaac. There is nothing wrong with anything in this kitchen. I might have gone a little overboard in the living room.” She paused, tapping a finger to her chin. “We can discuss it later and hopefully come to a compromise.”

“Where did all of this come from?”
Daadi
put a hand to his chest.

“I’ve been living with your intolerance for most of my life, Isaac. I’ve amused myself by purchasing a few extras over the years . . . with my own money that I’ve collected from the bakery deliveries.”

Anna put a hand over her mouth, trying not to grin. “A few extras” was a huge understatement. Anna had never been more thankful that her grandfather couldn’t make it down the basement steps to have a look at those few extras.

Daadi
lowered his hand from his chest, placed both palms on either side of the china plate, and sat taller. “Is this all of it?”

Anna held her breath.

“Nee.”
Her grandmother raised her chin. “I’ve got an entire room
full of things I’ve bought. It used to be quite challenging—ordering things from catalogs, getting money orders to pay for them.” She shook her head and smiled. “But now that I have a credit card and the Internet, it is so much easier. And my iPhone, of course.”

Daadi
pounded his fist on the table, rattling the china and the crystal glasses. “All of this will go, Marianne. When I come in from the fields tomorrow, I expect to see all of this gone and things back to normal.”

Anna didn’t know what to do. She looked back and forth between her grandparents, wishing she could disappear. But she didn’t dare move.

“I don’t think so, Isaac.”
Mammi
leaned her face close to
Daadi’s
. To Anna’s surprise, he actually backed away, his lip turned under. “I have decided to share the wealth, as the
Englisch
would say. Much of this I bought just because—
ach
, I don’t know, because it was forbidden, I guess. But much of it could be put to better use than being hidden in an old broom closet.”

“What exactly do you have down there?”
Daadi
spoke cautiously, in a tone of voice Anna had never heard him use.
Oh,
Daadi
, if you only knew
.

Mammi
tapped a finger to her chin. “Let’s see. I have my radio, my comfy chair, lots of pretty jewelry and trinkets, and—”

“Nee! Nee!” Daadi
laid his forehead in his hands before he looked back up. “Say this isn’t true, Marianne.”

Mammi
stood straight up, walked to the crystal tea pitcher, and began filling all their glasses. “
Ya
, Isaac. I enjoy listening to country gospel music. I wanted a television, but without electricity, that was proving to be a challenge. When I was at the diner several years ago, the television was on, and I watched a game called
Jeopardy
.” She sighed before she placed the pitcher on the counter. “I think playing that game along with the television would have kept my mind sharp.”

She pulled out her chair and sat down. “And another time, when I was at Barbie Beiler’s
haus
, she was watching a program called
Dr. Oz
. How do you think I learned about taking cinnamon pills for my diabetes?” She put her napkin in her lap. “There is much to be learned from the television. It’s not all bad, Isaac.”

Anna felt like she were living on another planet, surrounded by people she didn’t know. Yet here they were—her grandparents—facing off about a decades-old secret her grandmother had been keeping. She had to admit that
Daadi
was taking it better than she would have expected. Anna badly wanted to ask him about his conversation with Jacob, but this surely wasn’t the time.

Following silent prayer, Anna and her grandfather began picking at their food.
Mammi
ate like she hadn’t eaten in a month of Sundays, but Anna noticed that she didn’t have any bread and she left most of the noodles.
Daadi
just kept staring back and forth between Anna and his wife. When they were done,
Mammi
started cleaning up, and Anna stood up to help her, but her grandfather nodded for her to follow him.

“I’ll be back to help you clean up,
Mammi
.” Anna pushed her chair in, dreading a private chat with her grandfather, but also hoping he would shed some light on his conversation with Jacob.

“No worries, dear.”
Mammi
smiled as she cleared the table. “I’m sure you and your grandfather have a lot to talk about.”

Anna glanced at
Daadi
. He was shaking his head as he left the kitchen. She followed him to the front porch, closing both the screen door and wooden door behind her.
Daadi
fell into one of
the rocking chairs, but not before tossing a new decorative red pillow onto the decking.

“Something must have happened to her in that
Englisch
hospital. They must have done something to alter her mind.”
Daadi
put his elbows on his knees and held his head. “
Mei
poor Marianne.”

Anna picked up the pillow and slowly took a seat in the other rocker. “
Daadi
, they didn’t alter
Mammi’s
mind at the hospital.” She said the words, only half believing what she was saying. She could have never predicted this behavior from her grandmother.
Good for you,
Mammi.

Her grandfather looked up at Anna. “Then where is this behavior, this defiance, coming from?”

Anna fought the urge to ask him about Jacob. “
Daadi
, maybe it’s because she has lived with your ways for so long. Maybe she started hiding things from you because she didn’t dare tell you what she thought, and then just couldn’t stop.”

Her grandfather stood up and began pacing back and forth across the porch. “You will talk to her tomorrow, make her understand that this silliness will not be tolerated. All these fancy things must go.” He stopped and glared at Anna. “You will do this, Anna.”

“
Daadi
, I can’t make
Mammi
get rid of all these things. Besides, I bet she has thousands of dollars of stuff down in—”
Daadi
whirled around, a scowl on his face, and Anna knew she’d messed up. He walked to where she was sitting.

“You knew about this disobedience, that she was hiding things from me?”

Anna took a deep breath. “Not until recently.”

Daadi
pointed a finger at her. “You make her fix this. I will not
have
mei
own
fraa
flaunting such prideful things in our
haus
. You fix this, Anna.”

Anna pushed her foot against the decking and nervously kicked the rocker into motion. “
Daadi
, it’s not my place to fix this. And
Mammi
hasn’t really done that much that goes against our ways.”

Daadi
gasped. “She has a pink sweater with little white balls for buttons.”

“Pearls,” Anna said softly.

“And who is this Dr. Oz?” He shook his head and started pacing again. “The devil has gotten inside her, I say.”

Anna grinned, but quickly covered her mouth with her hand. “
Daadi, Mammi
is the most devout Christian woman I know. She just needed to be able to express herself.”

Daadi
grunted. “
Express
herself? See, even you are too influenced by the
Englisch
world. You will get her to get rid of all these things.”

Anna opened her mouth to argue, but
Daadi
spoke up again. “Jacob Hostetler will be joining us for supper on Saturday. We have a wedding to plan. And I will tell you what I told him. No more sneaking around. And no more kissing until after you are married!”

He pointed a finger at Anna. “Help
Mammi
get our home back to normal before then.”

Blackmail
. That’s what it sounded like. But Anna was glowing inside and out.
Jacob wants to marry me
. Everything else would fall into place one way or another.

C
ORA SPENT THE DAY THROWING UP
. I
T WAS A MIRACLE
no one had suspected that she was pregnant. Not even her husband seemed to notice. But then, John barely noticed Cora was alive these days, so why should he take notice that she was ill? She thought about last night, when he’d almost acted like the old John, the wonderful man she’d fallen in love with. But that moment had been so short-lived that it was hardly worth storing in her memories.

She closed the lid on the toilet and ran a cold rag over her face, certain that she’d never been this sick during the first trimester of her other pregnancies. She heard the bedroom door close, so she knew John would be wanting to bathe. After she changed into her nightgown, she unpinned her hair and left the bathroom. Would he notice that she was pale again? Would he offer kind words to make her feel even a little loved?

He didn’t say anything, but merely passed her on his way to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. She longed to talk to Marianne again, but tomorrow was Thursday, and Marianne would be entertaining Lucy and Benjamin. A wave of anger swept through Cora as strongly as the nausea. Anger that Lucy was who she was. Anger at losing their friendship as a result. And anger at
herself for allowing herself to get close too soon—a mistake she wouldn’t make again.

She took a deep breath and told herself to focus on the good news. There was going to be a wedding. Jacob had told the family about his conversation with Bishop Byler. The
kinner
were excited, and Cora thought a wedding would be
gut
for all of them. Such a blessing, and a nice distraction from the grief they’d all been drowning in. Cora looked forward to getting to know Anna better, though she couldn’t help worrying that having the bishop as a father-in-law—especially someone like Isaac Byler—could cause problems for her son.

Cora was lost in thought about the pending nuptials when John came out of the bathroom. This time he’d already dressed in his night clothes.

“How was your day?” Her words were clipped, and she didn’t much care how his day was. But she was aching for any kind of conversation, even if it turned into a fight.