Seasons of Tomorrow (39 page)

They said their good-byes to Steven, and Jacob disconnected the call. While the others discussed the good news, he walked off, touching the number to Esther’s phone shanty. On the seventh ring someone out of breath picked up. “Hallo?”

“This is Jacob King. Is Esther around?”

“It’s me.” The whispered pant didn’t sound like her. “Give me a sec.” He heard muffled sounds, as if she’d placed her hand over the receiver. A few seconds later there was a change in the background noise. “Okay, I can breathe again. I thought you would be Bailey.” She drew a long breath, her voice returning to normal. “He’s checking on an old house that I’ve been trying to buy the rights to strip before it’s demolished. It’s a wreck, but it’s part of an estate, and the lawyers have been sticklers. Bailey came up with a plan a few days ago. He’s offering to save the estate money by demolishing it himself and hauling off the debris free of charge if I can have a week to
gut it. The lawyers are balking, but the beneficiaries of the estate like the plan. So what’s up with you?”

“I have good news about Phoebe.”

“Jacob, that’s wonderful and about time. Let’s hear it!”

He briefed her and enjoyed her excited response. Soon they were talking about the progress in the orchard and how he was coping with being here. “So how are things there?”

“Two of the pregnant girls—Fanny and Malinda—have moved back home with their parents, one to Ohio and one to Indiana.”

“Esther, that’s great news.”

“Isn’t it? Watching the reunion between the parents and their daughters, stilted and awkward as it is each time, chokes me up. It’s really just a matter of giving room for cooling off. Once parents are given a little time, their warmer, loving hearts always prevail over the anger and disappointment.”

“Always?”

“Parents love their children even when the offspring have disappointed and embarrassed them beyond what they think they can tolerate. Some families need only a couple of weeks. Some need until the baby is a few months old. But they come around, and when they do, it melts my heart and makes it worth housing the girls.”

A beep interrupted them.

“Jacob, hang on. Maybe this is Bailey.”

“Sure.” He sat on a hill and waited. The others had spread out a blanket and were eating sandwiches. His stomach growled, but he’d talk as long as Esther had time. Then he’d eat.

“You there?”

“I am. Do you get to gut the house?”

“I do!”

“How long do you have to strip what you can?”

“Until Monday.”

It was Thursday afternoon, and she wouldn’t work on Sunday. “Are you free to start on it tomorrow?”

“I wish.” Esther detailed the constraints on her time and the lack of
assistance she’d have for the weekend, but it didn’t dampen her enthusiasm. Would she have time to harvest even an eighth of it? Not only would he like to help her, but he’d like to witness her pleasure. He imagined she would radiate joy like a woman fulfilled with good fortune.

“Jacob, hold on.”

It sounded as if she’d covered the phone again, but he could hear a woman in the background talking to her. An idea came to him, and he headed for the blanket where everyone sat. Before he got there, Esther called his name.

“Ya. I’m here.”

“Sorry, but I need to go. If I can borrow Bailey’s cell on Saturday, I’ll snap a few pictures and send them.”

She wasn’t too much of a stickler for rules. Abiding by the spirit of the Ordnung was important to her, but not the letter of it, and like other young Amish women, she saw nothing wrong with taking images of old houses and such. “I’d like that, Esther.” They said their good-byes as he reached the group. Iva passed him a plate with two sandwiches and some chips.

“I know there’s a ton of work to be done, but if I can find a driver to get me to the station in Boston, I’m leaving for Virginia tonight.” If he took the Northeast Regional, he could board around nine o’clock, sleep until daylight, transfer to a bus in DC, and arrive at his destination in Virginia around lunchtime. He wasn’t as familiar with bus routes, so maybe he could locate one closer to where Esther lived. “I’ll aim to be home late Sunday or by midmorning on Monday.”

Samuel nodded. “Sounds like a good plan.”

If his brother felt the sting of losing Jacob’s help for the next two days, Jacob didn’t hear it in Samuel’s voice or see a hint of it on his face. All he saw was a brother who wanted him to be happy. And Jacob was very happy.

Jojo got up. “I could drive you to the train station.” She set down the trash bag. “I have one problem, though. Sophia won’t travel well for that long to simply turn around and return here.”

“I’d be happy to watch her,” Iva offered, grinning.

He took a bite of his sandwich. “Wipe that look off your face, Iva. I’ve told you before …”

“We know.” She held up her hands, her palms facing him. “We got it. She’s not a girlfriend.” She grinned again. “So, Jacob, where’d you meet this girl?”

“If you must know, I ran into her … with my horse as she was trying to cross the street. I knocked her flat on her back.”

“Oh, honey,” Leah mocked, shaking her head. “That’s not what women mean when we say we want a man to sweep us off our feet.”

“Not so fast, Leah,” Iva said. “Just because we haven’t heard of this technique before doesn’t mean it didn’t work.” She held her hand over her eyes, peering at Jacob. “Did it do the job?”

“Women.” Jacob sighed. “You imagine romance out of thin air.”

Still, even as he discounted their teasing, he knew there was something magical about Esther and him. Wasn’t there?

THIRTY-THREE

It was the first day of summer, and Leah had a job to do, but focusing on cleaning and preparing codling moth traps seemed impossible. She set the container on the back of the wagon she was using as a workbench and took in the view around her. The rich green leaves of the trees swayed in the warm wind, the branches teeming with fruit.

Was
teeming
the right word to use on something like this? Landon would know. But she hadn’t seen or talked to him in six weeks and four days. That was entirely too long to go without having any communication with him.

What would a decade be like? Would it always hurt like this? Maybe it would even grow worse before it started getting better, but she knew from watching Rhoda, Samuel, and Jacob that healing did come.

“Leah.” A man’s voice echoed around her, and she searched for the source. Crist was riding bareback across the field, waving. She waved in return. He’d recently increased his hours on this farm while keeping long hours on his folks’ farm.

With a clean, old rag in hand, she wiped the sticky goo from the sides of a trap. The conversation she’d had with Landon at the hospital had made the situation really clear to her. He wanted
and
deserved a whole girl, one who was his peer and came with a family who would love and respect him. He needed in-laws who would not only welcome his future children into their lives but would gratefully shift their schedules for the privilege of spending time with him and his children.

Even if Leah could give him the best possible scenario of her leaving the Amish, it would never include those things. So she had set her will to getting used to missing him.

Crist slowed his horse. “I was heading to the barn to get a fresh horse and wagon when I caught a glimpse of you. Need a hand?”

Her horse shook its head and shifted forward, causing the wagon in front of her to move. “I’m gut, denki.” She took a few steps, catching up to the back of the wagon.

Crist dismounted. “You’re short some traps, aren’t you?” He towered over her, more than Landon did by a good three inches, and Landon was six feet tall.

Holding a codling moth trap in one arm, she quickly counted the number of unbroken containers in the wagon and then the number of trees that still needed traps. How’d he figure that out so fast? She sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I’m almost out of molasses too. I’ll do what I can. Maybe Jojo can take me to the supply store later today.”

Several traps had broken as she’d removed them from the trees, and there weren’t enough new ones to replace all of them. Her chore today was to scrape out the dead bugs along with the molasses, water, and yeast mixture; add the fresh mixture; and rehang the traps in at least two dozen more trees before sunset, which would be in less than two hours.

Crist grabbed an empty container and poured in water, molasses, and yeast. He stuck a large wooden spoon into it and stirred. “Where is everyone?”

“Jojo is probably still doing laundry and washing dishes after that huge lunch she fixed. Rhoda and Samuel are on the east side, doing the same thing as me. Jacob’s starting another spraying in the southern section. Iva should be back soon. She went to the house to get fresh rags.” Leah slung a gooey, insect-covered rag into the laundry barrel in the back of the wagon. “Clearly I didn’t prepare well for today.”

“I’m surprised Rhoda didn’t help you pack the wagon for the day.”

“She volunteered to, and I should’ve let her.” At the time Leah had just wanted Iva and her to get into the wagon and head out, thinking the sooner they started, the sooner they’d be done.

Crist easily lifted the huge container with the mixture and carefully poured some into the first trap in the row that lined the back of the wagon. Leah held a towel under the drip line between the two containers—the one
in Crist’s hand and the empty one in the wagon. It wouldn’t do to get the mixture on the ground. That would only attract insects and undermine their efforts.

He moved to the next empty trap. “I got something on my mind.”

His statement made her heart shiver. Was he going to ask her out again, as he had before he’d realized she was seeing Landon? As nice and handsome as Crist was, he wasn’t the man for her. And Leah wasn’t the woman for him—even if she’d never met Landon Olson.

“But before I say anything else, are you doing okay these days?” Crist got in the wagon and shifted the empty molasses jug out of the way and replaced it with one that still had some in it.

Leah exhaled slowly, intending to steady her emotions. He was fishing for answers she didn’t want to give, but she was doing better than she had expected. Actually, as strange as it seemed, Landon’s absence had a surprising upside to it. Without him waiting in the wings for her, without his love beckoning her and causing her to question whether she wanted to leave the Amish for him or for herself, she’d come to an absolute, peaceful conclusion.

It wasn’t based on some huge revelation. At no point did she think,
Now I know the answer!
Her understanding and decision had come to her like a gentle snowfall, answers floating from the sky like feathery white flakes, one by one, until now, months later, everything in her life was covered in a pristine layer of answers.

Since he’d asked her an honest question and she’d been rude not to answer, she set down everything and focused on him. “I’m good. What’s on your mind?”

He got out of the wagon. “I don’t want to stir anything negative between us, but I need to clear the air. I don’t want to be rude or cruel, but I was wrong when I said I came to Maine for you.”

Leah relaxed, her shoulders tingling as stress drained from her. “I’m relieved, not insulted.”

“Gut.” He pushed a few items back, making room for them to sit on the wagon. “Because you only appeared to be who I was looking for.”

Leah sat. “Are you telling me this for the fun of it, or is there a point?”

“Iva. She’s the point.”

“Ah.” Leah’s heart jittered with excitement. They just might be really happy together, but she would keep those thoughts to herself. It wasn’t wise to influence someone when it came to matchmaking. “Does she know how you feel?”

“She knows I’d like for us to date. I asked if she’d let me take her home after the singing this Sunday night.”

“Today’s Friday”—Leah crinkled her nose—“and she hasn’t answered you yet?”

“She’s thinking on it, which means a lot because there’s a guy in Indiana who’s been writing to her. She’s known him for a while, and he moved out of the way when her Daed wanted her to marry someone else. But now he’s letting his interest be known.”

“She’s been living here more than a year. I’d say it took him a while.”

“He works for the man her Daed wanted her to marry. You know how complicated these things can get. Anyway, if she says yes, it means she told him she’s decided to see someone else.” He grinned. “Me.”

“I definitely could see you two together.” But what did Iva want?

Leah knew what she wanted for herself—a very plain and simple life guided by her own sense of what God wanted, not one guided by the written and unwritten rules of the Ordnung. She longed to move and breathe without feeling dirty if she let her hair down or wore a flowery dress. Or jeans.

What she didn’t know was how she’d make a living. But she would figure that out too, and by the time she left in a year or so, she’d have a good savings from all her time working the orchard.

“Iva’s really great.” Crist rubbed his hands together, trying to get the sticky goo off. “When I first came here, all I saw was my offense that an Amish girl had a camera.”