The Matchmaker (26 page)

After the dreadful events during the picnic she had spent most of her days alone at home, refusing to leave for
even the smallest errand. She even turned down a trip to town with Henry to get some supplies for the pantry. This strange development in her behavior sent Henry into a tailspin. He worried and fretted over Emma, threatening to call the doctor by Wednesday should her demeanor stay the same. Due to his concern, Emma forced herself to make her Thursday visits, but she did so with a heavy sense of dread for her final stop.

Gideon’s words still seemed to ring in Emma’s ears. The fact that he had not stopped, not even for a quick visit during the early part of the week, added to her self-torment. Try as she might, she just couldn’t understand why she had said such a horrid thing, especially to a kind soul like Hetty Blank. And indeed, to think that she might have lost respect in the eyes of so many people upset her greatly. But it was the loss of Gideon’s favor that bothered her the most, she reckoned.

And that particular realization had given her several sleepless nights.

On Thursday morning she took the roads for her weekly visits. Her first three stops seemed to go by too quickly. And, to further add to her burden, upon reaching the third house, she discovered that Alice was already at Sarah Esh’s
haus
, visiting with the older woman.

Alice greeted her with a cold reserve that Emma could not help but find surprising, given their limited number of encounters. Granted, there had been that episode during the picnic at Yoder’s pond, but Emma did not expect a woman who barely knew her to have already passed a judgment because of the unfortunate deed that had, undoubtedly, been reported to Paul and her. While Emma did not particularly care for the woman, she did her best to mask her feelings.
This apparently was not the case with Alice. Her contemptuous looks and superior airs angered Emma, but she did her best to remain even tempered so that no one could ever complain about her behavior again.

She did, however, wonder what caused this newcomer to her
g’may
to behave in such an overly condescending manner toward one specific individual. Since Alice and Paul had not witnessed her awful behavior toward Hetty, Emma could only presume that Paul must have made a negative comment about her to his
fraa
in order to cause discord between the two, perhaps his way of covering his tracks and ensuring that Alice never knew that he had proposed to Emma before asking for her hand.

Frankly such suspicion did not surprise Emma.

“Isn’t this just lovely?” Sarah said when Emma sat down to join them. She smiled, beaming from ear to ear. “Two visitors in one day!”

Alice inhaled sharply. “Now, Sarah,” she said as if the two were the closest of friends. “I know that Paul visits you on a weekly basis.” She glanced at Emma, speaking in a sharp and measured tone. “I was only too happy to take his place today as he has business in Pequea.” She emphasized the word
business
, filling it with self-inflated importance. “Besides, we are family now, ain’t so? Visiting with you is my pleasure, you know!”

Emma couldn’t help but recognize that Alice was trying to establish her seniority over her. She was a woman who commanded attention, whether deserved or not. She was boisterous and loud, traits that Emma did not find particularly attractive in a person, never mind a woman! Being new to Lititz, Alice had already made it abundantly clear that
she was never going to sit silently in the background. Her unexpected visit to Sarah attested to that fact.

It also dawned on Emma that, based upon her words, Paul’s
fraa
intended to visit on a regular basis, and in all likelihood, she would continue visiting on Thursdays, most likely to make her visits perfectly coincide with Emma’s. It looked like an attempt to take credit for what Emma had been doing for several years, or possibly even push her out. The thought of having to spend time in Alice’s company made Emma want to groan out loud, yet how could she extricate herself from a long-standing commitment without causing comment? Emma struggled hard to keep a smile upon her face.

As usual, Alice dominated the conversation, her loud voice booming in the small room. By the time she managed to make her excuses, Emma found that she had a pounding headache, whether from being subjected to Alice Esh for thirty minutes or from dreading her next and final visit, or
mayhaps
both, she did not know.

It was later than usual when she knocked at the front door of the Blanks’ house. Despite the cool temperature, she felt small beads of sweat slowly tricking down her back. Her heart rapidly beat inside of her chest as she waited for what seemed like an eternity. Would they refuse her? Would she never get to apologize for the injustice she had done to Hetty Blank? Would her deed ever be forgiven?

A minute passed before she heard shuffling behind the door. She had almost given up, starting to turn away to retreat, in defeat, to return home to suffer some more. However, the door finally opened and Emma was surprised when Hetty’s
maem
herself welcomed her and invited her inside. As soon as she crossed over the threshold and shut
the door behind herself, Emma looked around at the small kitchen. It was too quiet in the house, and she couldn’t help but wonder where Hetty and Jane were hiding.

Emma followed Hetty’s
maem
into the sitting room and, just as she was about to sit, caught a glimpse of Jane through the doorway. She was pale and disheveled, hunched over and still in her nightclothes. Seeing Jane in such a state startled her, for, despite their short-lived acquaintance, Emma had never seen her as anything less than impeccable and pristine in appearance. The young woman disappeared down the hallway, and Emma could hear Hetty talking to her, her voice low and soothing. Emma’s curiosity was piqued and she wondered what was going on with Jane.

“Excuse me for not greeting you. I was tending to Jane. She’s terribly sick, you see,” Hetty explained apologetically when she finally joined Emma in the sitting room. She assumed her regular seat, a look of grave apprehension upon her face which Emma worried was targeted toward her and not really toward Jane’s illness.

“Oh, dear,” Emma said in return, genuinely concerned. “I caught a glimpse of her just now. She didn’t look well at all! Has a doctor been called, then?”

Hetty shook her head and her
maem
clucked her tongue, obviously having understood Emma’s words. “
Nee
,” Hetty replied sorrowfully. There were dark circles beneath her eyes. “Jane suffers in silence, it seems. She refuses to be seen by anyone.”

“Why, that’s preposterous!” Emma was shocked by Hetty’s words. To be ill and refuse treatment? “Is she in pain?”

“She claims she has pain in her chest and is experiencing difficulty sleeping” was the simple reply from Hetty. “But no fever or chills. But the tears! She is blinded with the tears,
a sorrow that I just cannot understand, I confess.” Shaking her head, she clucked her tongue three times before adding, “I just don’t know what to make of it.” She paused and lifted a finger to wipe at her eye. Emma realized that Hetty was fighting tears herself. “I worry that it is because she does not wish to return to her home next week.
Maem
and I will both miss her so. I’m just surprised that she
might
be afflicted with so much emotion at her departure. That causes me extra grief as well, I reckon.”

With a deep sigh, Emma sat back in her chair. She felt as if she wanted to disappear. She hoped that her own poor behavior toward Hetty had not contributed to Jane’s illness. After all, Jane seemed a rather fragile creature and doted on her
aendi
. Guilt washed over her and Emma bent her head, ashamed once again at how she had spoken to the older woman at the picnic. Yet the situation provided a timely opening for Emma to do her best to comfort Hetty and
mayhaps
make her forget the awful words she had spoken to her this week past.

“I shall pray for all of you to feel better,” Emma said. The statement was made with conviction and it was clear that she meant her words.

“Danke
, Emma,” Hetty replied, nodding her head in approval. “You are always so kind.”

The word
always
stung, the irony not lost on Emma, despite the fact that Hetty had not meant it that way. She hung her head and looked away for a moment, a lump forming in her own throat. How gracious of Hetty to say something so kind, she realized, when she, herself, had been so cruel. “
Mayhaps
not always,” Emma managed to say. “And for that, I am so sorry, Hetty. I don’t know what got into my head and I must sincerely beg your forgiveness.” It was a
speech she had practiced over and over again, although now that she spoke the words, they did not sound ample enough in their depth to convey what she was really feeling.

To her relief, Hetty smiled and patted Emma’s knee in reassurance. “No need to beg for anything,” she said quietly. “Forgiveness was given before it was needed.”

For a moment Emma wasn’t certain what to make of Hetty’s remark. Had she been in need of forgiveness before that day at the picnic when she made such a careless remark? Had her perpetual impatience with Hetty been so transparent? “I’m not quite certain how to react to that, I fear,” she managed to say, fighting the emotion that welled in her throat. “You humble me.”

“Then speak no more about it, dear Emma.” And with that, nothing further was ever mentioned on the subject of the incident at Yoder’s pond.

Emma, however, had been given food for thought from the most unlikely source. Long after she left the Blanks, she continued to evaluate her behavior. Upon returning home, she sat by the window before the new quilt that was spread in the quilting frame, but her finger merely held the thread, not moving through the fabric as her eyes stared out the window.

While Hetty had been quick to forgive her, Emma couldn’t help but wonder how Gideon would react to such an apology. Would he relinquish his displeasure with her? After all, his harsh words had been so full of emotion and disappointment they still echoed in her ears and tugged at her heart. She didn’t understand, exactly, why she was so unsettled, especially since everything had been made right with Hetty. She began to sew, but was so distracted that
three times she had to undo her stitches, for she made them too far apart.

It was just before supper when her
daed
was taking his daily stroll down the road when Hannah surprised Emma with an unscheduled visit. She had been able to leave work early and had asked the driver to let her off at Emma’s house.

“Oh, Emma!” she said gaily as she practically skipped through the kitchen toward the sitting area. “I have such
wunderbaar gut
news!”

The glow on Hannah’s face made Emma temporarily forget her own reflections, which had been causing her such misery all afternoon. She spun around in her chair and somehow found laughter on her lips. It felt good to see her friend so happy, even if she, herself, felt so miserable. “Pray, tell me at once! I’m in great need of happy news!”

Practically falling into the chair next to Emma, Hannah clutched her hands to her chest and smiled. “You’ll never guess who stopped into market today!”

Truly Emma could not, and she admitted as much.

“Why, let me give you some clues!” Hannah said gleefully.

Emma returned Hannah’s smile. “All right then,” she said, playing along. “Go ahead and let’s see if I can guess!”

For a moment Hannah seemed to think about it, as if delightfully plotting her strategy to drag out the game. Her eyes glowed and the smile never left her face. “Let’s see . . . ” she began. “A young man!”

“That’s your clue?” Emma felt her dark mood slowly lifting. “I don’t think that narrows it down at all! Not fair. I want another hint.”

“He’s handsome,” Hannah offered.

“Clearly! Otherwise you wouldn’t be so giddy with joy!”
Emma laughed. “Although we shouldn’t put such emphasis on looks now, should we?”

Another moment of pause as Hannah tried to come up with a more clever clue to properly suggest the subject of her delight. “He’s been visiting me at market.”

Now this was news, indeed. She searched her memory, trying to recall that Hannah had mentioned someone stopping to see her at the market. She couldn’t remember any names. “You never told me someone was visiting you at market!”

“Ja
, I did!” Hannah paused. “I think I did, anyway!” Laughing, she leaned forward as if sharing a big secret. “Just this day, he stopped in and inquired about ordering celery! He was most serious and stared me straight in the eye!”

Celery. A main dish at all Amish weddings and usually planted in the gardens for households that suspected a marriage in the autumn. However, plenty of Amish had neither the space nor the advanced warning to plant enough celery in their gardens. Plenty of farmers, particularly the Mennonites, grew fields of celery for this very purpose, selling it at market to the Amish families that would soon be in need of such. For a young man to suggest such a need directly to Hannah could very well indicate that he was intending to ask for her hand in marriage.

Emma was stunned: two proposals in less than one month? She had never heard of such a thing! And then it dawned on her. “Ralph Martin again?” Hadn’t Hannah mentioned she saw Ralph and his
schwester
at market? Hadn’t she recently been asked to visit them, and despite Emma’s raised eyebrow, she had gone? Certainly she meant Ralph Martin.

“No, goose!” Hannah laughed again, delighted that she
had tricked her friend. “Why would I think of him? Have I not learned anything from you?”

“Francis Wagler?”

At this, Hannah looked startled. “Francis? Why on earth would you suppose him?”

“He did offer to take you home from the youth singing,” Emma suggested. “He told me so himself. Saved you from walking home. And he seemed rather friendly to you at the picnic.”

Waving her hand dismissively, Hannah shook her head. “
Nee
, not Francis. If he’s fond of anyone, it’s you!”