A Home for Lydia (The Pebble Creek Amish Series) (9 page)

“How long will this take?” Elizabeth handed the sheet back. “And
where will we get the money? We were earning enough, but barely. The other
kinner
, they’re all four still in school. They can’t work yet unless I ask them to quit.”

Aaron thought back to his childhood and how he would have jumped at the chance to be out of the classroom. He was learning things were different here, though, and he had been the odd kid even then. Most students had enjoyed their eight years in the schoolhouse.

“Let me worry about it,” he said. Even as the words came out, he wondered why he said them and what he would do to ease the concern in her eyes.

He glanced back down at Beth’s drawing, at the ridiculous picture of him towering over the stalks of corn with his long arms and giant head. Perhaps in her five-year-old eyes he seemed enormous, but Aaron was realizing his limitations.

As Beth and Elizabeth walked him out to Lydia’s buggy, he knew he couldn’t let those limitations stop him.

For their sake, for Ervin’s family—who was also his family—he needed to find a way around the problems.

For his sake, he needed to do it quickly.

Chapter 7

G
abe had finished caring for his animals by noon.

He wanted to be out in the fields, planting. But his field was soaked from last week’s rains. Trying to plow it would do nothing more than aggravate him and tire his horses. Instead of frustrating them both, he left a note on the counter for Miriam.

David had asked him to stop by when he had a chance, and he figured this afternoon was as good a time as any. David King was Miriam’s middle brother, sandwiched between Noah, the oldest, and Simon, who came after Miriam. Though Gabe had grown close to the entire family since moving to Wisconsin, he had the most in common with David.

He’d been helpful in giving advice on ways to improve what was planted and where to plant it last year. Gabe had some new ideas this year he wanted to run by him, and he needed his opinion before he began planting.

He scratched at his beard as he allowed Chance to settle into a somewhat fast trot. The horse wasn’t used as much as he had been before Gabe married, and he needed to burn up some energy nearly as much as Gabe did.

Now, why did David want to see him? He couldn’t remember. No matter. He would find out soon enough. David managed to stay
busy, even when the fields were flooded. Between the farm and the toy business he had on the side, he and his wife, Anna, made ends meet. He had confessed that some years were hard. Other years they had bonus crops. Such was the way in Wisconsin.

Gabe had told him it was the same in Indiana.

Perhaps it was the same all over.

Gabe’s mind drifted back to Indiana and the farming he’d done there. There were days he missed it, but more and more that life seemed as if it belonged to another man. This was his life now, and he couldn’t imagine going back. He was still grateful he had met and married Hope, Grace’s mother. Still thankful for the time they’d had together. Her death from cancer hurt less and less, though, which was nothing short of a miracle.

As Grace grew older she was becoming her own person, but there were times, when she was studying a problem, or gazing out at a sunset, that she reminded him very much of her mother. Hope lived on through Grace.

But he couldn’t imagine his life without Miriam. God had given him a peace about that. He knew it was best for him to move on and best for his daughter. And now he had Rachel. Who could say? Perhaps one day he’d have a boy as well, though he wouldn’t be like those fathers who went on and on wishing for a son to walk in their footsteps.

He started daydreaming about a boy, about teaching him how to plow and work with horses. Maybe he’d even take an interest in woodwork. Gabe was so caught up in wondering how old the boy should be before he began working with the woodworking tools that he drove right past David’s lane and had to turn the buggy around.

Honest mistake. Anyone could make it. It wasn’t as though he was preoccupied with the idea of another child. Could be years yet. Rachel was still an infant.

Chance trotted down the lane and past the house toward David’s barn. Because it was after lunch, Gabe knew David would be working in the portion he’d turned into a toy shop.

Before he had pulled to a stop, Seth, David’s oldest son, stepped out of the barn. Staring at the ground as he trudged toward Gabe’s horse, hands plunged into his pockets, he was the walking image of a discontented teenager. At five foot ten with sandy brown hair and a thin build, he was also a mirror image of his father. Perhaps somewhat thinner and smaller, but he’d grow into him, and he’d grow out of the surliness. As Gabe climbed down from the buggy, he almost laughed but swallowed it back. They were hard years—the ones between a child and a man—and no laughing matter. But what could cause such an expression of misery?

“Good afternoon, Seth.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Would you say otherwise?”

“I’m stuck working in this barn.
Ya
, I guess I would.” Seth glanced up, daring Gabe to argue.

Gabe put his own hands in his pockets and considered what Seth had said, listening for the real problem behind the words. “I suppose if I didn’t want to be in the barn, it wouldn’t be a very
gut
day.”

Seth’s expression turned from surly to hopeful. “Could you tell my
dat
that? He doesn’t seem to understand that I don’t want to work with his cattle or plow his fields.”

“Have you told him?”

Seth ran the toe of his work boot across the pebbled lane. “Not in so many words,” he mumbled.

“Huh.” Gabe ran his hand down Chance’s neck. He was truly a beautiful gelding—a quarter horse more than fifteen hands high, a dark bay with white tips. “Guess he’s not picking up on your hints.”

“No.” Seth followed his lead and began paying attention to the horse. “This is a beautiful animal, Gabe. This is what I want to do. Work with animals, but not in a field.”

Gabe glanced up to meet the boy’s gaze. “Explain that to your
dat
. I’m sure Bishop Beiler would be willing to take you as an apprentice.”

Seth returned his attention to Chance. “I’ve heard his rules are harsh.”

“
Ya
. Things are different on our side of Pebble Creek. You know that from visiting your
grossdaddi
.”

“I wouldn’t be living there, though. Only working.”

“True enough.”

“But I’ve also heard he doesn’t abide any…stepping outside the rules.” Seth glanced up from the horse.

David had mentioned he thought the boy was experimenting with his
rumspringa
. It would seem from his comments that perhaps he was caught deep in its throes.

“I believe I’ve heard the same.” Gabe patted Chance once more. “I need to visit with your
dat
for about an hour. Would you see that Chance has some water?”

“Sure thing. He’s a handsome animal.”

Seth seemed a shade less petulant as he walked back into the barn. Gabe didn’t envy the age. It was a time he hadn’t struggled with as much as some, but he was glad when he was married and it was over. Those years reminded him of Pebble Creek when it was swollen and moving fast, as it was now. He preferred the calmer, slower days of summer same as he preferred the more contented years of married life.

Walking into David’s toy shop and looking at shelves lined with playthings for babies up through Grace’s age, Gabe realized he was completely satisfied being a husband and father. He was glad the confusion of teenage years was behind him.

“Gabe. I wasn’t sure you would make it today.” David walked in from the back room. He was a big man, nearly as tall as Gabe’s six foot two, which made it all the more strange to see him holding a doll cradle in his hands.

“
Ya
. Can’t plow, so I had some extra time.”

“
Gut
. I’m glad you stopped by. Did Seth see to your horse?”

“He did.”

Something in Gabe’s tone must have alerted David, or perhaps he caught Gabe’s glance out the workshop’s window, his look toward the boy. “I won’t abide him showing bad manners to customers or
freinden
. Tell me he wasn’t rude.”

“No, he wasn’t bad mannered at all.” Gabe perched on a stool that sat next to a counter. David had done a nice job of turning this portion of the barn into a real shop. What was it like to have strangers traipsing on and off your property, though?

“But…”

Picking up a truck carved out of maple, Gabe rolled it across the counter before glancing up and grinning. “Nice wheels.”

“Uh-huh. You’re avoiding the conversation about my firstborn.”

“He seems to be having a hard time, is all.”

“He seems to be having an attitude, and I’ll have none of it.”

Gabe studied David. A saying his
mamm
often quoted darted into his mind. “Don’t argue with a fool—people watching may not be able to tell the difference.” He remembered the proverb and decided to keep it to himself.

David was no fool, but where his son was concerned, he might be somewhat blinded. Regardless, who was he to tell the man how to raise a seventeen-year-old boy? He’d never raised a teenager himself. He had his hands full with an infant and a nine-year-old girl.

“Why was it you wanted me to stop by?”

“I received some of that new seed we were talking about, and it came with literature I thought you would want to look over.”

They spent the next hour weighing the benefits of planting oats versus spelt and wheat. Both men were growing restless with waiting on the ground to be ready. Their conversation became so animated they took it outside. Soon they were talking about the advantages of rotational grazing, something Gabe had studied over the winter and wanted to try.

“You’re going to put your cattle in your fields.”

“I am, come fall.”

“It’s foolish,” David said, scowling.

“No, it’s not.” Gabe shook his head. “I believe it will increase my yield.”

“I believe it will increase your work.”

“And I believe you two need to find something else to do until the land dries.” Anna had joined them at the fence without either
one of them noticing. Shorter than Miriam and expecting their sixth child, she had recently entered the final month of her pregnancy.

Miriam had shared that the baby’s size was making sleeping hard for Anna, and when Anna didn’t sleep he supposed David didn’t sleep. The next month wouldn’t be easy for his brother-in-law or sister-in-law. He needed to remember to stop by more often and offer to help however he could.

“Can’t you find any work?” Anna asked. “You’re frightening the goats with your arguing.”

“What would you have us do? My shop’s shelves are full of toys. There’s a limit to how much woodwork a man can do in one day.” David smiled at his wife, but Gabe could sense the nervous energy in him.

It was the same energy he felt in himself. They were both used to working long hours all year. The winter work was finished, though, and they couldn’t begin the spring’s work yet. It was frustrating for everyone.

“Maybe you could…” her hands came out and fluttered toward the road. “Run an errand or something.”

“It sounds as if she’s trying to get rid of me.”