Gabriel's Bride (21 page)

“Really,” she said, sending a wavering smile to back up her statement.

Katie Rose seemed about to say something more when Annie let out a small gasp and pressed a hand to one side of her burgeoning belly.

“Are you okay,
liebschen
?” Ruth tuned her attention to Annie, and Rachel breathed a short-lived sigh of relief.

“Here.” She grabbed Rachel’s hand and pressed it to her mound of stomach. “The baby’s kicking.”

Tears sprang to her eyes, stinging with their intensity. Underneath her trembling fingers, the child moved. A miracle. A living miracle was growing, budding, stretching, preparing to come out into the world and amaze them with all the wonder that was life.

Oh, to have that joy as her own.

“Rachel?” Once again Katie’s voice was overflowing with concern. “Are you sure you are all right?”

Rachel blinked, sending the tears cascading down her already wet cheeks. She hadn’t even realized she had been crying. “Of course.” She swiped at the moisture with the back of one hand. She was fine.

“Don’t cwy, Wachel.” Samuel climbed into her lap and flung his thin arms around her neck. Until that moment he had been sitting quietly next to Katie Rose, playing with the hem of her apron.

She wrapped her arms around him in return and briefly closed her eyes. “I promise I’ll stop,” she whispered into his shiny red hair.

She didn’t have a child of her own or any hope of one in the future, but she had one special little boy who meant the world to her.

For now, that was enough.

Gabriel had gone to the barn to fetch the horses and hitch up the buggy, so Rachel sent Samuel and Matthew to round up the other boys. Church was over and she needed a moment alone to talk to Ruth. When the opportunity presented itself, she pounced on it.

“Ruth.” She hooked her arm through her mother-in-law’s and led her away from the house. Most everyone was preparing to go home to complete their afternoon chores, but there were still plenty enough listening ears around to cause concern.

Ruth’s worried eyes searched her face as if looking for any signs of her earlier tears. Apparently she had given everyone quite a scare with her emotional outburst this afternoon, but she was fully in control now. She had her moment of weakness and self-pity, but God had shown her what was really important. She had Samuel now. He needed her, relied on her to care for him, and he had more than enough love to share with all of them.

“I wanted to talk with you for a moment,” Rachel explained. “Walk with me?”

Ruth gave a quick nod, and the two wandered away from the remaining church crowd. The sun was bright, the wind just enough to keep the late spring heat at bay. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Rachel?”

“
Jah
.” She dipped her chin. “I wanted to ask the same of you.”

“Me?”

“I was hoping you had changed your mind about going into the city for tests.”

She had barely finished her sentence before Ruth shook her head. “
Nay
. I cannot.”

Rachel stopped, saying a small prayer for patience and understanding. “I think you should.”

“
Nay
.”

“Promise me you’ll think about it?”

“Have I not already?”

“Then perhaps what I really want is for you to change your mind.”

Ruth smiled. “It would seem so.”

“It is a hard secret to keep, Ruth.” And getting harder by the day, but even more than that, the Fishers had come to mean so much to her. Rachel hated the thought of losing Ruth, of Gabriel and his boys hurting, the rest of the family mourning the loss of one so dear. She shook her head. “We need to know, even if to prepare ourselves for the worst.”

Ruth sighed, the sound resigned and staggered.

“Promise me.”

Ruth jerked her head upward in what some would call a nod. At least, Rachel took it to be so. “Can’t you see how much everyone loves you and needs you?”

“And what difference would it make either way, Rachel?”

But she wasn’t about to hear any more excuses. “Shhh. Just make the appointment. If not for yourself and Abram, then for that tiny
boppli
Annie carries.”

Rachel pushed a wayward curl off her forehead and punched down the dough once more. This time she would be extra careful when baking the bread, and for the first time since she had married Gabriel, she would not burn it. Or get it too brown. Or scorch it.

The goats had been fed, watered, and milked. Now all she had to do was worry about the bread. And nothing more.

She flipped the dough back into the bowl and covered it with a towel. Then she cast a quick glance at Samuel who sat at the table practicing his alphabet. He had almost mastered all twenty-six letters. He had begged her to teach him to read and she had promised. At the rate he was learning, they might even begin lessons as early as next week.

The back door burst open. Simon, Joseph, and David spilled into the room, tripping over their feet as they rushed inside. “Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, Matthew is here.”

She punched down the second batch of dough and gave them a polite nod. So it was the middle of the day, and usually this time of the afternoon he was over with his
onkel
helping Gideon plant and hoe, and tend to his llamas and other livestock. She wasn’t concerned. He did live here after all.

Before she could comment about the boys’ hyper behavior, the front door crashed in. A red-faced, winded Matthew stood there looking so much like his father he almost took her breath away.

“Rachel. You’ve got to come.
Mach schnell
!” He hurried across the room and grabbed her floured-covered hands, tugging her toward the door.

She could well imagine the other boys engaging her in a prank, but this was Matthew—calm, assured, even-headed Matthew.

“
Was iss letz?
”

His wild green eyes swept around the room at the attentive ears and eyes of the younger boys. “It’s the
boppli
.” He dropped his voice so only she could hear. “It’s coming. Too fast I think. Annie . . . she needs help.”

Despite the summer heat, Rachel caught a chill as the blood drained from her face and hands. “
Gut himmel
! Have you summoned your
grossmammi
? The midwife?” She couldn’t remember if Annie was seeing a fancy
Englisch
doctor or if the midwife had been attending to her needs. One thing was certain: Rachel had never assisted in a birth and didn’t have the first notion of what to do.

He shook his head. “
Mammi
isn’t home and the midwife . . .” He shrugged, and it was painfully obvious that he knew even less about such matters than she.

Rachel’s heart gave a painful thump. “Where’s Gideon?”

“He’s there with her, but . . .” Matthew didn’t have to finish the statement for Rachel to know that Gideon had been rendered near useless with worry for his
lieb
.

She pushed her hair back again, wiped her hands on her apron, and headed for the door. “
Buwe
, stay at the house until your
vatter
gets back.” Of all the days for Gabriel to be out dispersing money to the couple who had wrecked their buggy the day before. It was a worthy cause and one of his duties as the deacon, but she
needed
him.

She stopped at the door so suddenly that Matthew, following closely behind, almost crashed into her. She swiveled around. “You have to stay here, Matthew.”

A frown puckered his brow, and he looked more like his father than ever.

She glanced at Matthew’s brothers. “I can’t leave them here by themselves.” The other boys she could, but not Samuel. For certain she couldn’t take him with her.

Matthew shook his head. “You cannot drive clear out to Gideon’s in the buggy by yourself.”

It was one thing for her to travel alone to Ruth and Abram’s, less than a quarter mile up the road, but driving all the way out to Gideon’s without an escort would surely bring repercussions.

She glanced back at Samuel and made her decision. “I have to.” She opened the door and hurried out to Matthew’s courtin’ buggy, still hitched to his team.

She didn’t bother to wave as she drove off, though Gabriel’s oldest son stood at the door, watching her. She couldn’t waste precious time. Not if Annie was in trouble. Or the
boppli
in danger.

The ride across to Gideon’s
haus
seemed to take so long. It was a fair piece out, but Rachel’s worry made the trip seem twice as far.

She prayed as she flicked the reins, urging the horses to go as fast as she dared. How far along was Annie? Was it time for the baby? A little early, perhaps. But if she remembered correctly, not so early that the tiny life could be in danger.

At least she prayed it wasn’t. She also prayed for steady hands, a strong heart, and wisdom to make the decisions that needed to be made.

Oh, where was Ruth?

She would have felt much more confident had their mother-in-law been on the way to the house as well, but it was not so. She would have to see to this alone.

She prayed that Matthew had exaggerated the situation and Annie was merely having those practice contractions she had overheard an
Englisch
woman talking about in the general store. But as she pulled into the drive at Gideon’s
haus
, he flew out the door, hoisting her down from the buggy and barely setting her back on her feet before dragging her toward the house.

“I’m so glad you’re here. Where’s
Mamm
?”

Rachel shook her head. “I do not know.” She heard a muffled cry from the bedroom.

Gideon stilled, his face turning white. “You’ve got to help her, Rachel.”

She gave a confident nod. At least she hoped it looked confident and not scared out of her mind.
Dear Lord, please direct me to what needs to be done. It was Your will, Lord, that I am here alone. It is Your will that this child comes today. Show me, Lord, what I need to know to bring this miracle forth.
Aemen.

Gideon stopped in the hallway as Rachel crept into the bedroom. Someone had pinned sheets up over the windows, for privacy she was certain, but the rising summer heat had made the atmosphere unbearable.

Sweet Annie lay propped up on the bed, her dark hair in sweaty clumps around her face. Rachel took note of how short the strands were before remembering that Gideon’s Annie was converted
Englisch
and had no doubt cut her hair before joining the church and marrying Gideon.

Her wild violet eyes softened when they saw her. “Rachel.”

“It’s going to be
allrecht
, Annie. I’m here.”

“I told them it was going to be fine, but they wouldn’t listen.”

“Gideon loves you. He was worried. Matthew too.”

She nodded. “It’s okay, I know what to do. I mean, I read up on it.”

“I can’t leave you.” Rachel knelt by the bed, taking Annie’s clammy hand into her own. She kissed the back and pressed it to her cheek.
Dear Lord, make this right. Let Your will make it right.

“No, please, don’t leave. I just wanted you to know. I guess I had this feeling that something like this would happen, and I wanted to be prepared.”

“I suppose that was God preparing you.”

Annie smiled, though the motion was tired and a little wan. “I suppose. It’s happening a bit faster than I anticipated.” As she said the words, a contraction hit her small frame. She leaned forward, panting, her eyes clamped tight. She squeezed Rachel’s hand until it went numb.

The pain seemed to go on forever. Rachel counted, though she wasn’t sure why, and tried to be patient as she waited out the pain with Annie.

Finally, Annie released her hand and lay back against the pillows, breathing deeply as she tried to relax. “That was the worst one yet.”

Rachel shook her fingers to get the blood circulating again. “How long till the next one?”

“A couple of minutes or so. I don’t have a watch or a clock . . . I’m not sure. But he’s coming today, Rachel. I’m certain of it.”

Rachel’s heart melted. “You think it is a boy.”