Rosemary Opens Her Heart: Home at Cedar Creek, Book Two (35 page)

Rosemary’s heart throbbed with gratitude. “I can’t thank you enough,” she murmured.
“What with keeping track of Katie and—well, I just haven’t found the time to redd
up those cellar shelves.”

Both women smiled as though they shared a secret. “Consider it our housewarming gift
to you, Rosemary,” Treva remarked. “Happy to help.”

“Jah,” her mother added. “You’ll have plenty to do, getting that new place settled
in. If you think of us when you see all those shiny-clean jars and these rose dishes
on your shelves in Cedar Creek, that’s thanks enough.”

Rosemary broke a slice of Barbara’s fresh bread into soft chunks and put them on Katie’s
high chair tray. As Titus and Matt washed up in the mudroom, she dished up the sausage-and-bean
casserole. Wasn’t it nice to have such a bunch of people around this table, where
they would eat only a few more meals?

Titus sat down and ran a gnarled finger around the rim of his dinner plate. “Can’t
recall the last time I saw these dishes. Alma’s sisters gave us this set for a wedding
present,” he murmured. “A little frilly, to my way of thinking. And once the kids
came along, she put them away and got that set of Melmac.”

As his eyes misted over, everyone got quiet. They bowed and prayed.

Treva passed the casserole to Titus. “We thought these dishes were too pretty to hide
away, but if you’d rather we packed them—”

“No, that’s not what I mean.” Titus looked again at the rose pattern on his plate
and then focused on Rosemary. “Alma was real happy you married into our family, so
if you like these dishes we’ll use them. The Melmac’s pretty well shot after thirty
years, if I say so myself.”

Rosemary chuckled. “Denki, Titus. That’s a wonderful-gut way to remember her every
time we eat.”

As the bread basket went around, Matt shot her a secretive smile from across the table.
“Dat says your new cookstove and oven arrived from Lehman’s,” he remarked in a purposeful
voice.

“Jah, I was amazed at how fast they got there.” Rosemary bit into a chunk of sausage
simmered in Mamm’s colorful mixture of seasoned beans. How long might it be before
she tasted this favorite casserole again? When Katie squealed and pounded her high
chair tray, Rosemary put more of the casserole on her plate and then pressed her tiny
fork into her hand. “Use this,” she instructed gently. “You’ll need to eat like a
big girl at the new house.”

Titus cleared his throat. “I’m mighty grateful that you’re moving to Cedar Creek,
willing to cook and clean for me, Rosemary. And glad you’ll be baking for Lois, too.
So I’ll be the one paying Sam for your new appliances. Least I can do.”

Rosemary nearly dropped her fork. “But I can use the money from selling my property.
You were gut enough to find me a buyer—”

“Nope. My mind’s made up.” Her father-in-law’s expression went crooked when he realized
every woman at the table was gazing at him. “Hasn’t been easy for you, looking after
Beth Ann and me. Least I can do,” he insisted again. Then he focused on his food,
as though this show of gratitude hadn’t come easily to him.

Rosemary stole a glance at Matt. Had he given Titus this idea? And wasn’t that a thoughtful
way to make her happier in the new house? Indeed, she felt surrounded by warmth and
friendship as she considered how many folks within sight of the new place would be
there when she needed a helping hand.

By the time Beth Ann got home from visiting the Schlabach girls, the canning jars
in the cellar were packed and Matt had a load of hay bales ready to haul to Titus’s
new farm. The young girl gaped when Rosemary opened the kitchen cabinets and recounted
how much packing and recycling they’d accomplished during their frolic. As the Grabers
and the Lambrights loaded up to go home, Beth Ann thanked them all. “And tell Ruthie
I said hullo!”

“I’ll do that,” Matt’s mamm replied. After their final good-byes, the women headed
for the carriage.

Rosemary waved one last time at Matt and at the carriage that followed him. Then she
looked at Beth Ann, hoping the idea she’d been cogitating on would appeal to her.
“You’ll want to see what Emma and I found while we were clearing out those cabinets
upstairs—the ones where your mamm kept her fabric and whatnot.”

Beth Ann wrinkled her nose. “I’ve pawed through them a time or two. Those cottons
would make for a lot of work if I sewed dresses from them.”

“But now that you’re making rugs—” Beth Ann’s wide-eyed reaction made Rosemary laugh
as she led the way upstairs.

“Well, jah! I wasn’t needing strips to crochet those other times I went through Mamm’s
boxes.”

“We saved you a nice stack of colorful fabric and gave the older clothing to Zanna
for her rug making. And then there’s a favor I’d like to ask.” Rosemary stepped into
Beth Ann’s room and gave the girl a moment to exclaim over the colorful florals, calicos,
and ginghams for her rug…waited for her to find the dresses that were already cut
out.

“I can recall when Mamm started these, way last year before she got so sick.” As she
held them up, Beth Ann seemed a little sad—until she looked slyly at Rosemary. “Why
am I thinking you’d like to wear these instead of your black dresses? Maybe someday
real soon—like, once you move across the road from Matt?”

Rosemary blushed. It seemed everyone had ideas about how she and Matt should be together,
sooner rather than later. “You’ll be busy packing up your room, but—”

“It’ll be a snap to make these, Rosemary. If you’ll redd up the supper dishes,” she
suggested slyly, “I could have them all sewn up for you by tomorrow.” Dish duty wasn’t
Beth Ann’s favorite chore.

“I can do that, jah! You’re so much better at sewing than I am.”

Beth Ann got a faraway look on her face. “It’s like Abby told me,”
she mused as she restacked the fabric. “I knew my best talent early on, so it’s up
to me to do some gut with it. If I can help with her Stitch in Time orders while she
runs the mercantile for Sam, I’ll be doing worthwhile work for Abby and her customers,
too. It seems a fine way to start out our new life, ain’t so?”

Rosemary felt a rush of goose bumps. “That’s a wonderful-gut way to look at it,” she
murmured as she hugged Beth Ann. “Your mamm would be so pleased—and so am I.”

M
att polished off his French toast and sausage on Tuesday morning and excused himself
from the table. “Titus is bringing a load of sheep first thing, so I’d better get
to my chores,” he said. Everyone in his family was watching him with knowing expressions,
so he added, “He’s paying an English fellow with a truck and a big stock trailer to
drive the sheep over today and then move the furniture tomorrow. Meanwhile, Rosemary’s
still packing in Queen City.”

Ruthie snickered as though she saw through his attempt to keep Rosemary out of the
picture for the day. She stabbed another slice of golden-brown French toast. “To hear
Beth Ann tell it, they’ll be all out of that house in a day or so. I can’t wait!”

Matt liked the sound of this. It meant the move was going more smoothly than Titus
or Rosemary had anticipated. “We’ll be starting Titus’s flock in the alfalfa field
that cuts in behind the Graber place, as that’s the best grass to get them through
the summer.”

“It’ll take a couple years to convert those fields to gut grazing land,” his dat remarked
as he sopped up the syrup on his plate with his last bite of French toast.

“Jah. Titus is keeping Carl Byler on as his farmer, to overseed a
lot of that place with timothy and canary grass—including our pastures, so his sheep
can graze here some of the time while his new pastures get established.” Matt rose
and scooted his chair under the table. “It’ll take some planning and rethinking, considering
how that farm has been worked before, but Titus and I are convinced it’ll benefit
the both of us.”

His grandmother filled the sink with dishwater and then pointed out the window. “If
that big red stock trailer coming down the road has sheep in it, your day’s off to
an early start, Matt. It’s wonderful-gut, the way things are working out for you.”

“Mostly, Grandma thinks it’s wonderful-gut that Titus is moving into the Bontrager
place,” Ruthie teased. “Preacher Paul wasn’t her cup of tea, but—”

“Ruthie, you’d best watch your smart remarks,” Dat warned her with a stern look. “It’s
one thing to be excited about Beth Ann coming, but there’s no call to let your tongue
wag out of turn. Folks’ll be paying attention to such details, now that you’re a preacher’s
daughter.”

Matt headed outside, glad to leave the kitchen. While their father had always been
mindful of talk that went astray, lately he’d been lecturing Gail and Phoebe along
these same lines; they should be wearing their kapps farther forward to cover more
of their hair and should be hemming their skirts longer, too. Now that they spent
their days in the mercantile, where the locals could monitor their behavior and where
they would come in contact with more English, Dat was making them all toe a higher
line. Mamm was already wearing black capes and aprons in public, as a preacher’s wife,
and Dat was telling her to limit her midwifery to emergency situations. He expected
her to ease herself out of it altogether by the time he started preaching sermons
later in the summer.

In short, a lot of Lambrights were silently gnashing at the bit, like retired racehorses
feeling the reins tighten while they were being trained to pull Amish carriages.

Matt called to his dogs, who loped up from the barn to trot
alongside him. He felt fortunate that English ways had never been a temptation to
him. Broadfall trousers, suspenders, and home-cut hair were no stigma to a fellow
who spent most of his time with sheep. However, just to be sure none of his kids jumped
the fence, Dat had insisted it was time for him and Phoebe and Gail to commit to the
Old Order Amish church. But then, a certain someone more compelling than his dat was
incentive for him to take his vows so he’d be ready to marry.

As the shiny red pickup truck and stock trailer pulled into the lane down the road
and stopped, that certain someone stepped out of the back door of the cab and looked
right at him.

Rosemary!

Matt broke into a jog, his heart thumping. While Titus and his English driver came
out of the truck’s front doors, the dogs raced ahead to check out the sheep that were
blathering in the trailer. But Matt was focused on Rosemary’s dress, which was the
same deep green as her eyes. He entered the lane looking like a man lost in love,
no doubt, but he didn’t much care what Titus and the other fellow thought.

Rosemary turned to lift her daughter out of the truck’s cab, and Katie threw her arms
out toward him. “Puppies!” she crowed as she kicked to get down. “Katie play with
the puppies all day!”

“It’s gut to see you, Rosemary,” he said in a breathless voice. “Didn’t think you
were coming along today.”

Rosemary’s gaze didn’t waver as she set her wiggly daughter on the ground. “I’m nearly
done with the packing, thanks to you folks coming out yesterday. I wanted to see about
my new cookstove and oven at the mercantile, and figure out what’ll go in which cabinets
before we move the furniture tomorrow.”

Those were her
words
, anyway. She was thinking of her new business, but her shining eyes told Matt she
had also come to see him—and when had anything ever made him so happy? Rosemary’s
brown hair shimmered in the sunlight, tucked beneath a fresh white
pleated kapp, and the green dress made her eyes look ever so large and pretty as she
gazed at him.

“And Matt here’s gonna be my new partner,” Titus was saying as he and his driver approached.
“Matt Lambright, this is Dylan McGrew from over west of Queen City—and I’ve gotta
tell you the trip was a whole lot shorter by truck than it is by buggy!” he added
with a laugh. “We’ll unload these sheep out in that back pasture and then fetch the
rest of them so’s they’re all here together, getting used to their new place before
nightfall.”

“Jah, that’ll work,” Matt said as he shook Dylan’s hand. “We’ve got the new troughs
filled and the mineral blocks out, and Mose and Carl have helped me reinforce the
fences. Panda and Pearl will get those sheep unloaded for you and tell them exactly
where they’re to go.”

“Nothing like border collies to keep livestock—and their people—moving where they’re
supposed to,” Dylan agreed. “Better than having a hired man, for a lot of things.”

“That’s the way I’ve always seen it, too,” Matt replied. “And they don’t ask for time
off or pay raises, either, ain’t so?”

He winked at Katie, who was stroking both dogs’ heads as they sat patiently accepting
her attention. Then he focused on her mother again. “I’ll ride back to that pasture
with these fellows and the dogs, but we’ll not be gone long. If you need any help
in the house, let me know when I get back—and then I’ll tell Mamm to set more places
for dinner,” he added happily. “She’s already figuring on Titus and Dylan, so you
two girls will be a nice surprise.”