C
HAPTER
7
K
atie lifted the lid of the Dutch oven and dipped her spoon into the sauce. A chasm grew in the pit of her stomach.
Ach, du lieva,
the sauce was too runny. Fifteen minutes to go, and the sauce was too runny.
She couldn't ruin the venison. She just couldn't. Adam had proudly brought her almost five pounds of it, and asked her to cook it for his siblings tonight. What would he say if the venison didn't turn out? Would he be mad or just disappointed? Would he decide he didn't want to marry her?
Titus leaned his head closer to the stove so he could get a good look at her face. “Are you okay?”
“The sauce is runny,” she said.
He sniffed the air. “It smells wonderful-
gute
. Venison is just about my favorite food ever.”
Katie grinned. Everything she cooked seemed to be Titus's favorite food ever. She marveled that he was so easy to please and that he always seemed to make her feel better, no matter how bad things got. When a cake fell or her cookies burned, he would smile at her and tell her things were going to be okay. Sometimes he'd read her a poem or offer to wash the dishes or show her a new trick his goats had learned. Titus never failed to make her smile.
“Do you need help?” Anna said, as she sat at the table and folded napkins. “Tomato paste is a
gute
thickener.”
Dear, sweet Anna. She would have done anything for Katie, and Katie wouldn't have hurt her feelings for the world, but she couldn't let Anna near Adam's venison. Anna had a gift for making everything she touched taste worse.
With shaking breath, she slid the lid back on the Dutch oven and tried not to panic. She knew how to thicken a sauce. It wasn't that hard, and she had plenty of time. “
Denki,
Anna,” Katie said, “but I think I can fix it with a little cornstarch. It should taste just fine.” Though Katie would barely be able to eat, she certainly hoped everyone else would enjoy it.
Anna creased a napkin between her fingers. “I've never been able to get the lumps out when I use cornstarch.”
Jah
. Only last week, Anna had made gravy with lumps of cornstarch as big as quarters. At least Adam hadn't eaten with them that night, and Katie didn't mind the lumps. Anna had made them with lots of love.
Katie spooned a tablespoon of cornstarch into a mason jar. Titus, who seemed to know exactly what she needed more often than she understood, lifted the lid of the Dutch oven for her. She ladled a cup or two of the runny sauce into the mason jar, tightened the lid, and shook it vigorously.
Titus grinned at her again. “You're the smartest girl I've ever seen.”
She felt her cheeks get warm. “Only if this works.”
“It will work. You know everything there is to know about cooking.”
“Almost as much as my Annie-banannie knows,” Felty said. “Annie is the best cook in the whole world.”
“But don't you think Katie takes a close second?” asked Titus.
Felty set the napkins around the table as Anna folded them. “
Jah
. I've gained five pounds since Katie's been living with us.”
Katie was too busy concentrating on her sauce to respond, but her lips curled involuntarily. Titus and Felty were two of the kindest men she'd ever met. The girl Titus married would be blessed indeed.
Titus finished stirring the lemon-lime soda into the lemonade mix. “What else can I do to help?”
“Will you light the candles?”
He nodded eagerly, always so happy to do whatever he could.
The guilt that Katie had been smothering all afternoon flared to life. Titus had been there all day helping her get ready for a party he hadn't been invited to. He'd brought up the extra folding chairs and two table leaves from the cellar and helped Felty set them up. He'd swept and spot-mopped the floor, given Sparky a bath, and stirred fudge for over twenty minutes without a complaint. All the while reciting poetry and singing Christmas songs.
Katie loved Titus's poems. She could tell he had deep thoughts, like what the moon was made of and why snow was cold. He should have been a professor or something.
Or a schoolteacher.
Katie frowned. Adam was a schoolteacher. He was probably just as smart as Titus. He certainly talked as if he knew everything.
The lines between her eyebrows were no doubt piling on top of themselves. She shouldn't think such things about her boyfriend. It wasn't his fault he talked so much. Katie hardly said a word when they were together. He obviously felt the need to fill in the awkward silences. She resolved to say more when Adam came over. He shouldn't have to be responsible for every conversation, especially when they actually got married. He'd certainly expect her to give her opinion now and then.
Adam hadn't proposed yet, though everything seemed to be going according to plan. Was he falling in love with her? He seemed to like her cakes and cookies. He'd told her she was pretty.
She stole a glance at Titus out of the corner of her eye. But Adam had never written her a poem.
Anna definitely knew how to set a table. She'd made a centerpiece of three red pillar candles tied together with a ribbon, crocheted of course. A wreath of holly surrounded the candles. Titus pulled the matches out of the drawer and lit the candles. Katie's heart did a little flip. Adam's family would love it. At least she hoped they would.
Titus blew out the match just as they heard quick steps outside on the porch. Adam opened the door just wide enough to stick his head into the room. “We're here,” he said, smiling as if he sat on top of the world. His gaze landed on Titus. “Titus, kid, I don't mean to be rude, but my brothers and sister are right behind me, and they want to see Katie, not you.”
Katie's heart sank. Titus hadn't been invited, but he was the reason Adam's siblings were getting punch instead of water.
Titus frowned as if he'd done something wrong. “Sorry.” His toothpick drooped between his lips. “I'd never stand in the way of true love.”
“I know you wouldn't,” Adam said, glancing behind him as if he were under attack and needed to get to safety.
Titus looked at the spent match in his hand as if he didn't know what to do with it. If he took the time to throw it in the garbage, Adam might get even more annoyed. He squeezed it into his fist.
Hopefully he hadn't burned himself.
“Titus,” Adam said, with more urgency.
Titus threw one last reassuring smile in Katie's direction. He was always nice like that. “I'll go out the back door.”
He was gone before Katie even had a chance to thank himânot that she would have had a chance. Seconds later, Adam's family swooped into the house. Adam had been very sensitive when Katie acted nervous about inviting his family to dinner. He'd asked his parents to stay home this time.
Adam's sister, Rebekah, who was twenty years old, came in unenthusiastically. She sort of nodded at Katie before making her way to the sofa, where she plopped down and started petting Sparky. Adam's three brothers who still lived at home, Zeb, Melvin, and Josiah, shook Felty's hand with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Zeb being the least enthusiastic, probably because he hadn't been baptized yet, and he hated it when he had to put his cell phone away to have a conversation.
Katie knew all of them from when she'd lived in Bonduel nine years ago, and she had also spent that hour last week at Adam's house getting to know his family. They were all wonderful nice, even Adam's sister. She just hadn't warmed up to Katie yet. Katie tried to be sympathetic, even though she felt smaller in Rebekah's presence. Rebekah probably just didn't like the thought of someone marrying her big brother. It would take some time for her to get used to the idea. Katie would have to make some cookies for her.
Josiah clapped his hands together. “It smells good enough to eat.”
“I hope so,” Adam said, raising his eyebrows in Katie's direction. He was eager for this meal to go well. He wanted his family to think he'd chosen well. Katie did, too. Her chest tightened. She would hate to embarrass Adam in front of his family.
“Let's eat, then,” Adam said, not waiting for Anna to invite them to sit.
Katie, Felty, and Anna brought corn, beets, Jell-O salad, and fresh baked rolls to the table. Katie peeked into the Dutch oven before bringing it over. The sauce had thickened perfectly. That last prayer she'd uttered had worked.
“What is it?” Zeb asked.
“Braised venison with rosemary and shitake mushrooms,” Katie said, trying to keep the anticipation out of her voice.
Oy,
anyhow. She wanted them to be impressed, even if the desire smacked of pride.
Adam glanced at his brothers with an apology shining in his eyes. “I told her not to get fancy.”
Melvin frowned. “I like pan-fried venison with just a little salt.”
Rebekah cringed. “I hate venison.”
Once they said a silent blessing over the food, Katie dished up venison for everyone but Rebekah and spooned potatoes and sauce over the meat.
Zeb skewered his fork into one of the potatoes. “Did you make any cooked carrots? They're my favorite.”
The kitchen suddenly felt ten degrees hotter. Adam didn't like cooked carrots, but she should have thought to throw a few in the Dutch oven for the rest of his family.
It was her first mistake. Lord willing, there wouldn't be any others.
Once Katie finished serving venison, she sat and poured herself a glass of lemonade punch. She needed something to cool her nerves. What if they didn't like it?
“This is so tender,” Josiah said. “And what a wonderful-
gute
flavor.”
Adam's smile stretched all the way across his face. “Didn't I tell you?”
“The corn is decent,” Rebekah mumbled. She looked at her plate as if she hoped no one had heard her say it.
Josiah, the brother just younger than Adam, had been the nicest to Katie. When she had gone over last week, Josiah had asked about her family and whether she liked living in Augusta. “It's really
gute,
Katie,” he said. “We eat a lot of venison and I've never tasted it like this. I don't think I've ever tasted a shitake mushroom.”
Zeb spread a generous amount of huckleberry jelly on his roll. “I'll have to admit, Adam, when you suggested to Mamm that she write to the Gingeriches about sending Katie to Bonduel, I thought Katie would be a homely, desperate girl who no one in Augusta wanted to marry.”
Adam half-growled, half-chuckled. “To be honest, I wasn't too sure myself until I laid eyes on her and tasted her cooking. I knew then it was a match made in heaven.”
Katie fingered the hair at the nape of her neck. She should probably say something, but they were talking about her, not to her, and she felt as if she was eavesdropping. Had Adam really thought she was desperate?
Her face grew hot with shame.
She
was
desperate. She was a twenty-four-year-old girl whom nobody but Adam wanted to marry. She knew exactly what they thought of herâit was exactly what she thought of herself.
“You've got
gute
taste, Adam,” Melvin said, almost as if Adam had baked the rolls and braised the venison himself.
Katie shouldn't have been so troubled by that. It was pride, pure and simple, to crave praise for her cooking.
“Of course,” Adam said. “I always have.” He took another bite, smiled at Katie, and winked.
Adam obviously couldn't have been more pleased. She was overjoyed.
Why did being overjoyed feel like a patch of mold growing in her chest and a rock around her neck?
After dinner, they moved to the great room, where they pulled their chairs around the card table, and Zeb laid out Life on the Farm.
If things hadn't been going so well, Katie might have groaned out loud. She hated Life on the Farm. She didn't like it when players went bankrupt or she couldn't afford to buy more cows, not to mention the fact that the game could go on forever. She didn't know if she could bear it.
She squared her shoulders and pasted a happy smile on her face to show Adam how happy she was to be with him. She'd made fudge without nuts and a lovely triple chocolate cake for dessert. Adam was sure to be thrilled. After tonight, she'd get her proposal.
Oh, what a happy day.
She eyed Adam as he sat down to play the game. What if she told him she didn't want to play? Would it be so bad to be an old
maedle?
The Wengerds were not a quiet group. Adam and his
bruders
were good-naturedly yelling at each other before everyone had even taken a turn. Mammi and Dawdi played as a team, and they watched, eyes wide, as Adam accused one brother and then another of cheating. The brothers in turn teased Rebekah for being such a bad player, until she collected enough money to buy several cows and nearly win the game.
“Felty, dear,” Anna said, after Zeb slapped his money onto the card table and growled while his family laughed at him. “Do you think we should buy a cow?”
After half an hour of discomfort, Katie was barely paying attention to the game when a hunter shot her last cow and she was out. It was the only good part about Life on the Farm. If she played poorly, she didn't have to suffer through it for very long.
Adam and his siblings laughed at her for getting out, but she couldn't help but rejoice inside. She tried to keep a weary smile from her lips as she stood up and went straight to the hook for her coat and scarf. She needed some air away from her boyfriend and his loud family. She needed to remind herself how much she didn't want to be an old maid.