sunny kitchen seemed to hold the echo of the kinder’s chatter and laughter.
“Come September, your Lige will be joining the other scholars on their way to school,” Leah commented. “He’ll like it, I’m sure. Teacher Esther is wonderful gut with the kinder.”
“It’s hard to believe my little one is that old. I’ll miss him.” Rebecca’s smile was tinged with a little regret. In a normal Amish family, Lige would have been joined by a couple of younger siblings by now.
“You won’t miss him as much as you think.” Leah’s tone was practical. “By then, your quilt shop will be thriving, and you’ll have plenty to keep you busy.”
“I hope so.” Rebecca breathed a silent prayer.
“I was thinking about the shop,” Leah said. “How would it be if I asked some of the other women to bring in quilts on consignment? I know several fine quilters who would like a regular store to sell their goods, instead of relying on mud sales and the like.”
Rebecca blinked. It seemed Leah was thinking ahead even more than she had. “That’s a grand idea, for sure. I’d love it. Do you really think they would? I’ve been away so long that they probably feel they hardly know me by now.”
“Ach, that doesn’t make a bit of difference. Folks remember you. You’d be doing a gut thing for them. And then there are some women like Martha Miller. She doesn’t get around much now, but she’d love to do more sewing for folks. You could get her some work by letting customers know that she does hand quilting.”
“Yah, I could.” Excitement began to bubble. “I could have a bulletin board, maybe, where I could post things like that for customers to see. Denke, Leah. You...” Her throat tightened. “I’m sehr glad Sam had enough sense to marry you. I couldn’t ask for a better sister.”
Leah clasped Rebecca’s hand with her soapy one. “Ach, it’s nothing. We’re wonderful glad you’ve come home.”
The back screen door closed softly, and Rebecca turned to smile at her son. It had to be Lige, because any of the others would have let the door bang.
“Mammi, can’t we go yet? Daniel is counting on me to help.”
“In a few minutes, Lige. I’ll be out as soon as I’m ready.”
He looked disappointed, but he didn’t argue. Sometimes she almost wished he would. Instead, he slipped quietly out again.
A silence fell between her and Leah, making her wonder if Leah was thinking the same thing.
“That Daniel,” Leah said. “The kinder are all crazy about him. It’s a shame he doesn’t have a passel of little ones of his own by this time.”
“I’ve thought that, too,” Rebecca admitted. “I kept expecting to hear he’d been married, but it didn’t happen.”
“No.” Leah shook her head. “I hope he wasn’t listening to that foolish talk that went around after Caleb’s first wife left him. Folks saying that history was repeating itself, and that the King men couldn’t find happiness in marriage.”
“That’s not just foolish, it’s downright wrong. Just because of their mother, and then Caleb’s wife...” Rebecca was too indignant to find the right words. “Anyway, with Caleb happily married now, surely that shows they were wrong.”
“Yah, you’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Leah dumped the dishwater and dried her hands. “But it’s hard to know what Daniel is thinking sometimes. He took it awful hard when Aaron jumped the fence.”
“He would,” Rebecca said, her heart aching for Daniel’s little brother, out there in the Englisch world somewhere. “Daniel always felt responsible for Aaron, especially after their mother left. He...”
Whatever she might have said was lost in the noise as a large truck came down the lane. Leah craned her neck to see out the window.
“It’s the moving truck,” she exclaimed. “Your things are here!”
Together they hurried outside, and Rebecca felt her heart beat a little faster. Her belongings—the furniture she’d wanted to bring, Lige’s toys, her collection of quilts—they were finally here. Now she could start to feel at home.
When they reached the rear of the truck, the driver was opening the door and letting down the ramp. Almost before he’d finished, the rest of the family had arrived—her mother and father from the grossdaadi house, Sam and the older boys from the barn and the eldest girl from the chicken coop. She even spotted Daniel hastening down the lane toward them.
Mamm put her arm around Rebecca’s waist. “Now you’ll start to feel settled, ain’t so? You’re really home.” Her eyes clouded over with tears, making Rebecca wonder how much Mamm had been worrying about her.
“I’ll need to sort things...” she began, and Daad interrupted before she could head into the van.
“All you have to do is say where each thing goes as we bring it off. Someone will carry it there.” Daad’s voice didn’t allow an argument.
But still she felt vaguely guilty, drawing them all away from the things they’d been doing.
“Furniture in our basement for now,” Leah said. “It’s all cleaned and ready. Just pick out what you want in the grossdaadi house. You won’t want anything to go in your new place yet, ain’t so?”
Rebecca shook her head. “It would just be in Daniel’s way.”
“That’s right,” Daniel said, tapping Lige’s straw hat. “We men need to have room to work, ain’t so, Lige?”
Her son nodded, his smile chasing any tension from his face.
The next few minutes were a scramble, as things started coming out of the van so fast that it was all she could do to keep up. Lige showed a tendency to want to open boxes to see what was inside, until Daniel showed him how they were marked.
Sam marshaled his young ones into a line. He picked up each item in turn, checked with Rebecca what she wanted done with it and then gave it to one of the kinder to hurry off with. Daniel came out balancing several large boxes and headed for her.
“My quilts!” Her heart seemed to lurch with excitement. There they were, all packed up, the things that would allow her to support herself and her son.
Daniel’s grin said he understood, at least a little, what this meant to her. “Should we toss these in the chicken coop?” he said, teasing her the way he’d teased the girl she used to be.
“Into my sewing room,” Leah said firmly. “I don’t need the space just now, and they’ll be handy for you there.”
Joshua, Leah’s eldest, seized the boxes from Daniel. “I’ve got it, Mammi.” He strode toward the back door, Lige scurrying ahead to hold the door open for him.
They’d left Rebecca nothing to do but watch as the van emptied and Leah produced coffee and crullers for the driver. “I hate to put everyone to so much trouble,” Rebecca murmured. “I shouldn’t...”
“Ach, don’t be foolish.”
