your grandfather to take you in.”
“No one is more thankful than I am. Lizzie is the brave one. I could never have done what she did. If Rufus Kuhns had been determined to marry her instead of me, I wouldn’t have been able to save her.”
“You don’t know that,” Faith said gently.
“Ja, I do.”
“Is it true that Lizzie is going to marry your grandfather’s hired man in the fall?”
Relieved to speak of something else, Clara smiled. “Ja.”
“Carl King seems like a good man.”
Clara bit the corner of her lip. “I think he is.”
“You think, but you aren’t sure?”
Was she that transparent? Over the past few months, as the women had worked side by side in the bright and cheerful room, Clara had shared some of her life and had learned some of Faith’s story, as well. Faith’s first husband had been an abusive man. She had been a widow when she moved to Hope Springs.
Clara looked up and gazed intently into Faith’s eyes. “How did you know that Adrian wouldn’t turn out to be cruel, too? Weren’t you afraid?”
Faith smiled gently. “Of course I was. I felt as you do. I thought I would never be able to trust another man, but Adrian changed all that the first time he touched my face. There was so much gentleness in that touch. I knew he would never hurt me. I understand your fear, but there are good men, kind men, men who spend a lifetime loving their wives and being helpmates. You will find one.”
The very idea of submitting to a husband turned her insides cold. “My head tells me what you say is right, but I don’t feel that way. And this conversation has no point because there is no one interested in courting me. I should be getting home. I told Lizzie that I would help her finish canning corn this afternoon.”
“I understand. I’ll pray for you, Clara. I will pray that God has someone special in mind for you.”
Clara gathered her things together. “Pray that I get hired as the new schoolteacher. That’s what I truly want to do. I want to teach and take care of dozens of children. I can’t imagine a more perfect job.”
“Okay, I’ll do that, too. I’ll see you again at the Sunday’s service.”
The two women kissed each other’s cheeks, and Clara left the room. Outside, she saw Micah carrying a large armload of alfalfa hay toward the alpacas’ enclosure. She crossed the yard toward him. “Good day, Micah. I’m glad to see you have come to do chores as you promised.”
“My onkel promised I would come. I didn’t.”
His sullen expression worried her. “Your onkel was right in this. Your punishment could have been much worse.”
“Worse than the whipping I took? I doubt it. A lot you care. You’re the one who got me in trouble.”
“You got into trouble all by yourself, Micah. You have no reason to blame me. I seriously doubt that your onkel Ethan gave you a whipping.”
“He did. The minute you left he...he paddled me so hard I couldn’t sit down for hours.”
Clara folded her arms over her chest. “You are a very poor liar, Micah Gingerich.”
“I am not!”
She arched her eyebrow. “You’re not a poor liar? Then I reckon that makes you a good liar.”
He scowled at her. “I’ve got to go feed those stupid animals.” He trudged away without looking at her again.
She shook her head and muttered under her breath, “Poor Ethan. You really have your hands full with this one.”
How would he manage? It was painfully clear the boy was determined to tread the wrong path. Such defiance in one so young did not bode well for the family.
As she watched Micah enter the corral, she saw him spread out the hay, then slowly reach his hand toward one of the babies in the group who had come close to investigate. The hopeful expression on Micah’s face told her he liked the alpacas even if he wouldn’t admit it.
The baby stretched his nose toward Micah. The tentative exchange was cut short when Myrtle alerted the rest of the herd with a shrill whistling sound. The baby and all the others scampered away from Micah to the opposite side of the corral. He kicked the hay at his feet and stomped off.
Clara left the Lapp farm and walked toward her grandfather’s home. As she followed the winding country road, she couldn’t stop thinking about Micah’s attitude and Ethan’s inability to connect with the boy. Was there some way she could help?
She didn’t see how. Her job with Faith was finished for this summer. She wouldn’t be back to see how Micah faired with his week of chores unless she simply came for a visit.
Since the Gingeriches were members of a different church congregation, Micah wouldn’t attend the school where she hoped to teach. If she got the job, and if he were one of her students, she would have some contact and influence over him, but she couldn’t see a way to spend time with the troubled boy as things stood now.
She was crossing the small bridge that spanned Cherry Creek just beyond Ethan’s lane when she heard a familiar giggle. She stopped and peered over the railing. Lily and Amos were knee-deep in the muddy water below her. She quickly looked around for Ethan, but he was nowhere in sight.
She leaned her arms on the railing. “What are you doing?”
Lily looked up at her and grinned. She held a huge frog in her hands. The front of her dress was covered in mud and slime “See what I caught?”
“I see. That’s a beautiful frog.”
Amos was creeping toward the bank with his hands outstretched. “I’m going to get me one, too.”
He launched himself toward the shore. The bullfrog that was his target leaped over his head and disappeared into the muddy depths of the creek.
Clara tried not to laugh. “Where is your onkel?”
“He’s got a sick cow,” Lily said. “He told us to go play.”
“Do you think that he meant to go play in the creek? You are both very muddy.”
Amos looked from the front of his clothes to his sister’s sopping dress. “He didn’t say not to play in the creek.”
“I’m certain this is not what he had in mind. Come out of there.”
“Can I keep my frog?” Lily asked hopefully.
“I think he will be happier if you leave him in his own home.”
Amos waded to her side. “Let him go. We can catch him another time.”
“Okay.” She didn’t look happy about it, but she put him back in the water and giggled as he quickly swam away.
The
