now, and the fact that he didn’t have the traditional Amish beard allowed her to see his stubborn jaw.
He’d always had that stubbornness. His golden-brown eyes had a glint of kindness that she felt sure reflected his kind heart, and his lips curled in a familiar grin. Her tension evaporated, and she smiled.
“Rebecca!” He came forward now to greet them, taking her hands in both of his for a momentary squeeze. “It’s wonderful gut to see you again.” His face sobered. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
She nodded. She had a stock of reasonable comments to use when someone commented on her widowhood, but they didn’t seem appropriate for Daniel, who’d known her so well.
Daniel didn’t seem to notice. He’d focused on Lige, who was hiding behind her skirt, and he squatted down to eye level.
“You must be Elijah. I’ve heard about you from your grossmammi. She told me you just turned six. Is that right?”
Lige, clutching the fold of Rebecca’s skirt, gave the smallest of nods. Fortunately, Daniel didn’t seem to expect more.
“I’m Daniel,” he said. “I live over there.” He pointed across the field to the neighboring farm. “When your mammi and I were your age, we used to play together every day.”
Still no response. She tried to think of something to say to pull his attention from Lige, but Daniel was already rising, his smile intact. “Ach, it’s hard to get to know a lot of new folks at once, ain’t so?”
“Yah, it is,” she said, grateful for his understanding. “Sam tells me that your carpentry business is a wonderful success these days.” Sam, Rebecca’s older brother, had been best friends with Daniel’s older brother, Caleb. It had seemed natural for her and Daniel to pair up, as well.
“Ach, I wouldn’t say great, but it’s doing okay. It doesn’t give me much time to help Caleb with the dairy farm, but I do what I can. And he’s got Onkel Zeb and young Thomas Stoltz to work with him, too.”
“I’m sure he needs it, running such a big dairy operation.” Daad had told her how Caleb had increased his herd until it was one of the larger ones in the valley. “I’d be most happy if you have time to take on this job for me.”
She glanced at the house, trying to picture it the way it was in her dreams. With Daniel’s help, that dream could be a reality.
“Let’s go in and have a look at what you want done,” Daniel suggested. He held out a hand as she reached the three steps up to the back porch. “Mind the treads, now. There’s a loose board there I’ll fix right off.”
She nodded, turning to help Lige up to the porch. “It’s a little bit run-down now,” she told him. “But Daniel will help us turn it into a gut home for us.”
Lige darted a cautious sideways glance at Daniel, but he still didn’t speak. She tried to suppress a sigh. If she’d realized earlier the harm James’s behavior was doing to Elijah...but what choice did she have? James had been his father, and there was no getting away from that.
The back door opened into the kitchen, and they stepped inside.
“The cabinets need some repair,” Daniel said, swinging a door open and closed. “But they’re good solid wood—none of those thin layers they use sometimes now.”
Rebecca was busy picturing the kitchen with the cabinets freshly painted white and seedlings growing in pots on the wide, sunny windowsills. “The gas range is perfect,” she said. “But I’ll have to replace the electric refrigerator with a gas one.”
“I don’t know much about the electrics, but there’s a man I worked with on a few Englisch houses who does that kind of work. He could take out all the electrics for you.”
“Wonderful gut.” Surely the fact that things were falling into place meant that her plans were in accord with the gut Lord’s will. “Our table will fit in this space, won’t it, Lige?”
He nodded but hadn’t yet let go of her skirt.
“When do your things arrive?” Daniel pulled himself out from behind the refrigerator, a cobweb clinging to his straw hat.
“In a few days.” Smiling, she reached up to lift the cobweb away, inadvertently brushing his cheek. She withdrew her hand quickly, trying to ignore the way it tingled from the brief contact. “The family will store everything for us until we can move in here.”
The back of the house held the kitchen, a pantry and two smaller rooms. One would be their living room and the other a storeroom or workroom. Swinging the door open, Rebecca stepped into the room at the front of the house. Her breath caught.
The room extended across the whole front of the house, and sunshine poured in through the windows to lie across the wide-plank floors. The back wall would be perfect for shelves, and she could have a display area of quilts on one side and stocks of fabrics and notions on the other.
“You look happy,” Daniel said, his brown eyes warm. “Is this going to be your living room?”
“No.” She swung in a slow circle, taking it all in. “This will be what I’ve been dreaming of. This will be my quilt shop.”
She knew her happiness had to be shining in her face. And when she looked at Daniel, she saw her anticipation reflected in his eyes, crinkling as they shared her feeling. There, at last, was her old friend.
* * *
Daniel stood still for a moment, transfixed by the sheer joy on Rebecca’s face. He couldn’t help but share it. Obviously, this quilt shop was important to her, but why? So far as he knew, she hadn’t had a shop in the past.
He didn’t doubt that she was a wonderful quilter. Rebecca’s sister-in-law, Leah, had shown off the baby quilts Rebecca had made and sent for each of her young ones. Rebecca’s mother had a gift for designing patterns, and she must have inherited it.
“Can you make this ready first?” She swung toward him, all eagerness. “I need to open the shop as soon as possible.”
Need? That was a funny way of putting it. He’d heard that Rebecca sold the farm she and her husband had owned in Ohio. He’d think that would have given her enough that she wouldn’t have to rush into business for herself.
Still, it might be that she felt she had to have something to occupy her mind and heart. Her husband had died less than six months ago, and grieving was hard—he knew that as well as anyone.
“I have plenty of time for your job,” he said. And if he didn’t, he’d make time to accommodate her, especially if it kept her looking the way she did now.
He couldn’t deny that he’d been shocked when he first saw her, so thin and pale, with an almost-haunted look darkening the blue of her eyes. Rebecca had always been as bright as a ray of sunshine with her golden hair, rosy cheeks and the sparkle in her clear blue eyes. He nearly hadn’t recognized his friend, and that had set a distance between them.
Already she was withdrawing into herself again, her face becoming strained. But at least now he’d seen the old Rebecca, if just for a moment.
“So, you’ll tell me what you want done in here,
