The Amish Quiltmaker’s Unattached Neighbor (The Amish Quiltmaker #6)

Chapter 2

A da stormed into the house, tore off her bonnet, and slammed the door behind her. “Dat,” she yelled. She slid off her coat, untied her shoes, and pulled the left sweatpants leg up and her stocking down. “Dat! Where are you?”

An inch-long gash on her shin was already starting to turn purple, and dried blood caked the front of her leg, but she didn’t have time to clean it or get herself a Band-Aid. As quickly as she could, she hobbled across the kitchen and down the hall to Dat’s bedroom. “Dat!”

He wasn’t in his room. Maybe he’d gone to buy feed for the goats or get his hair cut. He might be visiting Mary, who lived in the house immediately south of their farm.

“Ada, for goodness’ sake, you scared me half out of my wits.” Ada’s little schwester Beth stood in the doorway clutching her cell phone and frowning at Ada as if Ada had just broken every dish in the house. “You came in the house screaming like there was a fire or something.”

Ada wasn’t in the mood to give Beth the time of day, let alone an explanation. “Where’s Dat?”

“Avery Smith needed help with his sheep.”

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“No idea.” Beth must have seen the utter distress on Ada’s face. Her eyes filled with concern. “What’s the matter?”

Ada waved her hand in the air and swatted Beth’s question away. “Nothing. Nothing. I just need to talk to Dat.”

Beth’s expression sagged. “Oh, okay. Well, if you don’t need me, I’m going to ride my bike over to Sadie’s. Her beauty magazine came yesterday.”

On a normal day, Ada would have given Beth a stern lecture about using a cell phone and reading worldly, inappropriate magazines, but today Ada just wanted Beth out of her hair so she could solve the latest crisis without having to coddle her little schwester . “Okay. Be careful on the road.”

Beth’s eyes widened in surprise. For sure and certain she’d been expecting a lecture. “Okay. Denki . I’ll be home for dinner. Are you still making barbecue chicken pizza?”

Nae , she wasn’t going to make barbecue chicken pizza. Ada’s life had been completely upended, and Beth would be lucky to get toast and a bowl of canned apricots. “Probably,” she said, because she really wanted Beth to go, and she didn’t want to explain herself.

Beth’s spirits seem to sink even lower, though Ada couldn’t fathom what she’d done. “Okay then. I won’t be long.”

Dat’s nightstand was piled four inches high with unopened mail. How long had these letters been sitting here? Whenever Ada got the mail from the mailbox, she pulled out the envelopes that looked like bills and gave Dat everything else. That way they stayed current with their debts, and Dad didn’t have to worry about the budget.

Ada picked up the pile of envelopes and thumbed through them. Junk mail, junk mail, what looked like a wedding invitation. Oh, sis yuscht , a bill. Junk. The town newsletter. From the stack she pulled out five envelopes, all from Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, all written in the same slanted, elegant hand. Sneaky Man had fine penmanship, but that was truly the only gute thing about him. He wanted to steal their land, and Ada wasn’t about to let him get away with it. Her heart banged against her rib cage as she examined Sneaky Man’s envelopes. The first one was postmarked January 4, almost three months ago. Her heart quit banging and plummeted to her toes. Ada was going to have to go through the mail more carefully so she didn’t miss important letters like the one in her hand.

She ripped open the envelope and found a single, handwritten piece of paper.

Dear Mervin Yoder,

I have recently purchased a piece of property in Byler, Colorado, and the county recorder’s office has informed me that you are my neighbor to the west. Unfortunately, there has been an error in the usage of this property, and it is in the record that I own six acres you have been farming for almost two decades. The fence dividing our farms was erected in the wrong place. It needs to be moved as soon as possible so that when I arrive in Byler, I will be able to start working my entire piece of land. I have also discovered that two shares of water are attached to the six acres, and I would appreciate your meeting with the watermaster and signing those shares over to me.

Ada wanted to spit and say more than a few inappropriate words. Did Sneaky Man truly think they would hand over almost ten percent of their farm just because he asked—and not so nicely? He was arrogant and impertinent beyond belief.

I am planning to arrive in Byler on March 15. With this much advanced notice, you should have more than enough time to move the fence and work out the water situation. Please reply as soon as you can. If for some reason the fence can’t be moved before I get there, I would be happy to help you vacate my share of the property. Please let me know if this will be the case.

Blessings, Enos Hoover

Blessings ! He’d sent them blessings ? The man had no shame.

Ada crumpled the letter in her fist and threw it across the room. Why had she ever wished for anything but a boring life?

She thought better of throwing a tantrum, strode across the room, and picked up the paper, smoothing it out in her hand. Dat would need to read it. She turned the letter over. On the back was an intricately drawn map of sections of both farms, complete with tiny trees, miniature fenceposts, and precise right angles everywhere she looked. He’d even drawn a little horse standing next to their barn. It was charming and beautiful, and it made Ada sick to her stomach. Sneaky Man was the most horrible man in the history of horrible men.

No wonder she’d disliked him right from the start. Men who skulked around in the shadows and spied on unsuspecting women were not to be trusted.

She glanced at the letter again. Enos Hoover. That was Sneaky Man’s name, but Sneaky Man fit him much better. After she had climbed down from the irrigation system and he’d told her he owned part of her farm, she had argued with him, but she hadn’t cried or thrown a fit, mostly because Ada didn’t throw fits, and partly because Enos had expected her to. She had refused to give him the satisfaction.

Instead, she’d told him in the calmest, most reasonable way possible that he was getting six acres of their farm over her dead body. Then she’d turned on her heels and marched away, with Pepper trotting alongside her. Now she wished she had let Pepper bite him in the ankle.

Ada opened the next four envelopes and quickly scanned each one. They all said basically the same thing, but with each progressive letter, Enos’s appeals for some sort of response from Dat got more and more urgent. Ada could almost hear the edge in Enos’s voice when she read the letters. He hadn’t wanted to surprise Ada any more than she had wanted to be surprised. But he wasn’t likely to back down about taking their property. She needed a plan.

Ada had never been so utterly frustrated with Dat than she was at this moment. If he’d opened his mail in a timely manner like normal people, they could have been ready for an attack. Ada knew the watermaster personally, and surely there was a law favoring the farmer who had worked the land for several years, even if it wasn’t his.

Someone knocked loudly on the door, and Ada nearly jumped out of her skin. She’d completely forgotten that Esther Kiem and Cathy Larsen were coming over today to talk about quilts and recipes. Cathy was on the town council. Maybe she’d have some advice for Ada.

Ada set Enos’s letters on the nightstand and tripped quickly down the hall to the front room. She opened the door, and Cathy didn’t even say hello before barging into the room and making herself at home. “We’ve been standing on that porch for five minutes.” Cathy was an Englischer who often drove the Amish into town for shopping and errands. She was also a dear, if unconventional, friend. She stamped her feet as if removing snow from her shoes even though there wasn’t any snow on the ground or even a speck of frost. A holdover habit from winter, no doubt. She set her giant yellow purse on the love seat and peeled off her fluorescent blue coat. “Didn’t you hear us knocking? I bruised my knuckles.”

“I was . . . distracted,” Ada murmured. That was an understatement.

Esther held her six-month-old son, Benny, in one arm, while almost-two-year-old Junior and five-year-old Winnie stood on the porch next to her. “We’ve got some very exciting news, and we couldn’t wait one more minute to tell you.”

Cathy fished through her purse, which was the size of a small country. “Esther thinks she’s found you a husband.”

“A husband?” Ada ground her teeth together but tried to sound as if she was talking about the weather. “I don’t need a husband.”

Esther shot Cathy an arch look. “That’s not what I said. I just said that he and Ada should meet.” Esther Kiem was one of Ada’s dearest friends and an expert quilter. She also had the strange habit of tucking random objects behind her ear for safekeeping. Today she had a seam ripper behind her ear, which was one of the most dangerous things she wore regularly. As long as Ada didn’t try to hug her, she wouldn’t get her eye poked out.

Ada was in no mood to talk about husbands. “Winnie, Junior, I’m so happy to see you.” Even though Ada was completely disheartened by Enos’s letters, for die kinner ’s sake, she did her best to appear untroubled. She took the buplie from his mater ’s arms and gave him a big smooch on his chubby cheek. “ Ach , Esther, he gets bigger every time I see him. What are you feeding him? Heavy whipping cream?”

Esther laughed. “Something like that.”

“Come in, Junior,” Ada said. “You and I are old friends.” Junior marched into the house as if he lived there. Junior and Winnie had spent a lot of time at Ada’s house after Benny was born. There were complications, and the poor buplie had been in the hospital NICU for almost a month. Winnie and Junior loved petting the goats, playing with Pepper, and running around the fields beyond the fence. If Enos Hoover got his way, they’d have a lot less room to run.

“I’m hungee,” Junior said.

Ada nodded. “Do you know where the cookies are?” Without another word, Junior ran into the kitchen as if he had somewhere he urgently needed to be.

Esther laughed. “He knows where the cookies are.”

“ Jah . I’ve moved them to the lowest shelf so he won’t be tempted to climb on the counter.”

Esther sighed. “He climbs everything, like a mountain goat. Did you see the goose egg on his forehead? Yesterday while I was doing laundry, he fell off the kitchen table and conked his head on one of the chairs. He was very sad, but the accidents don’t seem to discourage him.”

Cathy sat down on the love seat next to her purse. “Get a box of pool noodles and slip them on the corners of every piece of furniture in your house. It’s the only way.”

Winnie threw her arms around Ada’s leg. “I found a dead grasshopper. Mamm says I can keep it.”

Ada gave Winnie a hug and helped her off with her coat. “Soon you’ll need a whole room for all the bugs you’ve collected.”

Winnie beamed. “Mamm bought me a bug collector. It has twenty-four compartments.”

Ada cocked her eyebrow. “That is a wonderful big word for such a little girl.”

Winnie held up four fingers. “I’ve already got this many bugs. Can I have a cookie?”

Ada smiled. Winnie’s attention span was only slightly longer than Junior’s. “Of course. Help yourself.”

Esther took off her bonnet and coat and hung them on the hook by the door. “Get a cookie and then bring Junior back into the living room. We don’t want him climbing on top of the refrigerator.”

Ada eyed Esther doubtfully. “He can’t do that, can he?”

Esther grimaced. “He’s tried. The kid is like a one-man wrecking crew.” She took the baby from Ada, spread a blanket on the floor, and sat him on the blanket, propped up with pillows so he wouldn’t tip over. Ada limped to the couch, and Esther sat next to her. She gasped and curled her fingers around Ada’s arm. “ Ach , Ada, you’re hurt.”

In all the commotion, Ada had completely forgotten about her shin. She glanced down. It looked so mushy, they’d probably want to amputate. “This is nothing.”

“It looks very sore.”

“It is, but who cares about blood at a time like this?”

“A time like what?” Esther said.

Cathy fished around in her purse and pulled out a protein bar. “She wants to hear about the husband you found for her.”

“I really don’t,” Ada said.

Esther gave Cathy another pointed glare. “I never said I’d found her a husband. We just met someone yesterday who we thought was interesting.”

“It never hurts to be proactive,” Cathy said. She attempted to tear open her protein bar, but it wouldn’t budge.

Ada didn’t really want to know the answer, but she asked the question anyway. “What does ‘proactive’ mean?”

Esther stretched a fake smile across her face. “It just means you should keep an open mind. Cathy drove me into town yesterday because I had to go to Walmart, and on the way home, she picked up someone from the bus station.”

Cathy was still working on that protein bar wrapper. “What she’s trying to say is, he’s not married, he’s quite good-looking, and he’s rich.”

Esther groaned. “Cathy, don’t tell tales. We don’t know if he’s rich.”

“We don’t know that he isn’t. I’m trying to pique Ada’s interest. It’s easier to fall in love with a man who has money.” Cathy used her teeth on the stubborn package. “He’s reserved and quiet and altogether too serious, but he seems nice enough. Of course I’m adamantly against the marriage.”

“I’m not getting married,” Ada insisted. Esther knew better than to try to match Ada with anyone. It was all too futile and unnecessarily painful. And today she just wasn’t in the mood.

Esther’s mouth fell open in indignation. “Why are you against the marriage, Cathy? There’s nothing wrong with him.”

Cathy tapped her still-unopened protein bar on the arm of the love seat. “He has a wooden foot, but that’s not why I’m against the marriage.”

Esther stared at Cathy as if sheer willpower would get her to stop talking. “We don’t know if it’s wooden.”

“Well, it’s fake. And his mother is a piece of work.”

Esther’s gaze flicked in Ada’s direction. “There’s nothing wrong with his mother.”

Cathy shook her head. “No girl in her right mind would want that woman for a mother-in-law.”

Ada was hopelessly lost, but if she asked questions, Cathy and Esther would think she was interested. “I’m going to go to get a Band-Aid.”

Esther stopped Ada by placing a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, Ada. I know you don’t want to talk about this, but it’s really not what you think. He’s just moved to Byler, and he brought his elderly mother to live with him.”

Cathy looked as if she’d swallowed a whole lemon. “She’s not elderly. She’s at least twenty years younger than me, and I’m not elderly yet.”

Cathy was eighty-six, but she worked on the principle that you are only as old as you think you are. She thought she was about twenty.

Esther gave Ada a weak smile, as if even she didn’t believe what she was saying. “He’s about your age, never been married, and of a serious nature, like you. I thought of you because maybe he’d make a nice, comfortable friend. That’s all I was thinking.”

Cathy snorted loudly but didn’t say anything. Ada would have snorted too, but she didn’t want to scare the baby.

Esther mostly ignored Cathy, but Ada could almost hear Esther’s spine stiffen. “And it’s especially convenient because he’s your new neighbor. He bought the old Connor farm directly to your east.”

Shock slapped Ada upside the head, and outrage punched her in the gut. “Enos Hoover?” she said, choking on his name as if it were a moldy piece of bread.

Esther’s expression fell. “Oh, you’ve already met him?”

Ada wasn’t one for dramatics, hysterics, or explosions, but she nearly lost what composure she had left. She stood up, growled, sat down again, and balled her hands into fists. “I met Enos Hoover just this morning.”

“I think he’s handsome,” Esther said. “Don’t you think he’s handsome?”

“He informed me that he owns six acres of our land and the two shares of water that come with it.”

Esther’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “What? He didn’t mention that to us.”

“Water shares don’t work that way,” Cathy said.

Ada could barely spit out the words. “He says he’s going to take down the fence that’s been there for over thirty years, dismantle our irrigation system, and farm our land whether we like it or not.”

“There might be a fence law.” Cathy seemed to be in her own little world over there on the love seat.

Esther pressed her fingers to her lips. “I don’t understand. He was really nice.”

“He’s not nice. He’s sneaky and arrogant and thinks that since we’re supposed to love our neighbor that we’ll just cheerfully hand over our land. But he’s provoked the wrong woman, and I won’t go down without a fight. In fact, I won’t go down at all.”

“You go, girl,” Cathy said. “I don’t feel one bit sorry for him, even if he only has one foot.”

Ada paused to draw a breath, then decided she should maybe pay a little more attention to Cathy. “What did you say?”

“I said he only has one foot. He didn’t tell us how he lost his foot, but his mother mentioned it when they were getting out of the van.”

“No, Cathy, what did you say about water shares?”

Cathy studied the protein bar in her hand. “Enos doesn’t have any right to those water shares as long as your name is on them. Or is it in your dad’s name?”

Ada perked up considerably. “You’re right. Those shares are in Dat’s name. We pay an assessment every year.”

“Enos may own the land, but he doesn’t have shares to water it with.”

Ada pressed her lips together. The situation was better than it had been two minutes ago, but Enos still thought he owned their six acres. “Cathy, you’re on the town council. You must know people who can help me.”

Cathy looked momentarily horrified. “Are you asking me to hire someone to break Enos’s kneecaps?”

Ada was equally horrified. “Of course not! What a terrible notion.”

Cathy waved her protein bar in Ada’s direction. “Of course it is. I know you better than that. I’m not sure what came over me. Maybe I should stop watching Law and Order reruns.”

“Have you talked to your dat about this?” Esther said.

“Not yet, but I’ll tell him as soon as he gets home.” And try to keep her patience. Even though Dat hadn’t opened his mail, this mess wasn’t his fault. “I’m hoping Cathy can help me with the legal issues surrounding the land. Enos said he’s been talking to the county recorder.”

“That’s a good place to start.” Cathy nodded at Ada, a smug look on her face. “And just for the record, I was never in favor of this marriage.”

Esther’s sigh was long and resigned.

“Neither was I,” Ada said.

Esther stood up, went over to the love seat, and took the protein bar from Cathy. She pulled the seam ripper from behind her ear, skewered the package, then ripped it open and handed it to Cathy.

Cathy took a bite. “Thank you. I thought I’d never get it open. My blood sugar was dropping.”

Esther put the seam ripper behind her ear and flinched. “Oh, sis yuscht . Winnie and Junior have been quiet a wonderful long time.”

She and Ada both raced into the kitchen. Junior was sitting atop the table, the cookie jar between his spread legs, with a cookie in each hand and chocolate smeared all over his face. Winnie was kneeling on the floor next to the fridge wiping up a large puddle of purple liquid with one of Ada’s sparkling white kitchen towels.

Ada glanced at Esther and laughed. “ Vell , it could have been worse. There’s no blood.”

They cleaned the floor and the table and the children and took everyone back into the living room. Cathy was holding Benny and talking to him. Cathy’s baby talk was gravelly and loud, as if she thought Benny would understand her if she spoke loudly enough. It was hilarious and sweet at the same time. They sat Winnie next to Cathy and Junior next to Esther, and Ada gave them each a book to look at.

Esther pulled a small notebook from her diaper bag. “Are you too upset to talk about quilt blocks?”

“There’s not much to talk about. I’ve finished mine, Mary has finished hers, and Joanna’s are done too. I don’t know that Beth has even started hers yet.” Almost two years ago, the schwesteren had decided to make a sampler quilt for Grossmammi Beulah’s hundredth birthday. Mammi was going to be a hundred and two in September, and the quilt wasn’t finished yet because Clay Markham had crashed into their barn, he and Mary had fallen in love, and there’d been no time to make quilt blocks with a wedding to plan. Then Menno Eicher had come to town to find a fraa , and Joanna couldn’t sew because she spent all her spare time steadfastly disliking Menno. When she decided she liked him just fine, there was another wedding to put on. Thank Derr Herr Ada had finished her quilt blocks, because with Enos Hoover trying to steal part of their farm, she’d have no time for anything but putting up a fight.

They were all just waiting on Beth.

Esther pursed her lips. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to finish Beth’s quilt blocks, or this quilt will never be done.”

“I’d hate for you to do that,” Ada said. “You have less time than any of us, and we shouldn’t let Beth off the hook. The quilt won’t be as meaningful if Beth doesn’t finish her own squares.”

Cathy quit bouncing the baby and gave Ada a funny look. “Just a minute. What quilt block did you choose?”

“I’m finished with all my blocks. You don’t have to worry about helping me with my corners. They all match perfectly.” Ada wasn’t a proficient quilter like Esther, or even as gute as Mary, but she prided herself on matching corners and meticulously straight lines.

“But which one did you choose?”

Ada shrugged. “The Bachelor’s Puzzle. I like it because it has so much movement to it, like a pinwheel. I made nine blocks and chose a different color scheme for each. I thought that would look charming on Grossmammi Beulah’s quilt.”

The wrinkles on Cathy’s forehead bunched up like ruffles on an Englischer’s dress. “Nobody ever listens to me.”

“I listen,” Esther said.

Cathy held the baby on her lap with one hand and shook her finger at Ada with the other. “Don’t you remember what I told Mary when she picked the Drunkard’s Path quilt block?”

Ada couldn’t help but grin. Cathy had told Mary that there was a little magic in every stitch sewed into a quilt block. “ Ach , Cathy, you know the Amish don’t believe in magic.”

“That’s what you told me then, but you can’t forget what happened to Mary after that. And Joanna.”

“You can’t believe the things that happened were anything but chance.”

“Chance?” Cathy said, so loudly the baby flinched. “Mary chose the Drunkard’s Path quilt block and not a week later, Clay was driving drunk and just happened to crash into your barn. And then she married him. Joanna chose the Sugar Bowl pattern, and Menno Eicher showed up from Sugar, Idaho. And she married him. You’ve made nine Bachelor’s Puzzle blocks, and a bachelor has moved next door. We’re all puzzled because we don’t know what to do about the six acres. Or maybe Enos Hoover is like a puzzle because he’s missing a piece.” Cathy waved her hand back and forth. “We’ll figure out the puzzle part later, but it doesn’t matter. You’ve recklessly chosen the wrong quilt block, and you’re going to end up marrying Enos Hoover, and I can’t approve of your mother-in-law.”

Ada pinned Cathy with an arch look. “Now you’re just talking nonsense.”

“No, I’m not. Just wait until you meet her.”

Ada huffed out a breath. “Cathy, I know you mean well.” That wasn’t exactly true. She never knew if Cathy meant well or just meant to stir the pot. “But Enos Hoover is the last man in the world I would marry. He’s arrogant and unreasonable. He’s trying to steal part of my farm. He’s more of an enemy than a potential husband.”

“We are supposed to love our enemies,” Esther said, obviously trying to smooth things over between Cathy and Ada.

Cathy shook her head. “You’re doomed.”