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

Chapter 6

A da didn’t know how sneaky Enos would be, but she had to be sneakier. Four a.m. was much earlier than even she got up in the mornings, but it had to be done.

Her bruder -in-law Clay was not entirely happy about getting up that early to help her set up his tent, but Clay was a nice person, and he would have done anything for one of Mary’s schwesteren . Ada had always liked him. Ach , vell , she hadn’t always liked him because he’d driven his car into their barn, and Mary had been all too fascinated with him. But Clay had grown on everybody, and now he was one of the most loved people in the family, even though his Deitsch accent was atrocious.

About halfway through tent setup, Clay had looked at Mary and scratched his head. “Don’t you think this is going a little too far for a measly six acres?”

Ada wasn’t about to let him talk her out of anything. “It’s the principle of the thing. Besides, what would you know? You’re a peacemaker. Nobody likes a peacemaker in a fight.”

Clay had flashed that brilliant smile of his. “‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’”

“And blessed are those who don’t quote scripture to a very angry woman, because they might get smacked.”

Clay’s tent was a spacious eight-man shelter with two rooms, five windows, and a flap on the roof so you could look at the stars at night. Ada didn’t need that much room, but Arthur Tripp would have a harder time moving past a large tent.

Ada had brought her sleeping bag, a change of clothes, three sandwiches, several mini bags of Fritos, and some chocolate chip cookies for her stay in the tent. If she ran out of supplies, she could sneak to the house and be back before Enos had a chance to take down her tent. Or burn it, as the case may be.

She had also carted over a load of firewood, a bag of marshmallows, and a box of matches. Ada had fond memories of roasting marshmallows as a child, and she could always start a campfire if she got bored.

Beth had assured her that she wouldn’t get bored because Beth had supplied her with some appropriate romance books to read. Ada had never read a romance book, appropriate or not, but Beth had assured her that she would love them, even though Ada thought such things were frivolous and a waste of time. Sure she wasn’t going to like Beth’s books, Ada had also brought the Farmer’s Friend seed catalog, Storey’s Guide to Raising Goats , and seven old issues of The Budget newspaper she hadn’t thrown out yet. The newspaper served two purposes. She could read it and then use it to start a fire.

After Clay had helped her set up the tent, Ada had spread out her sleeping bag, eaten a bag of Fritos for breakfast, and taken a short nap waiting for the sun to come up. She startled awake when she heard the soft hum of a tractor coming down the road. Was it Arthur Tripp? Was it light enough for him to see her tent before he ran over it?

Just to be safe, Ada jumped out of her sleeping bag and crawled out of the tent. If Arthur didn’t see the tent, at least she wouldn’t die when he plowed it under. Of course he might plow it under even if he saw it. Arthur wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and he had a little bit of a temper. Another good reason to be outside when he started with his cultivator.

The sun was just coming over the mountains when the tractor turned onto Ada’s property about twenty feet west of the wooden fence. Ada couldn’t see who was driving the tractor, but for sure and certain it was Arthur Tripp. He drove a green John Deere with yellow wheel hubs and a bright yellow stuffed dog tied to his rearview mirror. Ada’s heart started racing, and it annoyed her to no end. She wanted to be brave, not nervous.

Clay had set up the tent about thirty feet back from the road. Arthur could pull his tractor onto the property, but he couldn’t get very far with the wide cultivator. Ada stepped around to the front of the tent and squinted into Arthur’s headlights. Even though she knew it was coming, Ada jumped when Arthur honked his horn. She’d have to be less skittish. Arthur and Enos would sense her fear.

She folded her arms, squared her shoulders, and tried to make herself look testy and resolute. Arthur honked his horn again, three times. Ada just stood there, hoping against hope she was an intimidating presence standing in the field. More likely, Arthur saw her as a nuisance, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Mosquitoes were a nuisance, but they could do a lot of damage.

Arthur obviously realized she wasn’t going to move. He killed the engine and jumped down from the cab of the tractor. “Hey, lady, you’ve got to move out of the way. I’ve been hired to cultivate this field.” He stopped a few feet from her. His eyes got big and round. “Ada?”

With some satisfaction, Ada saw a hint of hesitation in his eyes. Ada might be a skinny, averagely tall woman, but she had a bit of a reputation for being tough and putting people in their place. “This is my field, Arthur, and I have not given you permission to plow it.”

Arthur’s frown etched deep lines into his face. “Enos Hoover said you might say that, but he’s got the legal deed that says it’s his. You got no claim to it, and he’ll pay me an extra hundred dollars if I finish it by noon.”

How could Enos afford to pay Arthur extra for anything? “Enos is the one who’s wrong, and I won’t let you plow this field today or ever.”

Arthur took off his baseball hat and slapped it against his thigh. “I’m not going to argue with you. I got a job to do, and I want to get to it. I’m saving up for a new PlayStation.”

“I’m not moving, Arthur. You can just turn around and go right back to where you came from. PlayStation is a waste of a promising youth.”

Arthur must have seen his extra hundred dollars evaporating before his eyes. He stomped his foot and flung his hat to the dirt. “Move yourself and that tent right now or I’ll run you over,” he yelled.

Ada flinched but stood tall. She wasn’t about to back down just because she met with a little resistance from Arthur. She hadn’t expected this to be easy. Of course Arthur was going to yell and carry on. She just hadn’t counted on her heart beating seventy miles an hour or her mouth drying out like the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Standing her ground took more resolve than she thought. “Go to town and get a library card. It’s much more useful than a PlayStation.”

She could see the heat travel up Arthur’s neck. He stepped forward and got right up in her face, yelling as if he were fifty yards away. “I ain’t never hit a woman before, but I’m tempted to teach you a lesson right here and now.”

Ada’s heart stopped. Arthur had a bad temper, but he was young, immature, and harmless, wasn’t he? She’d told Joanna she was fighting for her land for the principle of the thing. Was she willing to take a punch on principle?

“Arthur, step back!”

Ada had never been so happy to see Enos in her life, which wasn’t very hard because she had never been happy to see him before. He came running from his side of the property and leaped the fence with a two-handed push off the top rail. He winced when he came down on the other side, but he didn’t slow down until he got to Ada. His eyebrows loomed over his face like two dark storm clouds. “Arthur, what do you think you’re doing? Back away.”

Arthur took two steps back and pointed at Ada, his face drenched with indignation. “She won’t get out of the way. What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to keep your head and keep your voice down. There’s no call ever to yell at a woman.”

Arthur seemed to get more angry instead of less. “She won’t get out of the way. Are you gonna make her move?”

Enos placed a firm hand on Arthur’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Arthur. I’ll take care of this.” He stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out some cash. “Here is the money I promised to pay you. You can go home, and I’ll contact you later.”

Arthur counted out the money in his hand, glanced at Ada, and walked back to his tractor. “Good luck, Enos. You’re gonna need it.”

Enos waved as Arthur started up his tractor and backed onto the road. Ada took her first real breath since Arthur had arrived. What would Arthur have done if Enos hadn’t arrived when he did? Would he have pulled her off the property by her hair? She was froh he hadn’t. She loved her hair. When she unpinned it, it went almost to her waist.

Enos gazed down the road, as if he hadn’t noticed Ada standing right next to him. “That was dumm ,” he said.

“I thought it was wonderful smart.” Ada’s knees suddenly felt like jelly, and she plopped ungracefully to the ground on her hinnerdale . Enos sucked in a breath and tried to catch her. He didn’t stop her descent but managed to grab her hand as she went down. His touch sent electricity all the way up her arm. She snatched her hand away.

Enos’s eyes flashed with irritation. “He could have hurt you.”

“Arthur? Ach , he’s harmless, like a big dog that barks at you but wouldn’t dare attack.”

“Even the friendliest dogs will bite if they’re provoked. Arthur really wanted that hundred dollars.” He folded his arms across his broad chest and peered at Ada’s tent. “I underestimated your stubbornness.”

“I underestimated your need to be right.”

“You probably mean my need to farm the land I paid for. All of the land.” He held out a shaky hand, and she reluctantly took it and let him help her up.

Why was he trembling? Had she scared him?

Ada brushed the dirt off her dress. “It doesn’t matter what the deed says, Enos. You heard my . . . Tyson Carruthers. The fence is the boundary by acquittal, and you have no right to the land on this side of it.”

“It’s acquiescence, and Tyson didn’t do enough research.”

“It seemed like a lot of research to me.”

“As soon as Tyson left, I went to the library in Monte Vista, and the nice lady at the front desk helped me look it up. The courts are divided as to when to recognize boundary by acquiescence.”

Ada grimaced. Enos sounded smarter than a lawyer. He certainly sounded smarter than Tyson Carruthers. “That’s just ridiculous.” And aggravating.

Enos pulled the familiar notepad from his pocket and thumbed through it. “I copied it down for just such a time as this. ‘ Neighbors Sarah Johnson and Marva Tonks went to court for a property dispute over a fence. A surveyor found that the Johnsons’ fence did in fact encroach on the Tonks’ property.’ ” He looked up. “Like your fence is encroaching on my property.”

Ada ground her teeth together and tried to act as if she didn’t care. “Such a big word.”

He didn’t even take a breath. “‘ The evidence at trial was utterly devoid of any proof that any predecessor-in-interest to the Johnsons ever acquiesced in the fence as representing the true property line between the two properties versus being a barrier. ’ ”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Neither do I, but the nice lady at the library said there is no proof that either property owner meant for the fence to represent the true property line. So my deed is the final word on who owns what.” He slid the notepad back into his pocket. “But it really was a nice try on your part.”

Ada caught her bottom lip between her teeth. She hated that Enos refused to surrender. But she wouldn’t surrender either, even if Enos had all the big words on his side. “Beth asked him to come.”

Enos wrapped his fingers around one of the tent poles. “Don’t you think it’s time to gracefully admit defeat?”

“You first” was all Ada could think to say.

His lips curled upward. “I like the tent. It shows commitment.”

“I’m not moving it. Our family had farmed this acreage for almost two decades. It doesn’t belong to you, Enos.”

“I have a deed that says it does.” He wiggled the tent pole back and forth. “It’s solid, but it won’t take but five minutes to pull it down.”

“Not if I’m inside it.”

His eyebrows traveled up his forehead, almost as if he was impressed with her determination. “You know I’ll just have Arthur come back as soon as you get tired of camping.”

“The planting season doesn’t last much longer. You’ll lose your window before I give up.”

He shrugged. “I can plant winter potatoes.”

Oh, sis yuscht . Enos knew about winter potatoes.

He walked around the tent as if inspecting it. “Are you sure you want to camp here for three whole months?” he said, unmistakable amusement in his voice. He thought she was bluffing.

Ada wanted to growl in frustration. She was bluffing. She couldn’t, just couldn’t live in a tent for three months. She’d be lucky to last a week. She needed her comfortable bed and running water, and Beth would either burn down the house, cause a flood, or neglect the toilets. Toxic mold would probably kill them all in their sleep.

Ada squared her shoulders and decided justice was worth risking toxic mold. “I’ll do it if I have to. It would be so much easier if you gracefully admitted defeat.”

“You first,” he said, his eyes dancing. That wasn’t quite the reaction she expected. He seemed too confident in his victory. He turned and walked toward his house. “The water is coming down the ditch in four days. I hope you have a waterproof sleeping bag.”

Ach , du lieva ! Enos Hoover was the most aggravating, horrible man in the whole world.

Maybe Gotte would take pity on her and smite Enos with a nasty rash.