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

Chapter 7

A car rolled down the road and disturbed Ada’s fitful dream in which Enos stood outside the tent and splashed cold water in her face. She groaned, rolled over, and tried desperately to go back to sleep. It should have been easy considering how little she’d slept last night. She burrowed into her sleeping bag and held perfectly still, trying to imagine what it would feel like to have warm feet. She couldn’t remember ever having warm feet.

She gasped when something small and creepy crawled across her face. Squealing, she slapped her own cheek and jumped out of her sleeping bag so fast, she turned it inside-out. Tripping over her own feet, she fell to the ground with a very unattractive thud, and pain rippled up her arm and into her shoulder. Ach , it had only taken one night in the tent to remind her how much she hated camping. She hated the dirt and the bugs and the lack of toilets. She hated the spooky sounds in the middle of the night and the wind that howled like a lonesome child.

Enos thought he was going to outlast her, and there was no reason to think he wouldn’t. He slept in a nice warm house in a bed with sheets and pillows, and his bathroom was just sitting there anytime he wanted to use it. He didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night and hike to Ada’s house to use the toilet. His feet didn’t feel like ice cubes, even wearing a thick pair of socks. Ach , vell , Enos only had one foot, so Ada stopped feeling sorry for herself and said a prayer of thanks that she had two.

Yesterday, after Ada had stopped Arthur from plowing the field, Enos had left her and gone to do other work on his own farm. She had eaten one of her chicken salad sandwiches and sneaked home to use the bathroom. Then she’d spent the rest of the day reading and spying on Enos.

He certainly was a hard worker. He had painted two sides of his house, mucked out the old shed that he used as a barn, fed and watered his horse, sharpened his tools, and prepared the fields where he was going to plant alfalfa.

At dinnertime, Beth had brought Ada some stew and a thick slice of bread. Ada had baked the bread before she’d set up camp, but Beth had made the stew all by herself. It was runny and the beef was tough, but she had been so proud of it, Ada hadn’t had the heart to tell her what to do differently next time. Beth had also brought Ada a flashlight, which Ada used to finish one of the books that Beth had given her. Aggravatingly enough, Ada hadn’t been able to put it down. It had cowboys and stagecoaches and thieves and even a shootout where the hero saved Liza, the woman he loved, and they lived happily ever after. Ada would never in a million years tell Beth or Cathy or anyone else that she had enjoyed a romance book.

Last night had been rough. Ada hadn’t slept more than an hour at a stretch, and her sleep hadn’t been very deep. Her commitment to her principles was wearing thin after just one night. She’d have to come up with another plan. Three more days and her tent would be flooded with irrigation water anyway.

She heard the soft thud of horse hooves in the dirt and something scraping against the hard dirt. What was happening out there? Was Enos up to no good? If he was, she couldn’t be lollygagging in her tent. She’d hate it if her camping sacrifice went to waste.

Ada quickly fashioned her hair into a bun at the back of her head and put on a bandanna. She stepped into her flip-flops and unzipped her tent door. She had slept in her dress because she didn’t want to get caught dressing and undressing in the great outdoors. There was only so much she was willing to do.

She paused to tidy her sleeping bag, turning it right side out, zipping it up, and pushing out the air pockets before rolling it neatly into a cylinder. She tied a perfect bow with the string and propped her sleeping bag against the wall of the tent. Then she took her small shop broom and swept the floor. She might be camping in a field, but there was no reason to be messy.

When she’d finished cleaning, she stepped out of the tent and zipped it closed. It was still quite dark outside, but the eastern sky was tinged light pink. About thirty feet down the fence line past her tent, Enos was guiding a team of using horses behind a tine harrow. What? Where had he gotten the horses? Was he going to ready the soil and plant potatoes the hard way? With only one foot? Unlike the tractor and cultivator, the tine harrow was plenty narrow to get past her tent without plowing her under, but it was sure a whole lot more work. Here in Colorado where the ground was rocky and the water was scarce, the bishop approved gas-powered machinery for preparing, planting, and harvesting the crops. Some of the Amish still farmed with horses, but most rented equipment every year. It made farming so much easier.

Ada growled under her breath. No one made her blood boil like Enos Hoover did.

She jogged after the horses, tripping over dirt clods and collecting goat’s heads in the soft rubber of her flip-flops. “Enos Hoover, what do you think you are doing?”

Enos pulled back on the reins and turned as if he’d been expecting her. “I’ve got to get this field plowed and planted before my water turn, and I can’t use a tractor because there’s a tent in the way.”

“Don’t you care that you are going to die of exhaustion before you get all the potatoes in the ground?”

A smile played at his lips. What was so funny? “Don’t you care that you are going to get eaten by a coyote or trampled by a herd of cattle?”

“I won’t get trampled. Cattle do not roam the pastures at night looking for victims.”

“But there are coyotes out there. Cathy told me one of them attacked your niece last year.”

Ada frowned. That was a very bad memory. “Clay says the tent is coyote-proof.”

Enos arched an eyebrow. “We’d all feel wonderful bad if he is wrong about that. And I’d rather not find your mangled body on my property tomorrow morning.”

“You wouldn’t find it on your property. You’d find it on my property.”

“That makes me feel a whole lot better.” He took a deep breath. “Look, Ada. Camping is hard. It’s uncomfortable. It’s dirty and dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“You might be bitten by a tick and get Lyme disease. And we’ve already discussed the coyotes. I would feel terrible if you got hurt or sick or attacked.”

He was being sincere, and Ada wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. A warm, mushy spot grew right in the middle of her chest, while at the same time, her heart thumped against her rib cage like a bass drum. He was so concerned, she certainly didn’t want to argue with him, and she’d rather do just about anything than stay in that tent for one more night.

Then again, what would happen to the principle of the thing if she gave up after just one night? Then again, Enos had found a way to plant his potatoes anyway, even though the back-breaking work was going to kill him. Then again, Ada’s stubborn determination might still convince Enos to surrender.

“I’m going to plant this field whether you’re camping here or not, so you might as well go home and sleep in a warm bed. You don’t want those dark circles under your eyes to get any bluer.”

Ada pressed her finger to the skin underneath her eye. “I do not have dark circles.”

“You do. It doesn’t make you any less pretty, but it’s a sign of poor sleep and failing health.”

Had he just told her she was pretty? She shoved that comment to the back of her brain. This was no time to get distracted. “I’m thirty-two years old, Enos. I am not in failing health.”

“You will be if you persist in sleeping in a tent much longer.”

She turned her face to the sunrise, drinking in the pinks and purples and oranges that painted a picture of light behind the mountains. “If you promise not to move my tent while I go home and shower, I will make you a strong cup of kaffee and a pancake.”

“Ada, didn’t you hear a word I just said?”

“Do you promise?”

He looked at her as if his patience was hanging by a thread. “I won’t move your tent right now, but you shouldn’t sleep here tonight.”

She was already halfway across the field. “I need time to think.”

She heard his growl of frustration even from a hundred feet away.

Pepper and the goats greeted Ada as she opened the gate that separated the backyard from Dat’s newly tilled fields. Smiley jumped up and down as if she were on a pogo stick, and Pepper barked and wagged his tail, begging to be played with. Ada gave Pepper some love, then patted each of the goats on the head. For sure and certain Beth hadn’t milked them yet. Ada would have to do it before she went back to the tent.

The smell of burned toast met her nose as she came through the back door. Dat sat at the table reading the newspaper with a piece of charred bread sitting on a plate in front of him. Beth was standing at the counter with her back to Ada, her hair covered with a blue bandanna, Ada’s favorite apron around her waist.

Beth turned and bloomed into a smile, clapping her hands as if Ada only came to visit on holidays. There was a brown smudge on her cheek and a series of tiny red specks on her forehead. “Ada, have you come home for gute ? You didn’t last very long.”

“ Nae , I’m going back.”

Dat nodded. “I knew Enos Hoover couldn’t break you that easily.”

Enos could never break Ada, but camping might. “I just need to shower. And I can milk the goats before I leave.”

“ Ach , I already milked them.” Beth’s face turned a light shade of pink. “I spilled the whole bucket of milk on my way into the house, but I know what I did wrong and won’t be so clumsy again.” She motioned toward the table. “Sit down. I’m making eggs, if you want some. Would you like me to make you a piece of toast? I burned Dat’s a little, but I know what I did wrong. I won’t leave it on the skillet so long this time.”

Oh, dear. How much longer before the house burned down?

Dat winked at Beth and picked up his blackened piece of toast. “Just the way I like it.”

“ Nae , Beth, denki .” Ada pointed to Beth’s forehead. The red spots didn’t look exactly like a rash, but Ada couldn’t be sure. “What happened?”

Beth grabbed the edge of her apron and dabbed at her forehead. “ Ach , the bottle of ketchup spit on me when I opened it. I wiped up the counter but forgot to do my face. Lord willing, the towel won’t stain.”

Lord willing, there would still be a house to come back to when Ada moved out of her tent. Perhaps that should be today.

Beth studied Ada’s face and seemed to lose some of her enthusiasm. “I really don’t think the towel will stain, and the ketchup came off the walls just fine.”

“Of course it won’t stain,” Dat said. “That’s what bleach is for.”

What did Dat know about bleach? He’d never done a batch of laundry in his life. Was Ada the only one who cared about the farm and the house and the family? She was even willing to camp out in the field to save her farm. Nobody else in the room would do that.

Ada bit down on her tongue and tried for a smile. Enos had called her pretty, and she’d rather not get premature frown lines. “The towel will be fine. Next time, open it more carefully.”

“ Ach , I will. I know what I did wrong, and I won’t do it again.” Beth opened the fridge. “Look what I made.” She pulled out a blob of something wrapped in Ada’s special cheese paper. Beaming, she handed it to Ada. “Open it.”

Ada carefully peeled back the paper, revealing a lumpy, mushy log of cheese dusted with a reddish powder. “Oh, look at that,” she said, trying harder than she’d ever tried to put some enthusiasm in her voice.

Beth clapped her hands. “I know. I crushed some of our freeze-dried raspberries and rolled the cheese in it. It doesn’t look as smooth and neat as your cheese logs, but it tastes appeditlich . I’m going to ask Cathy to take it to Le Chez today.”

Freeze-dried raspberries? What was Beth thinking?

That was the problem. Beth didn’t think. She certainly had no business making goat cheese. If Cathy took that ugly log of cheese to Le Chez, the restaurant would never buy goat cheese from her again. “Beth, I know you want to help.”

“I really do.”

Ada took a deep breath. “But please don’t make any cheese unless I’m here to supervise.”

Beth’s smile sputtered and then went out, like a candle in the rain. “You don’t care if Joanna makes cheese by herself.”

“Joanna has more experience.”

“How can I get experience if you don’t let me do it? I have some gute ideas. Joanna wouldn’t have thought of raspberry dust on the cheese.”

Nae , she wouldn’t have. “I know I’m camping for a few days, but I just need to be here when you make cheese. I know what they want at Le Chez, and it’s not raspberry dust. Please don’t let Cathy take that cheese to them. We’ll just eat that batch on toast or something.”

It was as if she’d sucked all the light out of Beth’s life. “I’m useless around here. I’m not gute at anything, and you don’t trust me.”

“I . . . I trust you, Beth,” Ada said, hoping she didn’t sound insincere. She couldn’t think of one thing around the house or farm she trusted Beth to do. She glanced at Dat. He’d lifted the newspaper in front of his face. He was staying out of it.

Beth folded her arms and peered at Ada resentfully. “Really? Name one thing.”

Oh, sis yuscht . “Well.” Ada wanted to kick herself. Surely Beth sensed the hesitation in her voice. “You’re gute at milking the goats.”

Beth’s lower lips trembled. “I can’t be as perfect as you are, Ada.”

“I’m not perfect.”

“I don’t know why I even try. You don’t approve of anything I do because you can do everything better. I’m completely worthless in this family.”

Dat lowered his paper. “That’s not true, Beth. We would never have any fun if it weren’t for you. Isn’t that right, Ada?”

“That’s right. You’re a lot of fun, Beth.” Everything sounded hollow coming out of her mouth. She should probably just stop talking so she wouldn’t have to lie. “I need to go take a shower and go back or Enos might take down my tent.” He’d promised not to, but Ada needed an excuse to get out of here.

Beth nodded, her gaze to the floor, her hands clasped in front of her.

It was all Ada could do to keep from reminding Beth not to sell that cheese to Le Chez, but she couldn’t bear to see that wounded look in Beth’s eyes again. Surely Beth understood.

Ada ran upstairs, showered, and put on a clean dress. She quickly swirled the toilet wand in the toilet bowl before going down to the kitchen. Beth and Dat were at the table eating eggs. Beth was picking at hers, and Dat was shoveling in hardy bites, probably to get them over with. Without a word, Ada filled their old percolator with water. She grabbed mugs and kaffee , supplies to make pancakes, and two paper plates and put them all in her sturdy canvas bag. She’d have to bring everything back and wash it once she was through, but there was nothing else she could do. Camping was so inconvenient.

“See you soon,” she called as she walked out the back door.

“Be safe,” Dat said.

Beth didn’t respond.

When Ada approached her tent with her breakfast supplies, her heart sank. Tabitha was standing in the field yelling at Enos. They were too far away for Ada to understand much of what Tabitha said, but Ada could hear words like Pennsylvania and honor your mother and love and you’re an embarrassment . Enos held onto the reins and patted his lead horse’s neck, all the while replying to his mater with soft, calming tones that Ada couldn’t understand and seemed to have no effect on Tabitha.

Ada just couldn’t stomach the abuse. She set her bag on the ground next to the tent and marched toward Tabitha and Enos, practicing her friendly face as she got closer. “Tabitha, Enos, I’m making pancakes and kaffee over a fire this morning. Would you care to join me?”

Tabitha turned her glare on Ada. “You’re my only hope, Ada. Dig up his seeds. Burn down his shed. Sow weeds over the ground. I don’t care what you do as long as you convince my stubborn, ungrateful son to leave Colorado. There is nothing for me here.” She turned on her heels and hobbled away, stabbing her cane into the freshly tilled earth with every step.

Once again, Enos seemed more embarrassed and concerned for Ada than he did for himself. “I’m sorry about that. She’s just . . . It’s going to take some time for her to adjust.”

Ada had a feeling that Tabitha wouldn’t adjust even if she had a hundred years. She tamped down her churning emotions because Enos didn’t need her pity, her disgust, or her outrage. “She’s right about one thing. You are stubborn.”

His shoulders seemed to relax. “As if you don’t have the same character flaw.”

She scoffed. “It’s not a character flaw. It’s my best quality.”

“You can try to talk yourself into that if it makes you feel better.”

She pointed to the tent. “Do you want to give the horses a break and join me for a cup of kaffee and some chocolate chip pancakes?”

“Chocolate chip pancakes? That sounds more like a dessert than a healthy breakfast.”

Ada nodded. “It is.”

“Are you trying to soften me up so I won’t plow your field?”

“So, you admit it’s my field.”

His eyebrow twitched upward. “ Ach , nae . It’s definitely my field.”

“Okay then,” Ada said. “I’m trying to fatten you up so you won’t be able to plow my field.”

“You’d have to feed me a lot of pancakes.”

“I know. Fattening you up is going to be impossible. You’ll work yourself to skin and bone no matter what I feed you.”

He turned his face away and ran his hand down the horse’s neck. “Do I detect a bit of concern in your voice?”

He’d heard that? Ada gave him her best, sourest look. “Only concern for myself. I don’t want to have to drag your dead body off my field one day.”

“It’s more likely I’ll have to drag your dead body off my field one day. I don’t wonder but camping will kill you.”

“I’m tougher than that.”

“ Ach , you’re plenty strong. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. But you’re also organized, tidy, and very responsible. You like strict schedules and sanitary conditions. Camping doesn’t suit you.”

Ada wasn’t fooled. It was Enos who was trying to soften her up now. The strongest woman he’d ever met ? Ha! “You must be getting desperate to stoop to flattery.”

“I don’t believe in flattery.”

She didn’t feel so tough when he looked at her like that. She felt like a bowl of warm chocolate syrup. And she had to put a stop to it. “So, do you want chocolate chip pancakes or not?”

“Give me a minute to unhitch the horses and take them to water.”

Ada didn’t know why, but she was more than pleased. She practically floated back to the tent and built a fire a few feet away. She mixed the pancake batter using some water from the percolator, then she heated the skillet and the percolator over the fire. Pancakes from scratch were better than a mix, but in the great outdoors she had to be practical. She sprinkled some chocolate chips into the pancake batter then poured four batter circles onto the skillet. Steam rose from the pancakes and filled her nose with the earthy smell of cracked wheat and buttermilk.

Ada reached into her bag for some paper plates and a spatula, froh that it was large enough to hold everything she needed to make breakfast. She’d brought half the kitchen with her. She turned the pancakes, then measured kaffee grounds into the percolator.

Enos came tromping toward Ada, two camping chairs slung over his shoulder. Sometimes his limp was noticeable, sometimes she could barely see it. His stride was powerful and steady, as if no obstacle could stop him once he set his mind in the direction he wanted to go. Ada couldn’t look away, which was a bad thing because she needed to pay better attention to her pancakes. She cleared her throat, remembered to breathe, and slid her four pancakes off the skillet and onto the paper plate, then poured more batter on the skillet.

“I’ve never seen such perfectly round pancakes,” Enos said, setting the two camp chairs on the ground.

“I can also make alphabet pancakes in the shape of the first letter of your name.” She pointed to the camp chairs. “That was very thoughtful of you.”

Enos slid the first camp chair out of its bag and set it up. “ Ach , vell , if we sit on the ground, we’ll pack down the soil I just pulled up. I’d rather not make more work for myself.”

Ada wouldn’t let him get away with that. “Why don’t you want anyone to know what a kind, considerate person you are?”

He concentrated very hard on setting up the other camp chair. “Because I’m not.”

“That’s just silly, Enos Hoover. You came running like a madman when I nearly fell off my irrigation system. You paid Arthur Tripp even though he didn’t do a thing, and you stopped him from yelling at me when I’m sure you wanted to yell at me yourself.”

Enos swiped his hand across his mouth, but he couldn’t hide the faint smile on his lips. “I didn’t want him to wake the neighbors.”

She handed him a mug and poured him some kaffee . “And you’re concerned about my health.”

He cracked a genuine smile. “I don’t want to have to drag your dead body off my property. It’s not the same thing.”

“I see how you treat your mater , even when she calls you terrible names. It seems you don’t have a vindictive or unkind bone in your body.”

His face hardened like cement. “She’s just having a hard time with the altitude.”

Ada couldn’t fault him for wanting to defend his mater , but she also couldn’t stand seeing how cruel Tabitha was to her son. “You’ve told me it’s none of my business, but I hate that she treats you that way. She calls you ungrateful, but she’s the ungrateful one. You give her a place to live and take care of her. If it were me, I’d take her back to Pennsylvania so you can have some peace.”

He gazed into the distance, taking a slow sip of kaffee . Had she made him angry? Ach , vell , Ada wasn’t one to shy away from a hard conversation. He needed to hear what he wouldn’t admit. “You feel the same way,” he said softly. “Mamm expresses it more loudly, but don’t you hate me too?”

“Does your mater hate you?”

“ Jah ,” he said.

Ada had never heard so much pain in a single word. “I don’t hate you.”

He pressed his lips into a rigid line. “But you want me to pack up and go back to Pennsylvania.”

Ada found it almost impossible to breathe. “I don’t want you to go.”

He studied her face as if trying to decide if she was telling the truth. “I . . . I don’t want to go either.”

The words hung in the air like the sweet scent of cherry blossoms.

Enos propped his elbows on his knees. Ada’s heart did a somersault at his closeness. “I’m sorry if my mater ’s behavior hurts you.”

“It hurts me because it hurts you.”

That seemed to surprise him. “ Ach , vell , don’t be concerned on my account. Her words don’t hurt me anymore. They used to hurt, but I’ve grown numb to them. Like losing my foot. I don’t even notice it’s gone anymore, except when the weather turns humid. I’m sorry that her behavior makes other people uncomfortable.”

“It does. Can’t she see it?”

“My mater has never been able to see it. All she knows is that she’s unhappy and that her life is not the way she wants it to be, so she yells and carries on and ignores how she hurts other people. She’s mad about being here. She’s mad that I came out here this morning to plow the field. She thinks the more improvements I make on the farm, the less likely it is I’ll take her back to Pennsylvania. She doesn’t understand that I’m never going back. And she can’t go back either.”

“Why?”

Enos settled in his chair, a little less tense and a little less guarded. “ Ach , so many reasons.”

“And you’re going to tell me it’s none of my business.”

“Well, you made me a delicious cup of kaffee and chocolate chip pancakes. I guess I owe you an explanation.”

“You don’t owe me anything, and you haven’t tasted the pancakes yet.” She handed him a plate and set two pancakes on it, then passed him a fork and the syrup. “And I’ve burned the next four.” Growling, she picked up the spatula and flipped the hard, dark brown discs into the fire. “These are your fault. You distracted me.”

“I don’t know how I distracted you. I’m just sitting here.”

Ada wasn’t about to tell him that his mere presence made her heart sing five tunes at the same time. She poured more batter onto the skillet, this time forming the pancakes into an A and an E . “This always makes die kinner happy.”

His usually solemn expression gave way to a boyish grin. “This is a sure sign you don’t hate me. If you hated me, you wouldn’t go to all this trouble to write an E in pancake batter.”

Ada laughed so hard she snorted. “It’s not all that much trouble, and I’m trying to butter you up so you’ll spill all your secrets.”

“I don’t have all that many secrets, and I certainly don’t have any interesting ones. You’ve gone to all this trouble for nothing.” He poured syrup on his pancakes and took a bite. “This is very gute , but I got a little dirt with my first bite. That happens when you’re camping.”

“Don’t bother trying to talk me out of camping. I already know how much I hate it.” She took a bite of her pancake. It was delicious. She hated to admit it, but there was something extra tasty about food cooked over a campfire. She pulled the E and the A off the skillet and set the E on Enos’s plate. It was a perfect golden brown. “I can think of one interesting secret you have. How did you lose your foot?”

“That’s more gory than interesting. My two bruderen and I were baling hay with my dat , and my leg somehow got caught in the pickup cylinder. It crushed every bone in my foot. There was nothing they could do but cut it off.”

“ Ach . That’s terrible.”

“I was six years old.” He grew unbearably serious. “My mamm says it was a punishment from Gotte for disobedience.”

“Surely you know that’s not true. You were practically a baby.”

He scrubbed his hand down the side of his face, and his frown went all the way to his toes. “I wasn’t the one who disobeyed my dat . My oldest bruder , Zeb, has a mean streak, and he shoved me toward the hay baler as a joke. He didn’t mean for me to get hurt, but he meant to scare me.”

Ada’s heart ached picturing Enos as a little boy in such excruciating pain. “It must have felt like a betrayal.”

“I suppose, but I was young. I probably couldn’t have put it into those words.”

“I’m sorry.”

Enos took a deep breath. “When Mamm was in labor with me, there were complications, and they had to do emergency surgery to save her life. She was never able to have more children, and she just became more and more bitter. She took her resentment out on me, I guess because once I lost my foot, she thought I was defective and not worthy of her love. I am the reason she couldn’t try again for more babies. Zeb is her favorite. She believes he can do no wrong, always has. Zeb felt smothered, and I sometimes wonder if he married Lilith so young just so he could get out of the house. Mamm liked John too, though she didn’t dote on him the way she did Zeb. Dat tried his best to soften Mamm’s bitterness toward me. He took me to physical therapy and paid for a prosthetic foot. He stood up for me whenever Mamm was mean, but he was always very kind, no matter if Mamm yelled at me or him. He gave me an example of how to treat someone who doesn’t treat you well in return.”

Ada blinked back hot tears. No matter how sad Enos’s story was, she would not cry. He wouldn’t appreciate her pity. “How can you stand it, Enos? It would be impossible for me to love someone who treated me so badly. I would have left her in Pennsylvania and said good riddance. And that probably makes me a horrible person.”

His lips curled upward. “We all should be so horrible.” He picked up his E and took a bite. “Who knows what you would do in my shoes? But Jesus was able to love everyone, even his enemies, even the men who crucified him. He would want me to try to love my mater as He loves her. ‘But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.’”

Ada shook her head in bewilderment. “I can see why you’ve got that one memorized.”

“I recite it to myself while I plow. And paint. And water the horses.”

She widened her eyes in mock amazement. “You’d probably be taken right straight to heaven if you weren’t trying to steal my six acres. Why didn’t you leave her in Pennsylvania with Zeb or John? It’s the only thing she wants.”

“Well, that’s the tricky part. Zeb and John won’t have her.”

“They . . . won’t have her?”

“Zeb got the farm when Dat died. It’s almost a hundred acres. John built a house right next to Zeb, and they farm the land together.” Enos threw his plate into the fire and stood up as if he couldn’t contain his agitation. “The plain truth of it is, they and their sons can work the land without me, and they don’t want me included because I would spread the profits too thin.”

Ada couldn’t wrap her head around such selfishness. “That’s terrible!”

He nodded in resignation. “It is terrible, but it’s just the way things are. I can kick against the pricks, or I can try to make the best of it.”

“I would kick against the pricks.”

“ Jah . I know you would. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

She grunted. “I bet it is.”

“When Dat died, I could see how my bruderen were going to squeeze me out of the farm, so I started looking for land in the west. It’s cheap, and I wanted to make a fresh start somewhere out from under the shadow of my bruderen and my mater . Zeb is the oldest. I thought he should be the one take care of Mamm. That was one of the reasons Dat left him the farm.”

“ Jah ,” Ada said. “He’s the birthright son.”

Enos looked impressed. “That’s right. The birthright son gets more so he can take care of his family after the fater dies. But Zeb wouldn’t have it. One night, he and Lilith and John and Ardy sat me down and told me that when I left Pennsylvania, I would be taking Mamm with me. Lilith can’t abide my mater ’s temper, and when my mater walks into John’s house, Ardy gets so anxious she can’t breathe. Lilith told Zeb that she would leave him if he let Mamm stay. She threatened to take die kinner and go live with her parents in Mount Hope, and she meant every word. She hates my mater that much.”

“ Ach , du lieva . I’m ashamed to admit it, but I can understand why she feels that way, but still, it’s very harsh.”

Cathy Larsen had known. No girl in her right mind would want that woman for a mother-in-law. She’s a piece of work.

Enos stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Maybe Ardy would have given in if John had put his foot down, but he and Zeb were fed up with my mater ’s temper and her meddling and the destructive way she talks to their children. They were sure she would ruin their happiness, and they were probably right.”

Ada was very indignant on Enos’s behalf. “But they were perfectly content to let her ruin your happiness.”

He nodded slowly. “They’ve never cared about my feelings.”

“Yet you still did what they wanted.”

“Mamm has two friends in Bird-in-Hand, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t let her live with them. Doing the gute deed fell to me.”

“Enos, a gute deed is helping an old lady load her groceries into her buggy. What you’re doing is not a gute deed. It is a life-changing, life-giving gift to your mater , even though she can’t begin to appreciate it.”

He held up his hand. “Please don’t say anything to her.”

That was exactly what Ada wanted to do. Tabitha needed to know what her least favorite son had done for her because her favorite son would not. “I . . . I won’t say anything. Of course I won’t.”

“It would crush her to know that Zeb and John don’t want her. She would never recover from the blow.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I left that to Zeb and John. I refused to make excuses for them. They told her there was no room, no place for her to stay, that Ardy’s health wasn’t good, and Lilith’s mater was going to move in with them eventually. They told her that I couldn’t manage on my own and that if she wanted people to think she was a gute mater , she would come with me and help me get settled in my new place. She didn’t want to budge, but when Zeb bought her a bus ticket and a new suitcase, she realized he was serious. They truly did want to spare her feelings, but unfortunately, they made the move sound temporary, and she wants to go back immediately. I think maybe deep down she knows why she’s here with me instead of in Pennsylvania, and she doesn’t want to face it. So she uses me as the scapegoat and feels justified in abusing me and calling me names.”

“ Ach , it must be a wretched way to live, always thinking the worst of the people who love you most, always looking for reasons to be miserable instead of trying to be happy.”

Enos clasped his hands behind his back. “That’s why I don’t send her back or scold her for yelling at me. She makes herself more miserable than anyone else ever could. It wouldn’t matter if I moved her back to Pennsylvania tomorrow. She would still be utterly miserable. She’d just have a different set of people to blame. I rather let her blame me than let my bruderen and their wives hurt her. She thinks Zeb can do no wrong. I’d like her to keep on believing that. Her love for him is the only thing that makes her happy. The only thing that gives her hope. She has been a hard, uncompassionate mater , but she gave me life and I still owe her everything for that. I want her last years to be happy, with fond memories, not tainted by the fact that my bruderen hate her. That knowledge would break her.”

Enos was a gute , decent man, and his gute heart put Ada to shame. But why was sparing Tabitha’s feelings more important than Enos’s happiness? Ada couldn’t believe Gotte would require such a sacrifice. “I’m sorry, Enos. Gotte said, ‘For I know the plansI have for you. Plans to prosperyou and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future . ’”

“I’m impressed you have that memorized.”

“I stitched it on a pillow once. It means Gotte thinks you deserve better.”

He squatted next to the fire and set another log on the pile. “Do I? I am nothing, Ada. I have no worldly possessions, no one who cares about me, no reason to expect anything better. Why do I deserve more than Gotte has allotted to me?”

“Because.” Ada let the words fall out of her mouth, not even trying to pull them back. “I care about you.”

His eyes filled with profound confusion and disbelief. “Why?”

His look was too intense, and her feelings were too muddled. Why had she said such a foolish, sentimental thing? She cleared her throat. “I . . . care because who would I argue with if you weren’t around to test my patience? How could I practice forgiveness without having someone I needed to forgive every day? How could I hone my camping skills if your stubborn claim to my land didn’t force me to camp?”

He casually warmed his hands by the fire, but she could tell he was as uncomfortable as she was. She had made things very awkward between them. There was only one thing to do. She stood up, ducked into the tent, and grabbed one of the cardboard boxes. When she came back out, she shoved a roasting stick into his hand. “Who else would roast marshmallows with me at eight o’clock in the morning?”

“I don’t want to roast marshmallows.”

“That’s too bad, because the only gute reason to camp is the roasted marshmallows. You wouldn’t want to disappoint me, would you?”

He stopped looking at her as if she had some dread disease. That was progress. “Do you have graham crackers and chocolate?”

“ Nae . The only way to eat a roasted marshmallow is right off the stick when it’s golden brown. You can’t taint it with chocolate and graham crackers.”

His mouth tilted into a smile. “I like banana boats.”

“Banana boats? Never heard of them.”

“You’ve never heard of banana boats? No wonder you hate to camp. You cut a long V out of a banana, load it with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, wrap it in tinfoil, and heat it over the coals. It is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”

Ada wasn’t convinced. “You think these banana boats will make me like camping?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

Ada slid a marshmallow onto his stick, then one onto hers. Enos shoved his marshmallow into the flame, and it caught fire immediately. “What are you doing! That is no way to treat a marshmallow.”

Enos lifted his stick and blew out the marshmallow fire. “This is the way I like them.” He gingerly slid the black marshmallow off his stick and popped it into his mouth. “ Dericious ,” he said, his mouth full of ash.

Ada shook her head in disgust. “ Nae , nae . You’re doing it wrong.” She squatted near the fire and nudged her marshmallow near the glowing coals. “Let me keep you from making a horrible mistake.” Ada slowly turned her stick, so the marshmallow was evenly golden brown on all sides. She lifted the stick toward Enos. “Now, gently pull the roasted part of the marshmallow off the squishy insides.”

“Like taking the skin off a sausage.”

“Nothing like that.”

Enos did as he was told, stuffing Ada’s masterpiece into his mouth and flashing her a tentative smile.

Ada nodded, giving him encouragement for correctly following directions. “Now I’ll roast the next layer.” She bent down and roasted the tender insides of the marshmallow. “This way, you get the roasted flavor all the way down to the center. It’s the only way to eat a marshmallow.”

Once the second layer of the marshmallow was golden brown, she pointed her roasting stick at Enos, and he slid the whole thing off and ate it. “It’s very gute ,” he said, “but not worth the time. I could have plowed half a row in the time it took to cook that marshmallow.”

Ada eyed him teasingly. “That’s my strategy. To waste all your time roasting marshmallows.”

He tapped his roasting stick against his pants leg. “You sure went to a lot of work for ten minutes of my time.”

“I’m very dedicated when I set my mind to it.”

Enos chuckled. “ Ach , vell . I don’t regret it. It’s very pleasant wasting my time with you.”

Enos’s completely unexpected reaction knocked Ada off-kilter. Her face burned hotter than one of Enos’s burnt marshmallows. Enos stared faithfully into the fire, as if realizing that he was the one who’d made things awkward this time.

It was time to get back to safer ground, ground where Enos was scowling at her, and she was chastising him for trying to steal her land. “I’m going to sit here all morning and roast and eat marshmallows until I get sick. Would you care to join me?”

He cleared his throat. “I’d better get back to the field or I’ll be working past midnight.”

Ada gave him an arch, just-you-try-to-stop-me look. “No need to put the camp chairs away. I’m camping out another night.”