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

Chapter 11

E nos stood and threw his empty water bottle and his napkin in the garbage bag Cathy had tied to a camp chair. “Thank you for the sandwich, Cathy. Thank you for feeding everybody today.”

Cathy lounged in her deluxe camp chair, complete with cup holder, tote, and footrest, wearing her sunglasses and bright pink sweatshirt. She waved away Enos’s gratitude. “No need to thank me. I didn’t do much but drive the food here.” She pointed to Esther and Mary. “Mary felt much better this morning, so she and Esther made all the sandwiches. It was Ada’s idea to feed everybody lunch. You’ve all been working very hard out there.”

Enos’s eyes flashed with the intensity he’d shown right before he’d kissed her this morning. Ada pressed her lips together to keep from smiling at the memory. “Thank you, all,” he said, his gaze riveted to Ada’s face. “My throat is going to get sore from all the thanks I need to express. I just can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me today.”

Mary, Esther, and Cathy had arrived almost an hour ago with the prepared sandwiches, assorted bags of chips, and a case of bottled water to feed the men who were helping plant Enos’s field. Ada and Beth and Sadie Sensenig had spent the morning planting the seed potatoes and covering them with muck and dirt. Sadie was a little too chatty for Ada’s liking, but she was also a cheerful and hard worker, and she knew everything there was to know about planting potatoes. Ada would take Sadie’s help anytime.

“It looks like you’re making great progress,” Esther said, holding little Benny on her lap while trying to feed him some baby food.

Enos seemed reluctant to take his eyes off Ada. “Thanks to Levi and Clay and the others.”

Sadie sat in one of the camp chairs feeding cheese puffs to Junior. “My whole life is potatoes. I can plant them with my eyes closed.”

Enos brushed his hands down his trousers. “I need to get back to the field. Lord willing, we’ll be done planting hours before sunset.” Uncertainty pinched at his mouth. “Ada, will you see if my mamm might like something to eat?”

A heaviness of knowing settled between them. Ada didn’t want to talk to Tabitha any more than Enos wanted Tabitha to talk to her, but Ada knew her Christian duty. “I will see if she’d like a sandwich.”

Enos nodded, a thousand pounds of gratitude in that small gesture. “ Denki . I’ve got to get back.” He jogged around the side of the house and disappeared.

Esther smoothed her hand down little Benny’s hair and glanced at Ada. “Who’s going to knock on the door?”

Cathy folded her arms as if settling into her chair for a long winter. “Not me. I don’t have the stomach for it today.”

Beth and Sadie looked at each other as if expecting the other one to volunteer. “I’d do it,” Sadie said, “but Enos’s mamm doesn’t even know me. She might think I’m trying to kidnap her or something.”

“I’ll go,” Ada said. Tabitha knew her best, and she had a thick skin where Tabitha was concerned. She ambled up the porch steps and knocked loudly on Enos’s door.

It took Tabitha almost a full minute to answer. She stared at Ada from behind the screen. “You’re doing a terrible job of getting rid of Enos.”

“Tabitha, we made sandwiches. The men just finished eating. We thought you might like to come outside and eat with us.”

Tabitha peered out the screen door. “That woman out there called me a hypocrite. If she goes away, I’ll come out.”

Tabitha didn’t know how hard it was to get Ada to back down. “Cathy is not leaving, so you can either come out and abide her presence, or I can bring you a sandwich you can eat in the house.”

Tabitha thought about it so long, Ada wondered if maybe she’d fallen asleep standing up. “I refuse to sit by her.”

“We have plenty of camp chairs set up. You can sit where you want.”

“What kind of sandwiches do you have?”

“Chicken salad.”

“With grapes?”

“ Jah ,” Ada said. “They’re very gute .”

“At least someone knows how to make a proper chicken salad sandwich.” To Ada’s surprise, Tabitha grabbed her black coat from the hook and picked up her cane propped by the door. “You’re going to have to help me down the stairs. Enos purposefully bought a house with stairs because he wants to make things as hard on me as possible.”

“Have you ever considered that Enos is doing his best to be a gute son?”

Tabitha sniffed. “A gute son would take me back to Pennsylvania and not make me live in the desert. My skin is drying up like a prune.”

Ada wanted to point out that if Tabitha stopped puckering her lips in a sour expression, she’d look less like a prune. Instead, she offered her arm and ignored Tabitha’s complaints. Ada suspected that Enos did much the same thing all the time. There was no arguing with Tabitha, and Ada would not give Tabitha any power over her feelings. It had been a perfectly wunderbarr day, and Ada intended to keep it that way.

They hobbled down the steps and over to the little circle of chairs where Esther, Beth, Sadie, Mary, and Cathy were sitting. Ada helped Tabitha to a chair and then sat between Tabitha and Cathy as if they were two squabbling children at church. Beth held the plate of leftover sandwiches in her lap. “Here you go, Tabitha,” she said, handing Tabitha a sandwich and a napkin.

Tabitha eyed the sandwich suspiciously. “Are you as gute at making chicken salad sandwiches as you are at making yummasetti?”

Beth blushed. “ Ach , nae . Esther made these.”

Tabitha’s gaze flicked toward Esther. “At least you know well enough to add grapes.”

Esther seemed confused as to how she should react. “Uh, denki . I like chicken salad with grapes. It feels more healthy.”

Tabitha took a miniscule bite, as if making sure the sandwich was edible. She motioned toward Winnie and Junior playing in the dirt next to their mamm ’s chair. “These yours?”

Esther was obviously uncomfortable with Tabitha’s sour disposition, but her face always lit up when she talked about her children. “This is Benny, Junior, and Winnie.”

Tabitha took another teeny bite. “Winnie is fancy for an Amish name, ain’t not?”

Esther cleared her throat. “ Nae ,” she said, and left it at that. Winnie was short for Winter, which was altogether too fancy. Winnie had been named by her biological mater , Esther’s schwester , Ivy. Ivy jumped the fence, got pregnant, and abandoned Winnie with Esther five years ago. Ivy had let Esther adopt Winnie, and Ivy eventually came back to the gmayna . No doubt, Esther didn’t want Tabitha judging Winnie or Ivy or Esther’s family. It was best to let the past bury itself.

Enos’s mamm pinched another bird-sized bite off her sandwich. “The chicken is dry.”

Esther pressed her lips together so tightly, they turned white. “I’m better at making quilts.”

Cathy brushed some imaginary crumbs from her sweatshirt. “No need to defend yourself, Esther. These sandwiches are perfection. You’re good at everything except holding your temper and making oatmeal, and I’m proud to have you as a friend.”

“It’s a sin to be proud.” Tabitha seemed to love nothing better than to point out how sinful everyone else was.

Cathy stuffed a whole chip in her mouth. “It’s not a sin for me to be proud. I can be as proud as I want, and my pastor doesn’t care. It’s a nice little perk of being a Methodist.”

Tabitha looked way down her nose at Cathy. “Enjoy life while you can, Miss High-and-Mighty, because the proud go straight to hell.”

“At least my feet will finally be warm,” Cathy said.

Tabitha caught her breath. “You don’t care if you go to hell?”

Cathy picked up her giant purse and fished through it. “Oh, I care about the next life, but I don’t care about your opinion of where I’ll end up. You’re not God, though I’m sure you think you could do a much better job than He’s doing.”

Tabitha was offended to the core. She clutched her chest as if she felt a heart attack coming on. “It’s blasphemy to say such things.”

Mary suddenly found the courage to speak, probably because she hated conflict and would do anything to put a stop to it. “Tabitha, would you like a bottle of water?”

Cathy pulled an orange sucker from her purse. “Here, Tabitha, eat this and stop talking.”

Tabitha stared at the sucker resentfully. “Sugar makes my altitude headaches worse.”

Cathy leaned forward as if delighted at the thought of altitude sickness. “I’m sure you have a headache every day.”

Tabitha sensed the sarcasm in Cathy’s voice. “Yes, I do, and it’s shameful of you to rejoice in my suffering.”

“It’s only right that you experience some of the discomfort you seem so eager to dish out to everyone else.”

Ada cringed. Cathy didn’t know how to hold her tongue, and she had a talent for saying what everyone else didn’t dare say, but such contention would only come back to hurt Enos. “Um, Tabitha, would you like some chips? We have small bags of potato or corn chips.”

Tabitha glared at Cathy. “You have no idea how I suffer.”

“There might be one more package of Doritos,” Ada said.

Mary proved she was more of a true Christian than Ada could ever hope to be. “What can we do to help you, Tabitha? We want to help make your life here in Colorado a happy one.”

“Well, for starters”—she motioned toward Beth—“don’t let that girl near an oven ever again.”

In concern, Ada glanced at Beth. Instead of looking upset, Beth and Sadie sat with their heads together, their lips curled, and their eyes bright with amusement, as if they were about to burst into laughter. Ach , vell , at least Tabitha hadn’t upset either of them.

Cathy looked over the rim of her sunglasses. “No need to be rude.”

“You’ve been nothing but rude since I sat down,” Tabitha snapped.

Mary let out a mousy ahem . “Anything else?” she said.

Tabitha tossed her barely eaten sandwich into the garbage bag like a pro basketball player. Ada was grudgingly impressed. “Enos won’t listen to me. Nobody will listen to me, but the only thing I want is to go home, back to Pennsylvania and the people who truly love me. I have friends and grandchildren there. They need me. They care about me.”

Cathy seemed to soften around the edges. “I like my grandchildren better than I like my own children.”

Tabitha paused and studied Cathy’s face. “Who will teach them proper behavior if not for me? Who will help them to be righteous and make sure they walk the straight and narrow? Lilith and Ardy are acceptable housekeepers, but they don’t know the first thing about rearing children. There’s no one else to do it by me. I’ve got to go back.”

Not for the world would Ada tell Tabitha she wasn’t wanted in Pennsylvania. Enos was willing to let her have her illusions, and Ada had to respect his wishes, even if it meant Tabitha believed Enos was the cause of all her problems. Even if she hated him for the rest of her life.

Tabitha pointed a gnarled finger at Ada. “For my sake, you’ve got to stop helping him with his farm, or I’ll never get back to Pennsylvania.”

“But doesn’t Enos deserve to be happy?” Beth asked. “He wants to farm here in Colorado.”

Tabitha sat back and folded her arms. “He doesn’t believe it, but he can be just as happy in Bird-In-Hand. And what is happiness compared to honoring your fater and mater ? He should put my needs above his own selfish desires. He can farm with my other sons and live in Zeb’s basement. He won’t bother anybody there.”

Mary’s gaze flicked to Ada. “Maybe he wants his own home and farm. Maybe he wants to get married someday.”

Tabitha scoffed. “Who would marry him? He’s a nobody. Thirty-five years old, with a missing foot and no comeliness.”

No comeliness? Enos was the most attractive man Ada had ever met. Tabitha’s disregard made Ada’s teeth hurt.

Beth’s eyebrows inched up her forehead. “Maybe you could go back, and he could stay here.”

That was impossible, but Enos had told Ada those details in confidence. She wouldn’t betray his trust. Let Beth make her little plans. They would all fall through in the end.

“I don’t dare travel alone, and Enos refuses to take me.”

Ada nodded as if she had all the sympathy in the world for Tabitha. “It would be impossible for him to leave the farm long enough to take you back.”

Tabitha’s scowl drooped. “It’s Enos’s fault I’m here. Zeb is too unselfish. He insisted I come to Colorado because he said Enos would need me, but Zeb and die kinner need me more. I could go back and live with them.”

Beth got more and more excited. “Enos is doing fine. You can tell Zeb he doesn’t have to be unselfish any longer.”

Cathy unwrapped her orange sucker and popped it in her mouth. Then she pulled it out and pinned Tabitha with a serious look. “Would you leave and never come back, even if Enos got married? Would you promise not to come to the wedding?”

Ada didn’t know why her face was burning, but Cathy was talking about more than a hypothetical marriage.

It all seemed too much for Tabitha. Her glare returned full force. “I don’t know about you Methodists, but we Amish don’t make promises. ‘Swear not at all,’ the good Lord says.”

Ada tried to let everyone down as gently and discreetly as possible. “I’m afraid you won’t be going back to Pennsylvania to live, Tabitha. Everything has been carefully arranged by your family so everyone will be as comfortable as possible. Maybe it’s time to submit to God’s will and be content where He has placed you.”

Everyone but Mary looked horrified, but they didn’t know what she knew.

“ Ach , Ada,” Beth whined. “You don’t have any imagination.”

Tabitha looked at Ada as if she was her worst enemy. “God placed me in Bird-In-Hand. I will not be content until I’m back there.”

Cathy took another lick of her sucker. “Don’t resist the quilt magic, my dear. It’s a losing battle.”