Redeeming Grace and the Prodigal Son Returns Read online

  “It’s fine by me.” Uncle Albert shrugged. “So long as Hannah won’t be upset if the girl doesn’t work out. Has the bishop given his say so? You know the Amish, John. They have their ways, and they’re set in them.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Gramps asked, and they all chuckled.

  “So it’s settled.” John cut a piece of rubbery lasagna noodle with his fork, trying not to imagine what the Yoders were having for supper tonight. Not supermarket lasagna, that was for certain. “I can offer Grace the position?”

  “Of course you can hire her,” Uncle Albert said. “We’re making you a full partner on the first of the year, aren’t we? We trust you, John. If you believe in the young woman, that’s good enough for me.”

  * * *

  Six o’clock came and went, then seven, too, without word from the King family. Johanna removed the turkey from the oven, wiped her hands on her apron and glanced at Hannah. “Maybe we should go ahead and eat, Mam. The children are hungry.”

  “I’m hungry, too,” Susanna declared from the doorway.

  Grace sat down in the rocking chair and pulled Dakota into her lap. It had been a busy day, what with the cleaning and preparing a large dinner for their expected guests. No, she corrected herself, supper. The noon meal was what her Amish family referred to as dinner. She’d have to get used to that. “Maybe we could feed the children,” she suggested hesitantly. “It won’t be long before it will be time to put them to bed.”

  “No bedtime.” Dakota wrinkled his face. “I’m not sleepy.”

  “A good idea,” Hannah declared. “Susanna, if you wouldn’t mind eating with the little ones and keeping an eye on them, we can set the small table up here in the corner.”

  “I can eat with them,” Irwin said, abandoning the adult status he usually assumed. “I’m starved.”

  “Fair enough.” Hannah returned to the stove. “If you think you can get those long legs of yours under the table.”

  “Ya,” Susanna agreed with a wide smile. “The little table with the benches.”

  “Grace,” Hannah called. “Would you help Irwin carry the table and benches in from the pantry?”

  The next half hour was occupied with the children’s meal. The warm kitchen glowed with the soft light of kerosene lamps and the soft voices of Hannah, Rebecca and Aunt Jezzy. Outside, November blackness had settled around the farmhouse, but Grace felt snug and happy. She was content to sit and watch as her son ate and chattered with his cousins. Already, Dakota was using a few Pennsylvania Dutch words. He fits in, she thought. As if he’d always lived here in this safe and loving haven.

  When the children had finished, Grace helped clear away the dishes and silverware before bathing Dakota and leading him, protesting, to bed. She tucked him with his stuffed rabbit, helped him say his prayers and kissed him good-night.

  “I like this,” he said sleepily. “Can we stay here tomorrow with Jonah and Katie?”

  “Yes,” she promised. “And the day after that.”

  “All the time?” Dakota asked. “Can we stay forever and ever?”

  “I hope so,” she answered. She didn’t want to leave Seven Poplars any more than her son did. She knew they couldn’t expect to take advantage of Hannah’s hospitality forever. Sooner or later, Grace would have to find a permanent home for them.

  But first, a job.

  “Sing,” Dakota urged.

  “Hush, little baby,

  “Don’t say a word,” she sang softly as she stroked his head.

  “Mama’s going to buy you a mockingbird.

  “And if that mockingbird don’t sing...”

  Dakota’s rhythmic breathing told her that he had dropped off. Taking the lamp, she walked quietly out of the room and closed the door behind her. Her thoughts were still on the possibility of the kennel job at John’s veterinary practice. The position seemed heaven-sent, but if she got it, she would have to be careful. She would see John Hartman every day. Regardless of how much she liked him, she’d have to guard herself against him. She’d have to regard him as her boss, nothing more.

  Her future and Dakota’s lay with some as-yet-unknown Amish man. She would seek out a decent man of the Old Order faith, allow him to court her and marry him. She knew that before the wedding, she’d have to confess her sins, ask forgiveness and be accepted into the church. That would lift a huge burden off her shoulders. It would give her the first real peace she’d felt in a long time. It would be a new life, heartfelt and honest, one in which she could spend the coming years serving God and her community. It was the only way, and John Hartman had no part in it.

  Chapter Six

  When Grace returned to the kitchen, she found Hannah standing at the back door peering into the darkness. “Have the Kings arrived?” Grace asked.

  “No.” Hannah closed the door. “It’s starting to sleet.”

  “Early for such bad weather,” Aunt Jezzy said.

  “Not for Nebraska.” Grace stood beside Hannah and looked out. “By now, they’re having snow.”

  “I kept thinking they’d arrive in time for supper,” Hannah murmured. She turned to the others. “But there’s no reason for us to wait any longer. It could be that they were delayed on the road, maybe spending the night with friends again.”

  Grace started to ask why they wouldn’t call if they were delayed and then remembered that Hannah had no telephone. When she’d asked about it, Anna had told her that there was a phone at the chair shop for emergencies, but once Eli and Roman locked up for the night, a ringing phone would go unanswered. It was against the Ordnung to have a landline telephone in a home, and cell phones were looked upon with disapproval by the elders.

  “How is Anna?” Hannah asked, changing the subject, perhaps to ease her own concern about the lateness of her guests. She walked to the stove where the prepared meal waited.

  To Grace’s delight, Anna and her youngest stepdaughter, Mae, had spent the afternoon at the Yoder farm. Next to Susanna, whom she adored, Grace thought she liked Anna best of the sisters she’d met. Anna seemed as open to welcoming her into the family as Susanna. Ruth, the oldest, was pleasant but a little formal, and Grace had spent so little time with Miriam that she didn’t really have an impression of her yet. Thankfully, all of them, including wary Johanna, were kind to Dakota.

  “Gut...gut.” Aunt Jezzy began to talk about how happy Anna had looked and how pink her cheeks had been. “She and Samuel are right for each other,” the woman said as she removed her knitting needles from her worn canvas bag and began to work on her project. The wool was white and soft as a kitten’s fur. Grace hadn’t been able to guess what she was knitting, and she hadn’t wanted to appear nosy by asking too many questions, although a hundred buzzed in her head.

  “I’m glad,” Hannah said as she began to slice the turkey. “Becca, could you mash those potatoes?”

  “I’ll do it,” Grace offered. It was obvious that her cooking skills were hardly better than Susanna’s, but she could mash potatoes with the best of them, especially because there were mounds of newly made butter and fresh milk to stir in. They’d boiled a giant kettle of potatoes and kept them warm on the back of the stove.

  “Ya,” Hannah agreed, but suggested that Grace first dip out just enough for the six of them. “We’ll leave the others unmashed, and one of you can make potato salad tomorrow. You can drain them and put the pot in the cold box on the porch for the night.”

  Rebecca dished up one bowl of green beans and another of creamed corn while Susanna carried applesauce, bread and butter to the table. Again Grace marveled at how smoothly the work went with so many hands to help. It was almost like a dance, with everyone knowing their places and what to do—everyone but her. There were smiles, jokes and laughter bouncing around the cozy kitchen. It might be sleeting and nasty outside, but here, in Hannah’s ho
use, was a sanctuary from the world.

  “How’s the blanket coming?” Johanna asked their aunt as they all gathered around the table.

  “It goes quickly.” Aunt Jezzy smiled. “It should, as many as I’ve made of this pattern.”

  “She’s over the morning sickness?” Hannah asked. “I know it troubled her some.” She glanced at Grace. “God willing, our Anna will be blessed with a baby in late April or May.”

  “May Ruth and Eli soon find the same happiness,” Aunt Jezzy said, pushing her knitting bag onto a counter. “She’s almost as excited about this coming baby as Anna is. She’s already sewn a half dozen gowns and undershirts for the little one.”

  “Ruth was married two years ago,” Johanna explained. “She wants little ones badly, but so far nothing. Neither she nor Miriam have gotten pregnant yet. It must be hard for Ruth and Miriam because Leah and Anna were married after them. Leah already has a baby and now Anna has one on the way.”

  “It took your father and me a while,” Hannah said, “but after Ruth, there was no trouble. I have no doubt that you girls will fill this house with grandchildren. All in God’s time.”

  Susanna giggled and put a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell Anna’s got a baby in her belly,” she whispered to Grace.

  “A secret?” Grace glanced at Hannah, unsure what to say. Anna and Samuel already had five children, from his first marriage. Anna was younger than she was, and Grace couldn’t imagine being the mother of six.

  She supposed that she would have to become accustomed to the idea if she wanted to marry again. Most Amish families were large ones, and it would be good for Dakota to have brothers and sisters. She loved children, but considering how difficult it was to be a good mother to one little boy, six young children seemed overwhelming. So much to learn, she thought.

  Johanna glanced at her with a pleasant expression. “What Susanna means is that we don’t talk about it to people outside the family.”

  But they didn’t hide it from me, Grace thought. Is Johanna starting to like me? More than anything, she wanted to break through to Johanna. She had the feeling that once Johanna accepted her, the other sisters and the rest of the community would follow.

  “And say nothing to the men,” Rebecca put in. “Especially not to Samuel. They all know, of course. Men gossip worse than women.” She twittered. “But we all pretend not to know about Anna’s blessing.”

  “In this house, between us, we talk, but say nothing to Anna unless she does first,” Johanna advised with a serious look. “Some people worry that it’s bad luck to say too much about a baby before it arrives.”

  “But each one is welcome.” Hannah motioned for silence for grace. “And each child a blessing to the parents, the family and the church.”

  They had finished the delicious meal and were clearing away the last of the dishes when Grace heard a horn and the sound of a vehicle pulling into the yard. “Is that the Kings?” she asked.

  Rebecca went to the window. “Ne, it’s a truck. The Kings hired a van.”

  Johanna opened the door and went out onto the porch. “It’s John Hartman,” she called. Rebecca grabbed two coats off the rack and hurried after her older sister.

  Susanna was halfway across the kitchen when Hannah waved her back. “Ne, it’s cold out there.” She shook her head. “You stay inside. I don’t want you catching a chill. We’ll find out soon enough...”

  “It is the Kings, Mam,” Rebecca shouted back. “They’ve come with John.”

  Grace couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement. Why was John here again? She knew it was too soon for him to tell her if he could hire her or not, but the thought of seeing him made her a little breathless. It’s just the promise of a job, she told herself. If I’m lucky, he’ll be my boss. Nothing more. Her life was finally falling into place, and no hunky guy with an easy smile and a twinkle in his eye was going to prevent her from doing what was best for her and Dakota.

  Not two minutes later, John, along with an unfamiliar Amish man and woman, and a young man, were stamping onto the porch. Sleet covered the woman’s cape and bonnet and the men’s hats and coats. All of them were smiling and talking at once as introductions flew and coats were hung up and coffee poured for the guests, all but the son, the one Grace had heard Aunt Jezzy mention as David.

  Grace tried not to stare at him, not because he was odd in appearance or because he obviously had been born with the same challenges as Susanna. It wasn’t his short stature, bowed legs or chubby body that held her attention. What was so unusual was that when David pulled off his snowy black hat, he was wearing a fast-food chain’s cardboard crown under it. Beneath the crown curled an unwieldy thatch of yellow-blond hair. David had sparkling blue eyes, bright as cornflowers, a dough ball of a freckled nose, a wide mouth and round, rosy cheeks. He reminded her of a carved wooden boy she’d once seen on a Swiss cuckoo clock in a department store window.

  David gave Grace a sweet smile and then turned his full attention to Susanna. His smile became a wide grin and he stared unabashedly at Susanna, who had become pink-cheeked and giggly. “Hi!” he said in a husky voice. “I’m King David.”

  Susanna beamed. “I’m Susanna Yoder.”

  “Hi, Su-san-na.” He bounced from one high-topped shoe to the other. “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  “I’m King David,” he repeated.

  “You look like me,” Susanna said. “Mam, he looks like me.” And then to David she said, “Will you be my friend?”

  “Ya.”

  “David, remember your manners,” his mother said softly. Sadie King was a stocky little woman with eyes that Grace decided had once been the exact color of her son’s. Love and kindness radiated from them as she spoke. “Your name is David King.”

  David nodded vigorously. “King David.”

  His mother chuckled. “Pay no heed to our David. It’s his way. He loves that paper hat.”

  “However did you end up in John’s truck?” Hannah asked.

  “Van broke down.” Ebben King wrapped his hands around a warm mug of coffee. “On Route 13. South of Wilmington. Bear?”

  “The van had to be towed to a garage,” Sadie explained. “We couldn’t think of a way to let you know.”

  “Our van driver wanted to stay in a motel across from the garage,” Ebben added, “but we didn’t care to do that. David likes his routine.” He trailed off with a shrug. Ebben was tall and slim with graying hair and beard and round wire glasses.

  “The tow truck driver, Jay, goes to our church,” John explained. “He would have brought the Kings himself, but he was on duty all night. Lots of need for tow trucks in this weather. He knew that I had a lot of Amish clients, and he thought I might be willing to give the Kings a ride to their destination.”

  “Is gut,” Ebben said. “So kind of you to go out of your way on such a night.”

  John’s dark eyes twinkled. “Glad to help out. I would have spent the evening ordering supplies, anyway. By the time I get home, Uncle Albert will have it done.”

  “Once again you prove what a good friend you are,” Jezzy said. “Come now, sit down and eat. You must all be starved.”

  “Not me,” John said. “I’ll just—”

  Hannah gave him a look. “John Hartman, you can eat a little. So much the girls cooked, and the turkey is still warm.”

  John, through a willingness to be amiable or because he was really hungry, allowed himself to be ushered to the table along with the Kings. And this time, once Grace had helped to serve up the food family-style, she found herself sitting beside John. Not that she could eat another bite after the earlier meal, but it wouldn’t have been polite not to join the others at the long table.

  The Yoders and Kings obviously had news of friends and family to share, but they spoke in English out of kindness to her and Joh
n and made an effort to include them both in the general conversation. Susanna was unusually quiet, but whenever Grace glanced her way, she saw her youngest sister staring at David. And if he looked at her, she hid her face in her hands and giggled.

  “I think Susanna’s made a new friend,” John said quietly to Grace.

  She nodded. “I think so, too.”

  John laid down his fork and leaned closer. “I talked to my grandfather and my uncle. If you get the okay from your bishop, we’d like you to start at the clinic as soon as possible.”

  “Really?” She looked up at him. “That’s wonderful!” In her excitement, she must have spoken louder than she intended because Aunt Jezzy looked at her in surprise. “Sorry,” Grace said, lowering her gaze. “John says that I can have the job. If it’s all right,” she added.

  “I’m sure Bishop Atlee will agree,” Hannah said. “He’ll be here Saturday for apple pressing. I’ll ask him first thing.” She smiled. “You remind me, Grace, if I forget. It will be a busy day, a lot of neighbors coming.”

  “Am I still welcome to bring our apples down?” John asked. “Uncle Albert is still talking about the fun he had last year. I think we’ve got about ten baskets in the cold storage. Granny Smiths and Arkansas Black.”

  “Of course.” Hannah passed the potatoes to Ebben for a second helping. “And bring your empty gallon jugs. Our cidering gets bigger every year. Last November we had more than a hundred here.” She glanced at Sadie. “If the weather is good, we’ll have the men set up the tables outside and eat in the yard.”

  “It will have to get a lot warmer than this.” Ebben looked toward the back door. “Have you seen the sleet coming down outside?”

  Aunt Jezzy laughed. “You aren’t used to Delaware yet. The saying is, if you don’t like the weather, wait an hour. It will change. It’s always a surprise to me, I can tell you, me coming from Ohio.”