A Season for Tending (5 page)

Her sense of direction was good on a road, but in the midst of the orchard with no road or house in sight, she easily got turned around.

Catherine brought the horse to a stop, and he helped her down.

“You okay?”

She glanced at Jacob before turning her head the other way. “It’s about Leah,” she whispered.

Samuel’s heart cinched tight with frustration. He pulled her into a hug and felt her trembling. “Take a breath, sweetheart.” His seventeen-year-old sister listened to no one, and he feared for her future.

From his perch on the horse, Jacob pulled a small apple off a tree and tossed it on the ground near Samuel, giving him a way to easily catch the last horse. What they needed were better-trained horses, ones that came to them—or at least could be approached—just because their owners needed them, not because they were bribed.

“I’ll go now.” Jacob clicked his tongue, and the horse headed toward home.

“
Denki
, Jacob. I owe you.” Samuel traced Catherine’s cheek with his index finger. “What happened?”

“I was at Zip’n Mart less than an hour ago and saw Leah coming out of the girls’ rest room. She didn’t see me, and I didn’t want to confront her there.” Concern was reflected in her eyes. “Oh, Samuel, she was scantily dressed and got into a car with some other teenagers dressed the same way. I’m positive they were heading for a party. Someone said they were going to Morgansville. If you hire a driver and—”

Samuel pocketed the apple and held out his hand. “Let’s walk.”

She put her soft, petite hand in his. He took hold of one rein of her horse and looked it over. “Eli must have thrown a bridle and saddle on this horse pretty quick for you.” Samuel held the rein, and the horse ambled behind them. He and Catherine were likely to walk the whole way home.

“Ya, and Jacob brought me out here without even taking time to dismount. They both must think I’m such a … girl.”

He chuckled. “I’m sure they do. But don’t mind that. Your being a girl is one of my favorite things about you.”

She grinned. “You’re awful.”

“Horrible.”

She grew serious again. “What are we going to do about your sister?”

He wanted to shake some sense into Leah. When he saw her next, he intended to lecture her until she finally understood the importance of living as she should. But right now he was more interested in putting his and Catherine’s date night on a happier note. “I’ve considered locking her in a closet until she turns twenty. I think that’d fix the problem. How about you?”

She shoved her shoulder into him. “This is serious, Samuel.”

“I know. And I’ll do what I can to address her behavior once she gets home. But it’s Friday night, and she’s not the one I want on my mind right now.”

Catherine stopped. “You really are horrible.”

“Ghastly.”

She moved in closer for a second. “Ach.” She backed away, wrinkling her nose.

He chuckled. “So now you notice that I need a shower.”

“Boy, do you.”

“I need food too.”

“Your Mamm was getting dinner on the table when I arrived at the house. The reason I stopped by Zip’n Mart in the first place was because I wanted to make your favorite dessert, but now I’m all off schedule.”

“You were going to make me a blueberry pie?”

She nodded.

“And you let seeing Leah at the store stop you?”

“Not reason enough?”

He grabbed his chest. “You’re killing me, Cat.”

“Do not call me that.”

“Please, Miss Catherine, if you’ll make me a pie while I shower, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

“Anywhere? How about to the Lapps’ place?”

“We’ve talked about this enough. The answer remains no.”

“But it’s been months, and the Lapps still have puppies that need a good home, really cute ones.”

“I don’t want a dog.”

She poked out her bottom lip. “You could at least go see them.”

He sighed. “Why? Who goes to look at free dogs when they don’t intend to get one?”

“Me for one. I’ve gone often since they were born. If Daed wasn’t allergic,
I’d have two by now. And another person who’d go is a boyfriend who offered to take his girl wherever she wanted.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want, I’ll take you.”

“But no chance of getting a dog?”

“Kumm on, Catherine. Dogs ruin floors and tear up things. I want to keep saving for a future home, not spend money replacing stuff in my parents’ house.”

Catherine squeezed his hand. “That was a good answer.”

“Ya, I figured you’d like it.”

Now that Catherine seemed calm and content, Samuel could no longer keep at bay his disappointment in Leah. It angered him that Catherine had witnessed his sister’s inappropriate behavior. His very tender-hearted girlfriend wouldn’t get over this anytime soon. When he saw Leah, he’d have plenty to say to her.

But regardless of what he said, he had more power to change the weather than to stop his little sister from sowing her wild oats. The tradition of rumschpringe gave her the extra freedom. No one under the age of sixteen had that kind of freedom nor did any baptized member. It was meant as a bridge between the confines of childhood, when a person was always under a parent’s watchful eye, and the independence of full adulthood. It was a time to relax and grow new bonds among the Amish community that would last throughout one’s life. But his sister was using her running-around time to experience how the godless lived, and the results were surely bound to haunt her.

Catherine pointed overhead. “Wow, there’s no shortage of apples this year.”

“Isn’t it a gorgeous sight?”

“You told me about it, but seeing it in person is eye-opening.”

“I’m hopeful, but many things can go wrong between midsummer and harvesttime.”

“Is one good season enough to get Kings’ Orchard out of the hole from the last few seasons?”

“Afraid not. We’re in more debt than a good year can fix, but it’d help a lot.”

“Your Daed stopped by the house a few nights ago, and he said he’s hoping to hire fifty pickers this year.”

“It’d be nice to need that many. Of course, then the challenge is how best to get all the workers back and forth to wherever they’re staying, since we don’t have a place for them to live throughout the harvest. But the downside is, if we need that many workers and can’t find them, the fruit will rot on the ground.”

“You’d never let that happen even if you had to work night and day for the entire harvest.”

He pondered the situation, enjoying the mental exercise of finding a solution. “If we were faced with that circumstance, I’d put tarps under the trees we couldn’t pick and let the fruit fall on them. We’d only get cider apples that way, but at least it wouldn’t be a complete loss.”

She studied his face. “Could you sell that many Grade B apples?”

He wouldn’t explain to her again that apple growers didn’t refer to them as Grade A or Grade B. The inedible ones were cider apples, and she knew that, but she continued to refer to them as if they were eggs. “Ya, no problem. But we’d need to find a way to close the gap between the money we’d make off the eating apples and what we’d make off cider apples. Even with a good harvest, it’d be nice to make more income from the cider apples.”

“May I offer a suggestion?”

“Of course.”

“I recommend you figure out that problem.”

He chuckled. “Denki, sweetheart. I’ll work on that.”

She squeezed his hand. “Anytime. So what happens if the crop is damaged or destroyed before the harvest?”

Another year of bad weather or any kind of calamity could mean the beginning of the end of Kings’ Orchard. Large corporations owned most apple orchards, and they had the money and power to survive the lean years. A family-owned place didn’t have that luxury.

“I need to think positive, but your question is valid. I have to look at the big picture, consider how we keep operating.”

While they walked through the orchard toward home, his thoughts returned to his sister. He hoped she’d wise up before she got in over her head. He used to long for the day when she’d stop stealing away to the barn loft to read fiction. Since she was seven or eight years old, she’d disappear every chance she got, shirking her chores to read. Before long she was into murder mysteries, old classics, and legal thrillers. These days he wished that was all she did when she sneaked off.

FOUR

Catherine squeezed Samuel’s hand as they walked from his rig to the Lapps’ home. They’d shared a meal with his family, and now it was nearing eight o’clock. The sultry heat waned as the sun slid closer to the horizon. “The Lapps will be surprised that I’m not visiting the puppies by myself this time.” She already felt calmer about Leah, thanks to Samuel. He always seemed to know what to do to ease her anxiety.

“They’ll think you’ve brought me to help pick one out.”

The Lapps’ seventeen-year-old son, Christian, came out of the house, putting on his straw hat. “Hey, Samuel.” He crossed the front lawn. “How’s the orchard doing?”

“So far, so good. We’ve got a little problem with mice, but there’s always something to contend with.”

“I saw your Daed a few days back, and he said you’ll probably get a bumper crop this year.”

“That’d be nice.”

Catherine gave Samuel a subtle nudge. She didn’t want to interrupt the men, but if they were going to stand around and make small talk, why not do so in the barn where she could see the puppies?

“We dropped by to look at the pups. We don’t want one. We’re just out enjoying a Friday night.”

“Sure.” Christian headed toward the barn. “We have two litters. One of our dogs delivered a month or so ago. And we still have a few three-month-old pups from another mama. Negligence on our part, but both mama dogs have been spayed now.”

“You could take the litters to the flea market and be rid of them all by the end of the day.”

Catherine poked Samuel’s side. “Just because you don’t want a dog is no reason to give them ideas for how to get rid of them.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You already have a favorite one picked out, don’t you?”

She cleared her throat, hoping she didn’t look as awkward or as guilty as she felt. “Maybe.”

His lopsided grin, which spoke of his utter acceptance of her, made her want to kiss him. And after they were married, she was going to make a habit of that. But he hadn’t proposed yet. He’d told her he wanted to wait until he could afford a house for them, which might not be for two years yet. That seemed forever, but no man was worth waiting for more than Samuel.

Catherine slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow, already dreaming of having his children.

Christian pulled open the barn door. The earthy aroma of animals overpowered the smell of hay. They followed him to the far end of the barn, and as he neared the last horse stall on the left, high-pitched yelps greeted them.

Catherine adored this sound. She knew Samuel, and they’d leave here without a puppy. Still she couldn’t help but dream. Every girl she’d graduated eighth grade with was already married; most either had a baby or were expecting one. But here she was at twenty-one still waiting to be officially engaged. If she couldn’t yet have a home of her own or start a family, it seemed a puppy would help the days, months, and years pass more easily.

Christian opened the top half of the stall door. In one corner was a mound of hay covered with sheepskin. Another area had bowls of food and water, and the far corner was filled with sawdust for the dogs to use to relieve themselves.

The mama dog lay on the sheepskin, watching her five buff-and-white puppies roll around and on top of each other, tussling over a colorful braided cord.

“Oh, Samuel, aren’t they adorable?”

At the sound of her voice, her favorite pup stopped playing and looked up at her, barking.

“Did you see how she recognized my voice?” Catherine reached her hand across the stall door, talking to her. “Hello, you precious thing.”

The puppy excitedly spun around in circles, barking, while her long, fluffy ears flopped about her head. She then put her front paws on the door, yapping at Catherine.

She reached in and scooped her up. The little pup licked her face, and the scratchy tongue against her cheek made her giggle.

“Seems like they’d shed a lot,” Samuel mumbled.

“Most dogs do, but cocker spaniels aren’t the worst.” Christian rubbed the head of the pup Catherine held. “Would you like to see the other dogs?”

Catherine wasn’t ready to put the cocker spaniel down yet. She held it while Samuel went with Christian to the opposite stall.

Christian grabbed a scoop of dry food and poured it into several bowls. “So, did Arlan finally get what he wanted from the music store?”

Catherine’s throat constricted. “I heard your Daed paid him today for his weeks of hauling hay. But I didn’t realize my brother was planning on taking the money to a music store.” Her voice cracked.

Christian’s eyes grew big, and he looked first to Samuel and then back to Catherine. “I assumed you knew. That’s all he’s talked about for a month.” Christian tossed the scoop back into the bag of dog food. “He was hoping to meet up with Leah and—”