Her Restless Heart (16 page)

"The recipe called for crushed potato chips on top, but I didn't have any so I used crushed cracker crumbs."

"Imagine having a
mann
who can cook," mused Miriam as she helped herself to a slice of bread. "Imagine how nice it'd be to have someone to help occasionally."

"It's a woman's job to cook," Isaac muttered, spooning up another healthy serving of casserole.

"But a wife sometimes helps in the fields, and you always said that's a
mann's
job," Mary Katherine pointed out.

He shot her a look Jacob would swear could have burned a hole in her. "No smart mouth from you."

Finished with his meal, he let his fork drop to his plate. "Is the dessert done yet?"

"No, there's a few more minutes left."

"Your mother would have had it ready," he said, scooting back from the table and standing abruptly.

Mary Katherine flinched at the harsh sound of his chair being scraped back on the wooden floor.

"I'm going out to the barn," he told them. "Got to check on Ned's foreleg." He glanced at Jacob. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Grabbing his jacket, he pulled it on and left them, slamming the door behind him.

The noise was as loud as a gunshot in the quiet room.

Jacob glanced furtively at Mary Katherine. She sat, pale with two spots of color burning on her cheeks. Her mother looked just as miserable.

What he'd just observed explained a lot about Mary Katherine, Jacob thought. He had another piece of the puzzle to understanding the complicated, conflicted woman that she was. He got up, brought the coffeepot to the table, and refilled their cups.

"Don't know what he was thinking, leaving me with two lovely ladies," Jacob said gallantly.

Mary Katherine gave a short laugh. "
Schur,
Jacob," she said, rising as the oven timer went off. "It's the peach cobbler that's not safe from your attentions."

11

N
aomi, Anna, and her grandmother showed up the next afternoon.

When Mary Katherine opened the door, they stood smiling, their arms loaded with bags and boxes. And parted to show another visitor.

"Jamie!"

She grinned and threw her arms around Mary Katherine. "I asked if I could come along."

Glancing around, Jamie lowered her voice. "Thought we'd beard the lion in his den."

"You're safe. He's in the barn."

They crowded into the house.

"My, my, it's a party!" Miriam exclaimed from her seat on the sofa.

"I hope you're up to it," her mother told her, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

Naomi and Anna bent to kiss their aunt and carefully hug her.

"This is Jamie, Mary Katherine's friend," Leah said.

"
Ya,
I saw you at church that day I got sick."

Jamie shook her hand. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Someone's been taking very good care of me." Miriam pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders and smiled at Mary Katherine.

She patted her mother's shoulder. "How about we have some tea with whatever's in that bakery box?"

There was a chorus of agreement.

"Let me help you," Jamie said. "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed to Mary Katherine that there was an exchange of glances among the women.

"I wanted to talk to you alone," Jamie said without preamble as they entered the kitchen. "I hope it's all right with you."

Mary Katherine tilted her head and studied her friend standing there and chewing on a purple painted fingernail in a nervous gesture unlike her. "What's going on?"

"Well, I went by the shop to see you, and I caught them when they were really busy."

"That's good. There was a bit of a lull for a while."

"I love that place. You know that." She laughed nervously. "Sorry, I'm babbling."

"A bit. What's going on?"

"Well, I started helping this one customer. You know, I was telling her about your things while she was looking at them, and she bought two pillows. And a throw you made. Oh, and one of those adorable cupcake hats that Anna makes."

Jamie took a deep breath and blurted out, "So your grandmother hired me."

"Hired you?"

She nodded. "Just for ten hours a week. Until you come back."

"Did you lose your job?"

Jamie shook her head. "Remember, they cut back my hours. So I was thinking about finding something, and before I could, it just happened."

"That's wonderful!"

"You're sure? You're okay with it? Really?"

Mary Katherine's heart went out to her friend. "You were worried? Why? I know you aren't trying to take my job."

Jamie threw her arms around her. "No! Never! I just love hanging there. It's such a cool place. I feel so creative when I'm there."

Standing back, Mary Katherine considered her words. "Why didn't we ever think of that?"

"Of what?" Jamie flung herself into a chair.

Going to the sink, she filled the teakettle, thinking hard. "You should talk to my grandmother—"

"Talk to your grandmother about what?"

She spun around to look at Leah, who'd walked into the kitchen. "You should have Jamie show you her portfolio from her classes. I think some of her things would be perfect for the shop."

"Didn't I tell you that she'd be fine with your helping at the shop?" Leah smiled at Jamie. "And yes, I'd love to see your portfolio."

The teakettle whistled. Mary Katherine took it off the flame and started filling cups.

"What's taking so long?" Anna, impatient as always, demanded. "We've been waiting and waiting!"

"It's been less than five minutes," Naomi pointed out dryly. "Here, let me carry those out to the living room. We're insisting on
Aenti
Miriam staying on the sofa."

"Longest time I've ever seen her sit down in her own home," Leah muttered. "Where is Isaac?"

"He went into town for supplies." Mary Katherine loaded the cups onto a tray and carried it out into the living room.

Her mother must have heard her. "They haven't had a single fight," she told Leah. "I'm proud of her."

Mary Katherine was carrying a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in the pocket of her dress . . . But she wasn't going to tell her mother that. She served her a cup of tea with a dollop of cream, just the way she liked it, and exchanged a look with her grandmother that said, "As if I'd fight with him around her."

Anna opened the bakery box and took out cream horns.

"You remembered my favorite from that little bakery near the shop!" Miriam exclaimed, taking the horn Anna placed on a plate and handed her. "This is worth getting sick for."

Leah looked over the tops of her glasses.

"Well, maybe not quite," Miriam admitted with a twinkle in her eyes. "But it's worth it to have Mary Katherine here."

She smiled at her mother but found herself dreading her father's return.

"So, tell me all the latest news," Miriam said, wiping the whipped cream from her lips with a napkin.

"You mean the gossip," Anna said mischievously. She leaned forward. "Naomi is seeing someone."

"Anna!"

Leah gave Anna a stern look. "Now, don't tease. You know that's private."

"Why's dating so secret?" Jamie asked, debating one of the little tea cakes Leah offered from another box. "I never understood that."

Mary Katherine lifted her shoulders and let them fall. "It's just our way." As much as she wanted to know, she tried to repress her questions.

Naomi shook her head. "If I don't tell you, Anna will drive me crazy," she said.

Anna sniffed, then laughed. "You're right."

"John has been coming around the shop," she told them. "John Zook." She smiled shyly. "Things have really been moving fast. We've seen each other every day for the past two weeks."

"Well, I'm away for just a little while and look how things change," Mary Katherine said. She looked—really looked—at her cousin. She'd never seen her so happy.

But every day?

She glanced at Anna and saw that her expression had sobered. Their eyes met. Anna nodded and frowned slightly.

Naomi was telling her aunt how John had brought her a carved wooden keepsake box for her birthday.

"That sounds expensive," Miriam told her. "Are you sure you should be accepting such expensive gifts from someone you're not even engaged to?"

Naomi bit her lip, glanced at her grandmother, then blurted out, "I don't think it'll be much longer. Before we're engaged, I mean. John said he got a crush on me the minute he came to the community six months ago. Now that we're seeing each other, well, he doesn't see any point in delaying."

"Delaying what?" Miriam asked, looking at her expectantly. "Delaying what?" she asked again when Naomi just blushed.

Mary Katherine stood. "I'm going to go boil some more water." She looked at Anna. "Maybe you can help me."

Anna laughed. "Like you need help boiling water?"

"You can bring the dishes into the kitchen," she told her, giving Anna a meaningful look.

Anna started to say something and then caught the drift. "Oh, okay." She picked up the dishes and followed Mary Katherine into the kitchen.

"Now," Mary Katherine said. "We barely know John. What do you think of him?"

Mary Katherine was beginning to feel like taking care of someone meant that you wore a path in the floor going to answer the front door.

"I could get that," her mother said as Mary Katherine rushed to the front door to keep her from doing just that.

When she opened it, all she could see was a big bunch of cut flowers. Then it lowered, and she saw Jacob smiling. "
Guder mariye.
These are for you."

"Me? You mean my mother."

He thrust them at her. "No, you."

"But we're just friends."

"Friends can give friends flowers."

She put a hand on her hip. "Who said?"

"Me." He continued to hold them out to her. "They're to celebrate spring. It's been a long winter, and the last couple of weeks haven't been easy for you."

"Mary Katherine? Who is it? Invite them in, it's cold outside."

Jacob stepped inside. "
Guder mariye,
Miriam. Good to see you again."

"
Kumm,
have some
kaffe."

He shook his head. "I have something to do first."

With that, he ducked out the door, and Mary Katherine shut it behind him. She looked out the window and watched him walk to his buggy. He reached in and withdrew a flowering bush and set it on the ground, then pulled out another and another. Mystified, she watched him carry them up to the house.

"What's he doing?"

She jumped. "You scared me!"

Miriam smiled. "What's he doing?" she repeated.

"I don't know."

They heard the clump of boots behind them. Mary Katherine turned and saw her father approaching. Her glance fell, and she saw that he'd tracked in mud from the back door. Honestly, couldn't the man wipe his feet? She couldn't believe how much extra work he made for her mother . . . well, for
her
the past couple of weeks, as she wouldn't let her mother do anything.

But she wasn't going to say anything if she had to bite holes in her tongue.

"What's he doing here?"

"I don't know."

"Is he courting you?" he asked her bluntly.

"Isaac! You know that's not our business."

He grunted and left the room.

Miriam watched him go, then turned to Mary Katherine. "Is he courting you?"

"
Mamm!"

She laughed, and Mary Katherine felt a shaft of happiness shoot through her. It was the first time her mother had done so since she'd gotten sick . . . really, the first time Mary Katherine could remember in a very long time.

Maybe it hadn't been such a bad thing to come back here in spite of the way her father treated her.

"I'm going to go find out what he's up to." Mary Katherine went to the kitchen, got her shawl, then marched outside.

"What are you doing?"

"Figured I'd bring these for your mother and cheer her up. Might be hard for her to do her spring garden planting in the shape she's in."

Mary Katherine could only stare.

He looked up at her. "Pick your chin up off the ground," he told her dryly.

"I'm sorry," she said, walking down the stairs. "I'm just surprised. It's very nice of you."

"It'll do her good," he said quietly. "And the sooner she's better, the sooner you'll be out of there."

"I—" She didn't know what to say.

"But it's going to snow again, so we'll leave them on the porch for her until we can plant them."

"You're sure it's going to snow again?"

He lifted his head in the way so many of the farmers she knew did, taking in the sky and clouds and the smells on the air. "
Ya."

"Did you consult that weather site, too?"

Grinning, he nodded. "And some of the other farmers I know. Always best to consider all the sources. Why, I hear some people even pay attention to a groundhog. When I was in town one day, I saw a news show on television and everyone was watching a show about it. Name was Phil."

"Whose name?"

"The groundhog. He's from Punxsutawney."

"Did it talk?"

He laughed. "No, although the television surely had a lot of make-believe on it." He scooted a potted plant over a few feet.

"Does this look good?"

She glanced over at the window and saw that her mother was still standing there looking out. "I think this is something
Mamm
should decide."

"True. Is she up to it?"

"I think it'll do her good," Mary Katherine told him. "She loves her garden."

"I know. I've often seen her working in it when I ride past."

"Be right back."

"What's going on?" her mother wanted to know when Mary Katherine came inside.

"You'll see." Mary Katherine fetched her mother's coat and scarf.

"Well, so I'm actually being allowed outside?"

Mary Katherine rolled her eyes. "I haven't held you prisoner." She helped her mother into her coat.

"You keep telling me to rest."

"Because you need to."

"You just buttoned me into my coat like I'm a little girl."

She stared at her mother for a long moment, and then she laughed. "I did, didn't I?" She hugged her. "I'm just glad that you're better. It was a scary time when you got sick."

Miriam patted her back. "I'm fine. I intend on being around for a long time."

"Good."

"Your
dat,
too."

Mary Katherine shivered. "Come on, let's go tell Jacob what you think of his gift."

Miriam oohed and aahed over the bushes as she walked around the porch. She pointed out that the pots of daffodils would look pretty nearer the door, and then she went inside, saying she'd make coffee.

"You lie down!" Mary Katherine called after her. She turned and found Jacob grinning at her. "What?"

"You don't think she's going to listen to you, do you?"

"Probably not," she grumbled.

"I see where you got your stubbornness."

"I'm nothing like her."

"No?"

"No," she said with conviction. "We're nothing alike. She won't speak up to my father about anything."

He looked at her for a long moment.

"What?"

He just continued to look at her.

"Go ahead and say it."

"Say what?"

"You obviously want to say something, and you won't." She folded her arms across her chest as much from feeling defensive as to keep warm.

Jacob stopped. "Look, I understand that you want to keep the peace while you're here so you don't upset your mother. And I'm all for being respectful of your parents. But that night I had supper with the three of you . . ." he trailed off, then he looked directly at her. "It wasn't right the way he was treating you, that's all. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to feel sorry for me," she told him stiffly, feeling her cheeks redden with embarrassment.